You can discover if there is a play group already established in your area in number of ways. The first is by checking out the list of Princes – these are VEKN volunteers who serve as local tournament organizers. Check to see if one lives near you, and feel free to email them – they should be able to provide you information about whether a local group exists and how to get in contact with them. Your next resource is the VTES Player Map, which shows the location of all players who have registered on it. While this is a great resource, many active players haven’t signed up for it, so don’t worry too much if there don’t seem to be any players in your area. You can also post on the City, State, Country & Region section of the forums. It’s a great way to connect with nearby players and to see if there is a local VTES game night in your area. And finally, you should check out the event calendar, and the tournament map – both will show you when and where upcoming tournaments are being held around the world!
If you find that you don’t have a regular play group (or you just need more VTES in your life), you can also play online. There are two main platforms used for online play. Jyhad On-Line (JOL) is a web-based service that is similar to a play-by-post system where players do not have to all be online at the same time, but games take weeks to finish. There is a JOL League that you can sign up to participate in. If you want to learn how to use JOL, you can read this guide here [guide forthcoming].
The other platform used for playing VTES online is LackeyCCG, a program that you need to download and patch for VTES (instructions can be found here). It more closely mimics a normal game where all players are online and play simultaneously. There is an active community on facebook that organizes games. If you want to learn how to play on LackeyCCG, you can either watch this video produced by the Gentleman Gamer, or you can check out this guide [guide forthcoming].
If you need help deciding which platform is best for you, there is a great article about the advantages and disadvantages of JOL and LackeyCCG on VTES Consumed.