Sins of our Ancestors

Some cards in VtES have an interesting past, where their cardtext was changed significantly or sometimes cardtext changed multiple times. For example:

• Immortal Grapple (up to the Sabbat version) restricted strikes to hand strikes for the remainder of the combat, not only for the current round.
• Majesty didn't cost blood during prior (to Camarilla Edition).
• Pulled Fangs inflicted aggravated damage (until Sabbat War).
  
• Golconda initially only burned the vampire, and did not remove it from the game.

These are only a few examples, but it shows how important it is to know (or at least to check) the latest cardtext if you build a deck/strategy upon a specific card.

VtES Trifles (Part 5)

The first three trading games developed by Richard Garfield and produced by Wizards of the Coast were Magic: the Gathering (1993), Vampire: the Eternal Struggle (1994) and Netrunner (1996). All of these were branded as part of the so-called "Deckmaster" series. But in fact, had little in common other than being trading card games and using the tapping cards (rotating cards by 90 degrees to indicate that they're being used). The brand name was actually never really used/marketed ever, since the buyers and players never really cared if a particular game was part of the series, but since the cardbacks had been printed in that fashion in the first editions, Wizard decided not to change them anymore. (Actually they did when the name of VtES changed from Jyhad to Vampire the Eternal Struggle (in 1995), but they didn't change the Deckmaster label).

Due the belonging to the "Deckmaster" series, the cards of the series had (approx.) the same dimensions. A deckmaster card ..

• .. is 63 mm wide and 88 mm high (2.5 by 3.5 inches),
• .. has a thickness of less than 1 milimeter,
  
• .. weighs 1.814 g (about 0.064 ounces).

References:

• Ask Wizards - July, 2002
• Magic the Gathering on Wikipedia

VtES History: VtES Players Kit (2006)

The VtES Player's Kit (product code: WW2257 / ISBN 1-58846-899-2) was an introductory set for VtES beginners, and was released at the same time as the Third Edition expansion in 2006. It contained basically the material needed for 4 players to start with VtES and was sold for $24.99 (list price). The player's kit contained a number of different items:

• Four 50-card introductory decks.
• A large turn-by-turn instruction.
• 120 blood tokens (red glass).
• A Rulebook.

The four decks are actually halved versions of the Third Edition starter decks. Each of them had 44 library cards and 6 crypt cards. The decks were pre-stacked for use with the turn-by-turn instruction to guide new players through the game.
In addition, in each of these four decks there was one crypt cards, which did not show a colored (finalized) version of a vampire, but "only" the artist sketch. Here's a picture of the four "unique" crypt cards from the VtES Players Kit:
All the cards from the VtES Player's Kit are tournament legal (including the four special crypt card versions) and function in the same way as the "original" cards from the Third Edition.

Rage vs. Vampire

As discussed on VEKN.net, a number of abnominations/vampires/werewolves have been printed both in VtES and in Rage (the card game based on Werewolf: The Apocalypse rolepaying game), which are Allonzo Montoya, Count Vladmir Rustovich, Samuel Haight, and Walks-With-Might.

Sengir

Do you wonder where the Sengir Dagger derives its name from?

Back in '94 when Wizards of the Coast and Richard Garfield were designing the original Jyhad right (after they had published Magic the Gathering (MtG) a year earlier), the word Sengir got somehow transferred from MtG to VtES.

In the first MtG edition ("Alpha") the card "Sengir Vampire" is a black creature card with 4/4 and flying which gets a +1/+1 counter each time the Sengir Vampire is damaging another creature and moving it into the graveyard. The card has been reprinted multiple times, with M2012 being the last expansion where Sengir Vampire was included.

So what's all this fuss about Sengir vampires, what are they exactly. Well, they don't actually fit in the whole World of Darkness of White Wolf. The background story is completly separate.

Sengir is the name of vampire race in the MtG multiverse (allegedly similar to the similar to the Nosferatu breed). Sengir Vampires are said to be descendants of the legendary Baron Sengir on the planes of Dominaria and Ulgrotha.

Apparently the infamous Baron Sengir is the founder of this particular breed of vampires, as described in the book Secrets of Magic. He's ruling his the Dark Barony on Ulgrotha from Castle Sengir. A whole more information on Baron Sengir can be found in the MtG Salavation Wiki.

Currently there have been nine cards published with the name "Sengir" in its title, namely:

• Baron Sengir
• Castle Sengir
• Grandmother Sengir
• Irini Sengir
• Sengir Autocrat
• Sengir Bats
• Sengir Nosferatu
• Sengir Vampire
• Veldrane of Sengir

VtES Trifles (Part 4)

The Nights of Reckoning expansion contained so-called rules cards. Each NoR booster also contained one rules cards (from a set of five rules cards) describing the new rules for the set. For added use in draft or sealed play, each rules card also doubled as a library card as indicated on the card when turned upside down.

Initially these cards were not allowed as part of decks in constructed tournaments. But after some discussion in the VtES Usenet Newsgroup, a month after the initial release of Nights of Reckoning (on May 10th, 2006), the rules cards became legal for all V:EKN tournaments, both constructed and limited.

Reference: Nights of Reckoning rules cards.

VtES Trifles (Part 3)

Some basic (and mostly randomly collected) numbers on Vampire: the Eternal Struggle (VtES).

• A VtES card is approximately 63 x 88 mm in size (same as a Magic: the Gathering card).


• VtES consists of the following types of editions (25 in total):
  
  • 6 base sets (VtES, Jyhad, Sabbat Wars, Camarilla, Third Edition, Keepers of Tradition)
  • 12 expansions
  • 4 mini-expansions (expansions with 60 cards)
  • 3 special editions (10th Anniversary, Players Kit, Blood Shadowed Courts)


• There are ..
  
  • 1370 different crypt cards in total (although it is debatable how Raven/Camille Devereux is counted).
  • 2136 different library cards in total.
  • 78 different promo cards.


• The "standard" booster contains 7 common, 3 uncommon/vampire and 1 rare cards.
• The "standard" starter contains 77 library cards and 12 crypt cards.
• The largest boosters are the Sabbat boosters with 28 cards, consisting of 16 Commons, 5 Vampires, 5 Uncommons, 2 Rares


• The base set/expansion with the highest number of new cards is the Jyhad with 437 cards.
• The base set/expansion with the highest number of reprinted cards is Vampire: the Eternal Struggle with 430 cards.
• The base set/expansion with the least number of new cards is Vampire the Eternal Struggle with 6 cards.
• There are several expansions (including Jyhad, of course) with no reprinted cards.


• The longest time between release of any two editions is 4 years 3 days (Sabbat to Sabbat War).
• The shortest time between any two editions is 1 month 12 days (Blood Shadowed Court to Twilight Rebellion).

If you have any more (excluding those relating to card info (like number of clans, highest pool cost for a cards, etc.)) please let me know (using the Comment function below).

VtES Trifles (Part 2): Camille Devereux, the Raven

This is the story of how Camille Devereux, the Raven became to be ..

Once upon a time, in the first VtES base set (first named Jyhad in 1994) a Gangrel vampire named Camille Devereux was included. Unfortunately the artist had used a photo of the model Stephanie Seymour as reference for his painting (to say the least), but without having asked for the permission to use the photo as such. So in the re-release of the first base set in 1995, called Vampire: the Eternal Struggle, Camille Devereux was excluded. To fill the gap, the same artist made a new portrait and Wizards of the Coast (then publisher of VtES) released the Gangrel Raven who was identical to Camille Devereux except for the name.


Until the release of the 10th Anniversary Edition (in 2004), it was even legal to have both Raven and Camille Devereux in your crypt. With the 10th Anniversary Edition a third card was released with the same characteristics as Raven/Camille Devereux, but with the name Camille Devereux, The Raven, and a new rule was added that the three aforementioned vampires now are assumed to be identical. That is, from these point on the three vampires contest each other as if they were the same vampire.

VtES Trifles (Part 1): Original Quotes

The original Jyhad cards contained a number of quotes from various sources like music, movies or television, but unfortunately in a world of patents, copyrights and trademarks Wizards of the Coast forgot to ask the copyright owners in the first place. And because of these copyright infringements WotC had to replace a lot of the flavour texts on Jyhad cards in the followup expansion Vampire: the Eternal Struggle.

Some examples for these quotes are the following cards:

• Aaron's Feeding Razor -- "These are my friends. See how they glisten. See this one shine... How he smiles in the light. -- Stephen Sondheim, Sweeney Todd
• Majesty -- "Bow down before the one you serve." -- Nine Inch Nails, Head Like A Hole
• Owl Companion -- "The Owls are not what they seem." -- Special Agent Dale Cooper, Twin Peaks
• Hellhound -- "As I started across the broad empty field, I heard the first howling. -- Anne Rice, The Vampire Lestat

Reference: VtES Usenet Newsgroup.