VTES TIME MANAGEMENT

[So I guess I would attribute the following Blog as "Advanced Deck Design". This is a kind of abstract theory of VTES that I've been thinking about. I'll try to get into more detailed stuff in future posts.]


Deck Design: Time Management

I have been noticing that a lot of games I have been playing have been going to time. Not just wall decks, but in general. So I started thinking/analyzing why this might be happening. I obviously don't want the game to go to time. They probably don't do this on purpose but people who make decks where their games go to time a lot have a flaw in their deck design in my opinion. They probably don't do this on purpose

So what is time management for VTES? Well, consider the basics. It is a 2-hour game. 120 minutes. In a five player game that is around 24 minutes each. In 4 player, 30 minutes. That is 24 minutes for play, thinking, deals, arguments, chatter, talking about "what ifs", talking about the latest video game... I think you see my point here. The game is for fun, but one really should be aware of the amount of time you have and spend.

This blog will go into card "traps" and plays that eat away your time. And it will briefly dwell on the social aspect of VTES and how that does as well.

Cards and Decision Making - Decisions, decisions, decisions. What to do? We have all been there, watching someone think for 5-10 minutes... and then do something minimal... if at all. You might of accidentally done it yourself. It's okay it happens, but we should consider why does this happen.

There are cards in this game, while they are good cards I do think that their value goes down in deck design when you take time management into account.

Example 1: Constant Revolution - Constant Revolution
Action
+1 stealth action. Requires an anarch. Unique. Put this card in play with 1 counter. During your untap phase, put a counter on this card. During each other Methuselah's untap phase, he or she must burn X pool and/or cards at random from his or her hand, where X is the number of counters on this card. Any vampire may burn this card as a (D) action that costs 1 pool.

Everyone knows this card. A cool card. But consider yourself having to deal with it. Do I lose this card? Do I lose pool? Do I lose some pool to increase my chances that a certain card won't be picked. Then you have to include talking/threatening/cajoling cross-table allies to not to try to get rid of it. This is a HUGE time sink. If you want to play it, fine, I would just recommend the defense of it at a minimum. Putting it in a Undue influence deck with light intercept is an interesting idea. Them taking the action to get rid of it is one action not against your minions or your pool. I definitely would NOT put in a wall deck (see below).


Example 2: Smiling Jack, The Anarch
Master
Unique master. Put this card in play. During your untap phase, move one counter from your pool to Jack. During each other Methuselah`s untap phase, he or she burns 1 pool or burns 1 blood from a vampire he or she controls for each counter on Jack. Any vampire may burn this card as a (D) action.



Similar to Constant Revolution but with some differences. Not to go into the plus and minus of the card, just look at it from a time management standpoint. There is no randomness faction. Lose blood or lose pool. Blood is visible, pool is visible. The decision making is simpler and thus doesn't take as much time. In my option, this card has some effect on time management, but not that bad.


Example 3: No Secrets of Magaji (or sometimes Eternal Vigilance)
No Secrets From the Magaji
Action
+1 stealth action. Requires a ready magaji. Put this card on this magaji and untap him or her. The magaji with this card gets +1 intercept when attempting to block vampires. If this magaji is tapped, he or she may attempt to block a vampire as if untapped. Burn this card if this magaji attempts to block a vampire but is not successful. A vampire may have only one No Secrets from the Magaji.

I love these two cards. It can totally stop your predator while allowing you to go forward on your prey. However, I am learning that this can be a deteriment. I have watched my predator just think and think and think. How to get by my simple effective defence... and then do nothing. And in a way, it's your own fault. You put him in that position. I haven't really thought of a solution to this dilemna because I like the cards so much. Curious to hear other people thoughts though.


Example 4: Veil of Darkness (and other Gehenna cards)
Event
Gehenna. Do not replace as long as this card is in play. Each turn, when a vampire plays his or her first card that turn that requires any Disciplines, that vampire`s controller reveals the top card of his or her library (before drawing to replace). If it is a master card, the original card has no effect (no cost is paid), and in addition, if the original card required Obtenebration [obt], the vampire burns 2 blood.

Ironically, this is not a decision issue in time management. This is a "rewind due to player mistake issue". These Gehenna effects are not "may" effects. Meaning that if it is missed, by the rules of the game, you have to correct the game state as best as one can. Now, granted this time issue can be limited by always being vigilant of all the players, but also consider the following. You have a Plan. You play your card, you draw up... its a master! Action cancelled. Time to think of new plan. Now on to the next vampire... see the problem?


Other cards: Border Skirmish, Sense Deprivation (limit player turn), 1st Tradition


DECK TYPES!
Wall Decks vs Time Management - This one is a common problem (myself included). No one wants to be ousted early. So... D-E-F-E-N-C-E. But then there is a problem. No... O-F-F-E-N-C-E. You have a wall deck, you stop your predator, he struggles to figure out how to get by your defense. You have a prey, he is doing the same and thinks about what actions seem possible. Times-a-wastin'!

What to do? Well, in my opinion, pure wall is almost a certain time-out (at least on the majority of the games). You need to have a oust mechanism and not just a few cards. When making your deck, a good test to check is to think about what happens if your prey is a wall deck as well.


Lockdown vs Time Management - This is not as common but I think it bears looking at. How about Sensory Depervation or like cards? And decks built around that? At first glance it might seem similar, the target player has very few options and thus would spend time thinking what to do. Ironically, I found that the main thing that they can do is... complain. It's a normal reaction, you are being prevented from playing (and VTES players love to complain). The trouble is, complaining does nothing but eat time away. And you can't really ask him to stop complaining (unless it gets out of hand), you were the one who put him there. My suggestion would not to make those cards the theme of your deck, but to be used as surgical strikes when certain vamps are getting annoying.



Conclusion of VTES Time Management: Well there you go. I tried to show some examples where the use of some cards / deck types should be reconsidered when taking time into account. Sometimes however, even after reconsideration, they are playable (Example: Smiling Jack). Every card has a value, and the value of the card goes up or down in the utility of the deck. Hopefully from now on, this blog will help you consider this issue in your deck design.

NEW YORK CITY VTES LEAGUE

NEW YORK CITY VTES LEAGUE

Introduction: So what do you do when you have a small play group, not many tournaments and are trying to make things not stagnant for your players? You start up a league that's what! This is a description of what the New York City VTES league rules will be. Other people are free to use this idea, or hopefully use this idea to spice up this great game in other ways.

Disclaimer: This is not a "official" tournament in terms of VEKN records and rulings. This is an exercise to have fun while being competitive and hopefully to encourage my New York players to try out new decks.

Background: The New York VTES crew is about 8 consistent players and 6 inconsisent players. We play every Wednesday and Friday. It is a good group of people with interesting decks and varying play styles. We are all friends and although things get heated (as sometimes they tend to do in VTES) we all make amends and just have good times talking about the game and VTES in general. Okay, enough of this, on to the League!


LEAGUE RULES
The rules are simple.

OVERALL RULES
1) First person to Five Game Wins (GW) wins the league.
2) If someone gets a GW, the Victory Points in that game are NOT counted.
3) If the is NO game win, then Victory Points (VP) are counted.
4) Five Victory Points equal one Game Win
5) In 6 player game (see below), X effects (ex: Conservative Agitation, Parity Shift, Slave Auction) are capped at 5.

RULES IN TEST
1) No 3-player league games
2) 4 player - time limit: 1 hour 30 minutes
3) 5 player - time limit: 2 hours
4) 6 player - time limit: 2 hour 30 minutes
5) 1 League game per day


Common questions asked in development:

1) Q: Why have a league?
A: To add a bit of competitiveness with some actual prizes.

2) Q: Why only to 5 Game Wins?
A: I want the leagues to be short, to test out some League rules and to get prizes in the hands of the people who play. If someone wins early... okay next League! I predict each league will go 1-2 months. The number of games wins and the value of victory points maybe will change as time progresses.

3) Doesn't the people who go to Wed and Fri games have an advantage?
A: Technically... yes. But the purpose of the League is to encourage people to play. And the person who plays the extra day still needs to win of course.

4) Q: Are you still going to have tournaments?
A: Yes. A smaller tournament is in the works but I want to try and get out of towners to come.

5) Q: What is the prize support?
A: Currently its going to start small. Some packs or maybe some rares that I have laying around.

6) Q: Why allow 6 player games?
A: Because I don't want to penalize people for showing up. If we have 7 players, I may have 1 person play two games but can only win on one table.