KICKSTARTER LAUNCHING SOON
Every card you play is a favor owed later.
Neon Cartel is a bluffing-and-building trading card game set in a city run by five rival syndicates. Nothing is free — every card played is a debt logged, and someone always collects.
Call In the Debt
Every syndicate keeps a ledger. This one keeps yours — and tonight, it's due. Play this to force an opponent to reveal one card from hand and hand over its favor immediately.
The Favor Economy
Every card you play isn't spent — it's loaned. Your opponents log what you owe them, and they choose exactly when to call it in. Power now always has a price later.
Five Rival Syndicates
Chrome smugglers, data brokers, street medics with a body count — five factions, five decks, five ways to run the city. Play one, or splice favors across all five if you dare.
Hidden-Hand Bluffing
Your hand is classified until it isn't. Threaten a favor call you can't back up, or sit quiet on leverage that will end the match. Reading your rivals matters more than your deck list.
RIVAL SYNDICATES
CARDS AT LAUNCH
PLAYERS, 2 TO 5
AVERAGE MATCH
FIVE FACTIONS, ONE CITY
Meet the Syndicates
Chrome Vultures
SALVAGE & BLACK-MARKET TECH
“We don't steal. We recycle.”
Static Veil
DATA BROKERS & HACKERS
“Everything's a rumor until we sell it.”
Bloodlace
ENFORCERS & MUSCLE
“Debts get collected. One way or another.”
Glasshouse Combine
CORPORATE DEFECTORS
“Paperwork is just a slower knife.”
The Undertow
FIXERS & STREET MEDICS
“Everyone needs a favor eventually.”
THE CORE LOOP
How a Favor Works
Play a Favor
You drop a card that helps you now — extra cred, a blocked hit, inside information. It works immediately.
They Log the Debt
Whoever benefited owes the syndicate that played it. The debt sits on the table, visible, ticking, unavoidable.
Someone Calls It In
Any time before the match ends, the debt can be called — forcing a reveal, a sacrifice, or a favor in return.
FOR JOURNALISTS & CREATORS
Press Kit
BEFORE YOU JOIN A SYNDICATE
Frequently Asked
2 to 5. Every syndicate is built as a standalone deck, so a 2-player duel and a 5-player free-for-all feel like genuinely different games — the favor economy gets a lot messier with more syndicates at the table.
120+ cards across all five syndicates, favor-tracking tokens, a first-print rulebook, and a starter scenario for your first three matches. Stretch goals will add syndicate-specific playmats and metal favor tokens.
All three, deliberately. You build your syndicate's deck ahead of time like a TCG, but the favor economy turns every match into a bluffing game — what you claim to be holding matters as much as what's actually in your hand.
Neon Cartel is designed around player-vs-player tension, so it's strictly multiplayer at launch. A solo "ghost syndicate" mode is on our stretch goal list if there's demand.
We're finalizing card balance and art before locking a date. Join the list below and you'll get the launch date before it's announced anywhere else.