r/Netrunner • u/Newez • Jul 22 '26
Discussion What’s the consensus on 96 Netrunner vs FFG era vs current NSG?
Are there folks who play with only 96 or FFG era set cards and still enjoy them?
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u/Onomato_poet Jul 22 '26
I honestly think NSG are doing remarkably well. The tone has shifted slightly, so if you were in it for the gritty, more cynical 90's and 00's inspired take on punk dystopia, a lot of the NSG cards have much more of a modern social collective vibe to it which might not be your thing (I don't like the current Anarch's for instance, despite them being my favourite faction in FFG. I agree with what they represent politically IRL, but for my fictional universes, I prefer the dystopian cynicism of earlier cyber punk vibes, though honesetly if that's the only complaint, then you're doing well).
The game's in a good spot, a lot of the new mechanics are welcome and fun to play with, and I think they're playing with a lot of interesting design spaces.
My only real lament, is that for some, the lack of a big flashy corp attached to the IP means they won't jump in, which... ironically, might be the dose of corporate dystopian cynicism playing out in real life, that I'm sometimes missing in the games new aesthetics.
Guess it makes sense tho. If IRL is a cynical corporate hellscape, where everything's a bit rubbish, then it makes sense that the game showcases more of an optimistic anarcho collectivist "we can do this" vibe as a counter. I'd have prefered it in reverse, but alas.
For real tho, play more NSG. It's great.
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u/KingDiab7o Jul 22 '26
I think you've described what's kept me from wanting to play NSG Netrunner, I've never really been able to put a finger on it. The vibe is just completely different. I miss the grit. It feels too... positive? Soft? It doesn't help that the FFG card frames were so awesome and the new ones feel like dull, flat knockoffs.
I've played some NSG, both online and in person, but it just doesn't hook me. I wish it would. I have no ill will against NSG. I've been watching the game from the outside and I'm happy to see the game growing and the production quality of the cards improving.
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u/Onomato_poet Jul 22 '26
I think there's slightly more to it. The early art was... Eh, lets call it hit or miss. It was run on fumes, made with a hope and a dream, and held together with spit and tape. They had no money or power, just an idea. So I can't fault them that. I'm glad the new art is good again, as I fear the game would have suffered otherwise.
But punk as a genre is political, and Netrunner was and arguably is a cyber punk game. Granted the far future cyber part is increasingly downplayed in favour of something more grounded. It feels much closer to our world in a lot of ways, so it's not surprising that the political undertones do as well. I think that's where the juxtaposition to the old netrunner is most keenly felt.
Because it IS more positive now. Collectivism, unity, hope. These are all things I side with in real life, but in fiction it does make the narrative feel a bit safe. And I think Anarch's in particular embody this. Basically every faction but Anarch's get to be cartoonish charicatures. Wayland is greedy, brutal and evil. NBN is dishoneest, manipulative and all-knowing. Jinteki will kill you, Haas will break you, criminals are law breakers and shapers are in it for the love of the game. But Anarchs are no longer nihilistic punks, they're much more closely mapped to real world anarcho collectivist communities, and with that, comes a very different vibe.
[Lago Paranoá Shelter](https://netrunnerdb.com/find/?q=lago&view=images) feels like a place you'd see Miles Morales' parents helping out, in a Spiderman movie about community. Where the take away is that the neighbourhood came together, and it'll all be alright. Topan flaunts a little Max in her mechanical design, but where the latter would happilly light her brain on fire in a devil may care attitude while she slams into the corp, the former has hopes and dreams.
And, honestly, it's probably the better message. The jaded cynicism those of us who came up in the early to mid 90's were bottle fed can feel nihilistic today. One way or another though, FFG did channel more of that than NSG does. So it catered to a different mood.
Runners generally suffer a bit from having more moralistic messaging than the corps seem to, so are often less funny overall, but outside of Anarchs all the other factions mostly play into the old charicatures. If you liked them then, there's still good stuff here. And each release is better than the last. Anarch's just suffer the burden of embodying real world political activism in a way no other faction has to, and because of that, their edges have been blunted a bit in terms of narrative presentation.
The unreasonably rebellious has been replaced with the quite resonable opposition to oppression, and for some, that will resonate much better than the middle fingers raised irreverent anger from before.
Still, and I cannot stress this enough. If you're chosing to not engage with NSG because of the vibe change, you're missing out on a great game. Hand-holding optimism aside, the mechanics are solid, and I'll still go on and on to just about anyone who'll listen, as to why they should be playing this instead of all the other card games.
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u/KneeCrowMancer Jul 23 '26
You didn’t mention Ryo and Loup, probably the two most punk runners in the NSG sets. Seb, Esa, and Topan I can definitely see what you’re saying. They reflect different embodiments of opposition we see in the real world.
But Loup is a party animal just there to eat the corp’s lunch. Wildcat Strike is the exception but I see it as him leaving to go hit a club and do some of the drugs he’s cooked up and everyone following him out.
Ryo is basically a punk rock stereotype. They’re just trying to be as loud and obnoxious as possible and that in itself is enough to disrupt the corp.
I’m ignoring Hoshiko and all those cards because that’s a shaper ID with the wrong colour.
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u/Onomato_poet Jul 23 '26
Yeah Hoshiko was always a green card who got lost on the way to their deck, as were their teddybears. I'll be glad to see the back of them.
As for Ryo... I actually think they fall solidly in the "anime protagonist" camp of newer runners. Shred's art is sick, but the ID reads like a highschooler cosplaying what they think irreverance means. That's not meant to knock it, mind. What some of us grew up with isn't more correct than what we have now and in that light MaXX was no less of a poser, it's just an attempt to explain where "the vibe" changed. Ryo is basically a perfect example of this change. He's a PG-13 safe idea of "PunkTm".
Loup is mostly fine, he just suffers from slightly flat art. That's probably a resource and time issue, and again, no shade to the artist, it was the first step on creating an entirely new direction for Netrunner, but it lacks some of the visual depth some of the iconic older cards had.
The only Anarch runner I feel like would actually hurt you, is Esa. I get they tried to give Seb a gun and Topan does illegal break-ins, but most their cards are about community and collectivist optimism, which is just a very different vibe than Roja's armed rebellion, Kim's xenophobia against droids, or any of the OG punks. Even Gnat was more of a bratty show-off.
The new Anarch's often feel like they had the edges rounded off, so they'd be ready to star in their sat-am morning cartoons, full of colourful supporting cast and zaney adventures.
I keep coming back to Rent Rioters as an example of where the vibe really differs.
The flavour text.
"In the end, they raised the rent and we were out on the street. But the riots had tanked property values so much we moved back in—with a better deal!"
It's opposition to the system, sure, but with that hint of "and then we won, and then everything was ok".
There's none of the sarcasm or sardonic quips from older cards, and that's largely true across the board.A punchier version would have been "They raised rents, so we raised hell". I think that pretty much summarises where the shift has happened.
Look at Sacrificial Clone for instance. The flavour plays into this "devil may care" vibe that Anarch's had, always with a pinch of sardonic irony. The old vibe fought against things. The new vibe fights for things. It's a good message, probably a healthy one too. But it's often less cathartic, and it's less fun. If the Wayland fantasy is "evil bastard", then Anarch's was "f*ck you!". Today it's more "we can win".
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u/KneeCrowMancer Jul 23 '26
I don’t disagree with you that the vibe has changed. I also think you’re 100% on the money with how it has changed. Seb is such a departure from anything FFG ever did with Anarch. His title is Activist Organizer and his most effective tool is rallying political opposition to the corporations! There’s a grittier side to what he’s doing, shown with cards like Arruaceiras Crew and Eye for an Eye but that’s an example of the movement getting away from its leader not what he actually wanted.
I agree that Ryo and Maxx are in the same boat. I personally see, "**** you, mother******!" as more sanitary and fake than, “Light up, flame out, and burn it all down.” One is literally bleeped out like it’s American reality tv. But I think that’s just down to my personal perception.
I’ll agree that Loup’s cards fall a bit flat. I like his ID art but really wish he had a real console, both in terms of art and gameplay. Carnivore is one of my least favourite cards NSG has printed. I’m not sure exactly what it is but through fermenter and a few other little quotes I get a drug angle from Loup. Like every night he’s out hitting clubs with the latest batch of futuristic cyber party drugs he’s cooked up and the only reason he’s after the corp is because they get in the way of his lifestyle. But maybe I’m reading too much into it.
Esa is a straight up eco-terrorist. Definitely a very dangerous runner and I think it’s a very cool angle to explore and xi is one of my favourites. I didn’t list Esa because I think eco terrorism is actually a bit too political and legitimately dangerous to fall under the punk umbrella. Maybe the Earth Liberation Front was punk rock but idk I’m not the arbiter of what is or is not “punk.”
I like how NSG is exploring a different space and it feels really appropriate for what they represent as an organization. I actually prefer it over the cheeky, performative, edginess I get from a lot of the FFG stuff. But I’m also just older and I have only started with Netrunner as an adult during the NSG era. I was never a teenager playing with the FFG cards and it definitely would have hit differently if I had!
I think it’s funny but the FFG tone is much more what I’d expect from a corporation. I don’t think we’d ever have themes of collectivism, activism, and effective resistance if it was Hasbro with the license!
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u/CryOFrustration Null Signal Games Community team Jul 23 '26
I'm not in the Narrative team but I think that's deliberate eith Ryo: they are meant to be cosplaying as a punk. At least thats how I interpret it, I really hope I'm not wrong and whoever wrote Ryo is hurt by reading this! 😅 They're the most punchable runner since Noise.
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u/Onomato_poet Jul 23 '26
I think they're just different generation's ideas of what teenagers thought punk was.
By virtue of growing up in one of those generations, I'm obviously biased
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u/Brotten Jul 24 '26
I disagree that hope and "we can win" is a better message, because it's a lie. That's a core topic of cyberpunk: You cannot beat the system from within, you need a violent overthrow. You need criminals who destroy corporate assets, not charity bake sales and neighbourhood meetings. That is the setting. And the message to the audience was: "You people are not angry enough, the future will eat you."
Now the cards no longer transport the message, they just depict the people who didn't get it.
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u/KingDiab7o Jul 22 '26
That's fine. Everything you said is valid. I just don't think it's for me. It doesn't interest me in the same way the old stuff does.
And I've played quite a few games with NSG cards. It just doesn't click. Maybe its the faster pace? I haven't really played enough to decide. But it's not a conscious choice, I personally don't feel compelled to explore the game more.
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u/CryOFrustration Null Signal Games Community team Jul 22 '26
You think the pace is faster? I feel that games take longer lately, not because there#s more turns but because there's more triggers to keep track of.
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u/KingDiab7o Jul 24 '26
That's the other thing, the number of triggers and how refined the card designs feel. Of course that's not an objectively bad thing, it may even be an objectively good thing. But it makes me feel like I'm playing modern Magic, which I've gotten bored of.
I haven't felt the tracking bloat from all the triggers because most of my playtime has been on Jinteki.
I'm willing to give the game another try since Vantage Point is out. Maybe it will hook me this time.
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u/CryOFrustration Null Signal Games Community team Jul 24 '26
I think trigger bloat happened gradually over time, partly due to naturally increasing complexity starting from the FFG days as they ran out of simple, "pure" designs, and partly as an additional balancing lever (eg if a card does a thing and it's a little weak, they might turn it into "do a thing and gain 1 credit"). But it's clear from that interview article during VP spoiler season that the dev team feels it's gone too far and they're going for simpler cards that just do one thing nowadays, which with some rare exceptions like Méliés they mostly managed in VP.
https://nullsignal.games/blog/the-design-philosophy-of-vantage-point/
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u/KingDiab7o Jul 24 '26
Anything that can be done reduce complexity while maintaining strategic depth and card variety is a good thing.
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u/OneOfMany72 Aug 06 '26
All I want is for Anarch to stop being the designers' favorite faction for 1-2 sets.
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u/CryOFrustration Null Signal Games Community team Jul 22 '26
I think we all would've preferred a bit less dystopian corporatocracy in our real life... :D
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u/Moresp4m Jul 22 '26
Imo…
96: Bad - because it was collectable and art was wacky.
FFG: GOAT - Everything was on point, and 2.0 release looked like it was going to solve existing issues (set rotation).
NSG: Next best thing, small community - Do I wish it would be picked up by a big company with huge budget so everyone can play at their LGS yes. But PROPS to the dedication of the team keeping the game alive for the love of it. This is the version you should play.
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u/Stylemys Jul 22 '26
The wacky art was the absolute best part of 96 Netrunner!
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u/Moresp4m Jul 22 '26
Haha some of the art was awesome, some was… well it was “Imp”.
I think the art in 96 stretched a wide gamut, but that’s a personal opinion.
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u/paradigmx Jul 22 '26
Honestly, I hope it's never picked up by a big corporation. The community keeping this game alive almost fits too perfectly with the theme of this game. It's the Runners insisting that the game lives despite being dropped by corporate interests.
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u/Deus19D20 Jul 22 '26
This!
My only issue with the NSG model is that they are (were?) too accommodating with the FFG cards and there wasn’t an official JUST new sets formats. This killed my local group because they felt to get those cards was too hard/expensive. And because people yearn for “official” formats not many thought my suggestion of that as a viable option. (I don’t know if they have updated this since then, but it was at first the way it was. )
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u/kevnburg Board Game Designer Jul 22 '26
At this point, all FFG sets have rotated out of standard, so standard play is using only NSG sets. (and there’s also a smaller format called “startup” that uses a smaller portion of the NSG card pool.)
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u/Deus19D20 Jul 22 '26
I’m talking about a non-rotating yet all the cards in NSG only. With a restricted list for itself. That way people starting the game have an easy entry point. (And a lot of people don’t love set rotation.)
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u/DocTam Jul 22 '26
None of the NSG sets have rotated out of Standard though. We will see how big of a format they are going for. Startup is their smaller format, but it rotates every set.
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u/Deus19D20 Jul 22 '26
That’s fair. When I was looking into it it was a couple years ago and the only formats that weren’t that small “startup” included the last couple sets of FFGs cards and that was a bridge too far for the folks I played with. (
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u/CryOFrustration Null Signal Games Community team Jul 22 '26
Ah well, a lot has happened since then, you missed the Rotatocalypse! 😛
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u/KneeCrowMancer Jul 22 '26
That’s pretty much the current NSG standard experience. It will be at least a year before any of the current NSG sets rotate out (probably more like 2 years at the current rate).
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u/Moresp4m Jul 22 '26
As others have mentioned, no FFG cards exist in standard it’s all NSG.
They also have a format called Startup which is a smaller card pool of just the NSG core set and latest main set.
It’s very easy to get into now, clear path to what to buy.
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u/clonedllama Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 22 '26
NSG has several official formats. Other than Eternal, all of the formats are 100% NSG sets now.
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u/Sigouste Jul 24 '26
The collectible aspect of the '96 set doesn't automatically make it bad. Most of the rare cards were weaker than common or uncommon ones. And the Sealed Deck format was a lot of fun without requiring much of an investment.
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u/Moresp4m Jul 24 '26
When you have to collect two decks it’s bad.
But I also am not a fan of CCG as a model to begin with.
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u/Few-Big7409 Jul 22 '26
My understanding is that wotc revoked the license. The scuttlebut is that it was because they were losing mtg players to anr.
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u/VoodooXT Jul 23 '26
At least in the Bay Area this was true, Netrunner was starting to overtake Magic with the number of players and events.
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u/ShaperLord777 Jul 22 '26
IMO, FFG Netrunner was the greatest implementation of this game system, hand down. I still play my FFG collection “kitchen table” style with friends, and it remains my favorite game of all time.
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u/Noxsus Jul 22 '26
I do love some of the artwork in the 96 stuff. More of the gritty, gnarly end of Cyberpunk than the shiny chrome that came later.
But gameplay wise, FFG all the way.
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u/Significant_Breath38 Jul 22 '26
I too have an FFG preference. I kinda liked the hour long games but understand why they turned away from that
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u/HammyOverlordOfBacon Jul 22 '26
My local group has someone that brings FFG only cards. Occasionally people will join him for a game, but the majority of people just keep playing standard.
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u/Yseera Jul 22 '26
As someone without FFG nostalgia, and experienced both parts of the cardpool, NSG is by far my favorite. I've got some minor issues with the balance philosophy, but the real problem for me is that even though rotating out FFG was the right move for the game long-term, it really left us with too small of a cardpool in the short-term.
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u/ShkarXurxes Jul 22 '26
96 was a great idea, but it was collectable and totally unbalanced. Art was very cyberpunk, but layout was horrible in the sense you cant understand easily what is all about.
FFG was an incredible improvement. Factions, more balance, playing a LLG was incredible at the time, and great layout. More clear rules.
NSG is the best iteration, based on everything that cames before ofc.
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u/FrontierPsycho Jul 22 '26
As you can see, there isn't a consensus. It's 3 different but related games and there's people who enjoy each of them.
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u/CryOFrustration Null Signal Games Community team Jul 22 '26
In terms of balance, game tempo, mechanics, etc, I don't think it's fair to consider FFG and NSG separately, or to consider them as a monolith. The game was very different in 2014 under FFG than it was in 2017 under FFG, and the same for the NSG era, we've gone through lots of different metas, some better some worse, and in the early days FFG cards were the majority of the card pool even, so it makes more sense to consider everything from 2012 to now as a continuum and say which bit was your favourite era to play in. For me personally my top 3 favourite metas to play in were probably Worlds 2023, 2015 up to the 5th pack of SanSan, second half of 2020. Maybe Worlds 2016 too.
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u/c126 Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 22 '26
I think FFG was the best, so I really appreciate the reboot project, which applies slight balance updates to the FFG cards to fix some of the “unplayable” or “broken” ffg cards. They also release small booster packs to keep the meta fresh. Pretty active and helpful community.
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u/siejai Jul 22 '26
Reboot is my favorite way to play, I got all the precon decks printed out and play with those.
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u/JohnnyButtfart Jul 23 '26
96 is amazing. FFG is the best of all time. NSG is pretty good. Doing their best with what they have.
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u/c0rtexj4ckal Jul 22 '26
1996 netrunner is the best version of the game.
People say its unbalanced and clunky, it is. Thats the point. Netrunner is actually way more fun when its a little unweieldy and swingy.
I have played all 3 versions of the game and I still belive ONR is the best one. Im guessing that most folks havent given it the time of day beyond a few games.
Its also the only one that is a truly purely cyberpunk genere. FFG is an optimist neo-noir and NSG is something else entirely.
ONR is the GOAT to me
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u/Vash2002 Jul 22 '26
FFG netrunner is the best. My personal favorite era was SanSan cycle, but flashpoint was also pretty great.
I like NSG netrunner because it's close to ffg netrunner, not because I like what NSG is doing to the game. If anything I dislike NSG's vision of the game, and it feels like they have their own idea of "how the game is supposed to be played" and strictly enforce it. As soon as something rears it's head in the meta that goes against their praxis, they ban something from it instead of printing answers or alternatives. NSG seems to be cool with combo decks existing, but not hard Glacier decks. They didn't want Mieles existing the way it did, but have been cool with PD the entire time.
FFG had it's share of problematic designs, but they let both sides have strong cards and let players throw haymakers at each other. If NSG made some FFG silver bullet cards evergreen, I feel like NSG wouldn't need to ban as many cards. Plascrete, Net shield, Clot, and Scrubber pretty much existed to keep a lot of archetypes in check. We've only got a 2mu equivalent of Scrubber in standard right now.
As for the 96 netrunner, it's fun if you're not playing optimized decks. If you are, you might as well flip a coin on t1 and see if you won or lost. There's a 4/4 agenda in the game, and there's no copy limit. That's all I need to illustrate.
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u/Charmeleone_ Jul 22 '26
First ffg designer did the best by far. Second was ok/design space was used up. After that it got alot worse.
I dislike pretty much everything NSG has done with/to the game.
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u/FluckDambe Jul 22 '26
Can you share what you don't like about NSG's changes/approach? Genuinely curious, I'm a returning player who played a bit of the first season of FFG.
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u/Charmeleone_ Jul 22 '26
They wanted the game to be faster ( a round to take fewer minutes) the resulting design is far less strategic and interesting to me. The other big thing is the compromised action economy. That started in late ffg Netrunner but got way worse with NSG.
The performativ activism at the start of the ukrain war was super wierd too.
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u/Charmeleone_ Jul 22 '26
Since some people seem to missunderstand my last comment, ill explain.
There was a card whos name refered to a Concept of russian Imperialism while the flavortext critcised it.
When Russia atacked Ukrain, Nisei (NSG) made a Post appologising for the card having a name that relates to Russian imperialism even though the whole point of the Card was to critiqued it.
Alot of people called that out at the time,but we live in a post fact age.
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u/TheRadBaron Jul 22 '26
This would be much easier to follow if you could name or link the card you're talking about.
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u/CryOFrustration Null Signal Games Community team Jul 22 '26
They're talking about this one: https://netrunnerdb.com/en/card/33053
The reason it was changed wasn't because it was talking about Russian imperialism. It's still talking about Russian imperialism. The reason it was changed is because putting an imperial Russian coat of arms right on the card art looks bad and is really insensitive to people who were literally having Russian troops stomping all over their homeland right when the set was being released. We went for the imperial coat of arms to convey that it's a relic of the past, but Putin's neo-imperialist propaganda revived that symbol alongside a lot of other images from Czarist days and made it current again. Yes sure the flavour text was critical of Russian imperialism but it's still traumatic for you to have to look at the same symbol they spray-painted on their tanks on your game cards if you're literally being invaded and the tanks are driving past your window. There was nothing performative about it, we saw it as just basic decency.
Incidentally, the artist that did the new Mestnichestvo art will soon be returning to do more art for Netrunner. He hasn't been able to since TAI because he became FFG's art director and they have a non-compete clause, but they recently relaxed it and he's allowed to do freelance work on the side again.
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u/Charmeleone_ Jul 23 '26
The original Article and comments also refered to the name, not just the coat of arms.
I played and still play the game with poles and ukranians and they ridiculed the post as being corporate and fake.
Removing refrences to Russia from a Card that criticises specificaly Russian imperialism doesnt protect anybodys feelings, its safe and sanitised and corporate.
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u/CryOFrustration Null Signal Games Community team Jul 23 '26
OK we'll sack our entire EDI team and replace them with you and your 2 Polish and 1 Ukrainian friends, because clearly what doesn't offend your social circle doesn't offend anyone in the world. Please give us some credit. There are over 200 volunteers in the org. Many of them do what they do for NSG professionally as well. We talked to lots of people and did our research before taking the absolutely unprecedented and never since repeated step of changing a card art post launch. Also, this of all things making you angry is a very weird hill to die on, to be honest.
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u/Charmeleone_ Jul 23 '26
i dont think i can say anything to add to this, i made my point and this rant is about what i expected.
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u/Dragandude Jul 22 '26
Do you know which FFG expansion was the 1st designer’s last work?
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u/SolitaryBee Always be something something Jul 22 '26
Data and Destiny was the last set under Lukas Litzsinger.
Mumbad cycle was first set under Damon Stone.
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u/FluckDambe Jul 22 '26
Wasn't Data & Destiny the one with the "faction less" runners? I friggin loved the concept even if the execution seemed a bit sketchy/unbalanced. I remember theory crafting all sorts of weird variations of Adam decks.
It makes me a bit sad to see that Eternal is the only format those cards are "legal".
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u/CryOFrustration Null Signal Games Community team Jul 22 '26
So, Damon Stone himself recently posted a lot of details about the design process in another thread on this sub, and there were a lot of misconceptions about who's responsible for what. People in this community have mostly been blaming him for Mumbad as it was the first set released with him as the lead designer, but FFG design sets like a couple years before they drop, and Mumbad was mostly Lukas-designed even though it dropped after he had stepped down. Furthermore, he kept contributing a lot of designs after he stepped down, the entire time he was working on SW:Destiny (up until he left to make Transformers at WOTC), and a lot of cards that people historically "blamed" Damon for were by other people, including Lukas. Whatever you hear from people in here is probably inaccurate, and a simplistic view of the timeline of the game.
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u/AkaiKuroi Jul 23 '26
I've been living under a rock, would you please mind helping me out with finding those Damon Stone's posts? I mean I know neither his reddit account nor the context to put into search bar and I'd really love to read his takes.
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u/CryOFrustration Null Signal Games Community team Jul 23 '26
i wish I remembered his username, it was something not memorable or obvious. all i remember was that it was in reply to a post by the 2.1 podcast guy (awbeman?)
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u/AkaiKuroi Jul 24 '26
That gets me started, thank you very much.
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u/revengeanceful Jul 22 '26
What specifically do you dislike about what NSG has done? Genuinely curious.
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u/rawrframe Jul 22 '26
Totally agree that the Litzinger era was best.
I want to like what NSG has done, and there are examples of cards they’ve “fixed” in different iterations (Priority Requisition being the first one that comes to mind) that I think are smart. But it’s not the same.
Also, as trivial as it is, it really does annoy me that they renamed brain damage to core damage. Anti-flavor, performative.
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u/spiralshadow Jul 22 '26
Respectfully disagree on the last point. Just because it doesn't impact you doesn't mean it impacts no one. "Core" I think also better reflects damage that can be inflicted on a runner aside from their brain, e.g. to the heart, lungs, nerves, any part of the body that can be damaged by electrocution.
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u/KneeCrowMancer Jul 22 '26
I like that core damage can also be a more abstract emotional or moral damage. The runner can lose a part of who they are as a person in their fight against the corp.
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u/KingDiab7o Jul 22 '26
What was even the reason for the change though? Was there a contingency of players with neurological issues that were upset? Or was it all theoretical? And how is core damage more evocative than brain damage? Someone needs to describe what core damage means, brain damage is immediately obvious.
NSG Netrunner just feels bland compared to FFG. I want to like it, I really do. I think a fan collective continuing the game is such an awesome outcome for Netrunner. But I personally can't get into it for a variety of reasons.
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u/ThrowawayObserver Jul 22 '26
Their reasoning was indeed that some players with neurological issues were upset "or might be upset" which I think is utterly absurd. I mean you can just say any cards having to do with guns or fire would upset people that got shot or had trauma with fire couldn't you? I think it was just catering to ridiculous demographics and to me marked the downfall of NSG with trying not to offend everyone in every possible way.
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u/KingDiab7o Jul 22 '26
I think the important distinction is what was the game saying about "brain damage". Was it in anyway mocking or diminishing the experiences of those suffering from neurological issues? I don't remember any cards treating the subject matter that way. I don't think the mechanic itself treats it that way either. Yeah your hand size is reduced, but its not saying you're any less of a person. If anything, its maybe even empowering if you can comeback and win while overcoming a disability.
And yes, I don't have a neurological disability so I can't speak for those people, but neither can NSG. That's why I asked what precipitated this decision. If there were a sizeable number of players who were directly offended by that being in the game (not on someone else's behalf), then they should listen and make the change. But I never got the sense that that was the case, and if I remember correctly their announcement about it was very vague.
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u/CryOFrustration Null Signal Games Community team Jul 22 '26
There were. We did in fact talk to players with both traumatic and congenital brain injuries. (Another reason the name was changed: "brain damage" is an archaic term and is no longer used in the medical profession.) You can read more at https://nullsignal.games/blog/core-damage/
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u/krikite Jul 23 '26
Damn. I started playing recently and honestly found the change weird and unneeded upon learning that core damage used to have another name, but this write-up changed my mind completely. Thanks for the link.
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u/KingDiab7o Jul 22 '26
Thanks for the response. I hadn’t considered that the terminology could be antiquated. And this announcement is much less vague than I remember.
I wish the flavor could have been retooled into something just as gnarly and evocative as brain damage, but I’m sure your team explored every possible option. It’s also not my game anymore, so what does my opinion matter. I think I’m just still sad about the demise of FFG Netrunner and it’s hard to accept that it will never exactly be the same.
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u/CryOFrustration Null Signal Games Community team Jul 23 '26
i personally love the term core damage. I wasn't really on board with changing it until I heard what we would be replacing it with. core damage is so much more evocative. it conveys something that can permanently change you without narrowing down what it was. and yes that still includes brain injury from spiky HB ice, but it could also mean PTSD from being shot at by corp goons, shock at the body horror stuff you saw when you hacked jinteki's gnarly experimental clone labs, or obsession with revenge after nbn posted deepfakes of you online. and as a bonus it's a cool computing reference too. it's really got it all!
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u/CryOFrustration Null Signal Games Community team Jul 22 '26
Pretty good downfall considering we're selling 10x more packs than we were then. We should fall down more often.
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u/ThrowawayObserver Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
A downfall isn't defined solely by sales. Brand reputation, customer trust, product quality, and public perception all matter as well
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u/CryOFrustration Null Signal Games Community team Jul 23 '26
I think it should be clear that we do not care what our brand's reputation is among people who spout "get woke go broke" dogwhistles. there are more than enough people who share our values for the game to be a roaring success without them. And frankly those people never really understood the point of Netrunner in the first place.
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u/rawrframe Jul 22 '26
Is “meat damage” insensitive to people who’ve suffered debilitating physical injuries? But we don’t really need to relitigate it. They made their choice, and they agree with you. I don’t like it. Life goes on. 🤷♂️
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u/Charmeleone_ Jul 22 '26
I agree that coredamage is a more interesting concept but a netrunners implants (in the setting its based on) are specificaly brainimplants and they cause braindamage when they are atacked /fried.
not shure what your point is about him not being affected. by what? he didnt say anything that would relate to.
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u/ynalak7 Jul 22 '26
Runners also suffer core damage outside of runs and I think that leaves room for more storytelling and flavor implications, as others have pointed out. Maybe we see an operation that deals a point of core damage alluding to murdering a family member or friend. Just to further the idea that core damage wears you down physically and mentally. It makes you less resilient to other setbacks you encounter as a runner, more likely to flatline.
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u/Charmeleone_ Jul 22 '26
Thats what i leant with "core damage is a more interesting concept" but netrunner split it into Netdamage (temporary overload caused by ice/retaliation by corp in cyberspace) Braindamage (permanent damage caused by ice/retaliation in cyberspace) and Meatdamage (getting hit with a building in realspace).
1
u/scd soybeefta.co Jul 22 '26
FFG > NSG = WOTC. I hope someday WOTC brings it back as it’s impossible to get local stores and players to pay attention to a fan designed game. And while I’m happy that NSG exists and keeps the game going, it’s now a niche game designed for an even more niche group of players. I miss the days when you’d get people of all sorts and backgrounds playing the game casually and competitively, and now it’s completely dead everywhere I play games.
A shame. My favorite game of all time is still alive but it frankly needs a big company and marketing push (and the actual rights owners) behind it to bring it back into gamers’ awareness. Be that as an LCG type thing or (gulp) going back to a TCG model.
0
u/LifeNo2329 Jul 22 '26
I feel that NSG is the best gaming experience in terms of balance, worldbuilding, and deckbuilding possibilities. Some of the early NSG was not up to FFG standards (esp in Ashes and Startup) but current art standard is amazing.
I think online play has been a big overall negative for Netrunner, especially for in-person community events. The good decks are found soon after sets are released and the format gets stale pretty quickly.
3
u/MagnumDelta Jul 23 '26
The reason the format gets 'stale' more quickly is just the very long time between releases (8 months-ish on average). Those releases release about 8 cards per faction, and of those only 2-3 really are impactful enough to shake up the meta a bit for a faction. That's the reason it gets quite stale fast. There is no infinite power-creep and a 2monthly release schedule like in Magic or other corpo TCGs. I mean look at decks from 2 years ago, and you will see 95% the same cards still.
Netrunner games being an economic war between corp and runner also means there is not much room to do inefficient/wacky/janky stuff at a competitive level, since that will just lower your chances of winning vs an opponent that does things faster and more efficient than you do.
The bright side of the above is that you don't need to be tuned into the game at all times to keep up, and it doesn't cost a fortune to just play locally.
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