Who's Who in the V:TES Community

Vital Statistics:

Name:
Year of Birth:
Occupation:

Other Games Played:

Number of Cards owned:
Number of Decks ready to play:

Play in:

Rafe Ball
1975
Client Services Manager for an IT research company
Lots - RPGs including D&D, CoC, WFRP, boardgames such as Settlers of Cataan, Lord of the Rings (collaborative boardgame version), Kill Dr Lucky & other Cheapass Games, CCG-wise the odd game of Mythos (and Munchkin on the non-collectable front). Also just getting into HeroClix, and I love my PS2!
Creeping up on 10,000
Usually about four or five; I tend to take them apart and file them back in to my card stock otherwise I forget which cards are in which decks :-)
Staines/London, United Kingdom

Q1: How (and when) did you begin your career as a VTES-player? Who introduced you to the game? Where did you play originally?
I was introduced to V:TES in 1996 at university by some friends there with whom I played Vampire: The Masquerade, Ross Howard and Steve Penn (Steve has pretty much stopped playing, but Ross made the UK V:TES finals this year). Since then we've got a nice little group of players going. We've been playing in VEKN tournaments for about a year now, and between us we've made a few finals so we must be doing something right.

Q2: Which of the Sets and Expansions to VTES is your favorite, and why is it your top choice?
Sabbat War, as it made available to the player base some of the great out-of-print Sabbat cards that were like gold dust as well as adding some great new cards. Plus it marked the relaunch of V:TES back under the wings of White Wolf, which was a cause for celebration!

Q3: What is your favorite deck to play, and why?
I keep returning to my Nosferatu vote and bloat deck (not online at the moment, I might get around to posting it one of these days). I like it because people don't tend to expect stong politics from the Nosferatu.

Q4: If you could add something to the game, what would it be?
A rule allowing all players on a table to slap anyone playing a straight Malk Stealth/Bleed deck upside the head. At least put some kind of a twist on it!

Q5: What do you do to help promote the game / why are you in this list of people?
Being UK based, I tend to jump on the White Wolf forums fairly early in the day to help with rule queries before LSJ and the US contingent wake up, and in the afternoons I compete with Atom Weaver to see who can post their reponses first ;-) I also frequent rec.games.tradingcards.jyhad, but don't tend to post so much on there - the WW forum seems to get more 'new player' questions than the newsgroup which has a wealth of experienced players posting anyway, so I try to help the less experienced players out on the forums rather than the newsgroup.

Q6: What is your favorite deck style for casual play / tournament play?
In casual play I like to try to experiment with new decks and concepts that may not be competetive under tournament conditions, both to test them out to see if they are workable and sometimes just to play that odd, kooky deck that you know won't work in a tournament but could be fun to try. In tournament play I like to try different deck styles but tend to play more political decks than anything else.

Q7: Is there a difference between your casual play and tournament play?
In casual play I take a fairly relaxed attitude, let people take back the odd mistake, offer advice to inexperienced players etc - it's more of a learning environment. I tend to be stricter both on myself and others in tournament play though. However, I do always try to keep a friendly attitude even in tournament plat as after all it is a game and a very social one at that - some players can take things a bit too seriously.

Back to the index of Who's Who in V:TES.

Q1: How (and when) did you begin your career as a VTES-player? Who introduced you to the game? Where did you play originally? I was introduced to V:TES in 1996 at university by some friends there with whom I played Vampire: The Masquerade, Ross Howard and Steve Penn (Steve has pretty much stopped playing, but Ross made the UK V:TES finals this year). Since then we've got a nice little group of players going. We've been playing in VEKN tournaments for about a year now, and between us we've made a few finals so we must be doing something right.	Q2: Which of the Sets and Expansions to VTES is your favorite, and why is it your top choice? Sabbat War, as it made available to the player base some of the great out-of-print Sabbat cards that were like gold dust as well as adding some great new cards. Plus it marked the relaunch of V:TES back under the wings of White Wolf, which was a cause for celebration!
Q3: What is your favorite deck to play, and why? I keep returning to my Nosferatu vote and bloat deck (not online at the moment, I might get around to posting it one of these days). I like it because people don't tend to expect stong politics from the Nosferatu.	Q4: If you could add something to the game, what would it be? A rule allowing all players on a table to slap anyone playing a straight Malk Stealth/Bleed deck upside the head. At least put some kind of a twist on it!
Q5: What do you do to help promote the game / why are you in this list of people? Being UK based, I tend to jump on the White Wolf forums fairly early in the day to help with rule queries before LSJ and the US contingent wake up, and in the afternoons I compete with Atom Weaver to see who can post their reponses first ;-) I also frequent rec.games.tradingcards.jyhad, but don't tend to post so much on there - the WW forum seems to get more 'new player' questions than the newsgroup which has a wealth of experienced players posting anyway, so I try to help the less experienced players out on the forums rather than the newsgroup.	Q6: What is your favorite deck style for casual play / tournament play? In casual play I like to try to experiment with new decks and concepts that may not be competetive under tournament conditions, both to test them out to see if they are workable and sometimes just to play that odd, kooky deck that you know won't work in a tournament but could be fun to try. In tournament play I like to try different deck styles but tend to play more political decks than anything else.
Q7: Is there a difference between your casual play and tournament play? In casual play I take a fairly relaxed attitude, let people take back the odd mistake, offer advice to inexperienced players etc - it's more of a learning environment. I tend to be stricter both on myself and others in tournament play though. However, I do always try to keep a friendly attitude even in tournament plat as after all it is a game and a very social one at that - some players can take things a bit too seriously.