Two player variant

This is my first post here and I'm only recently getting into the game. As I'm mostly only going to be playing with 3 players at the most and many times only 2 players I just wondered if there was anything I needed to remove card wise or change rules wise to suit less players. We like all the card aspects of the game but we're not that interested in the table mechanics of wheeling and dealing. I've noticed that most people say that 2 player isn't very playable but is this because of the cards or the table mechanics? We love the lore and world of Vampire so it would be nice to play the card game as well. Thanks in advance.

Two player definitely can work. However, I've found that a different deck building approach is needed. Certain strategies that are mitigated in multiplayer dominate in 2 player. The best way I've found to deal with this is to build two decks with an eye toward whether the decks will interact well in a two-player setting. This approach is not for everybody in that you essentially know what is in your opponent's deck, but you still have to shuffle the decks and play a game of cards. And for me, that's enough. It certainly simplifies the game quite a bit.

Hope this helps.

One of the big problems with 2 player games is that combat is too strong: once the opposing minions are in torpor, you won. There are ways to deal with it: either embrace it and enjoy the brawl, or agree to limit the amount of red cards in 2 player decks.

The other problem is that with 2 players, one misses all the table dynamics aspect and it is just not as fun. Maybe that could be brought back with a common enemy like the Nergal storyline deck, so that the players still need to negotiate their cooperation / competition ratio.

Thanks for responding. So should I just find something else to play right now and wait until I have more players to play Vampire? I guess we can just play the RPG maybe or the computer games. It seems kind of a shame but I guess if it's meant for more players then that's what I'll have to do.

Also, sorry about putting this in News and Announcements. I thought I was putting it in General Discussion. Maybe the moderator can move it.

Non-existant user wrote:

The other problem is that with 2 players, one misses all the table dynamics aspect and it is just not as fun. Maybe that could be brought back with a common enemy like the Nergal storyline deck, so that the players still need to negotiate their cooperation / competition ratio.

See, in my experience, missing the table dynamics is really not such bad thing. The game is compelling enough with only 2 players. Removing table dynamics really streamlines the game. But then again, I tend to find the predator/prey aspect of VTES a weak point. In 2 player, you just really have to make sure decks are going to interact well and you don't get stuck with, say, a combat deck completely ruining a deck that has no plan against combat.