Ventrue December 2004 Newsletter
Manorr2005
CLAN VENTRUE NEWSLETTER DECEMBER 2004
CONTENTS
1. Introduction
2. Fiction
3. Card of the Month
4. Prince Murphy
5. Shepherds and Stewards
6. Deck of the Month
7. Exit
Introduction
Apologies for the later arrival of this month’s issue(s), the real world
got in the way. More apologies for not realising that conventional email
addresses are automatically changed when we post these newsletters. Having
slowly learned this simple fact, my address is written in baby-speak in
the outro.
Fiction
part 1
“Drat and damnation!”
“What’s that milady?”
“I’ve lost it again Parker.”
Parker, real name Norbert Symons, ground his teeth in rage and replied,
“What milady?”
“The stupid clan seal, I think it’s fallen into the back of the sofa, get
it will you?”
“Yes milady.”
One day, I’m going to call her Lady fucking Penelope and see if she likes
it, Norbert raised a smile as he began to hunt for Clan Ventrue’s seal. If
only the other inner circle members knew where this had been he thought.
That raised another discreet smile. Discreet equalled survival, and that
was important. Norbert was two hundred and eighty seven years old, and
fancied at least doubling that before she got bored with him.
Being a ghoul raised a number of unusual lifestyle changes. Norbert was
always hungry, then again he used too much blood when he wanted to show
off. He’d had sex with more women than any studdly stud he’d ever known.
Now that did make him chuckle. Bullied as a child, he exacted quiet
revenge later in his life, when his bullies had been coming to the end of
theirs. He knew his humanity had lessened somewhat, but he had risen
through Clan Ventrue’s ranks and quite enjoyed his celebrity status as
Arika’s head butler.
Watching generations of his family growing up, helping them, then watching
them die as another generation appeared – this was both beautiful and
terrible. Loving and losing was hard at first, but after his sixth wife
he’d got kind of used to it. Now he awaited a new chase with relish, while
still loving his current wife. Norbert refused to have children though, he
couldn’t take the pain of loss anymore.
A very handy perk of being right up Clan Ventrue so to speak, was the good
Stock market advice he got. Norbert was loaded now, rich as Croesus, well
nearly. During the days when madam didn’t require his services, Norbert
had a wail of a time, discreetly of course. It wasn’t a particularly good
idea to attract too much attention to one’s self when one was rather old.
Of course, he had multiple passports, identities blah blah blah… but why
put yourself in the firing line?
“It’s here milady, stuck in yesterday’s copy of the Wall Street journal.
Good job the maid hasn’t cleaned up yet!”
“Shut it you blathering idiot!”
‘Parker’ wisely chose not to respond.
“When’s thingymajig arriving?”
“Who ma’am, Mr.Comb-over maam?”
“Yes him, what does he want now?”
“If that was a genuine question ma’am, a kick up the backside. If you mean
why has he requested an audience, well I have no idea.”
“Blasted thing he is, even with his Mask of a Couple Faces up, he still
stinks. What does he get up to, to smell like that? Better get the orange
pomander out, and light some smelly candles while you’re at it”…
…<an hour or so later>.. “May I present Baron Samedi ma’am.”
“Ah Baron, what a pleasant surprise, dapper as ever I see.”
The Baron’s voice seemed more akin to gravel than speech, “Always a
pleasure your ladyship, I am eternally grateful that you permitted an
audience at such short notice.” “Makes a bloody change’ thought the Baron,
these snivelling obsequious Ventrue bastards normally keep you waiting
forever. I might not be older than god like this bitch, but I could still
teach them a thing or two. Why did I choose to live in the same city as
Old Father Time’s wife?”
“Drink Baron?”
“No, thank you, I am pressed for time. Are you aware of the ‘accident’
that happened on Bellfield Boulevard South late last night, your Ladyship.
Allegedly a handful of local gangers jacked a car, robbing and killing an
old couple”.
“And…”
“My sources inform me that the bodies of the ‘elderly couple’, where
wearing rather young style clothes, including Kevlar bodysuits and both
had shoulder holsters, empty of course. Does this make any sense to you?”
“No, not yet, but thank you for bringing this to my attention Baron. Leave
it with me and we’ll speak in a few days”
… to be continued…
Card of the Month
Like many players, since I discovered Revelations, I’ve included them in
decks to get rid of Bleed Bounce, Archon Investigation or Intercept, to
help get my bleeds in. However, recently I have been including a few more
than usual and consider it as an all time good card. For me it is an
offensive card in its own right, not just an assist. Many players don’t
bother blocking Revelations, which is usually stupid.
If you can get rid of your Prey’s pool gain cards (Blood Doll, Minion Tap,
Govern the Unaligned etc), this is a superb way of Bleeding, by denying
him pool gain, and you can’t bounce Revelations. Similarly burning key
cards like Politics, Immortal Grapples, Hunting Grounds and Events can
destabilise your Prey’s strategy. Nuff said, bit of Auspex never hurt
anyone.
Prince Murphy Rides Again
This month Prince Murphy gives us his take on deck design.
• “If it's stupid but it works, it isn't stupid” – this illustrates very
well, the idea that if certain cards work for you, regardless of what
others say, then use them. Normally I would have put some examples in
here, but in a similar discussion on-line recently about ‘one man’s meat
being another man’s poison’, I put a few examples up, and lo and behold,
people came back telling me they where stupid ideas. (see my Exit
paragraph below as well)
• “The important things are always simple; the simple are always hard” –
pool gain, combat survivability and blood control for your minions springs
to mind, and are key factors in deck design.
• “The one item you need is always in short supply” – an example of this
maybe that if you need one particular card, you can guarantee that it’s in
the bottom 10% of your library. The more specific you are with your choice
of cards, the more painful it is when they don’t come out quickly.
• “Things which must be shipped together as a set, aren't” – listen
carefully to the wise words spoken here; don’t rely on multi-card combos
too much, because if they don’t come out, you are screwed.
Sheperds and Stewards - Tales from the Crypt
Having looked at Arika in August, we’ll continue looking at the high
capacity vamps of our clan.
Meet Lucinde Alastor, with her three votes and incredibly versatile
discipline set.
Name: Lucinde Alastor
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.
Yep, she’s a 10, but 10s can Govern out pretty much everyone else and do
horrible vote things to lesser vampires. Look across your domain, check
out who’s got big guys in play, spot the weenie horde, play Ancient
Influence and Reins of Power, then drop in behind it – OR – Look across
your domain, spot the weenie horde, drop in front of it, then play Ancient
Influence and Reins of Power – either way yeh baby!
Lucinde can rush heaps of vamps for free, but do we want to play a rush
based deck? Certainly, if we are in toolbox mode, she’s a good one to
‘tool up’. Try a .44 Magnum, preferably with a Flak Jacket too. Try Press
(maybe from a Trap), Superior Mettle and Taste of Vitae as well, if the
enemy is appropriate. Guardian Angel adds a special something to this mix,
giving her +3 Intercept with a Second Tradition.
As well her own built-in rush, she can make one of her friends an
Alastor, giving them free rush and cheap toys. Can you guess what kind of
deck we might be building? She’s obviously gonna be a star in Ventrue
combat decks, which is another subject I’ll be looking at a some future
point.
With the additional of a bit more Thaumaturgy, you can attach a Rutor’s
Hands. Pop in a few Freak Drives, and she can pay for herself, and then
rock with comparative ease. As an anchor in a combat deck, there’s a few
vamps she can hang with, using FOR, POT, DOM. Hmmm, sounds like the bride
of Lazverinus. Now there’s a film title. Anyone with DOM PRE and obf is
truly scary. This makes for bleeds from hell, and of course, the Obfuscate
allows you get in more actions, which is always good – see the last issue
for a deck based on Ventrue with Obfuscate. I believe that she is so
versatile, that she can play a part in any strategy: bleed, bloat, vote,
combat, intercept etc. Lucinde the Anarch; have to think about that one
for a while!
Being able to burn the Edge to gain a blood initially may look like no
big deal, however as we all quickly learn, blood management is a complex
and difficult issue for many decks. With a Blood Dolly attached to
Lucinde, she can generate an extra point of Pool gain from having the
Edge, which is jolly nice if you feel you won’t be able to hang on to it
for very long.
Having mentioned a number already, I don’t propose to cover every vote
card she could personally play here, but if you are playing with only
pretty high-cap dudes, you might consider packing one Might of the
Camarilla, just in case your prey (or other threat across the table) has
only one uncontrolled vampire with some nice pool on it. I did also
recently attend a tourney in Leicester with a very naughty high-cap
Ventrue deck arming itself to the teeth with Assault Rifles, then Parity
Shifting its prey – good plan! (respect to Matt for the one). Can’t bleed
bounce either of those can you!
The next holy of holies to look at is Lady Anne Bowsley, commonly known
as Queen Anne, and what a bitch she is in ‘real’ life (i.e. LARP and
tabletop); Queen Anne is Britain’s real Iron lady.
Name: Queen Anne
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.
As you can see, she doesn’t exactly get on well with the Tremere, wise
lady. Her issue with them is well illustrated in her ability to bleed them
for even more than usual. In fact her all-round manipulative,
finger-in-every pie, M15 based, general bitch-queenness (that’s not
actually a word is it?) is also illustrated in her +1 bleed for
all-comers. She is definitely a Diva of bleed – PRE DOM obf +1 Bleed, yes
that makes bleed for super large amounts children. Give her superior
Obfuscate and she starts to become a ‘you can’t block’ monster by using
Seduction then Elder Impersonation. Stealth-Bleed (S/B), thing of the
past, this is Stroll along the Thames-Bleed (SatT/B), neatly brushing the
proles to one side.
With her ladyship being one of the first Ventrue to turn up with Auspex,
and being a Prince, she can be a one-women Wall, intercepting all with
charm and grace. I know this might shock some folk, but I propose to look
at Ventrue Intercept in a future issue. Maybe y’all could open a book on
what’s going to be in the next issue, it’s not going to be that hard to
predict, especially as I wander through each base point of the game.
Predictable the Ventrue – never (YESYESYES!!!!). Even better, you could
all write the articles, send them in, and I’ll knock up some kind of prize
for the best one, which I can then give to one of my mates. We could print
the best and the worst, and I can take all the glory (spot the natural
Ventrue mind set at work – delegation, dirty-backhand dealing, sleaze). At
last, I can enter politics.
Actually there’s something in all that crap I’ve just written. It will be
interesting if I write on a particular topic, and in the next issue, other
folk have commented, added, stuck their three-penneth in, etc. I can edit
some vague sense into this, and you lot can correct all my mistakes. That
way we all gain (sounds good anyway!). This goes back to my forum concept
of the newsletter. Maybe we can sharpen our tactical ability to a point
where we take a high % of tournament wins, and can show off to all the
other clans. We all test our decks, then wait till the next storyline
tourney comes out, then bring out our super-sharp whizzo exciting Ventrue
decks, and storm through. Now that would surprise a few folk. You know, we
might be tedious, boring, stuffy and arrogant, but we do win… and so does
our clan.
Deck of the Month
Wall Street Shuffle: Ventrue mid-cap bleedy toolbox with Auspex.
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
1x Iyana Ravidovitch: Ventrue 5. Camarilla. Burn a blood to gain
Intercept. 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
2x Alan Sovereign: Ventrue 6. Camarilla. DOM, AUS, pre, for
2x Ranjan Rishi, Camarilla Scholar: Ventrue 5. Camarilla. DOM, PRE, for
1x Elena Gutierrez: Ventrue 4. Camarilla. pre, for, aus
1x Horatio Ballard: Ventrue 7. Camarilla. PRE, DOM, FOR, aus
Library:
4x Blood Doll
1x Minion Tap
1x Uptown Hunting Ground
1x KRGC News Radio
2x Sudden Reversal or 2x Anarch Troublemaker
1x Dominate
2x Fortitude
1x Elysium: The Arboretum
1x Ventrue Headquarters
2x Hostile Takeover
1x Entrancement
4x Restoration
5x Scouting Mission
4x Dominate Kine or Kine Dominance (could replace 1 with another Seduction
or Revelations)
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
I am so sick of being ousted by basic votes, hence the inclusion of
layered Intercept. Iyana Ravidovitch and Elena Gutierrez are great
blockers for this deck, both being cheap and very useful. Ventrue
Headquarters can prevent speculative votes from being passed, and be used
to influence and negotiate with any vote decks. It’s also handy at
reducing how much someone wins by, and therefore reducing the
effectiveness of Voter Captivation.
Use the Monocle to check whether your prey has bleed bounce or AI. The
Sudden Reversals should be to stop your predator from gaining Intercept or
Stealth, stopping anyone placing Haven Uncovered on your vampires, or
preventing your prey from gaining Intercept or Pool Gain. Keep an Anarch
Troublemaker for a killer blow to oust your prey. If you do oust your
Prey, then your Troublemaker, which you have just passed to your Prey,
will burn as she dies. If you don’t manage to oust, you have a second
Troublemaker to contest with if you choose to.
Scouting Mission was chosen over Govern the Unaligned because I’ve too
many other cards leeching blood away. Packing 4x Dominate Kine is very
expensive on blood, which is why there are 4x Restorations, the Estate and
a Razor. However the ability to steal other people’s Locations is
fantastic, and can be extremely painful for them. Palatial Estate + Blood
Doll is a heavenly combination, very simple, and very effective.
Entrancement is included for stealing Allies, preferably a War Ghoul
(currently hyper popular and too damn expensive). It could easily be
replaced by another Seduction.
I am always wary of being smashed to bits in combat, hence the inclusion
of twelve expensive high powered survival cards. Skin of Steel is a pain
in the rear against in basic ‘hit you for 1’ combats. But against nasty
Brujah types and similar evil mothers, who dish out 3+ damage per hit, it
is a fantastic card. As ever Immortal Grapple is an issue, hence the Skins
as well as the Majesty. The Elysium is really useful if you have Camarilla
enemies, though often you don’t see that many Cam decks anymore.
8 Wakes, 7 Majesty and a Freak Drive means that should be able to keep
enough folks able to react to defend against most stuff, even some weenie
hordes.
Exit
It’s time for a small but important rant. Recently I posted a message (on
the fantastic vtes site:
http://www.talkaboutgaming.com/group/rec.games.trading-cards.jyhad ). I
was really surprised when one guy replied “Manorr mumbled something about
……”. The whole point of posting on this site is to discuss ideas, so of
course people will disagree with some or all that you say. What I can’t
understand why anyone would feel the need to be rude and personal about
it. Why insult someone on line, because you disagree with what they say.
VTES is a collectable card game, not politics or religion, and there are
no pheromones at work online.
I’m pretty sure that most of the people who like dishing out the
aggression on-line may use slightly different words if they where talking
face to face. If we want respect, we all have to earn it by giving it out.
Anyway, that’s enough moaning for now.
Finally, has anyone played Infernal Ventrue yet in the Infernal Plague
tournaments? If you have, let us know about your experiences. For some
reason the Great Beast formerly known as Anne just popped into my
thoughts.
This month’s issue was written and compiled by David Knowles (manorr2005
–at- yahoo –dot- co –dot- uk) <don’t use manorr2001 any more, it’s dead>
The Lasombra
<manor...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> It’s time for a small but important rant. Recently I posted a message (on
>the fantastic vtes site:
>http://www.talkaboutgaming.com/group/rec.games.trading-cards.jyhad ).
This is not an a "fantastic vtes site".
This is a compilation of posts made to the Usenet Newsgroup
rec.games.trading-cards.jyhad.
There is very little difference between the site you mention and
groups.google.com or www.mailgate.org or any of the other sites that
siphon off Usenet posts and put them into a web readable format.
>I was really surprised when one guy replied “Manorr mumbled something about
>……”. The whole point of posting on this site is to discuss ideas, so of
>course people will disagree with some or all that you say. What I can’t
>understand why anyone would feel the need to be rude and personal about
>it.
It was neither rude, nor personal.
Every reply made by that poster begins with those words.
There is an application called a newsreader, and that application
allows you to read and reply to Usenet newsgroup posts. His
newsreader is set to begin his replies with that combination of words.
Welcome to Usenet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet
It predates the popularity of the internet by 10-15 years.
>Why insult someone on line, because you disagree with what they say.
What better reason can you have to insult someone online?
You will have no experience of their personal habits (self-cleaning,
presentation), no experience of their work habits (lazy /
hardworking), and no experience of their social habits. The only
interaction you have with them is their ability to express themselves
well in text. If they do it poorly, educating them would be better,
but insults can serve as a very bracing education indeed.
>VTES is a collectable card game, not politics or religion, and there are
>no pheromones at work online.
It has been approached as a nearly religious debate on certain issues.
See also, Frequently Offered Clever Suggestions:
http://www.thelasombra.com/vtes_focs.htm
>I’m pretty sure that most of the people who like dishing out the
>aggression on-line may use slightly different words if they where talking
>face to face.
You would be surprised how real the people on this particular
newsgroup are. I have met and played with a number of the most
caustic individuals, and what you are missing is their tone of voice.
The words are identical, you are simply reading them in your head
differently then they are typing them in their heads.
>If we want respect, we all have to earn it by giving it out.
This particular newsgroup is about entertainment. That's why the name
starts with "rec". As in recreation. A "feeling of friendship and
esteem" or ''respect" is not a necessary ingredient for entertainment,
although it can allow conversations to flow more smoothly.
>Anyway, that’s enough moaning for now.
Amen to that.
Carpe noctem.
Lasombra
Derek Ray
<017bb6e6524ca131...@localhost.talkaboutgaming.com>,
"Manorr2005" <manor...@yahoo.co.uk> mumbled something about:
>I’m pretty sure that most of the people who like dishing out the
>aggression on-line may use slightly different words if they where talking
>face to face. If we want respect, we all have to earn it by giving it out.
Being respectful to me isn't how you earn my respect.
Being competent and knowledgeable can earn you some.
Being exceptional will earn you even more.
Being thin-skinned and hypersensitive over something you clearly don't
fully understand (cf. USENET, newsreaders, and auto-quote prefixes, as
described/mentioned by the Lasombra in his response) earns you, on the
other hand, a certain minimum of disrespect. As evinced in this post.
By the way, I'd use the same words in person.
--
"There's no gray. There's just white that's got grubby." -- T.P.
Curevei
very
>well, the idea that if certain cards work for you, regardless of what
>others say, then use them. Normally I would have put some examples in
>here, but in a similar discussion on-line recently about ‘one man’s meat
>being another man’s poison’, I put a few examples up, and lo and behold,
>people came back telling me they where stupid ideas. (see my Exit
>paragraph below as well)
My interest is in reconciling these differences. Why does some card (or
strategy or whatever) work for somebody well yet not considered that highly?
Or, why are there many arguments on both sides for the value of a card? Etc.
Of course, there's a line somewhere where it's just too much effort to
reconcile, but I wish people would avoid writing off differences with no effort
to explain them. "Agreeing to disagree" might be inevitable on at least some
issues, but it provides for lousy analysis.
Halcyan 2
>2x Gracis Nostinus: Ventrue 7. Camarilla Primogen. A younger vampire
>failing to block him is tapped. PRE, DOM, for, aus
>1x Iyana Ravidovitch: Ventrue 5. Camarilla. Burn a blood to gain
>Intercept. 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
>2x Alan Sovereign: Ventrue 6. Camarilla. DOM, AUS, pre, for
>2x Ranjan Rishi, Camarilla Scholar: Ventrue 5. Camarilla. DOM, PRE, for
>1x Elena Gutierrez: Ventrue 4. Camarilla. pre, for, aus
>1x Horatio Ballard: Ventrue 7. Camarilla. PRE, DOM, FOR, aus
Why so much duplication? Have you thought about incorporating some Ventrue
Antitribu into the deck? Sure, most of them would only have inferior Presence
but that would just mean they wouldn't untap from Majesty. Some possible
choices include:
Vanessa, 6, aus DOM FOR pre
Edward Neally, 7, aus DOM FOR pre
Vanessa could sub for an Edward or an Alan. Edward's special synergizes well
with Revelations (to see if there's anything worth discarding) or to get some
recon if you don't have a Revelations in your hand.
Owain Evans, 8, AUS cel DOM FOR pre
Kyle Strathcona, 9, AUS DOM for POT PRE
At this point, the minions are starting to get a bit expensive. But Owain's
special is so good he may be worth it.
Regardless, I don't really think J. Oswald is an especially good vampire for
the deck (and it doesn't look like you're using the OBF). You may want to think
about replacing him with Owain, Kyle, or even Bindusara, the only Ventrue with
all four of your disciplines at superior.
Halcyan 2