Counting Runner Appearances on Card Art

Hello, everyone.

I have reviewed Netrunner card art up to but not including Revised Core to answer the question: “Which runner appears on the most cards?”. I made the following assumptions:

  1. Digital representations of a runner (For example, Chaos Theory on Exploratory Romp) count as an appearance.
  2. If someone undefined appears in the art for a specific runner’s console, it is assumed to be that runner (For example, the hand on Mirror).

I did not include official (or unofficial) alt arts in my tallies. This was mainly out of laziness. I would happily accept the data were it given.

Here are my findings. I have meticulously hyperlinked them, which I hope you find to be at least a slight convenience.

1st Most Appearances: Adam (9) and Smoke (9)

Adam appears on Adam, Independent Thinking, Brain Chip, Multithreader, Always Be Running, Dr. Lovegood, Neutralize All Threats, Safety First, and Find The Truth.

Smoke is on Notoriety, Daily Casts, The Source, Encore, Cold Read, Smoke, Mirror, Net Mercur, and Misdirection

Adam is depicted on a lot of Adam cards! He went from 0 to 8 with Data and Destiny, and was depicted on Find the Truth as well.

Smoke, of course, had been popping up in flavor text and card art for years before she finally got her card with Flashpoint cycle, and with it a bunch of other appearances.

3rd Most Appearances: Chaos Theory (8)

Chaos Theory is on Big Brother, Test Run, Chaos Theory, Exploratory Romp, Power Nap, Shattered Remains, Casting Call, and Financial Collapse

Chaos Theory is likely to overtake Adam and Smoke once Revised Core drops, but for now, she is a close third. Interesting pattern to Chaos Theory’s depictions is that half of her appearances are on corp cards. That’s pretty uncommon, as usually runners are depicted being awesome, not being hassled. The dubious distinction is shared with Nasir, who also has half of his four appearances on corp cards.

4th Most Appearances: Gabe, Silhouette, Apex, maybe MaxX (6)

Look… is MaxX on Showing Off? I don’t know. But she’s certainly on MaxX, Amped Up, Day Job, Wanton Destruction, and Reality Threedee.

Gabe is on Gabe, Bank Job, Silencer, Power Tap, Titanium Ribs, and Lawyer Up, even though his arm is on the wrong side on Lawyer Up.

Silhouette is on Executive Wiretaps, Blackguard, Silhouette, Calling In Favors, Legwork, and Planned Assault

Apex is on Apex, Apocalypse, Prey, Endless Hunger, Hunting Grounds, and Wasteland

Is Gabe going to climb the ranks of appearances with Revised Core? I don’t know. We do know that his number of attractive appearances is going to go up.

8th Most Appearances: Andromeda, Kit, Reina (5)

Andy is on Networking, Andromeda, Leverage, Windfall, and On the Lam

Kit is on Kit, Feedback Filter, Omni-drive, False Echo, and Cerebral Static

Reina is on Reina, Deep Red, Activist Support, Queen’s Gambit, and En Passant

I just really hope we keep getting chess cards, y’know?

11th Most Appearances: Noise, Kate, The Professor, Iain, Ken, Nasir, Val (4)

Noise is on Noise, Hard at Work, Sacrificial Clone, Turntable

Kate is on Kate, Modded, Public Sympathy, Eureka!

The Professor is on The Professor, Professional Contacts, Character Assassination, Capstone

Iain is on Medical Research Fundraiser, Iain, Feint, Unscheduled Maintenance

Ken is on Ken “Sonic the Hedgehog” Tenma, Early Bird, Express Delivery, Public Terminal

Nasir is on The News Now Hour, Targeted Marketing, Social Engineering, Nasir

Val is on Val, Investigative Journalism, Vigil and Government Investigations

I would like to particularly congratulate myself for picking out Ken on Public Terminal. I am not good at Where’s Waldo books or Magic Eyes or whatever so this is a big deal for me.

I would like to also congratulate Iain Stirling for being the only person on a corp card not being depicted as being hassled at best and exploded at worst.

18th Most Appearances: Whizzard, Leela, Exile, Sunny, Jesminder (3)

Whizzard is on Whizzard, Quest Completed, and Boom!

Leela is on Satellite Uplink, Three Steps Ahead, and Leela

Exile is on Exile, Scavenge, and Motivation

Sunny is on Sunny, Globalsec Security Clearance, and Another Day, Another Paycheck

Jesminder is on The Price of Freedom, Jesminder, and Maya

RIP Akshara Sareen.

23rd Most Appearances: Quetzal, Edward Kim, Fisk, Hayley, Nero, Omar, Khan, Ayla (2)

Quetzal is on Inject and Quetzal

Edward Kim is on Edward Kim and I’ve Had Worse

Fisk is on Fisk and Fisky Vestment Seminar

Hayley is on Comet and Hayley

Nero is on Nero and Reflection

Omar is on Omar and Frantic Coding

Khan is on Khan and The Gauntlet

Ayla is on Ayla and Careful Planning

Alice is on Alice and Clan Vengeance.

A bunch of lusers who only appear on their own dang identity card: Geist, Null, Los, Steve

I ain’t hyperlinking these, you can just take my word that they are on there.

It’s possible Steve is on regular art Brute Force Hack but I don’t think that’s him because that guy doesn’t have a beard. I suppose Steve might have shaved before he did a brute force hack? I know Edward Kim dyed his hair white so maybe weird hair stuff is just a thing runners do before they go Brute Force Hacking idk.

Those are my findings!

What did I miss?

EDIT: 12/1/17: Added Vigil and Clan Vengeance.

17 Likes

He’s definitely featured on the new Bank Job art.

I love your compilation, thank you for sharing!
I always thought Andromeda was on the Medical Research Fundraiser card, and I have never noticed Iain on it before.

Wait Adam is on Find the Truth? It’s so abstract… I kind of assumed the art brief was “someone in cyberspace performing the mindblown.gif Tim and Eric meme.”

Also I’m very glad it’s confirmed Iain on Medical Research Fundraiser. I don’t know why.

1 Like

i’m pretty sure that Nasir is on Code Siphon? not 100% positive though. also, i think it’s safe to say that that’s MaxX with a different outfit on Showing Off, and a clean-shaven Steve on Brute-Force-Hack.

also, i’m glad someone else out there is as nerdy as i am about tracking pointless ANR statistics like this.

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Its very on brand, Iain making money when the corp is doing well

2 Likes

This is awesome, thanks for writing it! So many hidden treasures, like I never thought it was Kit on Cerebral Static.

Couple of minor corrections and additions

  • Crypsis is featured on Demolition Run.
  • Alice Merchant is featured on Clan Vengeance. (Note the purple hair but younger and less cybernetically modified appearance. The clan vengeance storyline occurs 10 years before the image of Alice on her ID card, during which time she has encountered Maw in the cargo bay of a disused shuttlecraft.)
  • The seated figure represented on Credit Crash is Mark Yale.
  • Aesop is shown on Trade-In.
  • Bio-Modelled Network also appears on Biometric Spoofing.
  • Modded features Chaos Theory, not Kate, and occurs canonically five years after the more mature Chaos Theory art we’ve seen in the core set 2.0. She can be seen pointing at a display that has the card art for “Magnum Opus” on it and exclaiming “wtf why are people so upset about this still.”
2 Likes
  • idk about that tbh
  • useful addition; nice catch
  • these guys
  • aren’t runners
  • nice templating joke
  • chaos theory is kate mccaffrey, rebirth confirmed canon

Kate doesn’t count for 2 for having an official alt art? Tsk tsk tsk

Cool list!

Val is in Vigil, which is her console. (Look at her outfit, it matches!)

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THIS. Was going to say the same thing. Because in my cyber-soul, these are the statistics that truly matter–not all them Tier 1 list deck analysisisisiss :slight_smile:

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Had never actually noticed this! How come the artist names on the cards don’t match? Was it just a balls-up from FFG? Or is the consensus that it’s a deliberate meta joke (as the flavour mentions “lazy sysops”)?

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I buy that Alice is on Clan Vengeance. She’s even got the same face tattoo.

The seemingly different number of cyberarms is a bit puzzling, but I suppose sometimes you leave your regular arm at home and have to improvise.

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Wow I’m blown away that Adam has as many as Smoke! Thought she’d be ahead by a mile!

Is Apex on Kraken?

I puzzled over that one and I ultimately didn’t end up counting it, not that I’m any more of an authority on this than anyone else.

Isn’t that Maxx on Making an Entrance? She’s kind of dressed up and looking uncomfortable, but seems like her to me.

2 Likes

I’m not sure; the hairstyle doesn’t seem to fit – but maybe she just changed it. The piercings look like they could match…

This illustration is actually how I’d imagine PrincessSpaceKitten, if she ever showed up as a character (just a random thought; there is no reason this would actually be her).