Netrunner is Dead; Long Live Netrunnner! Starting to play Netrunner in the post-FFG era.
Android Netrunner (aka Netrunner) is a wonderful card game created by Fantasy Flight Games (FFG), and based off of Netrunner by Wizards of the Coast that was created at the same time as Magic the Gathering. It is set in a Cyber-Noir future in which vast Corporations control most of the earth, and beyond. These include:
- Weyland, who constructed a space elevator called the beanstalk, are adept at lunar mining and inter-setellar colonization, and don't hesitate to flatten a neighborhood to hurt the opposition;
- NBN, the communications powerhouse that indends to watch everyone, everywhere, then use that omnipontence to extract maximal value, or drive enemies to ruin;
- Haas Bioroid (HB), whose artificial intelligence and focus on efficiency and augmentation produces legions of androids intent on being the labor force of the world; and
- Jinteki, who competes fiercely with HB's labor force using its deep expertise in genetics and clone technology, and punishes its enemies with surprise, and attrition.
A small group of passionate runners (think "hackers") dare to oppose these corporations. They belong to a number of groups including:
- Criminals that are motivated by wealth, and use trickery, subterfuge, and lies to accumulate as much of it as possible;
- Shapers that seek to bend the world around them are motivated by knowledge and cleverness, and use the efficiency of Rube Goldberg setups to brute force into anything; and
- Anarchs that feed on rebellion, chaos, and destruction, to watch the world burn, often with reckless disregard of their own safety.
Netrunner is nothing if not diverse. Over the game's life, Netrunner has visited the site of the beanstalk in South America, the thriving cities in India, the metropolis in Africa, the mining colonies on the Moon, and the rebellious Mars. Of the runner identities, they represent the increasingly global future with many ethnicities, broad gender representation, and cyber-diversity (from genetic-mods, cybernetics, and androids, to "natural"s).
Mechanically, Netrunner has a number of wonderfully implemented characteristics:
- Netrunner is a card game, which means it thrives on the randomness of the draw, but a number of actions are built in, so in the worst case, if you expend your resources, you'll only have to slow down a little bit.
- It is an asymmetric game where playing the corp follows different rules than playing the runner. The corp builds defenses vertically to protect its servers from prying runners, and expands its empire horizontally. The runner builds their rig of programs and hardware, interacts with the people and places they network, all to most effectively break into the corp's servers and tear down their assets.
- Each player chooses a unique identity that sets the theme and direction of the deck.
- Netrunner uses hidden information very effectively. Each player has their own hand of hidden cards, of course, but Netrunner goes far beyond this. The defenses that the corp uses to protect its servers, and the assets they place inside of them are all face down. When the runner interacts with the corp, they are doing so blind. This is the thrill both of running, and of laying traps.
- Building your board state is often about an efficiency given and take. It is not like many other games based on trying to "stick" a big character.
- Netrunner is pretty complex, and there are lots of cards. It is not the type of a game you get bored of quickly, and there are many different styles to dabble in. It can be a little daunting to dive into, but luckily there are resources below that should make the plunge easier!
Community: A common refrain within the player-base is that one of (if not the) best aspect of Netrunner is the people who play it. It is generally full of friendly people who happen to like to create and to solve puzzles in a head-to-head match. Rudeness is rare, help is always available, and you're surrounded by interesting people. It says a lot how much effort and thought has gone into NISEI.
Unfortunately, due to FFG's Netrunner license not being renewed by Wizards of the Coast (the original Netrunner was created by Richard Garfield), they had to terminate their support, and stop selling it. However, since the community is Netrunner, Project NISEI has emerged as a rag-tag organization to continue the game, complete with new cards, organized play, and creative directions. Their FAQ answers most question you may have.
The card-base is currently huge, and even if we never saw another new card, there is enough complexity for continued longevity. However, with Project NISEI, Netrunner will continue, though perhaps at a somewhat slower pace. This marks a new era for Netrunner, and many of us are very excited. The community has always been active in feedback with the design staff, and this process is now baked into the core of Netrunner.
If you're asking if you should devote your time to a "dead game", spend some time with it and judge for yourself. There are six years of cards, near infinite decklists, and hundreds are articles. You will not be bored. There are playgroups around the world that still meet up and play Netrunner. There are simple resources for printing out proxies so that you can dive right in. And NISEI is dead-set on keeping the meta interesting.
If you know of a Netrunner group in your city, go check it out! I'm sure people will be happy to show you the ropes. If you don't know of a group, check out Team Covenant's guide to beginning Netrunner. They produce some great videos that walk you through the basics, and provide a set of decks to get you off and running.
You can dive into Netrunner by perusing the rules. PDFs of the rules are available (see the "Support" section). However, if there is a meetup in your area, there are likely many people who are happy to help you dive in. After you get a little bit of a grasp of the game, you can hop into the online game (see below) with a game titled "New Player", and someone will help out!
I strongly recommend starting with the decks provided by Team Covenant. Once you get a feel for the game, you can browse through all of the cards, and start putting together your own decks. NetrunnerDB is a great resource for doing so. You can view other's decks to see what they are thinking, and explore the vast number of cards.
Once you have a deck you want to play, you can very easily print it out. You can use these print-outs in combination with sleeves and some other cards to get running. There are many resources for printout out proxies if you want actual cards.
A great resource to understand the history of Netrunner, and of "the meta" is the history of archetypes. Each of the decks is accompanied with a NetrunnerDB reference which you can use to print out it and play. Though FFG is dropping official support, there are six years of cards, and six years of changing meta-games well documented there.
There are many different internet locations that aggregate where and when meet-ups happen. There are active groups, but they can be a little tricky to find. I suggest doing a little footwork, and looking on Facebook, asking on stimhack, stimslack, and the reddit subreddit (see below).
It is also possible -- and easy -- to play online. jinteki.net is a community-created online Netrunner experience. You can make a game with "New Player" in the title, and someone will hop on with you to show you the ropes.
There are some key interactions that you should really know about if you sit down across from someone who has been playing for a long time. Most of these are spelled out here; you can use that to get a view on some of the more impactful interactions you should know about.
Stimhack forums Netrunner subreddit
There is also a Netrunner Slack channel (stimhack.slack.com) that people use to chat about the many aspects of Netrunner.
To get access, just provide your email!
Netrunner is a very deep game, and it will require some effort to even approach mastering the game. When you first start playing, it is hard to understand and predict the game-state, and make good decisions. There are a few rules of thumb that are necessary to start on the path to improvement:
- Run more than you think you should. Running gets you information (through ICE rezzes, and card accesses), and is how you win the game!
- Plan out your turn. Try and map out your four clicks so that you have a plan. Force your brain to engage in what is the best way to play your turn.
- Draw early in your turn. Cards are options, and the earlier in your turn you draw, the earlier you'll know your options.
- If you are clicking for credits frequently, you likely don't have enough economy in your deck, aren't drawing enough, or are spending down to very low credit values too frequently.
Aside from this high-level guidance, the community has published a lot of articles on improvement.
- Elusive's index on Netrunner strategy and self-improvement.
- Saan's articles on identity selection, economy, ICE and breakers, and win conditions.
- Kevin Tame also published a great article on the application of deliberate practice to netrunner.
These are golden resources.
If you want to watch some videos to get a better perspective on the community, there are many resources. Some of them that are more approachable include:
- Peachhack's coverage of the last FFG Worlds competition: day 1, day 2, and the finals. These are all streamed with commentary, and they often put the specific cards being discussed into the overlay. They also have very extensive coverage of Netrunner dating back years.
- Self-Modifying Code streams regularly on jinteki.net, and you can pause the stream to read the cards. He interviews people in the community (including the NISEI Board), which gives a great insight into how people think about the game.
- The Metropole Grid also frequently streams, and has energetic, great commentary.
- The Hacktivist (Kevin Tame, from above) has great videos with rigorous commentary about his thought process.
- Countless other Netrunner resources. Follow the channels each of them reference, and you'll quickly uncover most of the runner underworld.