Images courtesy of Null Signal Games
There was a time when a competitive card game was a perennial member of the BoardGameGeek Top 10 list. Wait – a card game with a thriving tournament system also being well-regarded by the board game community is a bit unheard of. But Android: Netrunner (ANR), a Living Card Game (LCG), broke the mold and cemented itself as a mainstay that could challenge the top spots held by juggernauts such as Pandemic: Legacy, Gloomhaven, and Twilight Struggle.
The international Android: Netrunner community was no slouch either; tournaments and community-ran events were aplenty during the game’s heyday, and even spawned a global player’s circuit. The future was bright for this cyberpunk card game.
But the game suffered an untimely death.
In June 2018, publisher Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) announced the heartbreaking news that after six years, they lost the licensing rights to ANR, from Wizards of the Coast.
“Today, Fantasy Flight Games must announce the end of Android: Netrunner The Card Game,” the article read.
This isn’t the first time Netrunner has died, though.
Originally a collectible card game in the ’90s, Richard Garfield designed Netrunner as the complete antithesis of his breakout hit Magic: The Gathering. While Magic was a duel between two wizards (or “planeswalkers”), Netrunner was a game where both players had different game plans – and even the way they won games was different.
However, the game didn’t take off and was promptly axed.
What Is Netrunner?
Netrunner is an asymmetric card game in a dystopian cyberpunk setting where players take on the role of a big bad Corporation or an individual Runner who wants to hack into the corp’s infrastructure to steal their hidden agendas.
With one of the most flavorful themes ever, Corporations are divided into four factions: NBN, the largest media conglomerate in the world – think Big Brother meets Comcast meets Fox News; Haas-Bioroid (HB), the leading company for artificial intelligence, cybernetics, and bioroids (robots meant to do labor); HB’s competitor Jinteki, which specializes in clones, genetics, and even human psionic abilities; and the Weyland Consortium, the go-to guys for anything related to construction – in fact, they own an elevator to outer space!
The Runners are split into three main factions: Anarchs are rebellious by nature and the name of the game is anger – they want to watch the world (or Corporations) burn; Criminals specialize in stealing data and money from Corps and often employ tricks to do so; Shapers are motivated only by their hubris – they simply want to hack into the Corporation’s mainframe to see if they can do it, all while pushing their software and hardware to the absolute limit.
The Rebirth of Netrunner
After ANR went out of print in 2018, a fan-led nonprofit group named Null Signal Games (NSG) took over the helm to design and release new cards compatible with the LCG, essentially keeping the game alive.
Today, NSG continues to produce full card sets compatible with and for Netrunner. In fact, the latest set, named Elevation, is due for release on April 24, 2025. This is meant to be a “foundational set,” which means this will remain as a staple product with many archetype-defining cards.
As of writing, NSG has released System Gateway, the introductory product of the game, plus six expansions (split into two sets per cycle).
The team also continues to support organized play, with tournaments firing off in-person (or as we call it, in “meatspace”), or online through the Jinteki client. Their most recent World Championship, which was held in San Francisco, garnered 250 attendees.
How Do I Get Started in Netrunner?
Under Null Signal Games, Netrunner has become a completely free print-and-play game! The team releases expansions periodically (estimated two per year), which are all dropped as a full set, with no rarities whatsoever. Anyone can access the files and print out all the expansions, at no cost.
This means that as a competitive card game, Netrunner costs almost no money to get started, barring a few sleeves and card backs which you may already have. In fact, many players own several decks – and everyone’s free to switch decks depending on the metagame shifts, or just out of pure preference!
The introductory product System Gateway is a great beginner’s toolbox to get up and running to play the game. After that, players can explore the Startup format, which includes a few more expansions, or Standard, which uses the entire legal card pool.
Another portion of the Netrunner community has branched out to Netrunner Reboot, where they take old FFG cards and rebalance them to provide the LCG FFG Netrunner experience.
Turning a Profit
But how does NSG make money? How is this all sustainable? The team is volunteer-based, with former World Champions and Netrunner die-hards, all contributing to keep the game vibrant and fresh. And let me tell you, the Netrunner community has some of the most dedicated folks I’ve met.
They do, however, offer print runs of their sets, which may be purchased on their website. For those who accessed the print-and-play files, a donation link is likewise available.
There is no pressure to buy “official” product. Even white-and-black printouts on copy paper are completely legal to play at all tournament levels, even in the World Championships.
What Are the Prizes Like?
As a card game with no booster packs, Netrunner‘s prizing takes on the form of alternate art cards, which are full bleed versions of existing Netrunner cards, all with new or extended art! These are distributed in local and international tournaments, with different prizes per tournament series.
Playmats and acrylic tokens are also common tournament prizes, which are great to spice up one’s collection.
A lot of community members also commission artists to create their very own versions of alternate art cards, which may also be distributed as prizes during tournaments. A lot of Netrunner players make it a goal to collect as many alt-arts as possible to fully spruce up their decks; it’s a great way to make friends from all over the world!
The community has even organized an initiative called Run Together, where artists have produced a sizable number of alt arts which can be purchased, with proceeds funding the travel and accommodations of competitors who wish to attend the World Championships. This is a yearly endeavor.
“After we received the bulk of funds from Run Together 2024 Part 1, we took the existing applicants and tried to do our best to balance helping as many people as we could with the amounts people had asked for. We considered other factors like need, such as some folks wrote in their applications that funding was nice-to-have for them, not make-or-break on attending Worlds,” said Slapdash, who heads this year’s Run Together project, in an exclusive interview with Card Gamer.
“With some adjustment, we were able to give everyone who applied at least a little money. I was quite relieved not to have to send any full ‘We don’t have money for you this year’ emails. The process of making the decision of who gets what is pretty fraught with no clear ‘right’ or ‘best’ answers and the other folks who helped in those conversations were invaluable.”
What’s the Netrunner Community Like?
The Netrunner community has a lot of people in technology-related fields, quite understandably, but there are also creatives, community organizers, volunteers, the whole lot.
It’s also one of the most inclusive and welcoming communities in card games, bar none; players from marginalized groups often end up in Netrunner and are met with the warmest welcomes ever. As a player back from 2014 to 2017 and recently just hopping back in, I was soon welcomed into a queer group called Rainbow Level Clearance.
Of course, there’s a spot for anyone and everyone, and this handy page lists down all the communities worldwide.
“Netrunner, both in the game and in the community surrounding it, celebrates marginalized people and the role we play in fighting for a better world. Netrunner and the cyberpunk genre have always criticized oppressive power structures, and this is deeply intertwined with building a diverse and inclusive community around the game. Null Signal Games was also founded on these ideals, and works hard to foster and protect inclusivity and diversity,” disclosed NSG Community Team Lead Izzy in a one-on-one conversation with Card Gamer.
In the Philippines, the community gathers at Whimsy Game Cafe in Mandaluyong City, where folks from all walks of life meet up almost every week to play some Netrunner. Chances are, there’s also a community near or around you – and if not, maybe you’re the one to start it?
Netrunner Community Resources
As I’m writing this article from the perspective of a new or returning player, I would like to pinpoint specific resources that have made my re-introduction to Netrunner easier.
This client carries the introductory decks. You can play against a bot with the recommended learning decks to get more acquainted with the rules. I personally started with this one and played a few games to see if I still remembered the general gist of the game.
We used to publish decks here in the past, and it’s still alive to this day! Top decklists still make it to the front page, and it’s an amazing tool to check out specific cards, look up lists for certain decks, or even use as your own deckbuilder. Decks built here exports to several formats, which brings us to…
Jinteki, or Jnet as the community calls it, is an unofficial but fully-automated Netrunner web-based client where players can play against each other over the web. Decks exported from NetrunnerDB seamlessly import to Jnet. Online tournaments are also held here!
ProxyNexus can parse decks built on NetrunnerDB and provide a ready-to-print PDF. Just plug in a decklist and you’re good to go! Some players even just print out full decks instead of keeping all copies of the cards. It’s all up to preference.
AlwaysBeRunning is a community and events website where players can check any and all events around the world. People can register for and view details of tournaments here. After each tournament, you can even “claim” your attendance, so you can eventually build a profile full of badges from achievements, or just to showcase your activity. This site also integrates with NetrunnerDB, where it links decks you’ve used for a certain tournament with that specific event.
The Green Level Clearance (GLC) Discord is the one-stop shop for all new Netrunner players. You can ask questions here, or just pop in and chat with some folks about Netrunner.
For those on Slack, the Stimhack server is also a wonderful place to talk about the game.
This website aggregates all the links from above and more, if you want to further explore.
Despite not having any professional nor academic tech background, it’s no secret to my friends that Netrunner has always been my favorite card game, bar none. Even when I stopped playing in 2017, I never ceased to talk about it whenever card games would be brought up in conversation. It was complete happenstance that I rediscovered the local group has banded together again to play – and it’s still the same old game I fell in love with, albeit with a fresh coat of paint and, perhaps, a new set of wheels.
Netrunner has always been alive and will continue to do so. Once Elevation releases, all the old FFG-era cards will rotate out, which means only NSG cards (barring around five or so reprints) are on the table. This is a momentous spot for Netrunner to be in, and they’re almost at the cusp of greatness.
Till then, always be running.
Want more LCG content? Take a look at the big shakeups happening in Marvel Champions.
