Netrunner returns (Fantasy Flight Games)

It might be but I think the copyright issues here make it more than a goodwill licensing like in the Dune or A Handful of Stars cases. In Netrunner, cards are the same as the original in many ways (costs and effects, even if the art or flavor text is different), and that’s definitely covered under copyright.

The cards could have certainly been reworded if that was a problem, though. The exact effect/cost etc. can’t be copyrighted.

It can, or at least it could be defended as such.

You can, for example, clone a game mechanically, but if how the mechanics are arranged is the same (cards effects and distribution, maps and enemy placement…), it can be argued that infringes copyright. It is a specific manifestation of the idea the game mechanics convey.

You will notice most clones (even in highly clone heavy environments) shy away from using the same levels as the original they are based from.

It’s unclear, but it’s definitely grey area stuff.

So does this mean wotc is getting back into Netrunner? Didn’t FFG just come out with a new version that retired some older cards?

Not necessarily, and yes.

Yeah, the revised core set. At least we are getting one last big box set for ANR, Reign and Reverie.

One interesting theory I’ve heard floating around: the news came right near the E3 announcement of Cyberpunk 2077, based on the same license Netrunner was based on as a WoTC property. CD Projekt Red’s last big project, the Witcher 3, was well-known in card gamer circles for Gwent, the card game that exists inside the Witcher 3, with Gwent eventually spinning off into its own digital and physical implementations.

Is the lack of renewal of Netrunner reflective of WotC holding on to the license for some implementation of Netrunner in or related to Cyberpunk 2077? Is V going to have his trusty Jinteki/Criminal decks in his cyber-wallet, propositoning any willing NPCs for a quick game? Probably not, but it’s fun to read the stories people spin up around this stuff…

I think it would be very difficult to code an AI to play Netrunner. It would have to be a very different game!

Taught Netrunner to my 10 year old last week and well I feel like a board game drug dealer. He wants more now. Netrunner may be my favorite game but the constant need to buy new packs and the fact that my friends either didn’t like it or would rather play online kind of ended my interest in the game.
With the game ending I’ve been trying to find what I can why I still can and don’t have to pay out the serial port for it.

Picked up
Kitra cycle,
R&R
Order and Chaos which I finally found at normal price and not inflated sky is falling costs.

Oh and unless someone can tell a good reason to have 3 identies for anyone I’m up for trading for ones I don’t have. Here’s what I have

Terminal Directive
All the deluxe boxes (R&R hasn’t arrived)
Kitra cycle
Genesis cycle
Spin cycle
Breaker Bay
Blood Money
Blood and Water
Crimson Dust
Daedalus
Martial law

Looking for identities that come from everything else.

So îf I want to get myself a “playable” copy of this game, what do I do? Just go out and buy one of everything? Or is there some optimal configuration?

https://www.jinteki.net/

Thanks, that’s great to know about. Since I’m very biased towards playing games in person, though, I’d still like to own the physical set so I can play against friends and acquaintances.

Get the revised core set if you want to be tournament legal. The old core, spin and genesisi cycle are rotated.

If not, get the core set + whatever interests you. Unfortunately, cards for a given deck archetype can frequently be spread across many different packs, so if youre after a particular strategy not supported by the core set then youll have to do some digging to find what packs you need

I bought an original core, a revised core and a couple of packs.

Though it’s not clear how much this matters any more.

By the way, the new cards from the final expansion look extremely balanced and well designed, with little ‘dead weight’. Real shame it’s ending; it looks a stellar expansion.

Two things:

  1. Every moment you wait to buy cards, prices are rising. The sort-of exception to this is the final boxed set, Reign and Reverie, which they are doing a one shot final print run for.

  2. I don’t really have a “best game I’ve ever played”. Life’s complicated, and my feelings change as I change, sometimes pretty significantly. Ulysses’s ship and all that.

That said, Netrunner is the best game I’ve ever played.

Definitely not Jinteki…FFG only licensed the Netrunner name and game system from WotC, then placed it in their Android universe, which FFG owns.

Note, wtoc don’t own the rights the the original Netrunner universe either - they licensed the Cyberpunk 2020 setting (which is way cooler than android anyway)

Well netrunner focuses entirely around runners and corporations and I think they developed the idea behind the factions in Android: Netrunner well over the course of the games life-cycle. Take the corporations for instance. They have “good” aspects but also extremely shady sides to all them. For example…

Jinteki is about healthcare, medical research, but also unethical cloning. Weyland: Finance and real estate but also dystopian level paramilitary security. NBN is news and entertainment, but also invasive surveillance. Haas-Bioroid…the quintessential android, cybernetic enhancement, etc corp, but essentially espouses expendable slave labor.

At least that is what I’ve gleaned by read nothing about the game’s universe apart from simply playing Netrunner.

Side note, wouldn’t it be interesting if Netrunner made an appearance in Cyberpunk 2077 like Gwent did in The Witcher 3?

Netrunner is orders of magnitude more complex than gwent, and IMO, requires a human face element to be optimal, which is why I have a really hard time playing on OCTOGOGO or Jinteki.