Greetings fellow Methuselahs,

Traditionally, we take a look at the Vampire: The Eternal Struggle year that passed. As usual tournaments are a big part of the VEKN activities, and now we really left the pandemic behind us. 2023 was truly a year of tournaments, both big and small. Everywhere, but Spain and Brasil stand out. Yearly tournament statistics from the VEKN Event Calendar:
2019: 292
2020: 133
2021: 218
2022: 328
2023: 700!

This means we are not only back to pre-pandemic numbers, but we are growing A LOT!  The VEKN now has about 2 200 active tournament players all over the world!

Let's have a look at the highlights of the year, with the big tournaments in focus:

March: Arnau Díez Sans wins the Spanish championship with an old school, but group 6, Malkavian stealth-bleed deck. 146 players!

April: Rafael Barbosa wins is the 2023 Brazil championship with a Banu Haqim Anathema rush deck.

The first official VEKN judges are certified.

May: Nina Nilsson wins Grand Prix Liverpool 2023 with a Ministry Dabbler stealth-bleed deck.

Bram van Stappen becomes the 2023 Belgian champion with a Tzimisce wall with 19 bleed-bounce cards!

June: Kelly Schultz is the 2023 North American champion after getting 3 victory points in the final with a Lutz & Undele stealth-voter without any reaction cards.


July: Bram Van Stappen (again!) wins Grand Prix Brussels 2023 playing another Auspex-based wall, this time Omaya-centered.

Marius Iscru becomes the 2023 Swiss champion with a Tremere Carna equipment-wall. Congratulations!

Eduardo Mateus takes home the Portugal championship piloting a group 2-3 Inner Circle stealth-vote deck.

August: The first ever VTES cards in German, a couple of promos, are published.

Joab Rogerio wins Grand Prix Campina Grande in Brazil with a Gangrel Anarch Thing-heavy toolbox.

Jon Grønset is the 2023 Norwegian champion, playing a Babalawo Emerald Legionnarie deck.

Irish champion is Lotte Siebert, playing a G5-6 Malkavian stealth-bleeder. 16 Govern the Unaligned and 8 Conditioning is underrated!

September: Jeroen Van Oort wins Grand Prix Germany 2023 with Ministry Dabbler stealth-bleed. 18 The Platinum Protocol and 15 Revelation of the Serpent, who knew that could work?

Keith Lim is the 2023 Australia/New Zealand continental champion, also with a Ministry Dabbler deck. Only 16 The Platinum Protocol and 10 Revelation of the Serpent also work.

Daniel Gargulák smashes the opposition in the Czech Republic championship with an Emerald Legionnaire & Shampling Hordes deck.

Bram Van Stappen (remember him from twice above?) is the 2023 Netherlands champion, with a Banu Haqim Kasim Bayar deck. Politics and combat is the trickiest combination in deck design, but Bram can handle it.


October: Time for a fabulous European Championship in sunny Barcelona. Jonas Ståhle (Sweden) is the VTES 2023 European Champion – Ministry Dabbler stealth-bleed strikes again! Other winners this weekend is Milan Matthes (221 players “Last Chance”), Otso Saariluoma (269 players Day 1), Bartosz Kalinczuk Grand Prix final and Martin Weinmeyer (140 players “Redemption”).

Nerijus Mikalajunas becomes the 2023 VTES Champion of Poland playing a Harbingers & Giotto Verducci Emerald Legionnaire deck.

November: Hernán Rodríguez is the 2023 South American champion! He also played a Harbingers & Giotto Verducci Emerald Legionnaire deck.

Jens Johansson, back in VTES after a long absence, is the 2023 champion of Sweden, playing a Malkavian Petra Resonance stealth-vote deck.

Akseli Jalava wins the Finnish national championship with a True Brujah Shalmath Summon History Emerald Legionnaire deck.

Mikey Ferguson is the United Kingdom champion, playing a classic Gangrel Stanislava stealth-bleed/vote deck.

Milos Krstic becomes the 2023 Austrian champion, playing a Giotto Verducci & Maris Streck deck with Emerald Legionnaires and 12 Ashur Tablets.

Rodinei Teixeira de Camargo manages to get the full table sweep in the German championship finals with a Thing-heavy Gangrel Anarch toolbox. Quite an accomplishment!

Eduardo García is the 2023 champion of Mexico, playing a Lasombra Nocturn stealth-bleed deck (no Kiasyd!).

Also in December, the VEKN issued a couple of since long expected, debated and tested errata for Ashur Tablets and Emerald Legionnaire.

More information about all these events, the finals and the winning decks can be found in the newsletter archive.

The VEKN wants to thank all tournament organisers for your efforts this past year – you rock!

In addition to this, we saw many demo events all over the world this year, heroic efforts to welcome new players to VTES – we will continue to spotlight these deeds more often in these newsletters and elsewhere.

Happy new year, and never forget: Prey is to your left!

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THREE NEW PRECONSTRUCTED DECKS IN STORES

We have been blessed with a huge bunch of new Vampire: The Eternal Struggle cards again! Three new Fifth Edition preconstructed decks are now in stores: Ravnos, Salubri and Tzimisce, packed with both brand new cards and needed reprints of old gems. The official legality date for tournaments is February 1, 2024, but don´t miss organising some fun release events too! The deck lists and all previews are available here:

- Fifth Edition Ravnos

- Fifth Edition Salubri

- Fifth Edition Tzimisce

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DANILO TORRISI WINS GRAND PRIX MILAN 2023!

60 players turned up for this spectacular event in Italy on December 9.

Read the full report: Grand Prix Milan 2023

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LUIS ESPEJO IS THE 2023 CHILEAN CHAMPION!

39 Methuselahs participated in this tournament in Santiago on December 8.

Read the full report: Chile National Championship 2023

Also, check out this video snippet for an extra look - looks like an AWESOME event!

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PABLO ANDRADE WINS GRAND PRIX CEARENSE 2023!

55 players turned up for this one, in Fortaleza, Brazil on December 16.

Read the full report: Grand Prix Cearense 2023

While we´re at it, here´s some more Brazil GP info from Marcio Pinheiro, the Prince of Fortaleza:

Brazil is a continental country, we have 26 states and the federal district, distributed across 5 regions. Currently 13 states and the Federal District have VTES organizers, this makes us great enough to have our own Grand Prix. The National GP is made up of 14 states and 5 regional stages, each stage scores normally, similar to the European GP. Qualifying for the Final table of the National GP that takes place on the same weekend as the Brazilian Championship. Below are some images of the state and regional GPs that have already taken place.

GP state Stage - VI Torneio Paraibano - 06 August 2023 - Campina Grande - Paraiba - Brazil - 21 players.
Mailton made a 700 km drive to play with us.

GP Regional Stage - Nordestão 2023 - 09 September 2023 - Recife - Pernambuco - Brazil - 21 players.
Desso traveled 2 100 km to play with us.

GP state Stage - CariocAÇO - Estadual de VTES do Rio de Janeiro 2023 - 25 November 2023 - Rio de Janeiro - Rio de Janeiro - Brazil - 39 players.
Márcio traveled 2 600 km to play with us.

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ASHUR TABLETS AND EMERALD LEGIONNAIRE HAVE OFFICIAL ERRATA

Already mentioned above, but we don´t want anyone to miss this: official errata have been issued for the cards Ashur Tablets and Emerald Legionnaire. The full statement with explanations is found at www.blackchantry.com, but let's summarise them:

• Only one Ashur Tablets can be played each turn.

• You cannot use the Emerald Legionnaire’s ability during your unlock phase if you control as many or more copies of them as ready unique Harbingers of Skulls.

Black Chantry has made these changed cards available as print-on-demand at Drivethrucards.com with a special discount ($0.15 per card).

Also, in the same post you found an addition to the tournament rules: VEKN sanctioned tournaments MAY now be played with more than one deck. Note that this format is totally optional.

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A NEW GRAND PRIX CIRCUIT REVEALED: THE GULF COAST ROAST 2024

This southeast USA tournament series will be played in:

• Lafayette: March 9

• Dallas: April 27

• Gulfport: August 24

• New Orleans: October 12

• Vidor: December 7

• Finals: Vidor: December 8

What a wonderful initiative! The VEKN wishes all the best to organisers and participants. More information will appear on the official Gulf Coast Roast Facebook page and other places!

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RECRUITMENT EXERCISE: FRANCE

Words by Christophe Baltazar, National Coordinator of France:

A report from recent demos in France.

First demo, was held on November 18 at Trolls2Jeux in Paris, but unfortunately no photos.

Two persons were interested: Lucas has discovered the pleasure to play with Nosferatu vs Jorge (Ventrue) and Chris (Banu Haqim). Mathieu already knew the game before covid but has no playgroup in south of Versailles, where he's living. He has taught by Chris (Ventrue) and myself (Nosferatu) to play a constructed Brujah. I´m not sure Lucas will commit in VTES, but I try to find some players in Versailles area for Mathieu. Thanks for Chris and Jorge for helping!

 

Second demo at Vitrolles, located near Marseilles, which was held on 25th November at the game festival Jeux Joue. A special thanks for Nathan and Laurent. In all, we taught the game to 8 persons, and gave out 7 New Blood packs from the Black Chantry support.

Third demo was on 9th December at Trolls2Jeux in Paris. Unfortunately, Jeremy met nobody for that demo. Bad advertising and also bad timing because of christmas approaching, people hurried. But thanks to Jeremy for trying!

The fourth demo was held at Repaire du Dragon in Paris on 16th December. We've met another Mathieu from south of Paris, near Fontainebleau. He knows the game for a long time, but had no real opportunity to play where he live. We did two games: one with New Blood decks and one with normal decks. Mathieu is very interested in the game and will join us regularly for weekly games.

We'v also met two other guys, Antoine and Damien. Antoine is living Paris, near le Repaire Du Dragon, and Damien comes from north of France, no real playgroup over there but I will ask around for him and send him the Discord link.

Each of these three guys received one New Blood pack. Again, special thanks to Jeremy!

For promotion before each of this event we asked local players post on Facebook, as well as posts the VTES France and VTES Marseille groups. There was also information posters in nearby shops and game bars.

Are you interested in doing demo games? Reach out to !

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EVENT POSTERS FOR DOWNLOAD!

Black Chantry has made some nice VTES-themed posters with a blank lower part that are now available for free download, perfect for event organisers. So far there are six variants:

Anarch (Branimira by Mark Kelly and Theo Bell by Carmen Cornet)

Parity Shift (Art by Mark Kelly)

Fall of London (Art by Amy Wilkins)

Camarilla (Art by Carmen Cornet)

Enchant Kindred (Art by Carmen Cornet)

Faceless Night (Art by Samuel Araya)

Do you have ideas for more of this kind of material that would be useful for you as an organiser? Reach out to the VEKN or Black Chantry directly!

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IN MEMORIAM: JULIUS STONIS

"I‘ll give this one a try" said Julius Stonis after watching a few VTES games at his friend´s apartment in Vilnius, Lithuania back in 1996. He chose from a very limited selection of primarily Ventrue vampires and their assets, won 4 games in a row that evening, and has been the dominating force of the Lithuanian VTES until his untimely death in January 2022. Since then, the Lithuanian VTES Nationals ("Vilnius by Night") are held in his memory, on the Saturday closest to Julius‘ birthday – the 26th of February. This year they will take place in Vilnius, on the 24th of February, at the Wargamer club.

Black Chantry Productions and the VEKN will honour the memory of Julius with a special Anarch Convert promo card (see above).

BLACK CHANTRY SUMMARY: DECEMBER 2023

• As mentioned above, the Ravnos, Salubri, and Tzimisce decks are now out in the wild. The distribution has been uneven, but by the time you read this, you have probably already had the opportunity to get your hands on them.

• There was a last-minute name change on a crypt card. This 6-cap powerhouse got renamed:

• Black Chantry partner Conclave has a new batch of VTES cards in Brazilian Portuguese ready for you!

• The second round of playtest of the Hecata and Lasombra preconstructed decks is now ongoing and will end January 31.

• Playtest coordinator Norman Brown has compiled a first 63-page playtest report on the two-player variant of VTES. 42 playgroups sent in their views, now for the design team to analyse and more forward on. Big thanks to all participants!

• A first draft of the 30th Anniversary preconstructed deck has been sent to playtesters. Yes, this will contain powerful group 6 and 7 Camarilla vampires of capacity above 8. First playtest reactions are positive!

• At the same time, the first draft of five new New Blood packs were sent to playtest - clans Ravnos, Salubri, Tzimisce, Hecata and Lasombra. Yes, there will be lots of work for the testers now, but it´s good to start early with testing to be able to do as many testrounds as possible.

 

Currently these Black Chantry products are available through Drivethrucards.com and other stores:

• Lost Kindred bundle
  Keepers of Tradition Reprint Bundle 1
  Keepers of Tradition Reprint Bundle 2
  Heirs of the Blood Reprint Bundle 1
  Heirs of the Blood Reprint Bundle 2
  Den of Fiends Preconstructed Deck (Also Spanish, French)
  Libertine Ball Preconstructed Deck (Also Spanish, French)
  Pact with Nephandi Preconstructed Deck (Also Spanish, French)
  Parliament of Shadows Preconstructed Deck (Also Spanish, French)
  Anthology I bundle
  VTES Card Creator (Drivethrucards only)
  25th Anniversary
  First Blood: Malkavian (Also Spanish, French)
  First Blood: Nosferatu (Also Spanish, French)
  First Blood: Toreador (Also Spanish, French)
  First Blood: Tremere (Also Spanish, French)
  First Blood: Ventrue (Also Spanish, French)
  VTES Legacy Card Singles (Drivethrucards only)
  Promo Pack 1 (Drivethrucards only)
  Promo Pack 2 (Event promos 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)
  
  

Do you have opinions or questions for Black Chantry? Start a topic on the VEKN forum, or contact the company by e-mail, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

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RECENT NEWS IN THE WORLD OF DARKNESS

Some highlights from December:

• The Vampire: The Masquerade actual play New York by Night will return in 2024, it was disclosed in the World of Darkness News show.

• Another development diary for Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 was published, this time about the upgrade from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5.

• The "Blood-Stained Love" sourcebook for Vampire: The Masquerade is now available in PDF for all that made pre-orders of the physical book. This one includes various tools on how to play vampires in romantic stories, how maximize or minimize romance as a Storyteller, new Merits, Flaws and Disciplines, as well as advice for safety and healthy boundaries at your roleplaying.

Subscribe to the World of Darkness News show for more news!

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CALENDAR

Upcoming tournaments for the coming month (registered so far) are in:
Brazil x15
Chile
Czech Republic
Deutschland
France
Hungary
Italy
Online x2
Poland x2
Portugal
Serbia
Slovakia
Spain x9
Sweden
UK
USA x8

For details about these events, see the VEKN Event Calendar.

Remember: Online tournaments are possible - just check the box "Online tournament" when you add the event to the calendar!

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CONTACT VEKN

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

The man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd.