Interaction.  Is a game a game if you don’t interact with anything?  Solitaire?  Interacting with random draws or layouts.  Too esoteric, maybe.  Interaction with opponents in a game with multiple people is a necessary element to a game.

As I often say, I once thought interaction was the key to making a CCG good.  Then, I realized just how much interaction in multiplayer CCGs is crap.  Player A trashes player B and either C or D wins, just because A’s deck only does the one thing of trashing another player.  If you did a cost/benefit table of two-player CCGs vs. multiplayer CCGs, I’d put something down on the two-player side about how two-player CCGs don’t have to worry about the kingmaking effects of negative interactions.

Which led to the idea of “quality interaction”, however subjective that is.

But, this isn’t a post about quality interaction.  This is a post about something I more clearly realized due to helping design a CCG/LCG style game.

You want to minimize m-… self-play.  The more time you spend dealing with your own “board” is that much less time you are spending engaging your opponent(s).  Seems obvious, but it also seems like designers forget about this when trying to come up with mechanics, especially when doing top-down mechanics, i.e. simulating the flavor of whatever the game is based on.

At least, if you are looking for enjoyable play.  For effectiveness, it’s something of a truism that the less you interact with your opponents, the better off you are.

I’ll run through the CCGs I know best.

Vampire: The Eternal Struggle

I hadn’t thought about this until yesterday.  The increased number of effects that happen during untap always struck me as being off, but it was only yesterday that I realized that at least part of this was because it was purely administrative functions that had no interactions with other players’ boards and card play.  (Burn option is not remotely interactive, just in case it bothers anyone I don’t mention this.)

To get kind of sidetracked already, people bitch a lot about Imbued, and a lot of the carping has to do with how long they take.  Then, you get counterarguments that people who know what they are doing don’t take very long.  It’s clearer to me now that it isn’t the actual time spent, but that the Imbued deck is doing lots of things that don’t involve other players.  Much like Freak Drive decks play with themselves for far too long.

There are some benefits to expanding the untap phase, such as helping people remember optional untap effects like taking pool for the Edge or using a hunting ground.  But, overall, it’s just more doing stuff that isn’t “playing a game” (interacting with people).  Similarly, expanding the master phase, the influence phase, and the discard phase all involve expanding phases where you aren’t playing with other people.

Which obviously brings up the minion phase.  The minion phase is the heart of the game.  A lot of people like combat because they see it being the primary interactive element to the game.  I see stealth versus intercept, bleed mods vs. bounce, actions vs. wakes being the primary interactive elements of the game.  But, I can see how some wouldn’t find those quite as compelling as the subgame that is combat as they like the feeling of more directly interacting.

Either way.  The point is that actions are where we engage other players.  Of course, it’s not just actions but the possibility of interference with actions.  Unblockability, such as from excessive amounts of stealth, is obviously less engaging.  I hate playing decks that don’t wake because being tapped out means not being involved in the game, even if all I’m doing is waking and bouncing – bounce is actually a pretty good form of interaction in the game, which is yet another reason I don’t see why people hate it so much.

Where Imbued are masters of the untap, Girls …, et al, are annoying for their abuse of the master phase.  No wonder people can find them more obnoxious than decks that do things I find far worse, like minion destruction.

Babylon 5

A lot of my observations about interaction have come from B5.  There’s no requirement that you interact with opponents, like there essentially is in V:TES.  B5 is a race game, so you can sit back and gain your influence/power as efficiently as possible and hope you outspeed everyone else.  This was one of the great criticisms of the game – that everyone could play multiplayer solitaire.

The whole beginning of the game, outside of some speed/hyperspeed openings was predicated on doing infrastructure work … which is why people so often hated the beginning of B5 games.  Sponsor, build, promote, build, build, build, build, okay … now we start interacting.

Then, as the card pool got bigger, it became easier and easier to spend more and more actions.  It wasn’t like those actions were increased participation in conflicts.  Those actions were often more infrastructure building.  It’s hard to choose one card as the worst card ever printed for B5 – too many options, but in terms of making action rounds as dumb as possible, Bogged Down has to rank up there.  The intention might have been noble – to force people to do important things, but the real result was to encourage people to do numerous trivial actions to prevent the inevitable Secret Strike that would guarantee a successful conflict if everyone else had passed.

Did B5 have a problem with too much administrative stuff outside of the action round?  I wouldn’t say so.  The game emphasized the action round as it should.  Possibly too easy to have a full hand of cards (20, 30), which slowed things down.  Probably too many ways to dick around for a while before doing important things.  And, often, lots of problems with conflicts being the focus of the game.

Wheel of Time

I enjoyed WoT a lot, so why don’t I ever try to argue for its greatness?  Because hardly any of the game involved interacting with your opponent.  Not to say that interaction never mattered.  Challenges could easily decide games depending upon deck matchups.  A basic Pattern Challenge contested might nuke enough resources to decide a game long before the Last Battle.  But, usually, the game was heavily oriented towards recruit, recruit, recruit, Last Battle.

It was particularly bad before the expansions added more brutal challenge cards.  Outrecruiting almost always won games.  The primary form of interaction was actually forced, random discard with Thom Merrilin, Liandrin Sedai, Sabotage (which I underplayed).  That’s not terribly fun, though Thom was the Light’s only hope.

Even after Invasion, Genocide, and the like got published, there were still many games where it was just recruit, recruit, recruit, Guarded by Fate not to die, see what happens in the Last Battle.

There wasn’t a lot of administrative nonsense.  However, there was a lot of time spent just on recruiting.  There was way, way too much time spent counting up symbols – an argument for turning WoT into an awesome electronic CCG.  Lots of card drawing and card searching.

Then, even if you did actually contest challenges, the system for determining who went to which challenges or wussed out was horribly clunky.  Possibly exciting in the rare cases it mattered, but just so clunky that playing with people you trusted was completely different from playing with strangers.

Magic: The Gathering

I think Magic “wins” this category in a couple of ways.  First, while there are ways to do things during upkeep or draw or end of turn, the game is focused heavily on the main phases and the combat subphase.  Second, Magic has lots of ability to interfere with what opponents are doing.  Counterspells might annoy me and be a general source of unfunnity … people like to have their cards do something … but they and things like instant speed creature elimination or responding to effects with card play or board effects all mean that the game has lots of ability to require players to be paying attention to what is going on.  Third, while I consider Magic’s draw one card a turn the primary reason it’s not as fun as it should be, limiting cards in hand does mean that each individual play has more relevance – compare and contrast with games where playing several cards might have no greater game meaning.

On the other hand, Magic does have interaction issues.  Creature combat may be far more important these days, but it’s historically been a minor part of constructed play.  My swarm of 2/2′s beat, your 5/5 flyer swings back, Bolt/Terror/Swords is more of an answer than Giant Growth.  Magic’s more open nature when it comes to card interactions also means far more combo decks than other CCGs, decks that just want to go off and you either can interfere or you can’t.  Can also be ground out by graveyard decks recursing creatures.  Can be hard locked or soft locked out of games a host of ways.  Armageddon or targeted land destruction to prevent being able to play cards, discard to destroy the hand, counterspell everything, whatever – all means games that suck.

In fact, as much as Magic should have better interaction due to its structure, it often has worse than other CCGs due to card effects.  Creature removal is far too easy, making any given creature unreliable.  Planeswalkers, which are awful for the game, become cardless ways that are hard to get rid (to the extent that anything in Magic is hard to get rid of) of that produce obnoxious, repeatable effects.  Equipment tries to solve the problem of creature enchantments being the suck, but they are a much more difficult way to interact with an opponent outside of environments where artifact removal is prevalent.

Ultimate Combat!

Why talk about Magic first?  Well, UC! is Magic.  UC! also has much less relevance to others.

UC! had far fewer effects to interfere with opponent card play, but it did have a lot of lockdown effects.  It had Time Walk.  It had a Time Walk variant.  It had Mindslaver.  It had Winter Orb (as a “sorcery”).  It had Armageddon.  It had lots of scary, scary things it could do to you and very little ability to stop those, mostly “Memory Lapse”, … in theory.

In practice, aggro plays are so strong that a lot of the control mechanisms just aren’t reliable enough.  One wonders whether it would be fair to compare UC! to a Magic format more like Legacy, even given the differences in curve and options, just because of the brutal nature of how decks won.

One thing I vastly prefer about UC! is that “creatures” are one-shots.  It may seem odd that I hate creatures in Magic as much as I do because of how easy they are to remove, but an undealt with creature just wins, often in a tedious fashion.  At least with UC!, you feel like you can recover permanentwise.  Though, I do find that Favorite Technique undermines this immensely.

UC! has about as many administrative needs as Magic, so nothing much there.  The combat subphase is far more important in UC! due to how few other ways there are to win and technique interaction is the norm rather than an accident.  Giant Growths are ubiquitous, which is a lot more interesting to me than Swords to Plowshares effects.

While I concede that proper Magic play requires a lot of thinking and that my numerous bad experiences often come down to poor planning (deck construction metagaming) or huge discrepancies in player skill, I’m quite the believer that proper play in UC! is a massive factor.  So, while the interaction may seem more limited and just generally less present, I find that I have to pay a lot of attention to the game state and making good decisions does get rewarded.

Tomb Raider

Sure, why not?  So, I didn’t play a lot of this game.  Who has?  I probably played my share through playtesting.

Two-player Tomb Raider never felt all that interactive.  Well, maybe starter versus starter was okay, though it wasn’t that hard for one player to get locked on one side of the board.  Multiplayer had a very different problem.

We often playtested multiplayer scenarios where you had to return home with your prize.  Not unexpectedly, it ran into the problem of people behind just waiting for someone to return and ambushing, much like you might see in RoboRally.

In addition, much of Tomb Raider had nothing to do with your opponent.  Getting stuff, overcoming board effects, deciding where to explore – the game was probably much better suited to solitaire play since decks designed to nuke your opposing adventurer(s) weren’t exactly fun for people who wanted to do things like tool up.  The balance of adventurer destruction just wasn’t really there.

Even worse was the intended interaction of card play obstacles.  A core mechanic of the game was supposed to be to throw obstacles in front of your opponent(s).  But, as with other games that had similar mechanics, like Shadowrun, obstacles didn’t do anything to help you and may just end up helping an opponent.  Nevermind that it was a major hassle to even be able to play an obstacle.  Again, I can think of how the game could work better as a solitaire game with there being an obstacle deck that randomly spit out additional obstacles to add to inherent ones on locations.

Just a strange entry in the history of CCGs.  I’m sure a far better game with much more appeal could have been created stealing a lot of elements from Tomb Raider.  Even reasonably likely such a game already exists as TR always reminded me of random dungeon games.

The Next Big Thing

So, if going to try to make some money off a new CCG/LCG or any sort of game, it may not seem like a key concern, but I would pay attention to just how much of the game is not designed around doing things that opponents are involved in.  Bookkeeping – bad.  Lots of plays that can’t be affected – bad.  Lots of phases to a turn where things must be addressed that don’t really engage the players – bad.

“Liveliness” in a game is tied to enjoyment.  I can think of boardgames that have similar problems, in fact very possibly a greater issue with boardgames, where there is lots of dead time for other players, but I think I’ve hit a reasonable word count limit.

I complain a lot about CCG cards.  I complain about their power levels.  I complain about their ambiguity.  I complain about their prolixity.

But, to say something is bad requires that there be context for what bad or good means.  I want to take a moment to identify and applaud good cards.  Not cards that are good strengthwise but in design.

I speak of good card design, but it’s important to remember that the final product is a combination of conceptual design, the province of designers, and mechanical implementation, the province of developers.  A great concept can be a mess if it is implemented (executed) poorly.  A dull concept might produce an elegant card.

What goes into good design?

Understandability.  Concise text is preferred.  Note that I don’t hate every verbose card, but every verbose card adds to an ever growing card pool full of verbose cards, which makes the game harder and harder to grasp.  Intuitiveness is part of understandability.  A card can be more complicated if it plays the way someone expects it to, a card that doesn’t play like expected is a poorly implemented card.  Consistency relates to intuitiveness.  V:TES is so inconsistent in its effects – “burn a blood if attempt to block”, “burn a blood if successfully block”, etc.

Interesting decisions, both at the deck construction level (the reason we play CCGs) and the play level.  A card that you put in every deck is a badly designed card.  A card that you put in no decks is even worse.  Cards that play differently depending upon the situation add to the richness of CCGs.

Flavor.  Flavor matters.  Not so much to me, so I’m not a great person to comment upon it.  I don’t really care that Hellhounds can shoot guns or that Walls can be made to Fear attacking creatures or that Morden can be Rescued by Vorlons.  Actually, the last is an example of my taking advantage of flavor, so it does fall into the camp of supporting the importance of flavor.

To limit this endeavor, I’ll take one library card from each of the last five sets.

Lords of the Night

Leverage
Action Modifier
Burn the Edge to get +1 bleed for this action. You cannot gain the Edge this action. If you would get the Edge, it is burned instead.

One could argue that there’s a bit of clunkiness to the card with the added text for not getting the Edge from this action.  Sure, a bit.  The effect of the card is so simple and the intuitiveness of not being able to just play one every action gives me sufficient reason to put up with the wordiness of making sure that it has its limitation.

Why is this a well designed card?

The Edge has always been an underused part of the game.  There have always been cards that reference it, if not so many that you would expect them to see play.  But, where the game kept adding mechanics, too many of which added little value to the game, developing mechanics around the Edge has been restrained.

Leverage is a solid card, possibly even underplayed.  It suits weenie bleed decks, of course.  It makes allies more threatening, including ones with zero bleed.  Its ability to be stacked with other modifiers makes it more lungerrific and reach-y.

The card is intuitive, except, perhaps, for its stackability with other bleed mods.

I find its power level appropriate.  How many to play a deck is a meaningful deck building decision as I’ve often found myself either being stuck with the card in hand or wishing I had it in hand.

Twilight Rebellion

Zip Line
Action
+2 stealth action.
Put this card on the acting minion. This minion may burn this card to get +1 stealth.

Twilight Rebellion has a modest power level.  I find it an interesting set and easily the best designed small V:TES set.  There are some other cards I might consider, but I see this being the most elegant.

Is it an amusing concept?  Sure.  But, I actually don’t think much about such things, so whether someone wants to question the flavor or not is outside of my concern.  I can certainly see people thinking it’s kind of silly in flavor, so perhaps there’s a better title for this effect.

The effect is straightforward.  It’s theoretically useful, if kind of hard to take advantage of in constructed play – I see it played a lot in limited.  It’s very important that the action be at greater than one stealth.  There’s resonance to the idea that your investment of an action, which is a major cost given how easy stealth is to find in the game, is rewarded by the action being likely to go through.  On the other hand, if it were a three stealth action, it might be a bit too easily put into play, too noninteractive even though anyone who can block the two stealth action to get it can probably block the action taken later given the same hand.

It certainly benefits multiacting minions much more, as do many, many cards.  That’s not so bad in and of itself.  Because so many other cards benefit multiacting decks, like Perfectionist, there’s competition for deck slots for cards like these, and it makes for interesting deck building decisions.

I still have questions as to what decks take advantage of this card the most.  I don’t think it’s all that powerful, and I wouldn’t likely consider it in any deck that has native stealth, which is a lot of decks.  However, it’s subtle, and I believe that I’ve underplayed a lot of subtle cards in this game.  It reminds me of Zillah’s Tears.  Also, I like allies, and this card is an interesting card for decks that run allies that have the time to take such actions.

Keepers of Tradition

Rego Motus
Combat
Thaumaturgy
1 blood
[tha]    Prevent 2 damage from the opposing minion’s strike. A vampire may play only one Rego Motus each round.
[THA]    As above, but for 4 damage.

There are cleaner cards.  Horseshoes is a much cleaner card, especially when you consider that the limitation of one per round is unnecessary.  Perfect Paragon is fairly clean, though it uses a nonintuitive mechanic (negative intercept), and is another card I’d consider.

The reason I pick Rego Motus over those is that Thaumaturgy really needed something like this.  It has always been a combat card heavy discipline that wasn’t all that functional in combat.  Theft of Vitae provides some defense from hitback, but what about when you don’t want to play Theft?  What about Blood Rage and Blood Fury that encourage a close range combat deck but offer little in the way of efficiency against even someone who just hand strikes?

Sure, it starts getting into Fortitude’s realm, and Fortitude and Thaumaturgy have had various synergies, but being forced to run Fortitude or Leather Jacket or Guardian Angels or whatever has largely meant little competitive impact of combat strategies outside of Theft.  Nor does Rego Motus replace Fortitude completely as Fortitude is still much better with Burst of Sunlight and better in many other instances at damage prevention due to the limitations of the card.

It doesn’t help against Carrion Crows.  It costs a blood, so it’s not all that much better than being hit by hands each round, barring cost reduction.  It’s not the greatest thing ever.  It’s not better than a lot of Fortitude cards.  But, it does open up possibilities for Thaumaturgy that … again … make for interesting deck building decisions.

I also considered Dark Mirror of the Mind.  I don’t get the flavor – it should really have flavor text.  I don’t actually think the way the game makes a distinction at eight capacity (Golconda, Political Stranglehold, etc.) is to the game’s benefit as a more obvious breakpoint is nine capacity, though admittedly, there weren’t nearly as many 9′s, 10′s, and 11′s when a lot of the cards were made.  But, it’s more that it’s not all that clear what role the card has in the game that made me choose something else.  So many fatties can do actions worth as much as two pool or that are more potent that it’s hard to see just why I would use up actions for this rather than something else.  I bring this card up because, like Horseshoes, it’s a very simple mechanic and the game could certainly use more cards with simple mechanics, but it’s also an example of how a card should serve a purpose in a CCG and I’m not all that clear on what purpose this card serves.

Ebony Kingdom

Well, okay, four of the last five sets.  This set is just awful, and I don’t see any library card I would want to set forth as good design.  There are so many cards in this set that should never have been made, the most contemptible being Mundane and Pallid.

Heirs to the Blood

Off Kilter
Action
Samedi
+1 stealth action.
Gain 1 pool. If you do not have the Edge, you get the Edge. Otherwise, you may burn the Edge to gain 1 additional pool.

Heirs proved harder than I expected to find a card I wanted to single out.  For similar reasons to Leverage, this card develops an underdeveloped part of the game.  It’s a bit clunky in text, though maybe just better wording would help.  It addresses a specific need in the game, that Samedi have problems with pool maintenance.  Sure, Samedi have Little Mountain Cemetery, but this provides a different option.  It’s not obvious whether to play both in the same deck or just one, though I would say that one or the other is the right call.

Some words about Wider View.  I love Wider View, for the same reason that I put Tupdogs and Anarch Converts in so many decks.  And, that’s the problem with the card.  The intent of the grouping rule is to prevent dial-a-crypt, but these three cards all work heavily against that for many decks.  Sure, the grouping rule still does something, preventing all of the bonus master phase action vampires in the same deck and so forth; it also prevents tons of deck possibilities that aren’t abusive.  But, plenty of decks, now, for all intents and purposes have whatever crypt they want.  Crypt control is not bad by itself, it’s the ubiquity of play that the card sees that concerns me.  Much like how I think Tupdog and Anarch Convert are really cool and interesting in how they work, with the latter being great for the game, but I think both have design issues.

Besides the crypt thinning aspect of Wider View, I believe there’s a subtle impact of so much Wider View play.  Ascendance is rarely worth the card slot, but Wider View means that there’s a bunch of Ascendances in people’s decks, adding a bit more pool to decks, which I believe contributes to making it harder to oust people.

I considered looking at crypt cards, but really, that’s an exercise so much more difficult to fathom that I’m not interested.  Going back to Anarch Convert.  Anarch Convert very well may be great design in that it solved such a huge problem in the game in a way that is kind of odd but works.  It would have been nice if it wasn’t necessary to fix the problem in this way, though.

I want to point out two words, though, whose use continues to be notably annoying.  I’m not on some crusade to restore proper use of these words, I just feel like venting a bit and thought it might be interesting for those who don’t notice how they are used.  At some point, it will hardly matter – language evolves.

I’ll even try to tie this into gaming, somehow, since the point of the blog is not to muse upon random things in life.

Enormity

I heard this misused on a radio show this morning.  Yes, I listen to radio.  I know.  Bazaar [just seeing if you are paying attention].  I knew that our current President, Barack Obama, misused the word in his State of the Union Address; it is the only thing I recall of his speech.  I hadn’t realized Bill Clinton had also done so.  And, of course, these aren’t the only two presidents to misuse the word.  One would think their speech writers would work a bit harder or pay more attention to history.

Someday, it will likely have a primary meaning of vastness or enormousness.  Meanwhile, it should be used to mean gross wickedness, ghastliness, etc.  The enormity of a crime isn’t scale in and of itself but the notable wickedness of the crime.

So, that the enormity of the lack of rarity indicators on V:TES cards is ignored by the playerbase to such a degree is surprising to me and others I play with who are familiar with multiple CCGs.  If everyone else [it's possible that someone else hasn't in the last 10 years] can indicate rarity on the cards, V:TES can do it, too.  “But, rarities change.  Cards become fixed.”  Um, yeah, that happens in other CCGs, too – somehow, they manage to indicate rarity on the cards, anyway.

I could bring up other problems with V:TES – lack of keywords, lack of clear timing rules, inconsistent wording – that would fall under an area of management of the game that was not card design, but really, these aren’t nearly as surprising, so I kind of find them lacking in the enormity department.  I don’t really have much else to use as examples, mostly because there aren’t other games I care enough about to disparage to such a degree.

Moot

Increasingly, moot has come to mean settled.  This is because proper use of the word had the equivalent result to a matter being settled and people hearing its use didn’t realize the distinction.

What does it mean?  Debatable.  More specifically, it’s a matter in doubt because it’s debatable on an academic level.  You don’t argue about moot things in the course of your normal day because there is no known way to come to a conclusion as to what the answer is, not because the answer is known already or because there is no answer since the question is faulty.

I’ve gotten really tired of people answering rules questions with “Moot.” when what they meant was irrelevant or that the answer was obvious from information available.

What is the best vampire in V:TES?  Moot.  I claim Tupdog.  At virtually no point in the game’s history would I have said Arika as Anson was clearly superior up until at least the change in wording to Anarch Revolt.  Or, was he?  Who is up for some academic debate?

What is the best deck in V:TES?  For any given tournament?  Moot.  What’s the metagame going to be like for a given event?  I don’t know.  I can try to theorize.  So can everyone else.  The metagame isn’t the end all and be all of making a deck decision, anyway.  A common comment with Magic players, a game where metagames are much more important, is that you still have to be comfortable with the deck you play.  If you are comfortable with aggro and suck at playing control, doesn’t matter that control will be advantaged in the metagame.

Is Dominate overpowered?  … I don’t see this being moot, more being obvious.  I stated that I’d like to see movement in what the best clans/disciplines/whatever are in V:TES.  The sort of reply that I recall from my statement was along the lines of “You can’t make Quietus the best in the game as it would cause too much of a power increase or would require bannings/card rotations.”  Well, if Dominate weren’t so overpowered, it would be that much easier to elevate other disciplines.

What is the best RPG?  Moot.  What sort of experience are you looking for?  I hate d20 mechanics because I find them fiddly and flavorless, but I like Conan d20 because the world is a great world for swords and sorcery style role-playing and the mechanics aren’t as overbearing to the experience as in D&D 3.0 or 3.5.  I also hated FATE as being too vague, too confusing, counterintuitive, and forcing players to do things they should have the choice to do on their own.  Are we talking one shot or campaign?  Campaign play should see a good experience system where characters evolve mechanically if not always becoming clearly more powerful.  One shots don’t need an experience system at all.

Unfortunately, many more interesting RPG systems (to me) are tied into a specific world, a world that I may not care that much about.  My favorite system today is Legend of the Five Rings Third Edition Revised; it has been my favorite system for years.  But, I only like part of the world of Rokugan.  I would much rather see the system applied to other genres, assuming, of course, one can find enough players.

If you can’t find enough players to play a RPG, the value of that RPG is none.  It’s not moot, not debatable.  But, you can always find players if you try hard enough, so we move back into the world of moot-osity.  Course, can come from the other direction.  If a play group enjoys a RPG, it has sufficient value.  It’s not debatable what its value is – its value is “This is fun.”

Pedantic?  Sure.  That’s the way I roll.  Can someone find some grammar error, spelling error, misuse of a word (probably a use of “ironic”, which I don’t want to get into, though it could have been mentioned) on my part?  Sure.  It’s not like language is static or easily mastered.  I just prefer people to use enormiosity when they mean vast and unregardable when they mean irrelephant.

Anyway, with my presence, four old timers got together.  I made the conscious decision not to take decks, as I wasn’t checking any bags and I wasn’t that interested in my decks, though I would have been a bit more interested in lending out than playing any of them.

So, I borrowed three decks.

Game 1:

Colin (Dom/For) -> Pete (Shattering Crescendo 5/6) -> Ian (Stanislava Great Beast) -> Matt (Death Star)

I had almost forgotten what Colin’s deck did as it had so little game against predator and prey.  He did bring out a Prince and some weenie bleeders.  Pete took a while before starting to shatter them into oblivion.  Matt worked on creating dudes.

I.  I had problems assembling my pieces.  Pete dropping Anarch Troublemaker early meant I wanted to time getting Soul Gem out on the turn I nuked for the Great Beast.  Also, I had little incentive to Clan Impersonate to Baali as my 4 votes slowed Matt down, forcing him to build Alamut counters to ensure passage of votes.

So, I wasn’t bothered by Vast Wealth getting Suddened.  I drew Soul Gem and Vast Wealth.  I discarded Clan Impersonations as I always had plenty.  I kept bleeding for three rather than doing my combo.  The only cards I was really missing were Freaks/Marches to do all my thang in the same turn.  I did play a Soul Gem, which got nuked by Troublemaker, but it hardly mattered as I dropped Vast Wealth shortly afterwards and promptly drew another Soul Gem.  The Parthenon let me flow my Abombwes, Villeins, Vast Wealths, and whatever.

Colin fell without seriously damaging Pete.  The game was surprisingly balanced.  Matt had more pool than I cared for, but Pete’s Crescendos were going to rip up his dudes.  I did Beast.  Colin played Matt’s position for a bit while Matt got pizza.  This may have had some impact on the result due to difference in experience with the deck.  My 6 bleed a turn booted Ass.  Pete shattered the Great Beast into torpor.  Diablerize my own Beast, vote to live (with Soul Gem), Force of Will bleed, Dare the Dawn to explode, Bleed with new Stanislava and Foreshadowing Destruction for the kill.

Game 2:

Pete (Grinder) -> Matt (Reanimated Corpse/Shambling Hordes) -> Colin (Trem) -> Ian (Demdemeh)

Not sure what the preferred name for the RC/SH deck is.  Anyway, part of the point of borrowing decks was to play things I don’t end up playing.  In the case of the first game, I just don’t like superstar vampire decks, so I avoid things like the all Stanislava crypt.  In the case of this game, I had actually meant to build, for quite a while, a serious Demdemeh deck.  I might have built one at some point, but obviously, it didn’t mean much to me.

At first, I overlooked the Smiling Jack in my opening hand.  I dropped it first turn, the way it was meant to be played.  I brought out Bobby Lemon to hold the fort while I worked on Demdemeh.  I put out FBI Special Affairs Division which ended up being more of a threat to me than a benefit.

Colin had a reasonable game for a while.  I blocked somebody with Demdemeh and ended up in torpor, being rescued by Lithrac as Matt struggled to find The Baron.  What he didn’t do, what nobody did for a while, was seriously try to remove Smiling Jack.  By the time people started getting serious about it, I could block and it got up to 5 counters, which was ripping up the table.  I eventually let it go as I could see how easy it would be for Colin to get ousted if it hung around another turn.  Matt had finally gotten The Baron out and seemed to be able to easily bleed Colin.

Pete had no game.  I wasn’t sure how I could bleed with my deck, but Elephant Guardian elephanted before becoming an ally.  Dragonbound was also out, which was creating hurt.  Colin couldn’t survive bleeds and didn’t bounce and Pete couldn’t do anything, so we went to the endgame.

I kept putting out more allies, but then, so did Matt.  I wasn’t clear how I was supposed to get bleeds through, and I didn’t have nearly enough intercept to block stealthy bleeds.  Matt had been away from the table when I played Ancestor Spirit on Demdemeh – a card I would not have in the deck due to the general inability to get zero stealth actions through.  Matt bled me a lot for two, so I made my lunge.  With Carlton on his side, he could have chumped Demdemeh but blocked an Elephant, and I Changelinged for the kill.  I was dead next turn, so this was a faux victory.  Mainly, we wanted to get on to game three.

Game 3:

Matt (Kenny 419) -> Pete (Saulot & Friend) -> Colin (!Nos) -> Ian (Blood Brother Shock Troops)

I got a really … really … good draw.  I put out The Parthenon.  I put two Menor in play.  I had Fabrizia ready to Troops up and Jaggedy Andy for added humor.  Colin Famed one of my Menor and promptly got Backstepped, Thrown Sewer Lidded, Target Vitalsed into not wanting to block future actions by my empty vampires.

Matt made Kennies and Bennies, which I quickly grew weary of as they could chump.  Colin was wallish all game until his demise.  Neighbor John supported Saulot, getting the Ivory Bow, though it meant nothing to at least two of us.  I Shocked 2 Troops in play and plinked Matt’s guys with Horseshoes to prevent more Embraces.  Eventually, I tap out bled/hunted every turn, with my two Troops running out of Horseshoes, never having my Famous Menor who was often empty go down, even though it likely would have helped me.  Matt got out a bunch of 419s, but Pete had good pool.  I torped Saulot.  When he Sensed my Death, I Backstepped twice, Lid-Vitals.  At some point, I Backstep-Lid-Vitals, press, Backstep-Lid-Vitals, press, Backstep-Lid Saulot.

In the end, I had two Troops with superior Potence, Jaggedy with superior Potence, Fabrizia with superior Potence, and four Menor (the two new ones didn’t have superior Potence) with some deck left, and Pete conceded.

We talked some about the problems with getting enough people together.  I totally understand the difficulties, though, again, it’s challenging for me to relate to others who aren’t as invested in CCGs as I get.

BONUS

I was a bit surprised to get an e-mail towards the end of last week about playing in Livermore last night.  More V:TES – 4CL and house rule style.

Game 1:

Al (Aus/Cel guns) -> Bruce (Malk toolbox) -> Cort (Gangrel) -> Ian (1/2 Presence/Protean) -> Rich (Cel/Obf/Pre)

I Effectively Manage, put 1 on Bear Paw, 2 on Don Cruez, and 1 on Mirembe.  Bear Paw comes out and learns to master Protean.  Wynn pops up behind me.  Prey brings out Renenet.  Felicia, Victor Revell, and Lynn Thompson (no grouping rule for this group) for Al.  Bruce gets Zebulon, Dancin’ Dana, and Brazil.  Later he adds Dre, who should never have been in that crypt.

After Wynn is Raven and, eventually, Gitane.  It was funny.  I wanted to make Bear Paw Gangrel Justicar, but I had to wait until Don Cruez came out and to get the edge to do it.  Wynn only rushed at the end of Cort’s game, when it didn’t matter.

I was never seriously threatened.  The Malks were not pleased by the quicks behind them, Felicia got a Desert Eagle because Cort Suddened Bruce’s Special Report.  Not that Al was in a good position.  Between combat ends and stealth, Rich could pretty much do anything he wanted forward.

On the other hand, he couldn’t do anything to affect me.  Nobody could.  Bear Paw mastered Presence.  I could have bled Rich out with Bear Paw, Daliyah, Don Cruez, and Kallista but thought he wouldn’t be able to lunge Al away and figured giving him another turn would only help me.  Bruce dropped Anarch Revolt.  I ousted Rich.  Al could only survive a bit longer.  Cort didn’t do anything to defend himself.

In the endgame, Dre’s Ivory Bow, which for some reason he got from Zebulon, aka a dude who actually has Auspex, did torp one of my guys.  I started drawing a ton of masters late in the game.  I had a reasonable amount of Earth Meld, Form of Mist, Majesty, and a Flesh of Marble to kill Muddled.  What I didn’t have late in the game was bleed mods.  I did take some pressure off by Clawing, Amaranthing, Ritual of the Bitter Rose-ing Dancin’ Dana, but Zebulon did this weird thing of bleeding for more than one at stealth.  I drop The Parthenon to help clear cards, taking me to 1 pool, Blood Doll 2 back, fail to draw kill – only needed one boost, get ousted by Cloaked bleeds.

My deck was precisely the amusing sort of awesome that I would have built in 1997 (sans the Dark Sovereigns and Ancient Hearts cards since my group back then didn’t allow them).  I didn’t play Shackles of Enkidu or Blood Tears of Kephran.  I did run out of bleed, not having any in the top 10 of my library when I fell.  But, the rampant combat defense was metagame win.

Game 2:

Ian (Tremere) -> Cort (Dom/Obf weenies) -> Bruce (Anson/Ozmo master) -> Rich (!Trem) -> Al (Gangrel in torpor)

Cort pounded his father.  If he would have played it right, he would have gotten him, too.  This with Samson who learned Obfuscate, bought a Camera Phone, Watenda, Zoe, and Aleph.  Yes, this was a horrible, horrible crypt for what his deck does.

Rich brought out Paul Cordwood.  He eventually got Ash Harrison, Sengir Dagger, and did basically nothing in the game.  Al got out Badger, Camille, Raven (yup, this is legal), and Roman.

I was never seriously threatened.  I could have been hammered by Force of Will, but in a 4CL environment, that wasn’t terribly likely.  What hurt Al was not drawing permableed earlier.  Also, that I twice ‘schrecked him when he played Form of Mist.

I brought out Magdelena Schaefer, who got the Ivory Bow on turn three.  Muaziz popped.  Chantry, which I never used.  Astrid and, later, Sarah Cobbler.  I couldn’t do much to Cort as he had a Hunting Ground to defeat my Cryptic Mission (I drew only one), I had no rush, and I was even worried about bleeding.  Bruce KRCed him for 6 to put him in ousting range.  Cort sort of lunged, starting the turn with Dramatic Upheaval (legal!!), which got shot down by the table, using up the action which would have ousted his father.  Bruce brought out Anson, Minion Tapped him when Cort’s lunge failed.  Bruce had a new lease on life and ousted Rich with 7 bleed after Rich had to block a 5 bleed bounced from Cort on a following turn.

When his second lunge failed, I took him out with Threats and Bonding.  I wasn’t terribly worried about combat, in part due to a Flak Jacket on Muaziz and a Leather Jacket on Magdelena, though I kept combat heavy hands just in case I could Blood Fury or Walk of Flame someone.  I did try Blood Fury on Bruce’s Hadrian Garrick, but it missed.  I caught Anson with some of my negligible intercept and put him in torpor.

Al’s deck finally started doing what it was supposed to with a Force of Will bleed and a KRC, but it was too little, too late.  With an Anarch Revolt on the table and my prey at one pool, I decided to just bleed him out and bled Al out in the same turn as he was at two pool.

I’m not as interested in the second deck.  It has some interesting interactions, but it’s so boringly old school.  It was amusing that three of the decks in the game ran Rotschreck.

Well, all in all, quite enjoyable V:TES so far in the new year.  I think I’ll be making more decks like the Pro-sense deck.

I was visiting family recently.  An interesting thing about visiting family is that the region where they live is one where I know a decent number of people who play games.  I can play V:TES (which I’ll get to in a subsequent post).  I almost got in a table of Heroes of Rokugan.  A friend of mine here grew up there, and I’ve gamed with his friends, playing Magic and boardgames.  I have in the past played the Babylon 5 CCG out there.

Then, there’s the actual possibility of gaming with family.  A recent present for one of my brothers was a Kinect.  I only tried two of the games, but one of them was a winner.  We played a lot of Kung Fu High Impact.  By we, I mean every sibling but one, a girlfriend, a family friend, and maybe others when I wasn’t around.  The room set up wasn’t great, so we were too close to the camera by a bit, which may or may not have mattered for game play – did cut our legs off at around the knees.  I know that it was exhausting to the point where I’d lose my ability to make the requisite motions for Power Punch, one of two key maneuvers in the game.  The other being backflip somersaults where I never did learn how to do multiflips.

Then, because one of my brothers and his girlfriend had a Nintendo, the name of the one that allows you to play two different generations of games escapes me, and because another brother mentioned how good River City Ransom is, a third brother and I played a bunch of River City Ransom.  Apparently, the twins had never won at the game.  After doing some online research on how to play the game better, mainly intended to find out what stuff to shop for since there are a ridiculous number of options, we found out about the cheaty “take me out and run off the screen fast” system in two-player play that allows you to recharge your stamina while not losing any money.  After doing more research and finally realizing we weren’t facing a boss because we kept not clearing the warehouse, we conquered the game … on novice level … without even stopping to find Ryan’s girlfriend before punking the end boss.  While the fighting is only okay, the shopping and attribute manipulation in the game is crazy.  I certainly would play it again on normal mode to see how efficiently it can be beaten once you know what you are doing.

“Ah, but videogames are totally not your thing.” – Random person talking to me (probably myself).

As with many things, movies for instance, I make no effort, but I’ll partake.  In fact, I only play Wii at my grandparents’ old place.  Only played old school Zelda, Megaman, et al when visiting relatives.  Etc.

Of far more interest was getting some Mahjong* in.  One brother always talks about playing when I visit, but it’s rarely the case that it happens.  I don’t recall the last time I played.  I did show the old South Bay V:TES group that morphed into a boardgame group how to play years ago.  I played while living in Shanghai in 2007 a funky variant with a coworker’s family.  I played a bit at an old company’s holiday party, which might have been later in 2007.

*  Because it can be spelled so many ways and I have little idea what the preferred spelling is, I’m going to go with the simplest spelling going forward, even though I find it silly that it’s capitalized and even though I’ve spelled it differently in other posts.

One wonders why we don’t play more.  If one were to wonder how I got started in gaming, it wouldn’t be hard to explain.  At around 8 years old, I was playing Mahjong with my grandparents, their siblings, my parents, and other family and family friends in Hawai’i.  These days, I like to identify younger folks who have played so I can tell them I’ve been playing longer than they’ve been alive.  Meanwhile, on the mainland, my mother and I frequently played rummy when we went out to eat.  I learned poker, chess, and I’m not sure what else back in those days, as well.

I loved playing so much when growing up that I would do all of the set up of the table, the tablecloth, the chips, the walls long before people arrived.  At some point, it lost some luster.  I believe it had to do with changes in getting together with family.  By far the people I most commonly played with were my grandparents and my grandmother’s siblings (and their spouses).  By high school, that generation was slowing down.  By college, not only that but I far less frequently visited my grandparents.

Its importance as a group activity declined and I developed other interests.  But, perhaps contrary to perception, I never lost interest.  We played a few rounds, not bothering to keep score, and I was reminded how interesting the game remains for me.  At its heart, it’s a simple rummy game.  Actually, the complexity in the game and much of the depth comes from playing to a scoring system.  We have a family system of scoring that is old style Chinese with all of the peculiarities that come with a regional system of scoring.  And, we aren’t even consistent with that – sometimes a hand qualifies for additional fans and sometimes not, for instance.  Or, how to score Seven Sisters will vary.

Even without the depth from how to play to a scoring system, I was engaged by the flow of probability calculations that comprise the decisions in the game.  There’s even a psychological element to what to discard, if a subtle one that only occasionally comes up.  The level of complexity is where it should be with the basics being easy enough and the analysis not being overly paralysistic.

An advantage to not playing for money was that I could screw around, like one hand going for 13 Orphans, which I think I’ve done once or twice ever, possibly never.  On the other hand, I do see money being essential to getting the most out of the game.  It’s not so much to make it more competitive as it is to make it more strategic how to play.  Well, then why not just track points?  Can do that, but actually, yeah, making the points turn into dollar dollar bills does make it more competitive.  I was certainly gambling by the age of 9, which I think helped immensely for making me a better player.

Our family style is very aggressive with no reward for playing defensively and giving up on hands except in the most extreme endgame situations.  I would rather see the rule used by the Japanese and common in Chinese play that discarder pays for everyone.  I would rather eliminate flowers as they just add a massive randomness element to the value of hands.  The wildness that I found attractive when young is less interesting to me than proper strategic/tactical play that possibly playing other games has instilled within me.  On the other hand, it’s also fine the way it is.  It’s a good style for learning how to win.  And, there is a tactical element to changing posture based on the visible value provided by relevant flowers.

Once upon a time, I would say that there were only two things I believed I was good at.  Mahjong being the other one.  At least in the last 20 years, I have found I could hang with anyone I played with.  Unlike other games, like V:TES where I’m not ruthless enough, I think I can hold up as a player, at least as long as my mood doesn’t veer towards recklessness as it so often does when gaming/gambling (there’s a reason I don’t gamble virtually at all anymore).

I do think it’s unlikely I will see much play outside of family get togethers as there are so many other things to play – many boardgames have way less investment of time.  I certainly have no interest in playing online where the pageantry gets taken out of the game, making the game an overly mechanical exercise, much like online poker or even JOL.

Were there any major changes?  I don’t think so.  The Conan campaigns had already lost traction, so that we haven’t done much this year is hardly surprising.  We don’t play Mondays at conventions anymore, which was our one consistent time.  Running HoR2 weekly continued throughout the year, possibly a surprise, the group has even grown.

I did start playing Friday nights with a new RPG group.  That’s a change but not major in the grand scheme of things.  Nor is going to a different convention than ConQuest rise to the level of a major change.

V:TES

I was wrong about storyline play being the big deal this year.  In fact, the big story this year was attendance at standard, constructed tournaments.  We’ve had more 20+ player tournaments this year than every other year combined.  That’s just weird.  It’s so hard for me to understand what interests people when it comes to CCGs.  For me, once I’m invested, I’m invested.  If I’m not, I’m not.  Matt Morgan winning the NAC was notable if not a great shock, had been one of the top players in the game for quite some time.

I may have enjoyed play more but certainly enjoyed tournaments less.  Not playing in finals means less stories to tell, which makes the various tournaments less notable.  I’ve also been less invested in what I’ve played in events.

L5R

Yes, 4e now has at least one broken school – Asako Henshin.  I have really liked the quality of the books that have come out, more so in terms of aesthetics.  I’m much less of a fan of the official forums, where rules questions are rarely answered and are buried in an awful single thread.  As I frequently mention, I’d rather be playing 3e (well, 3r).

Other

I can’t really speak to other predictions.  I just don’t know enough about what is going on in the industry.  Even from a personal perception standpoint, I’m hesitant to believe some of the things I’ve mentioned have either come to pass or haven’t.

Concerns

HoR3 has done well.  It feels slow to me, but that is possibly due to being involved from the beginning.  I’m not clear why there’s so little discussion on the Yahoogroup about the new campaign, but there were a lot of players at Gen Con, so something is going right.

Gen Con was ridiculously expensive again, though just taking the time off as an hourly employee ends up being a huge part of the cost.  I didn’t make it out to Origins.  I realized that I’m not really interested in traveling for cons (except Gen Con) by myself.  A lot of the fun of the cons is in talking about gaming on the way, at the event, and on the way back.

Hopes

DunDraCon was enjoyable for the first time in years this year.  I ran the intro mod for HoR3 and, while stressful, it was also beneficial.  I haven’t generated an interest in running it again or other HoR3 mods at local cons because it’s hard for me to anticipate that things will work out as intended, with players who want to play a living campaign getting to play and those who don’t avoiding the events.  Also, the mods are oriented toward 4 hour slots, and local cons are more about 6 or 8 hour games.  And, I’m not that into most of the mods.  Even the best of the new mods is not a great RPG experience.

V:TES has gone pretty much the way I hoped.  In particular, we finally got rid of the newsgroup as the primary location of discussion.  With 2012, we even will have a major fix to the game by “unbanning” Minion Tap.

I haven’t gotten inspired by a new product.  Though, likely getting into something new means finding a different group of gamers, which isn’t something I’m inclined to try to achieve as I game reasonably often.

Execution

I haven’t come up with a mechanism for creating new decks.  I’m constantly reminded that the best way to come up with deck ideas is to play and to talk with other players.  There are so many cards I’ve been meaning to do something with that I just never get around to.  Of course, actually playing more decks that I design rather than writing out something and never bothering to build it remains an issue.

The best I’ve figured out with Solomon Kane is that I’m not that motivated to run it.  Running a weekly game is far more GMing than I’m really interested in.  My RPG schedule is kind of low on play, but full enough to keep me not only busy but from going to a Thursday class that I’ve been going to for nearly two decades.

I haven’t done hardly any fictions, possibly none at all for HoR3 or Conan.  In both cases, the rarity of play is a significant cause.  In the first case, that I don’t really want anything anymore for my characters has an impact as well.

Haven’t been organized with this blog.  Card of the Weak is actually a good idea for a series but one I don’t spend enough time thinking about to commit to additional card choices.

I did throw a lot of cards into boxes as I needed to clean up the computer room for work to be done.  But, I’m thinking I should really do a massive organization as I’m kind of tired of having some sets never organized.

What else?

I’d say 2011 has been a quiet year gamingwise.  The most surprising thing has probably been the increase in V:TES tournament attendance.  Otherwise, usual evolution of what in particular I’m involved in.  I suppose I could have hoped for more, but there is an element of getting out of something the amount of effort put in.

While V:TES will seemingly be forever burdened with Imbued, which have managed to make the game less comfortable for random allies due to an increased interest in ally hate (also helped by Nephandi, War Ghouls, Shamblers, and Carlton), it amazes me the lack of more allies in the game.

What am I talking about?  No, not Salubri allies, though they could use such.  Cammie allies.

You know, Camarilla – the kine “friendly” sect.  The sect that doesn’t think of folks as (just) food but realizes the need to manipulate mortals and other entities as tools to get by in a world of dimness.

Feel free to guess how many new Cammie clan (including Gangrel just because it’s easier to lump them in with the others) allies have been published since 2000.

It’s not zero.

A decent number of folks could think of Ponticulus.

Maybe, folks remember Arcane Appraiser.

Then, there are … um … gangs, no … Nos-, no … political, no … werewolf, no … that’s it – nothing.

One could say that not really that many allies have been added to the game in the 21st Century in general.  It is, after all, a game about vampires … and Imbued.  War Ghoul isn’t new.  Nephandus isn’t new.  Shambling Hordes is quite old, at this point.  Carlton isn’t that old, but he’s not a strategy, just an overly good unique ally; same with Mylan.

But, c’mon m-a-n-n-n!  Camarilla.  Besides the thematics, which one may not agree with but if you do agree with makes it even more unnatural that many ally strategies are non-Camarilla, there’s just what sort of paradigm of expansion one may wish to use.  Expanding CCGs is about expanding options.  Much like how it blows my mind that more effort hasn’t been put into making the Primogen title mean something, for adding options to the Cammies (and Gangrel), I’m amazed [word of the day] at the lack of adding mortals and other allies to the arsenal of the Camarilla.

Brujah

Arms Dealer
Loyal Street Gang
The Knights
The Slashers

Arms Dealer is okay.  I’m aware of decks built around it.  The other three have always sucked.  At least, Brujah got allies, unlike some clans.  They even have a theme.  A terrible, terrible theme from a competitive standpoint.  So, here’s the deal.  I don’t want to throw out some new gangs that are going to be better than the original gangstas to where we continue to ignore the mighty Knights and the salty Slashers.

So, here’s my idea.  I should note that this is real time, off the top of my head stuff and, therefore, is likely missing far better concepts.

Gang Lord
Ally
C = 1p
Unique. Requires Brujah. Mortal.
2 life. 1 bleed. 1 strength.
Allies that require Brujah cost one less blood or pool to play and gain +1 strength for each life counter above one that the ally has.  When Gang Lord would be sent to the ash heap from play, you may burn an ally you control to shuffle him into your library instead.

Gangrel [I know]

Gypsies
Renegade Garou
Werewolf Pack

Another theme and an actual good ally (historically, anyway).  Jacob Fermor did do something with this theme in more recent memory.  Do I care about Gangrel getting more werewolf allies?  Not particularly.  But, what – nature got no better bones to throw than Underbridge Stray?

One might think cutting oneself off from the Camarilla would mean a desire for more buddies.  There are plenty of outdoorsy concepts – hunter, logger, environmentalist, etc.

Park Ranger
Ally
C = 1b
Unique. Requires Gangrel. Ghoul.
2 life. 0 bleed. 1 strength.
Park Ranger may strike for 1R damage.  Park Ranger has one optional maneuver per combat.  When recruiting a werewolf ally, you may tap Park Ranger to reduce the cost of the ally by one pool or blood.  If the Park Ranger is burned from play, its controller must remove a life counter from each werewolf ally she controls.

Malkavian

Muddled Vampire Hunter

Seriously, that’s it?!?

Start with something basic in concept and amusing in mechanics.

Psychiatrist
Ally
C = 2p
Requires Malkavian. Mortal.
1 life. 1 bleed. 0 strength.
Psychiatrist may take a +1 stealth action to tap or untap a ready Malkavian.  When Psychiatrist is burned from play, its controller discards three cards at random and all Malkavians gain +1 strength until the end of the turn.

Nosferatu

…

Okay, this is a theme.  Much like Nosferatu not having virtually any Presence as out of clan was a theme.  But, c’mon m-a-n-n-n!  The theoretically more scary if not so much so in the background !Nos get frickin’ Couriers.  All sorts of obscure and weird clans get allies.  Demons are increasingly running loose.

Sure, I will say that it’s fairly clear that the indies were given substantial ally themes, which does distinguish them from other sects.  Assamites get ghouls, FoS mummies, Giovanni wraiths, Ravnos crazy expensive choice.

Congregation of Alligators
Ally
C = 2b
Requires Nosferatu or Nosferatu antitribu. Animal.
3 life. 0 bleed. 3 strength.
When a Nosferatu or Nosferatu antitribu successfully blocks an acting minion, you may tap Congregation of Alligators to enter combat with the acting minion instead of the blocking vampire (do not tap the blocking minion).

Toreador

Arcane Appraiser

Wtf?!?  The most social of all clans gets one ally in the entire history of the game and it’s only been printed in the last couple of years?!?  (Yes, I like using ?!? to end sentences.)

Again, so many concepts could work.  I’m tempted to think of some demonic patron of arts or even angelic, but we know what we want.

Groupies
Ally
C = 1b
Requires Toreador. Ghoul.
1 life. 0 bleed. 1 strength.
Groupies do not untap as normal.  During your untap phase, you may burn a blood from a ready Toreador you control to untap Groupies.  Groupies may tap to prevent 1 damage to a Toreador in combat.

Tremere

Outcast Mage
Thadius Zho, Mage
Ponticulus

A theme, once upon a time.  There are only so many mages to go around, so I see not doing more mages.  Do Tremere really need more allies?  Sure, everybody needs more allies.

Techie
Ally
C = 0
Requires Tremere. Mortal.
1 life. 0 bleed. 0 strength.
Techie can take a +1 stealth action to search your library or ash heap for an electronic equipment card and place it on a ready minion you control who meets the requirements of the card (pay cost to equip as normal).  If none of your ready minions meet the requirements of the card, the card is burned without cost.  If the equipment came from your library, shuffle your library afterwards.

Ventrue

Political Ally

Again, wtf?!?  One ally.  Ever.  Printed in Jyhad.  So many concepts that can be worked with.

Special Agent Smith
Ally
C = 2p
Unique. Requires Ventrue. Mortal.
2 life. 1 bleed. 1 strength.
Special Agent Smith may strike for 2R damage.  Special Agent Smith may search your library (shuffle afterward) for the first Government card and move that card to your hand as a +1 stealth action (discard down to hand size).

Should the game see tons more allies?  Not so much.  On the other hand, Cammie clans (and Gangrel) need *different* things to do.  And, it’s crazy like a Malk how few allies some of the Cammies have received throughout the 17 year history of the game.

Event 1 (whatever it was called)

Round 1:

Andy (Cavalier Malk SB) -> Joel E. (EuroBrujah) -> Ian T. (Samedi RC) -> Joel M. (Week of Nightmares) -> Ian L. (Newcromancy)

24 players!!  Really?!?  So bizarre that we are setting attendance records.  Guess mid-December is a pretty good time for tournaments.

The Ian and Joel show was okay.  An interesting mix of somewhat notable with completely non-notable.  On turn two, I play cards, including Govern (bleed) and Spectral Div.  I never bleed like this early, but I wanted to cycle out of Summon Soul and burning the two blood seemed okay.  My overwhelming aggression was only likely to confuse my opponents.

Didn’t last long.  I played one card in the next hour.

I chose to be handjammed with two wakes and two bounce and a complete lack of masters.  In fact, I didn’t draw a master until the turn that my predator ousted me.  But, before that happened, I was in pretty good shape.  My grandprey did a good job of defending with Second Traditions, though we weren’t entirely sure why he didn’t rush backwards with Theo Bell.  Beast joined the ready region eventually.  Andy got beaten up a bit.  While I didn’t bounce much as JM tooled up with Tumnimos and whatnot, I didn’t get bounced much either, so Andy goes down to one pool and it looks like two easy VP for me, while having down little to nothing in the game.

Then, JM decides to oust me.  Andy bouncing a bleed back to me creates the kill situation, which was reasonable as I would have killed him on my turn.  It wasn’t terribly disappointing to fail to get VPs, it wasn’t like I deserved any.  The deck had a lot of masters and I didn’t bother digging, for instance.

No, what was disappointing was that I didn’t play anything interesting in the game, except, maybe, one Transfusion, which without a Path in play, wasn’t terribly meaningful.  An interesting strategic and tactical game but boring from a card interaction standpoint.

JM went on to easily get other VPs.  IT had an interesting lack of stealth in his Samedi (best stealth clan in the game) deck.  Looked like he could get JM into a non-playing position, but a Sensory Dep on The Baron was limiting and JM gained a bunch of pool off of blood farming.

Round 2:

Ian -> Matt (Pre/Obf w/ Events) -> Dan (Gargoyle bleed) -> Joel M. -> Joe (Toreador B&B)

Much more interesting for me.  I had complete control over my predator’s Toreador guns bruise and bleed deck with my early draw of two Promise of 1528s.  I played masters.  The Path of Bone never got burnt.  I wondered if my prey had Parity Shift for the longest time.  I expected his early Fortschritt Library into Break the Code to lead to The Rising, but it never hit the table.  I didn’t get the point of the event cards.

After Chair of Hades-ing Carlton, I stealth bleed Matt out by drawing into a second Govern to enable me to bleed for 12 when he had 11 pool.  While I didn’t have bounce in my hand, it was funny how the table correctly decided that my predator bleeding me when my prey was tapped out with 11 pool was a terrible thing to do.

Dan fell quickly as his deck wasn’t holding up well under the pressure of bleeds for 3 at stealth and votes for 3.  With only three bleed cards left in my library, which was maybe 25 cards tall, I couldn’t get Joel.  TW and 2.5 VPs was .5 VPs short of a tie for fifth place, so not getting one more VP was huge, potentially large.  I did consider letting Dan try to oust Joel, but I didn’t think I could ever get Joe.

Pickup Interlude:

Yeah, I really don’t have as much interest in explaining more details about games, in particular what was going on with others.

I played Ani/Cel/For, 4-cl, Jyhad/DS/AH-only.  We realized halfway in the game that my Quinton McDonnell had the only vote on the table.  My Ass, long range combat predator couldn’t really do anything to me due to my deck being full of combat cards.  On the other hand, my lack of ousting power and inability to get more permacept in play meant my Week of Nightmares prey could do whatever he wanted.

Actually, the Rom Gypsy gave him two VPs.  I had a Raven Spy early, but I couldn’t deal with two permanent stealth between RG and Fortune Teller Shop.  What was weird about this game, besides Andrei Puxon and Quinton McDonnell being combat beasts, was my prey playing Week of Nightmares when I had Andrei and Kostantin.  Kostantin got Sensory Depped, stole a Camera Phone, Freaked.  Andrei took the Camera Phone to become a three bleeder.  How to allocate Week counters was oddly wonderful with people moving them to my Andrei as well as my prey.  I kept getting SensDepped.

Long after we should have called the game and long after the Week ended, my prey conceded the last two VPs as I was gaining three pool a turn and only losing two, while doing things to me was costing my prey.  My plan was to bloat enough to bring out Lucretia, since everyone knows that’s full of win, and have two vamps not SensDepped.

Qualifier:

Ian (!Nos w/ Dominate) -> Matt (Imbued Beretta rush) -> Mike Z. (Giovanni Embraces) -> Alex (Ass w/ Dominate)

Only 21 players, heh.  Four player tables, for the most part, not as enthralling.

My game got warped horribly by the Imbued.  Because I knew that Dragon’s Breath Rounds were coming, I had to play around being tooled by Berettas.  There’s actually a lot of details I could mention about this game, but one can fill in the backwards beatdowns to stop Badr and Ur-Shulgi from bleeding me too much and whatnot.

I use Dreams at one point and my end of turn discards are Preternatural Strength, Torn Signpost, and Villein.  I had to hold on to every Swallowed by the Night for the maneuvers to make sure I could land against the Imbued and, then, started drawing Immortal Grapples, which I choked on as I couldn’t discard those either.  By playing virtually the whole game with just Julio Martinez and Mateusz, I had little ousting energy.  I kept being reluctant to bring up Gustaphe Brunnelle as I kept getting bounced to and my 4-cl deck didn’t have a whole lot of bounce.  Or, more importantly, it didn’t have a lot of wakes.  I knew my deck was wake poor, especially given the crypt size.

So, after Alex got ousted, we settled into a painful three-way of Mike not wanting to do anything into the face of my combat and my Underbridge Stray who had intercept from The Unmasking, Matt getting nowhere against Mike, and my punking an Imbued once in a while only to have it pop back up.  I actually hoped Matt would oust Mike, as I figured I could do more in a heads up game with my combat.  We timed out.  I’m mostly surprised Matt didn’t use the Imbued with built in rush to rush Mike more, but whatever.  My inability to oust a rush Imbued deck was just sad.

Round 2:

Brad (Ventrue grinder) -> Ian -> Brandon (Trem) -> Dennis (Diversion rush) -> A.J. (fat Tzimisce)

I’d say the main takeaway for me from this game is that I played it impatiently.  I played it like I see a lot of other people play.  Brad played “my game” – doing nothing until his inevitable victory.  A.J. was just impotent in the face of damage prevent.  I did bring out Gustaphe who promptly got Preternatural Strength, so at one point, Dennis and I had reduced Brandon to one ready minion, which became three ready minions, two of which were empty.  I took a low percentage shot at ousting Brandon only to have Conditioning bounced.  I was stuck on actions as I was spending so much time trying to contain Brandon, so I discarded Seal of Veddartha at one point and kept not putting Mylan into play.

Just impatient.  Though, I wasn’t at all clear how to prevent Brandon from getting 2 VPs as A.J. never got strong.  In fact, what hurt me a lot was that A.J. kept having bleeds of two bounced to me that I had to eat, which let Brad exactly oust me with a Govern when Brandon was on the ropes.

Just evidence that I suck at playing with combat decks.  First time I haven’t qualified in our local qualifier in my memory.  Really going downhill as a player – the way it should be.

Sunday

Sunday was all about pickup games with the guys up from Los Angeles.

Matt (!Gangrel vote) -> Mike Z. (Giovanni w/ Embraces) -> Ian (Dance, Dance, Revolution) -> Dennis (Journal of Hrorsh) -> Brandon (New Nos)

I am constantly amazed at how much pool damage I can do with Constant Revolution.  My opening game sucked as I had four Anarch Converts in my crypt draw.  Dennis did his Mr. Noir gains 25 pool or whatever thing when Brandon hadn’t even brought out a dude yet.

Eventually, Dennis Hostile Takeovers my Kurt Strauss and Matt gives up on the game by ousting himself with a bid of nine.  The numerous global effects of Judgment: Camarilla Segregation (Brandon), Constant Revolution (me), Anarch Revolt (me, again), even Smiling Jack (yup, me) just didn’t make the game comfortable for folks.  I’m fairly sure I could have stopped Dennis’s second round of gaining massive pool with Power of All on Freak Drive, but I was spending too much time thinking about Filchware’s and whether to stop Journal or not to actually play Power of All.

James (Corrupt Construction) -> Robert (!Toreador w/ War Ghouls) -> Ian (Blessed Resilience) -> Dennis (Eternal Mask IC) -> Matt (Trochomancy)

Matt has two Trochomancys DIed in the same turn (prey and predator).  I manage three intercept to block Ancient Influence and Matt bouncing backwards finishes off Dennis.  Robert has to go through nine crypt cards to get to a Tzimisce to play a War Ghoul.  James withdraws after sucking down a number of Trochomancys with his Corrupt Construction deck … still gets out an 18-life CC at one point.

With four possible Force of Will bleeds, I only need two to oust Matt.  Robert screws around in the endgame by bleeding for zero with a War Ghoul, so with four vampires in my ash heap, zero controlled, and zero uncontrolled, I The Parthenon, Blessed Resilience, hunt, bleed for three with Force of Will, and Call of the Hungry Dead past Robert’s second War Ghoul.  While tainted by the nonsensical War Ghoul bleed, I find ousting someone with five vampires and two War Ghouls while having no controlled or uncontrolled vampires to be highly amusing.

Dennis (Sylvie Helgon) -> James (Selma & Trap/UP) -> Ian (Nos anarch bleed) -> Brandon (Ariadne Garou) -> Mike C. (Ur-Shulgi Contract)

I figure that James’s deck is Trap/UP when March is his first dork.  Selma Anathema-ing Sylvie is just horrendous.  Even more worser is James not playing Blood Hunt on her but on my Anarch Convert, which lets Mike gain tons of pool.  Brandon offends Dennis by looking to rush Sylvie with a Garou to prevent Mike from gaining, not being aware that you have to reduce to zero in combat.  What would have been funny is Dennis’s comment about rushing my Blood Hunted Convert with Sylvie to give me pool, but alas.

Brandon knows my deck, so he rushes backwards with Garou.  I finally play a Kindred Intelligence with this deck.  I finally bring out Josef von Bauren, the only vamp above 5-cap.  I don’t do much to impact the game and get ousted.

Decks (any Path of Lilith is really Lilith’s Blessing):

Deck Name:   111127  Newcromancy
Created By:  Baldesar

Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 4, Max: 32, Avg: 4.66)
———————————————
2  Baldesar Rossellini                aus for nec DOM POT8  Giovanni
1  Don Michael Antonio Giovanni       DOM NEC POT    7  Giovanni
1  Gualtiero Ghiberti                 cel pot tha DOM NEC7  Giovanni
1  Guillaume Giovanni                 CEL DOM NEC POT obt9  Giovanni
1  Lia Milliner                       dom nec        3  Giovanni
1  Primo Giovanni                     domnec pot     4  Giovanni
1  Raphaela Giovanni                  DOM NEC pot pre6  Giovanni
4  Tupdog                             POT VIS        1  Gargoyle

Library: (80 cards)
——————-
Master (20 cards)
1  Barrens, The
2  Blood Doll
1  Dis Pater
1  Heidelberg Castle, Germany
1  Necromancy
3  Path of Bone, The
1  Path of Lilith, The
1  Powerbase: Cape Verde
1  Rack, The
4  Vessel
2  Villein
1  WMRH Talk Radio
1  Wall Street Night, Financial Newspaper

Action (11 cards)
2  Chair of Hades
6  Govern the Unaligned
1  Haunt
1  Pandora`s Whisper
1  Summon Soul

Action Modifier (14 cards)
5  Call of the Hungry Dead
2  Conditioning
1  Foreshadowing Destruction
5  Transfusion
1  Trochomancy

Reaction (13 cards)
6  Deflection
1  Fillip
6  On the Qui Vive

Combat (8 cards)
2  Mercy for Seth
6  Spiritual Intervention

Ally (1 cards)
1  Leonardo, Mortician

Retainer (2 cards)
2  Masquer (Wraith)

Equipment (2 cards)
1  Gran Madre di Dio, Italy
1  Sargon Fragment, The

Combo (9 cards)
3  Promise of 1528
6  Spectral Divination

Not hugely interesting.  Metagamed for Imbued.  Really only delivered on the Promise of 1528 (I’ve already done the Transfusion thing often enough to know how tasty it is).

Deck Name:   110903  AniCelFor  4cl
Created By:  Andrei Puxon

Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 23, Max: 39, Avg: 8)
——————————————-
3  Andrei Puxon                       ani cel chi for5  Ravnos
3  Kostantin                          ANI cel CHI dom FOR9  Ravnos
3  Lucretia                           ANI aus cel for OBF pot10 Nosferatu
3  Quinton McDonnell                  ani cel FOR pro8  Gangrel

Library: (75 cards)
——————-
Master (15 cards)
1  Animalism
1  Barrens, The
4  Blood Doll
1  Celerity
1  Fortitude
1  Giant`s Blood
1  Information Highway
3  Minion Tap
1  Park Hunting Ground
1  Rack, The

Action (2 cards)
2  Restoration

Action Modifier (5 cards)
4  Freak Drive
1  Kiss of Ra, The

Reaction (12 cards)
4  Cats` Guidance
4  Rat`s Warning
4  Wake with Evening`s Freshness

Combat (27 cards)
2  Canine Horde
4  Flash
2  Hidden Strength
2  Indomitability
2  Psyche!
4  Sideslip
2  Skin of Rock
3  Skin of Steel
4  Taste of Vitae
2  Unflinching Persistence

Retainer (9 cards)
1  J. S. Simmons, Esq.
1  Mr. Winthrop
2  Murder of Crows
4  Raven Spy
1  Tasha Morgan

Equipment (5 cards)
4  .44 Magnum
1  Ivory Bow

The J/DS/AH restriction is to fit in better with the Pleasanton crowd that I haven’t played with in ages.  This deck has been entertaining, if really, really slow.

Deck Name:   111210  antiNos Qualifier Perfect
Created By:  Lucian, The Perfect

Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 14, Max: 37, Avg: 6.91)
———————————————-
2  Gustaphe Brunnelle                 obf ANI DOM POT8  Nosferatu
1  Harold Tanner                      ani dom obf POT6  Nosferatu
1  Joseph Cambridge                   ani dom obf POT6  Nosferatu Antitribu
2  Julio Martinez                     ANI DOM nec OBF POT9  Nosferatu Antitribu
1  Lucian                             ANI AUS DOM OBF POT PRE 11 Guruhi
1  Mateusz Gryzbowsky                 ANI OBF POT    8  Nosferatu Antitribu
2  Tarbaby Jack                       dom ser ANI OBF POT8  Nosferatu Antitribu
2  Tupdog                             POT VIS        1  Gargoyle

Library: (80 cards)
——————-
Master (13 cards)
1  Archon Investigation
1  Barrens, The
1  Direct Intervention
1  Dreams of the Sphinx
1  Information Highway
3  Life in the City
1  Nosferatu Kingdom
4  Villein

Action (12 cards)
1  Bum`s Rush
4  Deep Song
4  Govern the Unaligned
1  Harass
1  Preternatural Strength
1  Sense Death

Action Modifier (4 cards)
2  Conditioning
1  Into Thin Air
1  Spying Mission

Reaction (14 cards)
3  Cats` Guidance
1  Confusion of the Eye
4  Deflection
4  On the Qui Vive
1  Redirection
1  Sense the Savage Way

Combat (24 cards)
1  Canine Horde
4  Carrion Crows
1  Drawing Out the Beast
4  Immortal Grapple
2  Slam
4  Taste of Vitae
1  Terror Frenzy
2  Thrown Gate
4  Torn Signpost
1  Vanish from the Mind`s Eye

Ally (3 cards)
1  Carlton Van Wyk (Hunter)
1  Mylan Horseed (Goblin)
1  Underbridge Stray

Retainer (1 cards)
1  Mr. Winthrop

Equipment (2 cards)
1  Ivory Bow
1  Seal of Veddartha

Combo (7 cards)
1  Hide the Mind
2  Murmur of the False Will
4  Swallowed by the Night

More wakes.  Made me sad Lucian never tabled.  I’ll have to build more Lucian focused decks.

Deck Name:   110709  Dance, Dance, Revolution
Created By:  Sarah Cobbler

Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 4, Max: 21, Avg: 3.25)
———————————————
4  Anarch Convert                     none           1  Caitiff
1  Brooke                             dom tha        3  Tremere Antitribu
1  Hannigan                           AUS dom THA    5  Tremere Antitribu
1  Ignatius                           aus dom tha    4  Tremere
1  Jing Wei                           dom tha        3  Tremere
1  Kurt Strauss                       aus DOM tha    5  Tremere Antitribu
1  Merrill Molitor                    aus dom THA    5  Tremere
1  Reverend Blackwood                 DOM obf THA    6  Tremere Antitribu
1  Sarah Cobbler                      dom THA        4  Tremere

Library: (75 cards)
——————-
Master (20 cards)
2  Anarch Revolt
1  Barrens, The
4  Blood Doll
1  Dominate
2  Dreams of the Sphinx
1  Path of Lilith, The
1  Powerbase: Montreal
1  Rack, The
1  Rotschreck
5  Smiling Jack, The Anarch
1  Thaumaturgy

Action (7 cards)
5  Constant Revolution
2  Govern the Unaligned

Action Modifier (5 cards)
3  Conditioning
2  Mirror Walk

Reaction (22 cards)
9  Deflection
8  On the Qui Vive
2  Power of All
1  Redirection
2  Scry the Hearthstone

Combat (15 cards)
2  Burst of Sunlight
1  Diversion
1  Walk of Flame
1  Weather Control
10 Wind Dance

Ally (4 cards)
2  Carlton Van Wyk (Hunter)
1  Mylan Horseed (Goblin)
1  Nephandus (Mage)

Retainer (1 cards)
1  Charnas the Imp

Equipment (1 cards)
1  Bowl of Convergence

Will have to change this deck as I want to play it again.  So many things I didn’t see in that game.

Deck Name:   110918  Blessed Resilience
Created By:  Macoute

Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 25, Max: 32, Avg: 7.25)
———————————————-
3  Babalawo Alafin                    ani AUS FOR NEC7  Harbingers of Skulls
3  Macoute                            FOR obf NEC thn6  Samedi
3  Mordechai Ben-Nun                  ANI AUS FOR NEC8  Harbingers of Skulls
3  Morlock                            FOR NEC THN obf8  Samedi

Library: (90 cards)
——————-
Master (26 cards)
4  Blessed Resilience
1  Heidelberg Castle, Germany
4  Life in the City
1  Parthenon, The
1  Path of Lilith, The
6  Storage Annex
6  Villein
3  Wider View

Action (18 cards)
9  Force of Will
1  Possession
5  Rapid Healing
3  Restoration

Action Modifier (27 cards)
4  Call of the Hungry Dead
8  Daring the Dawn
14 Freak Drive
1  Trochomancy

Reaction (14 cards)
7  On the Qui Vive
7  Telepathic Misdirection

Ally (1 cards)
1  Carlton Van Wyk (Hunter)

Combo (4 cards)
4  Spectral Divination

Man, I love the crypt for this deck – got the perfect draw of one of each, by the way, in that game.  Dennis strongly suggested adding about three Trochomancy.  There’s actually a lot of tweaks I could make now that I realize it’s not quite as kamikaze as I expected.  Still have won every game I’ve ever played playing HoS Force of Will …

Deck Name:   111119  Josef`s Army
Created By:  Toby

Crypt: (15 cards, Min: 4, Max: 32, Avg: 4.46)
———————————————
4  Anarch Convert                     none           1  Caitiff
1  Beetleman                          obf ANI        4  Nosferatu
1  Foureyes                           obf pot        3  Nosferatu
2  Jeremy Wix Wyzchovsky              ani obf pot    5  Nosferatu
2  Josef von Bauren                   cel ANI DEM OBF POT11 Nosferatu
1  Petra                              aus ANI OBF    5  Nosferatu
1  Ruxandra                           ani aus OBF    5  Nosferatu
1  Slag                               ani obf pot    4  Nosferatu
2  Toby                               ani obf pre    5  Nosferatu

Library: (75 cards)
——————-
Master (20 cards)
1  Barrens, The
4  Blood Doll
1  Dreams of the Sphinx
1  Heidelberg Castle, Germany
1  Labyrinth, The
2  Obfuscate
1  Path of Lilith, The
3  Perfectionist
4  Villein
2  Wider View

Action (9 cards)
4  Computer Hacking
1  Conceal
4  Kindred Intelligence

Action Modifier (16 cards)
4  Cloak the Gathering
2  Elder Impersonation
2  Faceless Night
1  Leverage
1  Monkey Wrench
4  Spying Mission
2  Veil the Legions

Reaction (12 cards)
4  Confusion of the Eye
2  Delaying Tactics
4  On the Qui Vive
2  Wake with Evening`s Freshness

Combat (8 cards)
4  Dodge
4  No Trace

Ally (1 cards)
1  Mylan Horseed (Goblin)

Retainer (3 cards)
1  J. S. Simmons, Esq.
1  Robert Carter
1  Tasha Morgan

Equipment (1 cards)
1  Camera Phone

Event (1 cards)
1  Scourge of the Enochians

Combo (4 cards)
4  Swallowed by the Night

Have already decided to cut two of the crypt.  I never gain advantage from playing 15.  I also identified the need for Fragment of the Book of Nod after the first time I played it, but I haven’t cared enough to make the change.  After all, I never get blocked, so I discard stealth constantly.

Because we keep having a regional qualifier late in December.  By looking at what has done well or poorly recently, gives me food for thought leading into our premier event.

From the general …

If we look at the top of the winners, five clans break 20 wins.  Three are original gangster.  Who would have guessed back in the day that the two winningest Sabbat clans would be the !Tremere and !Ventrue?

Bottom feeders – bloodlines (of course), Caitiff and Pander, and !Nosferatu.  I have said about as much as I’m interested in saying in the thread on vekn.net about which of !Brujah, !Gangrel, and !Nosferatu need the most help.  I didn’t even answer the question since my belief is that all three should receive help.  Where the weaker Cammie clans could always rely on powerful Cammie cards as well as a plethora of crypt options, the antitribu have largely been shafted historically.  With exceptions, of course.  !Toreador, for some reason, got cards like Art Scam and Palla Grande, later Foundation Exhibit.  That !Nos are really bad in tournament wins at the moment is not all that exciting.  Sample size issues mean that you can get wild swings in wins.

On the other hand, the two clans with double digit wins in 2011 that aren’t in the top five over the two year span are Brujah and !Gangrel.  So, worrying overmuch about the !Gangrel is mistimed.  Can argue all one wants that !Gangrel are supported by superstars, but determining who isn’t requires deep diving into every clan.

Anyway, a long list, let’s break up into my usual “classes”:

The demise of Gangrel from elite status is just stunning.  Sure, as time has gone by and groups get added, they’ve lost Camarillaness, lost Dominate, lost Nadima.  Loki’s Gift hardly gets exploited like some other new cards, while Deep Song sees more use with winnies, fatties(!), and Nana Buruku-ies, er, Guruhi then with Gangrel.

Caitiff isn’t terribly surprising.  While the number of people who play Scourge of the Enochians seems really low, the threat of it ending your game seems sufficient to push out Caitiff and Pander, but not Tupdogs for whatever reason.  It’s hard to get enthused by one-caps.  Also, if we hadn’t seen this same effect with Pander, it could be argued that the awfulness of more recent Caitiff has a lot to do with the paltry number of wins.

Always interesting to look at the original indies.  My sense is, without going back to look at the numbers, that they see the greatest swings of any “class” of clans.  We even see crazy swings from 2010 to 2011 with this data.

Besides unhappy Panders, it’s interesting to me how the most distinctive Sabbie clans by virtue of getting, at the time they came out, a unique discipline, fall into the 3, 4, and 5 slots on wins.  I believe all of the Sabbies, including the “leader” clans – Lasombra, Tzimisce – maybe especially the leader clans, should be getting more toys.  That !Ventrue have such unimpressive clan toys speaks volumes about what sort of vampires they’ve gotten.

A notable rise across the board from 2010 to 2011.  New expansions really do have a major, if possibly short term, impact in popularity.  Though, it’s funny that one of the big winners is Ahrimanes when Heirs to the Blood didn’t give them the same sort of boost other bloodlines got.  In fact, they got nothing of great significance as either a clan toy or in Spiritus.

…

Again, across the board increases.  Starting to look less pathetic.

Movement from 2010 to 2011:

Probably don’t need to include a total, though I guess it’s worth noting that 42 additional decks are listed for clans, and the year isn’t over.  To get at a total total, the non-”clan” decks need to also be taken into account, and those numbers are up on extrala.blogspot.com, anyway.  What happened to the Ravnos?  They can play Deep Song, too.

So, for me, does any of this matter?

On the perpetual underdog side:  I’ve gotten bored with Nagaraja, but I consider Samedi having such poor showings as more about being underplayed than undercompetitive.  I don’t mind Off Kilter.  Maybe, I can get a bit more enthused with Reanimated Corpse and Little Mountain Cemetery or just try something radical like Groaning Corpse.dec.

On the “what happened to you?” side:  !Nos, sure.  Ravnos?  Why not?  Besides that I’ve won every tournament I’ve ever played with them, a list that gets shorter every time I return to a clan.  Course, not that the TWDA shows it, the same situation exists for Samedi.

On a more general level of what is going on with the game, while there are certainly movements, the picture I get from glancing at this data is one more of stability.  Lack of new sets might have something to do with that.  If only Ebony Kingdoms was the set it should have been – 150 cards, double digit new crypt options for each clan – maybe Laibon would have gotten a much bigger bump.  Guess it makes it that much more interesting that the numbers are rising for them even for the Nana Burukuless clans.

For the next local convention, I haven’t thought of anything to run.  Then, I realized that a playtest of a mod would be the perfect thing to run.  Being deadline and commitment driven, putting an actual date on when it would need to be done might see me put the work in.

What’s difficult is narrowing down to just one idea.  Sure, there’s always writing more mods, but let’s get through one, first.  There are so many things I find lacking in HoR adventures, but they can’t all go into one mod.

What are these lacks?

1.  Honor gains – Honor gains aren’t that common to begin with, I don’t recall any major Honor gains that didn’t involve losing your character from HoR2.  A lot of my recent discussion about what bothers me about 4e L5R is that Honor seems far less important, being a resource only for certain schools or for characters who start with 6.5 Honor schools.

2.  Unusual skills – The lack here isn’t one of omission but of dearth.  On the other hand, rare skills are rare.  Having one mod greatly benefit one skill is neither fair to those who didn’t take it (why would they?) or to the lucky party where someone is good at the skill and can break a mod.  This is where it’s kind of sad that macro skills work the way they do.  If macro skills – Perform, Artisan, Games, etc. – meant you could use the skill with all subtypes, then the skills wouldn’t so rarely be used.  To benefit specialists, emphases could be used to differentiate someone more skilled in one area than another.  In HoR2, I got enough use out of Sailing to be satisfied.  My mod needs to elevate some more obscure skill while not being stupid about it.

3.  Flavorful mod rewards – These crop up from time to time.  No reason not to include them.  Well, I can see where only a limited number of mods should include certs, however, not every unusual reward needs to be certed.

4.  Flavorful story rewards – Not a great way to describe this category, but what I’m thinking of are unusual locations, unusual events, etc.  Any mod that involved leaving Rokugan, whether by traveling into gaijin lands, the Shadowlands, or by traveling to another spirit realm, interested me much more.  Also, just having identifiable locales is better than not, such as a major shrine or a “lost” shrine or whatever.  “Plot mods” are likely better than ones that just exist to have people accumulate XP.

5.  Shadowlands – Already mentioned traveling to them, but what I mean here is really “Monsters”.  I don’t find Taint interesting, but I think there should be far more oni-slaying.  Or, since it appears that the Lying Darkness is important to HoR3, Shadowspawn-thrashing.  I’d rather see much less intrigue and much more monster-murdering in my Asian gaming.  What I’m not interested in is the casual monster – the monster that isn’t necessarily there to be fought but just a plot device.  We want to use our katana, tetsubo, war fans, et al.

6.  Daimyo – Unlike some of my HoR2 players, in HoR2, I couldn’t care less about daimyo, including my own.  They didn’t rise to the level of nebulous NPCs, and that was fine because I was busy trying to plot how to leave Rokugan … er, advance my societal position through proper channels of expression and duty.  However, HoR3 is not HoR2.  The daimyo system is a mechanic in HoR3 that is supposed to matter.  It doesn’t.  Maybe someone, somewhere has been affected, but I have yet to see it.  Of course, there are far too many daimyo, so it’s difficult to incorporate them.  Who wants a dozen names listed as mattering with a hundred or whatever not?

7.  Contests – Again, they exist.  They just aren’t common enough.  I actually rate contests, whether tournaments or not, to be the most desirable elements to include in adventures.  Though, as with everything, it’s easy to overdo.  Not every session should have them.  But, I need to increase the average.

8.  Recurring characters – This I may not be able to do anything about.  If I only ever write one mod, the chances seems slim of using someone else’s character or having someone use one of mine, though mods get edited before publishing, so maybe a recurring character will get inserted into a mod.  Can’t hurt to have as interesting characters as possible to increase people’s desires to see them again.

9.  Limited characters – I hate running Winter Court mods.  It’s not WC, itself, as I find snowy environs evocative.  It’s the endless number of irrelevant NPCs.  Other mods have similar problems.  For running HoR2 as a home game, cutting in half or so the number of NPCs is often the way to go.  Now, as a player, I don’t tend to mind having a large cast of red herring characters.  After all, I just pick a NPC based on clan or other feature and focus my efforts to interact with the world.  That has paid off well enough.  Still, discipline.  Define only interesting characters who serve useful purposes.  The point of these mods shouldn’t be to trick people, should be to entertain.  I’ll leave the “parade of names” mods to other writers …

10.  Action – … because I want the focus to be on action.  Not tedious investigations that involve confirming stories or repeated climbing checks but action that’s actually exciting.  This is not a strongpoint for me.  I’m much better suited for soap operas.  But, we get far too much politics and intrigue and far too little running in abject terror and smiting.

11.  Advantages/Disadvantages – Typically, an advantage or disad either comes up all of the time or virtually never.  That’s not how they are supposed to work.  Much like underused skills need to see some use, underrelevant ads./disads. should matter.

12.  Bears – Total party kills are far too rare.

I’m sure I’m forgetting some lacks.  Though, if you’ve read this far, you’ve probably realized something.  This is a terrible way to create entertainment.  You don’t create by trying to address problems.  This is why I’m not a good person for game design – I look to fix what’s broken not create new, broken things.  I’d be far better suited to editing other people’s mods.

Instead of laying out what I see as weaknesses, I should be honing in on what’s awesome and making that awesome be awesome.  Like, bear fights.

[For those who don't get the joke, bears are like the scariest things in the game that you could ever expect to face.]