Greetings fellow Methuselahs,
Welcome to a jam-packed newsletter, just like you like them. We are delighted to kick it off with this amazing wraith artwork by Anastasiia Horbunova, a preview from the upcoming Brazil-themed set for our beloved Vampire: The Eternal Struggle. So beautiful you go silent!
Jess Nash is the 2026 North American Champion!
59 Methuselahs showed up for the NAC at Origins in Columbus, Ohio on June 20.
Read the full report: NAC 2026
Player interview: Jess Nash, North American champion 2026
Congratulation Jess! Thanks for taking your time to talk to us. Let’s start with the Week of Nightmares, did you get a chance to play any of those side events this year?
I played in the Wednesday night Week of Nightmares event, and it was a lot of fun. I brought a ridiculous deck I call In the Shalmath of Madness, which uses Shalmath, Clan Impersonation, and Madness Network to try to bleed on every player’s turn. It’s dumb, and 30% of the time it works every time. This was not one of those 30% of the time moments. That said, it was a lot of fun and I saw some really cool decks.
I also played in the Thursday and Friday Origins events. I had a bit more success there. On Friday, I played what would become my NAC deck to get a few more reps with it outside my local meta.
In the main NAC event, how did you decide on your deck? Tell us your thoughts!
I brought several decks to Origins, but I was pretty sure this was the one I was going to play. I call it Oderint dum metuant, named for Aaradhya, The Callous Tyrant. This might be silly, but I feel like I play better when the deck has a good name. I chose it because I had the most experience with it, and because it’s the deck I have the most fun playing, even in losses. I was very familiar with how it played, what to expect, and how it handled different table states.
Regarding the meta, I included an Anarchist Uprising and an Ancilla Empowerment for swarms. I leaned heavier on Cold War to help manage problematic locations, such as Club Illusion, Garibaldi, and all the other golden Anarch locations.
The deck’s biggest strength is that it has more than one way to win. It can bleed well, and it’s also dangerous politically. If bleeding is unsafe (because bounce is popular), I can vote. It doesn’t fight, but Banishment can answer most table threats in a way that can be just as effective as torpor. And like a lot of political decks, it has something to offer the table. I can help votes pass, call votes that help other people, or use political pressure to make deals.
The biggest weakness is dedicated combat. It can avoid combat reasonably well while acting, but if a dedicated rush deck points itself at me and I don’t find Secure Haven, things can get ugly quickly. I think there are only six S:CE (Strike: Combat ends, editors note) in the deck, and Immortal Grapple generally prevents even that. The deck should probably have wakes and some additional rush answers, whether that’s Obedience or more S:CE. That’s something I keep meaning to tighten up.
My ideal prey is one that doesn’t have many votes or much intercept. Decks that want to go forward and don’t have a way to go backward are probably the best. The worst predator is either a fast stealth bleeder or a rush deck that doesn’t need to go backwards first.
What was your experience during the three preliminary rounds? Any tough matchups?
After round one, I thought my tournament was essentially over. I got ousted relatively quickly by a Lasombra bleed deck. It wasn’t particularly fast but it was able to build without any pressure. No victory points at all. I was disappointed in how it went, but I was still happy to be playing VTES.
Round two was the confidence reset. It was a four-player table, and the key turn involved a cross-table Banishment on an 8-cap who’d been nearly emptied of blood (and I suspected was going to be the target of Golconda), followed by another Banishment on my prey in the same turn. That opened my prey up for the oust, and a few turns later I was able to eliminate the last two players and sweep the table. Timing-wise, that was one of my prouder VTES moments.
Round three was about staying cool once I realized there was Malkavian stealth-bleed behind me. Once we were down to three players, I was very aware of the clock and made a direct deal with my prey: I’d help him get his victory point so the two of us could face off. Giving him a VP felt risky, but it also felt like the only realistic way for me to get two more.
I didn’t know I was still in contention for the final after round three. I only found out when Ben messaged me that there was a three-way tie for fourth and fifth and that I needed to roll off.
Walk us through the final. You couldn’t pick seating, what did you think of your position at the table?
The final seating was me on Power and Inner Voice politics/bleed, Karl Schaefer on Path of Power politics, Kelly Schultz on Cybele Scobax, Ned Leeds on Path of Caine Enkidu rush, and Chris Malec. I wasn’t entirely sure what Chris’s deck was doing beyond hearing that it bleeds very fast.
I’d played with everyone at least a little. Kelly and I had shared tables last year at the Sabbat prerelease and Origins. I’d played a couple of games with Ned earlier in the week (where I introduced him to my love of Secure Haven!). I’d just met Chris this year and shared a couple of tables with him earlier in the week. Karl and I had played at Origins last year (where I learned a lot about table balance thanks to some overzealous play on my part), and we were also both in the final at the Newark tournament in March.
So I didn’t go in blind. I knew everyone at the table was a good player. I also knew from Week of Nightmares results and prior experience that Karl and Kelly had several tournament wins. I was less sure about Ned and Chris’s tournament history, but I knew they could play.
I was very relieved that Enkidu wasn’t my predator. I saw him as my biggest threat and I was pretty sure he was playing the same deck he played in our WoN event on Wednesday night. I was also nervous about Karl being my prey because he’s such a smart player and very savvy deck builder. The fact that he was playing a deck that overlapped with mine definitely contributed to that feeling. I also wasn’t familiar with Kelly’s Scobax deck at all, so I genuinely didn’t know what to expect there.
How did the final feel as the final unfolded?
Honestly, I was overwhelmed. It was only my second final table ever, and I’d never won a final. At the start, I mostly wanted to play well and not embarrass myself. If I could get an oust, even better, but I didn’t sit down feeling like the favorite.
Then I made the exact kind of mistake I was afraid of making. I had enough beads on The Tyrant, but I forgot to move her into the ready region and skipped to my discard. I realized it immediately, but it was too late. That felt awful.
But I kept reminding myself that it was still early. I wasn’t under serious pressure yet, and Karl wasn’t so far ahead that the game was over. I tried to accept it, reset, and keep playing.
A little later, I influenced out Rexton without realizing Karl already had him out. In the moment, that felt like another big mistake. I was trying to maintain voting power and missed what was already on the table. But after a couple of turns, I realized the contest was actually helping me. Karl had three archbishops, and I had a cardinal plus control of the priscus block. Contesting Rexton reduced his votes while I kept mine, and I could use Karl’s Black Forest Base to help pay for the contest.
What was your sense of the table mid-game?
Mid-game, I was trying to oust Karl while also managing the Enkidu problem across the table. Chris was in a rough spot, but Ned didn’t seem able to bleed him out very fast, so I had some room to negotiate. At one point, Ned specifically asked me to put Cold War damage on Chris, and doing that helped keep Enkidu pointed somewhere other than at me.
That was the shape of that part of the game: keep pressure on Karl, stay useful to Ned, and avoid becoming the obvious next target. I knew a heads-up with Enkidu was not where I wanted to be, so I was trying to buy time without losing forward momentum.
Eventually, I was able to oust Karl and that changed things up quite a bit. The table opened up once Enkidu and Cybele started spending real resources on each other. From my seat, that was the first time it felt like I might have been able to pull something together. I still wasn’t sure I had a chance (so many unknowns and low seed to boot) but the pressure had shifted enough that I could look for opportunities.
The real turning point for me didn’t come until what would be the last turn. I looked at my hand, looked at Kelly’s board, and at first I didn’t see it. I’d had an Anarchist Uprising in my hand for a while and had recently drawn into a KRC and Cold War.
I remember asking him, “How many minions do you have?”
“Seven.”
Seven from Anarchist Uprising was a big swing, especially with Rexton making his allies (Carlton and Veneficti) unable to block. Once that vote landed, the rest of the turn was very tense. I remember agonizing over each action because I was sure he was holding back a card that would unravel my lunge. A Cold War followed by Kine Resources Contested finished it.
I was fortunate in my seat, and I don’t want to minimize that. I didn’t choose it, and the cross-table pressure between Enkidu and Cybele gave me room I might not have had elsewhere. But I still had to survive long enough to use that room, and on the last turn I finally found the line.
A little background on you: How did you get into VTES?
I first got into VTES when it was initially released in 1994 (under its very unfortunate original name). I was playing a lot of Vampire: The Masquerade at the time, and my group all bought into the card game. I stuck with it for a few expansions, but then life happened and it fell off my radar.
A few years ago, my best friend discovered that it was still around, bought the V5 starter set, and we fell back into it.
We loved it. The theme, the unique predator/prey mechanic, the politics, the complex card interactions. I’m not sure it would’ve been on my radar in 1994 if I hadn’t already been into Vampire: The Masquerade, but it absolutely grabbed me once I played it.
Early on, I didn’t really have the money to build very cohesive decks. I was playing for a long time off just a starter, a handful of boosters, and lots of trades. That said, I played a lot of Brujah and Nosferatu early on.
Do you have a regular local group?
I play in Louisville. We don’t really have one fixed “home” for our games. Sometimes we play at each other’s houses, sometimes at game stores, and sometimes at local breweries.
We have a fairly consistent local group, though it’s waxed and waned over the last few years as folks have come and gone. I definitely want to shout out our Prince, Sean Payne. He started our local group, he’s my best friend, and he’s one of the best people I know. For a while, we were playing about once a week, though summer and schedules have made that less consistent.
Our local meta feels pretty aggressive. Whether that’s fast stealth-bleed or just monstrous combat decks, people are usually trying to do something very direct and very mean. I think that probably shaped how much I value Secure Haven.
What do you see in VTES’s future? How do you think Black Chantry and VEKN are doing?
I think Black Chantry is doing a good job introducing new content at a healthy pace. It doesn’t feel too fast or too slow, and generally I think they’ve done a good job adding new material without invalidating a ton of old cards. In a game with this much history, that matters.
The introduction of Paths feels especially well thought out to me. It gives them a lot of space to move thematically and mechanically. The new Sabbat Paths is probably one of my favorite additions since returning to the game. I think it introduced some really cool new ways to play without feeling like it overtook the environment.
I’m honestly not super engaged with VEKN, but I appreciate the role it plays in the community. The event schedule, active forums, and monthly newsletters are all valuable. In a world of Reddit, Discord, Facebook, and other social media, it’s good to have a hub. Some place needs to be the source of truth for events and organized play, and VEKN does that well.
The bigger hurdle is onboarding new players. VTES is a complex game, and it’s very easy for people to bounce off it. Not everyone who’s good at playing is good at teaching, so better teaching tools would help. There are also some very counterintuitive rules that aren’t even in the rulebook, and those can really throw new players.
I think the game will continue to grow if we embrace new players, pun intended, and give them tools that help them learn the game clearly and confidently.
And finally, thank you to everyone who’s shared a table with me, been patient with me in play, or given me advice and feedback on play or deckbuilding. That community experience, both in my local group and when traveling to play, is a big part of what keeps me engaged and coming back.
Thanks for this very good chat Jess, and good luck in future!
Miquel Jorge Tortajada is the 2026 champion of Spain! 158 players!
Yes, an impressive 158 players battled it out for the Spanish title this year, in Alcalá de Henares on June 27.
Read the full report: Spain National Championship 2026
Anderson Rodrigues wins Grand Prix Rio de Janeiro 2026!
This tournament was played on June 7 with 39 players.
Read the full report: 1st Step of the South American VTES Grand Prix
Norbert Flasko is the 2026 champion of Ireland!
19 players turned up in Dublin on April 25.
Read the full report: National Championship Ireland 2026
Recruitment Exercise: Paris Ludique 2026
Words by Christophe Baltazar, VEKN National Coordinator of France:
From June 26 to 28, VEKN France attended Paris Ludique, the major open-air board gaming festival held in Paris.
Despite the extremely hot weather throughout the weekend, we were delighted to represent Vampire: The Eternal Struggle alongside around one hundred other exhibitors. Our goal was simple: introduce as many people as possible to the game.
We're happy to report that around twenty people learned to play VTES over the course of the weekend. As always, the New Blood decks proved to be an excellent way to introduce new players to the game.
Beyond the demos themselves, the weekend was also an excellent opportunity for the four volunteers staffing the booth to exchange ideas and discuss how we can improve our demonstrations at future events.
Several ideas came out of these discussions:
- making the booth more visible with stronger visual elements such as posters, banners, or dedicated display material;
- improving our demo equipment with custom playmats, pool counters, Edge markers, and other accessories;
- refining the structure of our demos to make them more engaging and dynamic.
One idea we particularly liked was to use partially scripted demo games. Each player would begin with their "star vampire" already ready to enter play, together with a carefully prepared opening hand. Including key cards such as Blood Doll or Villein for pool management, Govern the Unaligned, Enchant Kindred, Raven Spy, Wake with Evening's Freshness, and a few combat cards would allow new players to experience the core mechanics much more quickly while avoiding the slower opening turns that can sometimes occur in introductory games.
These are, of course, ideas that still need to be tested, but they provide a promising foundation for making future demonstrations even more accessible and enjoyable.
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We would also like to extend our sincere thanks to Black Chantry Productions for their continued support. Thanks to them, every player who discovers VTES at our booth gets to take home the New Blood deck they played with during the demo. It's an invaluable way to help new players continue their journey after the event.
Finally, I would personally like to thank the three volunteers who shared the weekend with me: Christophe, Romain, and Jéremy. Their dedication, enthusiasm, and hard work played a major role in making our participation at Paris Ludique such a success.
We look forward to seeing many more new faces at future events and continuing to grow the French Vampire: The Eternal Struggle community.
Thanks for this heroic effort! Do you also want to host demonstration games of VTES and become a hero of the community? Send a mail to to get help with materials!
Reminder: Please join the World of Darkness Community Map!
Please, advertise your VTES playgroup and/or VTES events on the World of Darkness Community Map! This is important to help the game grow. But only things that happen in public places where anyone is welcome (nothing played at someone's home) and no online events.
Check out the map here: World of Darkness Community Map
Submit here: Map submission form
Black Chantry Summary: June 2026
Both product director Ben Peal and art director Ginés Quiñonero were busy doing really nice VTES things this month (NAC and Spanish Nationals, see above in this newsletter), but production is moving on strong and smooth:
• The two Brazil and New York-themed 54-card sets have been finalized and will be sent to the printer shortly. Sadly, printing is slower than ever, so are most likely looking at an October release. The "spoiler season" will start as soon as the time table is more clear. These sets will have the Path-marker cards shown in the May newsletter on the flipside of the front card, but these will also be made available on print-on-demand.
• The first round of playtest of cards for two preconstructed decks for a 2-player variant of VTES has begun. The main aim is a nice low-cost product and game format that helps to introduce new players without having to gather a full four or five player table, but the decks will include a decent number of new cards also useable in the normal game format. This test round has 26 cards, we´ll see how many of these stays for the final decks. Thanks to all playtesters!
• Gorgo (not to be confused with Grogu!), the replacement card for Baba Yaga, will appear in an upcoming “Anthology II” set with otherwise mainly reprints. As everything is slightly delayed, this will not be until the very end of 2026 at the earliest, or early 2027.
• The same goes for New Blood packs for the four Sabbat paths. The design team is tinkering with these right now.
• There will be 11 new full-art league promos for the 26-27 season. Below are some previews. Look out for a full announcement when they are made available for organisers at Gamepod and Drivethrucards.
• The next batch of Legacy cards for print-on-demand on Gamepod and Drivethrucards are Brujah antitribu. BCP are awaiting a test print of these before they go live.
• The official VTES Player Survey 2026 has been completed! In total 1483 answers came in, now being analysed with great excitment. Big thanks to everyone that participated!
• Want to know more about future releases? Dates are a bit off, but the product roadmap article at Blackchantry.com is still relevant.
• The following Black Chantry products are currently available through Gamepod, Drivethrucard
Lost Kindred bundle (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
Keepers of Tradition Reprint Bundle 1 (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
Keepers of Tradition Reprint Bundle 2 (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
Heirs of the Blood Reprint Bundle 1 (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
Heirs of the Blood Reprint Bundle 2 (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
Den of Fiends Preconstructed Deck (Also Spanish, French) (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
Libertine Ball Preconstructed Deck (Also Spanish, French) (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
Pact with Nephandi Preconstructed Deck (Also Spanish, French) (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
Parliament of Shadows Preconstructed Deck (Also Spanish, French) (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
Anthology I bundle
VTES Card Creator (Drivethrucards only)
25th Anniversary
First Blood: Malkavian (Also Spanish, French) (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
First Blood: Nosferatu (Also Spanish, French) (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
First Blood: Toreador (Also Spanish, French) (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
First Blood: Tremere (Also Spanish, French) (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
First Blood: Ventrue (Also Spanish, French) (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
VTES Legacy Card Singles (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
Promo Pack 1 (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
Promo Pack 2 (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
Promo Pack 3 (For promotion only)
Promo Pack 4 (For promotion only)
VTES "Parity Shift" playmat
VTES card sleeves
Vampire: The Eternal Struggle Fifth Edition (Stores only)
Vampire: The Eternal Struggle Fifth Edition Latin (Drivethrucards only)
Fifth Edition: Malkavian (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
Fifth Edition: Nosferatu (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
Fifth Edition: Toreador (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
Fifth Edition: Tremere (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
Fifth Edition: Ventrue (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
Promo Pack 3 (Event promos only)
Fifth Edition: Banu Haqim (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
Fifth Edition: Brujah (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
Fifth Edition: Gangrel (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
Fifth Edition: The Ministry (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
New Blood: Malkavian (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
New Blood: Nosferatu (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
New Blood: Toreador (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
New Blood: Tremere (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
New Blood: Ventrue (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
The Fall of London (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
Echoes of Gehenna
Shadows of Berlin (Also Spanish, French)
New Blood: Banu Haqim (Also Spanish, French)
New Blood: Brujah (Also Spanish, French)
New Blood: Gangrel (Also Spanish, French)
New Blood: The Ministry (Also Spanish, French)
Fifth Edition: Ravnos (Also Spanish, French)
Fifth Edition: Salubri (Also Spanish, French)
Fifth Edition: Tzimisce (Also Spanish, French)
30th Anniversary (Also Spanish, French)
Fifth Edition: Lasombra (Also Spanish, French)
Fifth Edition: Hecata (Also Spanish, French)
New Blood: Hecata (Also Spanish, French)
New Blood: Lasombra (Also Spanish, French)
Path of Caine (Also Spanish, French)
Path of Cathari (Also Spanish, French)
Path of Death and the Soul (Also Spanish, French)
Path of Power and the Inner Voice (Also Spanish, French)
New Blood: Ravnos (Also Spanish, French)
New Blood: Salubri (Also Spanish, French)
New Blood: Tzimisce (Also Spanish, French)
Do you have opinions about or questions for Black Chantry? Start a topic on the VEKN forum, or contact the company by e-mail, Facebook, Instagram
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Recent news in the World of Darkness
Plenty of interesting news from White Wolf this month!
• Vampire: The Masquerade goes D&D! Vampire: The Masquerade: Bound by Blood is a full player pack for D&D Beyond made by Ghostfire Gaming. It’s a 1-to-20 Kindred class, six clan subclasses, 25+ feats, new Backgrounds, and a complete 5.5E adventure set in the Dark Ages.
• “Not in Our Domain!” is an official live actual play playtest of the "new Vampire: The Masquerade project". Announced as a live, in-progress playtest that will take place at Gen Con on August 2, to showcase new mechanics and ideas in real time, with Storyteller Alexander Ward and players Xander Jeanneret, Ify Nwadiwe, Anna Margaret, and Diana DiMicco.
• Reminder: World of Darkness has a new newsletter for you to subscribe to. Nothing to think about, just sign up at the site!
• We have mentioned the exciting Courts of the Damned sourcebook for Vampire: The Masquerade several times here, it is in stores in August, but if you preorder now, you get the PDF directly, pretty sweet!
• Vampire: The Masquerade – Eternal Whispers is an upcoming narrative-driven CRPG, focused on investigative gameplay, deep roleplaying with meaningful choices, and fail-forward storytelling (where failure reshapes the narrative rather than blocking it). You are a vampire awakened from decades of torpor with fractured memories who uncovers a conspiracy in a dark, contemporary Montreal. The game is developed by Montreal-based Flyos Games and built on the foundation of Vampire: The Masquerade — Chapters. Read more on the World of Darkness site, and check out the trailer:
Looking for more World of Darkness in your channel of choice? Check out the Linktree!
Calendar
Major events coming up:
July 11: National Championship Scotland, Edinburgh
July 18: Grand Prix Vienna, Austria
July 18: Grand Prix Brisbane, Australia
July 19: National Championship Belgium, Mechelen
July 26: Grand Prix Helsinki, Finland
August 8: Grand Prix Gulfport, USA
August 29: National Championship UK, Nottingham
September 5: Grand Prix Sydney, Australia
September 18: Grand Prix Vilnius 2026, Lithuania
September 19: European Championship 2026, Vilnius, Lithuania
October Date TBD: Grand Prix New Orleans, USA
December 13: Grand Prix Cearense, Brazil
Tournaments for the coming month (registered at the time of writing) are in:
Australia x2
Austria x2
Belgium x2
Brazil x11
Canada
Chile
Finland x4
France x2
Italy x3
Mexico
Netherlands
Online x2
Poland
Portugal
South Africa
Spain x9
Sweden
UK
USA x4
For details about these events, see the VEKN Event Calendar. Also, check out the World of Darkness Community Map.
Remember: Online tournaments are possible - just check the box "Online tournament" when you add the event to the calendar!
Contact VEKN
You can contact the VEKN Inner Circle members using the contact forms at VEKN.net. Also follow the official VTES Facebook page Vampire: The Eternal Struggle, the official VEKN X account @VEKN_VTES and the official VTES Discord server.
The words you speak become the house you live in.
