Part II Preview... the man himself

As winner of the first event, Brandon got to design the Old Guard faction leader. Where we left off, the Old Guard were split down the middle between the Tremere and the Ventrue.

Bay Area Storylines pt. 1 - Disciples (preliminary results)

Yesterday was our first event, and I have to report it a great success. 10 players in total from all around the bay area.

Congratulations to Brandon Haas for winning the final round with the clock running out and saving him from certain defeat. The Old Guard were victorious in fending off the first wave of the invasion, but their loyalties are split within the faction and infighting places them in a dangerous position.

 Name: Dirk Rising
Key Minion: Dirk
Faction: Old Guard

Crypt:
Dirk 1 pre
Tara 6 POT PRE cel prince
Vasily 6 CEL aus pre ser Prince
Victor Donaldson 6 DOM for pre Prince
Lodin (Olaf Holte) 8 DOM FOR PRE aus pro Prince
Epikasta Rigatos 8 AUS DOM PRE cel Prince
Graham Gottesman 7 DOM FOR obf pre tha Prince
Mustafa, The Heir 6 FOR PRE cel dom Prince]
Dr. Solomaon Grey 2 dom pre
Reginald Moore 4 PRE primogen
2x Emily Carson 5 DOM for pre primigen

Library: 90
Master: 19
Lilith's Blessing(was my faction card all three rounds)
The Coven
2x Pentex Subversion
2x Anarch Troublemaker
6x Life in the City
7x Presence

Actions: 27
Dream World
2x Propaganda
3x Enchant Kindred
3x Entrancement
10x Public Trust
Fifth Tradition: Hospitality
5x Third Tradition: Progeny
2x Mind Numb

Action Modifiers: 11
6x Aire of Elation
Daring the Dawn
The Sleeping Mind
2x Seduction
Command

Combo: 2
2x Force of Personality

Combat: 10
10x Majesty

Reactions: 21
10x Deflection
6x Second Tradition
5x On the Qui Vive

There will be a more detailed event write up to follow!

Storyline Writeup

Storyline Writeup

Now, to start preparing for event #2!

Possible Revised Card Texts

After our first match, I've come up with a couple of ideas to revise the event cards. Nothing is final of course, but this is what I've come up with.

Power Base Oakland
Master. Unique Location. 1 Pool.
Each time a minion, retainer, location or item is burned, put a counter on this card. Any minion may take a (D) action to burn all counters from this card, for each counter burned the Methuselah who controls PB Oakland gains a pool. Tap this card to reduce the cost of a weapon by 1 (never below 0) or tap this card and burn X counters to reduce the cost of a weapon by X (never below 0). Any minion may takes control of this card as a (D) action. Anarchs receive +1 stealth on this action.

The Sabbat Invasion needs some help, so here are a couple of ideas for revision:

Holy Warriors of the Sabbat
You may not gain pool unless this card is untapped. Holy Warriors of the Sabbat begins play tapped and does not untap as normal. Untap this card when you gain control of the edge. You may not gain pool when you do not have the edge. Tap this card to give each unique Black Hand vampire your control a vote against the current referendum. During your discard phase, if you have the edge and control an untapped Sabbat
vampire, your prey burns 1 pool. During your influence phase, if your faction leader is ready and this card is untapped, you may spend four transfers and pay a pool to move your faction leader to your ready region.

Possible replacement for Hand Archives:

Rite of Vitae

Master. Sabbat Invasion.

Tap this card after a round of combat after one of your vampires successfully inflicts damage to gain blood equal to the damage inflicted. 

I'm short on time, but this is what I have so far. Ideas are welcome.

Oaths

These are the last of the cards for the first event.

Faction Favors

I've considered not even making the favors Masters, but just went ahead and did. Each player will start with one of these in play. Some of the images are reused from other projects of mine, but most are photoshopped off of flickr commons.

A Work in Progress

Here are the powerbase cards that will begin the game uncontrolled and in play. 

 This is about the quality of cards I'll be able to make, so no complaining.

[Near Final] Bay Nights pt. 1

SF Bay Area Storyline 1 [What to call it?]

Pre-game deck-building rules:
- Decks must be 75% 1 clan and 100% one sect.
- Standard tournament rules apply otherwise

New Rules:
- A methuselah gains control of the edge after a successful bleed or referendum.
- Each table begins play with the four region cards (PB SF, PB Oakland, PB Berkeley and Turf War) in play at the center of the table (uncontrolled by any player).
- Each Methuselah must begin with allegiance to one of the regions four factions:
- The Old Guard (Any)
- The New Way (Camarilla)
- Sabbat Invasion (Sabbat)
- The Stygian Underground (Independent/Anarch/Laibon)

After choosing a faction, each Methuselah will receive her two faction specific cards and favor. The favor and one other faction card will begin the game in play (See below).

Guardian of the City
You may not gain pool unless this card is untapped. Guardian of the City begins play tapped and does not untap as normal. Untap this card when gain control of the edge. Whenever you gain control of the edge, you may transfer one blood from the acting minion to your pool. During your influence phase, if your faction leader is ready and this card is untapped, you may spend four transfers and pay a pool to move your faction leader to your ready region.

Childe of the New Way
You may not gain pool unless this card is untapped. Childe of the New Way begins play tapped and does not untap as normal. Untap this card when you gain control of the edge. When you burn the
edge for a vote, you may tap this card to give a ready Camarila vampire you control 2
additional votes during this referendum. During your influence phase, if your faction leader is ready and this card is untapped, you may spend four transfers and pay a pool to move your faction leader to your ready region.

Holy Warriors of the Sabbat
You may not gain pool unless this card is untapped. Holy Warriors of the Sabbat begins play tapped and does not untap as normal. Untap this card when you gain control of the edge. You may not gain pool when you do not have the edge. During your discard phase, if you have the edge and control an untapped Sabbat
vampire, your prey burns 1 pool. During your influence phase, if your faction leader is ready and this card is untapped, you may spend four transfers and pay a pool to move your faction leader to your ready region.

Stygian Influences
You may not gain pool unless this card is untapped. Stygian Influences begins play tapped and does not untap as normal. Untap this card when you gain control of the edge. . You may burn the
edge to give one of your Independent or Laibon minions +1 intercept.
You may burn the edge to give +1 stealth to an Independent or Laibon
minion taking an undirected action.

The faction specific cards will be master cards providing minions with new abilities after taking an action.

The Last Bastion
Master
Put this card into play and search your library for a Master card of your choice that costs 1 pool or less. Put that card into play ignoring normal restrictions and paying the cost as normal. You may not play another Last Bastion for the remainder of the game.

For the New Way:

Oath of Allegiance
Master.
You may spend a Master Phase action to choose a Camarilla vampire you
control without an Oath counter. That vampire burns a blood, gains an
Oath counter, and is chosen for this Oath. Vampires chosen for this
Oath may call a political action and choose up to four vampires
without Oath counters; successful referendum means those vampires each
burn a blood. If you control any vampires without Oath counters, they
must be among the vampires chosen for this referendum.

Oath of Challenge
Master.
You may spend a Master Phase action to choose a Camarilla vampire you
control without an Oath counter. That vampire burns a blood, gains an
Oath counter, and is chosen for this Oath. Vampires chosen for this
Oath have +1 intercept, and -1 stealth on non-Hunt actions.

For the Sabbat Invasion:

Allies of the Hand
Master. 1 pool.
When you bring an untitled Sabbat vampire into play, you may have that
vampire burn X blood to gain a Black Hand counter, where X is the
number of Black Hand counters on vampires you control. Vampires with
Black Hand counters are Black Hand. When a Black Hand vampire attempts
a Recruit action, you may tap this card as the action is announced to
reduce the cost of that action by 1 pool (but not less than 0).


Hand Records
Master. 1 pool.
When you bring an untitled Sabbat vampire into play, you may have that
vampire burn X blood to gain a Black Hand counter, where X is the
number of Black Hand counters on vampires you control. Vampires with
Black Hand counters are Black Hand.
During your master phase, you may tap this card pay 1 pool to choose a
card in your ash heap that requires Black Hand. Put that card in your
hand, discarding afterward.

For the Stygian Underground:

The Rule of Stygia
Put this card into play. During your Untap phase, you may tap an
Independent or Laibon vampire you control that does not have a Charm
to move this card to that vampire. If that vampire is burned, this
card remains in play. The vampire with this equipment may put a Vandal
counter on a location or vehicle that does not require an Anarch
vampire as a +2 stealth action; if this minion has capacity 8 or
greater, place an additional counter. Burn any vehicle or location
with Vandal counters greater than or equal to its cost. Once per turn,
the vampire with this card may burn 1 blood as a bleed action is
announced to reduce the bleed amount be 1.

The Many Hands of Stygia
Master. 1 pool.
Put this card into play. During your Untap phase, you may tap an
Independent or Laibon vampire you control that does not have a Charm
to move this card to that vampire. If that vampire is burned, this
card remains in play. The vampire with this card minion may steal
equipment costing 2 or less pool as a +1 stealth (D) action. If this
vampire has capacity 8 or greater, it may instead steal any equipment.
Once per turn, the vampire with this card may burn 1 blood to change
the target of a directed action that targets one of your vampires; the
new target must be legal and must also be one of your vampires.

These power bases begin the game in play controlled by no methuselah:

Power Base San Francisco
Master. Unique Location. 2 Pool.
Once per turn, a vampire of capacity 6 or higher may pay a pool to call a Banishment referendum at +1 stealth. Choose a younger ready vampire. Successful referendum means that the chosen vampire is moved to the uncontrolled region (breaking any temporary control effects). The vampire is uncontrolled. Any cards and counters on that vampire stay with him or her (but they are out of play as long as the vampire remains uncontrolled).
Once per turn, a vampire of capacity 6 or higher may pay a blood and tap to cancel a referendum as it is played.
Any minion may take control of Power base San Francisco as a (D) action.

Power Base Oakland
Master. Unique Location. 1 Pool.
Each time a minion, retainer, location or item is burned, put a counter on this card. Any vampire may take a (D) action to burn all counters from this card and gain blood equal to the counters burned. Any minion may take a (D) action to take control of this card.

Power Base Berkeley
Master. Unique Location. 1 Pool.
Powerbase Berkeley may be tapped to draw two cards discarding down to handsize as normal. A vampire of the controlling Methuselah may take a +1 action to discard the controlling Methuselah's hand and draw a new one for a pool. Any minion may take control of UC Berkeley as a (D) action.

Turf War
Master. Unique Location. 1 Pool.
Tap Turf War to force your prey to burn 2 pool. You map tap Turf War after successfully equipping a weapon or performing a recruit action to untap the acting vampire. Any vampire may take control of Turf War with a +1 stealth referendum.

SF Storyline Possibilities

This is what is planned for the event so far. Thanks much to Oliver for the vast majority of the ideas. He had much better ideas for implementing my vague plans for the storyline!

Pre-game deck-building rules:
- Decks must be 75% 1 clan and 100% one sect. (I was thinking of prohibiting the imbued, but I wonder if that is too limiting)
- Standard tournament rules apply otherwise

Upon arriving for the event, each player must register under one of the factions:
- The Old Guard (Any)
- The New Way (Camarilla)
- Sabbat Invasion (Sabbat)
- The Stygian Underground (Independent/Anarch/Laibon)

After choosing a faction, each Methuselah will receive her three faction specific cards and favor. The favor and one other faction card will begin the game in play, while the other two may be included in the library as normal.

The favors begin play tapped and do not untap as normal. Favors untap when the controlling Methuselah gains the edge. I liked your ideas a lot, so if I may I plan on using them with your blessing.

Guardian of the City (The Old Guard)
You may not gain pool when you do not have the edge. Whenever you gain control of the edge, you may transfer one blood from the acting minion to your pool.

Childe of the New Way (New Way)

You may not gain pool when you do not have the edge. When you burn the
edge for a vote, a ready Camarila vampire you control gets 2
additional votes during this referendum.

Holy Warriors of the Sabbat (Sabbat Invasion)

You may not gain pool when you do not have the edge. During your
discard phase, if you have the edge and control an untapped Sabbat
vampire, your prey burns 1 pool.

Stygian Influences (Stygian)

You may not gain pool when you do not have the edge. You may burn the
edge to give one of your Independent or Laibon minions +1 intercept.
You may burn the edge to give +1 stealth to an Independent or Laibon
minion taking an undirected action.

The faction specific cards will be master cards providing minions with new abilities after taking an action.

The Old Guard receive no new cards but begin play with a master card of their choice in play. This card cannot cost more than one pool and will contest as normal.

For the New Way:

Oath of Allegiance
Master
You may spend a Master Phase action to choose a Camarilla vampire you
control without an Oath counter. That vampire burns a blood, gains an
Oath counter, and is chosen for this Oath. Vampires chosen for this
Oath may call a political action and choose up to four vampires
without Oath counters; successful referendum means those vampires each
burn a blood. If you control any vampires without Oath counters, they
must be among the vampires chosen for this referendum.

Oath of Challenge
Master
You may spend a Master Phase action to choose a Camarilla vampire you
control without an Oath counter. That vampire burns a blood, gains an
Oath counter, and is chosen for this Oath. Vampires chosen for this
Oath have +1 intercept, and -1 stealth on non-Hunt actions.

Oath of Vengeance
Master
You May spend a Master Phase action to choose a Camarilla vampire you control without an oath counter. That vampire burns a blood, gains an oath counter and is chosen for this Oath. If an opponents stikes inflict damage that is not prevented in a combat round, this vampire may burn a blood to gain a press to continue.

For the Sabbat Invasion:

Hand Cache
Master. 1 pool.
When you bring an untitled Sabbat vampire into play, you may have that
vampire burn X blood to gain a Black Hand counter, where X is the
number of Black Hand counters on vampires you control. Vampires with
Black Hand counters are Black Hand. When a Black Hand vampire equip a
piece of non-unique equipment, you may tap this card to reduce the
cost of that equipment by 1 pool (but not less than 0).

Allies of the Hand
Master. 1 pool.
When you bring an untitled Sabbat vampire into play, you may have that
vampire burn X blood to gain a Black Hand counter, where X is the
number of Black Hand counters on vampires you control. Vampires with
Black Hand counters are Black Hand. When a Black Hand vampire attempts
a Recruit action, you may tap this card as the action is announced to
reduce the cost of that action by 1 pool (but not less than 0); you
may not do this if an ally with the same name is already in play.

Hand Records
Master. 1 pool.
When you bring an untitled Sabbat vampire into play, you may have that
vampire burn X blood to gain a Black Hand counter, where X is the
number of Black Hand counters on vampires you control. Vampires with
Black Hand counters are Black Hand.
During your master phase, you may tap this card pay 1 pool to choose a
card in your ash heap that requires Black Hand. Put that card in your
hand, discarding afterward.

For the Stygian Underground:

The Rule of Stygia

Put this card into play. During your Untap phase, you may tap an
Independent or Laibon vampire you control that does not have a Charm
to move this card to that vampire. If that vampire is burned, this
card remains in play. The vampire with this equipment may put a Vandal
counter on a location or vehicle that does not require an Anarch
vampire as a +2 stealth action; if this minion has capacity 8 or
greater, place an additional counter. Burn any vehicle or location
with Vandal counters greater than or equal to its cost. Once per turn,
the vampire with this card may burn 1 blood as a bleed action is
announced to reduce the bleed amount be 1.

The Many Hands of Stygia

Master. 1 pool.
Put this card into play. During your Untap phase, you may tap an
Independent or Laibon vampire you control that does not have a Charm
to move this card to that vampire. If that vampire is burned, this
card remains in play. The vampire with this card minion may steal
equipment costing 2 or less pool as a +1 stealth (D) action. If this
vampire has capacity 8 or greater, it may instead steal any equipment.
Once per turn, the vampire with this card may burn 1 blood to change
the target of a directed action that targets one of your vampires; the
new target must be legal and must also be one of your vampires.

Charity of the Underground [This is great, but very powerful. Maybe only steal 1 blood and an additional against an oath?]

Master. 1 pool.
Put this card into play. During your Untap phase, you may tap an
Independent or Laibon vampire you control that does not have a Charm
to move this card to that vampire. If that vampire is burned, this
card remains in play. The vampire with this card may steal 2 blood or
life from any minion as a +1 stealth D action; if that minion has an
Oath counter, steal an additional blood. Once per turn, during a
political action, the vampire with this card may burn a blood to gain
3 votes against the referendum.


In addition to the faction specific cards, each table will also begin with each of the following uncontrolled and in play. These are the ideas I have so far, so feel free to add or fix them. I want to have some local territory to fight over in the game.

Powerbase San Francisco
Master. Unique Location. 2 Pool.
Once per turn, a vampire of capacity 6 or higher may pay a pool to call a Banishment referendum at +1 stealth. Choose a younger ready vampire. Successful referendum means that the chosen vampire is moved to the uncontrolled region (breaking any temporary control effects). The vampire is uncontrolled. Any cards and counters on that vampire stay with him or her (but they are out of play as long as the vampire remains uncontrolled).
Once per turn, a vampire of capacity 6 or higher may pay a blood and tap to cancel a referendum as it is played.
Any minion may take control of Power base San Francisco as a (D) action.

Powerbase Oakland
Master. Unique Location. 1 Pool.
Each time a minion, retainer, location or item is burned, put a counter on this card. Any vampire may take a (D) action to burn all counters from this card and gain blood equal to the counters burned. Any minion may take a (D) action to take control of this card.

UC Berkeley
Master. Unique Location. 1 Pool.
Powerbase Berkeley may be tapped to draw two cards discarding down to handsize as normal. A vampire of the controlling Methuselah may take a +1 action to discard the controlling Methuselah's hand and draw a new one for a pool. Any minion may take control of UC Berkeley as a (D) action.

The New Era

Powerbase San Francisco Fall 2010 Storyline Proposals

To foster a committed and engage player base in the dark days of torpor, local storyline tournaments and one-off events will continue to value player engagement and activity while fostering creative deck building challenges in a semi-competitive environment. For fall 2010, I propose a series of small events to continue interest in VTES and on for the coming years.

This storyline will position all Methuselah in three factions which will later become the followers of three elder vampires:

- A Camarilla Ascetic (10-cap Brujah) who wishes to purge corruption and purify the Camarilla. He requires adherents to swear oaths in his name and to join his cabal.

- A Sabbat troublemaker (10-cap Toreador Anti) who will stop at nothing but to reclaim his former glory. While weak in Vampire followers, he wields the mortal and ghoul allies of the streets with the false lure of power, all while plotting the overthrow of the Camarilla in San Francisco.

- An ancient mystic necromancer (10-cap Nagaraja or Samedi) capitalizing on the chaos and strife to unseat the Prince and eliminate any centralized political authority.

Ideally, the storyline should encourage a wide variety of deck builds. The factions should be roughly equal, and encourage players to diversify clan types to minimize conflict with others of the same faction at the table.

                - Camarilla bonuses will emphasize voting and politics.

                - Sabbat bonuses will provide incentive to combat and bleeds with allies discounted and               favored.

                - Independents will have “rituals” to perform (think Kazar’s diary) and will favor stealth most of                all.

 New cards:

- Replacement edge counters: “Favors” – players cannot gain pool unless they control the favor of their faction. Favors are gained like the edge, but are also cards that can be tapped or uncontrolled for a benefit. Each faction has its own favor and players can only ever acquire his factions favor.

                - Camarilla Favor: Tap for an additional vote or stealth in a referendum. Lose the favor and burn                a pool to cancel a referendum before votes are tallied.

                - Sabbat Favor: Tap for +1 bleed to any minion. Lose the favor to reduce the recruitment cost for             an ally or retainer by one.

                - Independent Favor: Tap to give any independent vampire +1 stealth. Lose the favor and burn a             pool as a sudden reversal.   

- Powerbase San Francisco: May be uncontrolled to gain 2 votes or once per turn a controlling minion may pay a pool to attempt a banishment political action. Tap to reduce the cost of an equipment for any Sabbat vampire by 1. Tap to reduce a bleed against a Methuselah who controls an independent vampire by 1.

- UC Berkeley: May be stolen by any minion as a D action. May be tapped to draw two cards (discarding down as normal). May be tapped to burn a pool and draw a new hand.

The lingering question now is how to incorporate the Kindred of the East. According to the lore, San Francisco was taken from the Anarchs by the foreign invaders. I don't want to add too much complexity with new "vampires" and disciplines, so maybe treat them like werewolves, i.e. powerful and expensive allies. Thoughts, ideas?