Rules Team Rulings — RTR 11/05/2018

A bit surprisingly after the recent Rules Team Rulings of March 3rd, 2018, another RTR has been released on May 11th, 2018 (along with preview of the Gargoyles card for the Lost Kindred expansion). In fact, the RTR 11/05/18 contains of three parts, that is

• Rule change #1: Anarch is a sect.
• Rule change #2: Hunt
• Rule change #3: Limited effects

While the last two are merely clarifications/cleanup of existing effects, the first change is certainly the one with the biggest impact. Being Anarch is no longer a trait (like Black Hand), but Anarch is now a sect like Camarilla or Sabbat. In the past, belonging to the Independent sect was a prerequisite, now Anarchs and Independent are strictly separated, because a vampire can only belong to one sect at a given time.

You can read the full text of the RTR down below as well as in the VEKN.net forum (with the accompanying discussion).

Rules Team Rulings — RTR 03/03/2018

Two weeks ago the Rules Director of the VEKN (Ankha) as posted the latest Rules Team Rulings which contains some updates to the VTES rules. In fact the RTR 03/03/18 contains of three parts, that is

• Rule change #1: Timing during the Influence phase
• Rule change #2: Recruiting allies
• Rule change #3: Caitiff as a clan

You can read the full text down below as well as in the VEKN.net forum (with the accompanying discussion).

Preview of the VTES Anthology Set

Today the VEKN has started (the albeit short) preview of the upcoming VTES Anthology set. The expansion consists mostly of reprints of existing cards, but has a few new cards as well (10 new crypt cards and 2 new library cards). The set will be released on May 11th, 2017 on the occasion of the World Of Darkness Berlin convention alongside with the VTES European Championship 2017.

With the expansion, two significant changes come along, mostly (I think) because WotC is no longer involved in VTES, and their intellectual property had to be respected. First of all, the backside of the cards will change, because the “Deckmaster” logo/text had to be dropped. This will typically require the players to play with sleeved decks during tournaments when using decks with different cardbacks.

Also the keywords tap/untap were dropped, and they have been replaced by the keywords lock/unlock, while the function remains the same.

Check the preview page on VEKN net of the Anthology set.

Rules Team Rulings — RTR 07/07/2016

Really big news today, the VEKN has released a new Rules Team Ruling, which basically allows the proxy cards in VTES tournaments. There are few caveats, but right now proxies are .. legal for tournament play.

Dear everyone,
As you’ve probably heard today, we have some news from Paradox.

Tournament Rules Change
After several years of suggestion from players, discussion, debating amongst the NCs and Inner Circle, we have submitted a rule change to Paradox, and we are happy to report their support on the following points :

“As long as the game is not under production, the organizer of an event can choose to allow proxy cards in his or her event. For events where proxy cards are allowed, several points apply:

– there are no limit to the number of proxy cards a deck can have
– every proxy card must be a color-copy of the original card, on standard paper
– the quality of the print must allow the reading of the illustrator’s name
– the organizer must mark the event as ‘allowing proxy cards’ on the VEKN calendar”
As for VEKN-issued cards, proxy-cards would have to be inserted in an opaque sleeve (along the rest of the crypt and/or library), before a regular VTES card.

This change in the Tournament Rules will not apply to National Championships and Continental Championships.

This RTR will be effective for events created for August 6th 2016 and later (this includes events held on August 6th, 2016).

As we just received their answer, the implementation of the checkbox on the Event Module Creation isn’t fully complete, and we kindly ask for your patience before creating Proxy-allowing events (it shouldn’t take long).

Did you know, that … (Part 134)

.. when you’re playing Shattering Crescendo, you already need the second copy of Shattering Crescendo in your hand and you cannot rely on drawing a second copy of the card as replacement for the initial Shattering Crescendo? The reason is, that you need to be able to pay the “cost” of the card when announcing the action. This comparable to not being able to play an action card that costs two blood when you only have one and/or having the weapon in your hand when you’re playing Concealed Weapon.

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Reference: [LSJ 2010-08-02]

Anarchs Unbound Rules FAQ

Here’s a short FAQ of rules questions around the new cards from the Anarchs Unbound (and The Unaligned) expansion, which has been released earlier this year. Most of these questions are copies from the rules questions forum on VEKN.net.

Field Training

• Question: Can I play Field Training on a vampire who is already an Anarch?
• Answer: Yes, the card (as per card text) can be put on any other “another ready, non-titled vampire you control” vampire. This restriction obviously doesn’t exclude Anarch vampires.

Reference: VEKN.net

Red Question

• Q: Can I play an action card that requires an Anarch and immediately afterwards play Red Question to fulfill the requirements.
• A: No, you can’t retroactively fulfill any requirement when playing a card. The requirement (Anarch, discipline, sect, etc.) has to be met before any card is played.

• Q: Can I play Red Question before “as the action is announced” action modifiers e.g. Ni Dieu ni Maître?
• A: No, similarly the questions above you have to fulfill the requirement of a card before playing said card. Plus, any action modifier with the “as the action is announced” clause has to be played immediately after the action is announced, that is before any other action modifiers can be played.

• Q: Can I play Red Question before “regular” action modifiers e.g. Power of One that require an Anarch.
• A: Yes, that possible. Action Modifiers always resolve immediately (in this case making the acting vampire an Anarch), and then you’re are eligible to play an action modifier requiring an Anarch.

Reference: VEKN.net

Hackerspace

• Q: When an Anarch Convert is influenced up and uses its ability to turn a vampire into an Anarch will the Convert trigger Hackerspace as well as the ability for two counters?
• A: Yes, Hackerspace gets two counters. The first one, when Anarch Convert enters play (even if only very briefly), and the second one, when a second (non-Anarch) vampire becomes Anarch.

Reference: VEKN.net

Skaald

• Q: Does a untitled Gangrel with a Skaald attached to him retain the extra two votes after becoming Baron, e.g. an unmerged Danielle Diron has a Skaald, but then becomes Baron by merging with her advanced version.
• A: The Skaald remains on the vampire, but the extra votes from the Skaald are not added to the Baron’s inherent 2 votes, because the cardtext of Skaald states explicitly “this untitled Gangrel gets +2 votes“. If, for example, after the title is lost (e.g. after a contest) the Gangrel will receive the two extra votes again. On the other hand, during an ongoing contest of the title, the Gangrel is still considered titled and therefore does not receive an extra two votes.

VTES Rules: “First Strike” Q&A

First Strike was always somewhat iffy in terms of handling its effect in a VTES game. I think most of it comes from the naming “First Strike” implicating that it is resolved/handled first in any combat (which is not true; see below). Maybe a better naming would have been “Fast Strike” (or something along that line).

From the VTES rulebook section 6.4.5. “Strike Effects”:

First Strike. A strike done with first strike is resolved before a normal strike. Thus, if the opposing minion is burned or sent to torpor by a strike done with first strike, his strike will not be resolved at all. If the opposing minion was striking with a weapon that is stolen or destroyed with first strike, then the opposing minion simply loses his strike altogether. If both minions strike with first strike, then the strikes are resolved simultaneously. A strike done with first strike will still not resolve before a combat ends effect (which always resolves first), and a dodge still cancels the effects of a strike done with first strike (see below).

And here’s a summary of various scenarios that are relevant for handling First Strikes in a combat:

• .. vs. Dodge — according to the rules (under section 6.4.5 — Dodge) a Dodge is handled before First Strike, that is the First Strike effects are evaded by the vampire using the Dodge.
• .. vs. Strike: Combat Ends — also according to the rules (under section 6.4.5 — Strike: Combat Ends) S:CE is handled before First Strike, that is the combat ends before the First Strike is resolved.
• .. vs. another First Strike — in this case, both First Strikes are handled at the same time, similar to the case when both strikes are “normal” strikes (exception are the environmental damage effects (if any; see below).
• .. vs. environmental damage — the environmental damage is always handled during normal strike resolution (regardless of who actually played the First Strike). For example, if one of the combatants goes to torpor (or is burned) by damage effects of the First Strike, the effects of the environmental damage are not resolved.
• .. vs. Rötschreck — Rötschreck is played when strikes are chosen, that is before the strikes resolve. Therefore the effect of Rötschreck kicks in before the sequencing of First Strike and the “normal” strike takes players.
• .. vs. Nightstick/Forearm Block — the prevention effect of Nightstick/Forearm Block is not there yet, when the First Strike is resolved. Therefore the First Strike’s damage cannot be prevented by using these cards.

References:

• VTES Rules Section “Minion Phase”
• First Strike & Rötschreck
• First Strike & Environmental Damage
• First Strike & Nightstick/Forearm Block