VENTRUE ANTITRIBU CORPORATE REPORT
October 2001
EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW
Well, another month, another VP earned in two games playing Ventrue
Antitribu - .5 each for going til the end. No one was ousted in
either 5-player game. I guess I didn't lose...
In this issue, as promised, a focus on the discipline combo that makes
the !Ventrue unique: Auspex/Fortitude. This includes some short
fiction in The Invisible Hand, an analysis of unblockability From the
Chairman, and a deck design that brings it all together in Market
Research. All this, plus a bonus special feature, just for Halcyan
2...
CONTENTS
- Banner
- Executive Overview
- Contents
- The Invisible Hand: Day Trading
- Analyst Recommendations: Who's Hot?
- From the Chairman: It's not how we look...
- Market Research: Audit
- Forward-Looking Statements
- The Fine Print
THE INVISIBLE HAND: Day Trading
It shouldn't prove too difficult to find a new job. Even with the
economy turning down, and financial markets slackening, still a
competent executive secretary was a valuable commodity. And Mavis
was, in her own estimation, at least, considerably more than
competent.
Why the company had decided to squander her talents in the
out-of-the-way office of Mr. Strathmore was beyond her, but, of
course, a good administrator didn't question these things, especially
not when the assignment was hinted to have come directly from Mr.
Waldburg's office at corporate in Berlin.
Nothing important ever emanated from Mr. Strathmore's directorate.
True, corporate bond underwriting was hardly a hotbed of financial
turmoil, and, again, true, Strathmore had a reputation, such as it
was, for being eminently reliable. But the truth was that he was
reliable by virtue of being the most risk-averse, anal, predictable,
number crunching, dull human being (assuming the rumors that he was
actually some sort of robot weren't true) she had ever had the extreme
ambivalence to meet.
Why corporate had thought to warn her from allowing Mr. Strathmore
from 'working too hard' or keeping late hours was incomprehensible.
You could practically set your watch by his comings and goings, making
the thought of his arriving before dawn or staying after dusk
laughable.
And now some fool from, what division had he said - Mavis' mind
rejected any attempts to call it up and continued on it's way - was in
there encouraging Mr. Strathmore in the strongest terms to take more
initiative.
Initiative was really the last thing one would expect from Strathmore,
which was probably why he had this job in the first place; initiative
was likely to be the last thing Mr. Strathmore showed at this job. In
fact, it was entirely possible that if he showed too much initiative,
it would be the last thing _anyone_ showed at this job, or this firm.
But Mavis would have no trouble finding another job, and a better one
at that, she decided.
Lost momentarily in contemplation of this newer, better, job, she
barely had time to turn towards the filing cabinet to disguise her
eavesdropping as the other gentleman abruptly exited from Strathmore's
office, so that he brushed against her before he could correct his
course.
"Oh, sir, are you all right?" she inquired, "You feel like you're
burning up?" He wasn't visibly sweating, but his skin had been
noticeably hot to the touch.
He hesitated, then, "Oh... I think I may be coming down with the flu
- must be a bit of fever..."
"Hmph. You should go home, then, before we all get it. That's the
last thing we need. Take care."
"Well, the last thing after encouraging Mr. Strathmore," Mavis
ruefully added to herself, as the man continued on his way towards the
elevators.
As he headed towards the sealed limo, and beyond that, home, Evelyn
could already feel the heaviness of torpor rising up to claim him...
(Govern the Unaligned + Foreshadowing Destruction + Day Operation,
rendered in prose.)
ANALYST RECOMMENDATIONS - Who's Hot?
In order to allay controversy, reduce market volatility, and protect
our clients' investments, the editorial board asked noted Tzimisce
fashion maven Corine Marcon to provide an independent analysis and
report on the various clan members' appearances. Here, in condensed
format, is her report:
Vampire Symbol Rating Comments
Billy (BILL) Buy Would you like to touch my staff?
Dominique (DOM) Strong Buy
Dylan (BOB) Neutral I'm a rebel - just look at my hair...
Gerard (GARD) Sell Hmmm... Did I leave the oven on?
Gustav (MALE) Outperform
Ingrid (IRUS) Hold Dammit - Dollface swore these were my colors!
Juan (CALI) Buy Pull my finger?
Kyle (KYL) Hold
Lazverinus (NUTS) Accumulate I really think ascots are coming back into
style, _don't you_? What do you mean I only
get 45 characters worth of commentary?
Marlene (HEX) Hold Not _another_ bad hair century!
Peter (BANE) Sell You rang?
Quentin (QUE) Sell I'm melting, melllllting...
Samson (SON) Strong Sell I vant to suck your bloooood! Rarr! Gnash!
Vanessa (VANE) Buy
Vincent (DAY) Neutral OK, my head's still attached, good so far...
FROM THE CHAIRMAN: It's not how we look...
Having posed the eternal question last time, this time we begin our
search for answers. So, how to get things done? Stealth in any
quantity requires off-clan disciplines and bruise requires either an
equip or, again, off-clan disciplines (leaving Dawn Operation and
Undead Persistence for another issue for now). What to do?
Well, forget stealth and bruise - in fact, forget being blocked.
There are a relatively small number of methods for acting unblockably,
and almost all of them are available to the !Ventrue. These include,
for the !Ventrue:
Concoction of Vitality - 1 pool + action - Advantages: This is easily
the cheapest and most widely available method of acting unblockably.
Disadvantages: Non-vampires (allies) can block, and Disciplines can't
be used (beyond those needed for the action itself). Barring some
fiddling with Heidelberg or some such, you are effectively giving
notice that you will be doing something nasty at a later date when you
equip the Concoction. And, of course, the equip could be blocked.
Daring the Dawn - (fo + 2 agg)/(FO + 1 agg) - Advantages: The actions
associated with Daring (i.e. rescue from torpor) happen after it is
used, so it has high surprise/shock value. Daring may be added to an
action after it is blocked, so it is never 'wasted'. Disadvantages:
Non-vampires can block; torpor.
Day Operation - (fo/FO) + 1 blood + torpor - Advantages: Again, the
rescue comes later so Day Ops are unexpected. Day Ops are fully
unblockable - no ally interference. Also, if you're already going to
torpor (say, due to Force of Will), the Day Op is practically free.
Disadvantages: At inferior, Day Ops must be announced along with the
action; torpor.
Sunrise Service - Sabbat + action + 1 agg - Advantages: The only
blood/pool cost is the cost of the rescue, assuming 1 agg sends the
vampire to torpor... Allies can't block. Disadvantages: Effectively
requires two actions to set up one - the Service itself plus a rescue.
And either could be blocked.
Additionally, there are:
Horrific Countenance - pt + 4 blood - Advantages: No torpor! No
meddling allies! Disadvantages: 4 blood, up front, to use. It
untaps the blocker. And Gangrel generally _want_ to be blocked...
NOTE: There are two !Ventrue, Dylan and the incomparable Lazverinus,
who have Protean.
Walk Through Arcadia - !Malkavian + 1 blood - Advantages: No torpor!
No meddling allies! Disadvantages: Only works half the time; the
other half, you kick yourself in the butt for 1 (non-agg) damage and
you probably end up in combat - unless you go double or nothing...
NOTE: Anyone can potentially be !Malkavian, presuming some fiddling
with Dementation, Derange, and/or Theron.
(There are a number of additional methods of gaining 'partial'
unblockability - unblockability by a particular minion or class of
minions, notably: Blood Bond, Clan Loyalty, Destructive Secrets,
Incriminating Videotape, Sacre Cour Cathedral, France, The Signet of
King Saul, Toreador Grand Ball, and Vaulderie. Here I am concerned
primarily with more general unblockability.)
Clearly Fortitude (well, and Protean) is the premiere discipline for
unblockability. And while the !Ventrue have problems with superior
Fortitude, they have plenty of inferior. And the obvious thing to do
with those unblockable actions, assuming you have, say, Dominate (or
maybe superior Auspex for a Pulse) is to bleed.
Of course, there is a catch. Unblockable bleeds are _the_ fastest way
to blow major resources while ousting your _grandprey_. As Ben Peal
(who should know) pointed out elsewhere, "Responsible stealth-bleeders
use Change of Target, and you can't play that card when you can't be
blocked." If only there was some way to tell if your Dominate- or
superior-Auspex-packing prey has any bounce in hand...
Here, of course, is where the !Ventrue have an advantage over their
Camarilla cousins. There are a relatively small number of methods of
surveying your prey's hand, and almost all of them are, again,
available to the !Ventrue. These include:
Aura Reading - au - Advantages: No cost! At superior it allows you
to cycle! A great card. Disadvantages: You have to be in combat to
play it. This is less of a disadvantage then it could be when you
have a fair amount of prevent and keep getting blocked... Also,
everyone sees the hand in question.
Cull the Herd - 1 blood + action - Advantages: It's at one stealth.
Only you know the results, which is info you can sell. Disadvantages:
You may disturb your prey's hand by playing it - the good news is
that you gain blood as a consolation prize if they do happen to have
allies/retainers in hand.
Pulse of the Canaille - au + 3 blood + action - Advantages: It's at
one stealth. You can look at _anyone's_ hand, and sell the info to
anyone else. At superior it's pretty useful/threatening if you're
planning to bleed unblockably... Disadvantages: Three blood. Yech.
Revelations - (au/AU) + 1 blood + action - Advantages: It's at one
stealth. At inferior, you can pitch any bleed bounce you spot and you
can sell information. At superior, it stays in play as long as you
can keep it there (which is not long unless you're really determined).
Disadvantages: At inferior, you disturb you prey's hand by pitching
a card whose replacement you don't get to see. For this reason,
superior is usually the way to go - it'll be there until the
end of your turn for sure.
Additionally, there are the under-used Owl Companion, Patterns in the
Chaos, and the much maligned Tortured Confessions.
In combination, the two disciplines/collections of cards can be
devastating. A targeted bleed of 5+ which cannot be blocked and will
not be bounced can end a Methuselah's game in a single action - while
not having deterred him from pursuing his prey at all, which is more
or less the optimal way to go about the Jyhad. And bleed, as
discussed last time, is one of the things we Ventrue Antitribu do
_very_ well. (Alternatively, unblockable politics, which requires
much less in the way of reconnaissance - and packs less of a directed
wallop, in general - might be considered as well.)
So, no, it's not how we look (Who need Presence anyway, damn
pretty-boy degenerate Toreador wannabes...), but, rather, what we see.
Watch out.
-----
As an interesting aside, look for Auspex/Fortitude to become a lot
more prevalent - if not more popular - soon. The !Ventrue look to
have the most discipline overlap/reinforcement from the upcoming
Bloodlines. There are potentially three (or four, depending on how
you count) Bloodlines with multiple discipline overlaps to the
!Ventrue: the Nagaraja, reinforcing Auspex/Dominate(/Necromancy) who
might share two disciplines with the Giovanni, Malkavians, Tremere,
and the !Ventrue, and both the Harbingers of Skulls with
Auspex/Fortitude(/Necromancy) and Salubri/!Salubri with
Auspex/Fortitude(/Obeah-Valeran) supplementing our heroes only. Only
the Brujah/!Brujah seem likely to gain anywhere near so much support
(from the Blood Brothers' Celerity/Potence and Trujah
Presence/Potence), as if they needed it...
With two Bloodlines bringing Necromancy into the mix, it'll be
interesting to see if Auspex, Dominate, Fortitude and/or Necromancy
yield any interesting synergies... Intercept, burn, and steal?
Perhaps there's fodder for a future crossover/combo
newsletter/lovefest between the Pat & myself.
MARKET RESEARCH: Audit
Deck Name: Audit (AU + FO)
Created by: Alex Broadhead
Description: Big bleeds without the annoying bounce.
Crypt: (12 cards) [Min: 18, Max: 34, Avg: 6.5]
1 Billy (AUS dom for, Ventrue Antitribu, 5)
2 Dominique (AUS dom FOR, Ventrue Antitribu, 7)
1 Gustav Mallenhous (AUS DOM for, Ventrue Antitribu, 8, Priscus)
1 Juan Cali (aus for, Ventrue Antitribu, 3)
1 Lazverinus (AUS DOM FOR, Ventrue Antitribu, 10, Archbishop)
1 Marlene (AUS DOM for, Ventrue Antitribu, 6)
1 Omaya (AUS FOR, Gangrel Antitribu, 7)
1 Peter Blaine (aus dom for, Ventrue Antitribu, 4)
1 Quentin (AUS DOM FOR, Ventrue Antitribu, 9, Bishop)
1 Sheila Mezarin (AUS for, Toreador Antitribu, 6)
1 Vanessa (aus DOM FOR, Ventrue Antitribu, 6)
Library: (88 cards)
Master (18 cards)
4 Blood Doll
1 Club Zombie
1 Contingency Planning
1 Corporate Hunting Ground
1 Creepshow Casino
3 Dominate
1 Festivo dello Estinto
1 Fortitude
1 Giant's Blood
1 Humanitas
1 Hungry Coyote, The
1 Minor Boon
1 Rumor Mill, Tabloid Newspaper, The
Action (17 cards)
1 Far Mastery
4 Govern the Unaligned
3 Pulse of the Canaille
1 Rapid Healing
3 Restoration
5 Revelations
ActionMod (18 cards)
2 Daring the Dawn
4 Day Operation
3 Foreshadowing Destruction
5 Freak Drive
4 Kiss of Ra, The
Reaction (17 cards)
3 Deflection
3 Enhanced Senses
2 My Enemy's Enemy
3 Telepathic Misdirection
6 Wake with Evening's Freshness
Combat (9 cards)
1 King of the Mountain
4 Resilience
4 Rolling with the Punches
Equipment (9 cards)
1 Catacombs
2 Concoction of Vitality
1 Ivory Bow
1 Palatial Estate
1 Sacre Cour Cathedral, France
1 Sengir Dagger
1 Sport Bike
1 White Phosphorus Grenade
The idea is to look relatively inoffensive/incompetent for the first
part of the game, while your prey ideally overextends his pool.
Bounce bleeds whenever possible, and work on your intercept and
blood/pool management. Accumulate: a Pulsed vampire, preferably with
superior Dominate; a Govern; a Foreshadowing Destruction; and a
Daring/Day Op. (The latter is optional if you have managed to get a
Concoction out.)
Play Revelations (superior if you think you can defend it) or Pulse at
inferior if your prey has Dominate or superior Auspex. Bounce or
inferior Revelations off your prey's bounce cards if necessary, or use
Contingency with a medium bleed that he lets through without
unblockability. Once it's clear, hit your prey for an unblockable
bleed of 5-9. (Base 1/2 + Pulse for 2 + Govern for 2 + Foreshadowing
for 1/3.) Rescue your vampire, and repeat as quickly as possible,
minus the bleed modifiers if necessary, since you're now exposed as a
threat...
Unfortunately, the Catacombs/Humanitas kind of give the game away, and
it's hard to look inoffensive with a Pulse and/or Revelations
(superior) out. (Well, actually, the Pulse isn't that threatening to
someone with any intercept or bounce out...especially if you've shown
no ability to get much done.) Don't discard Day Ops or Daring! (The
Concoctions aren't as frightening.)
In theory, you take down your prey in 1-2 bleeds, and further
Methuselahs in 1. In practice, you run out of blood quickly despite
the amount of refilling cards, and can't manage a hunt or rescue even
with +2 stealth, as the whole damn table is packing media outlets and
other intercept, and you can't Day Op every action. Or at least
that's how it works for me...
Anyway, I'm thinking of removing Catacombs/Humanitas and adding more
Rapid Healing, and maybe another Creepshow. I keep toying with
replacing the Governs with Force of Will, but I still lean towards
Govern with this much Dominate available. Similarly, Conditionings
for Foreshadowing might be a good swap. And there's probably an awful
lot of corner-case clutter that should probably be stripped out.
The basic problem with making this deck focused, though, is that the
last thing you want to do is come right out of the gate with
unblockable bleeds - you don't have enough to go through the whole
table, so you need them to get complacent and bleed themselves down by
playing minions, etc.
I should note that the earliest tested version of this deck made use
of a fourth discipline of Protean to lend additional unblockability,
minor stealth, and minor bruise. I eventually decided that the fourth
discipline was a bit of a fifth wheel, if you know what I mean, but
just because it didn't work for me doesn't mean it isn't worth
trying... For reference, that crypt featured Dylan, Lazverinus,
Monique, and Omaya.
Finally, it's an 88 card library so that it and my other 100 card
!Ventrue deck will fit into the purple and copper sleeves (100 each) I
bought at GenCon. Vanity, thy name is Alex...
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
In our next issue: We're not the Ventrue. A review of in-clan cards,
and an attempt to beat the Law Firm at its own game - politics. And,
as usual, we attempt to answer the eternal question: How to get
things done?
Submissions and feedback to me: alex.broadhead@clearband.com.
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 past and
present Executive Overviews. Caveat Emptor.