The Return of Netrunner!

From the never-even-saw-this-coming-news category, the good folks over at Fantasy Flight Games
are releasing one the THE best card games ever made, Netrunner. Created by the genius of Richard Garfield, whose other game design credits include a little card game called Magic:The Gathering, Netrunner was set in the cyberpunk world of Shadowrun.

In the original game, players played the game representing either the huge, wealthy, agenda driven Corpaorations or as a crafty and capable tech savvy Netrunner. The Corps player would secretly play Agenda cards and try to advance them by spending his resources, called bits. he would try and protect these secret Agendas by setting up anti-hacking programs, called ICE. The Runner player, though less resourceful, would spend his turns gathering bits, hardware, and programs and other such equipment until he felt he was able to make a "run" on one of the Corps Agendas. If he was successful, he would reveal what the Corps was up to, and score points. But breaking ICE is no easy task, and if he cannot do it before the Corps player can advance the Agenda, the Corps player scores the points.

Holding my old Netrunner decks has got me feeling a bit nostalgic, but during the CCG bubble of the mid 1990s, this is one game that was severly overlooked and eclipsed by its older sibling, Magic. Its fate was the same as many CCGs of that era, though not at all well deserved. There were a few expansions but I guess Wizards of the Coasts felt it had to be let go.

FFG will be re-releasing the game in the sci-fi setting of their Andriod universe. I am genuinely happy Netrunner is being redone, though I am very curious to see the FFG iteration of this great card game. It will be a LCG release, which I find to be a great format for card games.

I'll post a more detailed review of the FFG version of the game once it is released. Meanwhile, check out the press release from FFG below:

 http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=3272

Strength and Honor,

-Wicked