Fellow Methusalehs,

First of all a happy new year 2012 to all of you. May you and your families be healthy and happy. I have decided to write this letter to close the information gap that has been correctly pointed out by members of the community. I will give you a summary of what has happened in the past year, an outlook on the year to come and I will make it a priority in the future to keep the player base better informed. In return I ask you, if you have not done so already, to come to the www.vekn.net website, register and voice your opinion through the forums. A community only lives through the participation of its members.

What is the V:EKN? The Vampire: Elder Kindred Network is the player organization of Vampire: The Eternal Struggle. The purpose of the organization is to be the sanctioning body for official tournament (rules) and to ensure the continued health of V:TES. It consists of a small Inner Circle with dedicated positions and the national coordinators, but more importantly it is based on the work of hundreds of princes and players out there. Let us always keep in mind that we are a great community of wonderful people and in the end we will hopefully all push in the same direction: continue to play this game, that is not only about strategy and winning but at least as much about friendship and socializing.

As you all know by now, CCP/White Wolf has unfortunately ceased production on V:TES with the last set being Heirs to the Blood. A lot of effort by the V:EKN has been invested in trying to keep the game in print by convincing White Wolf otherwise or by finding a new publisher. Due to many factors but primarily the complicated licensing situation this has not been possible for the immediate future. To add to the problems, CCP/White Wolf had to clear out all V:TES stock by the end of 2011 by either selling or destroying the cards. Luckily a deal has been worked out where Walch&Nusser in Europe and the well-known David Tatu for North America, South America and Australia have acquired a decent stock and will continue selling the currently available sets and various tournament packages at least for the next two years. A press release will be available shortly with the details.

The famous L. Scott Johnson (LSJ) decided to move on to other ventures after doing a great job of being the designer and rules monger of V:TES. This created two voids that needed to be filled. I am pleased to report that Pascal Bertrand, the French national coordinator, has stepped in as Rules Coordinator and is doing an amazing job so far. He has released his first RTR which addressed a widely discussed issue by making Minion Tap playable again for those players who were not in the position to acquire enough Villein cards and still want to play big cap vampires. Secondly the V:EKN Inner Circle decided that to keep the interest in the game alive and to make it attractive for another publisher to pick up the game, it would be beneficial to release small, electronically published V:TES expansions, legal for use in V:EKN tournaments and respectful of the intellectual property involved. A design team has been chosen and is working on the first installment, a Sabbat themed set with approximately 30 cards which is to be released in 2012. We are taking our time with it since the first and foremost priority is the quality of the cards, both in terms of card text and artwork. It is a high priority to avoid the creation of both broken cards and useless wallpaper. The design process will also involve playtesting a lot more than in the past to make this a real community-based success. You can find updates on the new set in the Designer's Diary on the V:EKN web site, there should be some previews soon.

The next point sadly is not a story of great progress. Since the White Wolf website has been shut down the rating system has been dysfunctional and, despite having half of the system in place so that you could view results and register the events, the reporting part never got done. We had a very dedicated volunteer, Jussi Hattara, at work here and the website as you see it today would not exist without him. Unfortunately life got in the way and due to everyday commitments the progress on this has stopped. During the hectic events of trying to keep the game in print we forgot to take proper care of it so it took until the end of 2011 to get a new team in place. I am pleased to report they are showing good progress and I expect for public testing to take place in Q1/2012. Once the ratings with the current system are functional again all the results where you still have the Archons can be uploaded for the period in between. Also I will open the discussion on a better rating system, as many perceive the current one as not sufficient.

One of the cornerstones of our community are the big events. The 2011 events have been a huge success. Despite the game being out-of-print, attendance was as high as ever. A big thanks to all of the organizers who made it happen. I am happy that the NAC, EC, SAC and AC for 2012 are secure. The NAC will take place at Origins (May 30 - June 3) and the EC in lovely Budapest (October 26-28). Keep an eye on the website for further updates.

Our storyline coordinator, Eric Chiang, has informed me that the popular storyline events will continue in 2012. There will be a constructed and a limited storyline, run concurrently, over the course of 6 months and a one-shot event at the NAC. The outcome of those tournaments will influence the history of the (old) World of Darkness which is now solely defined by V:TES.

That is all for now, see you at the tables.

Johannes Walch

Chairman of the V:EKN

By now you may have heard the news that the VEKN, the official player organization for VTES, is going to publish a PDF-format card set in 2012. We would like to give you some background information and a general overview of what you can expect.

We recognize that there may be some concerns over the development of a VEKN set. One of our key motivations is to help preserve the value of the VTES intellectual property in hopes that a future company will eventually pick up the game again. This includes keeping players interested and excited about VTES as well as providing a solid base of new card content for future license holders to publish in a physical format. Our hope is that this is a temporary measure which will sustain the game and its player base until VTES leaves torpor once again.

The VEKN Design Team was assembled according to suggestions and feedback from the Inner Circle and National Coordinators. The members are enthusiastic players who are long-standing members of the VTES community and have previously contributed to the game in one form or another. Some have served in an official capacity within the VEKN while others have been past playtesters for VTES sets. There is a good balance in the team between canon knowledge, interests of the casual player and concerns of competitive tournament players.

The biggest change to our process compared with that of the WW/CCP era is that the design process is separated from the rules team (though the rules director is still providing feedback on the design process). Also, the design team now consists of more than just one person. This collective design arrangement has the positive result in that card proposals and mechanics are discussed and fine-tuned in often excruciating detail. The downside, however, is that the process itself takes a bit longer.

The design team strove to achieve several goals for the set. Among them, and not necessarily in any order of priority:

1. Preserving game balance and card balance.
2. Adhering to World of Darkness canon for crypt and library cards
3. Creating cards which enable portions of the game which are lacking or underdeveloped. (We are not making "hosers.")
4. Developing high-caliber cards which can be feasible in tournaments and fun in casual games.

The new set does not yet have a name. It will consist of over 30 cards, all of which will have original artwork. It is no big secret that the traditional Sabbat clans lack Group 5 crypt cards, so these will comprise a large portion of the set. We hope this will provide more options for viable Sabbat G4/5 crypts and additional synergy with G5/6 Bloodlines. The new G4/5 vampires are intended to work well with those previously established in G4, and we hope that G4/5 plays to different strengths and weaknesses than G2/3.

In addition to the new vampires, the Design Team focused on three other main themes. Stay tuned for more information on those in a future update.

Playtesting will hopefully start with the beginning of the new year. To keep things as professional as possible, we will emulate the process used by WW/CCP in the past. Playtesting will not be open, but there is a public application process and anyone who wishes to apply will be considered for participation. We intend for there to be substantial communication between the designers and the playtesters to create the best possible end product. There will also be a special discussion forum for playtesters to discuss issues amongst themselves.

Thank you for your patience and understanding. We sincerely hope that you will enjoy the resulting set in 2012 and appreciate the efforts of your volunteer VTES community.


Regards,
The VEKN Design Team

By now you may have heard the news that the VEKN, the official player organization for VTES, is going to publish a PDF-format card set in 2012. We would like to give you some background information and a general overview of what you can expect.

We recognize that there may be some concerns over the development of a VEKN set. One of our key motivations is to help preserve the value of the VTES intellectual property in hopes that a future company will eventually pick up the game again. This includes keeping players interested and excited about VTES as well as providing a solid base of new card content for future license holders to publish in a physical format. Our hope is that this is a temporary measure which will sustain the game and its player base until VTES leaves torpor once again.

The VEKN Design Team was assembled according to suggestions and feedback from the Inner Circle and National Coordinators. The members are enthusiastic players who are long-standing members of the VTES community and have previously contributed to the game in one form or another. Some have served in an official capacity within the VEKN while others have been past playtesters for VTES sets. There is a good balance in the team between canon knowledge, interests of the casual player and concerns of competitive tournament players.

The biggest change to our process compared with that of the WW/CCP era is that the design process is separated from the rules team (though the rules director is still providing feedback on the design process). Also, the design team now consists of more than just one person. This collective design arrangement has the positive result in that card proposals and mechanics are discussed and fine-tuned in often excruciating detail. The downside, however, is that the process itself takes a bit longer.

The design team strove to achieve several goals for the set. Among them, and not necessarily in any order of priority:

1. Preserving game balance and card balance.
2. Adhering to World of Darkness canon for crypt and library cards
3. Creating cards which enable portions of the game which are lacking or underdeveloped. (We are not making "hosers.")
4. Developing high-caliber cards which can be feasible in tournaments and fun in casual games.

The new set does not yet have a name. It will consist of over 30 cards, all of which will have original artwork. It is no big secret that the traditional Sabbat clans lack Group 5 crypt cards, so these will comprise a large portion of the set. We hope this will provide more options for viable Sabbat G4/5 crypts and additional synergy with G5/6 Bloodlines. The new G4/5 vampires are intended to work well with those previously established in G4, and we hope that G4/5 plays to different strengths and weaknesses than G2/3.

In addition to the new vampires, the Design Team focused on three other main themes. Stay tuned for more information on those in a future update.

Playtesting will hopefully start with the beginning of the new year. To keep things as professional as possible, we will emulate the process used by WW/CCP in the past. Playtesting will not be open, but there is a public application process and anyone who wishes to apply will be considered for participation. We intend for there to be substantial communication between the designers and the playtesters to create the best possible end product. There will also be a special discussion forum for playtesters to discuss issues amongst themselves.

Thank you for your patience and understanding. We sincerely hope that you will enjoy the resulting set in 2012 and appreciate the efforts of your volunteer VTES community.


Regards,
The VEKN Design Team

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