so, i'm making cards to remind mew players about the basic options available to them

AaronC wrote:

Equip:
All Minions. +1 Stealth Action.
Attach an Equipment card from your hand to the acting minion paying all costs (Blood or Pool) and obeying all requirements (Clan, Discipline, Sect, &c), or attatch an Equipment card to this minion that is on another minion you control (obeying all requirements).

I don't think a minion has to fulfill any requirements when equipping off of another minion with the same controller.

Also, don't forget that a minion you control can take any number of equipment(s) from one other minion you control. Not just one piece of equipment.

General remark: at some point, you'll have to explain to players about which actions can and can't be repeated. And one of the important points is "card of the same name". So I can't, for example, play Corruption twice with the same vampire. Will it confuse newbies that some cards (the "reminder" cards) can be repeated, but others can't?

Also, given that having a lot of cards in your hand is annoying, is the playmat a better vehicle for this? www.vekn.net/downloads Obviously, it's possible that could be improved.

self wrote:

Go Anarch!
Non-Anarch, Non-titled Vampires Only. +1 Stealth Action.

Untitled, not non-titled.

self wrote:

Get Her, Ray!
Vampires only. +1 Stealth Action.
Enter Combat with a Red List minion that was marked this turn.

Missing the blood cost.

self wrote:

Leave Torpor
Vampires only. +1 Stealth Action.
Move this Vampire to the ready region.

2 blood.

self wrote:

Rescue From Torpor
Vampires only.
Move a Vampire in Torpor controlled by any Methuseleh to the ready region. The vampire leaving Torpor may pay a portion or all of the blood cost of this action when it is announced. If you control the Vampire leaving Torpor, this is a +1 stealth undirected action instead of a action.

You don't pay the blood when the action is announced, you choose how to pay the blood then.

Additionally, this vampire can pay zero of the blood - both blood can come from the rescuee - whereas "a portion" is ambiguous. Something like: "When the action is announced, choose how the cost will be split between this acting vampire and the target (the cost may be shared, or either vampire may pay zero)."

The "If you control..." text is awkward in that it may leave new players thinking that real cards are actions against yourself, if they lack this text. e.g. Temptation on your own vampire is undirected, even though it has a symbol on it. This is an easy mistake to make, and the game worked like that for a while under WotC, for the few self-directable actions in the game. (Most couldn't be, due to card text. But Rampage could, back in 1997 .)

self wrote:

Diablerize
Vampires only.

Requires a vampire who is not Blood Cursed.

self wrote:

Diablerize Vampire in Torpor controlled by any Methuseleh. If you control the Vampire being Diablerized, this is a +1 stealth undirected action instead of a action.

Not worth mentioning the benefits and drawbacks of diablerie? Blood and equipment, tutoring a Discipline, and the Bloodhunt? (And possibly Trophies.) Even if you don't go into all the specifics, it may be worth mentioning them as a reminder.

self wrote:

Equip:
All Minions. +1 Stealth Action.
Attach an Equipment card from your hand to the acting minion paying all costs (Blood or Pool) and obeying all requirements (Clan, Discipline, Sect, &c), or attatch an Equipment card to this minion that is on another minion you control (obeying all requirements).

Transfer doesn't work like that, as others have pointed out.

self wrote:

Recruit:
All Minions. +1 Stealth Action.
Place an Ally from your hand in your uncontrolled region paying all costs (Blood or Pool) and obeying all requirements (Clan, Discipline, Sect, &c). During your Influence Phase, move all Allies in your uncontrolled region to your ready region. When an ally is brought into play (by any means), it receives blood counters from the blood bank to represent its life (listed on the ally's card). When an Ally loses its last life counter, it is burned.

Strictly, "During the influence phase, move all allies in the uncontrolled region to their Methuselah's ready region." Out-of-turn recruitment gets you the ally that turn, you don't have to wait until your own turn.

self wrote:

Call a Vote:
Vampires only. +1 Stealth action.
Name the terms of a Political Action in your hand (paying all costs, Blood or Pool, and obeying all requirements Clan, Discipline, Sect, &c) and place it in your ash heap. If the the number of 'yea' votes exceeds the 'nay' votes, the terms of that political action are executed. Tied votes fail.

Title would be germane to the requirements.

self wrote:

Reaction:
I am a Reaction.
I am used when other Methuselah's minions are acting. I am frequently used to generate Intercept (Intercept can only be generated when Stealth would be greater than Intercept). I can also reduce Bleeds, gain votes during a Political Action, or allow one of your minions to untap and attempt to block (or allow one of your minions to attempt to block even though they're tapped, which is important)!

How is this helpful? If they have a reaction in their hand, they can see it. Ditto action modifier.

(Something about stealth/intercept might be relevant, though.)

self wrote:

Combat: Before Range

Something like this would likely be much better handled not on cards. Seeing the whole sequence of combat is helpful.

self wrote:

Combat: Strike Effects
Strikes are resolved and inflict damage simultaneously.
Strike: Combat ends will end combat before any other strike resolves (even a strike made with first strike). Strike: Dodge protects the dodging minion from all effects from the opposing minion's strike, be it damage or steal/destroy weapon (even a strike made with first strike). Strikes made with First Strike are resolved before strikes made without them.

Easily read as "Strike: Dodge protects you from Strike: Combat Ends". Which it does, if the Combat Ends has an 'offensive' component (e.g. Catatonic Fear's damage, but also Meld With the Land's 'offensive' untap), but it doesn't protect you against the Combat Ends effect itself.

Also, this reminds me that ranged strikes can affect retainers instead of the minion, and Dodge doesn't work there.

Steal blood catches some people out. Possibly worth pointing out that Steal Blood drains off before going on to damage prevention, too. Also that "steal blood" also works against allies, despite them not having blood.

self wrote:

Combat: Damage Prevention
Blah. Still need to write this up.

Combat: Press

Additional strikes?

self wrote:

Action
I am an Action Card.

Not really seeing the point.

self wrote:

Master
I am a Master Card.
Use a master phase action to play me. I represent the influence of you, the Methuselah, in the game. Some cards can give you more than one master phase action. Once per turn you can gain another Master Phase Action if you play a Master. Trifle: card as your first master phase action.

But this one is possibly more useful, because of the Trifleiciousness.

on my phone, so i will have to be brief.

I agree about the playmat idea.

Re: action mod/reaction cards, One thing I've encountered is new players seeing the +1 stealth on an action and erroneously trying to use that stealth. Trying to curb that.

Trying to squeeze how something like combat works into a card text box is tough even breaking it down to its constituent parts.

Only one Event can be played per turn, which is rather important, as this limitation was missed when people only saw that it took a discard phase action and built decks with multiple discard phase actions to improperly accelerate Event play.

Could also add that each Event can only be played once per game.

I disagree with your assessment of multiple DPAs used to "improperly" accelerate Event play. There are opportunity costs involved in order to obtain multiples of singularities within game play. These opportunity costs are what to primarily balance out, not the singularity becoming a multiple (until and unless the multiple causes issues).