Gangrel Antitribu Newsletter

V:EKN Clan Gangrel Antitribu Newsletter, March 1998

Hiya fellow evildoers, and welcome to the first issue of the Gangrel
Antitribu newsletter. The idea is to mix storytelling and card-strategy
articles, and obviously I'm hoping for contributions from the list. Please
mail them to me at my personal address, and make sure that you sign 'em so
I know who to credit. Of course I may edit anything you send me but I
won't post stuff that is based on your work without your permission. The
only restriction is that there should be some connection to the gangrel
antitribu clan ... things Scottish and to do with the Black Spiral Dancers
qualify, by the way!

This issue contains an extract from a story-game in which one of our
sisters [Caitlin] plays a prominent part, and an article by me about
Blinky's for/pro/fame deck which includes a Gangrel antitribu, and looks
like winning the Online world championship. As you'll see, it is fairly
easy to clone.

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THE ART SCHOOL GIRLS OF DOOM GO TACTICAL ..... [JOL STORY1, Legbiter's
turns 3-4 or so].
"My Lord - you have come at last!"


"What now, Master?"

"We make Art, my loves - we make Art until someone Dies." 

 Kij Dansky creeps stealthily down the
damp stairs into the crypt, tap-tapping her way with her long opalescent
white staff ..... someone is sitting on the coffin. She stops. The figure
rises.

"Credo in Unum Cainum omnipotentem, et in filiis, et in spiritum insanctum."
"Your Grace. What an ... unexpected pleasure ....."
"Daughter of Tremere, it is time for you to learn the consequences of
Original Sin ... as your clan slew Salubri and as the Giovanni destroyed
the Cappadocians, so now it will be with you. REPENT!"

Lightning-swift the Bishop of Glasgow changes to Wolf-form and leaps.
Equally quick, Kij flicks a switch on the white rod ..... it flickers and
there is a flash of brilliant white light .... both vampires collapse,
screaming and writhing ..... smoke and then hungry licking flames .....
the hand-held sunlamp shatters as it falls from Kij's carbonised hand, the
flames gradually die down and all is stillness and dark, except for a
faint knocking from inside the coffin ....

 The crypt gate opens, and a small procession descends the damp
stairs. It pauses beside the two still gently-steaming corpses. 

The tall figure in the white silk suit ostentatiously sniffs the black
rose in its hand, then kneels beside one of the corpses and plants a
lingering loving kiss on its gaping jaws. Little pieces of carbonised
flesh flake off ....

The figure stands, and brushes debris from its beard. Its female
companions, elegant in white silk and black lace, are variously occupied
around the crypt. Daliyah has found Kij Dansky's spell book, a priceless
repository of Tremere knowledge. Pretending to be unable to read it she
turns it upside down, and passes it to me.

"Tsk, tsk. Such barbarism. Was it not Fraser who pointed out the essential
primitivity of magic? Its tedious philosophical proximity to SCIENCE, that
ghastly and unromantic aberration of the modern-day kine? Sweet Daliyah,
no-one could blame you for editing Ms Dansky's library ... editing it with
Extreme Prejudice ...."



"Well done, my love. Did she hurt you?"
"Yes my love, I mean master"
"Then she must pay"

We move over to the remains of Kij Dansky. Tenderly Daliyah drapes her
cape over Caitlin's naked shoulders. Legbiter stirs the corpse with an
experimental toe. Its eyes snap open and we see the face of pure hatred.
Legbiter draws on the cigarette and then stubs it out on Kij's eyeball. As
he turns his back Anastasia moves swiftly and kneels beside the Priscus.
Anastasia's jaws open so wide that the whole front of her face is mouth.
There is an audible click as her fangs protrude to their maximum length
and then she feeds. We see her throat pumping .... 

"Unh .... Unh .... Unh, Unh, AAAAAHHH!!!"

 She sits back on her heels, hair all ruffled and wiping thick dark drops
from her lazily-smiling mouth. Nothing is left of Kij but a blackish
object looking like an empty refuse sack, and as we watch even that steams
and dissolves into nothing ... sic transit gloria mundi .... 

We climb the stairs again, and look out on the clear starlit night. Lolita
draws a thermite grenade from her handbag and tosses it down the steps. As
we melt into the dark German countryside there is a dull boom, and the
church collapses into a furnace of raging fire .....

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THE BEST DECK IN THE WORLD? A CONJECTURAL RECONSTRUCTION OF BLINKY'S
GANGREL-GANGREL ANTI FOR/PRO/FAME DECK

One of the great things about Jyhad[TM] on-line is that you can clone
people's decks by looking at their ash heaps and inplay cards. I've done
that for Blinky's famous Gangrels who actually, as you can see from the
Crypt list, include our sister Sadie. I used the same trick to clone all
the other decks in the JOL final, and we tested them out in my playgroup.
I must admit that though all the decks were impressive, Blinky's has a
lean magnificence evocative of the perfectly-adapted predator which it
certainly appears to be. As I write he has ousted Steve and George for 2
victory points in the final and looks well-set for a third, at Michael's
expense.

CRYPT
2 Camille Devereux
2 Illiana
2 Gitane St. Claire
2 Badger
2 Sadie
2 Guiliano

LIBRARY
3 Renegade Garou
4 The Barrens
6 Form of Mist
7 Movement of the Slow Body
3 Minion Tap
7 Force of Will
5 Restoration
8 Earth Control 
5 Skin of Steel
6 Rapid Healing
2 Fame
Backways
7 Day Operation 
2 Zoo HG [66 cards]

[actual Size of Crypt: 12
actual Size of Library: 85].

It may not be obvious why this is such a brilliant deck - certainly I
didn't see the trick until I'd played with it. What you do is put Fame on
one of your vamps with FOR and PRO. Then you play combos that put that
vamp in torpor [docking your prey 3 pool in the process], bring him or her
out again by rescue or else Movement of the Slow Body followed by Rapid
Healing [stealth these using Earth Control or Form of Mist if necessary],
and then bleed with Force of Will, putting him back in torpor again ...
and so on ....

The best combo i can see with this deck under the No Repeat Actions rules
goes like this:

Master: play Fame on someone.
Restoration + Day Op - vampire gains blood but goes to Torpor. Prey loses
3 pool.
Movement of the Slow Body, stealthed if necessary.
Rapid Healing, stealthed if necessary.
Recruit Renegade Garou + Day Op - Torpor. Prey loses 3 pool.
Rescued by a Second Vampire, stealthed if necessary: now out of torpor but
tapped.
Force of Will to Bleed from Tapped state, stealthed if necessary: prey
loses 3 to bleed and 3 to Fame. 

So thanks to the activities of two vampires, potentially the total loss to
your prey is 12, unless they have a bleed reduction or redirection card.
And even if they do, it is a MINIMUM of 9, and there's absolutely NOTHING
they can do about it except contest the Fame, play Direct Intervention or
have INDUSTRIAL quantities of Intercept.

Return to Innocence? Pah! Wallpaper!

Incidentally, you can substitute Dawn operations, Sunrise Service and
Daring the Dawn for some of the Day ops, and it still works pretty well.
With a more significantly gangrel anti deck containing a few copies of
Pieter and the bald babe who also has Tha but whose name currently escapes
me, you could put in the traditional Rutor's hand combo, too. O dear,
there I do be going and giving away my next deck idea .....