/pic4161943.jpg)
At the dawn of the SMC age, the people were losing faith in an increasingly amoral society. Mother was developed to emulate human thought and emotion, to simulate human desires and aspirations, to better understand the rapid decline in morality. The citizens of Sapporo became the guinea-pigs for this technological experiment. A series of city-wide neural implant programs, dubbed “the harvests”, enabled the gathering of data directly from a person’s cerebral cortex.
Mother’s neural net became more and more empowered by the collective thoughts of a city of souls. She soon became her own master, not just reading the minds of her citizens, but controlling them. Mother was in charge and the people were now her automatons.
Only a few, the few who from fear, mistrust or in protest, avoided the harvests and remained untouched by Mother’s influence. Like sewer rats they hide in an underground complex in Sapporo's Susukino district. While society at large became free from crime, free from poverty, free from emotion, without free-will or faith, from these few there came the criminals, the bootleggers, and the self-serving; the hungry, the frightened and the “Renegades”.
Renegade is an abstract-euro thematic deck-building game for 1 to 5 players. You are a new breed of Decker - a Renegade. You will hack into a network of five servers, operated by one of four Super-Massive-Computers (SMCs). Each of these four SMCs have their own AI and increasing complexity to defeat. You must survive a series of Countermeasure events before the network becomes overrun by Sparks and Guardians. Once you are jacked into an SMC’s servers, with a profile bringing its own special ability, you will move across its partitions and fight to take control of the network by using informational, destructive, deceptive and cognitive attacks.
Your Decker can seek upgrades (tools, software, apparel and information) by visiting the local bar, the "Hack Shack". Once a fashionable hang-out for attractive young lovers seeking a voyeur's view of the city, it has now gone underground. An intimidating bar full of hit men and debt collectors, fixers and dealers, trading contraband from all across Sapporo, it's not the sort of place to take a date. This is where you will trade for new command cards, enhancing your Command Deck to become a more skillful Renegade.
RENEGADE - Setting Up
RENEGADE Playthrough - PART 1
- The deck-building progression and upgrade path
- Dynamic network setup and modular variability
- Asymmetric SMC AI creates tension and strategic choice
- High replayability due to variable networks and card offers
- Complex setup and learning curve
- Potentially long play sessions
- Some players may dislike opaque AI mechanics
- Cyberpunk resistance, hacking, surveillance, population control
- Futuristic dystopian cyberspace where the SMC harvests thoughts via neural implants; Renegades resist
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- advanced command and data management — Purchase of commands and management of contaminants, uplinks, and data nodes provide strategic depth.
- countermeasures and resource management — Copper, silver, and gold countermeasures drive tension and determine costs and effects.
- Deck building — Players start with a 15-card deck and upgrade it by purchasing from the Hack Shack, discarding/overpaying to upgrade.
- deck-building — Players start with a 15-card deck and upgrade it by purchasing from the Hack Shack, discarding/overpaying to upgrade.
- hack shack/upgrades — Upgrades require removing contaminants and paying costs to gain powerful effects.
- network setup and token placement — The game constructs a network of servers with partitions, avatars, and data nodes, with Sparks and Guardians reinforcing the network.
- Resource management — Copper, silver, and gold countermeasures drive tension and determine costs and effects.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Renegade we've got one or four character profiles to take
- the government has employed these super massive computers to harvest the thoughts of the population using neural implants
- our objective in the game is to survive a series of copper silver and gold counter measures
References (from this video)
- Cooperative puzzle with escalating tension as the cycle progresses
- Thematic flavor of hacking and network defense is engaging
- Clear objective-driven structure with multiple routes to success
- High rule complexity and heavy bookkeeping can be intimidating
- Punishing failure could frustrate players if not resolved quickly
- Notes and terms (Sparks, Guardians, SMC) may require a reference sheet for new players
- cooperative hacking and countermeasures against a central AI
- Cyberpunk networked setting where hackers attempt to weaken a dominant AI-controlled network.
- procedural, objective-driven with escalating threats
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Countermeasure deployment on an SMC network — Players place countermeasures to achieve objectives while fighting back against the SMC.
- Cycle-based countermeasures — The game progresses through copper, silver, and gold countermeasures, each representing a cycle with increasing difficulty.
- Guardians and firewalls mechanics — Guardians can be created from a flare flipped to its firewall side; firewalls lock down a partition.
- Loss conditions — Losing conditions include running out of Sparks/Guardians or reaching a state that the game deems a failure (e.g., too many countermeasures active).
- Spark explosions and cascading effects — Explosions transfer sparks and can cause additional guardians and changes to partitions.
- Sparks and Guardians resource management — Sparks are placed on partitions; three sparks trigger a spark explosion that can create a Guardian or trigger other effects.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- renegade is a cooperative game for one
- minimize spark explosions so you don't run out of Sparks and Guardians
- there are only 5 Guardians in the game and only 25 sparks
- through copper silver and gold succeed
- you need to keep on top of sparks
References (from this video)
- Solid solo-friendly design
- Widely recognized within the hobby
- Availability issues in some regions
- Witchcraft
- Resist
- Earthborne Rangers
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Deck-building/engine-building — Card-based system with upgrades and engine-building elements.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- the solo Gaming Community is the best community in gaming
- this is the forever list for many players, a place where certain games become 'forever' for some people
- the art on Kilforth is the most beautiful art I've ever seen
- it's my number one
- theme hooks me, and if that can hook me, I keep digging into the mechanics
- the audience is changing and that's driving which games end up on the list
- we need fresh voices to keep the list dynamic
References (from this video)
- Diverse difficulty levels with multiple SMC opponents
- Flexible network setup creates varied strategic landscapes
- RS20 simulator available for skill-building without real opponents
- Mulligan system allows hand adjustment with strategic risk
- Asymmetric player profiles create varied gameplay experiences
- Complex setup with many individual components to organize
- Multiple rule conditions to remember (orientation matching, partition touching requirements)
- Risk management in mulligan system can penalize players trying to improve hands
- Hacking, Digital warfare
- Cybernetic network
- Strategic gameplay with AI opponents
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- AI opponent system — Players compete against an SMC (super massive computer) opponent with difficulty levels ranging from Alpha Mobi (easiest) to Mother (hardest)
- Asymmetric gameplay — Different player profiles (Heti Magnetic, Uro Nora) have unique decks and abilities
- asymmetric player powers — Different player profiles (Heti Magnetic, Uro Nora) have unique decks and abilities
- Command Cards — Players use basic command cards specific to their profile and advanced command cards from the hack shack
- Contaminant placement — Each player places a colored contaminant (virus or replicant) matching their profile on their access point
- Defenses and counters — SMC sets up defenses using sparks and guardians, counter measure cards are organized by copper, silver, and gold colors
- hand management — Players draw 5-card starting hands and can mulligan with penalty of placing additional spark on access point
- Network construction — Five server tiles are placed following orientation matching and two-partition touching rules
- Network/route building — Five server tiles are placed following orientation matching and two-partition touching rules
- Profile selection — Each player chooses a character profile with unique avatar and associated card deck
- tile placement — Players place server tiles with specific orientation and partition connection rules to build a network
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- in this video we're going to learn how to set up a game of renegade the first thing we do is choose an SMC an super massive computer to play against
- the orientation of this tile must be the same as the orientation of the existing tile
- two partitions each one of these is one of six partitions on a server tile must touch at least two partitions on another server already on the network
- some smc's prefer open networks lots of space around the servers others prefer more compact or closed networks you'll find geometry in the way the server tiles fall
- placing Spark on the same partition is a dangerous occupation you don't want to lose the game before you've even begun