Card idea - Petty privileges and indulgences

The "Delusion of Grandeur" from Ankha is inspiring, but I do believe it's too complicated to patch it enough to make it hit the mark. So, there is my alternative :

Name: Petty privileges and indulgences
Cardtype: Master
Unique. Put this card in play. Titled minion of Methuselah must hunt if they have less blood than two time their votes and are not full. Any methuselah can use a discard phase action and burn a titled vampire to burn this card

World of Darkness reference: vampires indulging themselves, or refusing to do so, is a major theme in the world of darkness (there is even an entire clan based around that). Here, the card represent the effort of a Methuselah to encourage vampires to indulge themselves instead of plotting, either via vampiric power or mundane manipulations.

The "must hunt" part of the card is a bit iffy ; the idea is that the affected vampires want to feel comfortable first and obey order only after. It's represented here by a "must hunt" action here, where the hunt can be as much abusing their influence as actual hunt.

It could have the same effect as a "sow paranoia" effect, with titled vampires trying to fortify themselves out of fear.

How does this card address a compelling game need?

Some deck can have multiples Inner circle with relative ease by using Minion tap and/or Villein. There is already Fear of Mekhet, but it only struck Camarilla, and while burning is an heavy blow, it may be too much compared to what you want (for example, you may want your predator to still be able to block your grandpredator), and it can backfire at you.

Ankha proposed a card that moved pool back to the vampire, to counteract Villein and Minion tap, but they were structural problem : it was a vote, it acted only against one vampire, and in the end, it hitted every deck with at least one titled vampire the same.

My first draft were making methuselah put (one or two) blood back on each titled vampires each turn, but the text was way too long to fit on a card. So, the indirect way is to make them hunt for several turn and/or force to not get blood of them. Its presence also make Voter Captivation a lot less useful, since your vampire will already be pretty much full anyhow.

Why titled vampires ? for thematic reason (that kind of indulgence seem more likely in people who have political power than loner), and because +2 bleed vampires are all titled. Also, it's likely you still have useable untitled minion, so you can still do stuff.

Why two time their votes ? Flat 4 blood were too much for bishop and primogen. Here, it scale with the importance of the title, and hit Inner Circle especially hard ; fitting in that they have the most potential for abuse in lore.

The card have the significant disadvantage of the card making blood denial significantly more efficient, which is unintended.

An alternative to hit the same goal would be to prevent thoses vampire to giving blood to their owner (they refuse to help their master), or to prevent them to gain more than one or two blood per turn (they burn the rest to indulge themselves), but cardtexts with that seem annoyingly long.

First, I see your unintended "disadvantage" favoring blood denial a feature, not a bug.

Second, I like the thematic idea in spirit. Though the name could be tightened up. Perhaps "The Pettiness of Power" or just "Indulgence".

Third, how does this read against multiact? Is the 'must hunt' permanent against all actions, not just the first one?

Fourth, any fears on lock down with Gehenna events like Restricted Vitae? What prevents spamming this, especially if you don't run titles? Maybe add a cost?

Fifth, I know the intent was to not favor Voter Cap, but it's still one of the fastest ways to fill up and circumvent this card.

An interesting first draft. Let's see more.

x3 at least in all combat decks. Now you don't even have to torporize someone and hope he does not get rescued to lock him down: just lower his blood and watch him hunt for the next 2 or 3 turns, then rush again.

Not only does it help against blood denial, it also prevents players from playing their cards. Once you are hit, you can do nothing else but hunting. Want to Deflect? One more hunting turn for you. Freak Drive? Cycle it, then hunt again. That is not anti-villein, that is anti-play. How do you keep Stanislava above 8 blood when all her cards cost at least 1?

I don't know how to fix it, but right now it looks badly broken. Some ideas:
- make the threshold Votes rather than 2x Votes,
- make affected vampires hunt for a lot more than 1,
- make it much easier to burn,
- increase the cost.

Yeah, I don't like this either.

First off, I agree with everything Boris the Blade said. It's a real game breaker. Any titled minion can't act if they're not at full capacity? Please, that makes Inner Circles unplayable. It's butt-easy to cycle as well, with no restrictions.

Easy fix options:

1) Titled vampires at half capacity must hunt?
2) Titled vampires at 3 or less blood (or, X blood, for that matter) must hunt?
3) Any titled vampire can burn 3 blood as a master phase action to burn this card?
4) Costs 2 pool?

The other thing that bugs me is that it's another super effective MASTER card. See the bolded word. I should've underlined it as well. There has been loads of discussion about masters dominating the game as is, so I really would see this as an action instead.

It's a cool idea, though. Let's see...

Petty indulgences

cost: 1
+1 Stealth Action
Unique. Put this card in play. Titled vampires must hunt if they have 3 blood or less. Any titled vampire may burn 4 blood as a master [discard?] phase action to burn this card.

It's still pretty effective, I'd say... Helps combat survivability against titled decks.



Krauedit\\ Oh, dear, I misread the original card. Anyways, it's a bit tricky to understand from the card text. Maybe just streamline it? I tried to do just that.

There's also a reason for me wanting to see more actions rather than masters in the game - it promotes playing with minions instead of multiple master phases and Anthelios, and emphasizes on the key feature of the game: blocking, stealth and intercept, as well as number of actions per minions. It's just a bit more fun that way, and more intersting. It also suggests that the minion playing the action (probably needs a vampire, though?) promotes these petty quarrels or whatever. It's vampires affecting their political circles again!

A lot of other interesting thing have been said, but I must go to sleep, so I respond to the bit which is quick to comment

Kraus wrote:

There's also a reason for me wanting to see more actions rather than masters in the game - it promotes playing with minions instead of multiple master phases and Anthelios, and emphasizes on the key feature of the game: blocking, stealth and intercept, as well as number of actions per minions.

Well, that's why the card make people hunt, since thoses are action that you can interfere with, and the card also don't block reactions, even if you need a wake.

The master part is here because I don't see a vampire alone sowing this on every vampires at once, and the text for making it target only part of the table was tricky as hell to write.

Adding a significant cost for the one who play it seem necessary, both so that playing it is expensive and to make the burn option worthwhile. The text is already near maximum size though. I'd try to think about it.

So if I have a weenie prince (2-3) he must hunt every turn even at full capacity...

Why not use something like this:

Whatever

Event

Vampires cannot gain any blood during the minion phases by any other effect than hunting or stealing blood. Any blood gained will go to the blood bank instead.


Of course you can still use voters for the 2 pool, but you won't be able to fill the vampire. Tastes, Dmitra and Heidelberg will be affected...