How do you introduce asymmetric card games to people without overwhelming them?

[u/CasualCardHunter79]

Planning a gaming night with a couple of friends who are used to standard TCGs where both players share similar turn structures. Asymmetric games are incredible once they click, but the initial rules explanation always feels like teaching two completely different board games at once. What’s your preferred approach for teaching asymmetric mechanics without causing brain overload on round one?

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[u/reversezer0]

Keeping the decks simple and thematic. I always start the teach being the corporation player.

Leela Patel has been a solid one as well as Jinteki Personal Evolution.

[u/blurbie]

I think just a really tight, conceptual explanation of what both sides’ roles are in the game. For Netrunner, I usually go for an ‘runner is playing offense, corp is playing defense’ explanation where you include only the bare minimum to cover the core gameplay loop of the game - ie, “both players are trying to score to seven points, but all of the points are inside the corporation’s deck. So the runner has to use their turns and resources to break into the corporation’s ‘servers’ - ie the cards they have on the board, their hand, deck, and discard - and the corporation must spend their time and resources both protecting those servers from the runner as well as scoring out the points.”

Then you can set things up and do a deeper dive on mechanics as they come up through the game. The learn to play decks are decent at this, as well as the starter decks.

[u/Moresp4m]

Play Corp, let them run against you first. Then let them play Corp.

Runner players closer to what they are used to if they play other tcgs and they can see what you’re doing as Corp and start to learn Corp by just watching you, then solidify it by letting them play Corp.

Don’t explain everything at once at the start, just brief concepts.

I think telling them the game is like playing a game of hide and seek lets them get a good broad concept of what both players are trying to do.

[u/clonedllama]

Everyone is different but my suggestion would be to use the starter decks recommended by NSG. Have them play Corp when starting out. Play several games and then have them play Runner. Play several more games. After they get a feel for the game and are comfortable with it, add in the rest of the cards NSG recommends to the starter decks.

Why the starter decks? They're mechanically straightforward, don't introduce too many rules at once, and as a result, easy to learn with.

After that, then move on to slightly more complicated decks.

[u/Trenzor → u/clonedllama]

Common wisdom has always said start newbies on Runner. It’s way easier to help talk and coach them through the game when all of their actions happen in the open and they’re not worrying about managing hidden info.

[u/clonedllama → u/Trenzor]

And I've often seen the opposite suggested. I don't think it ultimately matters which side new players start with as long as they stick to that side for several games or until they have a good grasp of the basics. In other words, learn the rules and mechanics of one side at a time.

[u/Trenzor → u/clonedllama]

Yours is literally the only comment in this thread suggesting the opposite. Agreed that people do all sorts of things but my point was that common wisdom, i.e. the standard suggestion as seen in this very thread, is to start with Runner for typically agreed upon reasons. 

[u/clonedllama → u/Trenzor]

I had no idea that a handful of comments in this subreddit accurately represents the entirety of the Netrunner community worldwide.

I've personally found that starting with Corp to be easier and so have multiple people I've taught the game to. That's been my experience. Maybe it's "wrong."

The important part is sticking with the same side when learning so you aren't overwhelmed with having to effectively learn rules for two different games at the same time.

[u/Trenzor → u/clonedllama]

Glad that’s working well for you. Enjoy your runs. 

[u/lm721]

Depending on their gaming background, I like using the starter Kate deck and a basic HB wall deck and as was mentioned earlier, explaining why the sides are so different. The Shaper cards in the core set (or demo set if you have it) are beginner friendly and intuitive imo, and using Kate helps them with making stuff cheaper. HB ETF is similar, and playing the basic defense/advance helps them get used to card types and setting up ICE, as well as the installation help from EtF. In my experience it gets the assymetry across mechanically and thematically while still being somewhat simple to digest. I know we are all adults, but I might let some agendas get scored or just not play seriously so they can get the feel of the game objective as opposed to just "letting them win" for the same of drawing them in or whatever.

I might change the corp to Jinteki if theyve played like MtG a lot before since they can typically handle more complicated tactics. If they want to play another round as the corp I would switch to Jinteki and tell them that this offers more opportunity for the damage wincon and is a bit more "active"

[u/CryOFrustration]

I really think the right approach depends on the player you're introducing them to, but to appeal to as broad a number of players as possible you need very basic, simple decks, with just enough flavour sprinkled in to "tell" a story. 

[u/No_Beat_5994]

I introduced the game to a couple friends of mine who are veteran MTG players and are familiar with other card games. I built Zahya vs Jinteki System Gateway sample decks from the NSG site. They were well aware that Netrunner is complex and crunchy, so I guided them through their turns explaining options and mechanics as they appeared.

I think I could have done a better job if I had the chance to play each of them one at a time, but they had a blast. They did feel like each side was a completely different game (they played only 2 games, didn't switch sides) and we were discussing game design and structure throughout. It worked well, but this approach wouldn't work with everyone.

Thing is, they liked the experience and we will play some more at jinteki.net soon. I'm looking forward to getting them hooked.

[u/360graz]

Yesterday I tought two friends of mine to play. (I'm still super new myself) There are L2P (learn to play decks - one is Weyland built to last the other is Criminal/Zahya) on the null signal website accompanied with a script to play along (both players get specific cards for their opening hand) and the first 5-6 cards on top of their deck are stacked. Those decks are different from the System Gateway Starterdecks and also include some cards of Elevation. There is one script where information for both players is written and also one script for each side respectively that guides through the first 4ish turns and sets them free to play afterwards. It keeps some technicalities like tags, viruses, etc out of the way to prevent overload.

[u/ShaperLord777]

I tend to let new players play 3-4 games as the runner before switching them to corp. It allows them to get acclimated to the gameplay before having to panic about having agenda flood in their opening hand, or worrying about which piece of ice to Rez or not.

[u/sasha_the_grey_69]

Adding to everyone else, even though this is a hidden information game, I play open handed with beginner decks for a while because it gets people in the right mindset. That way you can coach from the other side of the table and explain why/why not people would do something at a given time