Powerful cards count more towards this, weaker ones less. Most cards also belong to one or another faction and players can only include a limited amount of cards from outside their faction in a deck. Identities are an always on effect that gives you a slight bonus in one area, used to synergise and give direction to your deck. There are several factions of both corp and runner in the game, each with a few identity cards. You can view the current cards in a previewer here A corp rarely has the resources or tricks to cover all their bases, so a runner needs to ruthlessly exploit any weakness. To do so, they need the right tools to break through the ice, so a runner's game mostly involves scouting a corp's defenses, getting the right tools and exploiting vulnerabilities. They do this by running against the servers. The runner's job is to steal agendas, either while they're in play being built or while still in the library or the hand. If they have to discard and have no cards, they instantly lose. A lot of ice or traps deal damage, which cause the runner to discard cards. The corp can also win by 'flatlining' a runner.
Spend enough and you score it, getting victory points and usually a powerful in game effect. The corp wins by scoring agendas- server cards that you can spend clicks and money on. A corp can also set up trap servers that look like juicy targets but end up being an even harsher kick in the balls. Ice has a variety of effects, from stopping the run cold to setting the runner's brain on fire or wiring the back of their eyeball to spam them with viagra ads. This is done by using Ice, cards that are placed in front of a server which the runner must run 'through' to get at it. The runner wins by stealing a certain amount of the right cards, so the corp must prevent this as much as possible. The runner attacks these, and if they do so successfully they get to look at cards and can steal or destroy them. Their hand of cards, library and discard area are all considered servers, as are some cards you play, which are played face down. The corp tries to secure their 'servers'. As such, it's a lot harder to get utterly screwed, setbacks are generally of the more temporary nature and consequently the game revolves a lot more around maintaining and controlling tempo rather than drawing out perfect combos with reliablity. So in a turn you could draw 3, gain 3 credits, play 3 cards or any mix of these and corp or runner specific actions.
Clicks can be used to draw cards, make money, play cards and so on. Players get a certain number of 'clicks' per turn. Unlike magic, netrunner has a dynamic turn.
Because of this, it's a bit easier to predict what sort of cards and strategies your opponent is holding or planning, but in turn it's also easier for them to bluff you. Because of the LCG format, all players have access to the same cards, so deckbuilding isn't based around what you have but what you want. Most corp abilities revolve around traps, lures, bait and switch tactics and so on. In terms of gameplay, netrunner is heavily based on imperfect information, risk taking and mindgames. Due to the way the game operates, a runner is much more likely to win, so formal matches involve two games, each player playing each role once. The corp wins by holding off or crippling the runner, the runner wins by penetrating the corp's defenses and wreaking sufficient havoc. Netrunner is an assymetric game- one player plays the defensive 'corp' the other the aggressive 'runner'. It was designed by Richard Garfield, the man behind Magic the Gathering, so it shares quite a few basic structural similarities Netrunner is a fairly old card game with a cult following that has been updated and re-released by FFG under their LCG format. If you're new to the game, this thread introduces you and will grow with resources and so on over time.
This is an introduction/discussion thread for the LCG edition of Netrunner.