Setting: Rural America (North, Central and South)

This stems from the discussion about bows in v:tes on these forums.

If you are to consider a setting in which you would find bows more frequently, or a setting in which bows might prove advantageous for a vampire to obtain, then take a look at rural America.

In Canada and the United States and Mexico, there are large areas of land between cities, the prominent setting of Vampire stories.

Into Central and South America, you begin to find jungles/rain forests. It's like Africa without the Laibon. Perfect for autarkis, Red List and other loners of vampire society (not to mention Nazi war criminals.)

If you were to build a set of cards based on these settings, and focus on the rural aspects rather than the cities here is what you might find:

Vampires:
Gangrel
Sabbat Ravnos
Anarch vampires
Independent vampires from every clan
some "Country" Gangrel
Red List vampires in hiding
Some Camarilla vampire bounty hunter types
did I mention Gangrel?

Weapons:
As I mentioned this stems from the discussion on bows. Ideally, In a large set you would be able to introduce a suite of different bows and other cards that work with them. I won't go into detail here.

Flavorful Master cards:

"Life in the Country"
Master. Trifle.
Burn any copies of this card in play and give a ready vampire two blood from the blood bank.
Put this card in play. Hunting Grounds and Life in the City/Country costs an additional pool to play.

"Wal*Mart" "Store*Mart
Master. Hunting Ground. Unique Location.
2
During your untap phase, a vampire you control gains a blood from the blood bank. A vampire you may control may burn this card as a +1 stealth action to equip with the first equipment in your library costing 2 or less pool.

"Bubba's Hunting Shack"
Master. Unique Location.
2
During your master phase, you may move a bow from your hand to this card. Any minion may equip with the bow as an action (+1 stealth if you control the minion.) If a minion controlled by another Methuselah equips with a bow on this card, you receive half of the pool, round up.

Some interesting allies/retainers/equipment:

"Mokole Outcast (werewolf)"

2

Unique.
2 Strength, 3 life, 0 bleed.
Makole Outcast cannot attempt actions. He has +1 intercept against actions directed at you or something you control. Makole may play "grapple" cards from your hand as if he has the required discipline(s) at basic. During your untap phase, if Mokole has less than starting life, he gains a life.

(Mokole are were-lizard/alligator/crocodile/dinosaurs, according to WW lore, are not prominent in South America, but it is the type of locale you might find one! The reason to indicate it's a "werewolf" is that game mechanics dictate he should be treated as a werewolf for all intents and purposes. You could include that in card text, but it's simpler to include in the title of the card.)

"Big Rig"

2
Vehicle. Haven.
Actions targeting this vampire cost an additional pool. This vampire may burn this card to take an action to burn a location controlled by another Methuselah. If this action is blocked, the opposing minion takes 3 damage before combat. (beep beeeeeeep! *crash!*)

"Billie-Jo (hunter... of animals)

Unique. Mortal with 1 life.
When her employer is in combat, you may tap Billie-Jo to deal 2 damage to an animal in combat, or cancel an "Aid from Bats" or "Canine Horde" or "Carrion Crows" as it is played. (That would be so much easier to implement if those cards had the keyword "animal" as well... there are probably more cards that utilize animals for their effect, but those stick out to me as the most common.)

Some other ideas that are thematic:

"Hermit"
Master. Archtype.
Put this on a vampire you control that does not have any votes. This vampire is independent. Vampires with titles worth 2 or less votes have -1 intercept against this vampire. At the end of your turn this vampire gains a blood if he or she is ready and did not take any actions. Burn this card if he or she joins a sect or is blocked by a titles vampire.

Dammit, I am out of ideas at the moment. Normally at this point, I would cut and paste this into a text file and never look at it again. This time I will post it and see if anyone else has something to add!

Have fun with it. It's supposed to be an excersize of the imagination.

I believe that such scenario is somewhat out of flavor in WoD, as absolute majority of vampires would be slain at sight (plus easy to find by smell) by Werewolves and such.

Its rough in the sub equitorial regions in the world of darknesz if your a vamp.

Also, a staked Karsh is in the ocean somewhere off the coast of south america.

Onto cards, i work for Walmart, and its incredibly unlikely that corporate would give the ok for them to bexused in likeness for a game, or anything less than a major motion picture spinning them as the greatest retailer in the world, for that matter. Try something more generic.

But my BIGGEST beef is the mokole.

They are rare, and they were created to be gaeas memory.

They also wouldnt be coluntarily in league with minions so close to the wyrms corruption as a sabbat vampire, if theyd ally with vamps at all.

No, Gangrel are the only clan likely to ally with mokole, and they are rare, so it should be unique. And they arexold as shit, and wise, so you should get +1 hand size. They are a werewolf, but maybe something like:

Mokole Hermit
Cost 4 pool
Requires gangrel
Unique werewolf ally with 4 life, 2 strength, and 1 bleed.
Mokole hermit may prevent one non-aggravated damage each round of combat. If he has less than 4 life during your untap phase, he gains a life. +1 handsize.

You get the idea...

I like the idea of themed blocjs if cards, and while some of the cards i may have issue with, you had me @ Gangrel and Ravnos antitribbu. (Although, if gangrel arexindependant, then ravnos should be rare and !tremere shouldnt get printed anymore...)

kombainas wrote:

I believe that such scenario is somewhat out of flavor in WoD, as absolute majority of vampires would be slain at sight (plus easy to find by smell) by Werewolves and such.

Werewolves ain't that numerous, even in "wild" area. They are a dying race with other thing to care than vampires.

The card themselves does not give me a south america vibe. Wal mart, for example, is much more an USA thing than a south america thing. And as say ReverendRevolver, Mokole are not that kind of garou at all, and are a lot more african than south american.

To address the above comments:

Mokole, yes are rare, that card should be unique. True they are generally found in Africa, but where would a Mokole GO to get away from his own kind? Probably South America.

I wasn't going for a strictly S. American vibe, I was also considering rural USA and Canada. If you know more about South America than I, post some ideas!

And Reverend, I do not presume to think that WalMart would allow it's image to be used on a card. I *should* have made it a satire to begin with, but I didn't have the wits at the time. I consider it a no-brainer that we couldn't actually print a card that says "Wal*Mart" and I often make the mistake that others take me too literally.

@Kombainas, the reason vampires live in cities is for the FOOD. Also the politics. ALSO, you will note in vampire literature and movies, Vampires can be very nomadic. If Werewolves sniffed out and killed even a small percent of vampires travelling from one city to another, vampires would make a greater effort to wipe them out of existence.

Also, vaguely related to your idea, ive been considering a Texas powerbase( probably Dallas, maybe Houston) that uses the de- motivational poster pick of a vendimg machine filled with colt 1911 style handguns and says" meanwhile, in texas..." that gives votes based upon the number of guns on your ready minions.
At least amusing, so just a thought.

Also, if you perfect a Mokole, id like to see it. It is Gaeas memory, its durable as hell, and its probably uniquexif it doesnt cost 6 or more pool.
Central and south America have been host to Baali, Setite, Samedi,Gangrel, and Cam/ Sabbat conflicts, so theres lots to work with. The obvious connections with the us and canada gangrel/ wolf element is easy too, as is the Menele/ Helena stuff from old chicago, and the Harbinger of Skulls that Isabel Giovanni encounters in the clan novels.

Just adding ideas.