Sadly with FFG pulling the plug on Netrunner, the future of the game looked bleak. However the community pulled together resulting in Project NISEI (now Null Signal Games), filled with folks eager to keep Netrunner chugging along. They’ve done a wonderful job trying to promote competitive play and tinker with deck construction formats like a new core set pool and MWLs. They even were able to get a new expansion pack out which has been pretty phenomenal as fan-made creation. So for existing players of Netrunner I think you’re covered as Nisei looks to keep the love of the game alive. Yet I wonder a year from now, when available core sets evaporate what will happen to the player base as a whole.

The community of Netrunner is going to contract. Period. FFG is no longer producing it and people are going to move on to other games. Nisei will be doing a lot to keep fans engaged, playing, and even expanding their collections. That’s great and I am sure it will stem the hemorrhaging of Netrunner players some, but I’m hoping more will be done to help grow the game too.

The elephant in the room is that cards aren’t being produced any more. Players will have to work on using proxies. Some folks have offered tools to help that which is great. But the effort to go in to making two 46-50 card decks (including IDs) is daunting and likely so much effort that new players won’t even bother. Not a lawyer, but gut check is third party print sites are treading light copyright ground with printing old FFG design cards. So could Nisei work on having an alternative set of cards to help new players get into the game?

Downfall is proof of concept that physical cards can be made and still be able to skirt copyright issues. Something similar could be done for a core set. Creating a full product to replicate the variety of cards similar to that in previous core sets would be daunting though. And options for printing up 240+ cards would be cost prohibitive. So what about altering the product format into smaller chunks, that would still give a new player a foundation of cards to expand from?

A rough concept would be similar to the Netrunner draft packs. New players would buy a base core pack which has bread and butter neutral cards for both the corp and runner, call it a neo-core. Then compliment it buying faction sets, picking and choosing the corp/runner options they want. So a player might opt to purchase an NBN set as their corp of choice and skip getting other corp factions.

One roadblock to this would be not tripping up on FFG’s art, text, and other copyrighted material. With Downfall they were able to alter the icons and layout enough to pass legal muster. However working with a new set of core cards, it might be more prudent to replicate card abilities but have different art and card names. That Sure Gamble could instead be ‘A sure bet’ using different art. Deck construction rules would also have to altered to limit these in order to prevent a player from stacking 6 cards with the same ability. Even though these are different cards, essentially they would work as copies of other existing FFG ones.

The other hurdle to overcome would be to boil down the variety of cards to an essential minimum. It would be folly to try and replicate the variety of cards in existing core sets. Instead pruned sets for each faction could be pursued. You’d need about 14 different cards to make up the neutral corp and runner core base, with 3 copies of each. Then you’d need around 10-11 different cards for each faction (again going with the idea of 3 copies of each card). That’s a lot of art and alternate text to work up. No two ways about it, designing core packs would be a huge task to undertake.

However an evergreen product which new players can purchase providing a base set of physical cards could be a boon to helping expand the Netrunner community. The possible prospect of making proxies for say, 12 cards compared to making an entire deck would be more enticing for new players. Time will tell if the demand for core set cards needs to be addressed. Next year Nisei will have a better idea of how the community is faring and can get feedback if this would be received well. Yet with card printing options and crowdfunding at Nisei’s disposal, certainly something like this could be pursued in the future.

[EDIT: Note Project Nisei has now adopted a new name, Null Signal Games]