next »

[Nillo]

I've been utterly fascinated by Android Netrunner lately. I played Magic for at least five years and I have to say this game blows it out of the water. The mind games and strategic decisions that can happen during the game are fantastic.

You can read more about it on the BoardGameGeek page. If you want to learn how to play the game, here's a direct link to the rulebook, and here's a simple Beginner's Guide.

More importantly, you can play this game online! There's a plugin for OCTGN that takes care of most of the game's functions. The interface is a little tricky to use at first, so you should expect that you'll spend your first two games fumbling with the controls, but I think it's all worth it. Here's how to install the OCTGN client and here is how to use the Android: Netrunner plugin.

Since the learning curve is pretty steep, I have a hard time finding people who want to play this with me. It's quite unfortunate. If you're interested in the game, let me know! It doesn't cost anything to play and I'm willing to explain anything you need to get started. My account name on OCTGN is nymlus.

[Fallsburg]

best game? or best game?

This game is just so fucking good.  The asymmetry, the balance, the flavor, the hidden information, the lack of fiddly score keeping, it's just so goddamn good.

It's the best CCG (or I guess technically LCG) out there although there are aspects of Magic that I wish could be replicated in Netrunner (drafting, multiplayer, etc.).

[Nillo]

There are some A:NR draft packs in the works (more info here) which will apparently become available to the public sometime in 2014. Personally I'm OK with playing only constructed decks, but it's cool that drafting will be an option in the future.

I really enjoy the asymmetry of Netrunner, and one of the things that I find the most interesting is how differently a game effect works for the two sides in practice, even when on paper it looks identical. Take the core set cards Diesel, Anonymous Tip, Easy Mark and Beanstalk Royalties. Diesel and Tip each give you three cards when played, and Mark/Royalties give you three credits.

I assert that Diesel is a much better card than Anonymous Tip, because extra cards are more valuable to a Runner. One reason for that is the Runner doesn't have a "forced draw". The Corp must draw a card every turn, but the Runner can and often does spend his time doing other things, which means he's more likely to run out of cards. Another reason is that the Runner's cards double as hit points - if the Runner has to discard from an empty hand, he loses the game. So Diesel is not just an engine that helps Runners reach the tools they need, it also gives them more "health" and makes it safer to perform runs into uncharted territory.

In the same way, I find Beanstalk Royalties to be way better than Easy Mark. Since the Corp only has three actions per turn (after the forced draw), having to use those actions on credits really hurts. Moreover, it's often difficult for the Corporation to put economy assets on the table due to the pressure from the Runner, especially when playing against trashing specialists like the Whizzard. Beanstalk is a relatively hassle-free way to shore up your bank account and turn excess cards into money.

Netrunner has so much potential it's crazy. If someone makes a standalone client for PC online play with in-game tutorials for the newbies, I think it would be a huge hit. They could just crowdfund it, or something.

[Netsu]

This game seems super interesting, I loved Magic when I was a kid but was ultimately turned away by the amount of money you need to put into it to keep playing tournaments. I was curious to try one of those LCGs that keep popping up everywhere but- HOLY SHIT this game is RANK 5 on boardgamegeek and I never even heard of it??//
How much deck building does the base box provide? And how important is deck building over all? I see the box has ~250 cards, how big a typical deck is?

[Fallsburg]

Decks are typically 45 cards. But deckbuilding follows some odd constraints.

1) You are only allowed 3 of a given card in a deck (similar to Magic's max 4 of). 

2) When building a deck you pick a special Identity card that defines what faction you are, what your minimum decksize is (typically 45 but some are 40), how many Influence points (typically 15, but see 3 for more info), and some sort of special ability (get 2 credits when you make a run on HQ, get a credit the first time you install something each turn, etc.)

3) You are only allowed to use cards that are of your faction or are neutral.  If you want to use cards that aren't in your faction, you have to spend influence points.  Each card is worth between 1-3 influence points so you can typically have somewhere between 5 and 15 cards that are out of faction.

4) The corporation has to have a certain number of agenda points in their deck (typically 18) depending on deck size. 


Anyway, there are probably enough cards for 2 Runner decks and 3 corporation decks in the starter, but they will probably be a bit unwieldy (but if you aren't looking for tournament play, that's probably fine.

Deckbuilding is pretty important, but if you are just casually playing 1v1 with someone you can do what the instructions recommend for new players and just choose an identity and then take all the cards of that identity and all of the neutral cards and make a deck.  It will still be plenty fun and offer up plenty of strategy and tactics.

[Mittens]

could someone here please code a digital/online version so I can maybe play it ever.
I dont think anyone is going to real life this one with me

[Tanner]

That exists! Nillo linked it in the main post.

I would kill for an iPad version, though. And a native Mac client. The wine port of OCTGN is bad.

[Mittens]

That exists! Nillo linked it in the main post.

I would kill for an iPad version, though. And a native Mac client. The wine port of OCTGN is bad.

Oh OK, I'll install that then

[hphu]

This game is awesome, just really well designed. I love the cyberpunk theme as well.

[Mittens]

I want to play, but the video explaining the rules in an hour long...

Does anyone want to just play it with me and explain as we go?
Skype?

[Nillo]

I can try but I don't usually speak English so it's going to be awkward for me. My skype username is nillo42.

Edit: Here's a video called Shut Up & Sit Down plays Android: Netrunner. It's only 27 minutes long but it gives you a good idea of how the game works and it's pretty fun to watch.

[Mittens]

I can try but I don't usually speak English so it's going to be awkward for me. My skype username is nillo42.

Edit: Here's a video called Shut Up & Sit Down plays Android: Netrunner. It's only 27 minutes long but it gives you a good idea of how the game works and it's pretty fun to watch.

OK, i watched that vid.
The rules mostly make sense to me now, one thing is still a bit unclear -
What is he using to advance agendas? is it the money tokens? (credits)
Or is there another type of token used only to advance agendas, and if so, how does the corporation get those?

[Nillo]

OK, i watched that vid.
The rules mostly make sense to me now, one thing is still a bit unclear -
What is he using to advance agendas? is it the money tokens? (credits)
Or is there another type of token used only to advance agendas, and if so, how does the corporation get those?

You pay one credit every time you advance an agenda. But the cool thing about the credit tokens is that the other side of the credit token IS the advancement token. So when the Corporation player advances an agenda, in practice all he does is flip a credit token over and put it on his agenda, and then it becomes an advancement token.

Of course it also costs a click (action) to do this and the Corp only has three clicks. So it takes a lot of time and effort for a Corporation to score, giving the Runner plenty of time to launch an attack on the server.

[Nillo]

Yo I just played a match on the new Netrunner online play site, Jinteki.net, and I have to say it's an excellent implementation of the game. I highly recommend going there and trying it out.

Also I'm very happy because I've had a corp deck idea cooking for a long time (ever since the release of Honor and Profit) and now when I returned to the game, a lot of cards have been released that directly support the type of deck I wanted to put together. So now I'm really excited about trying this deck.

[Tanner]

oh wow that looks super slick. let's hope it stays around, as that's really the only good way to play on mac.


i miss isotropic dominion

[s0]

i kinda want to play this but i feel weird playing a digital version of a card game i don't own physically lol.

[battlerager]

i kinda want to play this but i feel weird playing a digital version of a card game i don't own physically lol.

I've done it before, imagine it like a free trial... 

[s0]

ya but theres also the thing where digital card/boardgames are kind of inherently awkward to me.

[battlerager]

ya but theres also the thing where digital card/boardgames are kind of inherently awkward to me.

Hm, might be a genre thing. To me, there's no big difference between strategy games / sim games and digital board games, just in complexity / presentation, so there's no huge break for me. Just try to imagine you're playing a digital version of the official Crusader Kings family board game sometime.

[s0]

funny thing is, europa universalis is actually based on a board game.

but for me it's mainly an interface design thing. board and card games often rely on you having access to all the info/components you need at a glance. computer screens (or other types of screens) are too small for that, so in a lot of digital conversions of board and card games, you spend a lot of time awkwardly scrolling and mousing over stuff to find out what it is. physical games also rely on clarity of rules and digital conversions often try to obscure those rules during gameplay, making it hard to tell what's going on.