Despite the game’s global popularity, Fantasy Flight Games was forced to shutter Netrunner due to licensing in 2018. Recently a group of dedicated players decided to carry the torch and create new cards for the community. I’m thrilled with the initiative taken by the team at Null Signal Games.
Seraph
Lobisomem
This image depicts a program that breaks one type of Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics that protects the corporation, but when charged up enough, can transform and break another type. Lobisomem is a deceptive trickster based on the South American werewolf.
Malandragem
This is a program that allows players to bypass the weaker corporate defenses. Abstractly inspired by a lifestyle of petty crime and fast living embodied by hustlers and “bad boys”. One such malandros is Zé Pilintra, a figure amongst Umbanda (a Brazilian religious sect.) Pilintra is known as a patron to those who feel marginalized by society, rogues, and bohemias. He is usually shown wearing a white suit and hat.
Engolo
With a sweeping kick embodied in the form of a zebra, this hacker program is inspired by the ritual combat of engolo from Southwestern Africa.
With a sweeping kick embodied in the form of a zebra, this hacker program is inspired by the ritual combat of engolo from Southwestern Africa.
Nanuq
Based on the mighty and mystical Inuit deity of polar bears and great hunters.
Based on the mighty and mystical Inuit deity of polar bears and great hunters.
Here's a few Nanuq sketches
Living Mural
Reaper Function
Here's a few Reaper Function sketches
Bravado
Chastushka
Fists raised in solidarity smashing through corporations. Loosely based on a Ukrainian rhyming song, hence the blue and yellow palette.
Backstitching
The concept depicts a runner using gathered intel to loop through cyberspace like a thread and navigate past ICE (Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics).
Ubiquitous Vig
The concept presents disembodied hands of the elite: corpocrats, mobsters, and private subsidiaries all greedily swiping their cut from a trove of profits.
Slap Vandal
The fall of the infamous Tollbooth
The Twinning
"It's been really fun listening to Netrunner players talk about the Twinning. Even if they are doing relatively dry card analysis, they can't help but stop and comment on how stunning this art is."
-Sanjay K. Twitter@cowbirdsinlove
This was one of the most challenging cards I've ever worked on. The brief for this piece came in two pages, rather than the typical 2-4 sentences.
The writer's intention was to present a character, a gender-fluid environmental activist with cybernetic enhancements named Esa who lives in Siberia and spends xir time battling corporate exploitation. "Twinning" is a term used to describe growth patterns in crystals that result when different types of crystals pair together symmetrically. The twinning represents the ethical and spiritual drive of Esa to unite the workers of the megacorporations doing the harm, as well as being a game mechanic that allows players to link this and another card together. The themes of this narrative also happened to align with my personal mission to help people feel connected to the natural world.
It meant a lot that the head writer (Morgan) was overjoyed with the result. It's been wonderful to be able to provide beauty and meaningfulness to the Netrunner community.
😅❤️✨