Getting the most out of a three player game

Hello,

I hear VTES really hits it’s sweet spot in a five player game where there are “neural” players to deal and bargain with, but is there anything that can be done from a house rules perspective which could help in a three player game? I’m struggling to get more than three players who can meet regularly, and I’d be interested if other, more experienced players have created any house rules?

Thanks in advance.

I'm not sure there's much to do about the 3 players setting. It's a bit different than 4 or 5 because you don't have natural allies at the table: the other two are always your predator and prey, so it makes it harder to make deals.

But contrarily to a duel, a 3 players is still very dynamic, all sorts of things can be negotiated and can happen, so it's not too shabby. I don't know if there's much you can improve - the core difference is the lack of an ally and the fact that you have to be the last man standing to win - in a 5 players game, you can oust your preys twice and still lose so you need to pay attention to what happens to the rest of the table. As a smaller setting, for 3 players you really just need to take the other two down, the order does not matter much.

A lower number of players means that fast swarm decks and combat decks will be that much stronger, but it's not like it will kill diversity altogether. You might have to ban some specific cards or deck from your group if you get stuck on something that wins too much and kills the fun.

Thanks a million for getting back! Really appreciate your thoughts on the subject.

Tale a step by step approach and don't immediately strive to get five players but first recruit that one additional to get fourth. Then you have a proper setup (as opposed the mere three players).

Adding the final fifth player would yield you superior table dynamics and of course be the cherry on top.