“Money is honest. Credits may be cold, uncaring, heartless abstractions, but they offer an unavoidable truth: The more, the better.”
–Iain Stirling
Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce the upcoming release of Honor and Profit , the second deluxe expansion for Android: Netrunner The Card Game !
The network lies before you; which path will you take? Focusing primarily on the interests of Jinteki and three new Criminal runners, Honor and Profit introduces 165 new cards (three copies each of fifty-five different cards) that include a dizzying array of new tricks and traps, events to alter the tempo of your games, new psi talents, and six new identity cards that engender the exploration of all-new deck-building strategies. Additionally, there’s plenty for fans of any faction to discover among the expansion’s neutral ambushes, ice, ops, AI, and connections.
The Pursuit of Perfection
Known for its ground-breaking advancements in cloning, Jinteki has dedicated itself whole-heartedly to the pursuit of perfection, and in many ways, under the direction of Chairman Hiro ( Honor and Profit , 8), the megacorp’s devotion to this cause separates it from its peers.
For example, Jinteki’s aesthetic is strongly influenced by traditional Japanese styles and values. You’ll note the bonsai tree silhouetted on the company logo and the zen gardens at each of the corporation’s campuses. You might not be able to imagine walking past a traditional tea ceremony while touring the Weyland Consoritum’s headquarters, but the perfectly scripted movements seem at home with Jinteki.
The question one might ask is how far does Jinteki really go to combine the outer sabi and the inner wabi? Do their meditative actions and aesthetics truly lead the company toward greater harmony? If so, how does that help Jinteki compete in the market? The answers to these questions are hidden among some of Earth’s most carefully guarded secrets. While it’s clear from the trajectory of their business model that Jinteki doesn’t share quite the same values as their peers, it’s harder to say if the company gives its operations such symbolic names as Mushin No Shin ( Honor and Profit , 15) because it truly believes in the principles of no-mind or because such traditionalism eases the minds of its investors.
No matter the results, it’s clear that Jinteki has long acted with the utmost dignity, even in its recent years of transition and upheaval. It has made tremendous advances in cloning and biotechnology, and with the company poised to unveil a new Medical Breakthrough ( Honor and Profit , 5) to a welcoming public, the company appears to be well-situated to continue advancing its deeper agendas, whatever they may be.
Stealth. Skill. Profit.
Of all the different Runners in the world, those belonging to the Criminal faction may be the simplest to understand. They seek profit in return for the risks they undertake in filching corporate data.
However, once you remove that simplest common denominator from the equation, it becomes a bit more difficult to classify a Criminal runner.
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They tend to focus on pressuring a corporation’s HQ before they explore remote servers, but it seems that just as often their early runs against HQ servers amount to little more than an elaborate feint meant to disguise their later runs against R&D and remote servers.
- They tend to bypass ice or derez it, but with icebreakers like Alias ( Honor and Profit , 41) and Breach ( Honor and Profit , 42) they also boast some of the most efficient and specialized icebreakers in the trade.
- They tend to be among the world’s most aggressive runners. Most of them rely upon such tricks as Early Bird ( Honor and Profit , 32) to maintain their constant, high-tempo assaults on corporate servers, but other Criminals, like Silhouette ( Honor and Profit , 30), prefer to take advantage of the faction’s many tools for exposing cards, looking before they leap.
In the end, the ties that unite members of the Criminal faction are mostly circumstantial: They run for profit, so they run often. They realize they’ll derive no benefit from their wealth if they’re caught, so they pursue the path of least resistance. How do you find that path? That’s the trick. Perhaps that’s why you’ll find such a variety of Runner cards within Honor and Profit as to support nearly any Runner style, even for Runners from different factions. All of the expansion’s resources, programs, icebreakers, hardware, and events aim toward one solitary goal – the acquisition of valuable data. It’s only what Criminals do with that data that separates them from other Runners.
Tricks and Traps for Everyone
In addition to a number of new Criminal and Jinteki cards that other factions will be able to buy into their decks for relatively low influence costs, Honor and Profit introduces potent neutral cards for both Corp and Runner.
Like Plan B ( Honor and Profit , 23) and Oracle May ( Honor and Profit , 54), the expansion’s array of neutral assets, operations, ice, events, resources, and AI should fit seamlessly into a range of Jinteki and Criminal strategies. However, they also promise to encourage creative new strategies that permit all Corps and Runners to experiment with deception, changes in tempo, and other aspects of the game.
Which Path Will You Take?
Will you follow the path of personal evolution, adopting Jinteki’s blend of tradition and innovation? Or will you follow the path of personal profit, using every available tool to uncork valuable corporate secrets and sell them to the highest bidder?
Honor and Profit is scheduled to arrive at retailers late in the first quarter of 2014. Until then, check out the expansion’s description page and watch our website for previews and other announcements!
Based on the classic card game designed by Richard Garfield,
Android: Netrunner The Card Game
is a game for two players set in the dystopian future of
Android
. It pits monolothic megacorps against subversive netrunners in a high-stakes struggle for the control of valuable data.