Greetings fellow Methuselahs,
We start this month's newsletter with preview art by Carlos Díaz. It will appear on the reprint version of a card from The Sabbat set, maybe in one of the New Blood packs for the Sabbat paths, otherwise in Anthologies. Great work Carlos, moody and powerful!
Noites Brasileiras and Secrets of New York are now in stores!
Yes! Finally, the two brand new sets are in stores - the official release date was October 31, so now all new cards are legal for tournament play.
Check out the announcement, with a list of all the artists and links to them!
Watch out! Watchlist update!
Below you see an updated watchlist for VEKN organised tournament play of Vampire: The Eternal Struggle. This list will be updated every six months, to give a minimum of six months' notice of a potential ban or errata. Please note that a card's inclusion on this list does not mean that it will necessarily be banned or receive errata in the future. Rather, these are the cards currently being considered for potential action.
Check out the official Black Chantry announcement for images of the cards too!
Becoming of Ennoia. Added to watchlist: November 2026. Reason: Functionally weak.
British Museum, London. Added to watchlist: November 2026. Reason: Overperforming.
Carfax Abbey. Added to watchlist: November 2026. Reason: Overperforming.
Coterie Tactics. Added to watchlist: November 2026. Reason: Mechanically flawed.
Garibaldi-Meucci Museum. Added to watchlist: November 2026. Reason: Overperforming.
Guard Duty. Added to watchlist: November 2026. Reason: Functionally weak.
Imbued – All cards. Added to watchlist: November 2026. Reason: Publishing issues.
Life Boon. Added to watchlist: November 2025. Reason: Mechanically flawed.
Maleficia – All cards. Added to watchlist: November 2026. Reason: Publishing issues.
Mask of a Thousand Faces. Added to watchlist: November 2026. Reason: Mechanically flawed.
Organized Resistance. Added to watchlist: November 2026. Reason: Overperforming.
Striga – All cards. Added to watchlist: November 2026. Reason: Publishing issues.
Tupdog. Added to watchlist: November 2026. Reason: Overperforming.
Veil of Darkness. Added to watchlist: November 2025. Reason: Mechanically flawed.
Winged Second. Added to watchlist: November 2026. Reason: Mechanically flawed.
Desso Alastor is the 2026 South American champion!
This tournament was played in Brasília on October 11 with 30 Methuselahs.
Read the full report: SAC 2026
Simon Reed is the 2026 Oceanian champion!
36 players turned up for this event in Brisbane on October 17.
Read the full report: Oceania Championship 2026
Roberto Montero is the 2026 champion of Chile!
22 players played this national championship in El Tabito on September 12.
Read the full report: National Championship Chile 2026
Karl Schaefer wins Grand Prix Pittsburgh!
Played on October 17 with 21 players.
Read the full report: Grand Prix Pittsburgh 2026
Hernán Rodríguez wins Santiago GP3!
Played in Santiago, Chile, on October 3 with 16 Methuselahs.
Read the full report: GP3 Santiago 2026
Ke Carlton is the 2026 Grand Prix Oceania champion!
This GP final took place in Brisbane, Australia, on the same weekend as this year's Grand Prix Brisbane.
Read the full report: Oceania Grand Prix final 2026
Brad Cashdollar wins the Appalachian Assault 2026 Grand Prix final!
Played in Monroeville, Pennsylvania on October 18 with the top five players from this GP circuit.
Read the full report: Appalachian Assault 2026 final
Errors spotted after tournaments will stand
Words by Hugh Angseesing, VEKN Chairman:
Hello! This is a quick update on some questions we have had regarding errors spotted in events after the event or via remote viewing. These errors have been spotted more since games have started to be broadcast live.
Broadly, results of games where errors are spotted will generally stand, unless:
- It is clear the error materially distorts the original event.
- There is a reason to suspect cheating.
It’s quite easy as a Brit, to talk about these sorts of events, as there are two notable ones in English football:
- First example: 1966 World Cup final England versus West Germany – did the ball cross the line? Later modelling suggests yes but it is a great example of the judge (linesman in that case) making a decision at the time and the result standing.
- Second example: In 1986, Diego Armando Maradona used his hand to score against England in the quarter final of the World Cup. That result again stood because none of the judges could see it being a foul at the time.
We do not expect judges to wind back time and try and fix things post-event, if issues are spotted soon enough, they can be adjusted and the game can continue normally.
Where results are submitted to the Ethics Committee to examine for suspected cheating, those determinations in themselves may change results. However, the Ethics Committee is not there (and as a group of volunteers does not have the resources) to look at results caused by errors.
The Netherlands has a new VEKN National Coordinator: Maarten Rijnbeek
After more than 10 years as the National Coordinator of the Netherlands, Jeroen van Oort (above to the left) signs off. Thanks for your services to the community Jeroen!
Some words by Maarten Rijnbeek (above to the right):
A new National Coordinator has entered the Eternal Struggle. After deliberation among the Dutch Princes, the Praxis has been decided.
I am honoured to take on the role of National Coordinator for the Netherlands, alongside my role as Prince of Vleuten.
First of all, I want to thank my fellow Princes for their trust. I will do my best not to immediately abuse that trust for extra transfers, political actions, or questionable deals with the Sabbat.
But this role is about much more than Princes and politics.
VTES in the Netherlands exists because of everyone who plays the game, teaches new players, organises tournaments, hosts casual games, travels across the country for events, builds ridiculous decks, argues about card interactions and keeps coming back to the table.
As National Coordinator, I want to help strengthen that whole community. To connect players and organisers. To support tournaments and local playgroups. To welcome new Methuselahs into the game. And to make sure the Eternal Struggle in the Netherlands remains very much alive.
So to every Dutch VTES player — whether you have been playing for decades or just sleeved your first crypt: Keep playing. Keep organising. Keep bringing new players to the table.
Your prey is temporary. The Eternal Struggle is forever.
Meet the VEKN: Tiago Gonçalves, National Coordinator of Portugal
Hello Tiago! You are the new VEKN National Coordinator of Portugal – congratulations on the prestigious position.
Thank you!
Thanks for letting us ask you some questions to present you to the community. Let’s start from the beginning: When did you start playing VTES?
I don't quite recall the year I started playing, but it was around the release of Third Edition, so 2005-2006-ish. I was playing Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines at the time and was loving the lore and the atmosphere. I also had a couple of friends who played VTES back then – and by "a couple" I mean two! – so I asked one of them to teach me how to play. He helped me bash up a Third Edition Malkavian antitribu with a Black Hand one, and there it was: my first deck.
What do you like most about the game?
The first thing that hooked me on the game was the lore. I was a sucker for RPGs and VTES seemed the right fit for me, although I barely played VTM itself.
After that, I went through a phase of trying to reinvent the wheel by building several new decks with little to no success at actually making something playable. Brinksmanship, I'm looking at you.
That frustration, mostly created by my own inexperience, fueled my desire to play for several years. Eventually I started focusing more on tournament decks, even though I wasn't playing many tournaments at the time.
Nowadays I do a little bit of both: clunky decks to make me laugh and less clunky decks to try to win tournaments.
What deck are you most comfortable playing?
I don't think I have an all-time favorite deck, but I'd say a Tremere toolbox is the closest thing to one. It was the first deck I tried to tweak by myself and I've been playing it on and off in one form or the other for what feels like forever, so I'm particularly fond of it. When I started playing it, it was a heavy wall with almost no ousting power, totally clunky and inadequate to the meta at the time. Eventually it shifted to a toolbox and I really loved the versatility of it. I've never won a tournament with it, though. Someone else did; maybe it's a skill issue...
What other decks do you currently play?
At the moment I'm playing Tzimisce and Brujah barons, and trying to make a Banu Haqim plus Victoria Ash deck to work properly, pretty standard stuff. I've also been working on some fat-cap decks involving Serpentis, but that's all I can say for now. Hopefully, you'll see one at a Portuguese tournament soon.
How are you at the table?
I usually talk a lot because VTES is a social game above all else. At tournament level, people sometimes forget to have fun, so I try to make them enjoy the game a little more by getting them to talk and feel more at ease. I enjoy the negotiations and table talk that naturally come with the game. Even though I don't particularly enjoy playing political decks, I probably enjoy negotiating against one more than I enjoy playing one.
In terms of deck style, I tend to prefer decks that are more prey-centric and with a clear game plan. I like having an active role at the table rather than sitting back and waiting for things to happen, maybe that's my main flaw as a player: not enough patience. I'm also a big fan of decks that have several ways to tackle problems, which is probably why I've always liked toolbox decks.
Now you are a National Coordinator. What do you plan to do to spread VTES in Portugal?
I'm still very new to the role, so I won't pretend that I have a grand master plan. Fortunately, I'm taking over at a good time. The Portuguese player base has grown considerably over the last few years, thanks to the work of the previous National Coordinators and the Princes, who have put a lot of effort into growing their local communities. So it seems logical to build upon that work.
One thing I'd like to improve is the way we connect and promote those communities. We have some players already volunteering to help centralize information and create a more coordinated national network, which I think is great.
Another challenge in Portugal, and one we've always had, is the uneven distribution of players. Lisbon is a very large city and its player base is probably comparable to the rest of the country combined. Getting players from the north and south together regularly is difficult. One of the things we're going to experiment with next year is strengthening the communities in the centre-north and creating a parallel league for them alongside the existing Lisbon league. Hopefully, that will give the less populated parts of the country regular competitive play and more dynamism.
There are also some more straightforward things we can do to increase exposure. This year, for example, we took VTES to a board game convention, which gave us the opportunity to show the game to people who otherwise would never hear of it. I'm also working on some posters to be displayed in some game stores. We have some good roll-up banners from VEKN, but they're expensive, so we need more simple, practical promotional material that local organizers can put in a store or venue and say: "This is VTES, come play with us."
Of course, one of VTES's biggest challenges is teaching the game and retaining people who try it. The most common feedback I get from new players, especially those who have little to no previous experience with games, is that it's too overwhelming at first, so it's very important to make the first experience welcoming and manageable. Having someone who can teach the game properly is fundamental, even more important than any advertising campaign.
Ultimately, I agree that the community in VTES is its greatest strength. The people actually growing the game are the players, Princes and local organizers. I think VEKN and Black Chantry's biggest role is to support them, through direct promotion of the game and by giving local promoters the tools and material they need to do their job better.
So, to sum up, the goal isn't necessarily to change what we're doing in Portugal, but to build upon what has already been made. To make it easier for the people already doing good work to do even more of it, while making it easier for new players to find us and take that first step into the game.
Thank you for this interview Tiago, and thanks also to your predecessor Ricardo Marta - great job!
Emerald Legionnaires march into Madrid!
While this is not a tournament at national, continental or Grand Prix level, we want to share this extra report with you. It was the first tournament organized by a new, third Prince in the Madrid area of Spain. It was also the first tournament of the Madrid League 2025-2026 season. 33 players – check out the report and the tournament-winning deck!
Recruitment Exercise: Novi Sad 2026
Words by Milan Popovic, VEKN Prince of Belgrade:
Hi all, we would like to tell you about some local progress here. We want to thank Dice and the Fun crew in Novi Sad for the great help that we got with the promo event that was held on 17th of October.
At the start of the year, we had only Petar Kalmar, the Prince of Novi Sad, who was promoting the game, but with the help of Instagram, we managed to organise two events in Novi Sad this year.
We are now happy to report that a 10-person playgroup has been established after all our efforts. With similar effort, we expect to see more players in Serbia overall.
Have you done a demo event or similar and want to report it in the newsletter? Contact the editor!
Recruitment Exercise: MondoCon Hungary
Words by Gábor Endler:
Hi everyone! The Hungarian VTES community once again participated in MondoCon, held on October 17–18, 2026, in Budapest. MondoCon is one of Hungary's largest conventions dedicated to anime, manga, gaming, cosplay, and pop culture, attracting thousands of visitors and providing a great opportunity to introduce tabletop and card games to a wider audience.
Throughout the two-day event, we welcomed quite a lot of interested visitors to our stand. Many stopped by to learn more about Vampire: The Eternal Struggle, asked for flyers and informational materials, and picked up some of our full-art promotional cards. In fact, the promos proved so popular that we almost ran out of them!
It was another great opportunity to promote VTES, introduce the game to potential new players, and increase its visibility within the Hungarian gaming community.
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Reminder: The VEKN Newsletter Contribution Award promo card
If you are expected to deliver an article for the VEKN newsletter, and do so within a reasonable time, you will be awarded the official VEKN Newsletter Contribution Award promo card. It is currently the super cool Malkavian Rider Clause depicted above - VERY rare, printed only for this particular cause. If this article is a tournament report, "reasonable time" is usually within 7 days after the event. So don´t sleep on it, rip off that band-aid immediatelly after the tournament, and thanks for contributing!
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 list 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: October 2026
• Noites Brasileiras and Secrets of New York are in stores! See above in this newsletter.
• Product Director Ben Peal attended the South American Championship in Brasilia, Brazil on October 10-11. His presentation is published online, and will eventually be turned into a roadmap 2027 article.
• In cooperation with the Swedish game clubs association Sverok and the game store Alphaspel, Black Chantry has donated 150 Vampire: The Eternal Struggle Fifth Edition boxes to Swedish gamers! The campaign is called “Spellovet”, which means that every year a big box of game materials is sent to the 150 most active game clubs in Sweden.
• Words from CEO Hugh Angseesing: “On 24th October, I was fortunate to brave Storm Boelo to travel from Black Chantry HQ in Nottingham to Norwich UK for a 17-person tournament. I took the exact Hecata deck Martin Weinmeyer had posted, originally produced by the esteemed Nina Nilsson and had a lot of fun enjoying the simplicity of Oblivion. Norwich is a city of fine church spires and endless pubs and creeping out of the darkness to host this event was Simon George - interviewed here. Thank you to Simon and Athena Games for hosting and congratulations to Mikey Ferguson for his tournament win.”
• The third round of playtesting of two preconstructed decks for a 2-player variant of VTES is ongoing and will end on November 15. Please, if you are a playtester, make sure to hand in your feedback on time!
• The first round of playtesting of the New Blood decks for Paths of Caine, Cathari, Death and Power started on October 15! 56 brand new cards are tested in this round. Hopefully the playtesters can handle testing two sets simultaneously.
• The design of "Anthology II" continues. It's not clear yet if it will be one, two or three 89-card packs, collecting cards that need reprinting but haven't yet found a slot in a Black Chantry release.
• 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)
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, Brazilian Portuguese)
New Blood: Salubri (Also Spanish, French, Brazilian Portuguese)
New Blood: Tzimisce (Also Spanish, French, Brazilian Portuguese)
Noites Brasileiras (Also Spanish, French, Brazilian Portuguese)
Secrets of New York (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
Recent news in the World of Darkness
• The Month of Darkness is over! In the understandable absence of concrete news about the future of Vampire: The Masquerade and its game setting that we depend upon so much, we have seen a plethora of fun World of Darkness things during the month. Go to the Month of Darkness site to browse all of this!
• The second round of alpha playtesting of the next edition of Vampire: The Masquerade will appear on November 9, available on Demiplane, Roll20 and as PDFs on DrivethruRPG. We will also get a new developer diary entry detailing the changes between the first and second alpha rounds.
• On October 20, the much-awaited “Courts of the Damned” was released, maybe the last installment in the fifth edition of Vampire: The Masquerade. This sourcebook covers political intrigues in vampiric societies and offers all kinds of advice to Storytellers about this.
Looking for more World of Darkness in your channel of choice? Check out the Linktree!
Calendar
Major events coming up:
November 7: National Championship Sweden, Stockholm
November 7: National Championship Switzerland, Zürich
November 7: National Championship Slovakia, Bratislava
November 7: National Championship Denmark, Køge
November 7: National Championship Norway, Moss
November 15: National Championship Mexico, Mexico City
November 21: National Championship Canada, Montréal
November 28: National Championship Germany, Herne
November 28: National Championship Hungary, Budapest
November 28: National Championship South Africa, Johannesburg
December 5: Grand Prix Vidor, USA
December 13: Grand Prix Cearense, Brazil
Tournaments for the coming month (registered at the time of writing) are in:
Brazil x7
Canada
Chile
Croatia
Czech Republic
Denmark
Finland x2
France x2
Germany
Hungary x5
Italy x2
Mexico
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Russia
Serbia
South Africa
Spain x13
Sweden
Switzerland
USA
For details about these events, see Archon.vekn.net. Also, check out the World of Darkness Community Map.
Remember: Online tournaments are possible - just register it as an online tournament when you add it to Archon!
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.
Before coffee I hate people, after coffee I feel good about hating people.
