Netrunner isn’t dead: It’s been alive and free to play for years

Android: Netrunner was basically the coolest card game of all time, and then it died. 

That’s how the story goes anyway. Netrunner is a two-person game set in a classically cyberpunk universe where corporations squeeze the planet for all its worth and a handful of hackers are the only ones fighting back. One player takes on the role of a corporation advancing its secret agendas while the other plays a runner trying to break into the corp’s servers and steal its data. There are four megacorp factions and three runner factions, which adds a mind-boggling amount of flexibility and creativity for deck builders. 

Netrunner has a history stretching back to the ’90s, but the version of the game that exists today was first published by Fantasy Flight Games in 2012. It attracted a small but dedicated fan base until FFG suddenly announced it was done with Netrunner in 2018. With no new cards in the pipeline and no more tournament support, the game was officially dead. 

Admittedly, that death didn’t last very long at all. Passionate fans decided that they wanted to keep playing, and not only that – they wanted to make new cards and continue the game’s evolution. Fans formed a nonprofit organization called NISEI, which has since been renamed Null Signal Games, and started publishing new cards “compatible with Netrunner” and managing its own tournaments almost immediately. 

As of 2024, Null Signal has been running the game for as long as FFG did back in the day. About once a year they release a new “cycle” – two sets including about 65 cards each. The second half of the Liberation Cycle was released just this year and by the end of 2024, a new set will officially rotate all the old FFG cards out of the standard format. Netrunner is entirely operated by the fans, and they’re making sure it’s more accessible than ever. 

Jack in

I was first attracted to Netrunner because I’m a sucker for cyberpunk games and the asymmetrical setup was something I’d never encountered in another card game. I tend to be wary of jumping into new card games because I have no self-control when it comes to buying boosters, but that turned out not to be an issue with Netrunner. It’s an LCG, so new packs come with a full playset of every card in the set, and, anyway, Netrunner is entirely free to play. In addition to physical releases, Null Signal Games publishes all its cards as print-and-play files, so you can make your own proxies on a budget. Proxies are also entirely legal at competitive events, so you don’t have to buy a single card to play even at the highest level. 

Of course, you only need to print proxies if you can actually find people to play with you in person. I first started playing Netrunner in 2022, and at that time there wasn’t an active playgroup in my area. Luckily, a cyberpunk card game attracts technically-minded fans, and they’ve created a website that lets you build your own decks and play Netrunner with anyone else in the world. 

Jinteki.net was my portal into the wonderful world of Netrunner. The game’s community is spread across the globe, so there’s always someone online and up for a game. My earliest games were slow and involved me asking a lot of questions in the chat, but I found my opponents to be wildly supportive and just generally excited to be helping a new player get into the game. I’ve never had such a warm welcome from a game’s community, and it really endeared me to the scene. 

Aside from taking the time to learn the rules, there’s almost no barrier to entry to Netrunner. It’s the kind of game that really sparks your imagination and takes you on exciting runs. In my mind, it’s the perfect two-person card game, and everyone should give it a shot.