VEKN Brujah Newsletter September 2003



Introduction:



Sorry for the unexpected break in the publication of this newsletter.

Since I've taken over responsibility for the Munich playgroup my V:tES

time has been eaten away with organizing our weekly meetings and the

storyline. Anyway, here is the latest Brujah newsletter.



Fiction:



A mohawk in leather and a jeans-clad, non-descript figure leave the

Frankfurter Messe, the huge convention center overshadowed by the

mightiest skyscraper in Germany's financial capital. "What do you

think, Steve-O", asks Volker as he slips the torch into the breast

pocket of his Matrix-style coat. "Great stuff", nods Booth. "That

Mercedes SLR McLaren thing is hot as hell... Especially when compared

to this pile of shit". They approach Volker's '92 C-class with the

missing hubcaps. "If you can talk Pascek into giving me a greater

allowance", grumbles the Prince of Frankfurt and swings behind the

wheel. The huge parking lot is almost empty, the doors for the IAA,

the International Automobile Exhibition, long closed. 



A few blocks away a sleek police cruiser glides past and jumps into

the line ahead of them. Angry red letters flash "Stop the car" at the

two Brujah. Almost simultaneously they feel for their pockets, Volker

to find his license, Booth to release the safety catch of his guns.

The police cruiser comes to a halt about 25 meters in front of them.

All four doors of the Opel swing open. 



"Now wait a second! Those are no cops!" "Fuck, an ambush!" Volker puts

the pedal down and takes the limo into a sharp turn. "C'mon, c'mon,

we'll make it", mutters Booth as the tires scream and the old

Volkswagen parked on the opposite side of the road fills the

windscreen. Something slams into the front of the car, coming in from

the right. Steam hisses, the engine dies, the hood folds as the last

bit of momentum carries the old Merc straight into the Golf.   



"Cover!" Volker yells as he dives through the door and ducks behind

the trunk of the battered car. Another salvo slams into the shivering

hulk of the Merc, breaking the other door clean from the frame. Booth

doesn't seem to notice. Arms stretched out, revolver in each hand, he

walks towards the police car, braced as if against a thunderstorm,

bullets tearing through his designer denim, but apparently without

doing any bodily harm. He fires his guns into the shadows, where dark

figures try to escape his attention while at the same time aiming

their shotguns at him.



"Damn!" Volker screams, than suddenly all is silent... The attackers

seem to recognize the futility of their efforts and try to climb back

into their car. Booth changes magazines and then calmly takes out

first the tires and then one, two, three of the anarch rabble. The

fourth drops his gun and runs away howling, makes it to the subway

entrance and disappears. 



"'Mighty Caine - who did teach you this?" gasps an astonished Volker

"Black Cat? Some nine lives... err, unlives... sort of thing" "Sort

of", replies Bozo, exhausted, smeared with blood, but no serious

damage visible. "But I have no idea who that Black Cat is you're

talking about. Keep away from the booze for a while, will you?" He

heartily grabs the other vampire's shoulder. "A wood fairy taught me

once how to become like a statue," he smiles. "Better than any armour

I tell you, best thing I ever brought to a shootout. It's like playing

Quake, know what I mean?" "Unreal, man!" "Shame though I ran out of

ammunition... How's the Merc?" "All fucked up... Let's go back to the

exhibition and grab a new one."





Strategy:



Skill cards



I've never been a player that throws a couple of skill cards into his

deck out of general principle ("Superior xy can't hurt"), I'd rather

go and get the right guys for the job at hand. But skill cards are not

all about enhancing your folk's available disciplines, these buggers

can add a whole new dimension to a deck - especially when you need a

certain skill to achieve a specific powerful effect.



My first test run is below in the deck section: a standard .44

Celerity gun deck with added Protean for Flesh of Marbles. This came

after a most unusual game recently were I was losing gun-slinging

Jimmy Dunn to Increased Strength/Sacrament Of Carnage twice against

*different* methuselahs. But weird meta game stuff aside: Flesh Of

Marble is IMHO one of, if not the best card to survive combat.

Including it in any Brujah deck gives you much more latitude to Blood

Doll/Tap your guys. 



Generally there are three ways to get extra skills:



Skill cards: Take away valuable master slots. Big problem, if your

main strategy relies on them. Still a problem with pool management

even if not, since you almost always want some Blood Dolls or Minion

Taps. I want, although by now I'm convinced that a deck can survive

without 5 Blood Dolls (4 do the job :-).



Equipment: I admire the beauty of the Norm module (Veneficorum Artum

Sanguinis plus Rutor's hand), but would really hate to see 10 percent

of my library disappear down the drain in case a) the book, mask, drum

or whatever doesn't reveal itself in due time, or b) the equip action

gets blocked. I know that Vast Wealth and/or stealth address these

problems, but that would mean devoting even more deck space to the

"special effect". Plus you're sort of limited on what disciplines are

available: Necromancy, Thaumaturgy, Celerity, Potence, Chimerstry and

Presence. You need Heidelberg as well if it's not for a one-man show,

since all these toys are unique.



Infernal pact: Go read about it in the Tremere Antitribu newsletter.

:-)





All in all generally things start to look workable if you can have a

few minions floating around that have the esoteric extra skill and

couple that with a few skill cards. The right number is hard to tell,

it depends on how weenified the deck is, how many of the minions have

the discipline available out of the box, and how important it is to

have it on some/all your minions early in the game. Generally you must

expect to have cards in your hand that are not playable by all your

minions, so go for extra cyclability, either by choosing the right

cards or by adding some Barrens/Dreams/Fragment business.



Although not shown in the deck below, probably the most useful extra

"module" for the Brujah is a Dominate/Deflection package, since

outside the Euro-Brujah it looks pretty grim for us in terms of

bounce. The skill is floating around on quite a few minions,

Deflection works nicely at inferior, and while the card itself (being

a reaction and all) is not cyclable like crazy, it's a Good Thing (tm)

to be able to handle bleed properly.



Vampire of the month:



Steve Booth

Brujah 5, CEL pot pre pro

Camarilla



Apart from having the always useful "fight well and do something else"

discipline combo CEL/pot/pre at the standard price tag of 5, Steve-O

is one of the chosen few that add an aggravated threat to

Celerity/Potence combat. The vampire selection for that one is still

rather eclectic (and better so), but when Maxwell goes to town, this

boy will be with him. Plus he's got that Flesh of Marble for the deck

below, so here we go... 



Deck:



Marbellous



I guess the line of though here is pretty obvious: Combine the

goodness that is Anarch's Diversion with a gun deck. I toyed around

with Cel/For stuff for a while (based around Jimmy Dunn, Brachah,

Gustavo Morales etc.), but found that I need skill cards to make it

fly. Put the "Going Anarch"-stuff on top of that, and I felt like it

might be not such a good idea. Enter Flesh of Marble, which is

dirt-common all of a sudden, plus a fantastic damage-handler. So

here's "Marbellous", a Celerity/Protean gun deck using quite a few

City Gangrel, but also the Brujah honcho of "Vampire of the month"

fame, Steve Booth.



Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 9, Max: 21, Avg: 3,82)

1 Antoinette DuChamp (Caitiff 1, cel pre)

1 Carter (Toreador Antitribu 2, cel)

1 Darrel Boyce, Consul (Gangrel Antitribu 6, CEL OBF PRO)

1 Jimmy Dunn (Pander 4, CEL for POT)

2 Sarah Brando (Brujah Antitribu 3, CEL)

2 Scarlet Carson O'Toole (Gangrel Antitribu 4, CEL pro)

2 Steve Booth (Brujah 5, CEL pot pre pro)

1 Victor Tolliver (Brujah Antitribu 4, CEL pot)

1 Volker, The Puppet Prince (Brujah 5, CEL pot, Prince)



Library: (90 cards)

Master (11 cards)

3 Blood Doll

1 Fame

3 Haven Uncovered

4 Protean



Action (17 cards)

3 Ambush 

8 Bum's Rush

6 Computer Hacking



Combat (53 cards)

8 Blur

9 Concealed Weapon

8 Flesh of Marble

10 Psyche!

10 Pursuit

8 Taste of Vitae



Equipment (9 cards)

9 .44 Magnum



Final Words:



That's all for the moment. I've been busy with re-working the Cold

Dawn website, the new version should go online within the next two

weeks. 



Thanks for reading



Skaffen

www.8ung.at/colddawn