Vital Statistics:

Name:
Year of Birth:
Occupation:
Other Games Played:
Number of Cards owned:
Number of Decks ready to play:
Play in:


Mónica Martins
1973
Software Engineer (but changes every 2 years)
Chess, before VTES, board games.
unknown, less than 4000?
usually 2-3.
Munich, Germany

Q1: How (and when) did you begin your career as a VTES-player? Who introduced you to the game? Where did you play originally?

Rui Videira mentioned it to me at the time we were into Magic and some Vampire-tM roleplaying. Then I just bought both of us a starter for Christmas. This was 1996. After two months, 95% of our Magic group was converted by us into VTES. This was really very unfair, because one year before we had introduced them all to Magic. Those were the sweetest times of studying at Lisbon University (Portugal), with a lot of free time to play, enjoy nightlife and beach.

Q2: Which of the Sets and Expansions to VTES is your favorite, and why is it your top choice?

The original Sabbatt. Cool, sexy and politically incorrect artwork, effective and mean combat. Also it was the expansion that kept me having deck ideas for the five years that the game was officially dead. (Ah! and Carrion Crows..).

Q3: What is your favorite deck to play, and why?

In general terms, anything with heavy and dirty combat inside that allows cross table intimidation and negotiation, specially if based in surprise effects (no perms or permanents). In a more particular scope, tucked away in a soft corner of my heart, lives my all-time favourite weenie-animalism combat. In my playing group everybody starts singing: "Terror Frenzy, Carrion Crows, Aid from Bats", like in a Rocky Horror Picture Show feature....
It is not online, since the site I am responsible for is a regional game scene promotional page, and it does not focus in the strategic aspects of the game itself.

Q4: If you could add something to the game, what would it be?

VTES is perfect. It has everything you want from a game. Strategy, tactics, combats, politics, logistics, diplomacy, and even Sex & Violence. I would not change a thing in the game concept itself.
But.... I’d like.... more artwork from Drew Tucker, Clint Langley and Kaja Foglio. If you are asking really seriosly, I dream deliriously of seeing cartonist Diane diMassa as ilustrator for any weapon card.
More seriously, I’d like to see any process that gives more recognition to judges, and motivates/enforces a better work from their side, maybe through some rating process... This would improve the quality of the competition, the level of sportmanship, and the overall enjoyment.

Q5: What do you do to help promote the game / why are you in this list of people?

I dunno why I am here. But probably because of the work done at the Munich area. I am a regional game promoter, nothing else.
In July 00 I moved to Munich, and spent some time boring myself to death, since I knew nobody or nowhere. In December me and Rui Videira drove to Vienna for the European Championship. As we had a lot of time in our hands (nice times...) and were willing to start a new playing group at Munich anyway, I took this officially, and became the VEKN prince for Munich.
Because the game did not penetrate too much in the South of Germany, and geographical reasons (very dispersed population, instead of very concentrated urban centres), it was (it is!) difficult to gather the players and get them in the information loop. We started as a merry group of three. We used the retailers shops as means of comunication (posters announcing the build up of a playing scene), and started the Powerbase Munich (http://vtesmunich.tripod.com, based on the Powerbase Lisbon by Luis Duarte) as a beacon for old players willing to play again, or new potential players.
Paralel to this, I created the vtesmunich mailing list (at yahoo groups), to keep everybody in the info loop, rules updates, tournaments in and around Munich, and sessions of playing and drinking loads of red wine. Tournaments are regularly organised and also demos. Excursions to tournaments in far away cities are also noisily carried out.
More projects are being matured, but kept quiet for now because of RL also requests a lot of energy.
All this was a lot of work, but it would definetely not be possible without a very dedicated group of people around me, that contributed with enthusiasm and WORK to the project.

Q6: What is your favorite deck style for casual play / tournament play?

The distinction is not between casual and tournament, but between experimental and winning targeted. I’ve tried embarassing experimental decks in tournaments. But to create ‘a’ deck, the process is changing slowly an experimental deck via iteractive playing to the point I can nurture hopes of winning. For this, my favourite is table control via combat that allows me to make deals.

Q7: Is there a difference between your casual play and tournament play?

See above. Also, I usually play much more concentrated in tournaments, preffering to be expontaneous and intuitive in social play.

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