Life Hacks: A Netrunner Story

Exploratory Romp, Efficiency Committee, Quality Time, Notoriety, Archived Memories
Life Hacks: A Netrunner Story

[Our own Leigh Alexander has been learning Netrunner, which we reviewed here. She found the experience pretty important, and we arrived at this. A long collaborative feature, with comments from Quinns and art from Jesse Turner. Enjoy, everybody.]

Leigh: “I can’t,” I say, and my voice sounds small and far away.

“Yes, you can,” says Quinns across the table. “Just think. You just have to stay calm.”

I have to stay calm, I think, but my body revolts. My guts secede, and warm fingers of shame crawl up my cheeks. Panic knocks gently but insistently at my breastbone. “I can’t,” I say, and it feels true. “I just can’t.”

“Look,” he says, gently. “You can get through this.”

“How,” I say, and there is a genuine tremor, an unhinged note I hear in my own voice and it makes me even angrier.

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Games News! 24/02/14

metaphorical explosions, the bbc, po, grubby sex, the crack of doom, lonely explosions
Province

Quinns: Today’s Games News is brought to you by this endless remix of the BBC News 24 theme, which I’ll be listening to throughout. At the time of writing my friend Alex, who works at the Guardian, has been listening to it for about 40 minutes. “At 28:44 you may experience a feeling of oneness with journalism,” he warns me. “It is a lie.” Everyone who is similarly mad can join me by following that first link.

NOW, our first order of business is to bring “…and then we held hands…” to everyone’s attention. This is a print’n’play game jam project that imagines two players as a couple, struggling through a failing relationship. Imagine a heartbreaking Hanabi where instead of managing a firework display, you’re navigating the metaphorical fireworks of two lovers arguing in an apartment.

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The Opener: Coup & Sweet Potato Fries

no you're not, no you're just a jerk, yes i am are you challenging me, I'm the captain
The Opener: Coup & Sweet Potato Fries

Like vinyl records or the world’s most cheerful case of herpes, The Opener is BACK! Once again, Matt wants to guide you through the perfect game + recipe to open either your game night, your friends’ minds or your own board game collection. This time it’s Coup, a teeny little game of being a disgraceful liar.

If you’ve missed The Opener until this point, you’re in for a whole selection of treats. We’ve got Mascarade and cheesy twists, Ultimate Werewolf and chilli con carne, Ladies & Gentlemen and homemade scones, and even fire-fighting game Flashpoint and some flaming B-52s.

Shut Up & Sit Down: Working to make board gaming figuratively and literally delicious since 2011.

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Retrospective: Risk Legacy

pizza-slick ammo shortages, grease-stained continents, secret missile compartments, joy
Retrospective: Risk Legacy

[This is the story of Earth #00001941. It comes to us from American journalist and fan of SU&SD Jacob Tierney, and holds the honour of being the first retrospective to almost make Quinns cry.

The following is spoiler-free. Images courtesy of BoardGameGeek.]

“NOTE: What’s done can never be undone.”

The statement is emblazoned on the sticker that seals every copy of Risk Legacy, forcing you to acknowledge it before you even open the box. It’s a warning, but also a promise. This game will be something completely different.

It was the last week of 2011. My friends and I had chipped in for one of the most-discussed games of recent memory, and we planned to complete it before I returned to college for my final semester the following month.

Completion is a weird concept in board games, which are usually meant to be infinitely replayable. But then, Risk Legacy is all about weird concepts.

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Review: Ghost Panzer

spectral stencils, undead tanks, the chink in the chobham, the bile in the bibliography
Review: Ghost Panzer

Quinns: Heya Matt. What’cha reading?

Matt: It’s Second World War Infantry Tactics by Stephen Bull. An excellent introduction to the infantry doctrine adopted by the antagonists of that famous conflict. I picked it up because it’s listed in the bibliography of this game, Band of Brothers: Ghost Panzer.

Quinns: Oh my god! UNDEAD TANKS?

Matt: …No. Ghost Panzer is the sequel to Band of Brothers: Screaming Eagles which was about the 101st Airborne of televisual fame. This one concerns the exploits of the 11th Panzer on the Eastern Front, and they get their name from the spectral stencil they sprayed on their vehicles. It’s all in the bibliography.

Quinns: A game with a bibliography? It’s not the sexiest of selling points, but what the hell! Let’s play!

Matt: No.

Quinns: What?

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Games News! 17/02/14

platonic solids, f***ing dragons, banana chilies, crooked governers, salty streaks
The Man Who Built Catan

Quinns: I didn’t want to start with news that mediocrity-peddler Cryptozoic is now shipping the official Adventure Time Card Game, but it’s the only story with a decent image. The sacrifices we must make so that SU&SD doesn’t look like butt!

When I first heard that this was a real game based on the fictional Card Wars game they play in episode 92 of Adventure Time (potentially illegal video here), I thought this was an adorable idea. It’s only now I realise that’s like designing a game with one hand tied behind your back, while your other hand is tied to a game that doesn’t exist and looks rubbish. So let’s move on to some ACTUALLY EXCITING NEWS!

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SU&SD Play… Android: Netrunner

panicking, matt's death, matt's mum, hacking, thinking
SU&SD Play... Android: Netrunner

The more we play it, the more we feel that Living Card Game Android: Netrunner is one of the greatest things happening in table gaming right now. A deadly, tense game that evolves every single month, with players around the world panicking and giggling over new data packs.

Following on from Quinns’ review, we thought we’d finish our coverage with a Let’s Play. But not just any Let’s Play. Here, Quinns walks Matt through his very first game, which we hope (together with the hypnotising official tutorial) should give you all the encouragement you need to get started.

Look how easy it is! …To end up dead at your computer! But also, to have a lovely time. If you do decide to get involved, Terminal7‘s the Netrunner podcast you want, you’ll find those fancy tokens here, and Meteor is your online deckbuilder tool. Good luck, everybody.

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Review: Guts of Glory

Review: Guts of Glory

Quinns: Full disclosure! Guts of Glory is the work of a couple of friends of mine, and their background isn’t in table gaming, but the prestigious New York game design scene. And you can tell.

The manual’s hilarious. The box has some kind of space age linen finish, and art that goes all the way around it. Most importantly, it’s a game with a theme that isn’t contemporary, historical, fantasy, sci-fi, horror, adventure or steampunk, which is something I can say about zero of the eighty games in my living room. Here, finally, is something inventive.

Guts of Glory is a post-apocalyptic, surrealist, competitive eating competition. A game of using motor oil to wash down boxes of spiders, or snatching an extra jaw from another player to help you chew a time machine. If that doesn’t intrigue you, my last recourse is the following line from the manual: “Play begins with the hungriest player. If there is a tie, play begins with the angriest player.”

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Games News! 10/02/14

glossy droppings, vicious, the moon, ex-X-wings, The Village octopus
Days of Wonder

Quinns: A perk of this job is that I get to decide what qualifies as our top story each week. However, when you have an addiction as life-swallowing as mine, sometimes it isn’t really a choice.

This week Fantasy Flight announced it will be taking Android: Netrunner INTO SPACE, with a new “cycle” of card expansions known as the Lunar Cycle. Now, the moon is a pretty exciting place. This we can agree on. But what’s really exciting is that the Lunar Cycle’s express purpose to tip up the game’s gravity, to encourage new strategies, and produce cards that aren’t necessarily strong, but just weird.

When half the thrill of Netrunner is watching it evolve, and your friends inventing (and then slapping you with) freaky new decks, that’s the best news we could have possibly hoped for.

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Review: Caverna

explosions, cuddles, dwarves, goats, dogs, cows, babies, murder
Review: Caverna

The sequel to Agricola is here, and it’s the heaviest and most expensive game we’ve ever reviewed. A titan of the table.

There’s no question. Caverna: The Cave Farmers is the most fun you’re going to have managing animals, minerals and vegetables. But should you buy it? Paul and Quinns stand… divided.

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