In the era of high-profile corporate malfeasance, there are some enterprises that prefer to work from the shadows. Knowledge of them comes through whisper networks, and the service they provide is particularly odious. What better place for such an entity than in a remote corner of Luna, where their work is out of sight and, if they’re doing their job right, out of mind.
I couldn’t be happier to present our newest NBN corporation, Editorial Division, and one of its workers, Nihilo Agent! Nihilo Agent was one of the briefs I wrote for Vantage Point and, while I didn’t write the brief for Editorial Division (credit for that goes to our Art Director, Conrad) I did provide the base narrative idea for its shenanigans. Let’s check them out!
Editorial Division: Ad Nihilum
NBN Identity: Division
Minimum Deck Size: 45 – Influence: 15
The first time each turn you take bad publicity, you may search R&D for 1 non-agenda black ops, gray ops, or liability card and reveal it. (Shuffle R&D after searching it.) Add that card to HQ.
It never happened.
Illustrated by Emilio Rodriquez
Editorial Division: Ad Nihilum
From the surface of Luna, an inverted pyramid casts a shadow over the solar system and the Net. Within its umbra, information and people are occluded with surgical precision, leaving behind no traceable gaps in the timeline, only a lingering feeling that something is missing.
This is NBN’s Editorial Division. Its agents, remote, efficient, and meticulous, end lives lived on the Net. Their deeds leave no digital evidence. Loose ends in meatspace, however, often require cleanup.
Illustrated by Qistina Khalidah
Learn more about the new liability subtype and some changes to the rules of bad publicity in today’s other preview article.
The concept behind Editorial Division’s headquarters was to feel otherworldly and cold, with an air of mystery and menace. Its base visual design was inspired by the inverted triangles of Tokyo Big Sight. Thanks to the lesser gravitational effect on Luna, the building hovers with an almost ethereal effect.
Its coloration is intentionally stark: the blackness of space stands in contrast to the white terrain of the moon and the glowing yellow around Editorial Division’s frame. This starkness helps the headquarters feel remote, secretive, and illicit, like you’d need to know the right person to find it in the first place. Emilio Rodríguez, one of the classic corp artists for Netrunner, provided the art for Editorial Division – and it’s not his only piece in Vantage Point. You can expect another Emilio piece that depicts things other than architecture…
Editorial Division’s service is complete erasure from the Net, a scrubbing so complete that none will know you were there. It’s a handy way to silence political opponents or upstart runners. Notably, this corporation has no government affiliation. It will perform its service for anyone who can afford it.
Naturally, this isn’t popular with the public. However, taking bad publicity only gives NBN’s Editorial Division more juice to do their dirty work. The more negative rumors there are about them, the more fear spreads and their power grows.
This narrative angle, of erasing a person’s existence from the historical record, is inspired from a period in history. In the Soviet Union under Stalin, one form of government propaganda was censoring images. This censorship took the form of altering photographs so that perceived enemies of the state (among others) had their photographic presence removed from an activity that they had been present at. Such an omission was a way for the government to control messaging around certain events or people.
As a USian, in secondary school I had learned about the broad strokes of life in the Soviet Union under Stalin’s rule but often not the details. My first introduction to this specific part of history actually came from a fiction novel, The Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra. One of the characters in that book is a censor, specifically one who edited photos for the state. His section was evocative and also incredibly chilling. The imagery lasted with me long after I first read the book in 2016.
The question then was how would such an activity look in the Netrunner era, where life is fully in the digital realm and physical photographs don’t have the same impact as they once did? The answer led us to the second of these two cards.
Nihilo Agent
NBN Asset: Enforcer – Liability
Rez cost: 1 – Trash cost: 3 – Influence cost: 2
When you rez this asset, load 3 power counters onto it. When it is empty, trash it.
When your turn begins, remove 1 tag and 1 bad publicity.
When your discard phase ends, give the Runner 1 tag, take 1 bad publicity, and remove 1 hosted power counter.
bject acquir ₰ History dele
Illustrated by Qistina Khalidah
Editorial Division needs a team to carry out its dirty work. One of its members is the Nihilo Agent. She plays a similar role as the photograph censors did in the Stalinist era, doing the actual editing. We see her in a sterile environment, the background white and obscure. Importantly, she could be anywhere. Her clothing is also anonymous, her uniform grey and white with small amounts of detail in yellow, the color matching her employer’s Luna headquarters.
The key action of the piece is how the agent appears to be interacting with us. She moves her fingers across the card frame like a stylus. Where her fingers have already passed, there are lines of negative netspace with small geometric details in yellow. The implication here is that we, the viewer, are being erased. In breaking the fourth wall, she joins past Netrunner sysops like Mr. Hendrik and Tori Hanzō. She has a slight smile on her face, as if she’s taking joy in her work or challenging us to stop her.
This snapshot instance provides a powerful reminder of what Editorial Division is doing and why they are so much of a threat. Her ability is an ebb and flow of bad publicity and tags, as she finds and targets runners, erases their Net presence, and then gives the corporation plausible deniability to stem public outcry, only to go back to work the next day.
The artist for Nihilo Agent is new to Netrunner but not to game art: Qistina Khalidah. You may recognize her style from her beautiful work on Ironwood by Mindclash Games. It was awesome to be able to collaborate with her for a couple of pieces in this set.
Vantage Point will be released on March 2. It will be available from our online store, our retail partners, and as a free print-and-play PDF immediately, and from our print-on-demand partners as soon as it’s approved.
