What would you like to see in a new expansion?

I think Izaak has a point that relative to G2/3, G4/5 Tzimisce are weak. My belief is that since the non-Sabbat clans got lots of good vampires in G4/5/6, that people are playing them disproportionately and therefore getting more wins with them in the TWDA. I think Izaak overstates his point a bit for emphasis, but it is still valid. There are no titled G5 Sabbat vampires AT ALL. This really limits their political power greatly, especially compared to the G4/5 Camarilla IC/Justicars/Princes. It is my hope that the new set will address many of these obvious issues. Time will tell.

Jeff wrote:

There are no titled G5 Sabbat vampires AT ALL.

I suppose that's because they get the black hand trait. I may indicate that Black hand card are a bit too weak to be considered equivalent to camarilla title. Or that black hand card are underrated, I can't really tell.

Jeff wrote:

I think Izaak has a point that relative to G2/3, G4/5 Tzimisce are weak. My belief is that since the non-Sabbat clans got lots of good vampires in G4/5/6, that people are playing them disproportionately and therefore getting more wins with them in the TWDA. I think Izaak overstates his point a bit for emphasis, but it is still valid. There are no titled G5 Sabbat vampires AT ALL. This really limits their political power greatly, especially compared to the G4/5 Camarilla IC/Justicars/Princes. It is my hope that the new set will address many of these obvious issues. Time will tell.

There are only 1 or 2 Group 5 vampires for each Sabbat clan right now, and as Ohlmann pointed out they're mostly Black Hand. So that's a very logical reason why there aren't titled Group 5.

Just because a clan gets a really good crypt in a given Grouping, isn't a good justification that every future Grouping needs to reach that same bar. Otherwise you end up with a "if you give a mouse a cookie" scenario, where people just keep wanting and expecting more (and feeling entitled to it).

One could argue that the Toreador haven't had a selection of vampires that can match up to their Group 1/2 but that isn't a good reason to print new versions of Anson, Anneke, and Alexandra. The Assamites have a merged Justicar, two Magaji, 3 Black Hand Seraphs and 4 other Black Hand vampires in assorted Groupings. Just because they have 2 Seraphs and 3 other Black Hand vampires in Group 4/5 isn't a good reason to expect that they should get the same in all future Group pairings. The Nosferatu have an extremely large Group 3/4 (consisting of 30 vampires), that's not a good reason to expect future groupings (of Nos or any other clan) to be at 30 again. Same for the !Tremere and their 26 vampires in Group 3/4 (that was mainly due to Group 3 being larger since they were excluded from Sabbat War and had a smaller Group 2).

Occasionally you will have aberrations, but those should be acknowledged as one-time occurrences rather than irrevocably setting new precedents.

Ohlmann wrote:

I suppose that's because they get the black hand trait. I may indicate that Black hand card are a bit too weak to be considered equivalent to camarilla title. Or that black hand card are underrated, I can't really tell.

Well, that's because most of the time, Black Hand isn't really "costing" the vampire any points in terms of design. Most Black Hand vampires get their normal allotment, and then get Black Hand on top of that. Prince/Justicar titles actually cost points (as do Archbishop/Priscus/Cardinal).

Isn't black hand costing the same as bishop and Seraph ... a lot ?

The Black Hand trait is about 0.25 points, but it's often given out for free. Look at the many 5-cap Black Hand vampires with one in-clan superior discipline.

The Seraph trait costs about 0.75 points since all Seraphs are also Black Hand. Banjoko and Djuhah are easy examples to see.

Bishops are also 0.5 points, while Archbishops and Prisci are 1.0 points. Many bishops have minor positive or negative specials to balance out the +/-0.5 points depending on capacity.