This is an old article by Paul Peterson and Tom Wylie describing the transition from Jyhad to VTES, and accompanying changes, that took place in 1995 under the Wizards of the Coast leadership. The article is from Duelist #7 (1995), which also features an article of the newly released Dark Sovereigns expansion and a complete list of VTES card, that had been published up to that point.
It has taken over a year for the unlimited version of Jyhad(TM) to hit the streets, but for fans of the game it’s well worth the wait. The rules have been reworked to make them clearer, and there is a new basic game that is easier to learn. A few cards have been replaced, and most of the others have been reworded. All of these changes have been made to give novices and veteran players a more accessible and more enjoyable game: Vampire: The Eternal Struggle(TM).
The New Rules
One of the biggest problems with Jyhad was that players, particularly new players, found the rulebook difficult to understand. In the unlimited edition, the rules have been reorganized and rewritten to make them more accessible. The information about the atmosphere and setting of the game, formerly at the beginning of the rulebook, has been moved to an appendix, to be read after the player is more familiar with the rules of the game. The rules themselves have been clarified and simplified, many of the sections have been rewritten, and the more complex phases of the game have been broken down into outline form to make them easier to follow.
On January 7th, 2020, the VEKN has published its newsletter for December 2019. The newsletter covers a number of topics, namely an interview with Ben Peal (in his function as Black Chantry product director) on the plans and new products for 2020, a tournament report of the VTES North American Cup 2019 (part II) taking place Heath, Ohio, and finally, a 2019 retrospective with regards to VTES.
