OFFICIAL CAITIFF NEWSLETTER: NOVEMBER 2001 _________________________________________ CONTENTS: 1. Editorial 2. Talk of the Town: Bloodlines Preview 3. Fiction 4. Create a Caitiff(tm) 5. Deck of the month: The Winter of My Betrayal (Noal McDonald) 6. Creator's Notes 7. Statistics: What's in a Weenie? 8. Finale 1. EDITORIAL As of this writing, the V:TES community is high on speculation regarding the impending release of the Bloodlines Expansion. To White Wolf's credit it appears that the scheduled pre-release will probably be quite successful. The only point of concern from me is that there appears to be some areas of the United States (and possibly abroad), which are oddly devoid of pre-release events. This would most likely be due to White Wolf requiring sites be able to hit a 20-player minimum in order to receive sanctioning for a pre-release. I expect the pre-release will be a hit, although the Bloodlines events will be lacking in consistency. White Wolf has endorsed a 40/40 rule whereby participants are expected to bring in 40 cards (their choice) and 40 points (capacity) of vampires from their own card collections. Can't help but give them (WW) and "A" in creative thinking. Others (myself included) will be running a variation of Sealed Deck w/ Booster Draft. Idea being to take the onus of preparation from the player, so that all they need to do is show up. Either format should be fine & fun for the players. The point of bringing up the pre-release in editorial, is the hope that when the new Camarilla set is printed up next year designers keep sealed and draft formats in mind. While I love constructed V:TES, it's imperative that we have a base set that can be used for Draft and Sealed formats. Why the big deal? Because Draft & Sealed is where you're most likely to draw in the occasional V:TES player into your play circles. Draft & Sealed events have the perception of providing a level playing field whereby skilled players can excel without having "all the cards". White Wolf's new requirements for holding events are a welcome change of policy. Now that they have set the bar, Princes need to meet the challenge by actively recruiting new players. 2. TALK OF THE TOWN: BLOODLINES PREVIEW Big surprise that Bloodlines is the hot topic with 11 days remaining until the pre-release. True to their word, White Wolf's website has been tantalizing internet users every 4 days with incremental information highlighting the new clans and rules. Intentions for this section of the newsletter were to ponder how Bloodlines changes would effect the Caitiff. Though as I look at the release info to date (11/20/2001), nothing really sticks out (for the Caitiff). 1. Majority of the Bloodlines are Sabbat oriented. 2. Bloodlines intention to allow for creative discipline mixes appears skewed to non-basic skillsets. Non-basic meaning the standard skills from the initial Jyhad release. 3. From what little is known, it would appear there are very few (if any) smaller capacity vampires. Not a big deal as Caitiff are used to farming out to the big guys. We've yet to see a suitable candidate for our affections. Look to December's Caitiff newsletter for greater coverage and analysis of the Bloodlines expansion. 3. FICTION Having intended to write (ack!) a real story or somesuch, has been derailed due to impending unemployment. The Caitiff newsletter will still come out monthly, especially as I may have lots of time on my hands (doh!). The fiction section may remain empty while pursuing a new employer, unless someone else would care to contribute. Nik is dead, long live Nik.. 4. CREATE A CAITIFF(tm) First of all, I want to thank those that entered submissions to Create a Caitiff. After careful review of the entries, this months winner is Matt Latham from Brighton, Michigan. Matt had actually sent me a whole slew of card ideas based on the Time of Thin Blood. At the end of this section I've included the majority of Matt's entries (for your perusal) and some of the other ideas that Matt had with the Time of Thin Blood in mind. My comments on these cards are preceded with a "*" symbol. This months winner: BUDDY --------------------- BUDDY (1) Capacity; No Disciplines Caitiff Camarilla Buddy is unaffected by mandatory hunt actions. Buddy may only gain disciplines via diablerie. Vampires have -1 Intercept when Buddy attempts to either rescue a Vampire from torpor, or commit diablerie. --------------------- [Matt's Notes] The theory here is the Time of Thin Blood (ToTB) created some 14 and 15 cap vampires that eat food and can walk around in the daytime. Buddy is one such vampire. Once he diabolarizes someone he becomes more vampiry and hence affected by vampy stuff more. The -1 Intercept comes from the fact that they can encounter in torpor during the daytime. * Buddy struck me as vastly different from the current line of Catiff we currently have in play. Buddy is specialized such that he won't go in every deck, but could be a serious enough threat that he gets some respect. Being able to take actions (other than hunting) with zero blood gave me a little pause, but as a reflection of the ToTB made perfect sense. ------------------ ------------------ Thrall 1 Blood +1 stealth action Only usable by a Camarilla Vampire Put this card on a ready Caitiff you control. This Vampire is now considered "Regnant" for this Caitiff. If the Thrall Action is successful, you may search your library for a Master:Skill Card and attach it to this Caitiff, but only if it is a discipline that the regnant possesses. Shuffle your library afterwards. During your master phase you may move blood freely between Regnant and Thrall. A Vampire may only be Regnant over one Thrall. If the Regnant is burned, burn the Thrall. * This started out as a Vampire, and after some discussion with Matt transitioned into an Action Card. It's pretty cool, but now that it's no longer a Vampire is ineligible for Create a Caitiff(tm). ------------------ Paco the Chameleon (3) capacity vic obt dem Pander Camarilla Paco may enter combat with any Sabbat Vampire as a +1 stealth action. Any Titled Camarilla Vampire may take a +1 stealth action to untap Paco and take control of Paco until end of turn. Paco may not declare a bleed action against a Methuselah which controls an untapped Camarilla vampire. * Matt's concept (as I recollect) is that Paco was a Pander captured and brainwashed by the Camarilla. After converting him, some Sabbat minions were provided for Paco to diablarize (hence his discipline spread). Paco is now a loyal informer to the Camarilla. ------------------ Hiroto Fukushima 1 cap Caitiff Prince of Nagasaki Camarilla Hiroto cannot play action cards, and cannot cast votes in a referendum called by minions with the same controller as Hiroto. "I'm king of the World!... or at least this radioactive wasteland" [Matt's notes] I like the idea of a Prince that cannot support his own Methuselah. More of an anti-vote option like Delaying Tactics. Imagine this in a crypt against a weenie voter. They drop their host of 1 drops. You pull out Hiroto. Could also produce more contestation problems, which the game needs more of. Sure, we can make him an independant with two votes with all the same restrictions, but I like the idea of a camarilla prince over an area nobody wants, and show that princes have votes because they rule over someone. Since he rules over no-one, his votes are conditional. * I agonized some over Hiroto as he would make a real spiffy addition. Had to make a gut call on Hiroto, and he didn't make it. ------------------ Larry the Unknown 2 cap caitiff Camarilla Larry may take a +1 stealth action to change his clan and sect to any Bloodlines-expansion vampire in play. If he does so, he gains one discipline possessed by that vampire at the basic (inferior) level. Larry also gains scarce, cold iron vulnerability, infernal, sterile, or flight if possessed by that vampire. Larry may only take this action when he is a Caitiff. "Finally, I know what I am..." * Would have been a great addition for Bloodlines, though found him a bit wordy. Great ideas Matt, congratulations! 5. DECK OF THE MONTH: DECK: The Winter of My Betrayal CREATOR: Noal McDonald Crypt (12) 6x Uriah Winter (1) pot for 3x Anson (8) PRE CEL aus dom; Prince of Seattle; Extra Master Phase 1x Klaus van der Veken (9) PRE CEL aus obf tha; Prince of Amsterdam 1x Javier Montoya (9) pre cel AUS THA ani; Prince of Barcelona; +1 Bleed 1x Spiridonas (9) pre THA DOM pot; Prince of Athens; Burn blood for bleed MASTERS (40 Cards) 25x Betrayer 5x The Parthenon 5x Minion Tap 4x Tomb of Ramses III 1x Secure Haven EQUIPMENT (1) 1x Veneficorum Artum Sanguis ACTIONS (19) 9x Seeds of Corruption 4x Rutor's Hand 6x The Fifth Tradition: Hospitality POLITICAL ACTIONS(12) 6x Kine Resources Contested 4x Rumors of Gehenna 1x Political Strtanglehold 1x Ancient Influence ACTION MODIFIERS (10) 5x Awe 5x Voter Captivation COMBAT (8) 8x Majesty 6. CREATOR'S NOTES Unfortunately, Noal has been extremely busy at the office lately and was unable to send me his notes regarding the deck. I'll attempt to break it down in my own words, having at least seen it in action a few times. The basic strategy is that after Uriah Winter comes into play and moves to the prey, you then nail him in place with Seeds of Corruption (which negates his special text). Once Uriah is locked into place, you then start dropping BETRAYERS on the table. This forces your prey to burn 1 pool during untap, and then needs to spend another pool to guess which Vampire IS the betrayer. As BETRAYER cards are non- unique they also stack. Looking at the deck it has combat defence covered via Majesty and Secure Haven (keep rush decks away from at least one minion). Pool is maintained via Bloat from 5th/Minion Tap and Voter Cap with various Political Actions to choose from. Due to the decks incredibly high Master Card content it is extremely important to gain as many Master phases early on with Anson/Rumors/Parthenon. Without which this deck would probably fold early. Kudos to Noal on this deck, which shows that V:TES doesn't have to be comprised of cookie cutter deck derivatives to be competitive AND fun. 7. STATISTICS: WHAT'S IN A WEENIE?? Okay, now that your mind is out of the gutter (ahem).. Weenie Vampires are typically those, which are of a capacity between 1 and 3. Obviously the current horde of Caitiff and Pander fall in this range, so I include an analysis below of all vampires in this range. The numbers below only take into account whether a Vampire has the ability with at least the Inferior ability for Mono-Discipline based deck design. 4 Caps are also listed as a point of interest. #Note: this list does not include Bloodlines Skill 1cap 2cap Total 3cap Total 4cap Total Ani 1 4 5 7 12 8 20 Aus 1 2 3 12 15 13 28 Cel 2 4* 6 8 14* 11 25* Chi 0 2 2 2 4 3 7 Dem 0 2 2 1 3 2 5 Dom 1 5 6 3 9 16 25 For 2 2 4 7 11 9* 20* Nec 0 0 0 3 3 2 5 Obf 1 2 3 12 15 13 28 Obt 0 2 2 0 2 3 5 Pot 2 4 6 9 15 13 28 Pre 3 3 6 7 13 12* 25* Pro 2 1 3 4 7 6 13 Qui 1 1* 2* 1 3* 2 5* Ser 1 1 2 2 4 2* 6* Tha 0 3 3 4 7 4 11 Vic 0 2 2 1 3 4 7 xCap= Number of Vampires of x capacity which have this skill "*" = This denotes a non-contestable Vampire has this skill (Fida'i, etc..) As the numbers clearly show, some disciplines are vastly unrepresented on Vampires in the 1-3 range. Some disciplines get a lift at the 4-cap range. Surprising how many skillsets are still unrepresented in comparison. Is it any wonder that mono-discipline weenie strategies tend to fare well, considering the sheer quantity of minions available? Especially to key damaging skills like Dominate, Potence, and Presence. Note that skills associated with clans considered "weak" are also those with poor skillset representation in the 1-4 capacity range. Newer expansions seem to be shifting away from weenies and bolstering "The Big Guys". This itself is welcome news, though it would be nice to see a few more Caitiff and Pander cards that would provide clan solidarity. Create a Caitiff(tm) was started to promote ideas that could influence the upcoming Camarilla set to include some fresh ideas. So keep the ideas coming, just a few at a time please (This means YOU Matt! *smile*). 8. FINALE Once again, this wraps up another installation of the Caitiff newsletter. While many regard Caitiff/weenie style decks with distaste, they are no less a part of the game than Stealth/Bleed or Vote/Bloat. So until I run out of ideas, I hope you enjoy these articles. Until next month, Bernie Bresnahan (bernaise1@yahoo.com) Editor of most things Caitiff Prince of Lansing, Michigan. USA