VEKN Designer's Diary: "Openness & Canon"

On VEKN.net the design team has released a new entry of the Designer's Diary This time it's about the transparency and openness in the design process and the conflict between the between canon (World of Darkness) and metagame.

VEKN: The Future of V:TES

Fellow Methuselahs,

we have great news for the V:TES community. While nothing is guaranteed, we are pursuing some creative solutions that might allow the game to continue. The plan, of course, is to release printed V:TES cards.

onebookshelf inc. has shown serious interest in putting a deal together that allows for printed publishing of (eventually) all previous and future V:TES cards through a print-on-demand program. You can read further details on the general program on www.drivethrucards.com. The person behind onebookshelf inc. is Steve Wieck, former owner and president of White Wolf, a long time fan and benefactor of V:TES. I am also involved in the onebookshelf business which allows for close cooperation between the V:EKN and onebookshelf for having future V:EKN sanctioned cards published as well and for direct fan input to the whole process to bring you the best possible package.

However we need to be very patient, because it will take several months before everything is sorted out, eventually. It is very important for the fan base to not engage any of the licensing parties through e-mails, petitions or social media, it will not help and most likely even hurt the process. We are definitely months away from having all the signatures, the legal situation is complex. However all involved parties have shown general interest.

There is also the very real possibility that no deal can be made and the plan is going to fall through, but we are hoping for the best.

This also means that the PDF set designed by the V:EKN may not be released in PDF format, because ... it may be a printed set!

Johannes Walch
Chairman of the V:EKN

State of the V:EKN: August 2012

As posted on VEKN.net on August 22nd, 2012:

Fellow Methuselahs,

I am daring the bursting sunlight to get you some news of things happening within the V:EKN.

We had an announcement a couple of months back that we wanted to staff some (new) positions within the V:EKN. I am pleased to announce that we have chosen Antonio Cobo Cuenca to become the Vice Chairman. He is originally from Spain but currently residing in Paris. I would think he is an excellent choice, having a background in different playgroups and also being a long time contributor. Of course the availability of a Vice Chairman will help me and help smoothing out the situations where I am stuck with real-life situations. On top of that Mike Nudd will take up the responsibility of Storyline Coordinator. He is from the UK and currently the prince of London. With an extensive background in game development he will be working closely with the Design Team to bring you some exciting new storyline ideas. Expect something for late in the year, we will poll on some options soon.

We are still working on Marketing and Spokesperson, but very close to a decision. Expect to hear something in the next couple of days. Certainly it has been very interesting that with all the complaints of the V:EKN being a secretive organization there have been very few actual applications for the positions.

Certainly you have been reading about the new fan-based set that is currently being developed and produced by the V:EKN. Progress is good and from a personal perspective I am very excited to see everything coming together with artwork and actual cards designs. The release schedule is not yet very clear but, barring any unforeseen problems, we should make it available late in the year, certainly there will be a display of cards at the European Championship.

Our Nosferatu have been productive as well so we are currently in the alpha testing stages of the rating system event reporting/upload module. Alpha testing means it does actually look and work like it will in the end but there are still some rough edges and real bugs. We will move to an open beta testing by mid-September, so prepare your Archons and get ready to upload and give feedback. The first priority will be to get the current design and workflow online and in use, we will then do a second round of development where you all can give suggestions for improvement.

Everything is on track regarding the biggest V:TES event of the year, European Championship in Budapest. There are over a 100 people per-registered already so do not hesitate and get your trip booked (www.vtes2012.com/). For those of you who did not attend a continental championship so far I can only encourage you to take part in this certainly unique and worthwhile experience.

Johannes Walch
Chairman of the V:EKN

Playtesting for "Danse Macabre" comes to an end

On August 16th, 2012 the VEKN announced that the final round of play testing for the upcoming VtES expansion is well underway. Although no final release date has been announced (yet), some details of the expansion have been disclosed. The expansion will be named "Danse Macabre" and contains 36 new cards, 14 library cards and 22 crypt cards. It's focused on the main Sabbat clans, and the crypt cards are all in Group 5. The library cards focus on helping the weaker Sabbat clans, the Brujah antitribu, the Gangrel antitribu, and the Nosferatu antitribu. Other library cards include (but are not exclusive to) Sabbat-specific political actions and cards for the Black Hand.

Read the full post on VEKN.net.

State of the V:EKN: May 2012

As posted on VEKN.net on May 1st, 2012:

Fellow Methuselahs,

Let me apologize for being late on this State of the V:EKN. It was due 01. April but I couldn't get it done until today. Nevertheless this gives the opportunity to fully cover the recent events.

As most of you know in the fall of last year there has been a decision by the V:EKN to produce a fan made set. A design team with a handful of people was assembled and they set off to build that set. Unfortunately at the end of December, right around the start of R1 of playtesting, a conflict broke out in the team. My goal was to solve this conflict and to bring all the parties involved back together again. From all my experience in dealing with V:TES and the V:EKN, and I never thought this wouldn't be possible or even it would be a hard task. Turns out it was. The differences couldn't be reconciled and first one guy split from the team and then two others followed, you may have seen the topics in the forum. This was a really sad experience for me as a Chairman and a hard time. I did not want this to happen but in trying to solve that conflict I realized an important problem: there are people who see the ability to make decisions as a right they have earned and that volunteering results in entitlement. From where I stand this is fundamentally wrong. The ability to make decisions is a responsibility, not a right, and there is no reward for volunteering except the happy faces and respect of your fellow players. I quote Robyn Tatu: "It’s really simple. Volunteers simply go to work. If they’re not happy with their current assignment they quit or find other areas where they can contribute". The good news is this only slightly impacted the development process and we are still on track for Round 3 of playtesting. Ben Peal will speak to more details in an upcoming Designers' Diary.

Photo Gallery added to "vekn.net"

A photo gallery has been added to vekn.net. The photo gallery is intended for VtES players to uploaded VtES-related pictures. Currently there are three categories which can be used:

• Tournaments
• Players
• Fan-made products

The photo gallery is public, so anyone visiting the vekn.net website can view the pictures uploaded to the gallery. More information can be found in the official announcement on vekn.net.

New VtES Keywords

From a confidential source, it became known to me, that beginning on May 1st the VEKN will introduce a number of new keywords to the VtES rules. This should help speeding up games much, as wording for the effects is more compact. It will also help save valuable space on cards with an otherwise overly long text.

An official statement (by the VEKN rules director) for these rule changes will come up later this week, and the rule changes will be effective on July 1st, 2011 for tournament play.

This is the list of new terms/key words:

• Maneuvercept = for intercept with a maneuver
• Presscept = for intercept with a press
• Preventacept = for intercept with damage prevention


• Stealtheuver = for stealth with a maneuver
• Stealthpress = for stealth with a press
• Stealthvent = for stealth with damage prevention
  


• Dodgeuver = for maneuver with a dodge
• Presseuver = for maneuver with a press
• Prenteuver = for maneuver with prevent


• Pressvent = for prevent with a press
• Dodgeress = for dodge with a press


• Stealthtap = for stealth with a tapping effects (e.g. Faceless Night)
• Addodge = dodge with an additional strike

Cardtext for cards affected by the change, e.g. Hidden Strength or Quicken Sight will be updated on VEKN website (and the CSV file) at the end of the month. The cards of the upcoming new VtES expansion will already reflect the changes in using these keywords extensively.

If you think, there's more terms that can be used in a similar fashion, please feel free to make a comment here or open up a new thread at VEKN.net.

Cause and Effect: Interview with the VEKN Design Team Leader

A special episode of the VTES webshow Cause and Effect has been broadcasted live this Tuesday (March 27th, 2012). The three Swedish hosts interviewed the VEKN design team leader, Ben Peal. The focus of the interview was the development of upcoming VtES expansion.

This ends the 2nd season of Cause & Effect. The next season will start around mid-April. On a related note I will do a short break, too. So only very updates on this blog for the next two weeks.

VEKN Designer Diary (Part 2)

The second part of the VEKN Designer Diary for the upcoming VtES expansion has been released. The second round of playtesting for the expansion has just begun. Core of the release are the group 5 Sabbat vampires and some Sabbat-specific political actions. The release of the expansion is now scheduled for this summer.

Read the full article on VEKN.net.

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On a somewhat related note, I have recently read about Dieter Rams' (an influential German designer) ten principles of "good design", which can not only applied to industrial design, but also to card design, which Mark Rosewater (MtG head designer) proved in his two articles related to Dieter Rams' design principles. Two of the truly good articles on Daily MtG:

• The Ten Principles for Good Design, Part 1
• The Ten Principles for Good Design, Part 2

Dieter Rams' ten principles state that good design ..

• .. is innovative.
• .. makes a product useful.
• .. is aesthetic.
• .. makes a product understandable.
• .. is unobtrusive.
• .. is honest.
• .. is long-lasting.
• .. is thorough down to the last detail.
• .. is environmentally friendly.
• .. is as little design as possible.

Cause and Effect: Interview with the VEKN Chairman

A special episode of the VTES webshow Cause and Effect has been broadcasted live this Tuesday (March 13th, 2012). Adam and Isak interviewed the VEKN chairman, Johannes Walch. Center of the interview were the VEKN as volunteer organization and their goals as well as the development of upcoming VtES expansion.

V:EKN tournament prize support ensured until 2015

V:EKN tournament prize support ensured until 2015

Walch & Nusser Game Distributors and David Tatu received the remaining V:TES promo cards from CCP. Thus both will be able to continue and ensure support to any North American / European Qualifier Championships, National Championships and regular tournaments until 2015.

National Coordinators from Europe, princes and tournament organizers can find tournament support, including Qualifier T-shirts, exclusively at vtes.de.

OOP boosters and several sought after promo cards such as Lilith's Blessing, Victor Pelletier will be only available in ECQ and NC prize support to encourage players attending national/international events.

We are happy to announce that this year's ECQ winners will also receive a complete Sabbat War Rare card factory set.

Players from North America and the rest of the World (excluding Europe) can find V:TES Products and tournament support at Rose Tatu Productions.

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About Vampire: Elder Kindred Network
Founded in 1997, the Vampire: Elder Kindred Network is the official Vampire: The Eternal Struggle Players' Organization dedicated to the continued health of V:TES. The V:EKN endeavors to help the game grow in popularity through the embracing of new players as well as through the support of the existing fans. www.vekn.net.

About Vampire: The Eternal Struggle
Vampire: The Eternal Struggle is a Deckmaster™ trading card game set in White Wolf’s popular World of Darkness. Created in 1994 by Richard Garfield as the follow-up to his groundbreaking Magic: The Gathering trading card game, V:TES is one of the most enduring games in the genre with fans and organized play events in countries across the globe.

© Vampire: Elder Kindred Network 2012. All rights reserved.

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Contact:

Andreas Nusser
NC Germany
Vampire: Elder Kindred Network

V:EKN Design Team announces the first draft of the new set

Greetings from the V:EKN Design Team,

The V:EKN Design Team is pleased to announce that the first draft of the new V:TES card set has been finalized.

The set has been sent to the V:EKN Playtest Team for the first round of playtesting. Playtest groups from a wide cross-section of countries will participate. As was the case with White Wolf and CCP developed sets, the V:EKN anticipates at least three rounds of playtest, each having a duration of about a month. These timelines are just guidelines - quality is our top priority, not haste.

Art direction is currently underway and is proceeding in parallel with playtest. As we receive feedback from the Playtest Team, the Design Team will continue to make adjustments to card strength, fine-tuning where possible, and eliminating or adding cards as deemed necessary.

As a result, we are now comfortable releasing a bit more information about the contents of the set. We anticipate roughly 20 new vampires for Group 5: two from each of the major Sabbat clans including Pander, and a possible third vampire for the bifurcated Gangrel antitribu. In addition there will be over a dozen library cards.

We are very fortunate to have a strong, global volunteer community to help make this new V:TES set become reality.

Regards,
The V:EKN Design Team

V:TES Artwork Database Moves to V:EKN

The V:EKN is pleased to announce that the V:TES Artwork Database has now officially moved to the www.vekn.net website. It can be found under the "Resources" menu or at this link: http://vekn.net/index.php/vtes-artwork-database.

The V:TES Artwork Database celebrates the professional artwork of V:TES cards, which have contributed to the rich world and unique identity of V:TES over the past 18 years. The database tracks the location and ownership of original pieces of V:TES artwork (and sketches). It was first started 8 years ago by Eric Chiang, where it quickly found a home at the V:TES in L.A. website with the help of Robert Goudie. Over the past couple of years, updates have become less frequent but with the new momentum of the V:EKN website, it is past time to update the database and give it a more permanent home.

During the past week, Ginés Quinoñero has been instrumental in helping to set up the new webpage for the database. Eric Chiang has been porting over the data, and updating it to verify that the previously listed information is still correct. We are now about half way through updating the older entries and at this point, we are mainly just waiting to hear back from various artwork owners.

If you own any original V:TES artwork and would like to be included in the V:TES Artwork Database, please contact Eric Chiang ( vtesart /at/ yahoo /dot/ com). Similarly, if you know the whereabouts or have any leads on the location of V:TES originals, please let us know and we can follow up on them.

Finally, I would like to encourage players (both elders and neonates alike) to consider acquiring V:TES artwork. You would be supporting professional artists who have contributed to the game, helping to preserve the history of V:TES, and sprucing up your living environment with some fashionable, conversation-starting art. Alternatively, event organizers can consider using original artwork (or prints) as unique prizes for their local tournaments, as Jeff Thompson (The Lasombra) has done on numerous occasions.

The V:TES Artwork Database will continue to grow, develop, and improve over the upcoming year. Please feel free to share any feedback or suggestions you might have, as well as point out any errors you detect. Thank you for your interest and participation.

Eric Chiang (V:EKN Inner Circle)

"White Wolf/CCP North America no longer owns any cards, sealed product or promo cards for V:TES"

White Wolf/CCP North America no longer owns any cards, sealed product of promo cards for Vampire: The Eternal Struggle.

Stone Mountain, GA – January 2, 2012 – Johannes Walch, Chairman of Vampire: Elder Kindred Network, has confirmed that White Wolf/CCP North America has no more Vampire: The Eternal Struggle Cards, sealed Displays or Promo cards in stock. The last remaining product was purchased by Walch & Nusser Game Distributors.

"State of the V:EKN" 2012

As posted on VEKN.net on January 1st, 2012:

Fellow Methusalehs,

First of all a happy new year 2012 to all of you. May you and your families be healthy and happy. I have decided to write this letter to close the information gap that has been correctly pointed out by members of the community. I will give you a summary of what has happened in the past year, an outlook on the year to come and I will make it a priority in the future to keep the player base better informed. In return I ask you, if you have not done so already, to come to the www.vekn.net website, register and voice your opinion through the forums. A community only lives through the participation of its members.

What is the V:EKN? The Vampire: Elder Kindred Network is the player organization of Vampire: The Eternal Struggle. The purpose of the organization is to be the sanctioning body for official tournament (rules) and to ensure the continued health of V:TES. It consists of a small Inner Circle with dedicated positions and the national coordinators, but more importantly it is based on the work of hundreds of princes and players out there. Let us always keep in mind that we are a great community of wonderful people and in the end we will hopefully all push in the same direction: continue to play this game, that is not only about strategy and winning but at least as much about friendship and socializing.

VEKN Designer Diary (Part 1)

After the official announcement that the VEKN and the design team in particular is working on a new fan expansion for VtES in late November 2011, now the VEKN design team has published the first part of their Designer's Diary (on December 13th, 2011). The first part explains the general background and motivation for the upcoming (yet still unnamed) VtES expansion.

Read the full article on VEKN.net.

On an unrelated note, the picture on the right shows the artwork by Alan Rabinowitz for an early VtES promotional card that shows Vlad Tepes, but unfortunately was never published.

Rules Team Rulings: 02-Dec-2012

Today (on December 2nd, 2011) the VEKN released the rules changes for the upcoming calendar year. All these changes are going to be effective from January 1st, 2012 onward. The most significant change are the cardtext change on Villein, which makes all of sudden Minion Tap playable again, and making VEKN issued cards tournament legal. The later preparing the release of the upcoming first VEKN issued VtES expansion.

VEKN Announces New Rules Director

Official V:TES Players' Organization Selects New Rules Director

Paris, France -- July 6, 2011 -- Vampire: Elder Kindred Network has selected Pascal Bertrand as its new Rules Director. Pascal began playing Vampire: The Eternal Struggle eight years ago with the Paris playgroup and some of its legendary players. Most recently, Pascal has been serving the player community through his role as the National Coordinator for France, answering rules questions on a regional level and by judging large tournaments including the 172-player Last Chance Qualifier at the 2010 European Championship. You can find Pascal on the www.vekn.net website where his rulings will be the one and only official source for V:TES rulings.

Pascal succeeds the venerable L. Scott Johnson who first began his V:TES service by collecting official rulings made on mailing lists and Usenet. Scott went on to become the game's official rules guru for Wizards of the Coast® and then added Game Designer to his credits when White Wolf selected him to design 19 expansion sets beginning with 2001's Sabbat War. These days, Scott can be found frequenting the Boardgamegeek.com website including its V:TES forums.

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About Vampire: Elder Kindred Network
Founded in 1997, the Vampire: Elder Kindred Network is the official Vampire: The Eternal Struggle Players' Organization dedicated to the continued health of V:TES. The V:EKN endeavors to help the game grow in popularity through the embracing of new players as well as through the support of the existing fans.

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About Vampire: The Eternal Struggle
Vampire: The Eternal Struggle is a Deckmaster™ trading card game set in White Wolf’s popular World of Darkness. Created in 1994 by Richard Garfield as the follow-up to his groundbreaking Magic: The Gathering trading card game, V:TES is one of the most enduring games in the genre with fans and organized play events in countries across the globe.

© Vampire: Elder Kindred Network 2011. All rights reserved.
12:12 AM

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Contact:
Robert Goudie
Director of Marketing
Vampire: Elder Kindred Network
Marketing (/at/) VampireTheEternalStruggle (/dot/) com

VEKN Event Calendar & Player Registry Online

The title of this post already spelled it out, the Vampire Elder Kindered Network (VEKN) website now hosts both the Player Registry, and the Event Calendar. This is the next (and important) step of reestablishing the ranking/rating systems for VtES constructed and draft tournament events.

Now go forth, and make good use of both of them.

Origins, the NAC, and the VEKN as a "club"

To all Origins convention attendees:

Beginning in 2011, VTES players will now be able to purchase your Origins convention badge for the "club" price of $35 by May 31, and for $40 in June (which includes on-site registration). This price will be available -- hopefully -- starting on Monday, January 17th.

For all those who have already registered: you will receive a credit in your Origins account which can be used to purchase event tickets or be directly refunded to you. Please email me if you are one of these people so I can facilitate your credit.

I will be maintaining the "club list", and it currently includes the following players:

• everyone who has played VTES at Origins in the past 11 years
  
• everyone who I believe will play VTES at Origins, e.g. people who are on my Facebook page(s) for Origins or the NAC

I will be able to update the list at any time, and anyone who is a VTES player and wishes to attend VTES at Origins will be able to get onto the "club list" by contacting me:

• via message from my Facebook Origins page
  
• by emailing me directly at originsvtes /(at)/ gmail (/at/) com and asking to be put on the list

It will not include children, spouses, friends or relatives, unless they are playing in at least one VTES tournament.

Please sign up for my Facebook Origins page page and then select "Attending" on the "VTES North American Championship" event! Let's make this the largest NAC in history!

-- Kevin M., Prince of Las Vegas, Origins VTES Events Organizer