Fellow Methuselahs,

We have great news for the V:TES community. While nothing is guaranteed, we are pursuing some creative solutions that might allow the game to continue. The plan, of course, is to release printed V:TES cards.

Onebookshelf Inc. has shown serious interest in putting a deal together that allows for printed publishing of (eventually) all previous and future V:TES cards through a print-on-demand program. You can read further details on the general program on http://www.drivethrucards.com/. The person behind Onebookshelf Inc. is Steve Wieck, former owner and president of White Wolf, a long time fan and benefactor of V:TES. I am also involved in the Onebookshelf business which allows for close cooperation between the V:EKN and Onebookshelf for having future V:EKN sanctioned cards published as well and for direct fan input to the whole process to bring you the best possible package.

However we need to be very patient, because it will take several months before everything is sorted out, eventually. It is very important for the fan base to not engage any of the licensing parties through e-mails, petitions or social media, it will not help and most likely even hurt the proccess. We are definitely months away from having all the signatures, the legal situation is complex. However all involved parties have shown general interest.

There is also the very real possibility that no deal can be made and the plan is going to fall through, but we are hoping for the best.

This also means that the PDF set designed by the V:EKN may not be released in PDF format, because ... it may be a printed set!

Johannes Walch
Chairman of the V:EKN

Fellow Methuselahs,

I am daring the bursting sunlight to get you some news of things happening within the V:EKN.

We had an announcement a couple of months back that we wanted to staff some (new) positions within the V:EKN. I am pleased to announce that we have chosen Antonio Cobo Cuenca to become the Vice Chairman. He is originally from Spain but currently residing in Paris. I would think he is an excellent choice, having a background in different playgroups and also being a long time contributor. Of course the availability of a Vice Chairman will help me and help smoothing out the situations where I am stuck with real-life situations. On top of that Mike Nudd will take up the responsibility of Storyline Coordinator. He is from the UK and currently the prince of London. With an extensive background in game development he will be working closely with the Design Team to bring you some exciting new storyline ideas. Expect something for late in the year, we will poll on some options soon.

We are still working on Marketing and Spokesperson, but very close to a decision. Expect to hear something in the next couple of days. Certainly it has been very interesting that with all the complaints of the V:EKN being a secretive organization there have been very few actual applications for the positions.

Certainly you have been reading about the new fan-based set that is currently being developed and produced by the V:EKN. Progress is good and from a personal perspective I am very excited to see everything coming together with artwork and actual cards designs. The release schedule is not yet very clear but, barring any unforeseen problems, we should make it available late in the year, certainly there will be a display of cards at the European Championship.

Our Nosferatu have been productive as well so we are currently in the alpha testing stages of the rating system event reporting / upload module. Alpha testing means it does actually look and work like it will in the end but there are still some rough edges and real bugs. We will move to an open beta testing by mid-September, so prepare your Archons and get ready to upload and give feedback. The first priority will be to get the current design and workflow online and in use, we will then do a second round of development where you all can give suggestions for improvement.

Everything is on track regarding the biggest V:TES event of the year, European Championship in Budapest. There are over a 100 people pre-regisitered already so do not hesitate and get your trip booked (www.vtes2012.com/). For those of you who did not attend a continental championship so far I can only encourage you to take part in this certainly unique and worthwhile experience.

Johannes Walch
Chairman of the V:EKN

We're more than a bit overdue with a progress for you all, so here's the latest update:

The fourth and final round of playtest is presently underway! Many thanks to our playtesters, whose testing, deck lists, game reports, and feedback have enabled us to get the cards near to a publishable state. The final cuts have been made, and this last round is mainly about power tuning and tightening up the card text templating. All cards have artists commissioned for them, and the artists are working away on them. We have a bunch of finished pieces already, and we're thrilled with the level of quality. As the artwork nears completion, we'll be better able to make announcements about the release date and the sneak preview schedule.

The set itself is named Danse Macabre. It consists of 36 cards - 14 library cards and 22 crypt cards. It's focussed on the main Sabbat clans, and the crypt cards are all in Group 5. The library cards focus on helping the weaker Sabbat clans: Brujah antitribu, Gangrel antitribu, and Nosferatu antitribu. Other library cards include (but are not exclusive to) Sabbat-specific political actions and cards for the Black Hand.

Amazingly, we didn't see anyone post a spoiler of the artwork for the set by Heather Kreiter which she had on display at Origins, so here it is, plus one from another artist:

artspoiler2

By Christel Espenkrona

artspoiler1

By Heather Kreiter

We have a couple more diary entries typed up and ready to publish, but posting them all at once would make this entry rather long, so we'll post them over the next few days. Stay tuned!


- The VEKN Design Team

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