Official V:EKN Pander Newsletter - July 2004
Contents
- Life in the City (Vampire fiction)
- Street Smarts (Clan Strategy)
- Tools of the Trade (Discipline overviews)
- Aces up our Sleeves (Card overviews a. crypt b. library)
- Word on the Street (Reader feedback)
- Ante Up (Deck designs)
- Peace Out (Conclusion)
Life in the City
A fan contribution from Latin America. A fantastic job, especially since
English is not his native tongue. Please, give a kind round of appreciation
and enjoy!
One day in the life of... Christine Boscacci. - by Sergio Ordoņez
Philadelphia, June 18, 23:57
"Before you go to sleep, say your prayers and hope for pleasant dreams" -
that was all that Christine says to his victims after take his blood.
That night was like the others, no one in the streets seems to notice that
already someone was screaming for help, after a few minutes Christine exit
from the ally walking peacefuly and looking his clothes.
"Dammit, I have to change my clothes again, damn you pretty boy!"- say to
his recent victim that lay upon some garbage.
"The kids never learn to have some respect with his superiors, now I hope
that this show of Who is the Boss learn some of respect" she look to the
boys and see how this unfortunate soul try to scream and separate his hands.
She put her jacket and take a look to both sides and walk to the club few
blocks away and reminded the time of the meeting with his pack. The watch
point 23:58 and she hurry her steps, the meeting was pointed to midnight and
some of her pack-mates have the damned mania of being punctual.
The club was already full, and if not was that the pack have the control of
this place they never find a place to his meetings.
The ambient was nice and the they are waiting for her in the VIP area of the
club, the VIP sign was on and few pleople asking to themselves why the
lights was on sometimes and others not, and the only pleople that know the
anwser was the pack. They conditioning to the owner that when another
vampire was in this club, he have to turning on the light how measure of
protection and to the pack the sing meaning "Vampires In the Pub".
Christine enter in the club and walk through the crowd of the place to the
VIP area. One of the pack take notice of the arrival of Christine and make
signs to take her attention.
"Hi, your are late", say a pack mate.
"Shut up, it's was only a couple of minutes", she replied and taking one of
the chairs she sit down.
After a few minutes of looking to each other the Ductus take the word.
"Reports" said the Ductus firmly to the pack.
The five members of the pack looking to each others again and then to
Christine. She said nothing and the members really don't understand why she
couldn't make her work.
The Ductus was a Brujah Antitribu ex-Marine and he doesn't like a NO from
his pack. His pack mates looking her with almost some kind of reproach, but
they always have the same anwser, every time that the Ductus give her a
mission like that, he always get the same: nothing.
She only have a couple of years with this pack and all in the Pack have a
special kind of affection on her, but she only have this kind of affection
to someone, but she don't remember who was this person.
After five minutes of silence, a pack member raise the voice to calm the
tension in the air.
"I can finnish the her mission" said the Paul fearfuly, he was a Ventrue
Antitribu and he was trained in the arts of tracking "I know some people
that can give us the info that we need", the Ductus look to Paul firmly and
made some kind of gesture indicating him approval. He stand up and walk to
the door, loosing among the people gathered outside the salon.
After an hour of talk, the remained members of the pack stand up and said
good bye to each other, Christine was almost in the edge of the door when
she hear the voice of the Ductus, "HEY", he said loudly, "come here and take
sit, we have to talk", he was looking her with a expresion of tell me what
the hell is happening with you. She replied "I don't wanna talk anymore, I'm
tired", her voice was almost like a little girl talking with her father.
"What!?" he said angrily "can you repeat the sentence?"
"I said: I don't wanna..." she can't finnish the sentence when she found
against the wall and the Ductus in front of her with a look of I will torn
apart piece by piece y dear one. She look her Ductus with a look of terror
and picturing her death in her mind.
"Why the fuck you always come here with the same answer when I give you a
fucking order of try to get some fucking info about something?, WHY!? He
demanded "By your fucking fault our beloved friend would be without revenge,
and God save them if we get the track" his eyes was almost red, she can feel
the presure of his hands upon her arms hurting her and she try to talk but
the fear was overwhelming.
After a moment she get the strength to talk "I...I don't know what to said,
I just... I just don't have the resources to acomplish the mission that you
gave me" she said fearfuly, and then he retreat and send the table for the
air breaking the window.
"Get out of my sight!!!"· he demanded.
She lowered her sight and walk out the room whispering something: "Damn you
bastard, what do you think you are, my father?, sucker! I took the life of
my father so I will took your life in my lips when the time comes, I only
hope that the time will be very soon." She looks her clothes and said "Damn.
Now I really have to change my clothes!!" then she realize that a guy was
looking her, "Hey pretty boy, do you want some action this night?, because I
need liberate some tension" the boy smile and took the proposal, that was
the last everything to the boy.
Few block later someone was following the steps of Christina, and he said
something after stop in another Pub, "My dearest, the time that you ask
would be soon, more soon that you could dream" and then he vanish in the
air.
Street Smarts
Well the torch has been taken up and Pander regains their standing among
newsletters. We fought so hard to get standing in the Sabbat, and now we
must fight to keep our newsletter existence. We are survivors and won't let
a bit of apathy get in the way. So get ready we are back and ready to mix it
up.
And mix it up we will, group 4 is starting in earnest. This Gehenna set
we see a second moderately large capacity Pander (with a pretty spiffy
special) to set up a bigger, badder presence on the scene, Matthew Romans.
Now we have our own big guys to help push our weight around. The only thing
is we'll still need some buddies because we don't have enough in our group
3/4 selection to do all that much. But then that should be fixed up soon and
most other clans are in the same boat right now, too. Soon more doors shall
open to us.
But what does this capacity do, besides survive longer? Well, being a
target of Esgrima and Cardinal Benediction is pretty nice. That and the
other 7 cap, Alfred Benezri, is pretty nice for votes, so we need to start
taking up the battle to political floor! Matthew and Alfred can blend in
this respect - Alfred merged can field 3 votes, and Matthew can be the
target for Cardinal Benediction as well as having two disciplines good for
sneaking votes onto the referendum floor, along with being able to play
Telepathic Vote Counting. They both can be the target for Esgrima (though
I'd be careful including it into your vote deck, though). And they can now
help us lessen the penalties by getting around several low-cap hosers. I
expect to find one or both of these big Panders to pop up in new
experimental Sabbat vote decks - not only do we count as a clan but we are
making our move in the political arena! Woo hoo!
Tools of the Trade
'K, I need to do a discipline overview of what's available to us Pander.
Our despicable analog within the Camarilla, the Caitiff - pathetic whelps,
are all over the map as we are; though they do have a particular strain of
auspex, celerity, presence, and potence running through them. We need to
discern any patterns or strengths within our ranks (so that we may turn our
enemies into a bloody smear):
ani [1,0] ; aus [4,1] ; cel [0,1] ; dem [1,0] ; dom [4,0] ; for [2,0] ; obf
[2,1] ; obt [1,1] ; pot [3,1] ; pre [2,2] ; pro [2,0] ; tha [0,2] ; vic
[3,0]
(Alfred Benezri and his advance alters this list a bit, but not too
much.) Noticeable strengths are auspex, dominate, potence, presence.
Obfuscate and vicissitude are worthy runner-ups. So we share 3 out of our 4
major strengths with the Caitiff dogs... curses. But we have dominate! A-ha!
That alone is a huge advantage for us! Also our strengths are backed up by 4
vampire options per discipline strength compared to the limited 3 that the
measely Caitiff have. And our runner-up discipline strengths, obf and vic,
have 3 vampire options alone! Mwa ha ha, we so thoroughly outclass them. We
can work with many of the powerful clans within the Sabbat with this
discipline spread, so we'll be easily in demand. Ha! We will see action and
gain experience and beat you Camarilla Caitiff wimps - you've been warned.
Aces up our Sleeves
Crypt
Matthew Romans
Clan: Pander (group 4)
Capacity: 7
Disciplines: AUS OBF OBT pot
Sabbat: During your untap phase, Matthew can burn a blood to tap a younger
non-Independent vampire controlled by your prey.
Rarity: Gehenna:U
Whee! A big guy! And a versatile one at that! With his special he
invites himself into many a deck. The Sabbat and the Camarilla sects are
often represented in games so you'll most likely see a younger
non-independent vampire controlled by your prey. This ability along with
OBF and OBT screams action pusher. But what will he push? Depends on who he
plays with. He can sit with Malk/Malk! and bleed quite nicely, notably being
able to Pulse of Canaille and Spying Mission. With OBT/pot he can blend with
Lasombra and with OBF/pot he could work with Nos/Nos!, though I'd use him
more with political than combat decks; his special would give some
flexibility with stealth slots and his AUS would help open more bounce
options. In fact his special can lend himself to clans that might need some
help tapping out blockers to get actions through. With AUS and his special
alone he can make an interesting sideboard choice in Tor/Tor! and Ven!
decks. And if you are running a few discipline Masters in your deck anyways
you can choose him to increase his range of targets. I'm particularly
interested in seeing any Ven! decks running with Seductions and Sleeping
Minds. I'm attempting to create a simple Pander vote deck with him at the
moment; I think his presence will help be a solid foundation for future
Pander decks. (I will be very interested in finding out any great combat
deck uses for Matthew - as cool as the special is, I don't think it'll be
all that important in a combat deck.)
Library
Ghouled Street ThugType: Ally
Requires: Pander
Cost: 2 pool
Ghoul with 2 life. 1 strength, 0 bleed.
Ghouled Street Thug may strike for 1R damage. Ghouled Street Thug may play
cards requiring basic Potence as a vampire with a capacity of 2. Any cost in
blood is paid with his life. If a card would give him blood, give him life
instead.
Rarity: Sabbat:R SW:R
Well, it would be nice if we had more Pander library cards. Oh well.
But, he is a halfway decent ally. That he may strike for 1R damage is pretty
cool. And then he can play cards requiring basic potence, too. Not bad, not
bad. A quick upgrade to the ally would be IR Goggles to let him survive
longer while still dishing damage. It is a conservative style of play, more
appropriate to blocking and squeezing out worth over time. Another way would
be gunning the basic potence angle, which I'm sure we all can figure out how
to use to steam roll over a minion. But one potence card that is really
interesting to use with this ally is Stunt Cycle. To deal 3R and prevent 1
is a sweet deal for no life - though it is avoidable by minions with
celerity. But this card blends quite well with Bum's Rush and Ambush. With
the spare maneuver from those cards, Fake Out, or even a pair of Goggles you
can pretty easily keep at long and play Stunt Cycle. All you have to do is
avoid minions with celerity (and preferrably those that can steal blood) and
pick off the weak. Another interesting thing to keep in mind are those
diverse potence cards that people too often feel they don't have the actions
to cycle with, such as Rampage and destroy weapon strikes. Ghouled Street
Thug is a solid ally that needs a little tooling to shine, but is worth the
effort.
Word on the Street
Well, I'm fresh faced on this side of the street, so I haven't had a
chance to hear anything yet. But my ears are perked listening to whispers...
Ante Up
Still tweaking an Alfred Benezri, Matthew Romans, Cristos Mantigo, Bruce
de Guy deck idea. Leaning towards non-pre politics and juggling an equipment
angle. It's a start with the new vampire groups. I'm leaving slots open to
your imagination.
Deck Name : Pandering to the Electorate
Author : Azel
Description :
This is just a simple sampling on the new Pander voting idea. The grouping
restriction binds the options available to this deck. That and Alfred
Benezri and Matthew Romans have divergent discipline spreads. To get around
most of that I decided to focus on politics and strong shared disciplines.
It is an aus/dom/obf deck, so the power of those disciplines would be
carrying this concept. Even still it is quite toolboxy. I like the idea of
sloughing off blood and running past tapped minions. I'm keeping out combat
cards and leaving the deck at 70 cards because I want to leave an amount of
flexibility for anyone else who wants to tailor this deck to their
environment. PS: Don't be afraid to contest the Anarch Troublemaker!
Crypt (12 vampires) Capacity min: 5 max: 10 average: 6.84
------------------------------------------------------------
2x Matthew Romans 7 AUS OBF OBT pot Pander:4
2x Alfred Benezri 6 PRE THA aus dom bishop Pander:3
2x Alfred Benezri Adv 7 PRE THA aus dom bishop Pander:3
2x Dr. Douglas Netchu 6 AUS OBF dem dom Malkavian:3
2x Cristos Mantigo 5 aus cel dom obf pre !Toreador:3
2x Bruce de Guy 10 AUS DOM FOR OBT cardinal !Ventrue:4
Library (70 cards)
------------------------------------------------------------
Action (4)
2x Pulse of the Canaille
2x Scouting Mission
Action Modifier (27)
4x Bonding
4x Crocodile's Tongue
4x Faceless Night
1x Forgotten Labyrinth
4x Seduction
5x Sleeping Mind, The
2x Spying Mission
3x Telepathic Vote Counting
Equipment (10)
1x Chalice of Kinship
1x Delivery Truck
2x Incriminating Videotape
2x Laptop Computer
2x Local 1111
1x Sport Bike
1x Tapestry of Blood
Master (13)
3x Anarch Troublemaker
3x Blood Doll
1x Demonstration
3x Dominate
3x Minion Tap
Political Action (9)
2x Cardinal Benediction
4x Kine Resources Contested
3x Sabbat Priest
Reaction (7)
2x Deflection
2x Obedience
3x Telepathic Misdirection
Crafted with : Anarch Revolt Deck Builder. [Wed Jul 07 23:39:16 2004]
Peace Out
'K, hope you enjoyed the revival of the Pander newsletter. Forgive the
craftmanship, been having one busy year. Contributions and comments welcome
at opaopajr@comcast.net And remember, prey is to the left.