Surprise FC-call

Hi!

I'm in a bleedin' hurry, and buried in work, and it's night time and I still haven't finished this one presentation. Anyways, I'll just leave this hanging and get back to it as soon as I can:

Guys discussed at the European Championships where the next Finnish Nationals should be held. And guess twice if I did or didn't get an email today advicing to start looking for a place for 40-50 players for next Spring.

A hint: the answer's closer to the former.

Feel free to imagine dozens of different jumping and hooraying smilies here.

-Petrus

Lernean is a bitch

Hi!

A couple of months back we bought a couple of booster boxes of 3rd Edition for me and my mates to share. I pulled a set of Lernean among other things, and fell in love with... him?

Let's have a wee look at... erm, Lernean.

There are plenty of different kinds of decks one could plan for... our star this week. Celerity is pretty easy as there are some Tremere packing celerity in groups three and four. Fortitude goes very well with some Sabbat Tremere, but protean was my way to go.

I mean, how could you not notice how well Lernean and Eric Kressida go together?

You can almost see them walking hand in hand in the dark, empty corridors of the local university at nightfall, moonlight filtered to the walls and bloodred carpet through satin curtains. Every night, when no one is there to see, the two MEN unite, and let themselves loose together into the dream they share every long, long, passing day.

But, eventually, my most fabulous homo-erotic Tremere fantasy was ruined when I just had to make sure if Lernean actually was a he instead of a she. We had had debates of this matter in Joensuu before, and the opinions were divided rather evenly. My most helpful collegues at VEKN were ready with an answer when I needed it the most:

"FYI: Lernean is a woman. Several years ago (back in 2007) I actually asked Jeff Holt (the artist for Lernean) that question. Just dug up that e-mail, his response was:

'Lernean is a type rarely seen in fantasy art... an unattractive woman. Harsh featured and scowling. She holds a large, glowing gemstone which she is polishing. I suspect that the smooth gem may actually be solidified blood but I don't think that was specified in the notes.'

One of the mysteries of the VTES world is now solved!"
-echiang, VEKN, 20/10/2011

So damn you, Jeff Holt, for now I have to disassemble my protean+thaumaturgy deck. What's the fun in playing Tremere if you can't make gay jokes of them while waiting for your turn?

Anyways, thank you very much, echiang, for making this clear! Seldom do we encounter such dedication that someone would actually have thought of asking an artist about these kinds of things. It was hilarious to see the right answer literally handed to us on a topic where I was absolutely sure to find only opinions and humorous debate.

So, once again, I thank you all for your input!

Cheers

-Petrus

Divided Interests and Serious Newcomers

God, has it been a while?

The obvious answer: Yes. Yes it has.



I think I wrote a wee paragraph about my fears of this blog, and writing in general for that matter, getting lost in the lack of time, interest, my fears of failure or something similar. The former has gotten me this time. The latter is not that far off either, but that's a cronic dilemma I am going to face every now and then - and most likely until the end of time.

I titled this post with two different topics. The first one, "Divided Interests", has to do with my lack of time. The lack of time presently is caused by the Conservatorium. Actually, I think I should add that to my list of education I'm working with at the moment.

At the start of September I realized there was something amiss with my life. Or something like that. I couldn't exactly tell if something was missing, I was doing something wrong, or if I just needed to pursue something of my own; possibly I needed to justify the existance of my flute in the corner. I had been thinking of starting playing seriously again for the whole Summer, but it didn't occur to me before the last minute that I really, really needed to do something quick, or else I'd never be able to pick up music again for real.

So, a quick poll in Facebook resulted in my friends pretty much carrying me (mentally) to the last minute audition to get in to the Pop/Jazz department, and it seems the school was happy enough to take a flautist in. I knew it then, and I sure as hell know it well enough now, that it had nothing to do with my skills, but more with the fact that there hasn't been anyone playing anything else than guitar, bass, piano or drums in the Pop/Jazz department for years. Singers excluded, obviously. There're plenty of them.

Anyways, with me struggling with university, desperately trying to find courage to start my BA thesis, and banging my head against a musical wall with my (godamned...) flute, I was near just letting this blog go, and admitting a failure.

But sheesh, if I gave up on my hobbies, how easy would it be to take a next step and give up on my studies when it didn't go as planned with the first attempt?

Pretty easy, especially if I know myself well enough.


So, failures aside, let's move on to the topic you're actually interested in: VtES. We'll also discuss the second part of the title: Serious Newcomers.


I have been craving to get a word out some way. Let's just spill it out: the Autumn has been an utter, major success. There has been a lot of talk in, for example, VEKN about the game dying and only the most faithful of gamers continuing playing. The cards might've been forgotten in the backs of stores, gathering dust and eventually forgotten. We should ask our local distributer, Fantasiapelit, what's the situation now.

As far as I know, 10th anniversary boxes and Blood Shadowed Court vampire packs have been now sold out in Finland. There are no more !Nosferatu starer decks from Black Hand set in the stores. In addition to this, I know very well where they've all gone: to our new embraces here in Joensuu.

I could count roughly 10 new players who've started playing in here since last June. Half of them were friends or friends of friends who I recruited personally, and the rest are friends of those friends. I'm not entirely sure how large a stock of vampire cards Fantasiapelit has, but if the rate with which our embraces have been buying cards keeps up, I'm not sure how long the cards will last.

The boom hit some people a bit more seriously than others, though, and I am still very surprised by how much money some people put into the game. A fellow I've known for a long time, but who got really into the game just recently, spent roughly 100 euro to buy a tournament winning deck from eBay, just to try it out. The deck included cards like Dragonbound and Parity Shift, as well as plenty of Eyes of Argus. This other guy, whose understanding of card values has been largely affected by years of Magic the Gathering, started the game off by ordering cards from eBay to build a Ventrue voter. The value of the stack of cards sum up at 150 euro.

Cards like Monastery of Shadows sold at 40 euro, people ordering six copies of Black Metamorphosis from eBay -- just double check the value of these cards from eBay!

My tone of writing should not be misunderstood, however. I am more than glad that people have taken the hobby seriously. I just hope that these relatively few individuals will not scare off our other newcomers, who have not invested serious amounts of money into the game from the start. In my opinion a random stack of 3rd ed or Jyhad commons to boost two or three well picked starter decks will be enough for almost any player. Others, however, see things differently, and obviously have the money and commitment to invest in more powerful stuff.

As the prince of the city the obvious success has been the recruitment of many new faces, who in part have given a lot to the community by recruiting friends of their own. We also held a successful tournament with a whacking 14 player attendance. This is more than Helsinki had for their latest casual tournament. Now, the next challenge will be keeping the less active players in the circles, and making their life a bit easier. At the moment our older, more experienced players are more than happy to welcome new challenge and serious decks for a change, but to keep the city from dividing into two (or, in the worst case scenario, one group plus dozens of people who just tried it out), I'm afraid it once again falls on my shoulders to make sure gaming is interesting even for the less active parties. It is easy to get left behind, and lose interst in the game if you are beaten to a pulp or ousted in ten minutes every single time.

The atmosphere of arms race is what worries me the most, however. I was always a fan of playing with what I got, and trying to get by. It forces you to interact, and to learn the game better. Sometimes I wish I could just start anew, with two starters or something, and relearn the game. The first years were so much fun.

There is also the fact that people have started to evaluate cards by their eBay values and rarity, not exactly by how useful the card is to them in person. This creates situations where cards are being withheld just because they are valuable in the internet, even if the owner would not exactly need them for any of their decks.

The reasons for these two phenomena are clear, and not to be shunned, banned or critizised. Personally, however, I am not too happy about the turn of events and atmosphere. I am one of those people who try to get by with a bit less, rather than a bit more, and I cannot say I feel exactly at home in the current environment.

Anyways, things are definitely better than they have been in some time. I actually got to write a post. Secondly, we have plenty of new players. Thirdly, we have some serious competition in our town again. Lastly, we are now discussing if the next Finnish Championships should be hosted by us instead of the South of Finland!

And, seriously, how cool would that be?

Thanks for reading, and 'till next time! A lot is happening in here, and I just wish I could write some about everything. There is a lot to say about our decks, how the beginner decks have started to evolve, about player interaction, codes of behaviour and how to deal with people in the same group you just don't agree with all the time.

Probably next time something about jazz? I'm reading this book with these chord progressions, and --



Okay, okay, sorry. Until next time!

-Petrus

Wishlists or plausible card additions?

Just now I noticed yet another suggestion for a new card to deal with some other threat in VEKN. This time it was a political action to deal with allies. Let's see what we were suggested:

Name: Trust no One
Cardtype: Political Action
Successful referendum means each Methuselah burns 2 pool for each ally he or she controls.

It is like a mix of Kindred Segregation (each ally is burned unless their owner repays their pool costs) and Anarchist Uprising (each metuselah burns a pool for each minion they control), out of which Anarchist Uprising already hurts ally decks loads. In a conventional ally deck you would most likely see one or two support allies (like Vagabond Mystic or Mylan Horseed) and from two to five main allies to do combat or bleed, supporting about three vampires. That's around six minions already, and at least later in the game suddenly losing six pool to a vote hurts. Rather a lot. In fact I lost a face-off this year in Ropecon to Ventrue princes with my Baron's Zombie Sickness, mainly because of that card. I could have taken a Parity Shift, but Anarchist Uprising (nine pool damage if I remember correctly) was a tad too much.

The most feared allies around seem to be Ossian, War Ghouls, Nephandi and Shambling Hordes. All of them for a reason, to be sure, but when we take a look at how Kindred Segregation deals with them we should see that there is really little need for a new anti-ally vote. A Nephandus deck aims to bring out three or four nephandi in addition to the vampires. If you want to keep them after Kindred Segregation you'll have to pay up six or eight pool. Once again quite a handful. The same goes for War Ghouls and their hefty cost of four pool. Kindred Segregation will not deal as much pool damage as Trust No One potentially would, but it does offer others the choice of burning their allies, or paying for them. This adds to the verstaility of VtES, which in my opinion is one of its credits. You won't just instantly and surprisingly kill off people, like you probably would in Magic the Gathering. Instead in Vampire you should be given options, and often plenty of them, of which the best (or the least horrible) one should be chosen.

It is true that Kindred Segregation will not affect Shambling Hordes or Reanimated Corpses, or other blood cost based allies, but then again Anarchist Uprising does - that is, IF we really need to turn to votes for anti ally techs. The obvious deals put aside, in which Entrancement, Far Mastery and Restructure are prime examples, how should we then learn to deal with combat allies? Arguably Nephandi can be included here.

Combat is obviously a choice, but it is hardly used in tournament decks these days. If allies feel problematic, however, most disciplines should have something to deal with them that could be used against vampires as well. Celerity and guns work wonders, obviously. Guns without Celerity should be alright as defence also. Guns cost pool to be fair, and against stealth and bleed, stealth and vote, or stealth and whatever the tournament decks throw at you just plain gun combat will not do you much good. Guns should be easy to discard, though. Viscissitude has Horrid Forms, Potence should be rather clear, Thaumaturgy has plenty of techs in combat, as does Animalism, and many disciplines have Strike: Combat Ends. Those should be included in most tournament decks anyways, at least in small amounts.

The main argument against this will most likely be that tournaments do not favour combat techs these days. If an odd ally deck happens to put decent pressure on an average tournament deck tells something about the tournament scene as is, and that hardly warrants for extra techs to deal with them - especially outside combat, if there is already a decent tech to deal with them! Allies are very fragile, even those Neppers, and once they're dead, they're dead. Even if I saw an ally deck actually winning a major tournament I would cheer more to something new than an old and dusty Kiasyd. Asking for extra defense (or, as in this case, offense) against allies is hardly warranted, and easily is interpreted as a wishlist - against something that really is not much of a threat in the first place, to be sure!

There are already votes to deal with allies. Even if votes are not your cup of tea, try beating them to ground for once. It's not like they're going to come back. A combat card or two should not wreck your bleed deck's synergy that bad. And, if you ask me, if it does, then you're just asking for it. Going a wee bit toolboxy will not hurt anyone, at least in the grander scheme of the game.

As for ideas for new cards: really think through if the game really lacks something. It is far easier to invent clan spesific cards, or vampires and balance them.

Embrace of a Blog

First steps are always first steps. I was always horrible with steps to begin with, let alone first ones.

The horrible thing about steps is that the first ones usually aren't even the worst ones. If I had problems with those, I sure as hell suck horribly with later steps. It's okay when you learn to walk, but after the treshold after which you actually need to work with something further after the first few stumbling efforts - that's where the problems start.

The same was with this blog. I created the account in June, I believe. It is a good half way through August now that I actually get to try out what an actual post looks like.

So here it is. Blogger seems like an easy tool to do stuff (like blogs), but there are still loads of tools and attributes to tinker with it will most likely take plenty of time before I learn which of those I need or want to use.

Anyways, we came here for a reason, and that is VtES; or Vampire the Eternal Struggle, the one game that has struggled with survival plenty of times, and for a good while this time. I hope some issues (which I hope to address in this blog too) would be easier to solve through communal efforts, and that my musings would in turn contribute to that community. First I have a community of my own to address, however, and that is the gaming group (or the remains of which) of my home town.

Then again, measures in the favor of survival have already been taken - and, to be honest, successful ones.