Name: James Blackwood
Capacity: 10
Cardtype: Vampire
Clan:
Discipline:
Group: 4
Independent Anarch. 3 votes (titled). If James is ready, you may use a master phase action during your discard phase instead of a discard phase action.
Art notes: Long brown hair that almost looks like a lion's mane as it drapes to the middle of his back (assuming it is not tied up). Emerald green eyes, very pale white skin and sharp features. He wears a worn black leather jacket. He avoids synthetic cloths and typically dresses in dark leather. He has a stare that looks right through people. There is an edge to him like at any moment he could snap and tear someone to pieces. He has a cunning intellect and usually studies everyone around him. He is commonly seen with large backpack where he stores his laptop and the rest of this gear.
World of Darkness Reference: James was a mage before he was embraced. His magic interacted with the Gangrel blood during the embrace and he became the first City Gangrel. He was embraced for his tactical genus but when the Sabbat learned the qualities of his blood they locked him up and used it to create soldiers. James made a deal with the Nosferatu/Nosferatu antitribu that if they would help him defect from the Sabbat he would turn over his secrets. After his defection he kept a low profile claiming to be a traveling Gangrel. He was in the Camarilla, but the Tremere made it impossible for him to stay. Anarchs welcomed him with open arms without judgement for his past and he has never looked back. James Blackwood is a LARP character played multiple times in different Sabbat, Camarilla and Anarch cities for over a decade. You have permission to use this character.
How does this card address a compelling game need?: 1) Anarchs only have one 10 capacity vampire and he is in group 1. 2) There is only one Anarch in the game that starts with a Title and that is the Advanced version of Brunhilde. 3) He has all of the in-clan disciplines for 5 different clans: City Gangrel, Brujah, Toreador, Ishtarri, and Osebo meaning his cross over potential into multiple decks is quite large. 4) He matches at least two disciplines with every single Anarch in group 4. 5) He matches at least three disciplines with every single Anarch in group 3. 6) His ability allows the Methuselah to play a Master card after influencing out a vampire which is a quite powerful effect. 7) Camarilla, Sabbat and Liabon all have ways to gain extra master phase actions and Anarchs currently don't.
Created by:
Justin Lacey
Update: August 9th 2017
Good and Bad.
Good: The discipline mix is good. Especially the three P's. Protean, Presence and Potence as it serves as a foundation for a good bruise bleed Anarch deck. James in particular is a great foundation card for Anarchs which needed more bleed defense. His disciplines feel very flexible especially with Anarch multiple discipline cards. He crosses over well with large Combat Gangrel decks using Matasuntha which means he is useful for multiple decks.
Bad: For the Anarch specific deck that is mostly weenie Anarchs, James does little to enhance the overall game plan. Despite his seemingly impressive discipline array, many of his points spent on disciplines are generally wasted. In comparison, Xaviar (Advanced) has a point total of -14.5 points. The difference is one extra point spent on disciplines.
Change: Add an extra point into Obfuscate. This gives him all in-clan disciplines at Superior and means he can use Obfuscate action modifiers to push stealth on Anarch actions (Cloak the Gathering and Veil of Legions).
Here is the math for the new version. The only difference is one extra point on disciplines.
James Blackwood
11 Disc = 11
+1 hand size = 0.5 points
Burn blood to reduce bleed = 1.5 points
+1 bleed = 1.5 points
= 14.5
James Blackwood
10 Capacity, Group 4,
Independent Anarch. While James is ready, you have +1 hand size and once per turn, he may burn a blood to reduce a bleed against you by 2. +1 bleed.
Master phase actions are lost at the end of the master phase. It's much more simple to give him a plain +1 discard phase action.
Prince of Paris, France
Ratings Coordinator, Rules Director
> Ankha wrote:
> Master phase actions are lost at the end of the master phase. It's much more simple to give him a plain +1 discard phase action.
>
The idea is that he can use Discard Phase actions for other things. In one version, he could equip cards to Anarchs or recycle combat cards as a Discard Phase action, then use Powerbase: Los Angeles to gain an extra Discard Phase action. After some testing it became clear that Anarchs were fast enough that they didn't need equipment and while recycling combat is useful, it is not good enough. What happened is that they cycle cards so fast that they almost always get hand jammed with Master cards. So it occurred to me if he gained a Master Phase action during the Discard Phase it would solve problems that Anarchs can't currently deal with like needed to play Discipline cards after influencing a vampire out. Thus the idea of trading a Discard Phase action for a Master Phase action.
Oh, I got it: you want the anarch to be able to play masters during the discard phase? No way.
Prince of Paris, France
Ratings Coordinator, Rules Director
Very much what was said above: even if it could work rules wise, the game needs zero, null, nada, null, keine, nolla new ways to play more master cards.
Otherwise the vampire is fine and I appreciate you're trying to do things with discard phase actions. Just, no new master shenanigans. Ever again.
"Oh, to the Hades with the manners! He's a complete bastard, and calling him that insults bastards everywhere!"
-Nalia De-Arnise
garourimgazette.wordpress.com/
www.vekn.net/forum-guidelines
> Kraus wrote:
> Otherwise the vampire is fine and I appreciate you're trying to do things with discard phase actions. Just, no new master shenanigans. Ever again.
>
Okay, maybe we should go closer to a thematic design for him.
Okay another try.
James Blackwood
10 Capacity, Group 4,
Independent Anarch. While James is ready, you have +1 hand size and once per turn, he may burn a blood to reduce a bleed against you by 2. +1 bleed.
Text Characters: 149.
Here is the math using Aristotle and Serenna.
Aristotle de Laurent
9 Cap = +11 points
9 disc = -9
5 diff disc = +0.5 points
+1 hand size = -0.5 points
+1 stealth = -2 points
= 0
Serenna the White
8 Cap = +9 points
5 diff disc = +0.5
8 disc = -8
Reduce bleed for blood = -1.5 points
= 0
James Blackwood
10 Cap = +12 Points
10 Disc = -10
7 diff disc = +1.5 points
+1 hand size = -0.5 points
Reduce bleed for blood = -1.5 points
+1 bleed = -1.5 points
= 0
My thought process:
1) We deal with the card cycling issue with +1 hand size.
2) Thematically, he is a cunning and brilliant strategist which is represented in VTES by his ability to predict his opponents. The game effect is that this gives him an ability to stabilize after being influenced out without being locked into a pure wall mechanic. Pool is normally reclaimed with Blood Doll, Vessel, Minion Tap, or Villien... so this is a nice alternative.
3) I understand now why Anarchs don't have titles. It is anti synergy with some of their cards. Since the votes were primarily based on his backgrounds and not central to the character it was removed. The other issue was concern that this would make him too attractive to non-Anarch big vote decks.
Notes:
1) I tried a discard phase action mechanic that created tactics counters which could be used to give temporary -1 or +1 bleed but it was very wordy and there is no way to make it work with the text limitation. Plus I was concerned about increasing complexity without adding more flavor. This is an example of mechanic that would be better on a card than a vampire.
2) I considered a mechanic where he could burn the Edge for +/- bleed, but wasn't good enough as better cards already exist.
3) Part of the appeal of James is he works very well for a toolbox deck and he fits into multiple decks. He could work in a pure combat rush deck using Make the Misere, an intercept/combat deck using Guardian Vigil, or maybe a multi action deck using Illegalism and CrimethInc.
Hopefully, this is better.