The future of V:TES

wesile wrote:

Magic - 4 Land types...
The problem here is math combinations, and VTES will never be MtG.

Yea, it's the problem.

But it's quite solvable - we need smth like “clan boosters” which contains only vamps from this clan + clan discipline cards + some generic cards Or “politics/combat/bleed/steals” or other method to narrow card spread in boosters.

For new players what we really need – several playable “as is” starters. By now it’s really hard to start playing without contacts with established playgroup.

wesile wrote:

Magic - 4 Land types...
VTES - 35 disciplines (including the imbued stuff) plus 2 sort of disciplines...

So, when you open a booster from MtG you will get cards that you actually can use... you have a great chance of getting something from each land type... when you open a booster from vtes is quite more complicated... you might get cards that the vampires in the pack can use or not...

On that note, why not offer boosters for particular clans or disciplines? Logistically it may provide some headaches — but this topic's well into blue sky territory any how.

It all really does depends on the capabilities of print of demand — what's feasible and what's not.

IMHO we should start to create draft effects for the older cards...

Swamp, Plains, Forest and Mountains... as far as I remember....

Sorry... 5 land types... islands...

Black, red, blue, white and green...

No we all bought KoT (I have an entire box of KoT starters still unopened to give away to prospective new players in fact). The two guys who sold their collections - both the guys who sold their collections came onbaord during CE (back then I was the Prince of Dallas and demoing all the cons with CE starters).

One guy in particular has the largest VTES collection I've ever seen (I have ~35K cards - all sets and his stock drawfs mine - I don't know how many cards he actually has). He just simply doesn't want to put any more money into a dead hobby. There is no set he doesn't have.

Same goes for me; no expansion was ever printed that I didn't buy at least 2 boxes of boosters and a box of starters (but much much more in some sets). I mean how many blood dolls should people be expected to pay for?

Retail distribution involves large production costs. We could all go on a length about some of the distrubtion frustrations that brought about but at the end of the day we could at least understand to a point. The cards had to be printed in fairly large numbers.

Print on Demand should be just that; on demand. If nothing gets printed until it's ordered, why force veterans to pay for cards they don't want (i.e. not in demand)?

But what I'm asking for, what a lot of people are asking for; is to make cards readily available for new players. We actively recruit players where i live, we have to. People move away, people quit, whatever.

We have 3 guys right now that are deck borrowers and a couple more the we think would play if they could acquire cards CHEAPLY. Not everybody is a speculative collector. At the core is a great game, people play it, hopefully for enjoyment...

If these new guys could get playable decks, cards they actually want to play, then there's money to be made. But trying to fire up a retail style distrubiton through a POD model, I just don't see how that benefits new or old players.

Maybe just the kids that joined in the last two sets and want old cards or something. We had 2 guys that joined right before KoT, one sold everything when the game went out of print and the other stopped showing up for games. I think he was frustrated (like a lot of players posting here) that he didn't have access to certain stuff.

How much should he have to spend, how many unwanted cards should he be forced to buy, to get the handful of cards he would actually use? Is it about keeping players like this? Or is it about keeping card prices inflated?