Osebo Clan Newsletter - December 2005 ===================================== Matt Avery, Editor mathiaveri@hotmail.com ================= TABLE OF CONTENTS ================= I. Introduction II. Background/Flavor III. Card of the Month IV. Vampire of the Month V. Deck of the Month VI. Preview of next issue/Sign Off ================= I. Introduction ================= Happy Holidays All! This is the inaugural issue of the Osebo Clan Newsletter, and I'm finally getting it posted. Hopefully you all are having a happy holiday season, and get a chance to relax, enjoy yourself, and at least get a few days off work/school/whatever else fills your days. For now, the newsletters will focus on only a couple cards and vamps per issue so I can try and make it last for a while. With only 10 Osebo vamps, and six clan specific cards (about half of which are pretty much standard fare), a monthly newsletter will cover that material in less than a year. Hopefully we'll get the missing vamp, Kisha Bhimji, before then, but other than that I wouldn't expect to be getting much Osebo/Laibon goodness for awhile. ====================== II. Background/Flavor ====================== For those who were unfamiliar with the Kindred of the Ebony Kingdom RPG setting, before Legacies of Blood came out, I thought it might be interesting to look back at the original source material to get a better feel for how the Osebo clan was originally envisioned. So I've summarized a few excerpts from the write-up of those who call themselves 'The Pride' (the collective reference to the Osebo clan as a whole) to see if we can pull any inspiration from it. * Osebo himself is the leopard of West African Ashanti legend, fast and strong but proud. The Kindred of his namesake clan are notoriously undisciplined, passionate creatures. * All Osebo suffer a fire in the blood, a heated temper. The Pride frenzies easily, it's members becoming whirling dervishes of destruction, so they often serve as the warriors of the Ebony Kingdom. * They support the Guruhi most often, as the Osebo know that they can't control themselves, so they look for someone to protect them from themselves. Without strong leadership, the Pride indulge their baser whims, stealing children from their cribs, abducting men from their homes, killing without need and otherwise watching their morals degrade as the Beast has its way with them. * Most Osebo don't put much stock in subterfuge, and the less sophisticated among them rarely even bother with hygiene. And finally, my personal favorite, the matter-of-fact clan quote: * "I was told you have to die. So be it." So the Osebo are a bunch of reckless dirty child snatching bitches. Could you ask for a more inspirational back-story? Hey, at least we're not a mob of m-r f-n incestuous Giovanni finocchios! (Love the vocab lesson Fabio!) :) The Osebo just need a strong hand to keep them in line, and in VtES, that job falls to us, the Methuselahs. Sure I may look into a allowing the Guruhi to fulfill their traditional roles, ordering the Osebo around in an Ani/Aus/Pot deck at some point in the future, but for now let's leave out the middle managers and stick to directly influencing the Pride ourselves. The Osebo can easily be manipulated into finely honed tools, with their mastery of Auspex preventing any of our rivals' plans from taking shape, while their brutal combat combination of Celerity and Potence makes them capable of weakening other Methuselah's hold over opposing minions. So if I say, "Arika's got to die," Massassi says "So be it," then proceeds to give the high and mighty mistress a close up view of the 'inner circle' of several sewer lids. They get the job done, no questions asked, simple and straightforward, and that's just the way we want our minions. Many other vamps are too tricky, sneaky and manipulative for their own good, and can be more trouble than they're worth. You never know if you'll be able to get them to consistently pull off whatever you're trying to. So let your opponents worry over controlling those others, and you just count on the old reliable Osebo to shut them down. ====================== III. Card of the Month ====================== Ancestor's Insight Requires a ready Laibon. [aus] [REACTION] Reduce a bleed against you by 1. [AUS] [ACTION MODIFIER] +1 bleed; after playing this card, you cannot play another action modifier to further increase the bleed for this action. How bout, will anyone except us make consistent use of this? I'd like to see them try. This is the only transitory bleed boost the Osebo have available, and they need it desperately. And thankfully, each of the top half of the Osebo vamps has superior Aus to make full use of Ancestor's Insight, while all but the lowliest Misrak are only a single skill card away from doing the same. The bleed reduction at inferior may come in handy if you're on the ropes, but in all but the most desperate of situations I'd say you want to save this for the bleed. ========================= IV. Vampire of the Month ========================= Homa 6-Cap Osebo AUS CEL POT Laibon. I'll confidently say that almost any Osebo deck will do well to have at least two copies of Homa in the crypt. It's just too bad he's not in the Pre-Con instead of Uzoma. (Oh Uzoma, you worthless dog... I'll deal with you later!) With all superior in-clans on a 6 cap, if you're playing Osebo, Homa gets the job done. Staple vamp. ====================== V. Deck of the Month ====================== With the Osebo pre-con as a starting point, the majority of the cards port easily into a mostly workable version of a flung junk deck. Basic premise, for those who might be unfamiliar with the concept: maneuver to long and throw stuff, additional strike/press, repeat as needed. The first adaption is Pat's Blocky Fighty deck. This is the version he presented on the Google Groups a while ago, which I edited to reflect the changes he suggested in further discussion. Those interested in the full text of the original thread (and the extensive Thrown Sewer Lid vs. Earthshock debate it developed into) can find it here: http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.trading-cards.jyhad/browse_thread/thread/b8674bc8512ae7b1/26b621c68c38570f?q=osebo+thrown+junk&rnum=1#26b621c68c38570f Deck Name: Osebo Blocky Fighty Created By: Pat Lusk Description: Another reworking of the starter, to turn it into a flung junk deck. Massassi and four rush actions to help go forward if the intercept plan isn't working. Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 14, Max: 34, Avg: 6.25) ---------------------------------------------- 3 Massassi obf AUS CEL POT QUI 9 Osebo 3 Khalu ani pro AUS CEL POT 7 Osebo 2 Homa AUS CEL POT 6 Osebo 1 Ismitta aus cel pot 4 Osebo 1 Mariano Pomposo aus cel pot 4 Brujah Antitribu 1 Gengis aus cel pot 3 Brujah 1 Kamaria aus pot 3 Osebo Library: (90 cards) ------------------- Master (13 cards) 2 Base Hunting Ground 3 Fame 2 Tension in the Ranks 5 Blood Doll 1 Dreams of the Sphinx Action (9 cards) 2 Legend of the Leopard 2 Nose of the Hound 2 Bum`s Rush 3 Computer Hacking Reaction (22 cards) 5 Telepathic Misdirection 5 Quicken Sight 3 Enhanced Senses 3 Eagle's Sight 6 Forced Awakening Combat (46 cards) 6 Psyche! 2 Blur 3 Acrobatics 4 Pursuit 4 Flash 5 Sideslip 6 Taste of Vitae 10 Thrown Sewer Lid 6 Thrown Gate Here's my own version I threw together after the pre-release. It tries to get hold of a .44 for consistent maneuvers and a default ranged strike to supplement the Potence strikes. Precognition and Stunt Cycles provide a bit a of prevention to save blood for Blood Dolling back to pool to pay for the guns. Only played it a few times now, but the Crocodile's Tongue's have worked great for getting an action through or softening up whoever tries to block. I also have really liked Cesawayo, Talk Radio, and the Bowl of Convergence for a better chance of permacept in play. Deck Name: Aus Cel Pot Osebo Flung Junk Created By: Matt Avery Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 15, Max: 38, Avg: 7.17) ---------------------------------------------- 1 Gengis aus cel pot 3 Brujah 1 Mariano Pomposo aus cel pot 4 Brujah Antitribu 2 Ismitta aus cel pot 4 Osebo 2 Homa AUS CEL POT 6 Osebo 1 Khalu ani pro AUS CEL POT 7 Osebo 3 Massassi obf AUS CEL POT QUI 9 Osebo 2 Cesewayo ani THA POT DOM CEL AUS 10 Osebo Library: (90 cards) ------------------- Master (12 cards) 5 Blood Doll 1 Information Highway 2 Fame 1 Tension in the Ranks 1 WMRH Talk Radio 1 Dreams of the Sphinx 1 Base Hunting Ground Action (6 cards) 2 Nose of the Hound 2 Bum`s Rush 2 Pulse of the Canaille Action Modifier (5 cards) 4 Crocodile's Tongue 1 Massassi's Honor Reaction (22 cards) 3 Precognition 2 My Enemy's Enemy 4 Quicken Sight 4 Wake with Evening's Freshness 4 Forced Awakening 3 Telepathic Misdirection 2 Eagle's Sight Combat (40 cards) 3 Sideslip 2 Side Strike 6 Psyche! 6 Thrown Sewer Lid 4 Stunt Cycle 6 Thrown Gate 4 Pursuit 2 Acrobatics 2 Blur 5 Taste of Vitae Equipment (5 cards) 1 Ivory Bow 1 Bowl of Convergence 3 .44 Magnum Combo (4 cards) 4 Ancestor's Insight This deck was last saved at 4:41:28 PM on 12/19/2005 =================================== VI. Preview of next issue/Sign Off =================================== Next issue will examine Enforcer and Tatu Sawosa, and examine a deck archetype built around tooling up to make the most of the extra strength these two offer. If anyone else has already made use of these and has a deck or strategy advice they'd like to share, please feel free to email me and I'll make sure to get it in the next issue. Or if anyone has any other specific play experience with the clan they'd like to share, or ideas/cards they'd like to see explored, let me know and we can work those into later issues as well. Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it, see ya next month, and in the mean time, have fun flinging junk 'round the table with the Pride. Matt Avery Osebo Clan Newsletter Editor mathiaveri@hotmail.com