Android: Mainframe

www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2016/2/9/android-mainframe/

Hm. Sounds kinda cool. Only 30 minutes, though?

Looks like a cute light abstract.

I like the look of it. Probably worth a punt for my games group.

Yeah, that looks pretty neat. I'll try it.

JMcL63 wrote:

#WitnessTheMainframe

Cool to see them continuing to branch out with an in-house brand. The Android universe is the only line of FFG's that has my interest...but it's still just too bright. All these characters look like perfectly unblemished models. However, since I've never actually read anything on the Android universe maybe cosmetic surgery or gene modification is a big thing so everyone looking perfect is part of the deal.

Can anyone school me on the themes of this universe? Why is it so bright and colorful when 2020 and SR are appropriately set in the rain...and in the dark? I've considered buying one or two of their novels, but I haven't even read real recent sci-fi literature like Leviathian Wakes...does a 41 year old dude need to be buying these sort of trashy tie-in novels? Embarrassing...

This game, specifically, looks fun. Appears to be $35 and in the same box size as BB:TM which is my favorite game size. Looks like that board is hard plastic too, but I can't shake the feeling I've been playing this game since about 3rd grade...



Now, FFG, bring on the rpg.

Mr. White wrote: Can anyone school me on the themes of this universe? Why is it so bright and colorful when 2020 and SR are appropriately set in the rain...and in the dark? I've considered buying one or two of their novels, but I haven't even read real recent sci-fi literature like Leviathian Wakes...does a 41 year old dude need to be buying these sort of trashy tie-in novels? Embarrassing...

Some of the early cyberpunk stories had their roots in hard-boiled detective stories of an earlier era, including the rain and the darkness. Android seems visually different enough to rate a different term. Maybe cybershiny? Cybergloss? Cyberfab?

I think the seemingly bright world works and am glad they did away with the always nighttime, always raining stereotype.

This isn't a smart ass comment, but how does it work for the setting? Android appears more utopian and less dystopian. Is it? Is it not really a cyberpunk but a transhuman world?

Mad Dog wrote: I think the seemingly bright world works and am glad they did away with the always nighttime, always raining stereotype.

I might agree if the results weren't so bland.

Just waiting for the shooting games...

BTW, for those who don't have time to read, it's a bit like go. You place your token, and then try to completely surround it using the blue sticks. You place blue sticks by picking one of available programs or using a special ability. Once you have a closed area with *only* your token on it, the area is "secured" and you'll score for that at the end of the game. Abstract with a theme, and I think it's pretty good, but could be bland.

I like it bright so when the noir comes you can *really* feel it.

I dunno, Sevej, that picture looks to...happy.

I like the box cover to this Mainframe game, but even there it looks like 3-4 characters are smiling or giving pleasant smirks. Not an attitude to be found.


Again, I guess it's just my perception of what is or isn't cyberpunk, but these images look like something more out of the Mega Man universe rather than anything William Gibson had in mind. It feels really sanitized.

But maybe there's also a cultural disconnect I'm having. Cyberpunk was born of literature, film, and music of a specific era. The Android universe doesn't have any of that, but is a scrubbed up glossy take on a similar setting, but without all the cultural touchstones. It feels...cheap, plastic. I guess it's how I feel Rune Age or World of Warcraft is to original Warhammer or early D&D. The former are inspired by games, the later by outside media and world events.

I'm fully willing to concede if the setting really is less about cyberpunk and more about transhumanism though. It appears that way from the aesthetics, but in the fluff snippets for the games I want to say I'm reading the words 'cyberpunk' and 'dystopia'. I'm just not getting that vibe though.

One positive, this makes the setting and its games easier to game with the family that's for sure.

Guess it doesn't matter...I'll probably own a lot of it when all is said and done...

Still, that may be my favorite game cover since that first Chaos in the Old World one. Kudos, FFG!

I mean it's nice that the pictures make people want to have a cyberpunk discussion but this will have as much to do with cyberpunk as ...listening to Black Flag while cybering someone? The only thing moving this off the completely abstract lot will be the probably one-shot special use cards. It's practically a retheme of Through the Desert.

Sevej's picture strikes just the right note for me- pure cyberpunk comicbook with heavy manga influence. It's perfect for Android.

Sevej wrote:

It's certainly far from the mean streets of the original cyberpunk visions of Gibson and Bladerunner.



Android's world creation is just the copy and graphic design of a game setting which so far lives on most successfully as an LCG. The link to physical game parts means that the aesthetic favours gloss and glamour over the grim and grimy of prose and cinema. This new game may be abstract, but it has attractive physical components offering a combination of hand management and area control. In 30 minutes? Colour me interested.

JMcL63 wrote:

I like the look of it. Probably worth a punt for my games group.

They've rethemed Santiago!