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Greetings from the V:EKN Design Team!

The mid-round report from the playtesters arrived last week, and we've been taking a look at the feedback and deciding what changes we may want to make in preparation for Round Three. Personally, I take a fatalistic pleasure in watching the playtesters take our beautiful creations and smash them to bits. Partly for that reason, we're having the playtesters test a larger number of cards than the set will include.

Based on playtester feedback, some cards from Round One did not make the cut for Round Two and were sent back to the Design Team for further development. It is entirely possible that similar cuts will be made for Round Three. There are other reasons for testing more cards than will be in the set. Representing the World of Darkness source material well in V:TES is a high priority for us, and we want more than just our own opinions as to whether the cards we've designed reflect that world respectfully. We're also keen to have this set be comprised of the best cards we've designed for the needs they're intended to address. So, in some respects, we're treating the playtesters as having the role of a focus group for the larger V:TES community as well as having their normal playtesting responsibilities. We do have a clear direction and goal in mind, and we're using the feedback from the playtesters to determine which of the options we've created will get us to that goal

Among our additional tasks for Round Two is to determine which cards are certain to make the final cut for the set and are thereby approved for having artwork commissioned for them. Some cards received this approval after Round One, and we look forward to seeing more cards join them after Round Two. We won't be doing official sneak previews until the weeks leading up to the set's release sometime this summer. However, look for concept sketches in the coming Designers' Diary entries.

Regards,
Ben Peal and the V:EKN Design Team