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Android: Netrunner

Android: Netrunner original core set box
Designers	Richard Garfield, Lukas Litzsinger, Damon Stone, Michael Boggs
Publishers	Fantasy Flight Games
Publication	2012
Players	2
Setup time	< 5 minutes
Playing time	30-60 minutes
Chance	Some
Skills	Card playing, logic, bluffing, strategy
Related games
Call of Cthulhu, Game of Thrones Card Game
[1]

Android: Netrunner is an expandable card game (ECG) produced by Null Signal Games, previously by Fantasy Flight Games. It is a two-player game set in the dystopian future of the Android universe.^[2] Each game is played as a battle between a megacorporation and a hacker ("runner") in a duel to take control of data. It is based on Richard Garfield's Netrunner collectible card game, produced by Wizards of the Coast in 1996.^[3]

The game was launched in 2012. In 2017, a second edition of the core set was announced which replaced some of the original cards with cards from the first two expansion cycles. In 2018, Fantasy Flight Games' license with Wizards of the Coast ended, and the game was discontinued, with Reign and Reverie being the company's last expansion.^[4] During its FFG era, the game was known as a Living Card Game (LCG), which is an FFG-trademarked term for ECGs. After a brief pause, since 2019, the game has been produced by Null Signal Games (initially, Project NISEI), who release new compatible expansions and run organized tournament events.

Like the original, the game is asymmetric and involves two players, one playing a hacker ("the Runner") and the other playing a corporation ("the Corp"). The Runner wins by stealing seven or more points worth of agenda cards or if the Corp can't draw a card when required (due to an empty deck). The Corp wins by scoring agenda cards worth a total of seven or more points or if the Runner is forced to discard more cards than they have in their hand.^[5]

While the game retains much of the gameplay of the original, there are some key differences:

• The original Netrunner game was sold in randomized booster packs and semi-random starter decks, similar to Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games. Fantasy Flight's version has been built like its other Living Card Games. The expansions are sold in fixed, non-random sets, either as monthly packs ("Data Packs"), or, less frequently, deluxe box expansions. While this approach virtually eliminates the secondary card market, card speculation, and draft formats, it also promotes an equal playing field and game play over the value of the cards.
• Fantasy Flight reprinted the original card set and various data packs after they sold out;^[6] this is similar to the company's support of its other Living Card Games. Collectible card games (like Magic) do not reprint card sets, preferring to re-build the card base and help support a secondary card market and card pricing speculation.
• The setting for the original game was based on the Cyberpunk 2020 RPG. The game has been moved to Fantasy Flight's Android setting.
• The original game had only two factions: Corp and Runner. The new version splits the two factions into four Corps (Jinteki, NBN, Haas-Bioroid, and the Weyland Consortium) and three core Runner types (Anarch, Criminal, and Shaper) as well as 3 Runner mini-factions (Adam, Apex, and Sunny Lebeau).^[7] Every deck must have an identity card from one of these factions. This card may grant one or more special abilities and sets deck-building constraints.
• A deck cannot have more than three copies of a single card (by name) in it, unless specifically stated on the card. In the original game, no limit was imposed.
• In the original game, the corp had a maximum deck size for specific numbers of agenda points (for example, 18-19 agenda points meant a maximum deck size of 45 cards, 20-21 agenda points meant max 50 cards, and so on). In the new game, the relationship is reversed; a deck size interval is tied to a number of agenda points (for example, a 45-49 card deck must have 20-21 agenda points). This means that the corporation must decide between using the lower number for more consistency, the higher number for lower agenda density, or somewhere in between.
• Some terminology has changed: bits have been replaced with credits, actions replaced by clicks, and data forts replaced by servers. Also, some card types have been renamed (for example, Prep cards are now Events).
• Some mechanics have been simplified or otherwise altered.
  • In the original game, the "trace" mechanic was a blind bid, with both players revealing their bids simultaneously. Now traces are done openly, with the Corp bidding first, followed by the Runner.
  • In the original game, the Corporation would lose the game if they received 7 Bad Publicity tokens. In Android: Netrunner the Corporation can have any number of Bad Publicity tokens without fear of losing, but each Bad Publicity token gives the Runner a free "temporary use" credit to use during each run.

Due to these changes, cards from the two games are not interchangeable. Richard Garfield has stated that "almost all [changes] are reasonable simplifications or elaborations on the original mechanics", and that he is "confident that care was taken not to change for the sake of change."^[8]

Each Data Pack contained 60 cards, had a complete playset of new cards (typically three copies each of twenty cards), and was part of a six-pack "cycle". A new pack was released monthly during the cycle; between cycles the wait was typically three to four months.

Deluxe expansions are released between cycles. Deluxe expansions originally focused on two factions (one Corporation and one Runner) and contain three copies of 55 cards. The fourth and fifth deluxe expansions break from this pattern; the fourth introduces three new Runner "mini-factions" along with its focus on a Corporation, while the fifth includes cards for all 7 factions and 3 mini-factions.

Narrative campaign expansions include new player cards (including Runner and Corp identities), printed player dashboards (referred to as "PAD sheets") to hold stickers that will affect future games played in the same campaign setting, and packs of secret campaign cards and stickers. A Core Set is required to play a narrative campaign expansion.

Null Signal Games supports and maintains multiple formats for organized play.^[9] Many of these formats are affected by rotation, where cards from older sets are removed from the format and replaced with newly released cards.

The Standard format is the most popular among players, and contains sets from both the FFG and NSG eras of Netrunner. As of March 28, 2024, Standard contains the following sets:

• all sets in the Red Sand Cycle
• all sets in the Kitara Cycle
• Reign and Reverie
• Magnum Opus
• Downfall and Uprising from the Ashes Cycle
• System Update 2021
• System Gateway
• Midnight Sun and Parhelion from the Borealis Cycle
• The Automata Initiative and Rebellion Without Rehearsal from the Liberation Cycle

The release of The Automata Initiative in July 2023 caused the Flashpoint Cycle and Data and Destiny to rotate from the format.

The Standard format also has a ban list, currently the Standard Ban List 23.09. Any cards on the ban list are not to be used in Standard format-legal play.

The Startup format is a subset of the cards available in the Standard format. The startup format contains:

• System Gateway and the most recent System Update set (currently System Update 2021)
• The most recent fully completed card cycle (currently The Automata Initiative and Rebellion Without Rehearsal from the Liberation Cycle)
• All sets in any current incomplete card cycle (currently none)

Rotations in the Startup format occur whenever a card cycle is completed. The most recent rotation was triggered on the release of Rebellion Without Rehearsal, causing the two sets from the Borealis Cycle to rotate from the format.

In September 2024, the Null Signal Games Balance Team introduced a ban list and deckbuilding restrictions for the Startup format.^[10]

The Eternal format consists of nearly every set of cards printed for Android: Netrunner by Fantasy Flight Games or Null Signal Games.

In place of a ban list, the Eternal format contains a points list, currently the Eternal Points List 23.03. Each Eternal format-legal deck may spend up to 7 points from the points list. When any number of a card on the points list is used, that number of points is counted. Any cards listed as "Banned" may not be used.

Many more formats have been created for the game. These include, but are not limited to, Snapshot, Random Access Memories, and Draft, as well as many player-created formats.

Android: Netrunner World Championships occurred annually during Fantasy Flight's World Championships. National, regional, and store championships precede this; each event's first-place winner receives a first-round bye in the following level of tournament play.^[11] Android: Netrunner tournaments follow a Swiss-system similar to that of Magic: the Gathering, though with a key difference: only two games are played, with each player playing as the Corporation and Runner once. In most tournaments, however, after a certain number of rounds all except the top eight or sixteen players are cut from the tournament. The tournament then shifts to double-elimination bracket, eventually crowning a winner.

Game Night Kit (GNK) tournaments are also run at times between other organized play events and usually follow the same structure, but without any byes to other events being available as prizes.

Organised Netrunner events include a series of casual and competitive tournaments held every year, leading up to the World Championships, as detailed in the Null Signal Games Organized Play Policies.^[12] These events include, but are not limited to Circuit Openers, and National, Continental, and World Championships. Some of the events (excluding the World Championships) are held online, many using Jinteki.net.

Most events follow a single-sided or double-sided Swiss-system. In a double-sided Swiss tournament, each round sees each player playing once as the runner, and once as the corporation. In single-sided Swiss, there is one game per round, and players are paired such that they play a nearly even number of games as the runner and as the corporation. For events with more than 16 players, after a set number of rounds, the players with the best result from the Swiss rounds compete in the "top cut" to decide the tournament winner.

Players entering a tournament are never required to have officially printed cards. Proxies (printed stand-in cards) are usually permitted, as long as they are acceptable according to the Organized Play Policies.

There is no competitive criteria to enter the World Championships. The 2022 World Championships were held in Toronto, and the 2023 World Championships took place in Barcelona on 13–15 October 2023.^[13][14] The 2024 World Championships are scheduled to be held in San Francisco on October 18–20.^[15]

The Android: Netrunner community also conducts games online via Jinteki.net, which is a free and open-source web platform with rule implementation.^[16]

One can also try the game and learn the rules on Chiriboga which is a free and open-source web platform which consists the sets System Gateway and System Update 2021.

Android: Netrunner has won the 2012 Best Card Game and 2012 Best Two Player Game, at the 2012 BoardGameGeek Golden Geek Awards.^[17]

• Official website