Rules for two or three player VTES games?

Hi,

I do wonder, if there are rules to play a "light" version of VTES with just two or three players.

I am trying my best to get people interested to get into the game or to pick up their old cards, yet a frequent response that I receive is "I can't find four or even five players to get started".
I know that there are online options like LackeyCCG and TTS.
Though going by the interactions and reactions people are looking for the possibility to play a physical game, at the same table, with another friend, maybe two.

Is there a "light VTES ruleset" or something akin to that, to which I could point them?
Like, just to get them playing and hooked.
Even if they might miss on any predator / prey dynamic in a 2-player game and the politics cards and some other don't work as well if there are just 3-players-

I can't speak for whether there is a 3-player variant. But I've been playing 2-player games for a while now. I'm guessing you'll get the usual response around here of "don't bother playing with 2 players." The thing is, 2 player games can actually be a lot of fun, and it doesn't even require a "lighter" version of the rules. By it's nature, 2-player games have a lighter "rules burden" because your predator and prey are the same player. Two-player games, however, require a different approach to deck building. My experience has been that, as long as each player plays a deck that will interact well with the opposing deck, the game should be fun and flow smoothly. I've actually built decks with the other player before the game, just to ensure the decks will work well together. Doing this is different from normal VTES in that the opposing player knows what deck is being played. So it's definitely a "variant" way to play. You still shuffle the cards, and it becomes more of a game of chance than skill.

Also, some cards don't work with 2 players (ie, Deflection, Kine Resources Contested), so just make sure not to include those cards in either deck. There's plenty of other cards to choose from.

In my playgroup there was a time, when we regularly played with 3 people. It still has a similar feel like regular Vtes, since you have the Predator/Prey mechanics included, but you do not have "crosstable buddies", therefore removing some part of the negotiation, but also opening some options from the start, that are usually open only later on.

There are some decks in this variant that can simply beat the others. Every once in a while someone would bring a vampire into play and the others were just sitting there, looking at him and saying "Ok, so we can basically start a new game, this one is going to be boring". I think for every group this would need a time to be found out, also one should not simply copy decks from the TWDA, since there are some that will not work well in a 3-player environment.

So as long as one listens to the group and takes a look at "problematic" decks and sometimes even forbids them, Vtes with 3 players should work.

1VP = GW and use "5 transfers rule" (there are 5 transfers but influencing a vampire costs one) with first player starting with 3. It's quite fun

Here we play with only one difference:
The starting player choose if he starts with 1 or 2 transfers ( 3 players ) or 1, 2 or 3 transfers ( 2 players ).
Nothing else changes.

Very good question and better answers, i take note