From Trivia

Ten commandments of VTES demos

February 6th, 2010

Ten commandments of VTES demos

I think the two most frequent demo problems I see are that 1) people often try to teach from the rulebook, and 2) demo-ers get caught up in explaining the details of play for this or that card. The Rulebook is great as a collected reference, but as a such, it isn’t organized to run through the basic concepts of the game quickly (nor should it!)…

The basic principles (the Ten VTES Demo Commandments) I try to teach are (in order)

  1. Setup
  2. How to Win
  3. how to play a master card (introducing concept of pool cost)
  4. How to influence vampires
  5. how to take, and resolve, an action (first a simple bleed, later other actions; equip, rush, retainers, etc.)
  6. how to block
  7. how to resolve a simple combat (no maneuvers, strikes for hand damage)
  8. Stealth/intercept concept, which segues nicely into
  9. action modifiers and reaction concept(s).

The absolute VTES timing rules (ie. there is no ‘interrupting’ another person’s card play)

The above gives a framework that is sufficient to play a game with the demo decks, and is a foundation upon which the player can categorize more detailed card play (equip actions are just like any other action; something your minions do to generate a game effect). The first four are absurdly simple concepts, which take all of three minutes to explain. Items 5, 6 & 7 go hand in hand, and take about ten minutes. 8 & 9 are another five minutes. 10 is a one minute explanation, but is important enough to merit its own Commandment.

From there, I generally focus a little more on “why” you would do, or not do, any of the above in a given situation (ie. why you won’t generally spend yourself down to three pool). As others mentioned, I’d leave off on political actions for the first session, but then roll them in quickly.. Given more time to demo, I’d elaborate on combat phases, and show what you can do there to get various combat outcomes. If it comes up as a result of play, you can address things like political actions, contesting, etc, as needed. Let player questions be the way to raise the niche issues, rather than trying to voluntarily address them all of them yourself.

Regards,
DaveZ (former Prince of Boston and Charlotte)
Atom Weaver
atomweaver // at \\ sbcglobal.net

Things to do with the Edge

July 21st, 2009

Burn the Edge to Untap:

  • Emily Carson during your discard phase.
  • Isouda de Blaise during your discard phase.
  • Torvus Bloodbeard during any Methuselah’s minion phase.

Burning the Edge for a vote will:

  • Give Melissa Barton 1 blood.
  • Give Tyler McGill an additional vote.
  • Give you an additional vote while playing Free States Rant.
  • Give you an additional vote if you control Vincent Day.
  • Give you 2 additional votes if you control a ready Nkule Galadima.
  • Give you 2 additional votes while playing Echo of Harmonies.

Burning the Edge will:

  • Make Keith Moody burn a blood.
  • Gain you two pool if Victoria is ready during your master phase.
  • Let you see another Methuselah’s hand if Alonzo Guillen is ready on your untap or discard phases.
  • Give you an additional master phase action if Sarrasine is ready.
  • Give a Black Hand vampire an optional maneuver if you control Soldat.
  • Move Eric Kressida out of torpor during any other Methuselah’s discard phase.
  • Give Angra Mainyu +1 stealth on a non-bleed action.
  • Let Hrothulf rush a ready minion as a (D) action.
  • Cause a weenie bleed action against you to fail if you control Victorine Lafourcade.
  • Give you 1 pool during your discard phase if you control Hartmut Stover.
  • Let you discard a card at random & draw its replacement from your ash heap if you control Lady Constancia.
  • Give Lucinde 1 blood during your untap phase.
  • Move pool counters from 419 Operation back to your pool.
  • Remove all your target counters from Deploy the Hand.
  • Remove the -1 hand size penalty from a Hand Intervention.
  • Burn 3 of your prey’s pool when played with Enticement.
  • Remove all Extortion cards on you.
  • Remove the transfer penalty if you played Kings Rising on yourself.
  • Give your minion +1 bleed while playing Leverage.
  • Gain 4 additional transfers during your influence phase with Mapatano Utando.
  • Will remove a vampire’s title & burn 2 pool from his controller when played with Patsy.
  • Steal Powerbase: Zürich from another Methuselah during your master phase.
  • Burn a Tragic Love Affair on your Toreador.

If the Edge is uncontrolled:

  • Jazz Wentworth may take a +1 stealth action to get it.
  • Gain 2 pool from playing Instability.

Gain the Edge without bleeding if:

  • Sargon successfully performs any action.
  • Tereza Rostas steals it from another Methuselah as a (D) action.
  • You control a ready Cyseck and any Methuselah plays a Gehenna card.
  • You play Esteem after performing a (D) action against the Methuselah who controls the Edge.
  • Successfully pass Regaining the Upper Hand.

If a Methuselah gains/loses the Edge:

  • Sennadurek will untap if it’s not during your turn.
  • Move Curse of Nitocris to another Methuselah.
  • Put another counter on Form of Corruption when your prey gets the Edge.

If you gain pool from the Edge:

  • Give it to Heather Florent as a blood instead of putting it in your pool.
  • Tap Dreams of the Sphinx to gain an additional pool.
  • Tap Using the Advantage to gain an additional pool.

While You Control the Edge:

  • Ondine Boudicca Sinclair gets +1 stealth when bleeding.
  • Urraca gets +1 bleed.
  • Amenohobis gets +1 bleed while bleeding you.
  • Bulscu can (D) steal a location or equipment that costs 3 or less pool.
  • Gain 1 pool when any Methuselah who plays a Gehenna card if you control Marcel de Breau.
  • Gracetius may play reaction cards and attempt to block as if untapped.

If you control the Edge during your untap phase:

  • Gain 1 pool.
  • Give a Methuselah 1 pool to tap a minion of your choice if Intisar is ready.
  • Lucina gains 1 blood.
  • Look at another Methuselah’s hand and discard up to 2 Gehenna cards if you control Alicia Barrows.
  • Tap Dreams of the Sphinx to gain an additional pool.
  • Tap Using the Advantage to gain an additional pool.

Not controlling the Edge:

  • Costs Vasily an additional blood to contest his title.

The Ten Commandments of V:TES

March 21st, 2008

VTES designer LSJ recently posted the following on his Facebook page:

The Ten Commandments of VTES

  1. I am the prey to your left. You shall have no other goals before me.
  2. You shall not make for yourselves proxy cards, whether in the form of the crypt nor the library.
  3. You shall not make wrongful use of the call for a judge.
  4. Remember the Edge and keep it handy.
  5. Hinder your predator and prey, so that your nights may be long.
  6. You shall not mark cards.
  7. You shall not commit collusion.
  8. You shall not stall.
  9. You shall not limit your cards.
  10. You shall not repeat the actions of bleeding, political actions, or any card-based actions.

The Lost V:TES Guild of Warcraft

February 23rd, 2008

World of Warcraft for a time had some VTES crossover. A few players from the VTES usernet group got together and carved out a spot on the US WOW server Runetotem by forming the guild “Protect Thine Own.”

The guild met most Monday nights to play. Players created Horde characters named after their favorite vamps or cards. But slowly as time went by the guild’s activities dwindled to non-active.

I myself created a troll priest named Saulot, after the Salubri antediluvian. But I only got him up to lvl 14 before continuing on with my regular WOW duties. Eventually my WOW Salout suffered the same fate as the V:tM one.

Thankfully, some record of PTO’s existence still remains at Wacraftrealms