Books on VtES

A couple of books on VtES have been published since the release of the game in 1995. The current count is two novels and four player's guides. Here's a comprehensive list of publications, ordered by type and release dates.

Novels

• House of Secrets
  
  Authors: James A. Moore / Kevin Murphy
  Pages: 361 (paperback)
  Publisher: White Wolf
  Year of Publication: 1995
  ISBN: 1-56504-843-1
  Price: $5.99


• On A Darkling Plain
  
  Author: Richard Lee Byers
  Pages: 400 (paperback)
  Publisher: White Wolf
  Year of Publication: 1995
  ISBN: 1-56504-844-X
  Price:$5.99
  
  Remarks: "On A Darkling Plain" contains voucher to get a free promotional card (i.e. "Dan Murdock"). Obviously the voucher is not redeemable any more.
  Summary: Although both novels are set within the (old) "World of Darkness" setting and they are based on vampire characters from the card game, it actually gives no real insight to the game. Therefore I wouldn't them classify as necessary reading for a VtES player.

Player's Guides

• The Eternal Struggle: A Player Guide to the Jyhad
  
  Authors: Andrew & Daniel Greenberg, Richard Garfield, Rob McMillion, Harry Heckel IV, Teuuwynn Woodruff
  Pages: 208 (paperback)
  Publisher: White Wolf
  Year of Publication: 1994
  ISBN: 1-56504-163-1
  Price: $7.95
  Contents:
  
  • Introduction and Designer's Note (by Richard Garfield) -- this is the most interesting chapter of the book since Garfield, the original designer of both VTES and Magic the Gathering, describes what his motivation was to create the game as well as the early stages of the development of Jyhad.
    
  • Comes the Night (by Andrew Greenberg) -- a fiction chapter with some of the vampires of the Jyhad edition as main characters.
    
  • The Eternal Struggle (by Rob McMillion and Andrew Greenberg) -- gives and overview of the games and describes the basic game mechanics.
    
  • The World of Darkness (by Harry Heckel IV) -- here background information about the World of Darkness and the vampiric society is given, and terms like Blood Bond or Gehenna are explained.
    
  • Beyond Jyhad (by Dave Greenberg) -- here is shown how VTES interacts with the roleplaying game "Vampire: the Masquerade" (VtM) and how it can be used in a VtM chronicle. By this chapter you can see very well which was the intention of writing the book as well as part of the motivation of developing the game. Not the competitive game was the driving factor, but Vampire is seen mainly as extension or supplement to VtM.
    
  • Corrected Rules -- an update of the rules.
    
  • Card Changes -- list of changed cards between Jyhad and VTES expansions.
    
  Summary: The book was written right after the first edition of jyhad had been published and it shows in many places. The main flaw of the book is that it is aimed at the roleplayer audience rather than the competitive card player.


• Darkness Unveiled
  
  Authors: Matthew Burke, Brian Campbell, Shawn Carnes, Andrew Greenberg, Jeff Harris, Beth Morsund, Paul Peterson, Teuuwynn Woodruff
  Pages: 200 (hard cover)
  Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
  Year of Publication: 1995
  ISBN: 1-88099-272-8
  Price: $14.95
  Contents:
  
  • Introduction (by Andrew Greenberg) -- a brief glimpse on early stages of the VTES development and playtesting.
    
  • The Rules -- VTES rules version 3.2
    
  • Deck Construction -- describes some deck archetypes but with some misconceptions about how to play or what to include into these decks.
    
  • The Seven Clans -- this is the largest chapter of the book describing the then seven Camarilla clans, their disciplines and key vampires. Here also some naviety about cards and tactics is displayed, e.g. when praising "Well Aimed Car" or "Disarming Presence" as valuable cards that should be included in a specific clan's deck.
    
  • Playing the Methuselah -- the chapter describes an extension of the game, where the Methuselahs take certain roles like "Manipulator" or "Romantic" and thereby get certain merits and flaws during the game.
    
  • Strategy and Tactics -- an introduction to games strategy, but does only scratch the very surface of this topic.
    
  • A War of Ages -- contains four variant rules, which alter the game drastically.
    
  • FAQ -- frequently asked questions about various rules and game situations; although these are more than 10 years old almost of them are still valid questuons with valid answers. Still, it is recommended to use the current rulings from the White Wolf website.
    
  • Card list -- a tabulated cardlist from the Jyhad and VTES expansions.
    
  • World of Darkness Glossary -- list of WoD termns and a short explanation of them.
    
  Summary: While there are some interesting bits of information in this book, the vast majority of information is either not very good, or relate to storytelling or variant rules.


• Vampire the Eternal Struggle Player's Guide
  
  Authors: Robert Goudie, Ben Swainbank, Ben Peal with contributions from others
  Pages: 296 (hard cover / PDF)
  Publisher: White Wolf (WW2699)
  Year of Publication: 2005
  ISBN: 1-58846-648-5
  Price: $34.99
  Contents:
  
  • Introduction
    
  • Guide to the Disciplines -- gives on overview of all disciplines with the most relevenant cards and their usage.
    
  • Guide to the Clans -- gives a description of all clans and bloodlines with their strengths and weakness as well as a sample deck for each clan.
    
  • Deck Construction -- this chapter describes the most relevant deck types like Stealth Bleed or Intercept Combat and discusses deck construction for both constructed and draft format.
    
  • Strategy and Tactics -- along with the former chapter this is the most interesting one. It gives an overview of game/table dynamics, player postures during the game as well as mastering table talk and the making (and breaking) of deals.
    
  • Visual Card Encyclopedia -- this is a complete visual guide to each and every card up to the "Kindred Most Wanted" expansion.
    
  Remarks: Beside the print version the book is also available as PDF version on "Drive Thru RPG".
  Summary: From the player's guides this is by far the most substantial, it has solid information on deck building and game strategy as well as a large number of proven deck lists players can use. The image library is no longer update since 2005 six new expansions have been published.



• VTES Player's Guide: Kindred Most Wanted
  
  Authors: Peter D Bakija, Todd Banister, Norman S. Brown, Jr., Michael Courtois, Robert Goudie, Ankur Gupta, Matt Morgan, Ben Swainbank, David J Tatu, David Wilson
  Pages: 47 (PDF)
  Publisher: White Wolf
  Year of Publication: 2006
  ISBN: --
  Price: $7.99
  Description: This is a supplement to the above mentioned VTES Player's Guide. It covers clans and cards contained in the "Kindred Most Wanted" expansion, although the card images of KMW are already included in the much bigger Player's Guide.
  Remarks: The book is only available as PDF version on "Drive Thru RPG".
  

Summary: While novels only cover the background of VtES, the two early player's guides only have collectors value. Currently the best book on VtES is the "new" "VtES Player's Guide" by "White Wolf", the book offers sound information on clans and disciplines as well as deck building and strategy.