Game rules – Page 3 – Black Chantry Productions

About diversity and inclusivity (including VEKN Rules Team Rulings 05/07/2020)

Hello everyone,

1. Black Lives Matter
I want to make it clear that Black Chantry Productions firmly supports the #BlackLivesMatter movement.

The game we are honoured to publish, Vampire: The Eternal Struggle, is a social game where friendships have been developed over the decades bringing people across the world closer.

We want everyone to have an equal opportunity to live, learn and love in life without being marginalised or having the fear of abuse, violence or death hanging over them due to their skin colour or race.

2. What does VTES or Black Chantry have to do with this?
Vampire: The Eternal Struggle is set within the World of Darkness and this is a world that has been designed to be a monster filled, alternate reality of our own. In filling this world with monsters, the original designers took many horrors and caricatures from our own world. This includes a whole host of things that are offensive by 2020 standards. I think the quote below encapsulates WoD very well.

The World of Darkness has always been about pushing back that darkness. That’s the -punk part of gothic-punk: the rejection of misuse of power and rebellion against it. That’s why the Riddle is A Beast I am lest a Beast I become. The player stands against monstrosity. – Justin Achilli June 2020

3. What practical things are Black Chantry or the VEKN doing?

VEKN

Rules Team Ruling – RTR 05/07/2020
From 1st August 2020 the following five cards will be banned in Vampire: Elder Kindred Network sanctioned Vampire: The Eternal Struggle tournaments:
Gypsies
Rom Gypsy
Tarbaby Jack
Terrorists
Tsigane

There may be other changes as the VEKN evaluates the card pool. Where possible we will design new cards to fit those spaces.

VEKN Code of Ethics Policy
This will continue to be reviewed and updated as needed, please let me know if you need any help with it, there have been a few queries so far.

It is partly there to ensure that no players are bullied or harassed whilst playing and particularly because of their race, ethnicity, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, age or disability among others.

BLACK CHANTRY PRODUCTIONS

Here’s a brief overview of some of the ways Black Chantry works and how BCP thinks about inclusivity in the day to day work.

Art
We commission art to reflect the world around us, there will continue to be a spread of gender, race and other characteristics in the vampire characters we use in the game.

We try to ensure groups and cultures we know less about are accurately portrayed on artwork as we want the vampires to feel authentic. We do this through detailed conversations and research with a wide range of people.

Artists
We have a core group of artists who work on Vampire: The Eternal Struggle but are interested in working with more. We enjoy meeting with new artists and seeing if their style could work within VTES and often receive contact inquiries about work opportunities. We are keen to see a range of artist visions be portrayed in the World of Darkness rather than just our own.

There are some key things to note: VTES has a specific set of style constraints that we need artists to be able to work to, much of this is governed by World of Darkness art guides which looks for darkly horror-based art.

We have also taken steps to replace artwork from the game that we consider unsatisfactory due to depiction on the card or due to disagreement with an artist’s philosophy on life.

Design
We have a limited design team to the limited nature of what we do (one game), we do however take submissions via the VEKN forum.

Additionally, we operate with a diverse range of playtest groups and players, about 100-150 persons depending on the set. We are always looking for more playtest groups to encourage a wider set of opinions to help the testing.

Distribution
Black Chantry has deliberately used a range of distributors to help get VTES moving again, many of these are players of the game and the majority will be local to the countries they distribute in. This doesn’t make everything as smooth as it could be by using larger more established distributors or by selling to a larger online company or direct to customers but it does help us connect to retailers who are passionate about the game and talk to them directly.

We have so far avoided Kickstarter as we’d rather support retailers as much as we can.

We do enjoy using DriveThruCards to allow print on demand and by doing so also contribute to other, smaller, creators being able to use this mechanism to get their games out there.

Language
When we initially reprinted VTES we were asked on a number of occasions about getting the game in non-English languages. We have tried to provide cards in languages where it is economically viable as we want to be inclusive even if this means printing a limited volume of expansions for a specific playgroup.

Mistakes
I’m sure Black Chantry will make mistakes and has made mistakes. My intent is for mistakes to come with the best of intentions and for us to learn from any mistakes we make.

It may not be possible to please all of our community with the artwork and cards we produce or with some of the changes we have made to the game, but that won’t stop us from playing with you and being ousted cross table…

Thanks

Hugh Angseesing
CEO Black Chantry Productions

Copyright © 2024 Paradox Interactive AB. www.paradoxinteractive.com. All rights reserved. Vampire: The Eternal Struggle and Vampire: The Masquerade® are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Paradox Interactive AB. All rights reserved.

VTES rule open playtest: Contesting vampires

Greetings Methuselahs

We’re all committed to the rules of Vampire: The Eternal Struggle conceived 25 years ago. The impact of some rules has changed as the game has changed. One of those rules is vampire contestation. We have moved from having few crypt options to having large numbers of crypt options, but when contestation occurs the impact can be more severe with larger numbers of “key vampire decks” now in existence. We wish to examine if there are ways to reduce the impact of contestation and reduce the random element.

We would like you to test the following changes for non-tournament games:

A contested vampire remains in play. Their controller must pay 1 pool to continue to contest them, or yield during the unlock phase, but can play with them normally (act, block, play cards, cast votes or ballots etc.). If this vampire has a title that is also contested, the vampire must pay 1 blood point to keep it, as usual.
It is still forbidden to contest a vampire with oneself, and if this were to happen, the last vampire to enter play would be immediately burned, as usual.
This concerns both vampires influenced from the crypt and unique vampires brought into play with library cards (Abomination, Call the Great Beast etc.)
Unique library cards (including allies) and imbued are still unaffected by this rule change.

This change has already been tested in online league games, but we would like to have a lot more games adopting this rule in order to observe its influence on the balance of the game, the frequency of representation of “star” vampires etc.

We are especially interested in game reports including:

Frequency: How many games had a vampire being contested / games played?
The situation of the two (or more) players contesting (prey/predator? other?)
For how long the vampires were contested. How did it end? How much blood was left on the vampire after the contest?
Is the penalty balanced from their point of view? from the non-contesting players’ point of view?
Are star decks appearing more often over time? (It can take time for the players to adjust to the new rule)

Below are answers to some questions you might have. We use Lodin as the example vampire.

Q: Can Lodin block another Lodin controlled by another Methuselah?
A: Yes.

Q: If there are two Lodin in play and I call a Banishment on “Lodin”, do I need to specify which copy I am choosing?
A: Yes. These are two different copies.

Q: If there are two copies of Lodin in play and one of them is burned, what happens to the other?
A: Nothing. However, since the controller of the remaining Lodin is not contesting anymore, that controller will not have to pay the contest any longer, and Lodin will get back his title during his next unlock phase (as usual).

Q: What happens if two Methuselahs contest the same vampire, and a third one puts a third copy in play?
A: The third copy is immediately contested. However, it remains in play and the third Methuselah will have to pay the contest cost as the two others (as well as paying the contest for the title, if any).

Q: If two copies of Lodin are contested and one of them yields his title, what happens to the other?
A: The other copy will get back his title during his next unlock phase (unless someone else contests the title!)

Q: Someone plays The Name Forgotten on Lodin who later gets burned. What happens to the other copies of Lodin?
A: They stay in play since The Name Forgotten only removes copies from the “crypts, uncontrolled regions and ash heaps”.

Please use one of these two Google Forms to deliver feedback:
– Game report sheet:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc4dzZ9rXXkHYPL_UD6KXWdcX5zX1RV36oTWrwyTxYnVs4QqQ/viewform
– Your Opinion sheet:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeenKxORn8O1bfRMoaFdZZzlzH0075HIKYK3ofi_hLCu4LVvQ/viewform

Do you have other questions? Discuss on the VEKN.net forum or VEKN at Facebook, or ask Black Chantry Productions on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or contact@blackchantry.com.

VTES rulebook now in French!

Hello community!

Last month the first Vampire: The Eternal Struggle products in the French language hit the shelves, and to accompany this we now publish the game rulebook in French. The translation is by Vincent Ripoll, Emmanuelle Usselmann, Romain Vincent-Aumont, Timothée Daudé and Pascal Bertrand. It is still a draft version that awaits some more proofing and a new layout, so if you have any feedback, please tell!

You find the rulebook at www.blackchantry.com/rulebook

Clarifications: Murmur of the False Will and Dabbler

Black Chantry Productions would like to apologize for two errors in Vampire: The Eternal Struggle card texts recently, and show the correct texts. We cannot replace customers of practical reasons, but the correct texts will appear on the cards in future print runs.

ERROR IN CARD TEXT: MURMUR OF THE FALSE WILL
The card text in the first 25th Anniversary printing indicate you do not lock the minion for the redirect effect. This is wrong – you do lock the minion. Correct card text:

Murmur of the False Will
[ACTION MODIFIER] Only usable during a bleed action. +1 bleed (limited).
[DOM] [REACTION] Only usable if a younger vampire is bleeding you, after blocks are declined. Lock this reacting vampire. Change the target of the bleed to another Methuselah other than the acting vampire’s controller (that Methuselah can attempt to block).

ERROR IN CARD TEXT: DABBLER
The card text in the first printing of Heirs to the Blood 2 bundle indicate the card is only usable on your own actions. That is not the case; you can use it in other player´s turns. Correct card text:

Dabbler
Archetype. Trifle. Put this card on a vampire you control. Once each turn, this vampire can gain 1 blood or burn 1 blood to unlock after an action (successful or not) is performed during which they used 3 or more Disciplines to play cards. A vampire can have only one archetype.

Form of Mist – Art preview and minor text change

New card art by Ginés Quiñonero, will appear in the 25th Anniversary set.

A word from Vincent Ripoll, rules director at Black Chantry Productions: With the reprint of Form of Mist, we decided to remove a complex interaction with this card and the rule that prevents a player from adding stealth when it is not needed. Most of the time, Form of Mist would work as you expect: play it as a combat ends, and continue the action with an additional +1 stealth. However, in certain weird cases, you couldn’t play Form of Mist to continue the action. For instance, if the opposing minion with a Raven Spy has blocked an action at 1 stealth and the Raven Spy is burned in combat by the time you play the Form of Mist, then the blocking minion would have 0 intercept, forbidding you from playing Form of Mist that adds stealth. Another situation would be that Stanislava is blocked by a minion with Raven Spy while performing an action at stealth: since the retainers lose their abilities in combat against her, it means that the opposing minion has 0 intercept during the combat, forbidding you from playing Form of Mist. To avoid these unintuitive situations where continuing an action with a stealth bonus does not work, we decided to add the clause “even if stealth is not yet needed” to Form of Mist. It means that you now can play Form of Mist as you expect it to work.

New card text:
pro: Strike: dodge.
PRO: Strike: combat ends. If this vampire is acting and the action was blocked, they can burn 1 blood after combat ends to continue the action at +1 stealth as if unblocked, even if stealth is not yet needed. A vampire can play only one Form of Mist at superior each action.