OFFICIAL VEKN GANGREL ANTITRIBU NEWSLETTER VOLUME 6 NUMBER 6 JUNE 2003 ******************** In this blazingly-glorious issue ...... EDITORIAL: It all depends on what you mean by !Gangrel FICTION: Anarchy for the UK! DECK: Legbiter's Slippery !Gangrels ******************** EDITORIAL: It all depends on what you mean by !Gangrel Bertrand Russell [or possibly somebody else, equally grand] once said that the way to be a pseudo-intellectual was to respond to any given question with: "It all depends on what you mean by". He had in mind a particular pseud, a certain Professor Joad, who was the Carol Voerderman of his day and a fixture of the Brains Trust on the BBC Home Service. But tonight, post-Anarch, i find myself in pseudo-Joady mood, inspired by a recent little Newsgroup thread about the Lasombra antitribu. Somehwere in this thread Scott let slip his [official?] view that "antitribu" just means "not aligned with the main clan" - making the point that there is no necessary Sabbat-ness about the antitribu. It follows that from one point of view - that of the oldest, and still biggest, Camarilla section of the clan Gangrel - all but two of the new Gangrel in the Anarch set are antitribu. Accordingly an enormous extra wing is being added to Legbiter Hall for the convenience of our new brethren the Independent Gangrels, and i find myself with a whole CRYPT full of new vampires to think and write about, no excuses for off-topicality required. Huzzah! The deck featured in this month's newsletter milks this concept for all it is worth, but it's right also to say something about the two strict-sense Gangrel antis in the Anarch set: Scarlett Carson O'Toole 4 pro CEL Sabbat and Harry Reese 6 cel obf FOR PRO Sabbat: Damage-dealing strikes Harry makes against non-mortal allies are at +1 damage. Both from the City faction [obf/cel/pro] and low/medium capacity, so jolly useful. Harry's special isn't bad either, since it means he can hurt a War-ghoul with an ordinary handstrike. Nice! As for SCO'T, she is just MADE for decks similar to that currently being deployed by Jon Sushinsky in the Jyhad On-Line tournament [Stutter-step/aggravated damage]. Additionally, they both have good Celtic names [Irish and Welsh respectively]. You will argue that Harry is obviously an African. i will respond by pointing out that the oldest Afro-Brittanic community is actually located in the Cardiff docks, having been there [according to some accounts] since the late 16th century at least. However, perhaps the biggest boon to the !Gangrel is the Anarch mechanic itself, since this puts a premium on discipline diversity. As has been frequently pointed out here and elsewhere, the !Gangrel are the most diverse clan of all discipline-wise, so should be the biggest beneficiary of this new game mechanic. Time will be the judge of this prediction, i'm sure. **************** FICTION: Anarchy for the UK! i like to wander the sleazier streets at night, Henry V eve-of-Agincourt sorta thing i feel. But lately i've been taking my weighted walking stick AND a bodyguard, in the shapely form of Scarlett. She has that streetwise thing going, i find. So here we are in Summertown, weaving in and out of the dogshit and used needles and savouring the sounds and scents of the English summer night - gunshots, screams, nightingales, fresh blood and pineapple broom. It's all so frightfully exciting doncha think? A big Yardie-looking vampire steps out of an alley and levels a pistol at me. "Hey, mon, whatchoo doin' up town?" This is a good time for Scarlett's eyes to blaze red; for the Yardie's resolve momentarily to falter; and for Scarlett, at point blank range, to do that weird stutter-step [the gun discharging harmlessly into the night] and to plunge a wolf-claw into the big fellow's chest. i watch benignly as she drains the remaining vitae from the corpse, which shrivels into dust. With my connections, she need fear no blood-hunt, and so we walk on, arm in arm. At last, here it is - the Anarch Free Press. Grubby-looking little shop, but in we go, tinkle tinkle of door bells. A spiky black-clad skeleton in too much makeup regards us suspiciously. "What the hell do you want, bourgeouis hegemonist pigs?" i smile benignly. "That would be LORD Bourgeious hegominsit pig, and this is my delightful companion MISS Bourgeoius hegemonist pig. We want to acquire some of your wares. Now, where's that dratted list - Scarlett, you're a TREASURE. Yes, the complete works of Pyotr Kropotkin, please, except for the rather tedious juvenilia comprising volumes I-XV; in Russian will do just fine: Accidental Death of an Anarchist by some Italian bloke, Never Mind the Bollocks by the Sex pistols, ideally in CD form: and finally, erm, The Sad Old Fart's Guide to Anarchist Jargon, WITH glossary and spelling guide, there's a good woman. And a bottle of Pimms. Will cash suffice? A gift, of course, to the cause - no QUESTION of capitalistic transaction here, i TOTALLY understand. Thanks EVER so much, now we'll just beetle off back to our mansi-, erm, grotty bedsit and simply FILL our minds with the glorious prospect of the liberation to come. Seeya!" Outside we are weighed down with our purchases, and somewhat dry. i notice a little group of anarchists amusing themselves by setting fire to a car. "O look, Scarlett, four of them, one of us - i make that Pimms o'clock!" Scarlett smiles and places our stuff on the ground, and we saunter over to slake our thirst. **************** DECK: Slippery !gangrels This is an all-Anarch deck, somewhat thrown-together from cards i had lying around after [a] the Bath and GenCon tourneys and [b] completing the Anarch set, rather than designed according to any grand principle. It works pretty well in fun games, even occasionally winning. As noted in the editorial, this qualifies as a gangrel-antitribu deck if you take the view that not being a Camarilla Gangrel automatically makes you a gangrel antitribu. CRYPT [12 vampires, all independent except where noted] Sarah Raines 2 for Bothwell 3 ani for Gustavo Morales 4 ani cel for Dr Allan Woodstock 5 ani aus for PRO Ramona 4 for pro Advanced, Camarilla, special Horrock 6 vis ANI PRO special Sophia Watson 6 obf pro ANI FOR Danielle Diron 7 chi for ANI PRO vote, special Nadima 8 ani aus FOR PRO SER special Xavier 10 aus cel pot ANI FOR PRO votes Specials x 3 LIBRARY [86 cards] MASTER [12] Blood Doll x 4 Dummy Corporation Fortitude Haven Uncovered Minion Tap x 3 Sudden Reversal x 2 MINION [74] ACTIONS [10] Ambush Army of Rats x 2 Bum's Rush x 3 Force of Will x 2 Movement of the Slow Body x 2 ACTION MODIFIERS [6] Daring the Dawn Dawn operation Earth Control x 4 COMBAT [46] Aid from bats Carrion Crows Bone Spur x 4 Claws of the Dead x 5 Drawing Out the Beast Earth Meld x 4 Fast Hands Flash x 2 Flesh of Marble x 6 Form of the Ghost x 2 Form of Mist x 4 Pursuit Sacrament of Carnage Scorpion Sting Skin of Night Skin of Rock x 2 Superior Mettle x 2 Thrown Sewer Lid Trap Undead Strength x 2 Unflinching Persistence x 3 EQUIPMENT [2] Laptop Computer x 2 REACTIONS [9] Cat's guidance x 2 Elder Intervention Guard Dogs x 2 Rat's Warning Telepathic Counter x 3 WWEF x 4 RETAINERS [1] Raven Spy ***************** And that's it for June! Next month i hope to feature Jon Sushinsky's !Gangrel stutter-step deck, provided we have finished beating lumps out of each other in jyhad on-line by then. Seeya!