Hey, everyone!

We figured we'd give you all an update and explain the lack of sneak previews and lack of release information for Danse Macabre. As you've probably expected, it's related to the ongoing negotiations amongst OneBookShelf, Hasbro, and CCP. Because the respective licenses have not yet been signed, we are under advisement to not publicly post the Danse Macabre material. This means no sneak previews and no .pdf release until we're given the green light by the parties involved.

In order to get us to the point where we can get the green light, we are working with Hasbro and CCP to ensure that the work we're doing meets their standards with respect to how their intellectual property is portrayed and represented. By our own standards, we could have released the set back in December, but we respect the wishes and standards of Hasbro, CCP, and OneBookShelf and we're happy to work with them to iron everything out. It's a slow process, but we're encouraged to know that all parties involved are engaged in the process and are willing to work with us.

Outside of representation of intellectual property, there are the ongoing business negotiations. We in the Design Team have no involvement in them, but we've been told to expect an update around the end of March. Our preference is to be able to do sneak previews and to release the set as a .pdf prior to the cards physically being in print, but for now those things are on hold.

We in the Design Team have no information at this time on the status of Print On Demand reprints, as that's outside of our duties.

Given all of that, we have some extra time so we're putting a dozen or so of the Danse Macabre cards through another playtest round, as well as a few storyline cards. We also started work on a second expansion about a month ago. Based on the player feedback in the survey that our Marketing Team conducted, we're going with Group 6 Independents for the next set. The plan is to have it be about the same size as Danse Macabre, with about the same number of crypt and library cards (15 library, 20 crypt, give or take). Playtesting will begin in March, and we're looking to get artwork started in April.

We'll post an update on the progress of the Independent set in a few weeks!

- the V:EKN Design Team

We want to show you the T-shirt project for the 2013 Qualifier Tournaments, designed by Szewski & Nusser.
 
 
The art for the T-shirt is by Francesc Grimalt, and it is a piece of art from the upcoming Danse Macabre V:TES set.
 
Enjoy!

 

Some of you may already know me for my work in supporting the play of VTES in the UK, or from my attendance at international VEKN events. Some of you may also know of my past work for White Wolf in designing the Vampire: Prince of the City board game.

What is much less well known is that I have been a Storyteller of Vampire: The Masquerade tabletop games since 1991 when the first edition of the game was published. I own pretty much every single original Vampire book (along with many other White Wolf books) and I have regularly enjoyed roleplaying in the World of Darkness over the last 21 years.

On the subject of common knowledge it's also now a pretty open secret that I have been helping Ben Peal with the design of the VEKN's first official card set. In fact it is this work which led to the invitation by Johannes and the IC to take a more active role in the Storyline side of things.

In regards to the organisation of Storyline VTES events after some discussion we have decided to change things up a little bit. We know that there are a lot of players out there who would like the opportunity to influence the story associated with the game, but they can't necessarily get enough people together for a proper multi-round tournament.

We have therefore proposed a new way for handling Storyline: single pickup games which can be played by any group of any size any number of times. As long as every deck used is Storyline legal (in the established fashion) and the results of the game are submitted using the appropriate form then they will be included in the final tally.

The results will be used to plot the course of future Storyline games, cards and short stories. In fact, with the advent of the Onyx Path there may even be an opportunity to work closely again with the guys behind the RPG and cross over between the two games once more.

We plan to use the European Championship in Budapest as the first opportunity to try this new format out. Any pickup VTES games played by anyone with Storyline legal decks during the week of the event will be eligible for inclusion. We'll conjure up a little fiction for people to read and hand out forms and cards for people to use.

If it works out well the we hope to present similar limited, geographically themed games at other national and international events in the future.

I hope you enjoy it - and see you in Budapest!

 

Mike Nudd
Storyline Coordinator

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