Here is my endless draft system.
It is meant to give everybody about the same power level, which is a lot
less than that is in a regular tournament. During and after each game,
you lose some cards and gain more than you lose. In this way you will
need to reinvent your deck(s) over and over again, because some combo's
cannot be used anymore and new ones are. I have found that especially
for new players, this is a good introduction to the game and keeps them
coming for more (eager to get more cards after each game )
Setup
You will need a large amount of library and crypt cards. At least 2000,
but more is advised when playing the system for a longer while. You can
use cards from one person or everyone can chip in cards (either mark them
or donate them permanently). Divide the cards in a Vampire stack and a
Library stack. There are 3 ways to start (that I've tried so far):
1) Standard: Shuffle all cards and deal every player 250-300 library and
50 vampire cards. This is the most basic form, but also the most difficult
to build a sensible deck. I really like this idea, because it is back to
basic. Back to the days that every single booster was savored and 1 sports
bike could save the day.
2) Clan Supremacy: Base all beginning decks on official starting decks
and give every Methuselah 1 or 2 clans to begin with. You can build
efficient decks, but it will take a long time before you can really
play something different and in the beginning your deck(s) will only
become weaker after each game.
3) Journey Through Time: take all Jyhad cards (or oldest set(s) that is
available) and divide them amongst the Methuselah. There is a lot of
randomness, but because all are from the same set it matches better.
When staring with Jyhad, you will feel the nostalgia running through
your veins! When you run out of cards from a set, you will start using
the cards from the next set that came out.
The Game
When beginning the game, the predator cuts the library of his prey.
Then draws 1 card for ante and 2 cards are removed from the game (and
from that Methuselah's deck forever). When you oust your prey, the
ante will go to the bottom of your library and is now yours.
Aftermath
1) When the game is finished, each Methuselah draws one vampire randomly
from his predator's crypt and 1 vampire from his prey's "side" crypt.
Note: when playing Journey Through Time, the vampire from the side crypt
needs to be from the oldest set that the Methuselah has. This to make sure
that group 1 will fade out first, then group 2, etc.
The vamps you draw from your predator and prey are both removed from the
game, they are not going to another player. So after 1 game you have at
least 2 more library (with possible ante wins) and 1 more vampire than
you started with.
2) Every Methuselah draws 3 cards from the Vampire stack and 5 cards from
the Library stack
Evening the Odds
To let everybody have a fair change of winning, there are some cards that
every Methuselah is entitled to have a minimum of:
3 Blood Dolls
3 Minion Taps
4 Wake with Evening's Freshness
If someone drops below the minimum, he may refill it up to the minimum
while drawing the same amount less cards from the Library stack.
We have found that when you've played for quite a long time, that players
that win often also get more (good) cards from ante. This might unbalance
the system in the long run. To even this out, you can draw more library
cards afterwards or you can let the ante decrease the number of cards
drawn afterwards (eg. draw 4 cards, then draw a 5th and let the player
choose if he wants that 5th card or the ante)
Epilogue
This system was first used for MtG and later for V:tes and has attracted
quite some old and new players (13 in total for V:tes) and kept most of
them on board for 2 years now.
Please let me know what you think and I always would like to know if anybody
has ideas to make it better.
Rolf
Netherlands
http://www.vekn.net/index.php/profile/userprofile/BaaliJusticar
http://www.vekn.net/index.php/forum/5-generic-vtes-discussion/7159