Last week, Black Chantry has revealed a lot of information on the upcoming release of VTES 5th Edition. This latest expansion will be a boxed set, consisting of 5 pre-constructed decks, a new rulebook, and blood counters. From the product picture it seems that the blood counters are this time made of cardboard. On the other hand, the pre-constructed decks are full blown starter decks with 77 library and 12 crypt cards. In comparison, the VTES Player’s Kit (3rd Edition) had glass blood counters (120 in total), but only had 4 “half” decks, (6 crypt cards and 44 library cards each).

The starter decks are based on 5 different Camarilla, which are
- Nosferatu — new artwork & decklist is published
- 9 new crypt cards and 3 new library cards (Roundhouse, Protected District, The Warrens).
- Malkavian — new artwork & decklist is published
- 9 new crypt cards, no new library cards.
- Toreador — new artwork & decklist is published
- 9 new crypt cards, no new library cards.
- Tremere — new artwork & decklist is published
- 9 new crypt cards, no new library cards.
- Ventrue — new artwork & decklist is published
- 9 new crypt cards, no new library cards.
Black Chantry’s website (the product page for the 5th Edition in particular) already has a wealth of information. Quite interesting is the fact, that Dominate as one of Malkavian’s in-clan disciplines are back, because the library cards contain cards for Auspex, Dominate & Obfuscate, while Dementation is missing. The two crypt shown in the preview both are from group 6. It’s highly likely that the vampires all belong to group 5 or 6. Another interesting side note , that the clan symbols have been slightly adjusted, so that they fit the clan symbols used in Vampire: the Masquerade (5th Edition). But they can clearly be connected/related to the previously used clan symbols.
Currently the price for the boxed set has not been announced. (I expect the price significantly higher than the 2006’s Player’s Kit. My best guess is between 40-50 EUR. Mostly because the 5th Ed. boxed set will contain 445 cards (instead of the 200 from the player’s kit). But you also have to take into account that Black Chantry has a different cost structure than White Wolf had, and in terms of inflation, 14 years have passed since the Player’s Kit has been released. It is also not clear, if it’s possible to acquire the decks individually.
The exact release date is also not yet known, only that it will be some time in Q2/2020.
Post Scriptum:
- The release date according to information on Black Chantry’s facebook presence has been pushed back to Q3/2020, likely September 2020.
- Also I have seen some price discussions (no official price information yet) for the boxed set, which was more in the range of 90-100 Euro, which would fit more the price of the decks as published individually by Black Chantry lately, e.g. the official price (MSRP) for the Sabbat starter decks was 20 Euro/22 US Dollars each.
Post Scriptum (01/June/2020):
- According to information on Facebook by KGS Cards, the MSRP will be $95 (or approx. 85 EUR).