VENTRUE ANTITRIBU CORPORATE REPORT August 2001 CREDO Who are the Ventrue Antitribu? We are the Sabbat's true believers. We may not be in the driver's seat, but we're holding the map. We don't rule by fiat; we lead by example. Our claim to power is not based on out wealth or our nobility, but on our skills and intellect. We are templar, Inquisitors, and ducti, Geeks and Crusaders - Loyalists all. We've been here since the beginning, and with better reason than most, and we'll be here til the end. We are the Ventrue Antitribu. EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW Welcome to the (first ever!?!) Ventrue Antitribu Newsletter! In this issue: startup overhead, some longish fiction (in our fiction section, 'The Invisible Hand') to hopefully make up for the lack of a lot of other substance (which balance will likely tilt strongly in the other direction in upcoming issues), and an analysis/rebuttal of the submissions so far... Editor's Note: In the interest of full disclosure, and so those who want can opt out now, I feel it is only right that I should note that I have yet to win a single game playing the Ventrue Antitribu. In fact, in four full games of tournament play (I don't have a regular playgroup - I'm working on it...) I have now scored exactly 3 total VP. I'm editing this newsletter in part in an effort to improve on that record; I'd like to see both my own and the clan at large's fortunes on the rise. It has occurred to me that the Ventrue Antitribu might deserve a better advocate; fair enough, but beggars can't be choosers. Anyone who thought they could have done a better job has had plenty of opportunity. And so, hopefully, with a little work and a little luck, it won't be the Ventrue Antitribu doing the begging anymore... CONTENTS: - Banner - Credo - Executive Overview: Editor's Welcome and Caveats. - Contents - Mission Statement - The Invisible Hand: - From the Chairman: We don't suck? - Market Research: Legbiter's !Ventrue Demo Deck - Forward-Looking Statements - The Fine Print MISSION STATEMENT In this newsletter, I hope to provide my own theories and hard earned experience, and especially a forum for others', on how to make better use of those 'yellow' crypt cards piling up in our collections. I'll try to stay relatively focused on the !Ventrue, and leave wider strategy discussions for the newsgroup, which may run me out of material quickly - we shall see. Please send submissions directly to me, and, of course, feel free to comment on the current issue here in the usual forum as well. THE INVISIBLE HAND: Keeper's Brother He'd heard it all before. Tyranny of the old guard, suppression of the unnatural rights and freedoms due every Sabbat, what has he done for you lately, the usual inflammatory rhetoric - this time spiced up with hints of possible infernalism... It might well work. The pack had no particular love for the archbishop to begin with; in fact it owed its existence more or less to the old Keeper's policy of concentrating all potential troublemakers (read: antitribu and other malcontents) together in order to better keep an eye on them. The twins were always ready for a scrap, and weren't real particular who was on the receiving end - that was why they were here. They were already alternately nodding in assent and idly rearranging each others' spikes. Jane 'Wayne' was even more inclined to violence, assuming (s)he wasn't catatonic, which, Evelyn noted, she was not. Horace knew better of course - he was Nosferatu, after all - but he also tended to display an extreme deference to authority, and, since the archbishop was off supporting the siege of Baltimore, this Lasombra poseur was the closest thing to authority around... Yes, it might work. A quick tactical strike at the archbishop's power base, say, his abbot, KRCG, the chairman over at First Federal, and one or two city councilmen, would probably turn up at best token resistance, and would, of course, result in the acquisition of enough 'evidence' of 'infernalism' to place the archbishop in doubt and support the poseur's own bid for power. Two Lasombra cutting each others' throats was an attractive picture, no doubt. But the downsides were pretty obvious: first, his pack would take the brunt of any action, as usual; second, the 'infernalism' ploy might actually bring down the Inquisition, which would pretty much ruin everyone's night; and third, much as he hated to admit it, the archbishop was actually pretty effective and comparatively evenhanded, while this idiot was just that. "And so it falls to us to expose this dark secret, and, if need be its Keeper as well, to the burning light of day! Are you loyal Sabbat? Are you with me?!?" The poseur, who was apparently an ambitious bishop from the suburbs, thundered his closing, and seemed to grow progressively darker for emphasis as he did so. "Death to traitors! Death to Corrupters! We are with you!" whooped La Nariz, as if on cue. The others were less enthusiastic, and certainly less vocal, in their support, but would probably go along in the absence of an alternative. Evelyn glanced at Horace and raised an eyebrow. Horace tilted the top of the school desk he occupied slightly on its hinge, raising it enough to expose the video camera taped to its underside. The record LED was plainly lit. That certainly settled that. It was a running joke in the pack that their erstwhile ductus, Lorenzo (known affectionately as 'La Nariz'; he was the archbishop's eyes and ears in the pack), was the only pack member who lacked the auspex to penetrate the minor obfuscation protecting the camera, and so many other details, from plain sight. The bishop seemed similarly unaware. It was time to go on the record. Evelyn rose to his feet and spoke, loudly, but without shouting, "Ask not what the Sabbat can do for you, but rather what you can do for it? Is that the idea? I mean, I see what you get out of this deal - a bigger 'pric' and all - but what do we stand to gain?" The murmurs of assent died off to nothing. The bishop, who had been focused on the more obviously dangerous members of the pack, shifted and tightened his darkening gaze directly on him, "I had heard," he said, "That this pack owed little loyalty to the archbishop... I did not realize it owed no loyalty to the Sabbat either." He caught the eyes of one of the twins, and said, "You look like a loyal Sabbat who understands me - why don't you explain it to your friend here." Sammy (Or was it Max? They were so much alike otherwise, and their predilection for regularly rearranging their appearances made it hard to guess from one week to the next.) turned, clearly hesitating, but close enough to frenzy that the bishop's push was enough to direct him. The spikes along his forearms protruded through ragged holes in this leather jacket's sleeves. He locked eyes with the twin himself, "Sammy, sit down." To the others, he added, "I'm sure the bishop can do his own explaining." Sammy (it must be him, then) sat down, abruptly, on the floor. "INSOLENT WHELP!" the tendrils of shadow sprang up all around him, pinning Evelyn instantly. The poseur was now completely obscured, a dark, liquid black against the dry blackness of the chalkboard at the head of their makeshift schoolroom haven. "But you are correct. Now I WILL explain why you should respect your elders and betters!" he bellowed. "My elders?" thought Evelyn, as he fingered the incendiary grenade he had palmed, "If you think you're my elder, you're in for a real surprise..." It was a reasonable assumption that a Sabbat with the dominate was Lasombra - but not one that a good leader would make. The grenade would bring an unfortunate conclusion to the evening; he figured he could rescue the rest of the pack (well, maybe not La Nariz) before the building burned, but the camera would probably be totaled. But no, the shadows did not strike or rend; they simply began dragging him bodily towards the front of the room, where the bishop was making a great show of lining up a greatly exaggerated haymaker, his darkened form bulging with remarkable potence. Evelyn smiled to himself as he directed his blood - draped in shadow, the bishop would not notice the change until... The Lasombra struck him, full force, directly below the collarbone, clearly aiming to burst his ribcage and, no doubt, finish by pulling his heart from his body (or some similarly vulgar, though effective, gesture). There was a horrible shattering of bones, and a great plume of vitae vaporized tantalizingly between them, as the bishop's arm disintegrated and drove itself back into his own chest. The darkness that remained seemed to slip away and pool with the blood at his feet as the bishop slumped to the floor. Evelyn hoped the tape had caught his good side... FROM THE CHAIRMAN: We don't suck? I'll be honest: I'm not sure why the Ventrue Antitrubu appeal to me. It's probably just sheer perversity; I often like to be different for the sake of being different. Perhaps it's a philosophical kinship. Maybe it's my name. Whatever. I certainly can't say that the Ventrue of the Camarilla hold any great appeal for me. In any case, I happened to notice, while looking through the excellent V:EKN Clan Pages, that no one had ever written a newsletter for the Nosferatu Antitribu (NOTE: This has since been rectified - welcome Matt Latham!), the Pander, and the !Ventrue, which seemed improbable and strange. As I mentioned in my initial Call for Submission(s), unlike the !Nossies, the !Ventrue have their own unique set of clan disciplines. (NOTE: This is no longer true in the WoD.) Surely there was something worthwhile to be said about them? It appears that that may be debatable. Of the few responses I received to my Call and associated agitation, three were decks (one of which is featured below) - thanks much to all deck authors. The other three were pretty much explanations of why the !Ventrue suck (or could be thought to suck; most people prefaced their criticisms by saying that they didn't really not like the !Ventrue, it was just that...). These criticisms ranged the gamut from their disciplines and vampires, to their in-clan cards, to complaints about their art! In this rant, errrr, section, I'd like to address some of these points. First to the interlocking problems of crypt and disciplines. !Ventrue disciplines/discipline distribution reminds me of the old joke about hospital (?) food: they're terrible, and there aren't enough of them. Except that they aren't terrible: considered separately, each of the in- clan disciplines of the V:TES !Ventrue, auspex, dominate, and fortitude, is extremely useful; two (do & fo) are often featured in mono-disciplines decks, and the third is one of the most generally useful (and available) disciplines in the game. The problems begin when you combine all three. Auspex is the premiere discipline for intercept, and the !Ventrue have it in spades, especially in the extremely useful superior form. Dominate is the premiere discipline for bleeding (though presence gives it a good run for its money), and, like auspex, provides good bounce and minor voting tools. Fortitude is _the_ discipline for damage prevention. Good, good, good. But how to put them together? On defense (or potentially offense, I suppose), intercepting and preventing the damage in the resulting combat, while it stops the action from succeeding, does very little to deter further actions. Bruise is generally required to do intercept combat effectively. On offense, attempting to act with no fear of damage if blocked simply encourages your prey to stay untapped and block every action; losing one blood off of a minion beats losing multiple pool (or worse) almost every time. Bruise or, alternatively, stealth is the usual route around this problem. Which brings us to the crux of the biscuit: the Ventrue and their Antitribu are the only clan(s) that have no real access to _either_ stealth _or_ bruise via their in-clan disciplines. [Yes, there's always Bonding, and votes are at +1 stealth. And yes, there's Dawn Op, Kiss of Ra, and Undead Persistence (and Thoughts Betrayed, I guess). And yes, you can always equip up weapons to work on your bruise, though a smart predator or prey will block the equip, and then where will you be? Anyway, all in good time; I'm generalizing right now.] The Camarilla Ventrue are able to mitigate this and other problems with one card: Majesty. S:CE and untap is a wonderful thing. (And the Traditions don't hurt either...) The Sabbat Ventrue have no such luck. And so the omnipresent question for the !Ventrue, which I will be returning to again and again in these pages: How to get things done? Returning to the original analogy, while the !Ventrue's disciplines' quality may not be terrible, I do think that most would agree that there are some serious problems for the clan in their quantity and distribution. The !Ventrue tie with the Lasombra for the highest minimum capacity of a vampire with all three in-clan disciplines at superior: 9. (The Toreador also qualify, but the !Toreador, who have the same disciplines, provide two 7- caps who satisfy the criterion.) They also have the second smallest proportion of vampires with all three at superior: 2/15 (13.3%), right above the Malkavians: 3/24 (12.5%) (beginning with Gilbert a 7-cap). And then there's fortitude. It's an in-clan, yet there are only 4 of the 15 Ventrue Antitribu who have it at superior (though there's only one who doesn't have it at all), beginning with Vanessa at 6-cap. Trying to make a !Ventrue deck that uses superior fortitude means either doubling in the crypt, or Master: Discipline cards, or probably both. This lack is partially offset by the real plentitude of superior auspex (7/15) and superior dominate (7/15), but is still problematic. Does this add up to sucking? I don't think so. It does add up to a serious challenge for the deck designer, but no more so than for other clans, really. I think the !Ventrue owe their reputation more to those who _don't_ find them challenging to build and play. Trying to emulate in !Ventrue the successful decks of their degenerate Camarilla cousins, or to put intercept and prevent together with nothing else, well, yes, that _does_ suck. In-clan cards will be addressed in further editions; stay tuned. Oh, and finally, as to the assertion that the !Ventrue are ugly and their mothers dress them funny: who wants to volunteer to tell Lazverinuts that to his face? (And _I_ personally think Dominique is quite a babe.) MARKET RESEARCH: Legbiter's !Ventrue Demo Deck Here, to kick off our Market Research (deck design) section, we have a submission from James McClellan (a.k.a. Legbiter); his notes on the deck are at the bottom. Ventrue Antitribu Deck [Ed.'s Note: Yep, that's what he called it - kinda sings, don't you think?] Crypt: (14 cards) [Min: 12, Max: 35, Avg: 5.71] 1 Billy (AUS dom for , Ventrue Antitribu, 5) 1 Dominique (AUS dom FOR , Ventrue Antitribu, 7) 1 Dylan (aus dom for , Ventrue Antitribu, 6) 1 Gerard (aus dom for , Ventrue Antitribu, 5) 1 Ingrid Russo ( DOM for , Ventrue Antitribu, 4) 1 Juan Cali (aus for , Ventrue Antitribu, 3) 1 Kyle Strathcona (AUS DOM for POT, Ventrue Antitribu, 9, Cardinal) 1 Lazverinus (AUS DOM FOR POT, Ventrue Antitribu, 10, Archbishop) 1 March Halcyon ( for , Pander , 1) 1 Marlene (AUS DOM for , Ventrue Antitribu, 6) 1 Peter Blaine (aus dom for , Ventrue Antitribu, 4) 1 Quentin (AUS DOM FOR , Ventrue Antitribu, 9, Bishop) 1 Vanessa (aus DOM FOR , Ventrue Antitribu, 6) 1 Vincent Day (aus dom for pot, Ventrue Antitribu, 5) Library: (59 cards) Master (12 cards) 1 Auspex 1 Blood Doll 1 Corporate Hunting Ground 1 Demonstration 1 Dominate 1 Fortitude 1 Minion Tap 1 Pentex(TM) Loves You! 1 Potence 1 Purchase Pact 1 Rumor Mill, Tabloid Newspaper, The 1 Ventrue Investment Action (6 cards) 1 Govern the Unaligned 1 Rapid Healing 1 Regeneration 1 Restoration 1 Scouting Mission 1 Slaughtering the Herd ActionMod (9 cards) 1 Bonding 2 Daring the Dawn 2 Kindred Manipulation 1 Scrying of Secrets 1 Seduction 2 Threats Political (7 cards) 2 Consanguineous Boon 4 Conservative Agitation 1 Disputed Territory Reaction (13 cards) 1 Deflection 3 Enhanced Senses 1 Forced Awakening 1 Obedience 2 Precognition 1 Redirection 2 Spirit's Touch 2 Wake with Evening's Freshness Combat (12 cards) 2 Primal Instincts 1 Resilience 2 Rolling with the Punches 1 Shattering Blow 1 Skin of Rock 2 Superior Mettle 1 Thrown Gate 1 Undead Strength 1 Unflinching Persistence Here is a deck I made for teaching new people to play. It has a 60-card library [Ed.'s Note: It's actually a 59-card deck - I tried to reach James for an updated listing, but got no reply - he's probably off at GenCon UK? If he doesn't post an update in a reply, perhaps I'll hold a 'Complete That Deck' Contest...] and LOADS of vampires, mostly Ventrue Antitribu. It's a fairly effective toolbox deck and is part of a set of mutually balanced decks which are designed to play nicely against each other. Two other design principles are: 1) it is built using the Happy Families formula (though I added Jan Pieterzoon after I did the calculation) [Ed.'s Note: And I ripped that Camarilla degenerate right out - Final Nights needs no plugging at this point - at least not in this venue], and 2) I've tried to leave out any and all cards that have errata - nothing more disheartening to newbies than being told that, whatever it actually says on it, card x doesn't in fact work like that at all. FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS In our next issue: more substance, less style. Specifically, a focus on the discipline combo that makes the !Ventrue unique - auspex and fortitude. Also, the first in a series of attempts to answer the !Ventrue's eternal question: How to get things done. THE FINE PRINT The information contained herein is based on sources believed to be reliable, but its accuracy cannot be guaranteed. Decks constructed using the !Ventrue may lose games. Decks are not insured against loss by the author, Lazverinus, rec.games.trading-cards.jyhad, LSJ, White Wolf, the government, or your mother. Please _don't_ email the author requesting a full disclosure of the !Ventrue's finances. For a full disclosure of the editor's shortcomings, however, please see the Executive Overview. Caveat Emptor.