How to get started as a new player?

Howdy

I hope this is the right place to ask this question, i felt the question was too broad for the "announce yourself" thread. My apologies if its not suitable for here though.

A bit of background - I played vtes when it first came out, after jyhad but before white wolf took over from Wotc, and sold all my cards years ago. I started gaming again recently, namely netrunner, but i'd love to get back into Vtes again. I admit im getting a bit tired of how few archetypes for competitive play exist in netrunner, and i remember vtes having an incredible amount of variety. I live in the UK and intend to look up Vtes players in my area as soon as i have a deck again which brings me to my question...

So my question is this: how difficult would it be for someone like myself, without a single vtes card, to start buying a vtes collection suitable for competitive play? I understand that when white wolf took over they released a number of cards as reprints (sabbat vs sabbat war etc) so are their specific cards that are only from earlier and hard to find sets or can i start from later sets and still build a competitive deck?

Which sets should i consider buying first?

Iv checked ebay but it seems to be pretty thin on the ground, are there any better online resellers for vtes cards?

V:TES relies on having a lot of very basic (common) cards to get rolling with. Things like stealth, intercept, wakes, etc. And then a few really good cards are inserted after. So, I'd recomend buying a pile of V:Tes cards online for cheap and then go shopping for the special cards you want. This is the site I use to buy individual cards:

stores.ebay.com/Ricks-Jyhad-and-VTES-Card-Shop

Another great way to discover what cards you want for a deck is to start playing V:tes online through Lackey. That way, you have free access to every card in the game and you can play around with all the cards and see how they work against other players to get a better idea of what cards you really want.

Good luck!

Oh, I'd also avail myself of all of the free cards available (Danse Macabre & The Unaligned) on this site (card lists) that you can download for free and print yourself.

Take a look at Rose Tatu Productions (link on the left). I think that one of their play group support kits (www.sites.google.com/site/rosetatuproductions/home/playgroup-support-kits-1) would be a good way to get off the ground.

The best way to acquire a collection is to buy one from a retired player. You will get a much better deal per card, get all of the staples and hopefully save on shipping.

You need to get two !malkavian 3rd edition starters to start playing.

It's fast, cheap and easy to accomplish.

Than you can follow other very usefull but more time and money consuming advices in this thread.

Hi and welcome!

You should send an email to your local Prince (if you have one in your area) or your National Coordinator (you DO have one).
They can inform you better if there's some deals around you (if someone is selling, if there's any store supporting the game, etc..)

Besides that get a few pre con decks, join the local group to see what decks they use and come here often.