Anastasiia Horbunova VTES Ominous Chorus

Art for Ominous Chorus by Anastasiia Horbunova.

Greetings fellow Methuselahs,

THE 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF VAMPIRE: THE ETERNAL STRUGGLE CONTINUES

Yes, the celebration continues in various ways:

• Special content in all channels! This includes artist interviews, special articles and glimpses into the history of this great game will appear in VTES, VEKN and BCP sites and channels for the rest of the year. One such glimpse is this incredibly ancient VTES EC final video (also at the BCP Youtube channel), now published after many years of being hidden to mortal eyes. Maybe you can spot some familiar faces!

• Events are being held! We have already seen several physical celebrations, including the gorgeous Italian cake and release parties for the 30th Annivesary deck all over the world. The European Championship coming up in Warsaw, Poland on September will also have some special surprises that you don´t want to miss!

• New cards are being produced! Not only the 30th Anniversary deck! Right now cards from the Fifth Edition Lasombra preconstructed deck are being previewed, so make sure to follow Black Chantry in social media or at least peek into the Lasombra product page now and then. Some fresh spoilers:

Araceli Celia Rivera VTES Ken Meyer Jr Ominous Chorus VTES Anastasiia Hornbunova

 

For Araceli “Celia” Rivera we once again thank Ken Meyer Jr for joining the artist team behind a new set of VTES cards – poignant illustrations in his own style as usual. You find Celia in the Fifth Edition Chicago by Night book.

For Ominous Chorus we thank Anastasiia Horbunova for the creepy art. Last up was Camarilla's Iron Fist, now she is really hitting it again. Note that this card is a clan card, thus playable by any Lasombra regardless of capacity and disciplines, even little Celia can do it. And its both an action modifier and a reaction!

More previews are coming - follow Black Chantry Productions in social media.

EC 2024

GET YOUR EC 2024 TICKETS!

If you haven´t already, get your tickets for the European Championship in Warsaw, Poland before September 11. As mentioned before, all involved parties will make this event something really special!

Now we also know more about the "Week of Nightmares" pre-tournaments:
Location: Hackroom122, Chmielna 122/113 Warsaw (but might be moved to another location in case of high attendance)
Fee: 25 euro for all 3 days, snacks and promos included.
• Tuesday 24 September 3R+F Standard Constructed format
• Wednesday 25 September 3R+F Standard Constructed format  
• Thursday 26 September 2R+F Standard Constructed format

The main events:
Location: Athaneum Theatre, Wybrzeże Kościuszkowskie 35, Warsaw
Fee: 76 euro all 3 days - gives you the VTES EC 2024 t-shirt, VTES EC 2024 Edge Token, lunch, drinks and snacks each day, plus promo cards.
• Friday 27 September Continental Qualifier 3R+F Standard Constructed format
• Saturday 28 September European Championship Day 1 3R+F Standard Constructed format
• Sunday 29 September European Championship Day 2 3R+F Standard Constructed format
• Sunday 29 September "Best of the Rest" 3R+F Standard Constructed format

Tickets are at ec.vtes.club/

More info is at tinyurl.com/vtes2024

Grand Prix Gulfport/Biloxi 2024
KELLY LYONS WINS GRAND PRIX GULFPORT/BILOXI 2024!

The main event was played with 25 players on August 24 in Gulfport, Mississippi, USA.

Read the full report: Grand Prix Gulfport/Biloxi 2024

Ireland National championship 2024

LOTTE SIEBERT IS THE 2024 CHAMPION OF IRELAND!

The champion defends her belt! This tournament was played with 10 players in Galway on August 17.

Read the full report: Ireland National championship 2024

VTES Vics 2024

PIERES O´SHEA WINS THE VICS 2024!

This is not a high level tournament like the ones we normally mention here, but we want to include it as an example of a smaller event with a nicely written report.

Read the full report: The Vics 2024

VTES South Africa 2024 
MARTIN MEZZABOTTA WINS CLOCKWORK CONVERGENCE!

This is not a high level tournament, but we want to include it here anyway as an example of a limited format event with a nice report by Skye Segal, VEKN Prince of Cape Town, South Africa. It was played on August 10 (preliminaries) and 11 (final).

Read the full report: Clockwork Convergence at Dragonfire 2024

RULES EXPLAINED: POLLING AND BIDDING

Some words from Rules Director Vincent Ripoll:

VTES uses a system called “sequencing” to determine who has the “impulse” (opportunity) to play cards and use effects at a given time. There are however two mechanisms that do not follow the sequencing rule: polling and bidding.

During the polling step of a referendum (either caused by a political action or a blood hunt), Methuselahs can cast votes and ballots using the sources they have under their control (titled vampires, cards in play, the Edge, or the political action card used to call the referendum or one they want to discard for a vote) in a free-for-all fashion. Using cards or effects still follow the sequencing rules, so if the acting Methuselah wants to play Bribes to gain 1 pool immediately for instance, they can do so before another Methuselah has the opportunity to play a Delaying Tactics. Similarly, if a Methuselah wants to play a Scalpel Tongue to cancel the votes of a vampire, or use the Ventrue Headquarters to gain 3 votes, they must follow the sequencing rules (by simply asking the other Methuselahs that should have the impulse beforehand if they pass), even though in practice it is seamless. Following the sequencing rules allow to resolve race conditions such as two Methuselahs willing to get Mustafa, The Heir's votes.

The polling step ends when Methuselahs are finished casting votes and ballots. This means that Methuselahs always have a final opportunity to play effects using the sequencing rule even if they've previously passed the impulse.

Bidding is used with some cards such as Hostile Takeover. It follows a standard system of an open bid (as in real life), meaning that any Methuselah may bid at any time, without following any order. The acting Methuselah runs the auction but has no privilege in doing so (they can't alter the outcome of the auction, except by bidding themselves, of course). If there is a race condition (two or more Methuselahs bidding simultaneously the same amount) that can't be untied, then that bid is ignored (as there is no way to know who auctioned first) and the action continues (resulting eventually in another race).

 
BRAZIL NOW HAS MORE METHUSELAHS THAN SPAIN!

Brazil now is the country with the largest number of active VTES players. With "active player" we mean someone that has played a VEKN registered tournament the last 18 months. Here´s the top 20 nations:

    # of players
    Year 2023 Year 2024
1 Brazil 282 602
2 Spain 514 569
3 United States 117 162
4 France 140 127
5 Italy 98 119
6 Chile 60 90
7 Finland 88 85
8 Poland 99 73
9 Hungary 37 58
10 Sweden 57 58
11 Czech Republic 57 56
12 United Kingdom 43 55
13 Portugal 34 46
14 Australia 4 39
15 Germany 31 38
16 Philippines 0 35
17 Mexico 21 34
18 Belgium 21 24
19 Serbia 6 21
20 Croatia 19 18

 

... and some historical data for worldwide players:

  # of players
 2018 ~1100
2019 1 363
2020 1 700
2021 No data
2022 1 389
2023 1 831
2024 so far 2 460

 

Do you need help organizing tournaments? Reach out to your VEKN National Coordinator or to !

 

Black Chantry logo

BLACK CHANTRY SUMMARY: AUGUST 2024

• Preview season of the Fifth Edition Lasombra preconstructed deck set for October release is ongoing. If all goes well those of you that visit the Spiel game fair in Essen, Germany will be able to get your copies there.

Fifth Edition Lasombra
• Product Director Ben Peal is currently in Brazil visiting the South American Continental Championship. Last thing we heard was he won a casual table with a Nosferatu Molly MacDonald deck :)

• Before travelling, Ben sent a MASSIVE bunch of cards for playtesting. It was no less than 97 new cards for the four 2025 Sabbat preconstructed decks that went for a first round of testing. The first opinions voiced as usual range from "meh" to "way too pushed", but we´ll see, it is the grade statistics and the formal comments that count!

• The (hopefully) last round of playtesting of the Hecata preconstructed deck as well as the five 54-card New Blood packs for Hecata, Lasombra, Ravnos, Salubri and Tzimisce concluded on August 31. Now the answers from the playtesters will be analysed and the last tweaks will be made.

• More old legacy single cards for print-on-demand and the 2-player VTES variant are on hold for now.

VTES Fifth Edition

 

Ravnos Salubri Tzimisce

Black Chantry Products 2022 October

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

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.

Gehenna War
RECENT NEWS IN THE WORLD OF DARKNESS

We are super excited with sinking our claws into Gehenna War, the brand new 162 page sourcebook for Vampire: The Masquerade focused on the conflict with the same name. From the back cover, these are its contents:
• An overview of the Gehenna War and its impact on the Kindred sects
• 7 Methuselahs active in the Gehenna War
• Rules for creating action-focused characters for action chronicles
• New combat options and equipment
• Player- and Storyteller-focused overview of action chronicles
• 14 distinct factions fighting in the Gehenna War
• 4 pre-written stories to drop into any chronicle
• Advice for using Bestial Failures and Messy Criticals in any chronicle
• 3 Loresheets
• 9 new Advantages and Flaws
• 19 new Discipline Powers, Rituals, Ceremonies, and Formulae

This is some really juicy stuff for Storytellers out there, not to mention for card game design in the future. And look at that gorgeous cover illustration by VTES artist Mark Kelly!

Subscribe to the World of Darkness News show for more news! (The episode of August 30 discusses the Gehenna War book thoroughly.)

CALENDAR

Upcoming tournaments for the coming month (registered so far) are in:
Australia
Brazil x16
Chile
Czech Republic
Germany
Greece
Finland
France
Italy x2
Mexico
Philippines
Poland x7
Portugal
Spain x9
UK
USA x2

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!

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, the official VEKN X (Twitter) account @VEKN_VTES and the official VTES Discord server.

 

Are you afraid of the good you might do?

VTES South Africa 2024 Limited

This is not a high level tournament, but we want to include it here anyway as an example of a limited format event with a nice report by Skye Segal, VEKN Prince of Cape Town, South Africa. It was played on August 10 (preliminaries) and 11 (final).

This year we hosted the annual Dragonfire convention at University of Cape Town, and eight Cape Town kindred joined for this limited Fifth Edition format tournament. Rounds 1 and 2 saw two tables of four each.

The first game saw me (Tzimisce Wall) being ousted by Martin (Salubri Block Deny), a perfect counter, Hendrik, my cross-table ally playing Banu Haqim fell to the growing powers of Nick’s Brujah anarchs, and soon Martin’s Salubri were ousted after that. Nick (1 GW, 3 VP), Martin (1 VP).

VTES South Africa 2024 Limited
The other table included Yancke playing a Tzimisce stealth-bleed, bleeding Justin’s Ventrue, in turn bleeding James’ Banu Rush, who bled Yancke’s predator, Jo, who had a straight up Malk stealth bleed deck! In the end it was Jo taking it (1 GW, 3 VP), and Justin (1 VP) after a miraculous recovery by beaten up and torporized Malks.

The tables were split up in the second round in accord with the mysteries of the Archon, and I fared a little better at my table playing a Toreador Grand Ball with Fortitude deck. I eventually took out Yancke’s stealth bleeding Tzimisce, while quashing my predator’s (Justin playing Ventrue) votes. Nick had set up a pretty strong Nosferatu wall which helped block many of Justin’s votes too, while not getting much pressure from Yancke.  The game timed out a few rounds after Yancke being ousted (Skye 1.5 VP, Justin 0.5 VP, Nick 0.5 VP, no GW).

At the other table we saw Jo and James both playing Banu Haqim, however they were positioned cross table, Martin with Toreador as Jo’s prey, and Hendrik with his Ministry vote, as Jo’s predator. A Reckless Agitation from the Ministry saw both James and Jo ousted in the same round, and Hendrik soon ousted Martin too. Hendrik 1 GW and 3 VPs, and Martin 1 VP.

VTES South Africa 2024 Limited

The results were in for the final, and due to a draw for 2nd and 3rd seed between Jo and Hendrik, our NC, Neil, flipped a coin  and Jo won, giving rise to the final round table: Justin and Martin, both playing Ventrue, sat first, Hendrik with his Ministry vote decides to be downstream from Martin as predator and Justin as prey. Jo sits to Hendrik’s right with her Gangrel Anarchs Thing horde threatening the Ministry player, and finally Nick, with top seed, decides to sit in between the two Ventrue decks… commence the final!

The Ministry faced up to the Gangrel as their predator and Justin’s Ventrue as prey. Unfortunately, there ended up being 10 votes worth of titles on the table, so even with maximum vote push it was marginal whether Recklesses and Kines could get through. In the early game, votes from Martin’s Mithras helped get a few damaging votes against Justin, with voter-caps for some pool flowing in. However, the Gangrel were consistently bleeding for two to eight a round, and their Ventrue predator was weakened at that stage thanks to Mithras experiencing a Gangrel agg-poke. This allowed the Gangrel to go nearly entirely forward! The Ministry were struggling to find a single bait and switch to send the ravenous Gangrel downstream and the other Methuselahs were getting concerned about the impact of the Ministry big scary votes, so Martin joined in shutting down Hendrik, down-voting a Reckless which would have ousted Justin. After a Gangrel bleed that was bounced back and forth between the Ministry and Justin’s Ventrue, the Ministry were the first to be ousted.

Jo had a great early game with a 2-cap Gangrel playing Thing and bringing out an early baron and two other minions (eventually having 5 out). Her agg poke backwards on Mithras bought enough time to destroy Hendrik, but a terrible round occurred where she misplayed a few actions and forgot to play a freak-drive. The following round saw Martin self-rescue Mithras, freak-drive him, and bleed Jo out for 6.

Nick with his Brujah was the top seeded player, and chose to go in between the two Ventrue, hoping to beat up on them without fear of protean claws of the dead, which both Gangrel and Ministry could bring. Unfortunately, Aline Gadeke didn’t show up, and as the backbone of the Brujah deck, her absence ham-stringed play and forced Nick to dig through his crypt in the influence phase. However, there was a glorious Brujah moment when Martin’s Alexa Draper was disarmed and sent to torpor for a holiday, however with no further Immortal Grapples coming up for Nick, and Majesties on both sides, combat cards clumped and didn’t cycle into what was required to survive the vote pressure from Justin.
 
Eventually, close to the 2 hour mark, Nick’s Brujah were ousted by Justin’s Ventrue after failing to tear up the blue-bloods on either side. And with only the two Ventrue decks left at the table, the game timed-out: 1.5 VPs to Justin and Martin (a draw!), and 1 VP to Jo. No GW, but a technical win to Martin based on tournament points!

VTES South Africa 2024 Limited winner

Congratulations Martin Mezzabotta on your first tournament win!

The tournament winning deck:

Crypt:
2 Mithras (G6)
2 Rose Abawi
1 Valerius
1 Alexa Draper
1 Alice Chen
1 Sybren van Oosten
1 Kevin Jackson
1 Horst von Brühl
1 Naomi Stewart
1 Oshri Dahan

4 Information Highway
3 Villein
3 Mithraic Cultist
2 Blood Doll
2 Vessel
1 Barrens, The
1 Dominate
1 Dreams of the Sphinx
1 Giant's Blood
1 Uptown Hunting Ground
1 Ventrue Headquarters
1 Mithraeum, London, The

4 Enchant Kindred
4 Govern the Unaligned
1 Judgment: Camarilla Segregation

8 Freak Drive
4 Bewitching Oration
4 Conditioning
4 Voter Captivation
2 Change of Target

10 Majesty
4 Rolling with the Punches

4 Consanguineous Boon
4 Kine Resources Contested

8 Deflection
4 Second Tradition: Domain
2 Forced Awakening
2 On the Qui Vive

Big thank you to all methuselahs that joined and huge shout-out to Ryan Kruger of Pandemonium Games for Prize Support.

VTES South Africa 2024 Limited

VTES Ireland 2024

This event was played with 10 players in Galway on August 17. Champion fourth from the left above. Report by Ben Fox, VEKN National Coordinator:

Irish Nationals finally scales up to Archon levels, entering the global scene!

After last year's terrible luck with countless players dropping within 48 hours of the event from dead pets, lost passports, getting recruited into the Men in Black, etc. We were able to get to gather with players from 3 countries, including the defending English and Irish national champions to compete for a one-of-a-kind playmat, and of course glory neverending.

VTES Ireland 2024 VTES Ireland 2024
VTES Ireland 2024 VTES Ireland 2024 VTES Ireland 2024


After all the guessing of the "meta" ended up with a perfectly diverse collection of decks.  Players both at their first events, and ancient methuselah rising up from the dawn of the dame to resume their dominance. Decks were split from known contenders from the global scene, to zany things with an Anarch Unnamed trying to Shatter the Gate, and Gabrielle de Righetti crying Crocodile Tears.  

Standings before final:
1. Sérgio Martins 2 GW, 6 VP
2. Desmond Kenny 1 GW, 3.5 VP
3. Oisin McDermott 3 VP
4. Mikey Ferguson 2.5 VP
5. Lotte Siebert 1 VP

VTES Ireland 2024

VTES Ireland 2024
In a heavily anarch field, the defending champion was able to focus on keeping the main thing being the main thing, fearlessly bleeding for all the bleed and stealth deck could possibly muster, surviving the ordeal of having to flip a coin to get into the final, Gangrel burning them down to fewer than 8 cards left in the deck, and Nosferatu protecting their district like it is the last bastion of darkness in the world.

Final result: Lotte Siebert 3 VP, Oisin McDermott 1 VP, Mikey Ferguson 1 VP.

Congratulations to Lotte for being a two-time undisputed Irish National Champion, and to everyone who turned up to show Ireland's growth as a VTES destination, hopefully tempting more players out of torpor in the year to come.

Lotte´s tournament winning deck: "Malkav's Pain Train"

Crypt (12 cards)
1x Abraham Mellon 8 AUS DOM OBF for tha Malkavian:6
1x Alexander Silverson 8 AUS DOM OBF pre prince Malkavian:6
1x Gilbert Duane 7 AUS DOM OBF baron Malkavian:6
1x Jason "Son" Newberry 7 AUS DOM OBF pre primogen Malkavian:6
1x Nathaniel Bordruff 7 DOM OBF POT ani  Nosferatu:6
1x Andi Liu 6 DOM aus obf pre prince Malkavian:6
1x Darius Shirazi 6 AUS DOM obf  Malkavian:5
1x Gelasia Fotiou 6 AUS DOM obf pre  Malkavian:6
1x Colette 5 AUS OBF dom  Malkavian:6
1x Evan Klein 5 OBF aus dom pre  Malkavian:6
1x Sully  4 aus dom obf  Malkavian:6
1x Ashley  3 dom obf  Malkavian:6

Library (90 cards)
Master (8)
2x Barrens, The
2x Blood Doll
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Elder Library
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion

Action (20)
1x Conceal
19x Govern the Unaligned

Action Modifier (38)
3x Bonding
4x Cloak the Gathering
8x Conditioning
4x Elder Impersonation
4x Faceless Night
4x Foreshadowing Destruction
6x Lost in Crowds
5x Spying Mission

Action Modifier/Combat (4)
4x Swallowed by the Night

Combat (4)
4x No Trace

Reaction (16)
9x Deflection
2x Eyes of Argus
4x On the Qui Vive
1x Wake with Evening's Freshness

Also: Big thanks to Dungeons and Donuts Galway for all the effort they put into being the home of Irish VTES!

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