Subject: [NEWSLETTER] - the return of the Ventrue Date: Fri, 20 Aug 2004 19:14:55 -0400 Message-ID: <46f2ccb1d3db7403e033206939864e9f@localhost.talkaboutgaming.com> NOBLESSE OBLIGE CLAN VENTRUE NEWSLETTER – AUGUST 2004 CONTENTS 1. Introduction 2. Dignitas 3. Sheperds and Stewards 4. Tribunes at work 5. Exit 6. Who’s to blame for this issue 7. Reference card texts Introduction Hello folks, I’m Manorr, the new writer cum editor of Clan Ventrue’s esteemed newsletter. Before getting involved in this, I looked back to see who had written what in the past…. and boy do I have an act to follow, England’s own Inner Circle member – Rob Treasure! (with a dash of Matt Green too). Where Rob’s primary writing focussed on his ‘Agitation’ articles, in each issue I will look at one specific angle of play for the Ventrue, for example: combat defence, pool gain, anarchy, voting etc. If you haven’t been ‘Agitated’ I would strongly recommend that you read them all as soon as possible. When two of the world’s best players teach strategy, and you don’t have to pay to read it, what are you waiting for. I intend to bring out a newsletter at least once every two months and have plenty to say. I’m also very interested to hear from other players of our Clan, and will include an ‘Open Forum’ section in every issue that someone else has something useful or humorous to say. I will also review 1-2 vampires per issue, including those who are useful to play alongside the Ventrue. Whenever new editions of the VTES come out, I will review these soon after. Having steadfastly refused to play any CCGs for ten years, I was finally persuaded to purchase a Follower of Set deck when Final Nights was released. Far too much money and thousands of vtes cards later, I am a sad addict, hooked into yet more of White Wolf’s game (I’ve been playing and ST-ing World of Darkness for twelve years, including the magnificent LARP games, which I strongly recommend). White Wolf eats my soul – aaarrggghhhhh !!!!!!!!!!!! If I think I have something new to say about material that has been included in previous Ventrue newsletters, then I will re-look at things. Because new VTES editions can often change the way previous ideas, cards and strategies work, it is sometimes important to review old ground. I’m V:EKN Prince of Merseyside in the U.K. and would appreciate it, if any players in Ireland and the Midlands or North of England would get in touch. Fairly soon I will be setting up sanctioned tournaments, and would like to travel to play with other players. I never expected to write for the hated Ventrue. If the Tremere are the Manchester United of the Camarilla, then the Ventrue are Chelsea. Anyway, that’s enough from me…… on with the fray! Dignitas – the dictats of the Directorate This month the secret police of the Directorate investigate non-clan disciplines within the clan; and discover mainly useful things, mixed with a little oddness. Amongst Clan Ventrue’s crypt, there are nine non-clan disciplines at work. Two (Obtenerbration and Serpentis) are non-Camarilla based disciplines, and only represented by one vampire each; the rest being a good spread of classic Camarilla fare, though I’m sure the Tremere won’t be too pleased to see other vampires with Thaumaturgy. In my experience, the most common Ventrue deck seen with an extra discipline included, is with Obfuscate, using mostly the clan’s high capacity vamps, sometimes mixed with dodgy type like Settites (with Dominate). There are seven Ventrue with Obfuscate – three in Group 2, three in Group 3 and one in Group 4. Decks containing these guys make for super-nasty stealth-bleed, vote, or both. This month’s deck helps illustrate this. Catherine du Bois (Ventrue 6. DOM, pre, obf, for) is a little piece of stealth-bleed heaven, and unsurprisingly appears in my horrible Settites with Dominate bleed for silly amounts deck. I’m sure I was a Settite in a past life (not sure I should admit to that, but having read Rob’s agitations, maybe it gives me kudos instead – what a weird world we card players live in ). Meanwhile, she also makes a fantastic vote reactor, and is perfect for defending Anarch Revolts or similar vote sensitive resources. As most of us have suffered from the ever present Malkavian S/B, we know what a horror Dominate + Obfuscate is. To be able play this with S:CE and Votes from Presence, and combat resilience from Fortitude, is awesome in the extreme. Think of the world’s biggest, boldest toolbox, and square it…. know what I mean! Having even basic Obfuscate is just so useful. You knock out a +1 stealth action (default Hunt, equip, whatever….), and some miserable Sod on either side of you decides to wheel out their +1 intercept. Normally that’s the end of your action. Fair enough you might have Seduced someone, but that only works on one opponent, the extra stealth fits everyone up simultaneously. If you are a vote deck, often +1 stealth is just not enough. Yes your can dig up your Creepshow Casino, which is a godlike card for many occasions, but, it taps to be used, so it can’t help all your dudes. Overall, Obfuscate is a real winner for the Ventrue, you can even use Swallowed by the Night to run away as well! Since the Group 3 vampires arrived, there’s a lot more Auspex on view in Ventrue based decks. This makes things really easy if you wish to mix Ventrue with their disloyal traitorous Ventrue Antitribu cousins (poor deluded fools!), and with other such characters as the Harbingers and Salubri of both varieties. There’s only one in Group 1, three in Group 2, five in Group 3 and none in Group 4. Looking at this makes it easier to see where the Ventrue Antitribu got their Auspex from. Auspex is certainly a lot more use for getting into combat than Presence, so fits the Sabbat mould better. As almost all the Sabbat are also Group 2 & 3 vampires, this makes for easy crypt building. A nasty version of this is to turn out a Ventrue deck with 4 Harbinger of Skulls, with the a Lazarene Inquisitor, a few Slaughterhouses, an Erebus mask, and the Erciyes Fragment. This allows for the HoS to rapidly increase your Prey’s discard pile, giving the Erciyes plenty of choice, and having enough intercept to prevent the Erciyes from being stolen. It gets away from the ineffective 10 Slaughterhouse strategy, which has proven largely ineffective at winning anything, other than the eternal enmity of the player who was your prey when you used it. The Ventrue Antitribu discipline mix isn’t exactly know for its exciting dynamic game play, but by god they’ve got staying power in spades – and that can be damn useful in tournaments sometimes. So maybe we true blue Ventrue can learn something from the disenfranchised. However, it can be too easy to fall into a Second Tradition + Auspex super Wall trap, thinking you’ve got a deck no-one can beat, and actually achieve bugger all, by failing to put enough pressure on anyone. Just sitting and waiting does not serve modern tournament criteria very well. Ask any Liverpool football club fans how excited they were about defending in numbers for 88 minutes, only then having a go too late in the day. 0-0 is not a victory, it’s not even o.k., it just is. The nice thing about Auspex is of course, stopping other folks from achieving stuff; blocking their equips, votes, hunts etc. Many decks don’t have any + stealth, so their normal stealth is only +1. So even small time + intercept can work wonders. Equally important is the use of Revelations at the inferior level, to investigate your Prey’s hand, and throw away his Archon Investigation, pool gain, bleed bounce, intercept, wakes etc. In the military they call this ‘Force Multiplication’. For us this means successfully bleeding for 3+ without having to worry to much. Using revelations combined with a Monocle of Clarity can dynamically change your bleed effectiveness. Moving on, there are also nine different Ventrue with Celerity, which could make for some handy combat combos, four in Group 1, three in Group 2, one in Group 3, and one in Group 1. So a combat-toolboxy Group 1 and 2 deck can easily be put together. Admittedly, there aren’t exactly millions of vampires hanging about with decent Fortitude and Celerity, but decks can be cobbled together, and quite funky to play with – figure strike, prevent loads of damage, Blur for more strikes, press or Psyche to repeat the same sentence, ad nauseum. With even simple weapons, this can be very effective. I have an Assamite deck based on Fatima, Tegyrius and Tariq, which uses Fortitude, Celerity and Auspex, with SMGs and no Quietus cards, and the theory works. A Ventrue version would have better bleed bounce, and bleed or votes, but likely be less aggressive. The Advanced Tegyrius is also group 2, so could fit in happily with the blue bloods. Turning out a Anathema based Fortitude, Presence, Celerity deck, with Justicar Tegyrius and a voted in Ventrue Justicar means you could play stuff like PTO (Protect Thine Own) and Temptation of Greater Power as well. Maybe we’ll look at this in a future issue. The next best represented discipline is Potence. There is one Ventrue with Potence in Group 1, one in Group 2, two in Group 3 and none yet in Group 4. POT DOM PRE FOR has to be a hell of basis for deck building, although the results could be very multi-clan. Add in the two Ventrue with Protean into this mix and you can conjure some horrible decks. I have a Anarch deck built around FOR, PRE, POT, CEL, and PRO, using the two protean wielding Ventrue in the crypt. Although the crypt is top heavy, it is stacked with very very very nasty mothers, who dish out hurt to anyone who upsets them. I don’t propose to post this deck here, until I’ve seen whether it’s suitable for the Anarch Newsletter. Here’s the crypt anyway: * 3x Maxwell: Brujah 9. PRO, PRE, POT, FOR, CEL * 1x Steve Booth: Brujah 5. CEL, pro, pre, pot * 2x Hrothulf: Ventrue 8. PRE, FOR, CEL, pro, pot, dom * 2x Boss Callihan: Ventrue 5. PRE, pro, for, dom * 1x Jalan-Aajav: Gangrel Antitribu 9. PRO, POT, FOR, CEL * 1x Zachary: Gangrel Antitribu 7. CEL, OBF, PRO, pre, for * 1x Harry Reese: Gangrel Antitribu 6. Sabbat. FOR, PRO, obf, cel * 1x Spider: Gangrel Antitribu 6. Sabbat, PRO, ani, for “But mummy you said monsters didn’t exist” sighs little Christopher Houghton, staring at the window, hugging his Pooh bear, and crying to his Sire. Outside, Jalan-Aajav peeping in, mutters to himself “looked in the mirror lately Christopher”, and bugs out before the ‘poor’ little sod notices him. There are now a number of smaller cap vampires with both Fortitude and Potence, so good simple weenie rush is not so hard to achieve now. I’ll leave the Animalism, Thaumaturgy, Serpentis and Obtenerbration in the bucket for now (where it belongs), and march on to something hopefully more constructive. Sheperds and Stewards - Tales from the Crypt Starting at the top of the pile, this month we’ll have a look at Arika (again). Firstly let me point out that there has been good stuff already written in the May.2001 and August.2001 newsletters. My musings complement those articles and decks. Name: Arika Clan: Ventrue Group: 2 Capacity: 11 Discipline: aus cel DOM FOR OBF PRE Camarilla Inner Circle: If Arika is ready during your prey's untap phase, your prey chooses which locations he or she keeps in play. For each location he or she controls, your prey burns 1 pool or burns the location. +2 bleed. Arika has to be the ultimate self contained offence-defence machine. She’s Group 2, so can work with most everyone. She can Freak Drive and therefore knock out a couple of actions per round or happily leave herself untapped ready to Deflect, intercept with Obedience, and even Majesty keeps her up and going. In this mode she can happily bat away a good few minions per round. She is so good at defence that she easily merits the cost of using a Metro Underground to untap her at the end of a round. Her wondrous ability to play severely damaging cards, win votes, great special ability and hold down the table can easily make her a target for the whole table. Your predator may get support from other Methusalahs or be given some slack, in order to do her in one way or the other. Your grand-prey may also be quite keen for your prey to exist for sometime and may well play with this in mind. For example: by not damaging too much, your prey’s minions when blocked, or allowing the odd Consanguinous Boon through. Your grand-prey may well want to build some, leaving your predator alone. As she can win the game for you, you really need to seriously protect her. A Secure Haven is a very good place to start, as is an Elysium: Arboretum. Obedience is only useful when she is blocking, and not for when she is acting, so you need combat defence as well. A mix of Majesty, Skin of Steel and Swallowed by the Night (for running long) are my preference. A superior Elemental Stoicism can be handy too, though they are not exactly easy to come by. Remember though that if she is rushed, ambushed etc, it is much better for her to block and use Obedience. So what is she really afraid of ? - Sensory Deprivation, AI, Immortal Grapple based combat, Psyche and Telepathic Tracking. If she is successfully Sensory Deprived, she can still vote and use cards like Wake with Evening’s Freshness to play reaction cards. She can also have a Blood Doll put on her. She could also play Force of Will, but I certainly wouldn’t want to go down that road. One possible way to help with this is to pack a Blood Hunt, and put it on the offending Ravnos who was cheeky enough to mess with Arika. This would allow both you and their predator to have a pop at will. Immortal Grapple based combat, using Torn Signpost, strike, additional strikes, press, strike, additional strikes inc’ Aggravated damage at some point – as we all know, this is hell on legs, so if at all possible run long and wave or combat ends as soon as possible. If you can’t escape, as I mentioned, Skin of Steel is my card of choice, purely because it can deal with a whole round of damage for one blood. I use SoS a lot, purely in case I meet additional strikes. Psyche and Telepathic Tracking are just a pain, so you have to pack enough combat defence to deal with this. So anyway, enough of the depressing stuff, Arika is just downright offensive – well you would be if you got your own way all the time, look at Michael Jackson or Madonna. She is capable of stunningly large bleeds, however her bleed can be highly irresponsible , and can therefore be a liability. She should be supported by a Monocle of Clarity to check if your prey has an AI (Archon Investigation), and the use of inferior Revelations to remove an AI or bleed bounce from your prey’s hand. Charmingly, with a Freak Drive she can use her own Revelations, untap the get her bleed in, try this version: Legal Manipulations (or Social Charm if you need to conserve blood), Seduction, Obfuscate based stealth (preferably Faceless Night and Lost in Crowds), finished off with Conditioning (or Threats if you need to conserve blood), means a bleed of 6-8 costing 0-2 blood. She can also go down the ‘you can’t block’ route and use Elder Impersonation too. --- Like she needs to Impersonate anyone! I like to think of Arika the other way, for example, by pretending to be Dimple. This appeals much more to me. As this is totally irrelevant to the game, please feel free to ignore it, or hurl abuse at me instead (water meet the duck’s back ……). Bleed bounce will of course cause you lots of problems with Arika bleeds, and I propose to devote some time in a future issue to looking at how we can deal with this major problem. Bounce is very common in my local metagroup, so I’ve looked carefully at this. As well as being ‘Miss Camarilla bleed queen’ of the month, she is also Miss Bloat queen, although you wouldn’t say that to her face. She can ‘Govern’ out the best of them, this being a handy way to justify her large pool cost. Minion Tap with Giant’s Blood, Voter Captivation, Palatial Estate, Restoration or Entrenching is also a great way to recoup pool. Note that she needs blood to power various actions, combat defence and Deflection, so it’s important to keep her topped up. With this in mind, a Blood Doll should be put on her as soon as possible. The ability to transfer blood back into her from your pool could be a life saver. The ability negotiate and cut deals is of paramount importance in many games. Arika with a Ventrue Headquarters in play gives us seven votes.This can give you a large amount of table vote control, even if you aren’t playing a vote deck. With this in mind it is always worth having a few vote cards with her in play, as some tables have very few votes on the table. For offensive voting, using her with a Bewitching Oration gives eight votes, or eleven with the HQ. As she is one of the chosen few who can use the best version of PTO (Protect Thine Own), you should always play at least one. She can also play the wonderful Alastor if you want to play offensive combat. Using this card gives you permanent rush, and saves you an equip action or a disguised/concealed weapon card, and brings out an Ivory Bow for no pool, a .44 for 1 pool or a flamethrower for 2. I think that if you are going to play an 11 capacity vote machine, you should always also include a Reins of Power and an Ancient Influence. Here is a general module you could include when playing Arika: * 2-4 Obedience – keeps her untapped, and therefore helps maximise her power and cost * 2-4 Deflection – to stay untapped and therefore maximise her power and cost * 2-4 Majesty – to become untapped again, and therefore maximise ……. * 3+ Govern the Unaligned * 2+ Freak Drive – to get the most out of the 11 pool she costs, by doing multiple actions per turn * 1-2 Swallowed by the Night – i.e. stealth or manuever * 2 Cloak the Gathering – for giving herself or other minions Stealth * 1-2 Protect Thine Own * 1 Blood Doll * 1 Monocle of Clarity – to check if the other Methusalah’s are packing and AI (Archon Investigation), and to see if your prey has any bleed bounce or other awkward cards in their hand * 1 Secure Haven * 1+ Zillah’s Valley or Information Highway – to get her in play as soon as possible * 2+ Skin of Steel Other very useful cards include: * 1-2 Seduction – she can bypass all vampires except the 11 caps * 1 Entrenching, Cooler or Palatial Estate – to keep her blood topped-up * 1 Elemental Stoicism – simple combat protection * 1+ Alastor * 1 Elysium: Arboretum * 1+ Minion Tap * 1 Metro Underground – often the advantage of having her untapped, far outways the pool cost to untap her * 1 Fueled by Heart’s Blood – so she can diablerise without worrying about Blood Hunts (I find this card very appealing for Arika) * 1+ Legacy of Power – I use this when Arika is working with weenies. When my weenie blocks or is blocked by a dangerous enemy vampire, play this card to mess with the other Methusalah’s brain. Imagine the situation, Thetmes Bum’s Rushes Arika, my 3rd Tradition weenie blocks, which under normal circumstances means end-of-weenie time, HOWEVER…. Arika pops up and throws out a Legacy of Power, leading to one torpored weenie, and one torpored Thetmes, which is way cool any way you look at it. Even better if one of your crew can diablerise, because you have so many votes on the table, that you can get away with it. So instead of only playing Obedience, think about playing 1-2 Legacy instead. * Some form of Ally, to attempt to prevent Sensory Deprivation and any other ‘vampires can’t block’ effects Tribunes at work - Decks of the Month Deck name: Inner Smile of the Corporate Divas Ventrue Toolbox with Obfuscate. The inherent bleed of the minions is critical for this deck, allowing it to act as a basic Stealth Bleed if needed. The Political Ally pays for himself with his first bleed; after that he really is a right nasty bleeder. Tapping your prey’s main clan with Consanguineous Condemnation allows you to get in a round of useful bleeds – a great card against a mono-clan deck, and a waste of space against multi-clan line-ups. Using Chain of Command to bring out Marcus Vitell or Queen Anne, kinda suprises some folk. Even as a one-shot deal, they are well worth this card’s inclusion. Winning votes is key for pool gain, hence the additional vote Masters; and this, combined with 6 pool gain Masters, Information Highway and Zillah’s Valley, should allow you to bring out 4 big vampires. Even against a table with quite a few titled vampires in play, you should have enough vote power to get through most votes without having to cross-table deal too much. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t deal though! The Metro Underground, Freak Drives and 9 Wakes are to allow all these very high-cap dudes to keep busy every turn, and then to be able to react. Arika, Marcus, Queen Anne and Lucinde are all superb ‘guards’, deflecting, using Obedience etc. The damage prevention and weapons are handy for keeping weenies and non-Celerity based combat down. The logic here being to vote in any of the vampires with FOR as an Alastor, which allows them to equip with a .44 at a cost of 1 pool (rather than the usual 2). The Alastor can the be used to +1 stealth rush against suitable small vulnerable targets. This can be very handy against weenie bleed decks and no offensive combat decks, as there’s no way that you can block and/or deflect a weenie horde forever. Using some Second Tradition at first seems rather obvious. BUT,,,, you must attempt to block, this could easily lead to combat, and you really want to avoid that as much as possible. Wake, Deflect, I like that much better! As has been stated many times before, PTO (Protect Thine Own) is one wholly mother of a card, capable of radically changing the dynamics of the table. Initially it seems obvious to remove your Prey’s biggest minion. I disagree with this believing that we should not have rules like this, and should view each situation on its own merits. For example I recently played against a Settite politics deck using Gloria Giovanni as bleed bouncer from hell. The choice to burn would then be a). the largest available offensive Settite or b). Gloria. If my Grandprey had very low pool I would burn the biggest attacker. If my prey couldn’t kill their prey quickly, I would kill Gloria, allowing me to get on with the slaughter. Crypt: 4x Arika: Ventrue 11. Camarilla Inner Circle. If she’s ready during Prey’s untap, Prey loses 1 Pool or burns each location, +2 Bleed. PRE, DOM, FOR, OBF, cel, aus 2x Marcus Vitel: Ventrue 10. Camarilla Prince. Burn a retainer as a +1 Stealth action. PRE, OBT, OBF, FOR, DOM 2x Queen Anne: Ventrue 10. Camarilla Prince. +1 Bleed, +1 additional Bleed vs Tremere. PRE, DOM, FOR, aus, obf 1x Lucinde Alastor: Ventrue 10. Camarilla Justicar. Enter combat with non-Camarilla vampire. PRE, DOM, FOR, obf, tha, pot 1x Catherine du Bois: Ventrue 6. Camarilla. DOM, pre, obf, fort 1x Suzanna Kadim: Toreador 7. Camarilla. +1 Bleed. PRE, CEL, obf, dom, aus 1x J.Oswald Hyde-White: Malkavian 8. Camarilla Primogen. Untap, roll D6, 1-2 = +1 Stealth, 5-6 +1 Bleed and +1 Strength. OBF, FOR, AUS, pre, dom Library: 90 cards 3x Blood Doll 3x Minion Tap 1x Uptown Hunting Ground 1x Zillah’s Valley 1x Information Highway 1x Secure Haven 1x Anarch Troublemaker 1x Effective Management 1x Ventrue Headquarters 1x Elysium: Palace of Versailles 1x Metro Underground 1x Rumour Mill, Tabloid Newspaper 1x Fueled by Heart’s Blood 3x Govern the Unaligned 1x Chain of Command 2x Judgement: Camarilla Segregation 4x Conditioning 2x Freak Drive 2x Swallowed by the Night 2x Cloak the Gathering 1x Faceless Night 1x Spying Mission 3x Lost in Crowds 1x Ancient Influence 1x Kindred Restructure 2x Protect Thine Own 1x Reigns of Power 2x Alastor 1x Consanguineous Condemnation (maybe could be replaced with another Voter Captivation) 1x Voter Captivation 3x Closed Session 6x Bewitching Oration 10x Wake with Evening’s Freshness 7x Deflection 1x Redirection 5x Obedience 3x Majesty 6x Skin of Steel 2x .44 Magnum 1x Palatial Estate 1x Political Ally A more combaty version of this could replace the Majesty with more Fortitude and a Disguised Weapon, and half of the WWEFs with Second Tradtions. Exchanging the Chain of Command for a Ritual of the Bitter Rose or Amaranth, could provide a real bitchy twist too. The second deck of the month’s illustrates Ventrue use of Auspex. There’s nothing special about this deck, it’s just stealth bleed using Revelations and the Monocle to help get bleeds in. It’s pure Vanilla, with no chocolate or sauce. The Kine Dominance and Dominate Kine are heavy on blood usage, as are Revelations, Skin of Steel and Deflection. They are however, vital to the deck’s forward pressure and combat survivability. To balance this out, and allow the Blood Dolls to do their job, I’ve included Aaron's Feeding Razor, Palatial Estate and four Restoration. Probably this deck’s worst feature is its predictability. It is archetypal of what people view the Ventrue as, either bleed, or vote or both. The deck is tight and goes pretty well, and was put together to see if the Ventrue could do vanilla stealth bleed. The answer is basically yes. Note though that this deck will die if it’s Prey is a ‘Wall’ deck or packs eight+ bleed bounce. Approximation of Loyalty could get round some bounce, but this would mean upping the Crypt, and I really wanted to feature a mid-cap deck, which are not seen as much as the high-cap board of directors crew. Deck name: Wall Street Shuffle Crypt: 2x Edward Vignes: Ventrue 6. Camarilla. PRE, DOM, for 2x Gracis Nostinus: Ventrue 7. Camarilla Primogen. A younger vampire failing to block him is tapped. PRE, DOM, for, aus 2x Alan Sovereign: Ventrue 6. Camarilla. DOM, AUS, pre, for 2x Ranjan Rishi, Camarilla Scholar: Ventrue 5. Camarilla. DOM, PRE, for 1x Iyana Ravidovitch: Ventrue 5. Camarilla. Burn a blood to gain Intercept. pre, dom, for, aus 1x Elena Gutierrez: Ventrue 4. Camarilla. pre, for, aus 1x Horatio Ballard: Ventrue 7. Camarilla. PRE, DOM, FOR, aus 1x J.Oswald Hyde-White: Malkavian 8. Camarilla Primogen. Untap, roll D6, 1-2 = +1 Stealth, 5-6 +1 Bleed and +1 Strength. OBF, FOR, AUS, pre, dom Library: 4x Blood Doll 1x Minion Tap 1x Uptown Hunting Ground 1x KRGC News Radio 1x Sudden Reversal 1x Direct Intervention 1x Fortitude 1x Elysium: The Arboretum 1x Anarch Troublemaker 1x Ventrue Headquarters 1x Regarhagan's Hold 2x Hostile Takeover 1x Entrancement 4x Restoration 5x Scouting Mission 1x Kine Dominance 3x Dominate Kine 5x Revelations 11x Bonding 5x Seduction 1x Freak Drive 8x Wake with Evening's Freshness 7x Deflection 1x Redirection 1x Spirit's Touch 1x Enhanced Senses 1x Precogition 7x Majesty 5x Skin of Steel 1x Sports Bike 1x Monocle of Clarity 1x Aaron's Feeding Razor 1x Mr.Winthrop 1x Palatial Estate Exit I would be mucho happy to receive comment, criticism, articles, reviews, fiction, decks etc from anyone who wishes to contribute towards this newsletter. It would be very interesting to all of us, to see how Ventrue players win, and to see angles they have used to have carved up particular style of deck. If you choose to send me a deck, then by all means include any information about why your deck was put together, strategies, card combinations, crypt choice, and so on. For those of you into creating new card designs, I will certainly look at those as well. By all means send me Anarch based Ventrue stuff, but send it to the Anarch newsletter as well if you can. I will work out who’s doing what with the Anarch writer. Who’s to blame for this issue This month’s issue was written and compiled by David Knowles (manorr2001@yahoo.com) Reference card texts from White Wolf’s Site Name: Alastor Cardtype: Political Action Political Card - Worth 1 Vote. Called by any justicar or Inner Circle member at +1 stealth. Choose a ready Camarilla vampire. If this referendum is successful, search your library for an equipment card and place this card and the equipment on the chosen vampire. Pay half the cost (round down) of the equipment. This vampire may enter combat with any vampire controlled by another Methuselah as a +1 stealth (D) action. This vampire cannot commit diablerie. A vampire may have only one Alastor. Name: Protect Thine Own Cardtype: Political Action Cost: 1 blood Political Card - Worth 1 Vote. Called by any justicar or Inner Circle member at +1 stealth. Choose a non-Camarilla vampire with a capacity below 6. If the acting vampire is a member of the Inner Circle, you may choose any non-Camarilla vampire instead. If this referendum is successful, burn that vampire. Name: Reins of Power Cardtype: Political Action Political Card - Worth 1 Vote. Called by any vampire at +1 stealth. Successful referendum means each Methuselah may choose a ready vampire he or she controls. Each Methuselah gains 6 pool. Each Methuselah also burns an amount of pool equal to the capacity of his or her predator's chosen vampire. Only one Reins of Power can be played in a game. Name: Ancient Influence Cardtype: Political Action Political Card - Worth 1 Vote. Called by any vampire at +1 stealth. Successful referendum means each Methuselah may choose a ready vampire he or she controls. Each Methuselah gains an amount of pool from the blood bank equal to his or her chosen vampire's capacity. Each Methuselah then burns 5 pool. Only 1 Ancient Influence can be played in a game. Name: Legacy of Power Cardtype: Reaction Cost: 3 blood Requires ready prince, justicar, or Inner Circle Member. Only usable when a vampire you control enters combat. A second vampire you control may play this card to end combat. Tap the second vampire. Combat ends. Both vampires engaged in combat go into torpor. Name: Fueled by Heart's Blood Cardtype: Event Gehenna. Do not replace until a vampire commits diablerie. Put 10 counters on this card. Remove one counter each time another Gehenna card is put in play. A blood hunt cannot be called on a vampire whose capacity is greater than the number of counters on this card when he or she diablerizes a younger vampire. Name: Elemental Stoicism Cardtype: Action/Combat Discipline: Fortitude & Obfuscate [for] Prevent 1 non-aggravated damage. [for][obf] This vampire treats all aggravated damage as normal damage for the remainder of combat. [FOR][obf] +1 stealth action. Put this card on this acting vampire. The vampire with this card treats aggravated damage done in combat as normal damage. Burn this card if the vampire goes to torpor. Name: Alan Sovereign Cardtype: Vampire Clan: Ventrue Group: 3 Capacity: 6 Discipline: for pre AUS DOM Camarilla: When you play an investment card, add an additional counter to it from the blood bank. Name: Arika Cardtype: Vampire Clan: Ventrue Group: 2 Capacity: 11 Discipline: aus cel DOM FOR OBF PRE Camarilla Inner Circle: If Arika is ready during your prey's untap phase, your prey chooses which locations he or she keeps in play. For each location he or she controls, your prey burns 1 pool or burns the location. +2 bleed. Name: Bindusara, Historian of the Kindred Cardtype: Vampire Clan: Ventrue Group: 2 Capacity: 9 Discipline: tha AUS DOM FOR PRE Camarilla: Bindusara can take an action to allow you to search your library for an Arcane Library, Elder Library or Fragment of the Book of Nod; put that card in play. (Pay cost as normal.) Shuffle your library afterward. +1 bleed. Name: Boss Callihan Cardtype: Vampire Clan: Ventrue Group: 3 Capacity: 5 Discipline: dom for pro PRE Camarilla: Callihan cannot rescue other vampires from torpor. Name: Catherine du Bois Cardtype: Vampire Clan: Ventrue Group: 3 Capacity: 5 Discipline: for obf pre DOM Camarilla. Name: Democritus Cardtype: Vampire Clan: Ventrue Group: 1 Capacity: 10 Discipline: aus cel for DOM PRE {Camarilla} Ventrue Justicar: If Democritus is ready, any Methuselah contesting a card with you burns 1 extra pool to avoid yielding that card. +1 bleed. Name: Elena Gutierrez Cardtype: Vampire Clan: Ventrue Group: ={3}= Capacity: 4 Discipline: aus dom pre Camarilla. Name: Emerson Bridges Cardtype: Vampire Clan: Ventrue Group: 1 Capacity: 8 Discipline: pot DOM FOR PRE {Camarilla} Prince of Washington, D.C. Name: Gracis Nostinus Cardtype: Vampire Clan: Ventrue Group: 3 Capacity: 7 Discipline: aus for DOM PRE Camarilla Primogen: If a younger vampire attempts to block Gracis and fails, that vampire is tapped at the end of the action. Name: Helena Casimir Cardtype: Vampire Clan: Ventrue Group: 1 Capacity: 9 Discipline: cel for DOM POT PRE {Camarilla} Primogen: +1 bleed. Name: Horatio Ballard Cardtype: Vampire Clan: Ventrue Group: 3 Capacity: 7 Discipline: aus DOM FOR PRE Camarilla: If Horatio doesn't have a title, he can call a referendum to become the Prince of Chicago as a +1 stealth political action. Name: Hrothulf Cardtype: Vampire Clan: Ventrue Group: 3 Capacity: 8 Discipline: dom pot pro CEL FOR PRE Camarilla: If you control the Edge, Hrothulf can burn it to enter combat with a ready minion controlled by another Methuselah as a (D) action. Name: Ilyana Ravidovich Cardtype: Vampire Clan: Ventrue Group: 3 Capacity: 5 Discipline: aus dom for pre Camarilla: You get 2 extra votes in {referendums to call} blood hunts against Ilyana. Once each action, Ilyana may burn 1 blood to get +1 intercept. Name: Itzahk Levine Cardtype: Vampire Clan: Ventrue Group: 2 Capacity: 3 Discipline: cel pre Camarilla Name: Jan Pieterzoon Cardtype: Vampire Clan: Ventrue Group: 2 Capacity: 7 Discipline: pot pre DOM FOR Camarilla: While Jan is ready, every Methuselah's hand size is reduced by 1. +1 bleed. Name: Jan Pieterzoon Cardtype: Vampire Clan: Ventrue Level: Advanced Group: 2 Capacity: 7 Discipline: pot pre DOM FOR Advanced, Independent: Jan may burn 3 blood to cancel a Gehenna card as it is played. [MERGED ICON] If Jan is Independent and there are any Gehenna cards in play, Jan gets 3 additonal votes in each referendum. Name: Katarina Kornfeld Cardtype: Vampire Clan: Ventrue Group: 3 Capacity: 8 Discipline: ani DOM FOR PRE Camarilla primogen: If another ready vampire you control is a prince, Katarina gets +1 stealth. Name: Lucinde Alastor Cardtype: Vampire Clan: Ventrue Group: 3 Capacity: 10 Discipline: pot obf tha DOM FOR PRE Camarilla Ventrue Justicar: Lucinde can enter combat with any ready non-Camarilla vampire controlled by another Methuselah as a (D) action. During your untap phase, you can burn the Edge to give Lucinde 1 blood from the blood bank. Name: Marcus Vitel Cardtype: Vampire Clan: Ventrue Group: 3 Capacity: 10 Discipline: DOM FOR OBF OBT PRE Camarilla Prince of Washington, D.C.: Marcus can burn a retainer as a +1 stealth (D) action. While Marcus is ready and a prince, Sabbat vampires you control get +1 bleed when bleeding a Methuselah who controls a ready Camarilla vampire. Name: Melissa Barton Cardtype: Vampire Clan: Ventrue Group: 1 Capacity: 5 Discipline: cel dom for pre {Camarilla:} If a Methuselah {burns} the Edge for a vote, Melissa gains 1 blood. Name: Mustafa, The Heir Cardtype: Vampire Clan: Ventrue Group: 4 Capacity: 6 Discipline: cel dom FOR PRE Camarilla Prince of Istanbul: Once each political action, any older Toreador controlled by another Methuselah can move 1 blood to Mustafa to force him to cast his votes as that Toreador's controller chooses. Name: Natasha Volfchek Cardtype: Vampire Clan: Ventrue Group: 1 Capacity: 9 Discipline: cel dom pot FOR PRE {Camarilla} Primogen: Natasha gets +1 stealth on political actions. +1 bleed. Name: Queen Anne Cardtype: Vampire Clan: Ventrue Group: 2 Capacity: 10 Discipline: aus obf DOM FOR PRE Camarilla Prince of London: Anne gets an additional +1 bleed when bleeding a Methuselah who controls a ready Tremere. +1 bleed. Name: Robin Withers Cardtype: Vampire Clan: Ventrue Group: 4 Capacity: 4 Discipline: dom obf pre Camarilla. Name: Suhailah Cardtype: Vampire Clan: Ventrue Group: 2 Capacity: 9 Discipline: pot ser FOR OBF Camarilla Prince of Cairo: Suhailah gets +1 stealth on each of her actions if your prey has a ready prince or justicar. +1 bleed. Name: Timothy Crowley Cardtype: Vampire Clan: Ventrue Group: 1 Capacity: 7 Discipline: ani dom FOR PRE {Camarilla} Prince of Dallas Name: Victorine Lafourcade Cardtype: Vampire Clan: Ventrue Group: 3 Capacity: 8 Discipline: tha DOM FOR PRE Camarilla Prince of Atlanta: When a vampire of capacity less than 5 is bleeding you, you may burn the Edge to cause the action to fail. Victorine gets an optional press each combat. Name: Wilhelm Waldburg Cardtype: Vampire Clan: Ventrue Group: 2 Capacity: 9 Discipline: aus cel DOM FOR PRE Camarilla Prince of Berlin: If Wilhelm's title is contested, the cost of contesting is increased by 1 blood for the other vampire(s).