Overview of Netrunner

COMBINED RULES

Here is an operating manual for Corporation players (addressing the Corporation as "we"), in standard type, heavily hacked by a runner (addressing the Runner as "you"), whose notes are in a green terminal font. Because of the interdependence of the roles of Runner and Corporation, you will need to read the entire document to effectively play either side.

"After the ice has hit your cortex, you lose the tread on those lobes and they no longer corner like they used to."--Anonymous

Liberated Guide with Annos Compliments of Filched Radar Rig, a Runner Consortium

Corporation Protocol:
Anti-intrusion Systems

Playing the Cards

INSTALLING CORPORATION CARDS: To install an agenda card, a node card, an ice card, or an upgrade card, we take an action to place the card face down on the playing area. Our face-down cards are inactive until they are rezzed (see Rezzing Corporation Cards).

Our cards are installed inside or on data forts, the netspace locations where all the processes of our Corporation take place. Each data fort belongs to one of two categories: central data forts and subsidiary data forts. R&D, HQ, and Archives (forts containing our deck, hand, and discard piles, respectively) are our central data forts; they all exist at the outset of the game--even the Archives, though it will be empty until a card is actually discarded or trashed. The central data forts are where planning and administration occur. Uninstalled cards in a central data fort--that is, cards in our hand in HQ, cards in our deck in R&D, and cards in the discard piles of our Archives--are said to be stored in their data forts. Subsidiary data forts are data forts we establish to contain agendas and nodes.

To protect our data forts, we install ice on them. We install ice horizontally in front of the data fort we want protected, although we are allowed to install ice on empty data forts. Ice cards that are protecting HQ are placed in front of our bit pool. Each piece of ice is placed farther from the data fort than the previous piece of ice on that data fort. The farthest ice from the fort is the outermost piece of ice; the closest to the fort is the innermost piece of ice. To install a piece of ice, we must pay

for each piece of ice already on that data fort; if we want to reduce the cost, we may first trash existing ice without taking any actions.

While there is always minimal security in netspace, that doesn't cause any problems for top-notch runners like you. It's only after the Corp installs some ice on a data fort that you'll have any problem getting inside it during a run.

We install agendas, nodes, and upgrades inside data forts. These cards are installed vertically. Agenda cards and node cards can only be installed in subsidiary data forts. To create a subsidiary data fort, we install an agenda, node, upgrade, or ice card independent of existing data forts. There can be only one agenda card or one node card in each data fort at a time, though we can overwrite an existing agenda or node card by taking an action to install a new agenda or node in its place, which trashes the existing one. If an agenda or node card is trashed, scored, or stolen by the Runner, we can later install an agendaor node card inside the now-empty data fort as an action.

We can install upgrades inside any data fort, even data forts that already have an agenda, node, or upgrade inside them. Data forts can contain multiple upgrades.

Because all Corp cards are installed face down, you can't tell what the card will do immediately. In fact, at first you can only tell whether the card is ice or not. If the Corp installs a card inside a data fort, you won't know immediately whether it is an agenda, node, or upgrade, which is quite a disadvantage, since some nodes and all upgrades will either make the data fort harder to penetrate or do nasty things to you when you access them.

REZZING CORPORATION CARDS: With the exception of agendas, our installed cards must be rezzed, or made active, before they can be used. When we rez a card, we turn the card face up. We can only rez ice cards when they are approached by the Runner during a run (see Runs and Countermeasures). We can only rez other cards at the following times:

at the start of either player's turn;
after each action;
during a run while the Runner approaches a piece of ice and while the Runner passes a piece of ice;
just before the Runner accesses a fort's contents, whether or not the Runner encountered ice during the run.

We rez a card by paying enough bits from our bit pool to the bit bank to satisfy the rez cost, which is in the upper right corner of the card. (Some cards have a rez cost of

.) We never partially rez a card: at any given time, we either pay the entire rez cost and rez the card, or we do not rez the card. Once rezzed, a card is turned face up and stays active until it leaves play. Note that rezzing a card does not require an action.

Finding out what a card does by watching the Corp rez it usually amounts to finding out the hard way, but fortunately that's not the only way to discover what the Corp has in store for you. Some cards will expose the Corp's face-down cards. If a face-down card is exposed, turn it face up, but mark it somehow, to show that it has not yet been rezzed. If the Corp later rezzes the card, remove the marker. Rezzed cards that are derezzed remain face up, but you mark them in the same way.INSTALLING RUNNER CARDS: To get a program, resource, or hardware card into play, you install it. To do so, you put down the card face up and immediately pay its installation cost, which is in the upper right corner of the card; the card is then available for use. (Note that some cards have an installation cost of .) The combined MU cost of your installed programs cannot exceed your total MU, which starts the game at 4. If you install a program that causes you to exceed your total MU, you have to trash enough installed programs to make room. Generally, you should install cards as follows: program cards in a first row, followed by a row of hardware cards and then a row of resource cards.

OPERATION CARDS: In addition to cards that we install, we have operation cards, which have some immediate effect when we play them. We play an operation card by taking an action, and the operation card is then trashed.

PREP CARDS: You have cards similar to operation cards, called prep cards. You play them by taking an action, they have some immediate effect, and they are then trashed.

The following links will take you to examples of how the table might look in the middle of a game of Netrunner. We have created two subsidiary data forts, and the Runner has installed two programs, one hardware, and three resources.
[Corporation Example]
[Runner Example]

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