Exclusive promo card with Mind’s Eye Theatre!

Black Chantry Productions are pleased to announce a Vampire: The Eternal Struggle promo card for Mind’s Eye Theatre Vampire: The Masquerade from By Night Studios.

The card Alicia Cortez is included in the Thinblood and higher levels of the Mind’s Eye Theatre Vampire: The Masquerade Volume 2 backer program available at www.bynightstudios.com. It will have a special logo making it exclusive, and it will not appear in any other version until one year has passed after the release of the book.

Learn more about the Backer Program at www.vampirelarp.com

Art by Ginés Quiñonero.

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.

300+ legacy Vampire: The Eternal Struggle cards now on Drivethrucards.com!

Yes, it is true! Black Chantry Productions are proud to tell you that we just published over 300 “legacy” Vampire: The Eternal Struggle cards as print-on-demand at Drivethrucards.com. These cards are not fixed in decks or bundles – instead you can pick and choose freely what cards you want to get, as long as each order contains at least 10 cards.

Clans featured this time is Followers of Set, Giovanni and Lasombra, and more are coming soon. Note that all of these cards have been updated with the modern frame and current wording, and some even have brand new art!

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.

Vampire: The Eternal Struggle brings the “world” back into “World of Darkness”

Fifth Edition now in stores – Lead designer Ben Peal explains design goals and talks about future products

VTES - Fifth Edition - Ben Peal

Vampire: The Eternal Struggle Fifth Edition is now available all over the world. The new box set is both playable as a stand alone game AND compatible with any older cards, so the creation was a challenge. We asked the lead designer Ben Peal, also Product Director at Black Chantry Productions, a couple of questions

What was the general design idea of Vampire: The Eternal Struggle Fifth Edition?
– We had a lot of design goals for this box set. The biggest one was to create a quality, replayable Vampire: The Eternal Struggle experience within the contents of the box itself. As such, we wanted the decks to have solid themes, to be effective, and to be reasonably balanced amongst each other.

We also had goals with respect to thinking “outside the box”. We wanted the decks in the set to be individually useable in games with your local playgroups. The contents of the deck also serve as a toolbox for building your own decks, as they provide the bulk of the core cards you’ll need.

There has also been growing demand from the player community for a new, alternate tournament format for the game, using only newer cards. Vampire: The Eternal Struggle Fifth Edition also serves to lay the foundation for that format, including the introduction of Group 6 Camarilla vampires. Don’t worry, the existing Standard Constructed format will remain in place – the new format will provide an option for both newer and veteran communities to work with a more manageable pool of cards.

Additional design goals included updating card texts to reflect the new rulebook and current rulings, reprinting needed cards that have been more difficult to acquire, and the creation of some new library cards to bolster some areas of deficiency, particularly with the Nosferatu clan.

What was the goals concerning the actual vampires, the crypt cards?
– I certainly invite you all to read the core books for Vampire: The Masquerade Fifth Edition, as they serve to inform Vampire: The Eternal Struggle of the overall metaplot and the shape of things to come. The emergence of the Gehenna War, the Beckoning, the Second Inquisition, and the resulting collapses and abandonments of many Kindred domains have resulted in power vacuums that will inevitably be filled. We’ve begun that process in Fifth Edition Vampire: The Eternal Struggle with the introduction of many new Kindred who will establish the new core of the Camarilla in our game.

One of our goals with Vampire: The Eternal Struggle Fifth Edition – and looking forward from that – is to bring the “world” back into the “World of Darkness”. Kindred society always lurks in the shadows behind the Kine. As such, we’re expanding the scope of Kindred domains to include more regions around the globe. This will continue with subsequent expansion of the Camarilla as well as their conflicts and clashes with the Anarchs. Some of the characters in our Fifth Edition are drawn from the current sourcebooks for Vampire: the Masquerade while some are newly introduced through Vampire: The Eternal Struggle.

A new year is here – what’s next for Vampire: The Eternal Struggle?
– We have a very busy schedule coming up for 2021! Right around the beginning of spring we’ll have two releases. The first is a mini-expansion about the Fall of London, based on the recent Vampire: the Masquerade sourcebook. Mike Nudd is the design lead for that one as he is also one of the writers of the Fall of London book!

The other release is the next wave of preconstructed decks: Brujah, Gangrel, Banu Haqim, and the Ministry. These will reflect the developments in Vampire: The Masquerade, with Brujah and Gangrel leaving the Camarilla to join the Anarchs. In an event known as the Vermillion Wedding, the Banu Haqim (formerly known as the Assamites) joined the Camarilla through the marital union of Tegyrius and Victoria Ash. The Ministry (formerly known as the Followers of Set) attempted to join the Camarilla but were prevented from doing so, with rumors of sabotage interfering with their efforts. Licking their wounds they chose to cast their lot with the Anarchs.

With the releases of Vampire: The Eternal Struggle Fifth Edition and the upcoming preconstructed decks, we’ll need to round out the crypts for the respective clans and give them more depth. We’ll also want to further develop their library options and explore the developments in the story for Vampire: the Masquerade. We’re now in development of a follow-up set to cover all of this and we’re aiming for a Q3 release. We understand that we’ve been feeding you a steady diet of preconstructed decks, so we’ll be changing things up for this release, likely in the form of smaller, fixed-content bundles.


Of course, a new wave of promo cards is coming, as well. They’re designed and we’re in the middle of procuring artwork for them. The original plan for their release was to coincide with the 2021 season of continental championships. However, as we’re all still waiting to get our Covid-19 vaccines so we can meet up and play in person, we’ll look to get these released when larger events can take place.

Likewise, the replacement cards for the cards which were banned over the summer have been designed and artwork is coming in for them. We’ll have a clearer picture on their release in the coming months but it will be a mixture of cards in new release bundles and as print-on-demand at Drivethrucards.com.

Another wave of legacy reprints is coming to Drivethrucards, as well. We’re waiting for the arrival of the printing proofs for the Followers of Set, Giovanni and Lasombra bundles. Once those are received and approved, we’ll make those bundles available immediately. Look for them towards the end of this January. Work has begun on the next wave updating templates and art as required.

Lastly, we’ve received approval for publishing the previously PDF-only sets released by the Vampire: Elder Kindred Network as a legacy set. We’re in the middle of getting some new artwork to replace some of the pieces. Once all that’s received we can get these out as a physical product.

VTES Fifth Edition

Vampire: The Eternal Struggle Fifth Edition is available for all stores and distributors. For more information please visit www.blackchantry.com. Contact us by mail or social media.

RELATED:
Complete decklists and previews from the Fifth Edition decks
The delicate art of Vampire: The Eternal Struggle
Interview with original designer Richard Garfield
Rulebook for download
Rules Team Rulings with Fifth Edition rulebook addendum

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.

Rules Team Rulings with Fifth Edition rulebook addendum and errata (RTR 30/11/2020)

VTES - The Becoming - Art by Kyri Koniotis

Fellow Methuselahs,

To accompany the release of Vampire: The Eternal Struggle Fifth Edition, the following rule change will be effective December 30, 2020.

Rule Change: Default sect
Clans do not have a default sect anymore. This means that if a vampire changes clan, they keep their sect. For instance, a Derange played by Malkavian antitribu on a target vampire who is Camarilla Ventrue changes the target into a Camarilla Malkavian antitribu (not a Sabbat Malkavian antitribu as before).

This is a REVERSAL of the following rulings (based on the old rule):
LSJ 20030225, LSJ 19990924, LSJ 20010924.

The following cards have changed:
Becoming, The: Inherits the sire’s sect.
Brother in Arms: Inherits the sire’s sect.
Creation Rites: The vampire is now explicitly Sabbat.
Dual Form: Inherits the sire’s sect.
Nosferatu Bestial: Inherits the sire’s sect.
Third Tradition: Progeny: The vampire is now explicitly Camarilla.
Trophy: Progeny: Inherits the sire’s sect.

Fifth Edition Rulebook addendum

Drawing Cards (p. 7)
Whenever you are asked to draw from your crypt, move the top card from your crypt to your uncontrolled region.

Requirements for Playing Cards (p. 7)
Unless explicitly stated, costs you pay must be paid with resources you control: your pool, blood on vampires you control, cards in your ash heap, etc. For instance, you cannot play Enticement if you do not control the Edge, since you must burn it as part of its cost.

An exception is the “Rescue a Vampire from Torpor” action (p. 23) whose cost can be paid by the acting vampire or the rescued vampire, or the cost may be split between them.

Performing an action (p. 16)
The term “perform” applies to the entire course of the action, from the moment it is announced to the moment it is resolved. An action that is “performed” can end up by being successful or not. “Performing an action” does not imply that the action is successful.

Political Action Cards (p. 27)
Those cards simply say “1 vote”, rather than “worth 1 vote” (which was the wording used in older sets).

VTES Quick Rererence

Quick Reference (p. 53)
The Discipline Blood Sorcery is also called Thaumaturgy in older sets. They are exactly the same.

The clan Banu Haqim is called Assamite in older sets. They are exactly the same.

Similarly, the clan Ministry (whose members are called Ministers) is called Followers of Set in older sets.

For instance, if a card requires a ready Banu Haqim, any ready Assamite will fulfill this requirement (and vice versa).


Fifth Edition Rulebook errata

Rulebook, p. 15
The 30 pool displayed as your pool do not necessarily reflect the state of the game at that moment (since you have spent some of them to bring vampires into play), unless you have found a way to regain enough pool to reach your initial 30 pool. Also, please note that there is no limit to the amount of pool a Methuselah can have.


Fifth Edition Helpsheets errata

Leave torpor

The cost of the action is missing: “Action cost: 2 blood”.

Diablerise a vampire in torpor
The word stealth is missing in the following sentence: “Undirected +1 stealth action if you control both vampires.”

VTES Fifth Edition

Vampire: The Eternal Struggle Fifth Edition is available for all stores and distributors. For more information please visit the Products section at  www.blackchantry.com. Contact us by mail or social media.

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.

The delicate art of Vampire: The Eternal Struggle

Fifth Edition now in stores – An interview with art director Ginés Quiñonero


With Vampire: The Eternal Struggle Fifth Edition now in stores, we continue to peek behind the scenes. Something that generally render praise is the card illustrations of the game. This is the domain of Ginés Quiñonero.

Ginés, you are an artist and art teacher, but also the art director of Vampire: The Eternal Struggle (VTES) at Black Chantry Productions. What exactly do you do as an art director?
– My job mainly consists of these activities:
• Commissioning new art.
• Creating art myself when I am motivated by a specific art description or card.
• Finding new artists in order to increase the variety of VTES art.
• Writing some art descriptions. Most are written by Ben Peal.
• Keeping track of any art projects for VTES products, which means having art contracts signed, sketches approved, deadlines met, final artwork delivered, artists paid, etc.
• Submitting art to Paradox Interactive for approval.
• Preparing art files containing old VTES art for future projects, for example updating color space, resolution and aspect ratio when necessary.
• Ascertaining which cards need replacement artwork.
• Designing logos for any expansion sets.
• Supervising our graphic designer.


The “mothergame” of VTES is Vampire: The Masquerade, which has changed its art direction with the most recent edition. How has it changed, and how does that affect VTES?
– Previous art directions were more eclectic style-wise. The current one places more emphasis on the dark horror mood of the World of Darkness, and on making it believable to the audience. That immediately rules out comic-like styles that look childish, for example, which were becoming more and more present in VTES over the years.

Under the current art direction, adult themes are of the highest importance, and therefore need to be properly depicted with the dramatic lighting and contrasting colours they deserve. Now, some acceptable art styles for VTES are: concept art, photo art, artistic graphic novel art, traditional art, etc.

The impact this new art direction has on VTES is conspicuous in any new cards or in any old cards with new art published by Black Chantry. Their art has to adhere to the above-mentioned criteria and to the current World of Darkness lore. A clear example of that is the difference between the previous art of Govern the Unaligned, released in Heirs to the Blood, and the Fifth Edition replacement art for that same card.

Three versions of Govern the Unaligned – 1995, 2009 and Fifth Edition 2020.


Especially for VTES Fifth Edition, what was the general art direction for the new art?
– The most important thing was basically making sure the art guidelines mentioned earlier were met. However, I am well aware of some issues that negatively affected some artists’ performance in the White Wolf era (2000-2010), that I try to avoid. Therefore, I tend not to overwhelm artists with many art comissions to be delivered within a short period of time, so I give them enough time to complete their illustrations and provide them with flexible deadlines when possible, if asked for.

For this project, I hired artists who were proficient either in photo art or in human figure and/or in urban landscape drawing, who were capable of creating believable portraits of vampires as well as dramatic scenes.

When you discuss with the contributing artists, what are the most common issues?
– Fortunately, I seldom have to discuss any issues with the contributing artists. But when I have to, the most common issues are: misproportions, inadequate lighting, inconsistent perspective and the need to make an illustration look more pictorial, with visible brushstrokes.

You are a VTES artist yourself, with many contributions in recent years. How do you work? Your technique has changed, right?
– My early illustrations for VTES were oil paintings: Masai Blood Milk (2005), Gran Madre di Dio, Italy (2006), Claudio Severino (2010), as well as the ones I created later for the Danse Macabre set (2013). However, even though I had more time available back then, I realised those pieces would take me too long to complete.

So I decided to use a faster technique, pastels and colour pencils, in the sets The Unaligned (2014), Storyline Rewards (2015) and Anarchs Unbound (2016). This time it took me an average of 6 hours to complete an illustration (not counting sketching time). However using pastels also had its drawbacks. Colours changed a bit after fixing the painting.


After that I opted for using acrylics in the Lost Kindred set (2018), a technique that was not ideal, because acrylic colours can change a lot after drying off, but which was fast enough for me. For example, I had to create replacement art for Field Training and Under Siege in two days for the Berlin Anthology, which were urgently needed for print.

Due to the dark nature of VTES illustrations, taking photos of some of them to create image files was really a pain, because of the constant reflections appearing in the darker areas. Regardless, photos never looked exacly like the painting.

Therefore I finally decided to use a Wacom tablet, that I already had at home, and the ArtRage software for natural painting. So I went down the path of digital art! It is even faster than pastels, and I do not have to waste any time taking photos to the final piece. It also provides me with a plethora of tools that make painting an even better experience. My first digital illustrations were released in Lost Kindred (2018) and subsequent sets.

When I have to create an illustration, I write down any ideas that come to my mind after reading the art description, and then start sketching until the composition of the illustration pleases me enough to proceed with the final piece.

Afterwards, I try to find any references that can be useful, and then I start drawing and painting in ArtRage, following these steps:

Ginés Quinonero - VTES
Ginés Quinonero - VTES
Ginés Quinonero - VTES
Ginés Quinonero - VTES
Ginés Quinonero - VTES
Art by Ginés Quiñonero for a coming Vampire: The Eternal Struggle card.


My style has been evolving over these years because I have always been looking for inspiration in the artists I admire, among whom are several VTES illustrators. Most recently I am trying to make my illustrations look more pictorial with evident brushstrokes.

Vampire: The Eternal Struggle Fifth Edition is available for all stores and distributors. For more information please visit www.blackchantry.com. Contact us by mail or social media.

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.