How I would relaunch V:TES (card reprint) - Part 3 - Fortitude

Fortitude Ok, now that is some really difficult discipline. What does it do currently? - passive combat (prevent) - gain blood - make actions unblockage + blocking minions take aggravated damage - allows multi action There's a hell lot of prevent cards, so choosing which of them stay is complicated. Also, should we allow multi-actions in chain? Cards such as Skin of Rock are dropped because Skin of Rock is seldom played for good reason: usually in combat, either you get punched for 1, or you get punched for a lot more than 2. Usually, a Rolling with the Punches, a Soak or an Armor of Vitality would be better choices. I kept the maneuver / press prevent cards because they are usually used for active combat (maneuvering to whatever range to use a strike card, pressing to hit again with a stick etc.) The gain blood card Restoration was dropped because it's very weak compared to disciplineless cards such as Entrenching, Sheepdog, or Abactor. It would probably deserve a better card (such as gaining 3 blood at inferior and 4 blood at superior, or being put on the vampire for further use such as preventing damage). Kept as is Daring the Dawn: staple delivery card against wall decks Dawn Operation: interesting card for bruise and bleed decks Indomitability: interesting combat card Kiss of Ra, The: a great card you can bluff with, and that is interesting against wall decks Rapid Healing: not a splendid card, but fills a niche Rolling with the Punches: staple prevent card Skin of Night: interesting niche card Skin of Steel: staple prevent card for vampires with inferior fortitude Soak: staple prevent card, a bit risky vs aggravated damage Unflinching Persistence: staple prevent card Modified Armor of Vitality: gives a reasonable prevent to vampires with inferior Fortitude against Aid from Bats + Carrion Crows for instance. Superior is really corner case and should be modified. Freak Drive: this is a hard one. Probably I'd fix it by increasing its cost by 1 each time the same minion uses it in the same turn. That would probably kill Una Freak Show, but watching someone play alone for 30 minutes is not compatible with a 5-player game Not kept Ablative Skin: not worth an action Bestow Vigor: wallpaper Day Operation: weak card compared to Daring the Dawn, and redundant Force of Will: weak card, even if it works a little in some decks built especially around it Forced Vigilance: the blood cost is deterent Hard Case: weak card Hidden Strength: interesting card, but redundant with other prevent cards Jua Vema: redundant with Skin of Night, plus I don't want to keep Fortitude Laibon-specific cards right now King of the Mountain: too weak Masochism: not worth the action Regeneration: useless card Repair the Undead Flesh: useless, weak card Resilience: weak card Resilient Mind: weak card Restoration: weak card Shared Strength: crappy card Skin of Rock: weak card Steadfastness: weak card Superior Mettle: redundant with Skin of Steel of Rolling with the Punches (and weaker) Undead Persistence: bad card Undying Tenacity: bad card too Prince of Paris, France Ratings Coordinator, Rules Director

Here's two of my weird and wacky "fixes' for Freak Drive: 1 blood. <inf> Untap this vampire, and place this card on this vampire. Whenever this vampire untaps, burn 1 blood. Burn this card during your discard (or next untap?) phase. <sup> As above, but this vampire cannot have more than 1 copy of Freak Drive attached to it at any time. This means that any form of untapping is going to cost extra - Majesty, Freak Drive, etc. Another thought I had, through is that wakes are kind of like a form of multiacting - you get to act and block, which is a little like acting twice. So maybe something like this: X blood This card costs blood equal to the number of Freak Drives attached to this vampire (plus 1?). <inf> Untap this vampire and attach this card. This vampire may not attempt to block or play reaction cards. Burn this card during your next untap phase. <sup> As above, but this vampire cannot have more than 1 copy of Freak Drive attached to it at any time. The wording is awkward in both circumstances. The first situation just tries to limit multiacting, while the second says that if you want to act multiple times, that you then won't be able to defend yourself. What do you think? Check out my VTES blog: Gaming with BS I also host a google doc which separates the TWDA into clans . That means I track how often clans win, which crypt groups get used, and how many people attend events. You can access all of that info here:

Wakes are important. I like the suggestion in another thread to rebrand them to reflex cards. Vtes needs wakes to stimulate interaction.

> Ankha wrote: > Freak Drive: this is a hard one. Probably I'd fix it by increasing its cost by 1 each time the same minion uses it in the same turn. That would probably kill Una Freak Show, but watching someone play alone for 30 minutes is not compatible with a 5-player game > Errata: This minion can only play 1 Freak Drive this turn. (and perhaps remove blood cost) I would do the same for each freak drive like card so you have to mix cards to have more than 1 extra action each turn. Killing mass multi acting vamp decks isn't a bad thing for the game... -1 Strength

> 2wayspeaker wrote: > Wakes are important. I like the suggestion in another thread to rebrand them to reflex cards. Vtes needs wakes to stimulate interaction. > I'm really not a big fan of the "Reflex" terminology. I never really understood why it was added in the first place, instead of a simple reaction. Prince of Paris, France Ratings Coordinator, Rules Director

My selection for 7 essential Fortitude cards. Fortitude - passive combat (prevent) - gain blood - make actions unblockage + blocking minions take aggravated damage - allows multi action Daring the Dawn: Freak Drive Indomitability: Kiss of Ra, The: Rolling with the Punches: Skin of Night: Soak:

i'd be profoundly sorry to see Dawn Operation go. I run a bruise/bleed deck with that, skin of night, and Weather Control.

Generally agree wit the selection, although I think Hidden Strength should belong to the selection as it's flexibility is pretty important against Taste of Vitae and aggravated damage. Also Force of Will fits the theme well and adds some unique possibilities for already not too-strong clans like Samedi. There are other solutions to block Turbo decks if that is the reason for taking it out. Regarding freak drive I think the only-once-per-vampire-per-turn clause would be a good solution. I would not miss Una and related decks, and the card would still be very strong.

> self wrote: > i'd be profoundly sorry to see Dawn Operation go. I run a bruise/bleed deck with that, skin of night, and Weather Control. > Unless Paradox releases an incompatible game or VEKN bans over 3000 cards. You can still play with Dawn Operation It just won't be reprinted. Heck, even if Paradox releases an incompatible game, I wager people will still be playing VTES... -1 Strength

> Ankha wrote: > > > 2wayspeaker wrote: > > Wakes are important. I like the suggestion in another thread to rebrand them to reflex cards. Vtes needs wakes to stimulate interaction. > > > I'm really not a big fan of the "Reflex" terminology. I never really understood why it was added in the first place, instead of a simple reaction. > "Reflex" was added to indicate that the card's effect could be played at any time - including when there is no action, when reaction cards are not playable. Example: an Abombwe reflex can cancel the effects of a Rotschreck or Frenzy master.

> self wrote: > i'd be profoundly sorry to see Dawn Operation go. I run a bruise/bleed deck with that, skin of night, and Weather Control. > That was a mistake, it should have read "Day Operation" that is redundant with Daring the Dawn Prince of Paris, France Ratings Coordinator, Rules Director