Alternative rules for 2 player games?

I'm sure a number of us have experienced the following: showing up for a V:TES play session and only one other person shows up. Let's face it...this is a wonderful game but two-player games just simply aren't that interesting or rewarding.

What I'm wondering is, could it be possible to come up with a good, well thought out, heavily playtested series of rules designed to make two player games more interesting, fun, and balanced?

I think something like this might help to spread the game more, might even help to get the game picked up again if the community could come to agreement about something like this. "real" multiplayer V:TES should be left as is, IMO, but something like this could present a great compliment to it, and if successful could even be a viable tournament format able to supplement what we already have with multiplayer. Would also present a lower barrier to entry in some ways. Any thoughts? I don't see why it couldn't be viable. How could it be done? What changes would have to be made?

i've played nothing but two-player games for almost five years.
the bad thing is you lack most of the multiplayer interaction, the good thing is deflection and the other bounce cards for once don't overshadow all the other cards in the game.

that said, some quick proposals:
1/ ban tupdogs, una, mind numb, sensory dep, pentex subv. they destroy the rich gaming experience vtes can be even in a two-player. they totally lockdown a player and in a two-player that's even less fun.

the biggest other problem is weenie (like weenie-DEM). you either die to scourge of the enochians/gran madre or you win (unless you're very unlucky or meet keller thiel or something like atonement on volker the puppet prince with a sniper rifle). not enough in between imo, unless you also play a weenie (with some guns).

combat is a lot better than in multiplayers, obviously. voting too. a whole lot better actually.

to prevent methuselahs from getting stuck completely, you could make the leave torpor action 1 blood cheaper for your own vampires (not as a action).
bringing a prince in play, could make you burn 2 pool upon entering the ready region. they're really that good imo (especially the ones below 9 cap).

all in all, for new players, two players aren't so bad since combat is a very understandable part of the game that could easily attract new players even if it does detract for the true strenghts (and depth) of the game. but after all, which methuselah isn't eager for blood?

Some untested ideas:

1) Remove the Edge. In a two-player game, you don't want to favor the player who is already ahead.

2) Rethink combat. The game should not be over just because one of the players has no ready minions left, but combat should still be worthy by taking blood and actions away from the opponent. Maybe making vampires in torpor untargetable by the opponent (thus banning diablerie) and decreasing the cost to leave torpor would do.

3) Generally, we need some mechanism that allows to recover from a bad start. Because your pool is both your life and your resources, if you get bled early then you are left with a minion disadvantage and you will never catch back. Maybe start the game with some capacity total of vampires already in play?

Combat - and other minion removal mechanism - are partly balanced by the fact that it is either defensive or offensive : until late game, your predator and prey aren't the same, so you attack either one or the other. In 2-player, it is much more powerful.

Regardless of card banning and stuff, you will have a lot of problem because of this. In this regard, I believe advicing the removal of Una, Tupdog, and such rather meaningless, since even humble 3-cap with potence and endurance will cause trouble.


What may be done is giving each player some kind of virtual prey (one for each player), so the game is a bit of a race between the two player to oust its victim first. Of course, player can interact between themselves to slow the other one.

(and of course, it's a rough idea more than a precise how to)

LunaSlave wrote:

What I'm wondering is, could it be possible to come up with a good, well thought out, heavily playtested series of rules designed to make two player games more interesting, fun, and balanced?

I'm partial to Derek's and Legbiter's versions linked below. I've played both.

Three players, with the support of the former game designer:
Rapid Thought
RT with additions by Mergen & Pascal

Two players:
Derek Ray
Mike Perlman
David Wilson
Legbiter
Jeff Kuta

See also:
Lasombra'a Variants Collection