Android: Netrunner
Android: Netrunner
Remake of the cult classic Netrunner done by FFG in their own Android Universe. The setting to Android: Netrunner are similar to some of William Gibson's Nueromancer and few other classics such as Blade Runner and the like. Most of the Mechanics are the same as the original 1996 version, with some changes to the theme and some mechanics changed or added it. The main idea of the game is that Android: Netrunner is an asymmetrical game, in which both players during the game match play different roles: One being subversive hacker knows as a Runner who tries to expose the Corps secrets, where the other player plays the role of the big and bad Corporation, who attempts to protect their servers to advance their agenda -or potentially stop the runner and flatline them.
Both players win by reaching Seven agenda points or if one of the loss conditions is met for any of the players. The loss condition for the Corp is if they are forced to draw from R&D (their deck) and cannot, then the Corp loses. The runner's loss condition is flatline, which is if he is forced to discard more cards than are in his hand or his handsize is reduced to a negative number by the end of the runner's turn.
The difference between a CCG and a LCG
Most of you know what a Collectable Card Game (CCG) or Trading Card Game (TCG) with purchasing and play format with randomization with booster packs having around 15 cards or so. With Living Card Games, your 'booster' packs (known by Data Packs in Android: Netrunner) for LCG are predetermined cards, with each faction getting something in the data pack. Along with this, there are deluxe expansions which focuses on two factions, one Runner and one Corp, with the exception of Data and Destiny, which has 3 runner "mini-factions". The deluxe expansions also contain a few neutral cards for both Corp and Runner. Draft packs also exist, and come with special Draft Identities.
Netrunner can also be played online: Jinteki.net is a browser-based service that is the main venue for playing Netrunner online; OCTGN also has a Netrunner server but is mostly dead and requires you to download image packs of your cards - much less convenient than Jinteki
Gameplay
In a game of Netrunner, one player plays the Corp and one plays the Runner. The game often is played in a match, where both player will play the corp and the runner. Both players shuffle their decks, drawing up to five cards and starting with five credits at the beginning of the game. Both players can elect to mulligan, drawing back up to five again but players only mulligan once. The corp starts the first turn.
Terminolgy
Netrunner has a fair bit of terminology, which may seem confusing at first but is very simple when you get the hang of it.
In keeping with the game being asymmetric, the Runner and Corps have different names for their Deck, Hand, and Discard Pile. Respectively, these are Stack, Grip, and Heap for the runner, and R&D,HQ, and Archives for the corp. These are also collectively known as Central Servers on the Corp's play area - the HQ is represented by the Corp's Identity card.
Credits are the game's currency, used by both Corporation and Runner - pretty standard stuff.
Clicks are used to take actions, described below. At the start of their turn the Corp gets 3 clicks and the Runner gets 4. Clicks do not carry over turns and must be spent, but there is always at least one action that can be taken. Thematically clicks generally represent time spent.
Install: play a card onto the table. Corp cards are installed face down, Runner cards are installed face up.
Rez: flip a facedown card faceup. Rezing does not take a click.
Trash: send a card to Archives or the Heap, respectively.
Clicks
Clicks can be spent in a number of ways. Both players can spend a click to:
- Gain 1 credit - representing liquid funds, thematically a single corp credit is much larger than a runner credit.
- Draw 1 card - Take a card from your Stack/R&D and add it to your Grip/HQ.
- Install a card - what is installed, where it's installed and if it has a cost will be described below
- Pay a click cost on an installed (or scored) card - what this does will depend entirely on the card, but it will either allow you to do something unique or to do something you could already do more efficiently - for example, gaining 2 credits or drawing 2 cards.
- Play an Operation (Corp) or Event (Runner) - these are non permanent cards. We pay for them, play them, follow their effect and put them in the Archives/Heap.
The Corp can uniquely spend clicks to:
- Purge virus counters: - By spending 3 clicks, the Corp can remove all virus counters from the board.
- Trash a Resource - If the Runner is tagged, the Corp can spend 2 credits and a click to trash any resource the Runner has installed.
- Advance a card - If there is a card on the board that can be advanced - usually an Agenda or an Asset - the Corp can spend a click and a credit to advance it, placing an advancement counter on the card. Agendas must have a certain amount of advancement counters on them (given on the card) before they can be scored.
The Runner can uniquely spend clicks to:
- Remove one tag: By spending 2 credits and a click, the Runner may remove one tag, if he's tagged.
- Make a run: This is the core of the game and needs its own section. During a run the Runner overcomes the ICE installed in front of a server to access the server cards, to steal the agendas in it and trash its cards. But not everything is so easy. The Runner may not be able to overcome the ICE protecting the server, or may encounter ambushes in the server that trashes their rig or flatlines them.
The Board
Types of card
The golden rule of netrunner cards is that what is printed on the card over-rules what's printed in the rulebook - if a card says it does something that would contravene the normal rules, the card takes precedent.
Unique cards: cards with this symbol ◆ are unique, which means that only one can be rezzed at any one time. If another copy of the card is installed (runner) or rezzed (corp) then the first one must be trashed.
Runner
- Identity
- Programs - :Install a program: When the Runner installs a program, the Runner may check first if there is MU available for it (Starts at 4 MU, and every program has a MU requisite). The Runner may also trash any number of programs to the heap before installing the new program.
- Hardware
- Resources
Corp
- Identity
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- ICE (Intrusion Countermeasure Electronics): How corps protect their shit from pesky runners. Each piece of Ice causes the runner a series of damaging effects (ex. losing credits, losing cards, or straight-up ending their run). These effects are neutralised by their enemy programs, Icebreakers. But Ice can only be broken by Icebreakers that're equal strength or stronger than them. This discourages runners from going through Ice they can't break, because nobody wants to get fucked up by their effects.
- It's the Ice's subroutines (↳) that determine these effects, and it's the subroutines the runner must break through.
- Ice has a strength, indicated by the number in the bottom left. This tells the runner the strength that must be met or exceeded by an Icebreaker to break subroutines on the Ice.
- There are four important subtypes of Ice. Each subtype's subroutines can only be broken by corresponding types of Icebreaker. Other subtypes exist, but they only matter for specific cards
- -Sentries are broken by Killers and AIs
- -Code Gates are broken by Decoders and AIs
- -Barriers are broken by Fracters and AIs
- -Traps can only be broken by AIs
- Ice is installed face-down in front of the server you want to protect, and always as the outermost piece of Ice. Ice can also be installed to create new "empty" servers.
- Ice is not active until it is rezzed by paying credits equal to its rez cost, indicated by the number in the top left. This only has to be paid once.
- When you install a piece of Ice, you have to pay a number of credits equal to the number of piece of Ice that are already installed protecting that server. A server with no Ice would cost 0. Installing a fourth Ice in a server with 3 pieces of Ice would cost 3.
- You may trash any number of Ice from that server before installing the new piece of Ice.
- Ice is not installed in a server, only protecting it. This is mainly pedantic, but matters occasionally.
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- Agendas: What the corp wants to do, their top-secret plans; these are the cards that win you the game. Ranging from something as small as a sim-sense movie to as large as toppling a government, agendas are what a corp has to protect, advance, and score. Every agenda has an agenda points value, an advancement requirement, and some kind of effect that can be used once the agenda is scored - sometimes right away, sometimes by using clicks.
- The advancement requirement of an Agenda is the number in the top right, the points it is worth once scored or stolen is the number in the centre left - diagonally across the card art from the advancement requirement.
- Agenda effects can only be used by the corp - when a runner steals an agenda they do not get to use the effect on it.
- Agendas are always installed in a remote server, but only 1 agenda OR 1 asset can be installed in the same server at the same time. Whenever you install an Agenda, an Asset, or an Upgrade, you may trash any number of other cards in the server before installing it, and must do so if you want to install an Agenda or Asset in a server that already contains an Agenda or Asset. New servers can be created by installing Agendas, assets or upgrades.
- Agendas can only be scored when there is at least as many advancement tokens on it as the advancement requirement, though it does not have to be scored straight away. Agendas can only be scored after each click, or when a turn begins. This does not cost anything or take a click.
- Agendas are never rezzed.
- Agendas are stolen by the runner when they access them, and added to the runner's score area where they are inactive.
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- Assets: The shit a corp owns, assets are a pretty diverse bunch of cards that do any number of things, but they are all the same in how they work. Assets have a rez cost and a trash cost.
- Assets are not active until they are rezzed by paying credits equal to their rez cost, indicated by the number in the top left. This only has to be paid once.
- Assets have a trash cost, indicated by the number in the trashcan-shaped symbol in the bottom left. This is the amount that the runner must pay to trash an asset when they access it - this may be when they access it in R&D, HQ or when it is installed.
- Some Assets can be advanced, like an agenda. They will say, and can be advanced when both rezzed and unrezzed. When unrezzed they may used to masquerade as an agenda.
- Some Assets have the text "when the runner accesses..." - these do not need to be rezzed, or in some cases even installed, to be active - they form the most important subset of assets in netrunner, Ambushes, and are used to punish a runner that has gotten into servers or tempt them to make runs. Some Ambushes are also Assets that can be advanced.
- Upgrades: are
- Upgrades can be installed by themselves or along agendas and assets. They can also be installed in the root of a central server.
- Operations
Damage, Tags and Other Stuff
- Brain Damage
- Net Damage
- Meat Damage
- Tags
- Bad Publicity?
- Traces
- Psi
The Run
The central, most important part of the game
Factions
One of the biggest changes FFG made from the original Netrunner (ONR) was putting it in their home-grown Android setting (which also has several books and board games) instead of ONR's tie-ins to the Cyberpunk 2020 world, and adding factions - whereas in ONR you were a nameless and generic "Runner" and "Corp", in Android Netrunner you play as an Identity from one of 7* factions, with their own flavour, specialities and weakness. All faction cards except agendas (which are unique to each faction) have an Influence value from 1 to 5, designated by the blue dots at the bottom of the card and used in deckbuilding and representing how strongly affiliated the card is to the faction. Every ID has influence available for spending on out-of-faction cards. Faction-neutral cards also exist for both runner and corp, representing things that have no ties to any particular faction; only a few of them cost influence, but those that do tend to be very powerful. It's worth noting that, as the Android universe has strong noir and post-cyberpunk influences, the corps are not always the "bad guys" and the runners are not always good; one of the most common corp agendas at the time of writing (neutral, but costing influence) is Global Food Initiative, which has flavour text that directly references this.
[Faction: Summary + Lore, signature card + playstyle?]
The Runners
Anarch
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Most classically cyberpunk of the runner factions, Anarchs run to smash the system - whether that's to expose corporate lies or just because they like to break things depends on the individual ID. They are also the faction that's most associated with anti-android forces of Human First, fighting for the working man (usually by smashing said android with a sledgehammer), though this rarely comes up.
More Lore?
As a faction, Anarchs excel at trashing corp cards of all types. They specialise in AI, Fracters - which break barrier ice, and viruses, but are generally weak in hardware and against code gates. Their resources and events tend to focus on drawing cards and trashing the corp's stuff. Each faction has a central server that they "prefer" to run, or at least they get quite a few cards to support running it; for Anarchs, this is Archives. Anarchs are also prone to being self-destructive, trashing their own cards and taking damage in return for powerful effects. Each of the runner factions are somewhat associated with one type of damage - for Anarchs it's the permanent Brain Damage, often self-inflicted.
Anarch have had a swing-y time in the meta - a lot of their cards being low influence led to the faction being known as the one to import cards from rather than the one to play (though Noise has been a consistent threat thanks to his unique ability to grind down the Corp's deck), but as their card pool grew - especially after the deluxe box they shared with Weyland, Order and Chaos - they grew from strength to strength, dominating the game after a cards from a few cycles came together to form some monster decks, and their ability to trash cards helped immensely as Assets grew in prominence on the corp side.
It's hard to narrow down any one card as a faction's "signature", but a good example for Anarch would be Parasite: a virus that makes ice weaker and, if left unchecked, will trash the ice it is hosted on, making the server it was protecting more vulnerable. It also helps enable Anarch's suite of efficient but inflexible fixed-strength breakers, bringing ice down to their strength.
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Criminal
Criminals want money. That's about it. Leave ideals to the other factions, 'cause Criminals are only in it for themselves. "Steal from the rich", that's their motto—and who gives a damn for the poor? Naturally, Criminals aren't exactly picky about how they make their money. Robbery, fraud, and organised crime are all just as nice as any 1337 hacking. Hell, they'll even work for the corps—for the right price. Of course, money never helped a corpse. Safety first, cash later; getting info before you run, and laying low when it all goes wrong, are both just as important.
It's fitting, then, that Criminals have the best economy of any runner faction. You're going to give the corps a run for their money—literally; a lot of your economy will come from making runs. You'll usually do this by playing specialised events. Account Siphon's a good example; it lets you gain up to ten credits while removing five of the corp's...as long as you successfully run on their HQ. Doing stuff to the HQ is pretty important to many Criminal cards, so that's the Central you'll generally run most (protip for corps: against Criminals, Ice your HQs).
But even Ice can't stop a smooth Criminal. They're great at cracking Sentry Ice, with some of the best killers in the game. And anything they can't crack, they can avoid. Criminal cards focus on derezzing or otherwise bypassing Ice; if Anarchs straight-up destroy the corp's board, Criminals slyly fuck with it.
Other strengths include a variety of connection resources and the ability to dodge tags and generally avoid meat damage (safety first, remember?).
But Criminals still have weaknesses. They're pretty bad at bringing cards back from the heap, and their non-Killer Icebreakers are expensive and inefficient to make up for their Ice evasion and good economy.
They also have the issue that their "colour pie" includes some rather under-explored mechanics: Derezzing and Bypassing ice completely, which have seen some success, and making ice more expensive to rez, and Exposing cards - looking at them without accessing or encountering them - which haven't. While these are interesting, historically in the game they haven't been used much, and focus on them has meant they've gotten fewer cards that support strategies people actually play.
This has not stopped Criminal from being successful, however - the first World Championship was won by a Criminal deck, and more than half the runner field at that tournament had Criminals as their runner deck. Some reckon their strength (see also: their signature card) in the early days of the game was responsible for the lull in good criminal cards and a large amount of blue "binder fodder" being printed.
Of the runner factions Criminal is far and away the easiest to identify a "signature" card for - Account Siphon is a hugely powerful card that exemplifies everything Criminals do best - robbing the corp blind and making a ton of money. As a run event that requires a successful HQ run, Siphon (there another "siphon" card, but Account Siphon is notorious enough to be known by the name) is very strongly criminal, as represented by its hefty influence cost of 4. Since the core set Account Siphon is a card that has had to be played around, and all corps should be wary that the card exists. It is also one of the only cards to actively show that a corp's credit and a runner's credit do not represent the same amount of money - the corp's is much, much larger.
Shaper
The Mini-Factions
When the deluxe Order and Chaos (Anarch + Weyland) was released the netrunner community was left to wonder: who would NBN share the last deluxe with? As there are 3 runner factions and 4 corps the answer was not obvious - some reckoned there'd be one of each runner identities, others reckoned a new faction, but when Data and Destiny dropped the answer was somewhere in-between: three runners, each with a very limited card pool, a lot of influence and a unique theme. All had some similarities to the existing factions, but clear differences as well.
- Sunny
- Working for the large and independent security corporation Globalsec, Sunny Lebeau is a White/Grey Hat hacker - she tests corporate security and investigates megacorp wrongdoing. Equipped with the best gear and security clearance Globalsec can provide, this mother of two has a very simple but strong ability - she simply has 2 Link; good for winning traces, the minimum amount needed to turn on the memory-saving ability of certain breakers, and the amount needed to make certain resources work. The general descriptor for the way Sunny operates is "slow and expensive, but good" - with costly but powerful breakers, probably the best high-cost console in the game, and good ability to make money from resources, it often takes Sunny a while to get set up, but her late-games are crushingly powerful. She is the only one of the Mini-Factions to come with a full breaker suite, so she's the most usable and conventional mini-faction runner right out of the box. For the expensive but inevitable late-game power, Sunny is often considered to be similar to shapers.
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- Adam
- What Adam is is simple: he's a bioroid that's been built to hack. Why he's out running loose in the world, with no memories and the usual Bioroid Directives (similar to Asimov's Laws) changed and edited, he has no idea. It could be that he escaped, was set free, or he might be on a blacker-than-black mission for HB.
- Adam has three Directives, resources that start the game installed, which offer some powerful abilities, though they all come with drawdacks. His card pool comes with a number of ways to shutting off these Directives, permanently and temporarily, showing Adam growing past his programming. Because the directives start installed, Adam generally gets off to a fast start - mainly because he's often forced to run. While this makes him vulnerable, it also puts a lot of pressure on the corp. Other than the directives and the cards focused on removing or temporarily blanking them, Adam's cards are focused on utility. With his early-game pressure and need to run, Adam is sometimes considered to be a pseudo-criminal.
- Apex
- Most mysterious of the Mini-Faction runners, no-one , in-universe or IRL (save maybe the guys at FFG), knows exactly what Apex is. A sentient virus, a rogue AI, even an alien (actually not that, the designers have said there'll be no aliens in Android), all anyone knows about the net-based entity called Apex is that it is very hard to stop, and it is very hungry.
Apex uses the cards in its deck as a resource that can be spent - it can "spend" any installed card by trashing it, and at the start of every turn Apex can install a card facedown for free, no clicks needed. Apex spends its installed cards to do a number of things - avoid damage, make money, ::trash cards, and, most importantly, power its one in-faction icebreaker; this is important, as even an Apex with no money can potentially break in to servers with its icebreaker, though that is by no means guarantied - Apex struggles a lot against certain types of ice. Apex is second to none at avoiding damage - as a digital entity it's pretty hard to kill, though existing only in the virtual world limits this runner resource-wise - it can't use any that are none-virtual. For the trashing abilities and common use of alternative costs Apex is most like an Anarch
The Megacorps
Jinteki
Your classic cyberpunk Japanese zaibatsu, Jinteki is the producer of one half of the setting's eponymous Androids - artificial humans - in Jinteki's case, clones. Masters of all things biotech, Jinteki's divisions also specialise in medicine, g-mods, agriculture, and exploring the capabilities of the human brain.
Haas Bioroid
The other megacorp that makes androids, Haas Bioroid's product is in the name: they make Bioroids, entirely inorganic humanoid robots with electronic AI brains based on human brain-maps. Other products include flying cars (called hoppers), cybernetics, AI and industrial machinery.
NBN
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The Weyland Consortium
Builders, bankers and businessmen extraordinaire, the Weyland Consortium is not one business, but an alliance of large corporations working together; though known for constructing the space elevator - nicknamed the "Beanstalk" after the consortium's founder, Jack Weyland - what Weyland does is buy, sell and invest in other companies and corporations, leveraging their huge wealth to pursue their goals. Uniquely, most Weyland IDs are not divisions of the Megacorp, but corps in their own right - a transnational bank, a fusion power company, a space exploration company etc. - a lore reflection of part of the early design process, where several factions were folded into one.
As a faction, Weyland specialises in barriers, tutoring, and making money - in fact, they have a card of every type that makes money, even ICE! Weyland is also strongly associated with meat damage - almost all the corp cards that do meat damage are Weyland, even if Weyland isn't always the best at employing them. Speaking of things Weyland isn't the best at, like HB, a fair bit of Weyland ICE has a unique feature (no extra subtype though) - it can be advanced like an asset or agenda, to change it: some ICE gets stronger, some gain subroutines, etc. Unfortunately, a lot of this ice is over-costed, especially when the additional cost in clicks and credits is included - the investment is not often worth it. When this is combined with Weyland's other weaknesses - limited code gates and noticeably few and poor upgrades it becomes a bit clearer why Weyland struggles to score agendas or protect what it's got. Weyland is also famously unsubtle, having almost no ability to disguise agendas. However, when scored, their agendas can often recoup their cost - if they can actually score an agenda Weyland will rarely slow down, though often this money comes at a cost in Bad Publicity - an example of Weyland's willingness to get things done at any cost, also seen by their tendency to trash their own cards for money or other advantage.
Much like Criminal, Weyland's signature card is easy to identify - the often game-ending Scorched Earth. While Weyland often has to import the card that will give the tag, and often the card is splashed by tag-happy NBN, the kill is unmistakably Weyland, and has the influence cost to prove it. Scorched Earth is the most infamous tag punishment in the game, its use being partly responsible for the maxim: "don't run last click" - the risk of getting a tag and being unable to clear it making such a run an often fatal mistake. Scorched Earth also has something of a psychological effect - playing against Weyland often makes runners a lot more circumspect about running without enough money or protection, which can be exploited to score out agendas.
Holy fuck this is a mess, enlisting the help of the Netrunner General thread