In Memoriam Stewart Wieck

Greetings fellow Methuselahs

Firstly we have some sad news to acknowledge ...


Stewart Wieck

IN MEMORIAM: STEWART WIECK 1968-2017
The V:EKN would like to honour the memory of Stewart Wieck who passed away June 22. Among many other things, he was co-founder of White Wolf, co-creator of the World of Darkness and former Chairman of V:EKN. We are eternally grateful for his contribution to millions of hours of entertainment. His legacy lives on in our game and many others. Rest in peace.

About this by Mark Rein-Hagen: “Stewart Wieck, my partner at White Wolf, has died..."
About this by Richard Thomas: "Goodbye, my friend"
About this by White Wolf: "If I have seen further ..."


Origins Game Fair 2017

NORTH AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIP 2017 IS OVER
US National Coordinator Ben Peal reports: Congratulations to Martin Weinmayer of Austria for winning the 2017 North American Championship! This is his third Continental Championship win - he also won the European Championship in 1999 and 2009. His winning deck was Stanislava multi-act. Congratulations as well to the other finalists: Alex Romano, Mariya Hyryk, Brad Cashdollar, and Bill Troxel.

Congratulations are also in order for the other tournament winners at Origins Game Fair! Bill Troxel won Day 1 of the NAC with old-school mid-cap Protean-Dominate. Adam Huse won the Thursday constructed tournament with a Howler-based Ahrimanes deck, and he also won the First Chance Qualifier on Sunday with an Ishtarri multi-act deck.

Many, many thanks to everyone who attended, including competitors from Chile, Mexico, and Canada! Many thanks as well to Jay Kristoff for running the Week of Nightmares!

Decklists are as follows:

Thursday June 18 - Constructed Tournament (22 Players)
Deck Name: Ahrimanes Rule of Four
Created By: Adam Hulse
Description: My Ahrimanes take on my "Toreador Rule of Four" deck. Ahrimanes lose bounce and titles but gain more stealth and more blocking. Lesson Learned: The Claws of the Dead are a good surprise but should probably just be Force of Personality. Lesson Learned: To give prey hard choices - Pentex Loves You could replace Fear of Mekket.

Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 16, Max: 32, Avg: 6.33)
4 Howler      ANI obf PRE SPI8 Ahrimanes
4 Siamese     ani PRE pro SPI7 Ahrimanes
1 Cynthia Ingold    ani for pre SPI6 Ahrimanes
1 Nettie Hale    ani cel pre pro spi5 Ahrimanes
1 Juanita Santiago    ani pre spi 4 Ahrimanes
1 Igo the Hungry    pre pro  1 Caitiff

Library: (90 cards)
Master (19 cards)
2 Wash  
2 Villein
2 Dreams of the Sphinx
2 Wider View
2 Perfectionist
2 Vessel
2 Blood Doll
1 Archon Investigation
1 Barrens, The
1 Fear of Mekhet
1 Anarch Troublemaker
1 Pentex(TM) Subversion

Action (23 cards)
4 Legal Manipulations
4 Public Trust
4 Entrancement
4 Enchant Kindred
4 Engling Fury
2 Abbot
1 Mind Numb

Action Modifier (8 cards)
4 Squirrel Balance
4 Aire of Elation

Reaction (22 cards)
4 Speak with Spirits
4 On the Qui Vive
4 Falcon`s Eye
4 Ears of the Hare
3 Wake with Evening`s Freshness
3 Delaying Tactics

Combat (12 cards)
4 Majesty
4 Claws of the Dead
4 Leapfrog

Equipment (2 cards)
1 Heart of Nizchetus
1 Gran Madre di Dio, Italy

Combo (4 cards)
4 Swiftness of the Stag


Friday June 19 - Day 1 NAC 2017 (25 players)
Deck Name: Good Old PRO-DOM
Author: Bill Troxel
June 2017, Columbus Ohio, USA - NAC Day 1
2nd seed going into final w/1 GW, 7VP. 3 VP in final.
Entire crypt starts w/PRO; some have dom. Handful of dom skill cards, lots of Govern. Decent bleeding, very decent blocking in the late game, some bouncing; decent combat survivability. Iliana stars as prime actor; Caitlin supports as primary blocker. This is a well-tested deck. The Weather Control is for Raptor Decks, which are all too common in my local group, but it can double as stout combat defense when coupled with a Flesh of Marble. Fun to play.

Crypt (12 cards; Capacity min=3 max=7 avg=5.92)
3x Caitlin   6 aus dom ANI PRO !Gangrel:2
1x Chandler Hungerford 3 PRO   Gangrel:2
1x Daliyah   4 obf PRO  Nosferatu:2
1x Dr. Allan Woodstock 5 ani aus for PRO Gangrel:3
1x Harry Reese   6 cel obf FOR PRO !Gangrel:3
5x Iliana   7 tha DOM FOR PRO Gangrel:2

Library (90 cards)
Master (16)
1x Backways
1x Coven, The
1x Direct Intervention
5x Dominate
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
3x Perfectionist
1x Twisted Forest
2x Wider View
1x Zoo Hunting Ground

Action (21)
1x Abbot
1x Aranthebes, The Immortal
16x Govern the Unaligned
3x Under Siege

Equipment (2)
1x Bowl of Convergence
1x Sport Bike

Retainer (1)
1x Mr. Winthrop

Action Modifier (10)
2x Bonding
3x Conditioning
1x Daring the Dawn
4x Earth Control

Reaction (15)
7x Deflection
1x Delaying Tactics
2x Eluding the Arms of Morpheus
5x On the Qui Vive

Combat (25)
1x Claws of the Dead
10x Earth Meld
3x Flesh of Marble
7x Form of Mist
3x Quick Meld
1x Weather Control

Martin Weinmayer
Martin Weinmayer, NAC champion. We will try to get an interview sometime soon!


Saturday June 20 - Day 2 NAC 2017
(25 players)

Deck name: Stansilava goes for a bloody donat
Author: Martin Weinmayer
Description: I usually play this Deck with 80 Cards, but i did some metagame changes because I expected less combat and more bleed. Changes were +2 forced march +4 Sense the Savage Way +2 murmur +1 villein -1 scourge Big thanks to Ben Peal for his ongoing Support of our game, and all the cool People i was blessed to meet there!

Crypt (12):
4x Stanislava
1x Etrius
2x Ingrid Rossler
1x Mark Decker
1x Xaviar
1x Rachel Brandywine
1x Hartmut Stover
1x Genevieve

Library (88):
Master (22):
7x Villein
4x Dreams of the Sphinx
2x Pentex Subversion
2x Papillon
2x Jake Washington
1x Information Highway
1x Ennoias Theater
1x Giants Blood
1x Backways
1x Monastery of Shadows

Minion Cards (66):
9x Govern the Unaligned
1x Seal of Veddartha
7x Parity Shift
1x Ancilla Empowerment
1x Anarchist Uprising
1x Reigns of Power

8x Form of Mist
4x Earth Meld
2x Rapid Change
6x Earth Control
4x Instantaneous Transformation
4x Forced March
3x Conditioning
1x Enkil Cog

4x Sense the Savage Way
4x Murmur of thr False Will
6x Deflection


Sunday June 21 - First Chance Qualifier (19 players)
Deck Name: Ishtarri Need No Bounce! (2017 version)
Created By: Adam Hulse
Description: This is the 2017 version of my deck. Minor tweaks to the 2016 version that made finals of Day 2 NAC 2016. The theme of the deck is to abuse meta where there is minimal intercept. Lesson Learned: Maybe a Storage Annex to hold master cards (since doing so many actions) and Talbot's Chainsaw.

Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 17, Max: 31, Avg: 6)
3 Falhu Shibaba    ani CEL CHI FOR PRE8 Ishtarri
2 Ubende      for obf qui CEL PRE7 Ishtarri
1 Honorine Ateba    cel nec FOR PRE6 Ishtarri
1 Mustafa     cel dom FOR PRE6 Ventrue
1 Elizabeth Conde    pre CEL FOR 5 Ishtarri
1 Victor Pelletier    cel dom for PRE5 Ventrue
1 Shasa Abu Badr    cel for PRE 5 Ishtarri
1 Kenyatta     cel for pre 4 Ishtarri
1 Abu Nuwasi     cel for  3 Ishtarri

Library: (80 cards)
Master (17 cards)
1 Anarch Troublemaker
1 Archon Investigation
1 Heidelberg Castle, Germany
1 Misdirection
1 Agent of Power
1 Glutton
2 Perfectionist
1 Dreams of the Sphinx
1 Fear of Mekhet
1 Giant`s Blood
6 Villein

Action (18 cards)
10 Enchant Kindred
2 Entrancement
2 No Secrets From the Magaji
2 Well-Marked
1 Aranthebes, The Immortal
1 Restoration

Action Modifier (20 cards)
15 Forced March
2 Perfect Paragon
2 Aire of Elation
1 Daring the Dawn

Political Action (4 cards)
2 Kine Resources Contested
2 Ancilla Empowerment

Combat (7 cards)
2 Hidden Strength
3 Majesty
2 Superior Mettle

Retainer (2 cards)
1 Mr. Winthrop
1 Shaman

Equipment (6 cards)
1 Kduva`s Mask
1 Laptop Computer
1 Sport Bike
1 Reliquary: Trinket
1 .44 Magnum
1 Talbot`s Chainsaw

Combo (6 cards)
5 Resist Earth`s Grasp
1 Ishtarri Kholo


STORYLINE NEWS: “ASCENSION OF CAINE” AND FUTURE STORYLINE MATERIAL
Storyline Coordinator Mike Nudd reports: In May I had the pleasure of attending the World of Darkness convention in Berlin, a fan convention organised by PDA on behalf of the new White Wolf team. The convention had a varied and busy schedule filled with table top role-playing, live-action role-playing, seminars and of course Vampire: The Eternal Struggle.

White Wolf Keynote Berlin

Vampire the Masquerade Fifth Edition (“V5”)
While most of my time at the event was spent on VTES related matters, I did have the opportunity to see White Wolf’s keynote address on their vision for the classic World of Darkness and the new 5th Edition version of the Vampire: The Masquerade role-playing game.

This new game will follow the timeline of the previous game, but will move the timeline on with some significant changes to the world that vampires live in. One new concept is the Beckoning, a mysterious phenomenon which has called all vampires of the oldest generations away to the far east, leaving their havens unoccupied and their local political positions vacant. In this timeline, the Anarchs have risen in rebellion, causing such a threat that the Camarilla has cast them out, so that they are now enemies and no longer welcome – a true third sect more aligned to the way they are already presented in VTES.

Most shockingly, the mortal world has become aware of supernatural creatures and is mobilising to deal with the threat they represent. Although the public may still be ignorant, large secret organisations are mobilising in what is being called the Second Inquisition, and vampire populations in many cities have already been decimated. As a result, the surviving vampire societies have gone underground, forced to practice their meetings and rituals under the tightest security. Modern technological communications methods can no longer be trusted, and public transport is no longer safe. The hunters are now again the hunted.

Nefertiti Adv Berlin version

Ascension of Caine
One of the Friday events was the Ascension of Caine VTES Storyline tournament, a homage to an original scenario from the Vampire RPG found in the "Berlin by Night" sourcebook. In this scenario Kindred are drawn to the city to witness Caine’s return. Caine demands the abolishment of the Camarilla and Sabbat, and declares that all vampires should pledge fealty to him instead. However this is not Caine, but the ancient Ravnos methuselah Ankla Hotep, who is duped into the charade by his former lover Nefertiti. His powers are enhanced to godlike proportions by a magic amulet crafted by the bane mummy Saatet-Ta.

During the tournament I went around to see what decks people were playing, and what notable story events occurred. Of all the clans, the Setites, Lasombra, Tzimisce and Gangrel were the most well represented. While there isn’t space to cover all the detailed events, some highlights include:
- Baba Yaga entering combat with Arika and inflicting 4 aggravated damage to burn her
- Xaviar (Advanced) Mind Raped by Montano before the latter calls a Baltimore Purge
- Ulugh Beg and Gabrielle di Righetti contesting the title of Tremere Justicar
- Numerous Lasombra diablerised by the Mexico City Circle
- Baba Yaga later being sent to torpor on zero blood by the Neighbourhood Watch Commander
- A tense last-man-standing face-off between Khalil Ravana equipped with the Amulet of Ancients, and Nefertiti (advanced) and a horde of Aabt Kindred

The final took place between a Gangrel deck led by Brunhilde (Petru Makkonen), preying on a Ventrue high cap vote deck (Jeroen Van Oort), preying on Tzimisce (Petri Wessman), preying on a Montano Purge deck (Rudolf Garski), preying on a Malkavian bleed deck (Matti Palomaki). After two hours of play Rudolf was declared the victor, claiming the shiny trophy provided by White Wolf as the prize.

Regards,
Mike



DESIGN TEAM NEWS
Design Team leader Ben Peal reports: Round Two of the Bloodlines playtest concludes this weekend. Playtest Coordinator Hugh Angseesing will compile all the reports and data for us, then we'll make the appropriate adjustements to cards for Round Three. Round Three should begin in mid-to-late July, and we anticipate a September release.



CALENDAR
Upcoming events:
July 8 - Valhala - Paulistão 2017 - LIGA NOVA ERA BRASIL - São Paulo, Brazil
July 8 - QCF Barbecue - Vitrolles, France
July 8 - Townsville Carnage 2017 - Townsville, Australia
July 8 - Campeonato Carioca 2017 - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
July 8 - 1st Great Symposium; St. Michel - Mikkeli, Finland
July 9 - Campeonato Amazonense de VTES 2017 - Manaus, Brazil
July 9 - LIGA NOVA ERA BRASIL - PB Howl - Campina Grande, Brazil
July 9 - Ascension of Caine: Bochum - Bochum, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
July 15 - Liga "NOVA ERA" Brasil AP - Restricted Vitae - Macapá, Amapá, Brazil
July 15 - Es Julio, y lo sabes - Badía del Vallés, Spain
July 16 - Belgian National Championship 2017 - Brussels, Belgium
July 16 - Spontaneous Power - Palma de Mallorca, Spain
July 19 - Rage Across Appalachia - Asheville, USA
July 28 - Finnish ECQ 2017: Ropecon - Helsinki, Finland
July 30 - Liga "NOVA ERA" Brasil AP - Hunger Moon - Macapá, Brazil

For more information on upcoming events see the V:EKN Event Calendar.



CONTACT V:EKN
You can contact the V:EKN Inner Circle members using contact forms at V:EKN.net. Also follow the official V:TES Facebook page Vampire: The Eternal Struggle and the official V:EKN Twitter account @VEKN_VTES

We will not go quietly into the night!

 

Greetings fellow Methuselahs
You look a bit pale, are you sure you had enough sun lately? Did I say sun?! I mean BLOOD of course – have who had enough blood? There´s nothing like a good old hunt action is it? Or maybe you prefer a bleed for six pool? Anyway, EC 2017 is over, and what an experience it was. And now the NAC is coming up, with no less than eleven tournaments!


EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP 2017 SUMMARY
Five V:TES tournaments where played during the World of Darkness Berlin convention, a big gathering of all kinds of World of Darkness-related stuff, hosted by White Wolf on 11-14 May. We won´t delve much further in the non-V:TES-activities, but there were several large larps, playtesting of next V:TM, workshops, contests, presentations, speeches (White Wolf, Mark Rein-Hagen, Justin Achilli, etc.) – if you want to know more about all that, check out www.worldofdarkness.berlin

On Friday: Nation´s Cup gathered 76 players and had two finals. The “best players final” was won by Alain Greiner (FRA) playing a Nephandus deck. The “best team final” was won by Emiliano Imeroni representing Belgium, playing a ani-weenie deck with anarch tech.

Serge (judge) together with Nations Cup best player finalists: Michal (CZE), Lukas (CZE), Alain (FRA, winner), Franz (AUT) and Danilo (ITA).
Nations Cup team finalists: Helmuth (AUT), Darby (USA), Emiliano (BEL, winner), Paolo (ITA) and Vratislav (CZE).



On Friday: Storyline “Ascension of Caine” had 39 players and was won by Rudolf Garski (GER) playing a Lasombra Baltimore Purge deck (list here
)

Storyline "Ascension of Caine" finalists: Petrus (FIN), Matti (FIN), Jeroen (NED), Petri (FIN) and Rudolf (GER, winner).


On Saturday: EC 2017 day 1 had a whopping 157 starting players, which is a record for the EC day 1 tournament. Winner was Francois Greiner (FRA) playing a Ventrue princes with sticks deck (list here).

EC day 1 round 2. You can feel the tension in the air!

 

EC day 1. 157 players - new day 1 record!

 

EC 2017 day 1 finalists: Ivan (SWE), Carlo (ITA), Francois (FRA, winner), Michal (CZE) and Gianluca (ITA).


On Sunday: A “Shadow Twin” standard constructed tournament replaced the usual First Chance Qualifier event. 88 persons entered and Cedric Goffaux (FRA) won with a Nana Buruku & Enkidu ANI+POT rush deck (list here).

Shadow Twin EC 2017 finalists: Luis (BRA), Kari (SWE), Zack (SWE), Ben (NL) and Cedric (FRA, winner).


On Sunday: EC 2017 day 2 was fought by the top 40 players from day 1. The new European champion is Danilo Torrisi (ITA), playing a Saulot & The Capuchin wall deck with anarch tech. See below for an interview with Danilo. More information on all decks that was played on day 2 can be found hereA transcript of the final table can be read here.

Almost all EC 2017 finalists: Jorge (ESP), Orian (FRA), Carlos (POR, but actually 2012 champion Isak filling in), Noora (FIN) and Danilo (ITA, champion) with a Salubri third eye.


The total sum of the turnout at EC 2017 is 400, which is the most since Budapest 2012. This is the first time attendance didn´t require qualification, but another reason for the high attendance was of course the Anthology set, given and sold to all event ticket holders. A complete card list for the new set can be found at www.worldofdarkness.berlin/vtes

Another storyline, “The Line”, was played in a less formal fashion during the weekend. Storyline coordinator Mike Nudd will tell more about the results of the storylines later – you are all still welcome to run your own storyline events and report your results to

A couple of interesting meetings also took place. Representatives from V:EKN met White Wolf to discuss the future of V:TES – it was a good meeting but we have nothing to disclose at this moment. However, we recommend you to watch the White Wolf keynote presentation from Berlin. V:TES is mentioned a couple of times and you are given some peeks into the upcoming metaplot for the World of Darkness setting. Also the annual National Coordinators meeting was held. Among the things that were discussed was where the 2018 EC will be arranged – more about that later.

Pascal, Orian, Mike, Hugh and Ginés from V:EKN and Dhaunae and Tobias from White Wolf.


The V:EKN would like to give a special acknowledgement to the non-European players who came a long way, from Brazil, Chile, USA and other places. Also a special thanks to the players took the time off to run V:TES demo games for interested not-yet-V:TES-players at the event, primarily Kai Kimmerle. There was a constant pressure for such games, and those who volunteered are worth great praise. And also of course thanks to the tournament organisers: Mike Nudd, Hugh Angseesing, Serge Cirri and Vincent Ripoll. Thank you!

You can read more about EC 2017 at Extrala´s special blog vtesec2017.wordpress.com, including deck lists for final tables, statistics and reports of Extrala´s own efforts.

Congratulations to all winners and thanks to everyone who attended!


INTERVIEW OF THE MONTH: DANILO TORRISI, EUROPEAN CHAMPION 2017

Danilo (with third eye) in action at the final table.

Congratulations Danilo! Let´s start with the day 1 tournament. What deck did you play and what was your strategy?
- I played a very aggressive political/bleed deck with Rafael de Corazon, Mistress Fanchon, Rebekah and Maris Streck. The strategy is to start fast with Zillah´s Valleys, bleed with Flurry of Action at superior and then vote. I played this kind of deck because I think many players have aggressive decks in day 1 to try to take a single game win to qualify for day 2. I used a bleed+political deck because many players have defense agains bleed but nothing against political.

How did it go?
- It worked very well in the first round. I took 4 vp in less than 50 minutes. In the second round unfortunaly there was a Tupdog deck at the table. It rushed down all vampires cross table, so zero points for me. In the third round I was in a table with two wall decks; one Gangrel deck and one Carna grinder deck. No ousts and 0,5 vp for everyone – a very boring game. So I got to day 2 with 1 gw and 4,5 vp.

So, what about day 2? How did you choose your deck?
- In day 2 I played a wall deck based on auspex and fortitude. The two big vampires in the crypt are Saulot and The Capuchin, but there are also some smaller vampires with aus and for, and Anarch Converts for an anarch strategy with Anarch Revolts and some other cards. I chose to play a wall because in day 2 there is less aggressive deck, so the game is usually slow. A deck like mine needs time to grow up, but when I have Saulot, The Capuchin and maybe another vampire, and eleven cards in my hand, I feel kind of immortal! My strategy is to stay alive, let some players be ousted and then play Smiling Jack or Anarch Revolt and try to defend it against only two methuselahs to take the game win. (Danilos deck list http://www.vekn.net/forum/event-reports-and-twd/75788-ec-2017-day-2-tournament-winning-deck#81853)

How did you perform in the preliminary rounds?
- The first round I took zero vp. There was two animalism-weenies, one Nana Buruku deck and one gargoyle bruise-bleed deck at the table, so my Saulot had to visit torpor many times. The second game was me > Toreador AAA guns > Toreador AAA guns > Celerity weenie with guns > Toreador AAA vote. Many contests in that game! The third game was me > Arika vote > Giotto Verducci bleed/vote > Montano Baltimore Purge > MMPA animalism with Aksina & Cybele. Both these games was good for me because they were slow. I had time to build my wall defense and won both games with 4 vp, so I was first seed in the final with 2 gw and 8 vp.

What was your strategy in the final? What was the threats for you on that table?
- My strategy was sit with Noora as predator because Saulot is immune to damage from The Unnamed and I can deflect bleeds on my prey. That way I can focus on Orian and try to stop him cross table with Eagle´s Sight or Delaying Tactics. I have no problem with Nephandus because my vampires can prevent damage and kill them easy. So my greatest problem was the Tzimisce deck, because I didn´t know what kind of combat he played and I don´t know the player. So I tried to play with two alternative strategies: block everything threatening and try to keep all players alive for two hours, or with Nooras help kill my prey with deflected bleeds. The first one worked better! :-)

Is there anyone you want to thank who helped you succeed in the EC this year?
- I want to thank all my friends in Team Italy. We talk a lot and try to help each other to build decks and choose what decks to play. This year it worked out very good for me! :-)


NAC AND WEEK OF NIGHTMARES COMING UP
North American Championship events at Origins and Week of Nightmares events are posted on the vekn.net calendar.

Week of Nightmares events start on Saturday, June 11 and will be at Fabian's Pizza at 691 N. High St in Columbus, just down the street from the convention center.
Sunday June 11: 2:00 pm start
Monday June 12: 11:30 pm start and 6:00 pm start
Tuesday June 13: 11:30 pm start and 6:00 pm start
Wednesday June 14: 11:30 pm start and 6:00 pm start

North American Championship events are at Origins starting on Thursday, June 15:
Thursday June 15: Constructed, 11:00 am start
Friday June 16: NAC Day One, 11:00 am start
Saturday June 17: NAC Day Two, 11:00 am start
Sunday June 18: First Chance Qualifier, 10:00 am start

Be sure to sign up for a FULL SHOW BADGE and use the VEKN club code. This coupon code will remove $30 from the cost of the badge. Coupon Code: LwXcDYSx


DESIGN TEAM NEWS
Round Two of the Bloodlines set playtest is underway! Round Two will conclude at the end of June. We're aiming for a late summer release for the set. If you'd like to join the playtest, please contact our Playtest Coordinator, Hugh Angseesing.


CALENDAR
Upcoming events:
June 3 - Cape Town Pre-Nationals Tournament - Cape Town, South Africa
June 4 - LIGA_NOVA_ERA_BRASIL- PB - Storm Hammer - Campina Grande, Brazil
June 11 - After Anthologies - Badía del Vallés, Catalunya, Spain
June 11 - Week of Nightmares event 1 - Columbus, USA
June 12 - Week of Nightmares event 2 - Columbus, USA
June 12 - Week of Nightmares event 3 - Columbus, USA
June 13 - Week of Nightmares event 4 - Columbus, USA
June 13 - Week of Nightmares event 5 - Columbus, USA
June 14 - Week of Nightmares event 6 - Columbus, USA
June 14 - Week of Nightmares event 7 - Columbus, USA
June 15 - LIGA_NOVA_ERA_BRASIL-AM - Fortitude Master - Manaus, Brazil
June 15 - V:TES Constructed Tournament - Columbus, USA
June 16 - V:TES North American Championships Day 1 - Columbus, USA
June 17 - V:TES North American Championships Day 2 - Columbus, USA
June 17 - Campeonato Brasileiro de VTES 2017- Manaus, Brazil
June 17 - ICON SA 2017 - Midrand, South Africa
June 17 - German ECQ: Grapple in the Art Museum, Vol. 4 - Bad Nauheim, Germany
June 17 - 
Brno Nights I. - Brno, Jihomoravský kraj, Czech Republic
June 17 - Bewitching Oration - Paris, France
June 18 - V:TES First Chance Qualifier - Columbus, USA
June 25 - Liga_"NOVA ERA"_Brasil_AP - Restricted Vitae - Macapá, Brazil
June 25 - ALOHA - São Paulo, Brazil

For more information on upcoming events see the V:EKN Event Calendar.


CONTACT V:EKN
You can contact the V:EKN Inner Circle members using contact forms at V:EKN.net. Also follow the official V:TES Facebook page Vampire: The Eternal Struggle and the official V:EKN Twitter account @VEKN_VTES

Blood and souls!

 

Greetings fellow Methuselahs
Oboy, these are busy times for VEKN volunteers working to breathe unlife into our beloved card game. Recent news:


GREAT EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP ATTENDANCE
No less than 132 players have so far registered for the EC at World of Darkness Berlin! This is absolutely fantastic and we look forward to four days of great, competitive fun in Germany. Spain, France and Sweden have most registered players by now, and we also see attendants from as far away as Canada, Brazil and Chile. Tickets are still available at https://www.worldofdarkness.berlin/


ANTHOLOGY PREVIEWS ARE ONGOING
The last weeks you have been able to see previews of the brand new cards being printed for the Berlin Anthology set. So far we have presented eight crypt cards and one library card:

  • Hamid Mansour (Ventrue)
  • Laura Goldman (Brujah)
  • Weirich Waldburg (Ventrue)
  • André the Manipulator (Gangrel)
  • Apolonia Czarnecki (Malkavian)
  • Aisha az-Zahra (Toreador)
  • Anne-Marie Bourgeois, Inconnu Recruiter (Toreador)
  • Joseph Fischer (Gangrel antitribu)
  • Vivienne Géroux (Ally)

You have also been served a bunch of rules updates and new wordings:

  • Cards backs changes
  • Tap/untap replaced by lock/unlock
  • New keyword: Wake
  • Singular "they"
  • Attached

Not only this, but we have shown the new exciting artwork for Field Training and Enkil Cog!

If you have missed some of all this greatness, check out this posting where all of it is collected: Anthology.

If you have any comments or input on VEKN work, be it rules stuff, design stuff, artwork or anything else, please discuss it on the VEKN.net forums or contact the appropriate VEKN board member at the contact forms page.


TWO STORYLINES REVEALED
In the March newsletter we told you some about the TWO new storylines premiering at World of Darkness Berlin event; The Ascension of Caine and The End of the Line. Recently we also published the actual rules and the associated new cards. If you missed this, check it out at Berlin Storyline events 2017.

While the V:EKN recommend that you play the storyline events either at the actual Berlin event or the same weekend at your own location anywhere in the world, you are free to do so any time during spring or summer of 2017. We await your results – check out the event rules for how to report.


MORE ABOUT WORLD OF DARKNESS BERLIN
For some extra Berlin-related World of Darkness nerdiness, check out the brand new quiz app World of Darkness Quizima. It´s jam packed with questions about lore, rules and all sorts of related knowledge – and YES there´s V:TES-questions in there. Just search for “World of Darkness Quizima” in your smartphones app-finding app!

If you are also interested in the LARPs and other activities during the event, check out updates on the event blog or the Facebook group WOD BERLIN: Social.


WHAT´S DESIGNING V:TES LIKE?

Mike Nudd


VEKN Design Team member Mike Nudd delivers a fresh report from BGDevCon 2017, where he held a talk about designing V:TES cards:


What is BGDevCon?
The Board Game Developer’s Conference (BGDevCon) is an event organised by members of the UK Playtest Meetup group, aimed at bringing independent creatives together to discuss the process – and pitfalls – tabletop game design. This year’s event was held in Enfield, north London on Saturday 15th April, with over 20 people in attendance.

Why BGDevCon?
The new method of bringing games directly from inception to market via crowdfunding platforms such a Kickstarter has seen a wave of young, talented games publishers spring up around the globe. As more people bring their projects to fruition, a lot of them face the same challenges, and make the same mistakes. Events like this allow people to share knowledge and experience for the benefit of their peers. Also, many successful new publishers having successfully delivered a single game as a labour of love, are now on the lookout for new content, to help their brand and their business to grow.

Where do you fit in?
I have been designing games since I was a teenager. After helping to playtest a number of sets for VTES I was given the opportunity by White Wolf to design the official Vampire board game Prince of the City, which was published in 2006.

In 2013 I made an agreement with Grublin Games for them to publish my game Waggle Dance via crowdfunding on Kickstarter. The campaign was a great success, and after receiving many positive reviews online, the game went on to win an award at UK Games Expo 2014 for Best New Family Game.

Designs for two more of my games have been picked up for similar crowdfunding later this year: Lava Run to be published by Braincrack Games, and Dice Hospital to be published by Alley Cat Games. I am also working on many more games, some of which I hope to be published in the next 12-18 months.

Designing VTES
My game design experience helps inform my work with Ben Peal on the Design Team. At the first BGDevCon in 2016 I spoke about designing my game Waggle Dance, and this year I decided to share some of the process related to designing cards for VTES.

Designing a customisable card game is in many ways a more complex proposition than a ‘standalone’ board or card game. In the latter case the design environment is small and controlled, and can be tailor-made to suit the needs of the game, which are fixed, rather than evolving. For a CCG, it is necessary to think not just about the potential interactions with every single card already published, but you must also think about how current design may impact the design of more cards in the future.

A CCG also has very particular design considerations. In terms of deck-building efficiency, a card must be worth the ‘card slot’ in your deck, which can only contain a finite and limited number of cards. Related to this is the concept of ‘opportunity cost’ where the value of a card is directly proportional to the probability of a player using the card in each game, once it is included in the deck. This leads on to a need to balance cards in terms of their effectiveness and their versatility – every card should either be strong at one thing, or be less good but applicable to more than one thing.

Since VTES is a game fundamentally about resource management, part of the design space concerns effects which can vary efficiencies in pool cost, loss and gain. And as the major part of the game is driven by minion actions, another part of the design space concerns action efficiency per minion (which is why the card Freak Drive printed with the original Jyhad/VTES base set in 1994 is still generally seen as one of the game’s strongest cards).

As VTES is also inspired by the Vampire: The Masquerade tabletop role-playing game, there are also design considerations of a thematic nature. Most crypt cards in the game – including those more recently produced by the Design Team – are based on known characters from this source material. When we design new library cards, we must ask questions such as: is this game effect appropriate for the Discipline or sect affiliation in question? Is there existing material we can use to inform the effect, or to at least name the card?

While not all VTES players know – or care much about – this original source material, it is important for us to continue to respect it, particularly with the view of us wanting to work again with White Wolf in the future. White Wolf’s new owners Paradox Interactive are planning to release a new edition of Vampire: The Masquerade in 2018 – currently being referred to a ‘V5’ and I am looking forward to seeing what opportunities that presents for the future of VTES.


CALENDAR
Upcoming events:
May 6 – Annerley, Australia: Standard constructed
May 7 – Campina Grande, Brazil: Standard constructed
May 7 – Paris, France: Standard constructed
May 7 – Newark, USA: Standard constructed
May 12 – Berlin, Germany: Standard constructed (Nations Cup)
May 12 – Berlin, Germany: Storyline (Ascension of Caine)
May 13 – Berlin, Germany: European Championships Day 1
May 14 – Berlin, Germany: European Championships Day 2
May 14 – Berlin, Germany: Standard constructed (Shadow Twin)
May 14 – Manaus, Brazil: Standard constructed
May 28 – Macapá, Brazil: Standard constructed
May 28 – Manaus, Brazil: Standard constructed
May 28 – Mexico City, Mexico: Storyline 

For more information on upcoming events see the V:EKN Event Calendar.


CONTACT V:EKN
You can contact the V:EKN Inner Circle members using contact forms at V:EKN.net. Also follow the official V:TES Facebook page Vampire: The Eternal Struggle and the official V:EKN Twitter account @VEKN_VTES

May your pool stay high and your ousts be plenty!