A matter of taste

The Bedford tournament is next week, which means I have officially entered the phase of the hobby where I spend more time thinking about VTES than actually playing it. Unfortunately, recent weeks did not offer many opportunities for games, so unlike proper, disciplined Methuselahs, I cannot rely on a carefully tested tournament deck refined through dozens of brutal practice sessions.

No, my preparation has been far more sophisticated.

I have been staring at deck lists, reorganizing cards, overthinking ratios and occasionally looking out the window dramatically while pretending this somehow improves my strategic understanding. Still, the closer the tournament gets, the more certain things become. When choosing a deck, I realized I care about two things above all else.

First, I want to play a clan I genuinely enjoy. My Tremere performed admirably in Cambridge and I had an excellent time with them, but part of the fun of VTES is exploring different corners of the World of Darkness. Playing the same thing repeatedly feels a bit too practical and practicality has never really been the reason I fell in love with Vampire.

Second, I want a deck with a playstyle that actually captures what I enjoy about the setting itself. Not just winning, but how you win. The tension. The politics. The subtle manipulation. The quiet moment where someone realizes three turns too late that agreeing with you was a terrible idea.

Those two criteria narrowed my options considerably.

The truth is, I am not a competitive player. Not really. My goals for Bedford are fairly simple. I want to have fun, make sure the people at my table also have fun and hopefully play slightly better than I did at my first tournament. If I leave Bedford with a few clever plays, a memorable story and perhaps more than half a victory point this time, I will consider the evening a success. And so, after much consideration, I made my choice. I decided to bring a deck that is neither flashy nor particularly feared. An clan that rarely dominates tournament reports and certainly does not inspire panic when revealed at the table. In fact, I have never actually won a game with this deck. Not once. And yet, I keep coming back to it. Because when I think about what I truly enjoy in VTES, this deck captures it perfectly. The influence. The power plays. The feeling that every action at the table should look civilized right until the moment it becomes personal.

A quick search on VDB tells me that not many people play this clan competitively these days. That is perfectly fine. I am not going to Bedford expecting to conquer the tournament scene. I am going because I enjoy the game, the atmosphere and the stories that emerge from a good table. And if all goes well, I shall return from Bedford with another story worth telling. Preferably one not involving torpor.

The game never ends, only pauses. I'll see you at the next move.

Custodian Hargrave