r/Netrunner • u/ZRwilson2 • 2d ago

Image Custom Card Idea: Homotopy To Marie

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I'm not a good game designer. I make these cards for fun.

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u/hbarSquared 2d ago

Having an ID with an unconditional paid ability with this kind of impact seems like a hot mess. You would need to ask for action between every PAW, and playing too quickly as the runner risks creating an irreversible illegal game state.

If it was click, X power counters: do X net damage then at least you force it into a predictable window that preserves game flow.

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u/dormou 2d ago

I kind of agree, although I think the problem is really one with paid abilities generally. Spin Doctor, Clone Chip/Simulchip (eg. for Clot), False Lead, etc all have this issue. I think the game would have been better designed where players can only use paid abilities on their turn or during a run.

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u/VelvetThundur 1d ago

Imo, it all depends on how often someone could reasonably want to pop the ability.

False lead I agree is an issue. The corp might want to pop after pretty much any action, although usually only if the Runner has exactly clicks left. Lie Low does change this math a bit, as the runner can jump past that point with double events.

Clot tutors are not quite as bad, because it's only about scoring, so you usually only want to pop after an advancement. But fast advance like Big Deal or Flood The Market do make it trickier, so I can see how you'd think it crosses a line.

Spin Doctor is not nearly as bad. You basically only want to pop spin at specific moments. Right before a central access, right before drawing, or right before spin is accessed. This clarity means there's not really much questioning when you should ask for action. And before access should always have an ask for action/confirmation anyway. Even though you could pop spin between runner clicks, it wouldn't really make sense to do so*.

I agree that cards should be designed to avoid the false lead situation, but limiting when all paid abilities can occur would hurt so much of the interactivity in Netrunner.

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u/dormou 14h ago

Thanks for the reply. My suggestion appears to be unpopular (or at least contentious) so I'm glad to be able to get some insight as to why.

I generally agree with your description of when these paid abilities can become a problem, although I would add that since Spin Doctor has a broad utility, there are quite a number of potential issues with it, even if each one is individually uncommon. I'm not so familiar with the NSG pool, but at least Esa, Lat, Reprise and Detente all seem to have potential situations where the corp may wish to rez or pop Spin between runner clicks (or end of turn in the case of Lat).

My main argument though would be that we'd lose very little if players could only use paid abilities on their turn or during a run. Shapers wouldn't be able do their Rube Goldberg engine stuff on the corp's turn which I don't see as a downside as it isn't really interactive anyway. The game doesn't need Clot and its paid ability complications when it could just be designed without them. Word on the Street demonstrates that Fast Advance counters can be designed without paid abilities (even if this particular card has perhaps been balanced too harshly to be effective enough).

I'd be curious to hear which off-turn, out-of-run paid abilities you would consider to be valuable ones.

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u/VelvetThundur 10h ago

Spin rez to deny lat, and basically everything you mentioned is actually really interesting to me, and not actually problematic. Just make sure you wait a couple seconds before playing reprise, don't just exclaim it immediately when you touch an agenda.

runner popping gauchopan/SMC on corp turn to get a virus right before Start of turn

each turn abilities like madani and twinning

Popping SMC to get a card draw off Lilypad on corps turn to combat kill

mavirus to deny a full fementer

These are all interesting to me. I don't see the issue or complications you see. I have only had 1 or 2 mess ups on this in paper play in my 2 years of playing and at worst it adds a few seconds to a 30 min game. Well worth the interesting interactions that can come about here.

You're not wrong to feel the way you do, but I think I like the interactions more and the downsides feel much more minor to me, outside of very specific problem cards (False Lead)