Netrunner

For the first time in a few years, I had the chance to play some Netrunner. It was an untuned starter set, but that works fine for this game. The tough part was brushing up on the rules and teaching them to my opponent, a software engineer who has only played Magic and Jyhad. The rulebook sacrifices clarity and organization for a thematic presentation from the standpoint of a corporate security expert and a hacker. The rules are moderately complex, but slightly challenging due to some innovative mechanics.

Netrunner is truly one of Richard Garfield's best designs, much better than Magic, the Battletech CCG or Roborally, though not quite as good as Jyhad. Netrunner offers the unusual experience of playing a completely asymmetrical two-player game that still manages to be fairly balanced and interesting. Part of the asymmetry is that the Corporate player often has most of his cards concealed, while the Netrunner player has no secrets except the cards in his hand. Also, the Netrunner is almost constantly on the attack, while the Corporate player is mostly on the defense, though occasionally getting an opportunity to strike back with lethal force.

I regret not buying more cards back in the day. I realized right away that Netrunner was superior to most CCGs, and I already liked the Cyberpunk 2020 setting created by R. Talsorian Games. But I was busy collecting and playing four other CCGs at that time: Jyhad, Shadowfist, Legend of the Five Rings, and Mythos. Jyhad and Shadowfist had even better settings, and offered a more lively multi-player format. Legend of the Five Rings wasn't as good a game as Netrunner, but the Rokugan setting was detailed and interesting. As for Mythos, well, I have a weakness for games based on the writings of H.P. Lovecraft, though I draw the line at the really lame ones like Cthulhu 500 or that worthless Cthulhu Rising from Reiner Knizia.

I only recently learned about Netrunner.

It sounds like a really awesome game and the whole cyberpunk think is pretty rocking. A 2-player starter is on my list of games to eventually purchase. I'm just not sure if I want to get this first or spend more money on wargames

yep. Great game and probably my favorite CCG. I too only have a few deck- probably around 300 cards total. Nonetheless, the game is so inoovative that you can build some very clever strategies into the game with even a few cards. One of these days I'm going to track down some more.. this game definately has legs.

Steve"StreetSamurai"Avery

I recall reading about there being problems with the expansion set (Proteus?) which led to the Runner getting absurdly powerful. Otherwise it's a great game.

My only problem with playing with just starters is that the games start to feel the same after a while, even switching up starters. Maybe I just happen to have 2 starters that are very similar or something.

iguanaDitty wrote:

I recall reading about there being problems with the expansion set (Proteus?) which led to the Runner getting absurdly powerful. Otherwise it's a great game.

My only problem with playing with just starters is that the games start to feel the same after a while, even switching up starters. Maybe I just happen to have 2 starters that are very similar or something.

That's one of my problems with the game, too: so many of the cards are so similar, with just numbers adjusted up and down here and there, that even with different starters and different cards the games feel similar. This so completely at odds with what I love about CCGs that I can't consider Netrunner better than Magic, or Jyhad for that matter.

I admit that I play Netrunner only rarely, maybe once every few years I will play, and then I play several games in a row. But I feel that the gameplay is so strong that the cards don't need as much variety as found in other CCGs. Specifically, there is a whole level of mindgames going on in Netrunner.

Sometimes the Corp player has the luxury of constructing a really formidable pile of ice on a data fortress to protect a valuable agenda. Other times, he has more agenda cards than he can safely deploy, and needs to protect his discard pile and hand.

And the netrunner player needs to watch for the corp player's tells, and play his hunches. Or else pick one element and just hammer on it. The last time I played the 'runner, my opponent was building up a massive amount of ice on one data fortress, where he was clearly advancing an agenda. So I went after R&D (his deck) with a vengeance. The first turn that I broke through on R&D, I hit it three more times that turn, scoring two agenda cards worth a total of six. The following turn, there was some additional ice, but I still managed to strike again, and lucked into another agenda card for two and the game.

I'm reviving this thread to mention that I finally got off my butt and looked at Netrunner for the first time in earnest yesterday. It's been mentioned on this site a ton, but I had never gotten around to really reading anything about it.

Within a couple hours I had installed this free PC program called Lackey CCG and downloaded the art for every card ever produced. I did a Skype session with a really nice guy from BGG (username: byronczimmer) who spent about an hour walking me through the types of cards and the basics of play.

Once I actually read the rules, I'll probably be good to go. As far as free software goes, this Lackey thing isn't too bad. I've seen better interfaces, but it hasn't crashed on me yet, and connecting to another player was a snap. I think it's worth checking out.

Oh, and it has plugins for virtually every CCG I've ever heard of.

EDIT

Lackey CCG site
Netrunner plugin for Lackey

iguanaDitty wrote:

I recall reading about there being problems with the expansion set (Proteus?) which led to the Runner getting absurdly powerful. Otherwise it's a great game.

My only problem with playing with just starters is that the games start to feel the same after a while, even switching up starters. Maybe I just happen to have 2 starters that are very similar or something.

I don't have a ton of hours logged with Netrunner (and it's the only CCG I have any interest in at all) but I do have a fair number of Proteus cards (I found almost 1,000 cards including nearly a full set of Proteus cards at a thrift store for $4 and, since the number of cards was 70+% Corp, made a few additional trades to balance out the numbers). I get the impression they were so out of whack to accommodate the power-builder class of deck builders.

It strikes me that, before Proteus, the Corp player could probably build a nearly impregnable Fortress of Turtledom because, as someone already pointed out, there's not exactly a ton of variation in the cards. I think this is one of the reasons so many advocate starters or something close to it as the best way to play.

This was my favorite CCG but only one of my buddies had any interest in playing it. Too bad because its probably the best I've ever played.