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Android: Archived Memories

Published 23 May 2016 | Android

Android: Archived Memories

Insights from the Developers of the Android Universe

Lately, the Android universe has been enjoying a healthy growth spurt, and over the past several months, fans have been able to see larger and clearer pictures of the setting that first debuted as part of the innovative Android board game:

Android: Netrunner continues to lure players into its Network and adds new richness to SanSan, Mumbad, and the virtual realm as it pits countless Runners and Corps against each other in a never-ending quest for cyber-dominance.
The Worlds of Android lends color your table or bookshelf and serves as your definitive guide to the not-too-distant future.
Our upcoming Android novellas offer a deeper look at several fan-favorite characters and corporations.
And the recent release of Android: Mainframe permits runners with the rare opportunity to ignore the threats posed by sentries, code gates, and other cybersecurity, and instead focus on outmaneuvering each other in a twenty-three-second, no-holds-barred race for cash and glory within the defenseless servers of Titan Transnational Bank.

Through all these books and games, we have streams of data, flowing and pooling together, filling servers upon servers with more information about the Android universe. Accordingly, we like to check in with the developers from time to time to update our feeds and our brainmaps, and to get a better sense of how everything Android all fits together.

These are our Archived Memories articles, and today we get another look at the Android universe from one of the people most responsible for the setting's continued growth and development. Android: Netrunner developer Lukas Litzsinger discusses what the setting and its themes add to your cat-and-mouse cyberstruggles between Corp and Runner.

Lukas Litzsinger

Lukas Litzsinger is the designer and developer responsible for taking the original Netrunner collectible card game and updating it for the Living Card Game® format as Android: Netrunner. He was also the lead developer on the game for its early expansions and, as such, has had a tremendous impact on both the shape of Android: Netrunner and the ongoing evolution of the Android universe.

FFG: Hi Lukas, let’s talk about how the people, companies, and themes of the Android universe have impacted the design of Android: Netrunner. For starters, when you were working on the Core Set and the first cycles of expansions, what sort of adjustments did you have to make to fit the original game and its cards into the Android universe?

LL: The main difference between the original release and the LCG is the introduction of factions. Once we had established factions, I found it relatively straight-forward to assign cards to those factions without making too many changes to them. But the Corp factions, in particular, are integral to the LCG and the direct result of the Android universe. It is impossible to imagine the setting without the rivalry between Haas-Bioroid and Jinteki.

FFG: When did you start exploring more new card designs, and at that point, how much did you draw inspiration for your new designs from the established elements of the Android universe?

LL: I started designing new cards immediately with the Core Set. All of the identities, obviously, were new. But the Core Set and the first cycle had many more “reprints” from the original Netrunner than the later sets. One of the first things I would do in each set was review the original cards that we had not yet reprinted and figure out if we could use them or a revised version of them. As time went on, I would find fewer and fewer, and I think it was around the Lunar Cycle that I stopped looking at the original cards altogether.

It was also around the time of the Lunar Cycle that I began to think of each cycle as more of a physical entity that could represent a time and place in the Android universe. Previously, the game's cycles had identities driven by mechanical goals for the game and for each faction, but I found the complete sets to be much more compelling when we paired the cycle with a theme from the Android source material.

FFG: Can you elaborate a bit on the idea that each cycle was a physical entity that could represent a time and place in the Android universe?

LL: Sure. To a lot of our players, the Android universe is a vehicle for the game. And if you present it to those players piecemeal, on a card-by-card basis, that is all it will ever be. Without playing the board game, or reading the novels, it is hard to get a sense of what is really going on behind the cards other than snippets. By focusing on a specific place, like the Moon, SanSan, or Mumbad, we are able to give players more context about what they are seeing. These places begin to feel more real, because you talk about them more.

In the SanSan Cycle, each district has its own unique identity, and you can explore it one district at a time. The Data Packs become little portals into the universe, almost like different levels in an open-world video game.

FFG: Okay, since you mentioned SanSan, the SanSan Cycle was the first that themed each Data Pack individually, even as it focused on a number of different locations in “meat space.” How was the experience of working on that cycle different than working on the previous cycles?

LL: Very different. Up until that point, cards were not assigned to their individual packs until the end of testing. Basically, we created a 120-card set, then broke it down into six packs of twenty cards each. We would look for balance of theme, mechanics, and power level in each pack. Starting with SanSan, each pack was assigned cards at the very beginning of the design process. This meant that the theme of each pack had to be considered from the very beginning, and that it was harder to adjust the order of a card’s release at the end of the process. But the overall benefits of having a clear theme and sticking to it through a single pack was worth this loss of flexibility.

If we had created the SanSan Cycle as a 120 card block, I guarantee you that it would be incredibly different. Working with our own intellectual property is a double-edged sword. You have incredible creative freedom. This can lead to amazing ideas, but it can just as easily lead to lazy ideas. By focusing on specific districts in SanSan, it required us to get more creative when we wanted to create an effect for a card. The temporary “check-out” policy on London Library (Breaker Bay, 29), for instance, was a direct result of the name of the card.

FFG: How has the growth of Android: Netrunner impacted the development of the Android universe?

LL: The growth of Android: Netrunner has definitely led us to explore the universe in more detail than we ever could have before. Among other things, it led to the formation of the Android story group. The group originally consisted of myself, our fiction editor, the game's art director, and Dan Clark, creative content guru and co-creator of the universe. Our Vice President of Product Development presided over the group. The group’s responsibility was to generate ideas to flesh out more of the Android universe and make sure that we remained internally consistent. Much of the story group's work can be seen in the recently released The Worlds of Android, which is a beautiful 272-page book that goes into great detail about the universe.

FFG: What have you enjoyed the most about working in the Android universe?

LL: We are fast approaching a world where our cars drive themselves, and the things we buy are dropped into our laps via drones. With the advent of an automated workforce, robots and AIs will be a real threat to our economy and livelihoods. But the technology that takes us there will drastically improve the lives of millions at the same time. This dichotomy is really at the heart of the corps in Android: Netrunner, and exploring the moral ambiguity of such a post-human society is fascinating. While it might seem like the future as depicted in the Android universe is far-off, I think it is much closer than many of us realize.

Game designer Lukas Litzsinger

FFG: You’ve recently stepped down from the lead developer role on Android: Netrunner, handing the reins to Damon Stone. Are you still playing any part in the Android universe?

LL: I am still a member of the story team, but after helping out with the Flashpoint Cycle that Damon led, I am now hands-off on the design side. I will always feel a strong connection to the IP and the game, but it is important to make sure that the game evolves.

FFG: Okay, to close... do you have a favorite character from the Android setting, and what makes that character stand out?

LL: I definitely love the enigmatic g00ru. He or she or it is the legendary hacker that is revered almost as a prophet among other runners. How can you separate the human from the myth? One of the conceits of the game is that a single individual can have a large impact on the world around them, and we see the impact of g00ru in all of the runner factions.

FFG: All right, we're done, then. Thanks, Lukas!

Where Do We Go from Here?

Where do Android: Netrunner and the Android universe go from here?

As Lukas steps down from lead development on Android: Netrunner, he passes the opportunity to use the game to explore the Android universe to fellow LCG developer Damon Stone. With his previous work on A Game of Thrones: The Card Game and Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game, Damon has amply demonstrated his ability to blend themes and mechanics, and he's already had a hand in developing a good number of cards for Android: Netrunner, as well as the runner-versus-runner struggles of Android: Mainfame.

In our next Android: Archived Memories, we'll present our interview with Damon Stone and discuss some of what he has in store for Android: Netrunner and the Android universe.

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Access Granted

Published 10 March 2016 | The Worlds of Android

Access Granted

The Worlds of Android Art and Setting Book Is Now Available

//25 September, 0517 - New Angeles time
The crime scene was chaotic: a riot of blood, street trash, and bodies. Floyd 2X3A7C’s sensor suite swept the scene, parsing all at once the individual blood spatter patterns, the cooling IR traces drifting from the corpses, and the distinct chemical formula of human sweat, urine, and pheromones that combined to spell fear and death.

The world has changed. People have not. Discover the secrets of the Android universe with The Worlds of Android, the Android art and setting book, now available at retailers throughout the United States!

A hardbound book of 272 beautiful, full-color pages, The Worlds of Android is divided into three major sections that immerse you deep in the Android universe. The first guides you through the four defining technological innovations of the not-too-distant future. The second section surveys the cultures and trajectories of the largest megacities, nations, and off-world colonies. Finally, the book closes with an exploration of how humanity has chosen to interface with its new technologies—and the possibilities they have created.

Click on the image above to download the table of contents (pdf, 1.4 MB).

…“What about the bioroid parts? Could a golem have done this?” asked Jiménez.

Floyd looked at him, “The First Directive prohibits a bioroid from harming a human. That protocol overrides all other subroutines, including those for self-defense or carrying out instructions. This is most likely the work of an augmented human.”

Floyd’s sensors had scanned the blood pool again during the exchange. Something contradicted his theory, and now a lingering doubt was worming its way into his logic processes.

“Fine, fine,” said Jiménez. “So, three Human First members pick a fight with a ‘borg who proceeds to beat them to death with their sledgehammer, all the while not taking even a single hit.”

In the center of the blood pool lay a piece of twisted plastic; Floyd recognized it immediately as part of bioroid torso. A support strut, found between the shoulder and base of the neck to be precise, equivalent to a human collarbone.

“Floyd? Is that what happened? Floyd!”

The plastic lay on top of the blood; other than a little splash back, the piece was clean, which meant it must have fallen onto the blood pool. An unexpected subroutine blossomed in Floyd’s mind, and he was immediately connected to Director Haas’s private terminal.

“Floyd? Are you even listening to me? Are you saying this was a cyborg or not?”

Floyd turned to look at Detective Jiménez. “I apologize, Detective. I am unable to adequately process your query.”

In many ways, it is this third section that is the heart of The Worlds of Android. As we saw in our last preview, science fiction demands not just the introduction of some fantastic, futuristic technology, but a human response to the introduction of that technology. The Worlds of Android has this in spades.

__Art. Information. Science Fiction.

From the use of brain-machine interfaces in modern war efforts to the criminal exploitation of the Network for personal gain, from the resentment of the android workforce to the questions of clone spirituality, The Worlds of Android presents a humanity that is every bit as recognizable as the world's technologies are advanced.

This vision of humanity gives the Android setting its edge. It makes it engaging. For all of its space travel and jacking into the Network, The Worlds of Android presents a world so immediately recognizable we almost feel we can step into it.

Of course, it helps that this world is brought to life not only in the abstract, through a presentation of facts. Instead, we have it blasted before us in brilliant full-color. The book is loaded with stunning imagery, including fold-out gatefolds, and it's not just imagery that smacks of color.

Short fiction pieces have been scattered throughout the book, each offering another entry point into the world and another take on its various news and issues. There's not one way to view the corps. There's more than one side to the terraforming of Mars. The Android universe is one that's rich with diversity, and that means, too, a diversity of points-of-view.

//Hack into the Not-Too-Distant Future

Does your interest in the Android universe stem from your love of one of the many great games set within it? Are you interested primarily in the ways that its science fictive technologies cast current issues in a new light? Are you intrigued by the possibilities of braintaping and bioroids and the questions they ask of what it means to be human?

Satisfy your curiosity about the Android universe. Feast your eyes on dozens of pieces of beautiful new artwork. Discover vibrant personalities. The Worlds of Android is now available throughout the United States. Availability in other regions may vary. Pick up your copy today!

…Seconds ticked into minutes without his searchers finding anything useful or interesting, and Noise grew frustrated, then nervous. He was about to ditch everything when one of his subroutines returned a vid file. A quick secscan revealed nothing dangerous, so he opened it.
Images of a hallway, strewn with bodies, their faces hidden by armored visors. Something passed over them, a lithe humanoid shape of dubious gender with long hair, moving faster than any human had a right to move…

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Worlds of Gray

Published 22 February 2016 | The Worlds of Android

Worlds of Gray

A Look at the Moral Complexity of The Worlds of Android

Hello, my name is Viktor 3.1, and I will be your gatekeeper today. The room before you is closed to all unauthorized persons. Please present your right eye to the screen for a retinal scan…
Thank you, Doctor DeLisle. Your identity has been confirmed. Security has you listed at Green Level Clearance. Welcome to the Project Vitruvius database.

The Worlds of Android is now on its way to retailers, and you'll soon have your chance to crack open its lavishly illustrated pages and delve more deeply than ever into the not-too-distant future of the Android universe.

Within its 272 hardbound pages, The Worlds of Android touches upon many different things. It is an art book, featuring scores of fantastic new art pieces. And it is your ultimate Android setting guide, offering insight into the four major corporations and how their technologies reshaped the Earth, Moon, and Mars. However, The Worlds of Android is even more than this; it is also a major endeavor of science fiction, one that explores the Android setting from multiple points of view.

"Science fiction, we now see, is interested in more than sciences, more than machines. That more is always men and women and children themselves, how they behave, how they hope to behave."
–Ray Bradbury

If you're not paying attention, you might think that science fiction is all about the fictional science. After all, it tends to be littered with flying cars, talking robots, laser weapons, and similar tropes. The truth, however, is that these things are only the vehicles that carry science fiction toward its true target—human interaction.

Different authors have offered varying definitions of the genre, but they all more or less agree that the incredible technologies you'll find within science fiction stories are only interesting insofar as they lead to an exploration of how they could influence human behavior or what they prove about human nature.

It is this human element that concerns us today as Fiction Editor Katrina Ostrander reminds us that it is the overwhelmingly gray morality of the Android setting that makes it exciting and gives it its edge.

//Fiction Editor Katrina Ostrander on the Morality of The Worlds of Android

It’s easy to jump into the Android universe with the default cyberpunk assumption: megacorporations and governments are monolithic and evil, and the characters we should be rooting for are the disenfranchised renegades who have dared to take them on despite being outclassed, outnumbered, and presumably outmatched.

But nothing is so simple. The Android universe isn't neatly divided into good or bad, black or white. As in our reality, governments are still independent entities. They can be influenced by all kinds of special interests, from manufacturers to labor unions to consumer protection groups. Megacorps are neither good nor evil. They are complex institutions run by boards of directors and operating in service to their stockholders. Most importantly, their pursuit of profit has, in fact, made life better for billions of people worldswide. This moral ambiguity is central to The Worlds of Android, and its exploration of the major corps and their products covers everything from their tremendous contributions to the human race to their more dubious practices and policies.

"The corporations do what they do because they have the money and will to shape the future. Profiting from the advances they make is no crime. Who would seek to disrupt such a future?"
–Caprice Nisei

As one example, the Beanstalk began as one man’s idea to change the world. Jack Weyland saw an opportunity to revolutionize space travel, and it has made corps like Weyland and Melange Mining massively rich and powerful. Since then, these corporations, like every other corporation throughout the history of humanity, have sought new ways to leverage their power and wealth, ways that have little or nothing to do with Jack Weyland's original vision for the Beanstalk, yet the corporations' actions have made them frequent targets for social protests and criminal retaliation. At the same time, the good that resulted from the Beanstalk cannot be denied. It allowed humans to truly begin colonizing Luna and Mars, and the lower gravity on Luna has made the colonies there a prime retirement destination for the world’s senior citizens, allowing increasing numbers of people to live out their days in comfort.

Similarly, the androids made by Haas-Bioroid and Jinteki are neither good nor evil. But they have created a disposable labor force, taking the jobs that are too dangerous or too onerous for humans. As a result, humanity enjoys greater productivity than it ever has, and many jobs that were previously made impossible by the limitations of the human physiology are now moving squarely into the realm of the possible. But whether or not you believe these corporations are working in favor of humanity tends to depend upon your point of view. Those people pushed to the margins of the redefined workforce tend to view Haas-Bioroid and Jinteki in oppositional terms, often relating them to their products as though they were every bit as cold or processed as their androids.

"Let's gather up the bits and pieces and define the Simon-pure science fiction story: 1. The conditions must be, in some respect, different from here-and-now, although the difference may lie only in an invention made in the course of the story. 2. The new conditions must be an essential part of the story. 3. The problem itself—the "plot"—must be a human problem. 4. The human problem must be one which is created by, or indispensably affected by, the new conditions. 5. And lastly, no established fact shall be violated."
–Robert A. Heinlein

The truth of the situation is that despite some of the changes in the labor market, Haas-Bioroid and Jinteki—like most corps—are still primarily staffed by people, with all the variety and conflict that entails. Genegineers at Jinteki or executives at Haas-Bioroid can be heroes or villains, altruists or criminals. Many of the people that work for the corps are idealists, trying to better the world. Some are cynical, looking out only for themselves out of perceived necessity. The major difference between these corporate employees and those who work outside of the corps is the sheer scale of the companies for which they work, so that the good or ill of their contributions may be amplified or muted to the extreme, depending upon their measure of influence.

The Worlds of Android gives us a glimpse into the minds of several corporate employees: the lives they lead and the principles they uphold. Advances by entrepreneur scientists like MirrorMorph’s Mara Blake have taken neural channeling to new heights, helping to produce highly advanced bioroids capable of detective work for the NAPD. On the other hand, rumors abound of the “Cleaners” employed by the Weyland Consortium to cover up their own negligence and abuses… Who are those people that work for Pensions and Retirement, really?

The corps are many things to many people. The risties and the upper middle class rely on the corps to give them the way of life they have come to expect from their penthouses and suites within New Angeles’s towering arcologies. But for the common man, many of these luxuries are out of reach or worse, have dislodged them from the labor market. Do the drawbacks outweigh the benefits? Do the corps deserve our admiration or admonition? One’s view of the corps in the Android universe depends entirely on where in the social order you rank, and what you stand to gain or lose.

__Future Humanity

What do androids mean for the future of humanity? How will space elevators affect the rich and the poor? What does the Network mean to a disenfranchisto who can't afford to feed her child, much less provide him the advantages of g-modding? Why do we continue to direct so many of our brightest minds toward the design of weapons and instruments of war?

"Above all, science fiction, as far back as Plato trying to figure out a proper society, has always been a fable teacher of morality… There is no large problem in the world this afternoon that is not a science-fictional problem."
–Ray Bradbury

For all of its focus on new technologies and new horizons, The Worlds of Android remains profoundly human. Its fiction is compelling because of its immediacy. What will you find when you pick up your copy of The Worlds of Android? After all, when we read science fiction, more than anything else, we are reading about ourselves.

Vitruvius trial #45718.3 (Classified: Green Level Clearance) – The bioroid's upgraded neural network is now limited primarily by the quality of the brain taping process. We are currently able to retain 99.99348% of all of the subject's brain activity. The question is what aren't we capturing in that final 0.00652%, and would we miss it?

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Visions of the Future

Published 12 February 2016 | The Worlds of Android

Visions of the Future

A Look at the Worlds of The Worlds of Android

__Good morning. Your daily crawler report is ready, and your 5N00P.1 bug has detected new data activity within the previously dormant feed 87M.2.2, designation "Weyland: Mars." Would you like to connect?

The secrets of the Android universe are yours to discover in The Worlds of Android, coming soon to a retailer near you!

Within this beautiful, 272-page hardbound setting guide and art book, you'll find information about the corps, cultures, and technologies of the not-too-distant future. With its full-color art, stunning gatefolds, and a polyphony of narrative voices, The Worlds of Android offers an entry to the Android universe that is every bit as immersive as a full-immersion run on the Network.

So, what is full-immersion? How does it feel to conduct a run on corporate servers? How has the development of the Beanstalk enriched humanity? What's happening on Mars? The Worlds of Android provides the answers to these questions, along with many others.

At the same time, The Worlds of Android is likely to raise nearly as many questions as it answers. While the future of The Worlds of Android may have been shaped by the development of bioroids, clones, the space elevator, and the Network, it is defined by its humanity—an all-too-familiar assortment of all the best and worst that humans bring to all that they touch. The world has changed, but our ambitions, greed, and political strife remain the same. We still pursue happiness, seek newer and better forms of entertainment, and look to aid our neighbors or combat them in bloody wars.

And all our actions still have consequences, whether for good or ill…

Between the rising sea levels and biome shifts, the War, and the colonization of Mars and Earth’s moon, the geography of human civilization has changed more in the past century than ever before.

Scheduled to arrive at retailers in March, The Worlds of Android is divided into three major sections. The first of these offers a closer look at the Android universe's four most important megacorps and their technological advances. The second looks at the many ways that the world has changed—along with the ways that its concerns have extended to Luna and Mars. The third explores what it means to be human in a time of androids and data streams that can feed directly into the brain, interpreted with bleeding-edge software.

It is the second section that concerns us today, especially as it sheds new light on the continents and settlements that lie farthest from New Angeles, the Beanstalk, and the hub of most materials set within the Android universe to-date. From New Angeles and the North American megacities of BosWash, ChiLo, and SanSan, The Worlds of Android leads us to South America, where Brazil and Ecuador are enjoying a renaissance of prosperity and influence. You'll also learn about the decline of Europe and Central Asia and differing trajectories of the nations of Southeast Asia and Australia.

"…Smoke plumed from food vendors; cattle brayed; drums pounded, the religious revelers proving undaunted by the weather. The last dregs of sunlight were blocked by millions of hoppers jostling for position in Mumbad’s three-tiered skylanes overhead."

The nations of East Asia still bear scars from the War, whether they be physical or political. And while we learn that clones outnumber bioroids by more than two to one in Japan, owing to Jinteki's influence, we also learn that China is still struggling to recover from the Blackout and regain the economy, influence, and potential it previously enjoyed. Nonetheless, the nation remains a major power with serious ambitions, and New Beijing is in talks to finance the development of a second space elevator in Kampala, Uganda. The scientists on the project have not yet replicated the buckyweave tether that allowed Weyland to raise the original Beanstalk, but it may only be a matter of time… which bears the obvious question of how a second space elevator would affect Weyland's business.

Have you ever heard that “Jinteki has nothing on Martians’ ability to clone themselves”?

It may be a joke, but fertility treatments and g-mods are necessary given the hazards of the open solar wind. We do our own, though. Jinteki may have bought out those labs a few years back, but several of the reproductive patents were made public before they moved in, so they’re in clan hands now. J’s not happy about it and is aggressively buying up everything else, peddling whatever g-mods they can convince us to buy. I’ll admit, some of them are pretty decent, but are you willing to have an advantage if it means giving the copyright on your genes to Jinteki?

Of course, there's more than one world represented in The Worlds of Android, and the book's second chapter also explores life on Luna and Mars. Not only does it offer a wealth of information about the settling of these two locations, it goes into terrific depth about the layout, enterprise, and culture of both Heinlein and Bradbury, the major Martian settlement. You'll also find some gorgeous, two-page maps and a full-color gatefold of Heinlein that reveals what you see of the colony above the moon's surface is only a small portion of the whole.

More importantly, because questions about human nature pervade all of the Android universe, The Worlds of Android makes sure to touch upon hot nightclubs, criminal organizations, and social mores. And for all that technology has changed humanity, people are still people, as evidenced in the book’s brief history of the Worlds War and the Martian Colony Wars, along with the short pieces of fiction that offer a window into the lives of those who lived through them.

…incursions on each other’s territory is tantamount to a declaration of corporate war.

Altogether, there's plenty within the book's 272 pages to satisfy your initial curiosity. But once you've explored humanity's reach beyond the borders of New Angeles and the Network, you're likely to find yourself asking, "What next? Where does it lead? And what role are the corps playing in all of this?" For all the answers you'll find to the questions that have long been haunting you, there's just as much that's likely to further whet your appetite for the Android universe and its fantastically recognizable future.

<Query: When does it all begin?>

The not-too-distant future of The Worlds of Android is likely closer than you think. If you haven't already pre-ordered your copy at your local retailer, you'll want to be sure to do so today. Then, be sure to share this article on Facebook so that we can unleash a horde of zombie bots against NBN's servers, crash them, and access more images from The Worlds of Android!

Crawler.BugManager <UPDATE: filepaths-rerouted; data-accessed; imagemaps-updated>

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A Mirror to the Soul

Published 1 December 2015 | The Worlds of Android

A Mirror to the Soul

Android Universe Co-Creator Dan Clark on the Androids of The Worlds of Android

She sent her red pieces against the white, disrupting the patterns of their movement. A red pawn caught the attention of a bishop, which in turn called in a knight. The red pawn was a ghost—a phantom trace to nowhere, sacrificial and harmless. More red pawns were intercepted by more white bishops. A frenzy of white knights attacked enemies that didn’t exist, and a hole opened in the server’s defenses. She sent in a rook and the chessboard collapsed.
She was in.

…Access granted.

Sometimes in real-life, as in the high-stakes cyberstruggles between the Corps and Runners of the Android universe, one split-second makes all the difference between getting what you want and getting slagged. This is the case today, December 1st, as we punch through corporate servers and unlock a preview of The Worlds of Android.

With just enough time for us to rez it before the special The Worlds of Android pre-order window closes—and your opportunity to upload a copy of The Worlds of Android Pre-Order Premium is forever lost in the ether—Android universe co-creator Dan Clark provides us a look at the setting's namesake androids and how they serve as windows to the soul.

Can a machine think?

Can it reason, compare, contrast, and respond?

What are the parameters for true intelligence?

Story time: Years ago, FFG released a dice roller app for our Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay system on iOS.

“But where,” the outcry came, “is the Android version?”

I wanted to post an April Fool’s announcement in response: “Well, there are no dice in the Android board game, but people really wanted a dice roller app for it, so we changed the rules and are now releasing an Android dice roller app. In iOS.”

Thankfully, we didn’t do that. But at the time, for me, the incident offered me a nostalgic glance back at my most-beloved game and most-beloved setting, one to which I never expected to return. Boy, was I wrong.

By now, you probably know the rest of the story: Android novels, followed by heist-game Infiltration, followed by Android: Netrunner—each offered another chance for us to visit the setting and look at it from a new angle. Over the course of time, it became obvious that the Android setting had legs, that we loved to play in it, and our fans loved to explore it with us. The Worlds of Android setting book was the next obvious step.

As the setting has gone through its many iterations, it has evolved. Some things have just flat-out changed from first appearance to final form, but others have been consistently core to the stories, with small refinements, for years and years—mostly, and I think most importantly, the androids that give the setting its name.

"Neural conditioning: A term for the process of using (usually non-invasive) BMI technology to stimulate a clone brain, which shapes its connectome, until it matches the desired braintape."

The androids—the bioroids of Haas-Bioroid and the clones from Jinteki Biotech—are absolutely fundamental to the setting and to many or even most of the stories that we tell within our games and books. They’re a reflection of us and our society, and a vehicle by which we explore the Android universe's main themes.

THE CONSTRUCTION OF BIOROIDS

…The actual construction of a bioroid begins with a series of braintapes, or digital models of the human mind. Each braintape is unique, and Haas-Bioroid’s computational neuroscientists distill and synthesize the desired skill sets and personalities from each in a process called neural channeling. This forms the blueprint for the bioroid’s optical brain, a complex network of linked microcom- puters that forms a series of neural path- ways similar to a human connectome—a diagram of all the neural connections on a cellular level. These microcomputers are what give the bioroid its personality as well as its ability to learn and adapt…

Androids are like us, but different. They’re tools created by gargantuan megacorps, and they're tools by which we can explore what it means to be human.

Clones have mostly human DNA and have bodies very similar to ours, but their brains are different. Additionally, their conditioning makes them surprisingly alien in manner and thinking. In some ways, a clone may have more in common with a dog than with a human being.
Bioroids have bodies that only vaguely resemble a human beings, but their artificial brains are lovingly-crafted copies of the real thing.

Here we have questions: Which is more human, the clone or the bioroid? And how human-like do either of these androids have to be before we find ourselves observing a distinction with no real difference? If one of the themes of Android is the question of what it is to be human, then androids are the most obvious example of that theme in action. (But not they're not the only example… There’s also cyberware, g-modding, transhumanism, the Temple of the Liberated Mind, and plenty of other stuff, too!)

The androids of our future are useful tools for exploring the rifts in our society today—the "othering" of minority groups, racial hatred, religious hatred, discriminatory hatred of all sorts, and all the old prejudices that the Android setting has thankfully outgrown. By making androids the oppressed minority, they become a stand-in for many social ills of today, and a vehicle for commentary.

If one of the themes of Android is that the more things change, the more they stay the same, then androids let us emphasize both sides of that equation. Androids are emblematic of how profoundly the world of Android has changed from the one we know today, and the hatreds and controversies surrounding them are the same as (or at least can serve as stand-ins for) the social issues with which we’re familiar.

Finally, androids allow us to examine the ages-old question of science-fiction: does technology improve human lives or diminish them? The question doesn’t have a simple answer, and androids show this. On the one hand, they’re incredibly useful and helpful, able to perform jobs too dangerous for humans, able to maintain perfect focus and function in stressful situations over the long term (think at-home medical care), and flat out more capable than humans in certain arenas. On the other hand, they come with a massive social cost, from the wave of unemployment created by their ubiquity to the ethical concerns that revolve around the ownership, buying, and selling of creations that might just be considered human.

There’s a reason that the only full-length trilogy of Android novels features an android as the protagonist. Androids, more than anything else, are the most fascinating and compelling centerpiece of the Android setting. At least, that’s my argument. What do you think?

::WARNING:: DESTROYER-CLASS SENTINEL DETECTED!

There's little time left. It's December 1st, and The Worlds of Android Pre-Order Premium ends tonight. Act now to pick up your copy – along with its special playmat and art prints – before the pre-order window closes and your connection drops.

In the meantime, you can visit The Worlds of Android website for an excerpt of the foreword by the setting's other co-creator, Kevin Wilson. Just be sure to also keep your eyes open for more previews of the book's art and information!

The server’s defenses had been good. Much better than she had expected. She set a timer, sending a mental signal through her BMI and into her skinsuit to terminate the connection in two minutes, the average reboot time for a defense grid like the one she’d just penetrated. Then she cut the time in half.

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Larger Than Life

Published 11 November 2015 | The Worlds of Android

Larger Than Life

Take Advantage of The Worlds of Android Pre-Order Premium

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Keyhole.DataExtract <FilePurgeInitiated>
…Data Recovered
…Enhance Resolution

Recently, we announced the upcoming release of The Worlds of Android, your definitive guide to Android setting and its unique vision of the future. A beautiful, 272-page hardbound setting guide and art book, The Worlds of Android features full-color art, stunning gatefolds, and a polyphony of narrative voices.

Immediately, fans unlocked several snippets of these voices and art pieces by sharing their interest in the book with others via social media. Online forums dedicated to Android: Netrunner buzzed with excitement as players expressed their interest in viewing more of the book's art and learning more about the different cities and worlds to which the card game might someday take them. Now, we are pleased to announce that you have unlocked yet another server and accessed an even richer prize.

Available for pre-order until December 1st, The Worlds of Android Pre-Order Premium offers collectors unsurpassed access to the immense diversity of human experience in the futuristic, fictional universe made famous by Android: Netrunner and the Android board game. And it's scheduled to arrive to U.S. residents in time for the holidays!

<Query: What's inside the box?>

The Worlds of Android Pre-Order Premium is more than a book. It's a hi-res look at the Android universe that comes complete with androids, space elevators, and a human touch.

One hardbound copy of The Worlds of Android signed by Android universe co-creator Dan Clark.
An exclusive playmat featuring Amelie Hutt's stunning depiction of the New Angeles skyline
Four high-quality art prints, measuring 12" by 18", with visionary work by David Nash , Liiga Smilshkalne , Matthew Zeilinger , and Timothy Ben Zweifel

Altogether, The Worlds of Android Pre-Order Premium is the closest you can come to jacking directly into the Network and sifting through corporate archives for all their darkest secrets and most profitable projects. But it's only available for a limited time, so be certain to pre-order your copy now!

The Worlds of Android Pre-Order Premium must be ordered separate from other products and ships separately from other products.

Enhance.Resolution

Whether you order The Worlds of Android Pre-Order Premium for yourself or as a gift for a friend, it offers the most detailed and most vivid look at life in the future that you will find anywhere.

Enhance your living space with its art prints. Enhance your gaming space with its exclusive playmat. Enrich your knowledge of the Android universe by reading the book and imprinting your brain with its vibrant imagery. Just be sure to place your order today.

Then, as you wait for your order to arrive, you can learn more about The Worlds of Android from our announcement article and description page, and you can keep an eye to your monitor for future previews. You can even help unlock additional data by sharing this article with your friends on Facebook and Twitter!

All orders for The Worlds of Android Pre-Order Premium must be received by December 1st, 2015. The Worlds of Android Pre-Order Premium is scheduled to arrive to customers throughout the United States in time for the holidays. All shipping is postal. Shipping to customers outside of the United States may take additional time. This is a special promotion designed for individual customers. Retailers may not apply their standard discounts.

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The Worlds of Android

Published 21 October 2015 | The Worlds of Android

The Worlds of Android

Your Definitive Guide to the Android Universe

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Crypsis.PasswordOverride <SetPassword=******************>
…Password Accepted
…Access Granted

Scheduled for release later this year, The Worlds of Android is a beautiful, 272-page hardbound book and your access point to a deeper understanding of the Android setting and its unique depiction of the not-too-distant future!

In the rich, fictional setting made popular by Android: Netrunner and the Android board game, the world has changed, but people have not. Technological advances have dramatically reshaped daily life, making work more efficient and play more convenient than ever before. Earth is dotted by massive megacities, millions of people inhabit settlements on the Moon and Mars, and the nature of humanity itself has been redefined by the introduction of clones and true artificial intelligence. Still, the rich use these technologies to grow richer, and the disparity between the "haves" and the "have nots" has widened to staggering extremes by the solar system's four largest megacorps: Haas-Bioroid, Jinteki, NBN, and the Weyland Consortium.

This future, its technology, its major players, and its many conflicts lie at the heart of The Worlds of Android. Within its lavishly illustrated pages, which feature scores of new art pieces, you'll find the archived secrets of Haas-Bioroid, Jinteki, NBN, and the Weyland Consortium. You'll learn how their inventions have shaped the course of human history, both for better and for worse. You'll receive a guided tour of Heinlein and Bradbury. You'll find the Android setting's astonishing diversity reflected by a panoply of voices and media, including fiction, stunning gatefolds, and technical diagrams.

<Run Archives>

/FetchDaemon Installed
…RootFilePath Detected
…Uploading Files…

…How dangerous are brain-machine interfaces?
           …Will there ever be a second space elevator?
    …Who incited the Lunar Insurrection?
                    …What are Haas-Bioroid and Jinteki really doing on Mars?

You'll find these answers—and more—compiled within The Worlds of Android. Search the data assembled in this gorgeous setting guide, and you may sate your curiosity. Or you may find that as you delve deeper into the Android setting, you merely uncover more intrigues. Corporate scandals. Human interest stories. Murder mysteries. Urban legends. Theological musings. If you're not careful, you may easily find yourself following the data streams all the way through a rabbit hole and into the darkest, uncharted spaces of the Shadow Net.

__It Is the Future.

Between the early twenty-first century and the time of Android, four innovations transformed human existence: brainmapping, vat-grown clones, the Network, and the New Angeles Space Elevator. The Worlds of Android is divided into three major sections, and the first introduces these four ground-breaking innovations as well as the corporations that drove them and whose vast influence now permeates every aspect of life.

You'll find personalized, unfiltered takes on the robotic bioroids and mass-produced clones that make up a substantial proportion of the modern workforce, as well as the rival megacorporations Haas-Bioroid and Jinteki, who produce them. You’ll enter the private domains of these corporations’ shrewd and secretive leaders, Director Cynthia Haas and Chairman Satoshi Hiro, and also hear from their critics and detractors.

<Query: is NBN more than the Network?>

The third corp covered in the book's first section is NBN, whose rise is tied directly to the rise of the Network and its sprawling infrastructure. However, NBN is much more than the Network, as you'll discover in The Worlds of Android. It is the world’s main producer of news, threedees, games, sense-dramas, and any other kind of data you would want to access via your PAD (personal access device). NBN also manages your credaccount, helps you stay connected with family, and collaborates with numerous governments in combating cybercrime.

Meanwhile, no corporation has had a more visible impact on the world's landscape than the Weyland Consortium. Chief among the company's accomplishments is the New Angeles Space Elevator, a.k.a the "Beanstalk," which reaches to an asteroid anchored over 70,000 kilometers above the earth’s surface. The Worlds of Android addresses the fantastic impact of this gargantuan structure, gives you a guided tour, and reveals many of the secrets of its engineering that Weyland would prefer to keep from becoming public.

…Do "ghost" runners really exist?
…Why is Brazil opposed to androids?
…Why are the members of Crimson Dust fighting for independence from Earth?

Humanity's extraterrestrial expansion comes into sharper focus in the second section of The Worlds of Android. You'll get a closer look at humanity's Lunar and Martian settlements, as well as the particular challenges and rewards associated with civilization beyond Earth's atmosphere.

Life on Luna has changed dramatically since the development of the first permanent research stations, and it's not all just helium-3. Tourists can take a quick shuttle trip from the Beanstalk's Challenger Planetoid to StarScape Shopping at Starport Kaguya and Prosperity Memorial Park in Lunacent, while corps and orgcrime outfits engage in black-market interplanetary trade in the lawless Docklands. Though most who live on the Moon are immigrants, there's an increasing number of native-born Loonies whose lives and cultures are distinctly Lunar, shaped by Lunar wars, history, physics, and culture.

"I against my kin, my kin and I against my clan, my clan and I against the corps."

The Worlds of Android also explores the lives of the millions of people who live on Mars, where corporations reign supreme. Despite the progress people have made in terraforming the Red Planet, its feeble atmosphere is not enough to sustain humans whose lungs haven't been extensively g-modded. The brutal cold of night and the increased solar radiation are also constant dangers, driving residents into close quarters underground and in habitat domes, and Earth laws don't apply on Mars, making it a haven for expoitative corps interested in profit over people. Martians have responded to these environmental and economic threats by banding into a number of clans. For the many sons and daughters of the Martian clans, the harsh Red Planet is their life and home, while Earth and its corporate scions are the ones who seem distant and alien.

__The World Changed. People Did Not.

For all its technological advances and extraterrestrial expansion, humanity remains as fallible as ever. The visionaries working to improve the inhabited worlds are woefully outnumbered by more mercenary-minded individuals, who value profit ahead of prosperity for all. For every peace treaty, there has been a war.

Humanity's militaries, law enforcement agencies, religions, cults, terror cells, and criminal syndicates feature prominently in the third section of The Worlds of Android. You'll discover a variety of stories about the people who live the Android setting's fast-changing, post-war circumstances: veterans who served on Luna and Mars, clone and bioroid detectives in the New Angeles Police Department, idealistic runners ferreting out corp secrets.

The setting book also delves into the vital question of what it means to be human when clones, bioroids, and other forms of AI populate the Network and globe, taking jobs from the poorest. As they have throughout history, many people find absolution in religion, activism, or addiction. What of the clones and androids themselves? Do they have civil rights, spiritual and emotional needs, or even souls? Those controversies lie at the heart of the many conflicts, debates, protests, and riots and even hate crimes detailed in The Worlds of Android.

::WARNING!!! Hostile Ice Detected::

As the definitive guide to the Android setting, The Worlds of Android is a must-have setting guide and art book for every fan of Android: Netrunner and the Android board game who desires further insight into the future's megacorps, technologies, cultures, runners, and cybercrime. Indeed, the old school paperbook contains far more information than we can safely access in a single run, and we'll tap back into more of its data in future previews.

In the meantime, you can access more information from The Worlds of Android minisite, and you can help us break through some of the file protections in this article by sharing it with your friends on Facebook and Twitter…

NetShield.Status :: 82.3%
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Fantasy Flight Games

Android: Archived Memories

Android: Archived Memories

Lukas Litzsinger

Where Do We Go from Here?

Access Granted

Access Granted

__Art. Information. Science Fiction.

//Hack into the Not-Too-Distant Future

Worlds of Gray

Worlds of Gray

"Science fiction, we now see, is interested in more than sciences, more than machines. That more is always men and women and children themselves, how they behave, how they hope to behave." –Ray Bradbury

//Fiction Editor Katrina Ostrander on the Morality of The Worlds of Android

"The corporations do what they do because they have the money and will to shape the future. Profiting from the advances they make is no crime. Who would seek to disrupt such a future?" –Caprice Nisei

__Future Humanity

"Above all, science fiction, as far back as Plato trying to figure out a proper society, has always been a fable teacher of morality… There is no large problem in the world this afternoon that is not a science-fictional problem." –Ray Bradbury

Visions of the Future

Visions of the Future

Between the rising sea levels and biome shifts, the War, and the colonization of Mars and Earth’s moon, the geography of human civilization has changed more in the past century than ever before.

"…Smoke plumed from food vendors; cattle brayed; drums pounded, the religious revelers proving undaunted by the weather. The last dregs of sunlight were blocked by millions of hoppers jostling for position in Mumbad’s three-tiered skylanes overhead."

Have you ever heard that “Jinteki has nothing on Martians’ ability to clone themselves”?

…incursions on each other’s territory is tantamount to a declaration of corporate war.

<Query: When does it all begin?>

A Mirror to the Soul

A Mirror to the Soul

…Access granted.

Can a machine think?

Can it reason, compare, contrast, and respond?

What are the parameters for true intelligence?

"Neural conditioning: A term for the process of using (usually non-invasive) BMI technology to stimulate a clone brain, which shapes its connectome, until it matches the desired braintape."

THE CONSTRUCTION OF BIOROIDS

::WARNING:: DESTROYER-CLASS SENTINEL DETECTED!

Larger Than Life

Larger Than Life

<Query: What's inside the box?>

Enhance.Resolution

The Worlds of Android

The Worlds of Android

<Run Archives>

…How dangerous are brain-machine interfaces? …Will there ever be a second space elevator? …Who incited the Lunar Insurrection? …What are Haas-Bioroid and Jinteki really doing on Mars?

__It Is the Future.

<Query: is NBN more than the Network?>

…Do "ghost" runners really exist? …Why is Brazil opposed to androids? …Why are the members of Crimson Dust fighting for independence from Earth?

"I against my kin, my kin and I against my clan, my clan and I against the corps."

__The World Changed. People Did Not.

::WARNING!!! Hostile Ice Detected::

"Science fiction, we now see, is interested in more than sciences, more than machines. That more is always men and women and children themselves, how they behave, how they hope to behave."
–Ray Bradbury

"The corporations do what they do because they have the money and will to shape the future. Profiting from the advances they make is no crime. Who would seek to disrupt such a future?"
–Caprice Nisei

"Above all, science fiction, as far back as Plato trying to figure out a proper society, has always been a fable teacher of morality… There is no large problem in the world this afternoon that is not a science-fictional problem."
–Ray Bradbury

…How dangerous are brain-machine interfaces?
…Will there ever be a second space elevator?
…Who incited the Lunar Insurrection?
…What are Haas-Bioroid and Jinteki really doing on Mars?

…Do "ghost" runners really exist?
…Why is Brazil opposed to androids?
…Why are the members of Crimson Dust fighting for independence from Earth?