Running on Italics: Breaker Bay [Corp]

Originally published at: Running on Italics: Breaker Bay [Corp] - StimHack

Discuss the latest article by Cee and Ess here.

2 Likes

I kind of wish Research Grant was a little more sinister. Maybe like a bunch of lab coated researchers standing casually around a Bioroid who is about to undergo an experiment, and looks uncomfortable. The agenda isn’t inspiring at all to me.

Gutenberg is definitely the oddball. I thought it was some neat abstract art of lines and shapes, until I realized it was literally just a printing press flying through space. Then I got comical visions of the Runner getting rolled through a press like some 90s kids cartoon nightmare.

Overall the pack is great. Breaker Bay Grid is awesome, and makes a lot of sense. Shows how much influence the corps have in the education world. After these two packs I feel that Jinteki is very exclusive to who they hire, and HB is a more contract-based ‘open’ model. Coolio.

It is sad to see Hayley so hollow and unknown. Nasir had a whole story dedicated to him, along with Beckman, and we know exactly who he is. Hayley looks like a batman-esque hacktivist by night, by the art of Comet. Looks like she’s hiding her console in a locker or closet or something. I’ll stick with that.

Wow, you guys dug up my old subtype thread on BGG? blush

1 Like

I’m sorry, but who’s Meru Mati? I mean, the others are pretty basic knowledge… But who’s that guy? :cry:

Meru Mati pushed the limits of physics by engineering the first buckyweave structure, a thousand-foot long wall.

3 Likes

You know, I’ve seen the card too :smiley:

You’ve got to do some mental leaping on this one, methinks. The other 3 are all scientists who created the core of the corp that uses that piece of ice. The core of weyland is the space elevator known as the bean stalk; And if you look up buckyweave, you’ll see that it doesn’t exist outside of the android universe.

So, we can assume that Meru Mati is a made up scientist who created a carbon structure that could be used to build a space elevator. Someone who exists between our time and Android present. Which is kind of cool.

6 Likes

Sorry, just being cheeky.

He’s a fictional scientist that did research on the materials required for the Beanstalk’s construction.

@gumOnShoe @PaxCecilia Ah, thanks, I didn’t know if it was just me being dumb or it was a made-up fact. Still, why couldn’t they find someone real? Seems kinda odd. I mean, yeah, Weyland IS all about Beanstalk, however, still seems like they just couldn’t find a scientist so just made one to save some brain trouble.

One man’s art is another man’s scrap heap. Don’t know what to tell you.

2 Likes

Totally agree on the Interns art. It’s like she’s reaching out to give him a handy.

Blacklist doesn’t require a tag because the corp doesn’t have to know where you are or have a connection to your computer or anything like that. They just give out a list of suspected runners to all businesses and have them barred from entry, so you have to hack in and remove your name from the list they’re maintaining.

The concept of heap, stack, and grip are all pretty murky, I think they each cover multiple things, depending on the kind of card and the runner in question.

1 Like

I’m pretty sure this is a deliberate use of Famous, Famous, Fictional on FFG’s part, so someone made-up suits the reference more.

On Gutenburg being a sentry - I think that’s just a mechanical decision. The vast majority of trace to tag ice has been sentries. It’s the standard bad thing that NBN sentries do.

On why the Pioneer (or genius, or whatever) cycle has the flavor text, I think the point is to draw attention to the fact that each person was fundamental in the development of that particular Corp. After all Gutenberg -> NBN isn’t the clearest connection, until you make the information revolution connection. Ditto Turing.

On Blacklist and Student Loans, both represent the runner’s past coming back to haunt them, in different ways. I also like how Blacklist fixes your past in stone, only to be added to, never to be forgotten - which is what a Blacklist does, really.

Student loans also mounts over time - which is a great way to represent the ticking time bomb of debt.

As for it not being applicable to certain runners, I think that’s more of a deck construction thing. A Drip econ Andy deck isn’t going to be bother much by student loans. However, the two runners hit hardest by it - MaxX and Kate - totally make sense as people who went to school at some point.

As for Kim - hey, vocational schools are a thing, right?

1 Like

Gutenberg as a sentry absolutely completes the set in that sense, but, we’re just not sure why a printing press would have a trace type effect. I don’t know terribly much about the history of the journalism world, but surely there is someone else whose contribution would make more sense as a trace? Maybe the fact that I can’t think of anyone else off the top of my head is indicative :stuck_out_tongue:

Re the flavour text. That’s clearly the intention, but, there are ways to do that that aren’t so heavy handed. Our textbook guess does give us a very neat story that ties them all into the pack and possibly even explains their mechanic a little, which, even if we are wrong, is pretty cool.

Oh sure. I mean, we do concede that both Blacklist and Loans are excellent in intention. We get what they’re trying to do, we just take issue with what these new interactions imply for the world.

The biggest crime against subtyping is that Hostile Infrastructure doesn’t have the Hostile subtype.

7 Likes

Dude, your subtype thread was one of the major reasons I started thinking about the flavour of ANR! And, as far as I’m aware, you were the first person to worry about the subtype issues in the game, too!

Of course we dug up the primary reference here :smiley:

2 Likes

There are other fairly egregious subtyping travesties, but that is surely the worst. It’s in the bloody title, FFG - come on, guys.

A close second would be that Snoop does not have the observer subtype… Allow me to reiterate - SNOOP IS NOT AN OBSERVER. The sheer idiocy of this simply floors me. The thing is a giant eye - I mean, what the spotted dick!?

And in case anyone’s thinking that it’s not actually a massive oversight and that the observer subtype actually indicates tagging capabilities - Data Hound is an observer. Observer is purely a concept/flavour subtype, akin to seedy and remote, without any in-game mechanical significance, and they still managed to screw it up by being inconsistent. FFG pls.

On a similar note, why is it G-Mod now, instead of G-mod? Gaahhhh.

Damn, I really am neurotic. Carry on, all.

4 Likes

The worst part is that the core of the game (icebreaker-ice interaction) is built around subtypes.

My personal interpretation of the flavour for the cards which seem lacking in flavour:

Research Grant: I believe the flavour reflects well how investment into R&D can sometimes net you nothing much of worth (1 agenda point) or if you’re lucky, something of great value (3 agenda points). I mean look at the billions the world sinks into research. Even then, progress is halting cause it is a hit or miss affair, which is likely how the card will function in a game of Netrunner. Sometimes a massive score of 3 agenda points, sometimes just 1.

Gutenberg: Traces are about obtaining information which reveals the identity or location of the Runner right? So Gutenberg’s flavour link to traces could be that since the printing press led to a massive increase in the spread of information, the ice also widely spreads any clues on the Runner gained in its encounter to NBN’s analytics divisions to find out who this intruder is. Like literally spamming the NBN servers with news on the Runner.

Blacklist: My only plausible explanation for this is that when the Blacklist is rezzed, the Heap represents what caused the Runner to get blacklisted in the first place. So the Runner avoids doing it again cause of the stigma. Say no more Sure Gamble cause they caught you in the act of cheating and so any casino now scrutinises you intensely when you enter. Or no re-installing that Corroder with Clone Chip cause they once caught you using it to hack into Corp servers. It’s still a stretch though.

On a side note, in Android lore Caprice is a detective. That’s one big reason why she isn’t a sysop. She ends runs with her Psi ability probably cause the Corp managed to get the NAPD to station her at the physical server location to investigate illegal electronic intrusions and so she helps defend against them.

2 Likes