Advice on starting a new VTES group in the Black Chantry era

VTES has always been my "grail" game - something I always wanted to get into but never got to play. I’ve been very excited by the news of it’s resurrection and I’m already scheming to get my boardgaming friends to try it out. My hopes are quite high because we all love multiplayer games build around conflict, diplomacy and backstabbing (Cosmic Encounter being a prime example of our favorite game). VTES seems like a perfect way to spice things up a little bit.

My question is this: one of the recommended ways to start playing used to be to acquire some starter decks and perhaps a booster display, if one wanted to get serious (possibly a Jyhad display, as these are still the easiest to find). Assuming I have a set of 2x4 Black Hand starters which I want to use to lure people into the game, is it still sensible to try to find a cheap Jyhad booster display that we could later mess around with and explore the game together? Or is it now better to get the new Black Chantry-era bundles and start following the future developments of the game from this point on?

A most optimistic scenario right now is one in which I succeeded to get a group of people interested (4-5 people would be my guess) and mess around with cards and various deck strategies together. In other words, it is unlikely that each player would acquire their own pool of cards to build decks from - the person responsible for the cards will be mostly me, at least at the beginning.

Thanks for any advice!

bodkan wrote:

Assuming I have a set of 2x4 Black Hand starters which I want to use to lure people into the game, is it still sensible to try to find a cheap Jyhad booster display that we could later mess around with and explore the game together? Or is it now better to get the new Black Chantry-era bundles and start following the future developments of the game from this point on?

I think that the Black Hand/Jyhad option would be cheaper, but could be confusing with the different card layouts and incorrect text on some cards.

Using the Black Chantry option will be more expensive, but should be easier to play as you won't have those problems. If you do indeed have 2x 4 Black Hand starters, then perhaps 1x 4 of the new Sabbat starters and some printed out Danse Macabre to go with would be best.

Jazzbeaux wrote:

bodkan wrote:

Assuming I have a set of 2x4 Black Hand starters which I want to use to lure people into the game, is it still sensible to try to find a cheap Jyhad booster display that we could later mess around with and explore the game together? Or is it now better to get the new Black Chantry-era bundles and start following the future developments of the game from this point on?

I think that the Black Hand/Jyhad option would be cheaper, but could be confusing with the different card layouts and incorrect text on some cards.

Using the Black Chantry option will be more expensive, but should be easier to play as you won't have those problems. If you do indeed have 2x 4 Black Hand starters, then perhaps 1x 4 of the new Sabbat starters and some printed out Danse Macabre to go with would be best.

This would be my suggestion as well. Black Hand starters themselves are pretty okay if you have doubles, and buying into a set of (1 each) of the upcoming BC Sabbat starters would make a great start for a play group. 3rd Edition starters are great as well of course if you can find them. All those sabbat starters complement each other well, and making a pool of cards to make decks from might be a good idea.

I wouldn't worry about Jyhad, actually. It's cheap, but pretty inaccessible compared to contemporary cards. Many Jyhad cards have revised texts, they have very different layouts and form a group not matching BC or other recent crypt options.

Don't buy Jyhad cards. Full stop.

buy the sabbat precons when they are available in a few weeks, and supplement yourself with either the pdf sets, or the sets available from Drivethroughcards.com.

Black Chantry makes money from the deivethru sales, and turns that around into new products. Buying a box of boosters off of Ebay does nothing to actually support the game.

Excellent suggestions - thank you all!

My plan definitely is to buy the new set of starters once they become available. I have even contacted a couple of game stores in my town asking them about offering new BC products.

The reason I asked about getting a cheap display from Ebay was because I wasn't sure how feasible it is to build different decks from the card pool provided just by the starters (too much MtG bias, I guess). However, I do have to admit that this is not relevant just yet.

Thanks again!

bodkan wrote:

The reason I asked about getting a cheap display from Ebay was because I wasn't sure how feasible it is to build different decks from the card pool provided just by the starters (too much MtG bias, I guess). However, I do have to admit that this is not relevant just yet.

Proxies are also a thing, and I'm working on making staple proxies available on a general level.