Netrunner
So you want to play one of the most interesting and unique trading card games that ever saw the light? Well, you certainly found the right page! 1996 was the year Richard Garfield and Wizards of the Coast brought us Netrunner, a trading card game for two players. The most interesting part about it is probably that it's an asymmetric game, meaning that both player fulfill a different role within the match. One player will be the Runner and the other player will incarnate the Corp. The game is long since inactive and WotC has stopped printing cards for it.
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Goal of the Game
In the near future everything is digitalized. Big corporations rule the world and guide the people through their life. Or maybe they oppress the population into doing their shady business. No one knows for sure. But the Runners, internet jockeys that use their brain as a computer are all about unveiling the truth. The corporations don't take lightly on this behaviour and try to wring these data-terrorists out of exsitence.
The game is won by collecting agenda-points or lost by matching a few conditions. Agendas are projects the corp works on and each has a value displayed in the lower right corner of the card. The Corp has to install agendas and advance on them until the conditions on the card are met. It then scores the agenda, sets it aside and has as many points as depicted on the card. The Runner has to uncover/steal the agendas from the corp. You can make runs on everything the Corp has: Their hand (aka HQ), their deck (aka R&D), their discard pile (aka Archives) or data forts. When a runner finds an agenda somewhere he just scores it and scores the points on depicted on the card. Effects on the cards generaly don't affect the runner.
Whoever amasses 7 points or more in a game, wins.
Ways to lose
You can however also lose the game, in which case your opponent wins by default. The Corp can run out of cards to draw from R&D. If you are forced to draw a card from R&D, but can't because the stack is empty, you lose. The Runner has to look out to not get his brain fried. If the runner sustains enough brain damage to reduce his maximum hand size from 5 to 0 he is braindead and loses the game. If he has at any point no cards in his hand he is flatlined and loses the game.
Match Preparations
For a full game you will need at least one Runner deck and one Corporate deck. Those decks can contain up to 60 cards each. Also get a ton of tokens. 40 tokens for both player are generally enough. Also, some cards may need a die so set one aside. You'll need table space for each player to have about a dozen cards, maybe a little more.
How to Play
Beginning of the Game
Now this shit gets interesting. Decide who plays their Corp deck and who plays their Runner deck. Shuffle each deck and draw 5 cards each. Five is also the maximum hand size for both players. Both players also get 5 Bits, which represent the currency in this game, but more on that later. Each player's turn is measured in Actions. Both players get 4 Actions, but the Corp must always use their first action to draw a card. Corp always gets the first turn.
What "Actions" can be used for
When it's your turn you can spend your four Actions however you want (except for Corp's first action, which is forced to be "Draw a card"). The options are as follows:
Both players use an action to:
- Draw a Card: take a card from their face-down deck and add it to their hand.
- Get a Bit: add a token to a pool in front of the player, used to represent money or liquid assets. Each bit of money for the Corporate player is obviously orders of magnitude larger than Hacker bits, but Corporations need to move oil-tankers and fund rock stars, while the Hacker can live on ramen and coffee.
The Corporate player may use an action to:
- Install an Agenda or Node in a subsidiary Datafort: Start a new pile in front of the player by placing an agenda card face-down on the table. Leaving an sole Agenda in a Datafort is ill-advised.
- Install an ICE on a Datafort: Add an ICE card face-down and "tapped" to one of the Datafort piles on the table. ICE can only be placed on top of a Datafort, never in the middle. Runners always encounter ICE from top-to-bottom, so the Agenda is always last. The first ICE on a Datafort comes at no cost to install. For another ICE on a Datafort that already has one you have to pay a Bit. The next one costs 2 Bits and so on.
- Install Upgrades: Upgrades are put face-down behind a Datafort and generally support something inside the Datafort when rezzed. There are also Regions which are Upgrades that have to be rezzed as soon as they are installed. An Upgrade is accessed by a runner when he reaches the last part of a Datafort, for example an Agenda.
- Do Operations: Operation cards are non permanent cards. Play them, follow their effect, store them in the archives.
- Advance a project: Agendas, some Nodes and even some Upgrades can be advanced. For each advancement you use an Action, pay a bit and put a token on the card in question. If the card is face down and the cards says nothing about revealing it upon advancement it stays face down.
- Make the Runner pay for keeping Tags: Tags, if we can give them to the Runner, are good for us. We can taken an action, pay 2 Bits and trash one of the Runners Resources at will if he has one.
The Runner may use an action to:
- Make a run on the Corp: explained later.
- Install Cards: If you have any programs, hardware or resources in your hand you can install these by paying their cost in bits and setting them down in front of you face up (or face down if it's something hidden).
- Use Preparations: Preparation cards are non permanent cards. Play them, follow their effect, put them in your trashpile.
- Lose a Tag: Tags are trouble! If you have one a desperate Corp can steer you into a world of hurt. For an Action and 2 Bits you can lose a Tag.
Keeping track of the play-area
We already told you this is an asymmetric game. That means that both players fulfill different roles during play. Their playfields also differ greatly. While the Runner lays nearly everything open in front of him, the Corp initially sets down everything face down. Look at the pictures on the right. I photographed two simple setups that show a bit of both playfields. Looks quite complicated eh? Well it's not, fuck you.
Below are each player's layouts with explanations.
Runner side
| |
| Red | Programs installed by the Runner. They help him fuck shit up on the corp side. Every Program costs 1 Memory Unit. The Runner starts with 4 MU. When he loses Programs he gets a MU back. |
| Grey | Hardware installed by the Runner. They usually keep the Corp from fucking his shit up. Also help him installing programs and getting him out of trouble. Can install as many Hardware as you want. |
| Blue | Ressources the Runner aquired. Usually he gets his money from here. Sometimes they also help him avoid a tag. You can have as many Ressources as you want. |
| Gold | Agendas scored by the Runner. He just gets the points and not the effect. 7 points to win, remember? |
| Yellow | The Bit-Pool of the Runner. We use Go-Stones, you can use spaghetti if you want. |
| Brown | The Runners Deck. He may draw cards from here if he wants to spend Actions for it. |
| Purple | The Runners Discard-Pile. Yeah. |
| Orange | The Runners Hand. Normally you keep it hidden. I just show it so you can see the text if you want. |
Corp side
| |
| Red | ICE installed by the corp to guard their Dataforts. Those right side up are "rezzed" as in activated. Those facing down are "unrezzed". In this example most Forts have only one ICE in front of them. One Fort has two. |
| Yellow | Subsidiary Dataforts with installed Nodes, Agendas or something like that, that are not scored/revealed/in action yet. The black go stones indicate both have been advanced and are a step closer to completion. |
| Grey | A subsidiary Datafort with an installed and running Node in it. The black go stones are Bits that are conditioned by the Node. In this case the Corp had to put 12 Bits on the Node when it activated and gets one Bit at the start of each of it's turns. When all Bits are depleted the Node goes into the Archives. |
| Purple | An Upgrade - Region, installed and in action on a Datafort. You can only have one Upgrade on every Datafort. They generally influence the conditions on a Datafort. This one makes runs on the Datafort it is installed on more expensive for the Runner. |
| Black | R&D or the "Deck" if you are one of the uncool kids that don't want to learn new and exciting words. R&D is a Datafort too and has to be protected as well. The Corp draws it's cards from here. Most of the time this is a prime target for the Runner as the Corp is helpless if he can snatch Agendas from R&D before they even get to see the Project. If R&D is gone and the Corp has to draw a card, the Corp loses the game. |
| Blue | The Archives. Everything the Corp has completed or that has been destroyed goes here. So all your Operations, trashed Nodes, completed Nodes, trashed ICE and whatever lie in a neat pile. When the Runner accesses your Archives he get's to see all cards stored in there. If he finds any Agendas (maybe because you had to discard them) he gets to score them free of charge. When he has looked at the Archives the pile gets turned face up and is now the... |
| Light Blue | The Old Archives. The Runner may see the cards in the Old Archives at any time if he pleases. The Corp can not install anything here as this is not a Datafort. |
| Pink | Bit-Pool of the Corp. Again Go-Stones. Can be anything you want. |
| White | The HQ or "Hand" of the Corp. Note that there are ICE installed in front of it as it also counts as a Data-Fort and runs can be made by the runner to access cards here. |
A normal game of Netrunner
In this part I will lay out an example game of Netrunner for you to follow.
The Crop and the Runner both have a deck of 60 cards. After shuffling they draw 5 starting cards and take 5 Bits from their Bit pool. Corp always gets first turn.
| 1. Turn Corp | Our first goal should be to secure our vulnerable assets, as in our HQ and our R&D to prevent easy access for the runner. The best would be a cheap ICE-Code Gate or ICE-Wall. Let's see what we have in our starting HQ.
OK we got a few ICE, but both Sentries. Though they are good, especially in the beginning, they are also very expensive to rez. But maybe we are getting cheaper ICE-Code Gate or an ICE-Wall. So we use our first Action to draw from R&D like we are obligated to every turn. We Draw:
Great, just what we needed, a cheap ICE-Code Gate. We use our second Action to install the Quandary in front of our HQ. To do so, we set the Quandary card face down, a bit to the left of us and declare that this is the collumn that protects our HQ. We use our third Action to play Efficiency Experts to get 3 Bits without paying any. We show it to the Runner and then it is stored in our Archives, face down next to our R&D. Our fourth and last Action is used to install Ice Pick Willie in front of our R&D. Though it would be painful to rez it now, it will hopefully scare away the Runner for a bit. Our turn is now over, the Runners turn begins. |
Will be continued - --Kajotex 18:18, 3 February 2012 (UTC)
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