Osebo Clan Newsletter - December 2005
Mathias
=====================================
Matt Avery, Editor
mathi...@hotmail.com
=================
TABLE OF CONTENTS
=================
I. Introduction
II. Background/Flavor
III. Card of the Month
IV. Vampire of the Month
V. Deck of the Month
VI. Preview of next issue/Sign Off
=================
I. Introduction
=================
Happy Holidays All!
This is the inaugural issue of the Osebo Clan Newsletter, and I'm
finally getting it posted. Hopefully you all are having a happy holiday
season, and get a chance to relax, enjoy yourself, and at least get a
few days off work/school/whatever else fills your days.
For now, the newsletters will focus on only a couple cards and vamps
per issue so I can try and make it last for a while. With only 10
Osebo vamps, and six clan specific cards (about half of which are
pretty much standard fare), a monthly newsletter will cover that
material in less than a year. Hopefully we'll get the missing vamp,
Kisha Bhimji, before then, but other than that I wouldn't expect to be
getting much Osebo/Laibon goodness for awhile.
======================
II. Background/Flavor
======================
For those who were unfamiliar with the Kindred of the Ebony Kingdom RPG
setting, before Legacies of Blood came out, I thought it might be
interesting to look back at the original source material to get a
better feel for how the Osebo clan was originally envisioned. So I've
summarized a few excerpts from the write-up of those who call
themselves 'The Pride' (the collective reference to the Osebo clan as a
whole) to see if we can pull any inspiration from it.
* Osebo himself is the leopard of West African Ashanti legend, fast and
strong but proud. The Kindred of his namesake clan are notoriously
undisciplined, passionate creatures.
* All Osebo suffer a fire in the blood, a heated temper. The Pride
frenzies easily, it's members becoming whirling dervishes of
destruction, so they often serve as the warriors of the Ebony Kingdom.
* They support the Guruhi most often, as the Osebo know that they can't
control themselves, so they look for someone to protect them from
themselves. Without strong leadership, the Pride indulge their baser
whims, stealing children from their cribs, abducting men from their
homes, killing without need and otherwise watching their morals degrade
as the Beast has its way with them.
* Most Osebo don't put much stock in subterfuge, and the less
sophisticated among them rarely even bother with hygiene. And finally,
my personal favorite, the matter-of-fact clan quote:
* "I was told you have to die. So be it."
So the Osebo are a bunch of reckless dirty child snatching bitches.
Could you ask for a more inspirational back-story? Hey, at least we're
not a mob of m-r f-n incestuous Giovanni finocchios! (Love the vocab
lesson Fabio!) :) The Osebo just need a strong hand to keep them in
line, and in VtES, that job falls to us, the Methuselahs. Sure I may
look into a allowing the Guruhi to fulfill their traditional roles,
ordering the Osebo around in an Ani/Aus/Pot deck at some point in the
future, but for now let's leave out the middle managers and stick to
directly influencing the Pride ourselves.
The Osebo can easily be manipulated into finely honed tools, with their
mastery of Auspex preventing any of our rivals' plans from taking
shape, while their brutal combat combination of Celerity and Potence
makes them capable of weakening other Methuselah's hold over opposing
minions. So if I say, "Arika's got to die," Massassi says "So be it,"
then proceeds to give the high and mighty mistress a close up view of
the 'inner circle' of several sewer lids. They get the job done, no
questions asked, simple and straightforward, and that's just the way we
want our minions. Many other vamps are too tricky, sneaky and
manipulative for their own good, and can be more trouble than they're
worth. You never know if you'll be able to get them to consistently
pull off whatever you're trying to. So let your opponents worry over
controlling those others, and you just count on the old reliable Osebo
to shut them down.
======================
III. Card of the Month
======================
Ancestor's Insight
Requires a ready Laibon.
[aus] [REACTION] Reduce a bleed against you by 1.
[AUS] [ACTION MODIFIER] +1 bleed; after playing this card, you cannot
play another action modifier to further increase the bleed for this
action. How bout, will anyone except us make consistent use of this?
I'd like to see them try. This is the only transitory bleed boost the
Osebo have available, and they need it desperately. And thankfully,
each of the top half of the Osebo vamps has superior Aus to make full
use of Ancestor's Insight, while all but the lowliest Misrak are only a
single skill card away from doing the same. The bleed reduction at
inferior may come in handy if you're on the ropes, but in all but the
most desperate of situations I'd say you want to save this for the
bleed.
=========================
IV. Vampire of the Month
=========================
Homa
6-Cap
Osebo
AUS CEL POT
Laibon.
I'll confidently say that almost any Osebo deck will do well to have at
least two copies of Homa in the crypt. It's just too bad he's not in
the Pre-Con instead of Uzoma. (Oh Uzoma, you worthless dog... I'll
deal with you later!) With all superior in-clans on a 6 cap, if you're
playing Osebo, Homa gets the job done. Staple vamp.
======================
V. Deck of the Month
======================
With the Osebo pre-con as a starting point, the majority of the cards
port easily into a mostly workable version of a flung junk deck. Basic
premise, for those who might be unfamiliar with the concept: maneuver
to long and throw stuff, additional strike/press, repeat as needed.
The first adaption is Pat's Blocky Fighty deck. This is the version he
presented on the Google Groups a while ago, which I edited to reflect
the changes he suggested in further discussion. Those interested in
the full text of the original thread (and the extensive Thrown Sewer
Lid vs. Earthshock debate it developed into) can find it here:
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.trading-cards.jyhad/browse_thread/thread/b8674bc8512ae7b1/26b621c68c38570f?q=osebo+thrown+junk&rnum=1#26b621c68c38570f
Deck Name: Osebo Blocky Fighty
Created By: Pat Lusk
Description: Another reworking of the starter, to turn it into a
flung junk deck. Massassi and four rush actions to help go forward if
the intercept plan isn't working.
Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 14, Max: 34, Avg: 6.25)
----------------------------------------------
3 Massassi obf AUS CEL POT QUI 9 Osebo
3 Khalu ani pro AUS CEL POT 7 Osebo
2 Homa AUS CEL POT 6 Osebo
1 Ismitta aus cel pot 4 Osebo
1 Mariano Pomposo aus cel pot 4 Brujah
Antitribu
1 Gengis aus cel pot 3 Brujah
1 Kamaria aus pot 3 Osebo
Library: (90 cards)
-------------------
Master (13 cards)
2 Base Hunting Ground
3 Fame
2 Tension in the Ranks
5 Blood Doll
1 Dreams of the Sphinx
Action (9 cards)
2 Legend of the Leopard
2 Nose of the Hound
2 Bum`s Rush
3 Computer Hacking
Reaction (22 cards)
5 Telepathic Misdirection
5 Quicken Sight
3 Enhanced Senses
3 Eagle's Sight
6 Forced Awakening
Combat (46 cards)
6 Psyche!
2 Blur
3 Acrobatics
4 Pursuit
4 Flash
5 Sideslip
6 Taste of Vitae
10 Thrown Sewer Lid
6 Thrown Gate
Here's my own version I threw together after the pre-release. It tries
to get hold of a .44 for consistent maneuvers and a default ranged
strike to supplement the Potence strikes. Precognition and Stunt
Cycles provide a bit a of prevention to save blood for Blood Dolling
back to pool to pay for the guns. Only played it a few times now, but
the Crocodile's Tongue's have worked great for getting an action
through or softening up whoever tries to block. I also have really
liked Cesawayo, Talk Radio, and the Bowl of Convergence for a better
chance of permacept in play.
Deck Name: Aus Cel Pot Osebo Flung Junk
Created By: Matt Avery
Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 15, Max: 38, Avg: 7.17)
----------------------------------------------
1 Gengis aus cel pot 3 Brujah
1 Mariano Pomposo aus cel pot 4 Brujah
Antitribu
2 Ismitta aus cel pot 4 Osebo
2 Homa AUS CEL POT 6 Osebo
1 Khalu ani pro AUS CEL POT 7 Osebo
3 Massassi obf AUS CEL POT QUI 9 Osebo
2 Cesewayo ani THA POT DOM CEL AUS 10 Osebo
Library: (90 cards)
-------------------
Master (12 cards)
5 Blood Doll
1 Information Highway
2 Fame
1 Tension in the Ranks
1 WMRH Talk Radio
1 Dreams of the Sphinx
1 Base Hunting Ground
Action (6 cards)
2 Nose of the Hound
2 Bum`s Rush
2 Pulse of the Canaille
Action Modifier (5 cards)
4 Crocodile's Tongue
1 Massassi's Honor
Reaction (22 cards)
3 Precognition
2 My Enemy's Enemy
4 Quicken Sight
4 Wake with Evening's Freshness
4 Forced Awakening
3 Telepathic Misdirection
2 Eagle's Sight
Combat (40 cards)
3 Sideslip
2 Side Strike
6 Psyche!
6 Thrown Sewer Lid
4 Stunt Cycle
6 Thrown Gate
4 Pursuit
2 Acrobatics
2 Blur
5 Taste of Vitae
Equipment (5 cards)
1 Ivory Bow
1 Bowl of Convergence
3 .44 Magnum
Combo (4 cards)
4 Ancestor's Insight
This deck was last saved at 4:41:28 PM on 12/19/2005
===================================
VI. Preview of next issue/Sign Off
===================================
Next issue will examine Enforcer and Tatu Sawosa, and examine a deck
archetype built around tooling up to make the most of the extra
strength these two offer. If anyone else has already made use of these
and has a deck or strategy advice they'd like to share, please feel
free to email me and I'll make sure to get it in the next issue. Or if
anyone has any other specific play experience with the clan they'd like
to share, or ideas/cards they'd like to see explored, let me know and
we can work those into later issues as well.
Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it, see ya next month, and in the
mean time, have fun flinging junk 'round the table with the Pride.
Matt Avery
Osebo Clan Newsletter Editor
mathi...@hotmail.com
Pat
"Mathias" <mathi...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1135642586....@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
> Osebo Clan Newsletter - December 2005
> =====================================
>
> Matt Avery, Editor
> mathi...@hotmail.com
>
<snip>
> ======================
> II. Background/Flavor
> ======================
>
This was good stuff, great idea to include in the first clan newsletter.
> =========================
> IV. Vampire of the Month
> =========================
>
> Homa
> 6-Cap
> Osebo
> AUS CEL POT
> Laibon.
>
> I'll confidently say that almost any Osebo deck will do well to have at
> least two copies of Homa in the crypt. It's just too bad he's not in
> the Pre-Con instead of Uzoma.
D'oh, it's Homa!
>
> ======================
> V. Deck of the Month
> ======================
>
> With the Osebo pre-con as a starting point, the majority of the cards
> port easily into a mostly workable version of a flung junk deck. Basic
> premise, for those who might be unfamiliar with the concept: maneuver
> to long and throw stuff, additional strike/press, repeat as needed.
>
> The first adaption is Pat's Blocky Fighty deck. This is the version he
> presented on the Google Groups a while ago, which I edited to reflect
> the changes he suggested in further discussion. Those interested in
> the full text of the original thread (and the extensive Thrown Sewer
> Lid vs. Earthshock debate it developed into) can find it here:
> http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.trading-cards.jyhad/browse_thread/thread/b8674bc8512ae7b1/26b621c68c38570f?q=osebo+thrown+junk&rnum=1#26b621c68c38570f
>
> Deck Name: Osebo Blocky Fighty
> Created By: Pat Lusk
I've only had a chance to play it once, but the version that I actually
built swept a casual 5-player game.
Seating was
!Nos POT/ANI fight (Ox, Nigel, etc. - no Beast, no Cailean) >>
!Sal fight (Dela with support vamps) >>
Me with Osebo >>
Enkidu & other huge Gangrel >>
Some sort of celerity, with some guns
The !Nos had the best initial crypt draw and came out strong. They got
tooled up with Raven Spies, etc. while the rest of us were bringing out
fattier vamps. I got Massassi first and wound up being that guy in a
5-player table who got no pressure at all.
The gun deck effed up Enkidu and left him in torpor empty. He sat there for
a turn or two until the !Nos diablerized. The guns and !Nos fought it out
for a bit, mostly to little effect. Since Enki was in torporland, Massassi's
first action was a rush backward at Dela. I had the maneuvers to get long
with no trouble, and got Dela down to a couple blood. (2 Lids, I think.) I
started bleeding for 1 a lot.
The !Nos beat up the !Sal really badly and got them down to about 3 pool and
1 vamp. Fortunately, the 1 vamp was Dela, and the !Sal started drawing their
goodies. Dela single-handedly fended off the !Nos hordes for the rest of the
game, torporizing and burning and preventing with Armor of Caine's Fury. It
really was an impressive display.
The Enki player had to bring out another huge Gangrel (Karsh, I think), and
was down to an absurdly low pool total, so I ousted him pretty fast.
Meanwhile, I drew a Fast Hands and kept rushing the !Nos cross-table in an
effort to steal a Sengir Dagger (or maybe it was a Crimson Sentinel). The
!Nos outmaneuvered me but never hurt me too badly, since my long-range
combat was nastier than his.
Then the gun deck brought out a Submachine Gun, and I had a better target
for the Fast Hands. Massassi grabbed that gun with her next action, and she
was able to terrorize the table for the rest of the game with the ill-gotten
gun.
I had no trouble ousting the gun deck and had plenty of momentum to sweep
the !Nos and !Sal once that deck was gone.
It certainly wasn't a normal game, we rarely have 5 combat decks at the
table at once. (2 or 3 is common, but not 5.) And I had a couple of things
working in my favor, i.e., no pressure from behind, and somebody else
gacking Enkidu for me, but the deck worked o.k.
Nice job on the newsletter, Matt!
- Pat
tobiasopdenbr...@notsocoldmail.com
> then proceeds to give the high and mighty mistress a close up view of
> the 'inner circle' of several sewer lids.
Lol.
Good letter!
Fabio 'Sooner' Macedo
Pat escreveu:
> The gun deck effed up Enkidu and left him in torpor empty. He sat there for
> a turn or two until the !Nos diablerized. The guns and !Nos fought it out
> for a bit, mostly to little effect. Since Enki was in torporland,
Question:
Why almost every single time I hear an account of a game where Enkidu
shows up, he's PTO'ed or in torpor? :-P
Answer:
Don't know why, but henceforth I only call him Sabrina. He's accursed,
somehow. Or that's just how things go when one relies on an 11-cap to
do combat job.
Anyway, yeah, nice newsletter - even if it shows no *rispetto* for us
Giovanni! Damn! :D
Fabio "Sooner" Macedo
Luis Duarte - Powerbase:Lisbon
Mathias wrote:
> Osebo Clan Newsletter - December 2005
> =====================================
> The Osebo can easily be manipulated into finely honed tools, with their
> mastery of Auspex preventing any of our rivals' plans from taking
> shape, while their brutal combat combination of Celerity and Potence
> makes them capable of weakening other Methuselah's hold over opposing
> minions. So if I say, "Arika's got to die," Massassi says "So be it,"
> then proceeds to give the high and mighty mistress a close up view of
> the 'inner circle' of several sewer lids.
Aham..... Obedience+PTO?
Sorry to ruin your party but i've seen this speach with Beast. :-D
Another thing: i got only 1 Massami and no one else have any to sell or
trade. Can you suggest a future reprint of Massami? Osebo decks without
him sucks!
.- Luis Duarte
brokenstep
"Luis Duarte - Powerbase:Lisbon" <luis....@netcabo.pt> wrote in message
news:1135794848.1...@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
massassi is a girl
:P
Fabio 'Sooner' Macedo
Luis Duarte - Powerbase:Lisbon escreveu:
Hi,
I only have 2 also (1 on each Legacies box I've ordered!), but I've
built a deck without her and it doesn't seem to suck. I know how good
it is to have built-in rush to flush out combat cards, but the deck was
built to block almost anything (I've been able to block 5-stealth
actions without too much hassle), relies very much on guns and has a
very trimmed combat package (I believe around 30 cards, maybe even
less). In this case, I preferred Cesewayo instead of Massassi as my
high-cap of choice since he's a magaji and can generate intercept by
himself. Once I manage to put a No Secrets From the Magaji on him
(admittedly, people will block this at the expense of a vampire if they
can), predator and prey usually despair.
And in general, there's no such thing as "clan X deck sucks without
vamp Y". Even Carlotta is not that necessary.
best,
Fabio Sooner
Mathias
newsletter. And thanks for sharing your experience Pat. It's good to
see the deck proved itself, even if the circumstances were a bit skewed
from normal with an all combat table.
Luis Duarte - Powerbase:Lisbon wrote:
>
> Aham..... Obedience+PTO?
> Sorry to ruin your party but i've seen this speach with Beast. :-D
Sure there's always the POSSIBILITY that Arika will crack her
Dominatrix whip and make Massassi (or Beast) bow down moaning "YES
MISTRESS!" But the important thing is that she also obeys ME, the
Methuselah, in the first place. So when she comes back whining, "I
really tried to flatten her face master, but I just couldn't refuse her
in those black leather pants," I'll at least give her a pat on the back
and an A+ for effort. Before I bitch slap the impudent wench.
Seriously though, you're right, there's always going to be something to
counter even the most well planned deck. But the fact is, it CAN
happen sometimes, and that's what we play for, cuz it's a beautiful
thing when it does!
>
> Another thing: i got only 1 Massami and no one else have any to sell or
> trade. Can you suggest a future reprint of Massami? Osebo decks without
> him sucks!
>
> .- Luis Duarte
I actually only own one copy of her as well, and have had to proxy her
to test my decks. I expect her demand to remain high too. Not only is
Massassi a girl, she's a HOUSE! Hopefully over the next few months, as
more people buy into LoB, there'll be more Massassi love to spread
around to all. But I wouldn't expect a reprint of her anytime soon, if
ever. She's another one I wish was in pre-con though. I would much
rather have seen her instead of Tatu Sawosa. Then again, if they just
put all the best cards/vamps in the pre-cons we'd have that much less
motivation to buy so many boosters, right?
And I must concur with Fabio. Cesawayo's permacept + Magaji-ness is
proving at least as useful as Massassi's built-in rush. Those two and
Homa are the vamps I find myself consistently hoping for in my opening
draw. Everyone else is pretty much filler.
Pat
> And I must concur with Fabio. Cesawayo's permacept + Magaji-ness is
> proving at least as useful as Massassi's built-in rush. Those two and
> Homa are the vamps I find myself consistently hoping for in my opening
> draw. Everyone else is pretty much filler.
>
Khalu's not bad.
Khalu, 7, ani pro AUS CEL POT, Osebo, 3, [LoB]
Laibon: Khalu may burn 5 blood to cancel a minion card played by your
predator or prey (no cost is payed).
Basically Homa, plus an interesting special, for one more pool. (Though I've
yet to use the special, it's not a bad "wild card" to take out the
occasional annoying Temptation or Parity Shift or whatever.)
But overall, I agree, Massassi, Cesewayo, and Homa are clearly the horses of
this clan.
BTW, has the missing vamp been spoiled? I'm assuming it's a 5-cap, because
the Osebo are missing a 5. The other 5's are very solid (2 with SUP inf inf
and a good special, and 1 with SUP SUP inf), so maybe we'll get an aus CEL
POT minion to keep Homa company in the mid-cap division.
I'm sure the Hannibal exchange program was a big pain for LSJ, but I'm
hoping they do something to make the missing vamp widely available... Uzoma
is so 5 minutes ago!
- Pat