Would You Support/Play a New Game based in WoD w/VTES Roots?

AaronC wrote:

RoddimusPrime wrote:

In short the deckmaster mechanic expires in 2014 and Hasbro/WoTC will not sell cheap.

What does this mean? I thought CCP's license expired in 2010, because it was a 10-year license starting in 2000.

CCP essentially had leased the deckmaster mechanic from Hasbro/WotC. That particular lease expired and was not renewed.

That particular mechanic though and it's legal attachments expire in 2014. At that point someone like CCP could pick the game up again. Or they coud shop the game around to potential other publishers (without also having to deal with Hasbro/WotC).

Jeff wrote:

RoddimusPrime wrote:

Part of the reason people are concerned is that more are quitting than joining VTES and at an exponential rate.

Not bashing here, but I did want to point out that just this past weekend the largest U.S. west coast V:TES tournament was held (29 players). The second event that day had 20 players and was won by Brett Schofield who, IIRC, only started playing the game after V:TES ceased production.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I am also pretty sure that most of those guys couldn't make Origins and wanted to make a decent sized event in their back yard (this was my impression at least). Even so, that is still impressive. That still is only one example of a positive in one playgroup area. Again, I don't expect VTES to crumble in the next few months or probably even the next 2 years. But, the game will continue to be supported by it's core player base. And that is something that many people are satisfied with and can live with the game as is. Very much akin to Star Trek and it's group. However, there won't be many people getting into the game just like other dead card games. I have a feeling many people will continue to be happy playing even if it were down to a fraction of the current members.

I still believe that VTES is gradually losing more people than gaining and that regular tournaments still struggle to exceed 10 people, even in most of Europe. It would not take much to have further challenges, esp. in regular tournament settings. There would be no need to qualify more people for championships in the US at least if that weren't the truth. Yet that has been a serious topic of discussion. At this point it is trying to stay ahead of the curve and doing what is needed to preserve the game.

But, I still believe there are people who would like to see a living game that either was a compliment to VTES or served as something like the "new VTES." Again, current VTES could be the legacy format and it could even help draw more in.

Even if people disagree it isn't like a vast array of gamers are going to discover this game at conventions, have paid advertising, gain larger potential audiences, etc. But, a new game could do just that. Further, VTES has some really nice and unique mechanics to the game that make it what it is. It goes beyond just the World of Darkness setting. It could even be implemented into a completely new game. As it is VTES is one of few games that produces the unique combination we all love. Some of us may not like the cardboard crack aspect or that Mr. Chatterton's art ever existed, but those are small things in the overall picture.

RoddimusPrime wrote:

SBut, I have hear from multiple people of two things in their local community. One, people have gone to casual status or play much less often now. Two, some people have plain and simply quit. This leads to the existing groups scraping for 10 players to have a valid tournament. It won't take much for their to be less tournaments due to the inability to fetch 10 people on a regular basis and obviously if you look at the TWDA you can see just 2 years ago the average tournament seemed to have more than 10 people on a regular basis (esp. in Europe).

Just for my personal experience, I've restarted playing this game only half a year ago, and I've since recruited nine other new players, as well as two people who had stopped playing and are now getting back into it. And I live in Western Canada, where there aren't very many players. The only reason that we don't have and tournaments in my town is because few players own any cards (we supply decks to those who don't during casual games) and scheduling conflicts.

In short, I don't think the game is dead yet, and still has the potential to grow in its current state, and maybe even come back from torpor in the near future. The only way to truly kill VTES is if every player gives up on the game. Ironically, going along with your plan to build a VTES-style game would be a huge step in that direction.


I think Lönkka summed up my feelings on a new VTES-style game coming out.

I don't really want a game vaguely similar to VTES.
I want more VTES.

I have many views towards a new VTES set.
One of these is very close to KevinM's idea of just creating a new standalone set with rules clarification and just not fix what isn't broken.

However I can see that the license split between CCP and WoC/Hasbro creates a major problem, and cutting out one or the other will ultimatly harm the game.

VTES without Auspex?

VTES without a randomized deck of cards?

I think the answer is fairly simple.
Don't try to fix the game.
Just play the game.

A slight divergence: VTES has always been a CCG at its heart.
Later on in the game pre-sorted decks were released.
I think if a new standalone set were released(I would hope) it would be in the standard CCG format. However the expansion releases and even microexpansion releases, would all depend on how the first release stood.

VTES has always been a huge set of cards and I dont think beginning players want to play against Mr. Suitcase x3 with there new released set vs. 13,000 cards of the old set. But that is only observational and personal experience.
Even though I dont think a Aged/New split is the right answer either.
Anyone with an idea for a happy median?

DR.

RoddimusPrime wrote:

Two of the most vocal people no doubt have replied.

Two quickest nerds would probably be closer to truth -not everyone in our small community bothers to read the forum that frequntly...

Even the quickest replies werw written half an hour after the original post.


I'm vocal since I just happened by and replied first ;D

RoddimusPrime wrote:

Secondly, if anyone has played BSG (Battlestar Galactica), Chaos in the Old World, or Game of Thrones I think there is potential in a more traditional board game. And just like Game of Thrones there could be a both a board game and an LCG. Done right I think a good board game variant could be something that is quite fun and competitive.

There already is a board game based on the setting called Vampire: Prince of the City. I think it's quite fun but it was never really very popular.
There is a lot of scope for more board games within the WOD setting, but it would probably be easier to just produce a board game with a similar (non-licensed) setting.

RoddimusPrime wrote:

My question to each and every one of you is a serious one. Would you support a new game based in the World of Darkness that contained a formula akin to VTES that makes it so unique (like an LCG)? Further, would you throw financial support behind if there was a kickstarter initiative?

I would consider supporting a new game if it was completely different from V:TES.
I would much rather play V:TES than play a V:TES clone. So if your main selling point was that it's like V:TES but with a smaller cardbase and slightly altered rules, I would not be interested.
On the other hand, if you were to produce a completely different game that also uses the WOD setting, I would judge it on it's own merits and either play it or not depending on how good it was.