Deck Creation Overview

"Your character isn't a spreadsheet. Your character is a deck."

What Is a Deck?

In Netghosts: Infinite Worlds, you don't fill out a character sheet—you build a deck of cards. Each card represents a facet of who your character is: their core identity, their Netghost companion, their skills, their powers, their connections. When you look at someone's deck, you should immediately understand their character without needing to read paragraphs of backstory.

Your Starting Deck

Every player begins with a six-card deck:

  • 1 Netghost Card: Your bonded companion from the Sea of Data
  • 1 Tamer Card (Hero Card): Your core identity as a human character
  • 4 Additional Cards: Any combination of Skill Cards and Power Cards that define the rest of your character

These six cards are your starting deck. As you play, you'll evolve your Netghost, upgrade your existing cards, and potentially add new ones. But everything begins here.

How Cards Work in Play

At any given time, you have exactly four cards "in play"—active and available. The other cards are in your "deck," inactive until you switch them in. Only Tags on cards in play can be used for rolls.

You can switch cards in two ways:

  • Between scenes: Completely rearrange which four cards are in play at no cost.
  • During a scene: Spend 1 Energy Point to swap one card in play with one from your deck.

This makes your pre-scene setup matter. Walking into a negotiation with all your combat cards active might leave you scrambling to find the right Tags—or burning Energy Points to adapt.

Card Advancement

All cards begin as Nascent Cards. A Nascent Card starts with its Main Tag, two Positive Tags, and one Negative Tag.

Through gaining experience (see Closure Round in Chapter 6), cards can advance. Advancing a card allows you to unlock new Upgrades, add or modify Tags, or create new evolution cards.

Building Your First Deck

Ready to start? Here's the process:

  1. Create your Netghost Card. Choose a Netghost Type.
  2. Create your Hero Card. Choose a Tamer Type.
  3. Create four more cards. These can be any combination of Skill and Power Types.
  4. Write Tags for each card. All starting cards are Nascent, so they begin with a Main Tag, two Positive Tags, and one Negative Tag.
  5. Choose which four cards start in play. The other two go into your deck.

The next pages in this section will walk you through each card category, explaining what each Type means and how to create compelling Tags.