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From 1st August 2020 the following five cards will be banned in Vampire: Elder Kindred Network sanctioned Vampire: The Eternal Struggle tournaments:

AUGUST 2020 CARD BANS – FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

The VEKN recently announced five cards being banned from tournament play as of August 1, 2020. This caused some commotion in social media and elsewhere, and some clarifications are needed. Henrik Klippström, Marketing Ghoul of Black Chantry Productions, answers some frequently asked questions:

Why were the cards banned?
The five cards contain words or images that are associated with real world racist caricatures.

Why was this important to do right now?
We are currently preparing a large batch of older VTES cards for print-on-demand at Drivethrucards.com, so we needed to make this cut now. The card Terrorists was already cut from the batch published in December 2019.

Was this decision in haste?
No. These cards have been discussed for a long time, and more so since Black Chantry got the license to produce VTES in 2018. One example is the VEKN forum thread "Card name change suggestion" with posts by Black Chantry Product Director Ben Peal. The VEKN National Coordinators were informed.

Are the banned cards being replaced?
Yes, eventually. Two of them have already designed replacements – these will be handed over for playtesting in the first round of the upcoming preconstructed decks (Banu Haqim, Brujah, Gangrel and Ministry). New artwork has been commissioned.

Why didn´t you replace these cards when the bans were announced?
When we decide something is wrong we want to fix it as quickly as possible. In this case it means removing cards that detract from the game whilst taking a little longer to consider what cards we want fulfing a similar function. Card design, playtesting and production of new artwork takes time.

How will the replacement cards be distributed?
Most likely they will be promo cards handed out at tournaments and other events, but they might also eventually appear in new products and on print-on-demand.