Poll: whats the most exciting prospect for the new set?

I would love to see a little more flavour in the bloodlines. Playing them should feel different than a standard clan, playing against them more so. Take the Harbingers: they're an ancient, unknowable force, an implacable group of elders who play the long game of revenge served ice-cold. Sitting down as their predator, with a bunch of neonates swaggering around with their leather jackets and guns, I should feel a creeping sense of dread as the Harbingers appear. They see me as a gnat, if they see me at all. They will ignore me, treat me as less than a thing, an annoyance to be tolerated until the right moment. As the Harbingers' prey, I should feel fear. Fear that my plans will come to nothing, that these ancient creatures will grind me down, turn my schemes to dust, step past my defences like they were paper-thin.

I would actually love to see more milling effects, as there is something uniquely Harbinger-ish about it. Losing cards from your deck, along with 'remove from game' effects like Trochomancy, symbolise to me a gradual grinding down of the Harbingers' foes. Building in benefits or even Brinksmanship-like victory conditions from such effects make the Harbingers a unique enemy - bleeding is beneath them, and pool is a distraction; they're playing a different game, one that others have to adapt to or perish trying. Nothing but the utter destruction of an enemy's plans is good enough, after all they've suffered.

Salubri antitribu, to take a personal favourite of mine, should add a dose of fury to the game. As a !Salubri player, I should defeat my fellow players by bringing myself to the very brink of exhaustion, throwing everything I can at my opponents, only to be renewed again and again, motivated by my bloodlust and thirst for victory. My vampires should be bathed in the blood and ashes of their fallen enemies, barely standing from horrible wounds that have been inflicted yet still ready to fight. My prey should see my vampires coming and know, in his or her heart, that his vampires are doomed - they will be sent to torpor at the first available opportunity, or worse. My predator will jab at me, hoping to take me when I am weak, always fearing that my baleful gaze will turn, and seek a new enemy. Card effects should gleefully ignore the best that combat decks have to throw; I'll be stabbed, only to crawl up to shaft of a spear just to take another swing at my foes. I'll be crushed into the dust with Potence, only to painfully re-set my own limbs, spit out my loose fangs and attack again. Card effects will create benefits - pool damage, prevented blood loss, extra actions, access to Trophies - for injuring minions, but victory is contingent on pressing forward and hitting everything that fare stands in my path. Playing !Salubri, and playing against them, should be all guts and glory - exhilarating and terrifying, all at the same time.

Samedi are pretty good at the moment, but need some honing. The prey of a Samedi will be defeated by a horde of clammy, grasping bodies - the death of such a Methuselah will seem claustrophobic, inevitable, horrible to witness. The Samedi player will grin wickedly, and without humour, as a vampire enters torpor. Fallen enemies are stolen away, taken and recycled into some dread ritual. Weaker minions are picked off, fingers and hands severed, eyes plucked out, blood drained, all to be used as ingredients in mysterious rites. The Samedi is usually hands-off, striking indirectly or from a distance, using an enemy's worst nightmares to come shambling out of the night, stinking and suffocating. When the Samedi itself comes knocking, death should be close behind.

To be a predator of a Samedi should be confounding - they'll appear defenceless at first, but you'll waltz into an empty lair. They saw you coming, and have laid a trap for you. Weaker foes will come out delirious, maddened by the stench of rot, never wanting to return.

So that's who I'm excited about - and that's why. Vampire can be at its best when the effects form a narrative, where the complexities of the systems coincide in such a way that it moves beyond tactics and into something else. Give me cards that generate real emotion in payers and I'll play this game forever.

Cheers
Disco Stu

Samedi is what I am most looking forward to as thats actually a bloodline I have played quite a bit, and I had a pretty nice deck for them running, until the banning of Lilith's Blessing majorly nerfed it. But that aside, Samedi really need two things, pool defense in some form, and more impactful actions to take, Reanimated Corpse is a good start, but unless people want them to only be a horde of bleeding allies, some more options would be nice. With Fortitude and Obfuscate both in-clan, they excel at doing lots of succesful actions, but they don't really have all that much to do. Combat wise, all they would need is a decent answer to s:ce, Groaning Corpse + Dust to Dust, with fortitude support can deal with anything else really.