OFFICIAL VEKN BLOOD BROTHERS NEWSLETTER VOL 1 ISSUE 1 FEBRUARY 2002 "You're not supposed to be here. We will show you the way out; piece by piece, if necessary." Our secrets are our own. If you are reading this, then you are a member of the Circle. If you are not, then I feel pity for what will happen to you when you are discovered. I will assume for your sake that you are a member of the Circle, so read carefully, my Brother. This is a new beginning for you, and for all of us. We were created with one purpose, to serve the Circle, and our patron. Do not forget that. ------------------------------------------------------- Contents i. INTRODUCTION ii. FICTION iii. BLOOD BROTHERS IN VTES iv. FOCUS ON SANGUINOUS - san card reviews v. LIFE SUPPORT - other card reviews iv. DECK BUILDING ------------------------------------------------------- i. INTRODUCTION Welcome to the brand new Blood Brothers newsletter. I've tried to keep it short and to the point, and have tried not to ruin the mood too much. Those who oppose us in this, as everything else, shall be eliminated. The Blood Brothers are a very enigmatic clan. It's tempting to compare them to the Brujah Antitribu, until you understand their quiet, brooding personalities. If you are not a part of the Circle, then there is nothing to say to you. You will seldom hear a Blood Brother speak more than a sentence aloud, most likely because you will be dead or dying by then. They don't like to get as excited as the !Bru, nor do they share any zealotry for the Sabbat, or even for their clan as a whole. This does not, luckily, stop them from being as sadistic and deadly as any dress-wearing !Malk with blood dribbling down his chin. ---------------------------------------------------------- ii. FICTION The Fragment, part i: Some Enchanted Evening ... It is dark. The streets outside the Federal building are quiet. The streetlamps are not on tonight, haven't been for years. A dark form falls from an impossible height. All forms are dark at 3am, but this one seems to suck the dim moonlight into itself and generate a darkness of its own. It lands on its feet, five yards from the steps of the building. It's the form of a man. He is bald, and a wretched symbol has been carved into his scalp, a symbol that one could find spray-painted in various slums, all over the city. No one bothers to clean it off anymore. The dark figure walks slowly up the steps, a dark purpose in his eyes. Eyes that suddenly change character as he approaches the computer-locked door. They roll back up into his head as he seems lost in some unknown ecstasy, then roll back, a different colour, and more intense. His hands grow slimmer, almost feminine, as he reaches up to the keypad. A few deft movements. The lock beeps. The door opens. The figure continues walking almost without missing a step, flinging the door out of his way with a sudden savagery. He glares upward into the distance, as though listening for a faint sound, and executes a sharp left turn. There, 15 paces forward and about 20 feet up, a large scroll of paper is displayed behind a glass case mounted on the wall. He stops in front of it, crouches down, as if to leap. The leap is surely impossible for a man of his size, but he doesn't get a chance to try just yet. A noise comes from behind. The squeak of dress-shoes on marble. A hurried shuffling sound of a gun pulled from its holster. A soft click. Then a coarse shouting voice. "Halt, there! One move and I'll decorate that wall with your brains." The figure freezes, but only for a second. He leaps into the air, and promptly disappears, as though swallowed by the deep shadows. The cop's eyes dart to the left and right, above and behind, but no one is there. The tense silence shakes in anticipation. He hears a crow cawing, just outside the still-open front door. He straightens up stiffly, a look of frozen fear in his eyes. And then the world explodes in a flash of colour. A steel-toed boot strikes him in the back of the head, knocking him to the floor. He shakes his head clear, quickly rolls to the side. With a mixture of practiced grace and desperate fury, he leaps to his feet, swinging his arms wildly in an attempt to subdue the intruder. What his hands connect with, however, is as unyielding as as a cement wall. He stops, nursing his bruised fist, and looks up into a terrifying visage. The intruder laughs maniacally. His hands still on his hips, he grows another set of arms from his shoulders and grabs the policeman with them. The cop is lifted up, about a foot off the ground, his feet dangling limply. All sense of resistance has gone from his suddenly ghostly-white face. Something terrifying sparkles in the dark figure's eyes as his lips draw back into an expression halfway between a smile and a snarl. "Now," he says, "I will squeeze the life from your body, and you will scream." ... --------------------------- iii. BLOOD BROTHERS IN VTES A New Beginning Bloodlines is the beginning for us. We have been given strength, and we have been given numbers. What more could we need? There are 10 Blood Brothers in the set, more than any other bloodline. Only the Gargoyles, also a pot/for bloodline, join us in getting more than 5 vampires. [archivist's note: The Samedi received 6 vampires in Bloodlines.] But they are useless slaves, so who cares. On the other hand, we're really just 2 clans of 5 vampires each, with the same in-clan disciplines. Sanguinus is very nearly useless without the bonus of having more vampires of the same Circle. So to maximize this benefit, mono-Circle decks are the rule. We have a phenomenal bleed card, a decent intercept card, an amazing rush card, and more combat than you can shake 3 or 4 sticks at, even if you held each in a different hand. Move over Nossies and Brujah. For a standard pure rush deck, there is (arguably) only one reason to play any clan other than the Brothers, and that is vampire size. You can't build a weenie deck with Blood Brothers, and that's probably for the best, because if you could, it would roll over tables like a drunken elephant. The Chicago Circle is all 5's except for little Tom, and the Torrance Circle is even worse, with all 6's. And their disciplines are a little spread out for my tastes. Each clan member, other than Tom, has at least one out-of-clan discipline, and no two vampires in the same Circle share an off discipline (cel and dom are each shared by 2 cross-Circle Brothers, but a cross-Circle deck is a tough beast to manage). As for which Circle is better... they're actually remarkably balanced. Torrance Circle vampires are, in general, slightly better than just taking a Chicagoan and adding one discipline (which balances them well for their size). The question then boils down to deck style, with Chicago being slightly more weenified. As far as disciplines go, all members of both Circles, except for Terry, have all 3 disciplines. Terry doesn't have for, thus causing some (ok, just me, really) to dub her "the Suckmistress." Her built-in press could be very useful, but not without a fortitude skill card. For superiors, Chicago has 2 with SAN, and 1 with POT, with no vampires with FOR. Torrance has 3 SAN, 2 POT, and 2 FOR. Torrance Circle also has a single vote, with "His Grace, Bishop Mark", who also has SAN, and +1 intercept against bleeds - possibly the best vampire we've got, in stiff competition with Jerry. Our main drawback is a lack of maneuvers. Basically, the only unconditional maneuver available to us is Unflinching Persistance at FOR, but as FOR is the least common in-clan superior, you'd better include some skill cards, or a bunch of Fake Outs. You could, of course, use Bum's Rush instead of Coagulated Entity, but relying on the maneuver from Bum's Rush is poor form, as sooner or later they will block you. It's better to include enough maneuvers to ignore Bum's Rush, assuming you have a million Coagulated Entities (which is where we have a problem, due to rarity). Maybe even add in a couple of IR Goggles, if you think you can afford the wasted action, or are packing some Freak Drives. Don't water down the combat too much though, as that's been the downfall of many a Brothers deck. There are, of course, ways to use Blood Brothers with other clans, mixing them in rather than playing a mono-Brothers deck, but I'll save those for another issue. The best way to use them, unlike other bloodlines, is to play with just Brothers, and in fact with just one Circle. Learn the ways of the Circle, Live for the Circle, LOVE the Circle. ----------------------- iv. FOCUS ON SANGUINOUS Friends help you move, real friends let you borrow their arms and occasionally legs. Coagulated Entity Action, Sanguinous Choose X ready Blood Brothers you control who belong to the same circle as this acting vampire. [san]: (D) Enter combat with a ready minion controlled by another Methuselah. This acting vampire has +X strength and +X capacity. Before combat begins, each chosen vampire must move 1 blood to the acting vampire or this action is canceled. [SAN]: As [san] above, and this vampire may prevent up to X damage this combat. This card practically defines the word "power rare". In the words of Legbiter, "if [Coagulated Entity] were a girl, I'd get its number." +X strength and +X capacity? You've got to be kidding me. And prevent X damage at superior? This is the ultimate get-into-combat card. Granted, it'd be much better at stealth. But unlike most other Sanguinous cards, it doesn't really cost anything, assuming you either a) Use a vampire who is low on blood, so the X blood doesn't drain off after combat, or b) Spend a bunch of blood on combat cards. Unfortunately, all that cheesy goodness just means that it's all the more likely to get blocked. However, that's not really such a bad thing. If you Bum's Rush (or Ambush) a tapped vampire, and your opponent really doesn't want you to get your maneuver, then he'll have to either waste a Wake (always a good thing) or block with an untapped vampire. Either way, you win. However, Bum's Rush is kind of a 50/50 deal. If he doesn't want you to get the maneuver, and he's *able* to block, he will. But if he doesn't care about the maneuver, he'll just let it through, leaving you with no real bonus from the Bum's Rush (because you won't need the maneuver... if he's gonna maneuver to long, he'll block). On the other hand, Coagulated Entity, which has no restrictions (as opposed to Bum's Rush and Ambush), will always be blocked if its possible. According to Derek Ray, this is a bad thing, but you have to remember that Bum's Rush will also always be blocked if possible, *if* you're going to need the maneuver from it. So essentially, you're getting a rush card that can be aimed at any vampire, tapped or not, and is replaced immediately. If your prey is foolish enough to not block, or unable to block, you really get to go to town. All-in-all, this is the best thing since sliced werewolf on toast (which is very tasty, or so the Nagaraja tell me). Nose of the Hound (for aus/spi) can be a better rush card in some situations, but Coagulated Entity is still mighty nice. --------------- v. LIFE SUPPORT What makes a Blood Brother tick, besides that bomb strapped to his chest? This issue, we look at a couple of no-brainer fortitude cards. Nothing too insightful here, but you gotta start somewhere, and I'm really itching to get back to doing some smashing. Perhaps next month we will have some useful commentary in this space. Until then, SMASH, SMASH, SMASH. Unflinching Persistance Combat, Fortitude [for] Prevent 1 damage. [FOR] Maneuver and prevent up to 1 damage later this round. Only usable when choosing range. There you have it... the one maneuver card available to Blood Brothers (other than disciplineless). The main problem here... no vampire in Chicago Circle and only two in Torrance Circle have FOR. So, get used to seeing skill cards popping up in your hand during combat. You could use Sanguine Instruction, but do you really want to waste an action on it? Personally, I've had to be careful not to add too many Unwholesome Bonds, as they tend to gum up the deck with useless actions. It'll be a cold, cold day in Mexico City before I put SI in a Brothers deck. The good part about UP... it's easily cyclable. Most non-combat decks will just hit you for 1 after you IG them, and you can throw out Unflinching Persistance if you've got them. Most combat decks, on the other hand, will give you more than ample opportunity to use as much prevention as you've got... as long as they aren't the hated Tremere or the Assamites (who pretty much can't unpreventably hit you after IG anyway, except for Dagon's Call, which at least lets you cycle to prevent the hand strike). Other than UP, you're gonna need Fake Outs. Rolling With the Punches Combat, Fortitude [for] Prevent 1 damage. [FOR] This vampire burns 1 blood to prevent all damage from the opposing minion's strikes this round of combat. This is my favourite fortitude card, and very underrated IMHO. Inferior Skin of Rock, superior Skin of Steel. I don't even use Skin of Steel anymore. It's all Rolling With the Punches and Superior Mettle (and Unflinching Persistance, of course, but I've begun to think of it as more of a maneuver card than a prevention card). Skin of Rock has pretty much gone the way of the dodo, as the ability to prevent 2 damage at superior is not sufficiently better than the inferior in the fairly uncommon instances where you are taking more than 1 damage that isn't a strike. Some people have replaced Skin of Rock with Resilience, and I can see the wisdom in that, but personally, I'd rather just play RWtP, and use 3 prevention cards if I really need to. YMMV. But here's one last drink to Skin of Rock, which has been overlooked in a world that has passed it by. Lost in Crowds and Enhanced Senses have similar problems, but are still occasionally useful to splash, but SoR is just SOL. -------- vi. DECK BUILDING This month, we have a basic Torrance Brothers rush deck. It's been slightly toolboxed, but is mostly a straight-ahead rush deck. I played this deck, minus the Coagulated Entities (which I don't have) and Info Highways (which I didn't decide to add until later), and it's pretty much as good as advertised. It has the usual problems of getting vampires out, but once it does, no one, and I mean NO ONE, wants to get into combat with you. The exact proportions could stand to be tweaked a bit, but I'll leave that as an exercise to the reader (consider it your first service to your new Circle). Next month, I have a special treat for you... a new combo that will amaze and confuse you! It's not a game-breaker, but it's ever so much fun. Until then, have fun bashing stuff. Deck: Brotherhood of the Fist Created By: Chris Berger Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 24, Max: 24, Avg: 6.00) ---------------------------------------------- 3 Truman dom FOR pot SAN 6, Blood Brother 3 Mark for obf pot SAN 6, Blood Brother, Bishop 2 Karl FOR POT pre san 6, Blood Brother 2 Jack cel for pot san 6, Blood Brother 2 Ilse for POT pro SAN 6, Blood Brother Library: (90 cards) ------------------- Master (11 cards) 3 Information Highway 2 Blood Doll 3 Fortitude 1 Potence 2 Haven Uncovered Action (13 cards) 2 Ambush 1 Bum's Rush 6 Coagulated Entity (can be replaced with 4 Bum's Rush and 2 Ambush) 5 Unwholesome Bond Action Modifier (7 cards) 3 Freak Drive 4 Walk of Caine Reaction (5 cards) 2 Gestalt 3 Wake with Evening's Freshness Combat (54 cards) 4 Octopod 2 Coordinate Attacks 7 Immortal Grapple 4 Increased Strength 1 Fists of Death 4 Torn Signpost 7 Undead Strength 2 Mighty Grapple 6 Unflinching Persistence 5 Rolling with the Punches 3 Superior Mettle 3 Fake Out 5 Taste of Vitae