Again, lif is slowing me down, but there’s new stuff, lots of new stuff! Will be sharing some more (it’s AMAZING!), but for now I’ll let an artist and board member of nisei just say it in their own words:
Sorry for the silence recently - I just moved house, and have had technical issues, but none of that matters, because today, today is the long-awaited first day of Nisei’s spoiler season - the day we get the first info on new cards of their upcoming products. There’s a schedule information and a short fiction to whet appetites - I know I’m looking forward to it!
And here is the card: Pantograph! A very funky looking console.
This first new-new card I’ve also been able to get a fairly decent full art for - which won’t be the case for most, I’m sure, but I’m so happy to see new cards, new art, and the results of Nisei’s work after a tumultuous year-and-a-bit!
Art by Martin Diego Sadaba (who also provided art during FFG’s tenure) His sites here,here,here.
Sadly I’ve only been able to find about half of Chris Newman’s art for netrunner cards, but they’re amazing! Some really sweet looking runs, and some cool (if dubiously effective) ice.
It’s always great to see the progress and development of cards and card art, and the article goes into some depth about the production and process.
Kind of weirdly (or maybe not, this isn’t the most active space in the world) I don’t end up talking much about the game. Project Nisei’s 2020 was as bad as it was for everyone else, and their releases were delayed - what was planned for December 2020 is now scheduled as Q1 2021 - this is hardly new for netrunner though. What is new is this art, for System Update, a set of existing cards that will be released as a product - partly for collection and card legality reasons, but mainly (imo) to serve as a follow-on from the All-New* New Player product, System Gateway, aimed specifically at new players. As non-Nisei know next to nothing about that though, System Update with its existing cards is a big thing that’s easier to talk about - and to admire the shiny new art for!
Also posting some other art that has been previewed, for the perennially useful card Project Atlas - as with the above cards, by the excellent Zoe Cohen
Coming to the end (for now) of my collection of Liiga’s art I think (I’ve got some old posts as well as this recent series), but never fear - Liiga’s already produced art for Nisei and I have no doubt she’ll continue to do so.
This one I’m posting on it’s own, because compared to most other art I’m posting, it’s massive. There’s a reason for this, this art was meant to be box art for Creation and Control - I think there was meant to be an especially heavy emphasis on cyberspace, hence the massive city being hit with a tidal wave behind the giant bioroid there, and when the box got retooled and re-focused this big, beautiful art was not used for it - it was used for playmats and later the (sadly underwhelming) card Running Interference
Some of the more unusual Liiga cards today, Red Herrings (apparently there’s around 300, and they were very zen to draw), Imp alt-art, the terrifyingLittle Engine (as one excellent flavour review said, sysops get nightmares too), the unfortunately unreleased Plague, and the angel of judgement Veritas
One of the core parts of the Android Universe setting is the New Angeles Space Elevator, commonly known as the Beanstalk* - so central to it that the RPG expansion for playing games of Genesys in the Android Universe is even called “Shadow of the Beanstalk”. The Beanstalk is not an especially unique element, for sci-fi, but it’s a bit rarer to see it in cyberpunk specifically, and it’s very rare that it gets much attention. But the Beanstalk is a big part of the lore of the Android Universe! - in-setting, it’s the raison d'être for the biggest city in the solar system, and the key to space - almost all of the earth-space commerce is down this link, and the biggest component of that is ALL of earth’s Helium-3, aka fusion fuel. It’s also why (and I love that the Android Universe creators did their research here) the city is where it is - a space elevator needs to be as close to the equator as possible. And thus we get our cyberpunk megacity not in the north American sprawl, or east Asia (though both exist), but in Ecuador - it doesn’t always show, but it’s an interesting difference. Also, it leads to some very cool cards, and some cool card art - what I’m all about. Nisei have really made some beautiful cards in particular, the flip side of Earth Station is amazing.
*Slightly incongruous name came from when it was being built - critics and crew working on it both called Jack Weyland’s project “Jack’s Beanstalk”, implying it was a flight of fancy - and also because it’s really tall and goes up into the clouds. The name stuck, and the wealth it produces lines up with the idea of there being gold at the top of the ‘stalk.
Just going to repost this with an addition, rather than make a whole separate post for one new pic - even if it is one of my favourite IDs in the game!
I wonder (hope) if this is going to be a trend of uploading older art every now and then
Netrunner has a need for lots of different types of art - cyberspace stuff, and characters of course, but also machines, scenes and more abstract elements that make the flow of the game what it is - for illustrating corporate plots or runner schemes it isn’t always something flash that’s needed. What netrunner has always done well though was is getting serviceably good art to match the more abstract or less “typically cyberpunk” events.
The starter set as a whole has great art, a HUGE amount of effort went into it (and a not considerable amount of money), but I’d say it’s really impressive how consistent the continuity of art styles have been maintained with FFG’s work
I really need to do a proper post on Nisei and System Gateway - the new starter set for netrunner, available now HERE!, But in keeping with my typical laziness that will take a while. What I will post however is this awesome set of art done by Scott Uminga - https://www.artstation.com/scottuminga I foresee this artist becoming a staple of future netrunner releases, because his stuff is amazing! Tithe, Mayfly, Superconducting Hub, Palisade, Whitespace and Overclock - the latter chosen as art for the front of one half of Gateway!
As ever, late to the party. Art by DelBorovic, though I must admit, I didn’t find it on their pages - I found it on netrunner art instagram , who seem to be doing the same thing I’m doing but better! If you like my blog, but like regular posting, follow them! I’d love to know where they found it, as it’s new to me, and I’d like to know if there’s any other ones I don’t in their source.
In announcing their upcoming products at Worlds (hopefully still for 2020, but it’s been such a troubled year this may not be the case), Nisei also dropped the above playmat art of the re-imagined runners for their Update set, 6 FFG characters provided with awesome new art for a Nisei-produced set. It’s great to see this continuity, and existing characters maintained and updated, some retired ones returning, and all looking good to boot.
Nisei also has an article showcasing of some of their art and their artists, with links to their website here - a great resource for me as well! There’s really a lot of great stuff in the sets Nisei have produced so far.
