What would you like to see in a new expansion?

Make solid group 5-6 vamps and I am happy

1. Theme
I think the theme for any new expansion should be making the Sabbat more brutal/violent. More violence in their politics, more options for indirect pool damage (e.g. a Sabbat Bums' Rush that would deal pool damage if the opposing minion goes to torpor) and tipping the balance away from either "Play with Princes" or "Play with disciplines". The Sabbat, as I have seen portrayed in VTES, in VtR materials and the like actively choose violent resolutions when dealing with the Camarilla (and sometimes the Independants).

2. New Game Mechanics
Only those mechanics which would directly enhance the theme, and those that are elegant and simple. I personally would not like the introduction of a new broad-based group of cards which did not neccessarily work similarly to the existing vampires. (e.g. I don't want Imbued Mk2).

I would like the Black Hand to have a more playable on their own nature. It seems there are few options for Black Hand that don't involve either a lot of Auspex or Assamites. It would be good to have options for the Black Hand that function better than Anarchs. Otherwise, in the vast majority of decks, Black Hand is a wasted card feature (which is a shame considering there is at least one 11-cap Black Hand member).

3. New Cards
I would like to see any new cards created to meet the objectives of the set.
One other category of new cards I would like to see are Necromancy Allies. The Giovanni have had a monopoly on Zombies, Wraiths and non-Vampire undead buddies. Anything other than a Shambling Horde that is recruited with Necromancy seems that it is not worth the action.

4. Format
Two formats should be an option. They can get a high-quality pre-printed card bundle from VEKN or they can get a PDF (possibly with a fee) of the cards they can take to their nearest printer and print them out.

I'm not going to be original here and I'll most likely repeat what's been said already, but anyway...

1. Definitely around the Sabbat. I see it pretty much the way Juggernaut does - more brutal, violent, "the bad guys" of WoD. Maybe some new ideas around the way the Sabbat works - creating shock troops, resolving matters in a "less peaceful way" etc. A bit more focus on Black Hand would be nice as well.

2. Nothing new or gamebreaking really, I don't think we need that. I'd expand the Bahari thing, make the Research mechanic playable (or at least make it easier to use and add in a deck that can still be competitive), a bit of work on the Trophy mechanics.

3. New G5/6 vampires are a must. I'd also be happy to see new interesting ally cards for the Sabbat clans (!Brujah would be on top of the list). Perhaps some long - awaited Sabbat 11caps (we have only two as for now). I totally support the idea of more necromancy allies.

I'm in favor of addressing the existing cards as well - namely Ashur Tablets + Liquidation combo, Pentex and Parity Shift. Not banning them, but either an errata (worse option) or printing new cards / vampires with abilities that reduce the power level of those cards / combos.

4. PDF is fine, any other format would create a lot more hassle.

I hope that helps.
Cheers

1. THEME FOR EXPANSION?
I like the idea of a distinctive Sabbat expansion. Emphasis on the violent nature of the sect (Notorious Brutality is thematically a very good example), a few decent political actions (maybe requiring a clan like Lasombra?), and possibly adding some cards supporting Sabbat packs (similar to those of Blood Brother Circles?).

Please don't do ..

• Kindred of the East -- too dissimilar from the rest. Another expansion as disconnected to the rest of the game as the Imbued were .. not good.
• Inconnu -- the Inconnu were deliberately not fleshed out in the WoD by the designers. I think VtES should follow suit. I am not against any Inconnu card, just not a whole expansion.
• Blood Dimmed Tides ... 'nuff said.

2. NEW GAME MECHANICS?
If any, use sparingly for the moment. I like the idea of expanding existing mechanics. Best example is the Power Edge variations Juggernaut81 had proposed here and on his blog. Take some underused mechanic in VtES and make it something more interesting/better.

3. NEW CARDS?
As others mentioned here, priority one is fleshing out the group 5/6 vacancies for non-Bloodlines clans (with the Sabbat clans being on top of the list). With respect to library cards, yes, of course, but please don't further dilute the distinctiveness of disciplines.

4. FORMAT AND PRACTICAL STUFF
Regarding distribution/packaging I am pretty much open to anything: print-your-own-cards, living card game (packs with 4 copies of each) or boosters, I don't care, as long as it's VtES.
I am not in favour of "reprints" in a print-your-own-cards distribution model. I paid good money for the cards, which would instantly reduced to nil when these "reprints" became legal in tournaments.

In general, I would like to see the VtES Storylines (tournaments) to be continued.

1. Theme
Sabbat is good, there was nothing new for it for a long time. Allies based set would be interesting as well (but NOT imbued).
Others options include Inconnu (not necessarily whole set), Old Tzimisce
2. New game mechanics
not needed. not wanted. The game is already complicated which can become problem when recruiting new players.
3. new cards
vampires for g5/6. As extrala wrote please don't further dilute the distinctiveness of disciplines, so please no deflection for obfuscate, potence, etc., no intercept for presence, etc.
4. format
any, preferabbly not .pdf but real cards

As someone mostly opposed to the release of fan-based material and making it official, I feel I should respond to this. Let me rephrase my earlier postings in saying that I wouldn't mind the game getting an update, but the the form or shape here is extremely important. I'll get into that at point #4.

1. THEME FOR EXPANSION?
I don't think the expansion needs a theme. The expansion should be about what the game NEEDS at the moment. It should be an opportunity to try and fix the things that are plagueing the more competitive tournaments. Specifically: weenie bleed is always a safe pick, walls make tournament rounds last forever and 75% of the cardpool has been unplayable competitively for years.

2. NEW GAME MECHANICS?
Mechanics, I'm not sure if we need new ones. There are a lot of mechanics and phases in the game that are hardly used. Cards like Wider View and Events in general expanded on things you can do in the Influence and Discard phases and I'd rather see more options there then adding an entirely new mechanic. I'd like groups 1 and 6 being playable together too.

The only new mechanic-like thing I can think of would be something to encourage people to actually oust their preys. At last year's EC I talked with various "high-profile" players about the timeout issue and the general opinion was that people just need to get ousted at some point. Slowplay combined with auspex and poolgain is a recipe for 2 boring hours. I can't think of anything specific right now, but anything that rewards ousting (clearly the VP+6 pool is insufficient) more is good.

3. NEW CARDS?
Well... group 5/6 Sabbat is obviously hurting, so filling that up seems obvious. I think otherwise the crypts are mostly fine at the moment. Some disciplines probably need a card here and there to open up more diverse strategies, but nothing too big. The game is mostly fine as it is.

As above, I think a new set should be focused on making the metagame more interesting. Again specifically:

* I'd like to see more useful defense against bleed that isn't bounce and isn't useless when you're not being bled. I wrote somewhere that if Touch of Pain said "+1 bleed" at inferior, it would be a contender in Potence decks. That's the kind of cards I'm thinking of. If bleed becomes less effective and dominate/auspex isn't the only way to go anymore, people will experiment more. There should be more ways to deal with bleed than deflections or beating them up (resulting in both you and your prey getting 0 VP)

* I'd like a way to punish decks that don't move forward and just make their predator miserable. What V:TES needs is less timeouts and more games ending.

Short version: make annoying and/or strong archtypes weaker by offering counters to them that are not silver bullets. Do not make weak archtypes stronger; there is enough powercreep already.

4. FORMAT AND PRACTICAL STUFF
Ye... this is pretty huge for me. See, PDF is just not going to cut it. I would want actual physical high-quality cards, printed on proper paper in the proper proportions and colors. I'd like to see uniformity. The reason for this is, if player A prints the "cards" on their cheap desktop LQ black and white printer, cuts them loosely, glues them on some cardboard and sticks them in a sleeve, it's not a VTES card. Then it's a proxy. We might as well start sticking white papers in sleeves and writing "Villein" on them and allow proxy´s on tournaments.

Secondly, PDF opens the way for infinite cards and while this might sound good, it's actually bad. Infinite (and free) cards hit the very core of the game genre. MTG is virtually unlimited cardpool due to the 4CL and Magic tournaments are the most boring metagame you can imagine. That is, until a new set is released dictating the new best 3-4 decks. Of course, the challenge in magic is not actually playing the deck, but also in designing it and finetuning it against itself and its counters. V:TES, otoh, is about playing the table and deck similarity would hurt that a lot.

How they are distrubuted, I don´t mind. I´d imagine W&N selling boxes with 1 of each new card or some fixed starter-decks with appropriate content at cost and Jeff doing the same for the US. So ye, physical cards. I'm not too fussed about fixed decks (akin to BSC) or boosters.