Work-In-Progress preview of the upcoming Anarch-themed set

The Design Team's production schedule puts us at releasing a new set in the fall each year. With the European Championships happening in the summer this year, we weren't going to have the new set ready in time for it. We're in the middle of Round Two of playtesting, and we're targeting a late-November or early-December release, depending on when the artwork is finished. However, at the EC in Warsaw, we did a "work in progress" presentation explaining the design concepts for the set and its scope, and did a sneak preview of the Round Two versions of some crypt cards that have completed artwork. Rather than be jerks, we've decided to share with the rest of you.


The scope of the set and themes:

The new set will be an Anarch-themed set. Its current working title is Anarchs Unbound, which matches the name of the recent V20 supplement book from The Onyx Path. The set presently consists (in Round Two of playtest) of 43 cards - 24 crypt cards and 19 library cards. The set was originally specced out for 50 total cards, but we designed what we wanted to in 47 cards. Some cards were cut after Round One of playtest and two more were added, so we're at 43 in Round Two. The crypt cards span Groups 1 through 5 and are mostly (but not exclusively) from traditionally Camarilla clans. The set is somewhat asymmetrical in that Brujah represent a plurality (but not a majority) of the crypt cards. The library cards include a bunch of new Anarch 3-way cards, including some that use the Keystone Kine template.

With respect to art and themes, we're looking to have more of an anarchistic and punk feel to the set. We've drawn inspiration from the Spanish Civil War, Baader-Meinhof, the Occupy Movement, Reagan Youth, Bikini Kill, The Sex Pistols, and more. World of Darkness sources include the aforementioned Anarchs Unbound, as well as Guide to the Anarchs, Los Angeles By Night, Chicago By Night, New York By Night, A World of Darkness (Second Edition), and others.

We're on track to release the set in the last week of November or the first week of December, depending on when all of the art is submitted and approved. We are strongly considering using self biased's alternate crypt layout as an additional option, and we've submitted art descriptions and instructions to the artists to better accommodate that layout. There are still some kinks to work out for that layout, so we can't guarantee it.


Design concepts:

A major issue with Anarchs in V:TES is the time and effort required to influence out a vampire and have it be an Anarch. The primary way we're addressing this issue is by having every crypt card in the set start off as an Anarch. We've spread these crypt cards across Groups 1 through 5, and we've taken advantage of the Advanced rule so as not to skew the grouping populations. Of the 24 crypt cards, 11 of them are Advanced. We've also included a couple of new library cards that help vampires become Anarchs, as well as a card that makes merging easier. The overall design intent isn't to have entire crypts that start as Anarchs, but rather to give you some Anarchs to get you started with playing V:TES while you convert the others.

The original design of the Anarch 3-way cards, as well as design in subsequent expansions, was very cautious. We spoke with L. Scott Johnson and Robert Goudie about the original design, and they said they were very concerned about power creep and Anarch 3-way cards being potentially too strong. As such, their design intent was for having only one effect per 3-way card be playable by a given vampire. In hindsight, they feel that 3-way cards could be more flexible and more synergistic without disrupting game balance.

One area where Anarch 3-way cards could use more flexibility and synergy is in the disciplines the cards require. The disciplines on existing 3-way cards are very scattered, typically with only one of a clan's "in-clan" discipline on each card. In the new set, the 3-way cards will have tighter discipline synergy, with more than one clan being able to use a given 3-way card in multiple ways.

Another problem area with 3-way cards is a lack synergy of effects. The effects on a given 3-way card tend to be very different from each other. In one sense, this is good because it helps encourage toolboxy options. However, scattered effects make it difficult to build a coherent deck concept. While we don't want each effect on the card to be the same, we are making them similar in function to allow for more coherent deckbuilding. We don't want to abandon the toolboxy concept, either, so a couple of the new 3-way cards will have more toolboxy effects.

Because the original Anarch 3-way cards were designed without discipline synergy in mind, there's a resulting crypt synergy issue as it's difficult to build a crypt that can make good use of the original 3-way cards. One way we're attempting to address this issue is by designing new vampires who can play three different existing 3-way cards in two ways each. Another way we're attempting to address this issue is by introducing a new library card that allows Anarchs to share disciplines.

We also wanted to help the existing vamps who are Anarchs: Jack Drake, Dominique, Jeremy MacNeil, Count Germaine, and Yazid Tamari. There are 3-way cards that have those vampires in mind, and there is also the aforementioned library card that makes merging easier.

As I mentioned earlier, some of the new 3-way cards use the Keystone Kine template. We've also created a new layout for that template in the interests of readability and making the text look cleaner.


Acknowledgements and previews:

There's a lot we're trying to address in this set, and it's presented a lot of design challenges and playtesting challenges. We'd like to take this opportunity to thank Pascal Bertrand and Vincent Ripoll of the Rules Team, as well as all of the playtesters, for their work, input, and feedback on this project. It's been a huge help! Many, many thanks to our artists, as well. We're thrilled with the work they've been doing, and they're really giving (un)life and attitude to this set.

Following are previews of some cards in their Round Two playtest versions. These are not all of the cards, but rather the cards for which we have received completed artwork. The text and effects of these cards are not final, as we have a third round of playtesting to go. These cards are also not tournament legal right now, and will only become so in their final, officially released forms. If you have any comments or suggestions for them, please include them in a reply to this thread. You are also welcome (and encouraged!) to test them in your local playgroups. Please send playtest game reports and deck lists to Hugh Angseesing, the Playtest Coordinator (). In particular, the one library card we're previewing - Memory Rift - uses the new Keystone Kine layout we're testing. Please let us know what you think of it!


- Ben Peal and Mike Nudd, V:EKN Design Team

BenPeal wrote:

Reagan Youth

!

BenPeal wrote:

Bikini Kill

!!!

The cards look fantastic. Thanks a lot for sharing them before the set's complete.

I love the art as I have for all of the vekn sets and really appreciate the preview. I want to first say that I am a big fan of what the vekn team has been doing and really appreciate all of their hard work. I love VTES and am thrilled that this organization exists to breathe new life into this awesome, yet dying game.

However, I gotta admit that I think these cards seem uninspired and I was a bit disappointed. I mean, there are basically a bunch of vanilla vamps whose only interesting quality is that they start out anarch. I could've thought of that. And half the dudes are just advanced versions of existing vamps with nothing very different about them other than being anarch. Yawn. I'm totally on board with encouraging more toolboxy decks, which I agree these guys do (with the discipline spreads synergy with current 3-way anarch cards), but I hope some of the other vamps in the set actually have interesting abilities. I like Appolonius ADV a lot and would totally make a deck with him and his base, but he's really the only guy in the preview that is at all intriguing, IMO. I hope that this is just a case of you guys getting the completed art for the mid-caps first and that the rest of the set includes new vamps with interesting abilities that synergize with other new vamps in the set or existing vamps that could use another friend or 2. I am very much looking forward to new anarch library cards as well, and can't wait to see more. Very excited to see a better merging card, as I've always liked the merging mechanic.

Also, the wording on Memory Rift is very confusing, IMO. Is it supposed to be like Keystone Kine, as you mentioned in your introduction, because it doesn't read that way, and Keystone was clear and unambiguous, so why the new confusing wording? If you have obf and pre, does that mean you get +1 stealth and a s:ce if blocked? I guess so based on your intro, but the wording isn't clear to me.

I don't mean to be too harsh, as I still have much hope and excitement for the rest of the set and I thought the last set (The Unaligned) was fantastic, but I really hope the rest of the set has more inspiration and ingenuity than this preview portion does. I say this only because I think it needed to be said and a little constructive criticism never hurt anyone. You guys are awesome, but I see room for improvement in this set. Not like it matters what I think, but I felt compelled to give my two cents. That is all.

mjvtes521 wrote:

Also, the wording on Memory Rift is very confusing, IMO. Is it supposed to be like Keystone Kine, as you mentioned in your introduction, because it doesn't read that way, and Keystone was clear and unambiguous, so why the new confusing wording? If you have obf and pre, does that mean you get +1 stealth and a s:ce if blocked? I guess so based on your intro, but the wording isn't clear to me.

I don't find it confusing at all. It's a new template for functionality like Keystone Kine, but in a much more compact form. As it says, multiple disciplines can be used, so yes, with obf + pre you get +1 stealth + s:ce. I like it, myself, it's a lot easier to read than KK (less of a "wall of text" effect).