1) With Gateway upon us and NISEI already working actively working several cycles after Gateway, one of which is quite far along in testing, I wanted to talk a bit about the overall design goals I have for Netrunner as the lead designer, and what players can expect. A big thread!

2) The first thing is decreasing game length. My target range is in the 15 or so minute mark for an average physical game. Some decks will play longer or shorter, but I'm trying to avoid the 40 minute Gamenet grind-fests being a staple of the game.

3) The main objective in this is to just keep the game snappier and quicker to fit into a busy schedule, while also ensuring less tournament matches are going to time. Part of ensuring games are drawing to a conclusion is the next major design goal:

4) Increase the power level of win conditions across the board for runners and corps. I'm encouraging less card design be about nickel-and-dime economic interaction, and more about setting up dynamic (and interactive!) haymaker punches.

5) In keeping games more interactive, we're looking to significantly decrease the power level of ICE in the game, as well as wildly reduce ICE complexity to help encourage earlier and more frequent running throughout an entire game.

6) This has the add-on effect of being really helpful to new players learning the game. ICE that essentially gg the runner for face checking them completely discourage interaction while discouraging newer runners from interacting at all!

7) Cut the amount of text on cards by half. This mostly speaks for itself, but I'll say here that Netrunner is a WILDLY complex game from a pure rules perspective. Plenty of design space to work with without writing novels of text on all the cards we produce.

8) Retool the color pie and influence system a bit. Move influence away from "covering weaknesses" (importing Paperclip because your faction has no playable fracters) and more toward "creative deckbuilding synergy" (Importing tech trader into Hayley, or Team Sponsorship into NBN)

9) Hopefully this gives folks a good overview of my design direction since I've joined NISEI and what sorts of initiatives I'm hoping are reflecting in the design of the cards in Gateway, and the subsequent cycle you'll be hearing about, codenamed "Bashes." <3