Getting Started

It is recommended that for the first few games, each player use unmodified decks straight from the box; however, as you gain experience with Netrunner, you will want to optimize your deck by adding certain cards to it and removing others. The player who plays the Corporation and the player who plays the Runner will each need about forty beads or other small tokens to represent bits and various counters, and perhaps a six-sided die for use with certain special cards.

The Combined Rules section of this book presents both the Runner and Corporation sides together in a kind of dialogue. Throughout the rules, the Corporation rules address the Corporate player as "we," and the Runner rules address the Runner player as "you." The Combined Rules section elaborates upon interdependent functions of the Corporation and the Runner, and you will want to read the rules pertaining to both roles here. The main section of the rules is followed by rules specific to the Corporation and then rules specific to the Runner.

Important!: The rules rely on some familiarity with the terminology and tone of the cyberpunk genre, so you should spend a few minutes understanding the feel of this game by reading the definitions below. While reading the rules, if you want to refer to a card diagram, see the diagrams in the Runner or Corp rules section.

Quick Definitions: Netrunner uses a lot of special terminology. Here are some essential terms you should understand before you proceed to learn the rules. Selecting hyperlinked keywords will bring up the term's entry in our comprehensive glossary.

	1 bit (a number in a star like this indicates that many bits)
	An action is required.
	Trashing this card is required to generate the effect that follows this icon, or if the icon contains a number, that number is the cost for the Runner to trash this card.
	Subroutine marker
	1 difficulty (a number in an arrow like this indicates that much difficulty)
	1 agenda point (a number in a circle like this indicates that many agenda points)
	Rez cost of (a number on a tab like this indicates that rez cost)
	Installation cost or cost to play of (a number in a star on a tab like this indicates that play cost or installation cost)