Hey all,

I have a question about the exact definition of the word "Random" as it appears in the rule book. In the index, they define net and meat damage as:

Damage, Meat or Net: A unit of damage that requires the Runner to trash one card from his grip at random.

This turned into an argument between me and my opponent. I played "Scorched Earth" and he said random meant he could look at his cards and decide which 4 to discard. I told him he was supposed to hold them out in front of me so that I could only see the back of the cards, and randomly pull 4 out of his hand. How does this actually work?

Thanks in advance.

Opponent was wrong. Random means random.

I like using dice as having the opponent shuffle their hand and letting you pick still leaves bias (humans are terrible random number generators) and the opponent can still influence your choice.

If ANYONE is choosing, then by definition, it's non-random. I would love to know what kind of logic your opponent was using to come to any other conclusion.

I was wondering about this one myself earlier. The tournament rules say this on page 3 about Randomization:

"Players can use dice or other external aids to randomize results, provided the randomization does not impede the flow of the game. Players cannot force other players to use external aids when randomizing. A shuffle from the Corp and a subsequent choice by the Runner is enough to fulfill the requirements of randomness when accessing HQ."

So assuming nobody feels like bringing dice into it, the player getting discarded (in your example the runner, suffering Scorched Earth) should shuffle their hand then let the other player select randomly from that facedown set - like a magician offering "pick a card!" for a card trick.

That works, but humans are terrible RNGs and will most often choose from the center or will establish a pattern of picking over the game.

It's very easy to reduce the chance of a card getting pick with subtle placement.