V:EKN Clan Gangrel Antitribu Newsletter, April 1998 O dear, two typos and a missing section .. the story telling bit. Sorry guys n gals. Next time i hope to be on time, and accurate. [VEKN] Official Gangrel Antitribu Newsletter: Vol 1 Number 2, April 1998. In this issue: GANGREL ANTI-TRIBU STUFF. Wise words from Legbiter about what Gangrels are good at. Hey, it's good to be the editor. FEEDING THE DOGS. Another hoopy story from Legbiterland. VAMPIRE: THE GATHERING. A plea for brotherly love and toleration between card gamers of all kinds. Alright, in reality a cynical strategy for boosting the numbers of players of Jyhad/VTES. "OH THEY'RE HOPELESS - A DISGRACE TO THE FORCES OF EVIL" Competition with free weird prize!!!! *********************************************************** GANGREL ANTI-TRIBU STUFF. Peter Bakija's excellent article in a sister publication has inspired me to think aloud about the good and bad things of the Gangrel antis. I think most people would agree that the gangrels and nossies were the weakest clans in original Jyhad, basically because they are rubbish at bleeding and voting. However, they are a lot better in Sabbat, and overall some degree of balance now exists between the Gangrel/Gangrel anti and Nossie/Nossie anti clans versus the rest. To achieve this, Wizards put in some AMAZINGLY [but justifiably, given the previous imbalance] overpowered cards to both the nossie-antis and the gangrel-antis. My top 3; Caitlin. OK, she doesn't have the core gangrel discipline of fortitude, but she is a dam' fine vamp nevertheless. Kinda makes an ugly duckling out of poor ol' Monique, less you really NEED fortitude in your deck ..... Tier of Souls. This is a double-action card ... no stealth on it, but it has the instant effect of a Cryptic Mission, and the enduring effect of a Laptop computer. This kind of card [eg Nekrataal, Cloudchaser Eagle] also came out in Visions, and has been making a big impact on Magic tournaments recently. I expect it to do the same for VTES. Beast. OK, this is off-topic because he is a Nossie-anti, but I feel sort of comfortable wih him in a Gangrel anti-deck. After all, does Democritus not say in the flavour text of City Gangrel Connections: "Watch yourself around them. They love the beast." I've been playing about with a Gangrel-anti deck that uses a lot of Thaumaturgy recently, and if I get it to a playable state I will post it here for people to sneer at, oops I mean constructively criticise. Not to give too much away at the moment it's a Tha/Cel multidiscipline deck in which the key cards are Shadow Court Satyr, Pieter, Samantha, Talaq the Immortal, Virgil, Infernal Familar, Cryptic Mission, Theft of Vitae and Burst of Sunlight ...... ***************************************************** FEEDING THE DOGS After I overcame Jared in story1 I had another epic tussle, this time with John Baker. Eventually I won, but not before suffering serious damage along the way, for example in this turn ..... "Caitlin darling, pray go and feed the dogs" ...... Caitlin goes by way of a nightclub where she knows Lena Rowe may be found ..... and yet again in her unlife as in her life, poor Lena is left used and abused by a stronger personality .... pulling up her stockings as Caitlin unlocks the cubicle door and marches out into the night, Lena suddenly sits down on the toilet seat and bursts into helpless tears .... Caitlin goes deep into the heart of the city, looking for her friend. She reaches the proper manhole cover in the park, but then she notices the figure perched on top of it. "Ah, good, my dear, I have your attention. I've been spiking trees in the park," Jost says, longingly rubbing a silver stake in his hand. "Care to join me?" As animals rise up around him, above him, below him, around him, getting ready to tear him to shreds, Jost simply smiles. A simple flip and a flame shows at his fingertips, courtesy of a lighter. He drops it, and dives toward Caitlin. His grace is stunning, Caitlin thinks, as he goes streaming past her, a single word lingering in her ear as his tongue gently strokes her cheek: "Fire." Each tree in the park explodes in turn as the "spikes" of dynamite do their work. The animals break free of their enchantment and run for cover, creating a scene of raw, primal chaos. Scene change; A sewer under the park; Rends-the-Treehuggers, alpha of the Langstone Marshes Sept of the Black Spiral Dancers is watching a video with his equally unsavoury brothers Craps-on-Sidewalk, Snarls-at-Postmen and Buttons [a Zoology PhD student at SF zoo]. They are eating Hot Dogs still with some of the fur on, and screaming with helpless laughter at Silence of the Lambs. We see the pack rules pasted above the tv set: (1) No shagging Dead Dogs (2) No eating live dogs while other packmates are trying to sleep (3) No bad traders. There's a disturbance outside, and Buttons gets up to look .... "What was it?" "Just some licks, fighting" "k, let's go and kick the shit out of them when the vid finishes. Pass that dog, bro ... and generous with the radioactive mustard!" [Caitlin tries to recruit Black Spiral buddy, seduces Lena, is blocked by Jost, fight, Caitlin in torpor;] Lolita does an Art Scam +2 pool "Friends ... Glaswegians .... Countrymen, lend me your ears!" "erm, why, miss?" "I need them for my work of art .... a tribute to Van Gogh" "omigod she's got a knife .. ochrist oshit nonoNOOOOOOOO ........." Anastasia gets a Changeling Skin Mask -1 pool A Faery is tripping through the Fireweed down by the Clyde ... sometimes she is an Elephant Hawk moth, sometimes a Burn-Jonesish Redhead, but she is happy and gay .... o no ..... we see that Death is following her, and that she has blonde hair and carries a farrier's knife .... Another faery is searching among the purple flowers, a stately Sidhe knight ... a faint moaning attracts his attention ... his face lights up .... "Samantha! you came after all!" The head of the figure rises up and out of the skinless pulp where its face once was comes a sound, which might have been "Kiss me" ... we shall never know, because shouting with horror the knight smashes the poor ruined thing to oblivion with his great sword. Daliyah rescues Caitlin paying 2 blood Caitlin is in the earth, dreaming of sordid clinches in the ladies and a Beautiful man with the grace of fiery death .... a scrabbling above, and Daliyah's half-beautiful half-hideous face peers in .....she bites her own wrist and allows the precious drops to drip into Caitlin's mouth ... "come sister ... let's go home" ************************************************************ VAMPIRE: THE GATHERING It's fashionable in Jyhad/VTES circles to sneer at Magic, but in my view it's unwise, because it is from the ranks of bored/ageing Magic players that our game continues to recruit new generations of players. In our own self interest, we need to eschew elitism and the in-group mentality, and engage with Magic players in order to convince them of the superior merits of Jyhad [comrades]. Now, I know this is a tough one, given the massive coolness deficit of MtG compared to VTES, so here are Uncle Legbiter's top 3 tips for Jyhad players who get upset about Magic; (1) Don't get upset about it. Magic is a very good game for what it is; a way of whiling away time whilst queuing at conventions. It's your duty to lead people who want to play a REALLY good game out of the Magic Vale of Darkness and into the Pure Light of the Jyhad. (2) Always carry a Magic Vampire deck around with you. The one below is based on Black and White Weenies ["Leesten to them, the cheeldren of the Night! Whata Music they make!"] and has some Big Black buggers [Vampires, mainly] in there too .... with neat tricks such as Reanimate and Animate Dead to play them at low cost. These spells can also be used to pinch other people's creatures whose life you have just drained. This deck beats most tournament decks when played by a decent player - all the preformed ones from Tempest, for example, routinely fall prey to it. (3) Whenever you beat someone with your Magic Vampire deck be APPALINGLY sportsmanlike about it, and lose no opportunity to comment on the superiority of Jyhad. LANDS 6 Plains 10 Swamps 2 Lakes of the Dead Salt Flats Castle Sengir Ghost Town Ancient Tomb [only in there for sentimental reasons - could be left out if playing this deck seriously, Caine forbid!]. CREATURES 4 Vampire Bats 4 Tundra Wolves 2 Blood Pets Krovikan Vampire Skyshroud Vampire Ravenous Vampire Sengir Vampire Baron Sengir Selenia - Dark Angel Hidden Horror SPELLS 3 Drain Life 3 Dark Ritual Unholy Strength 2 Howl from Beyond Caribou Range* Vampirism [only in there for sentimental reasons - could be left out if playing this deck seriously, Caine forbid!]. Disenchant Gaze of Pain 2 Vampiric Tutors Demonic Tutor Animate Dead§ Resurrection 2 Reanimate§ Phyrexian Boon [hurts enemies, boosts friends]. * For Feeding Ravenous Vampire § Use to recruit Big Tough guys like Baron Sengir who you have previously placed in your graveyard, or to take over other people's creatures you have killed. ******************************************************** "OH THEY'RE HOPELESS - A DISGRACE TO THE FORCES OF EVIL" Melificent the Bad Fairy, in Sleeping Beauty. We know who you are. Yes, you at the back. Stop picking your two-dimensional noses and come here THIS INSTANT. You are, are you not, the two Worst Cards in the whole Jyhad class? Yes? Yes WHAT?!!!!! SPEAK UP!!!! OK. Well, today we're going to try to MAKE SOMETHING OF YOU ... we're going to explain the principles of: The Betrayer Deck The Mercy for the Weak Deck. Well actually, no we're not. YOU are going to come up with a Neat Idea for a Methuselah card that makes Mercy for the Weak or Betrayer a force to be reckoned with. For those who don't know, Methuselah cards are basically Vanguard cards for VTES ... they are physically-big cards [about 3x5 inches] that alter the game environment in the same way that Vanguard cards do for Magic. We are trying to design Methuselah cards that have significant disadvantages [diminished starting pool or hand size, that kind of thing]. Please post entries to james.mcclellan@port.ac.uk. I will judge the winner using criteria such as most amusing, best balanced, best link to story-telling and largest bribe. The winner will receive a unique but tournament-illegal Jyhad deck with which to amaze and annoy your playgroup. The top two cards will go into the pot to be playtested for the upcoming [we hope] Methuselah expansion. My decision is final unless you whine and grovel a LOT. ********************************************************** That's it for another month of skulking in shadows and draining the life-essence from unfeasibly attractive members of the individually-preferred but usually opposite gender. And may you never lack for a wake-up card, LEGBITER.