Android: Netrunner – Old Hollywood Data Pack

“All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players.”
–William Shakespeare

From the seedy, gang-infested depths of The Underway, the SanSan Cycle for Android: Netrunner carries you to the airy, glittering heights of society… Old Hollywood is now available.

As the SanSan Cycle continues to explore the different boroughs, cultures, and color of the American megacity responsible for much of the world’s top tech, Old Hollywood reminds us that no matter what the future brings, there will always be room for fame, celebrities, hero-worship, and scandal. With its sixty new cards (three copies each of twenty different cards), Old Hollywood depicts a vertiginous juxtaposition of the borough’s ultra-famous and ultra-wealthy celebrities alongside their drug dealers, backroom muscle, paparazzi, and vanity projects.

Meanwhile, though all of the game’s Corps and Runners have their interests in the fame and fortune, it is NBN that dominates the headlines in this Data Pack. As Old Hollywood capitalizes upon the public’s appetite for entertainment, the media giant gains a new identity, Haarpsichord Studios (Old Hollywood, 92), two new agendas, an asset, an operation, and a region upgrade.

Victims of Fame

There’s no better place to play the fame game than in Old Hollywood. It’s a city that’s built on reputations, and the more time you spend there, the more you become the person that people think you are.

Sometimes, that’s good. Fame can bring riches, after all. The world may regard you as the chiseled and stoic hero of the latest Explode-a-Palooza (Old Hollywood, 94), projecting something of the character onto you as a person and professional, and that attention may give your career a welcome boost. But it’s also possible the world chooses to see you as a talentless hack or as a wanna-be actress whose ego has gotten ahead of her as she works on her pet Vanity Project (Old Hollywood, 100).

Image is everything, but it’s not always under your control. The biggest names are brands whose careers are often managed from the shadows, and if you’re hoping to take a turn in the limelight, it can pay to get the backing of a media-savvy megacorp like NBN. NBN pretty much rules the whole Old Hollywood Grid (Old Hollywood, 97), and although the Corp’s influence is by no means uncontested, no one has more contacts or knows the business better.

From Casting Calls (Old Hollywood, 96) to Early Premieres (Old Hollywood, 95), NBN has a proven history of working the system to ensure its efforts always gain maximum attention, and if your work is good for NBN, then NBN can be good to you. The Corp may give you the chance to advance your career with a role in some Award Bait sensie (Old Hollywood, 93).

Still, you have to be careful what you wish for. There’s a darker side of fame. Your life is not your own. Once you’re famous on the Net, you’re famous everywhere. The Paparazzi (Old Hollywood, 87) feel entitled to a pound of your flesh. Film Critics (Old Hollywood, 86) tear you apart, responding to your performances as though they were personal attacks upon their character. And if your career trajectory ever turns downward, the Corps may remind you that you owe them, and they may make you An Offer You Can’t Refuse (Old Hollywood, 91).

There may still be some genuine people in Old Hollywood, but there are far more who have carefully and deliberately constructed their personae and navigated their careers to support the fiction of their personalities. There are even bioroid stars like Ronald Five (Old Hollywood, 88) who gain fame from the minor scandals they spark by mysteriously disappearing… right on schedule.

It’s Time for Your Cameo

Image is everything in Old Hollywood, so which is the path you’ll follow? Do you want the fame, the fortune, and the envy of others? Or do you feel more comfortable jacked into the Net, sifting through your virtual resources, trying to expose those stars as phonies? Claiming everything they do is just a rehash of the work that came before them and spewing your venom all over the Net?

In Old Hollywood, all the world’s a stage, and everyone’s a player. It’s just a matter of the role you choose.

 

UPC 9781633440340