Somehow, it has been a year.
Last September, I started Respawn at Midnight as a place to write about the games and hobbies occupying far too much space in my head and, increasingly, my shelves. I didn't really know what the blog would become. I simply wanted somewhere to record games, talk about decks and crews, explore the lore behind them and occasionally investigate questions that no reasonable person had actually asked. Twelve months later, I think that last category may have become more important than originally intended.
A year of Eternal Struggle
VTES has undoubtedly become the heart of the blog. When I started writing, I was still relatively new to the game. Since then there have been new decks, tournaments, experiments, victories, spectacular failures and an alarming increase in the number of vampires living in my house.
The clans have taken me in different directions. The Ventrue appealed to the part of me that believes every supernatural conspiracy could be improved with proper governance and a sufficiently organised board meeting. The Tremere encouraged experiments, research and an entirely reasonable amount of staring at deck lists. Then came the Hecata, and apparently somewhere along the way I decided that the obvious solution to most Methuselah-related problems was necromancy.
There have been tournaments too. I was in Cambridge, made a final in Bedford, travelled to Edinburgh for the Scottish National Championship, experimented with decks ahead of the UK Nationals and spent a significant amount of time deciding what to bring. The Hecata eventually won that particular internal struggle, only for illness to keep both me and my carefully prepared corpses at home when Nationals finally arrived.
Perhaps the most enjoyable part, though, has been introducing other people to the game. Friends have joined our tables, decks have been built and rebuilt, and I've discovered the peculiar satisfaction of designing a Salubri deck for someone else only to have them use it to oust me. Task failed successfully.
Through the Breach
VTES hasn't been the only game appearing here.
My journey into Malifaux has continued as well, although opportunities to actually play remain frustratingly rare. I've taken crews through the Breach, learned the rules one mistake at a time and slowly expanded the collection.
There have been battles involving Kastore and Seamus, teaching games with Dashel Barker and the Guard, and Titania's attempt to conquer a small western town. That particular invasion ended when the local authorities introduced the Autumn Queen to rifles and an Executioner. She'll be back!
Malifaux has also given me an excuse to paint more, not just crews, but scenery. Some of that has even turned into a family project, with my daughter helping me prepare terrain before games. There is something particularly satisfying about putting a newly painted piece onto the table and immediately having imaginary people fight around it.
Experiments, rabbit holes and other questionable research
Some posts have been harder to categorise. We've looked at new cards and upcoming releases. I've written about the changing World of Darkness and what Vampire: The Masquerade Sixth Edition might mean for both the RPG and VTES. I've experimented with deck building, compared tournament results and occasionally wandered into statistics.
At one point my daughter helped me sort vampire cards alphabetically, which naturally resulted in me writing software to investigate why there seemed to be so many vampires whose names begin with A. As any respectable Tremere will tell you, research does not need to be useful to be important.
Looking back, the blog has ended up becoming a mixture of game reports, deck building, lore, opinion pieces, painting, statistics and whatever other hobby-related question happens to send me down a rabbit hole that week.
There is, however, one conspicuous absence.
In my very first post, I said that Respawn at Midnight would also be a place where I'd write about my computer gaming adventures. One year later, the number of computer game articles published stands proudly at...zero.
It's not because I stopped playing computer games. Quite the opposite. There have been plenty of digital adventures over the past year; somehow, whenever it came time to write, vampires, card games and tiny painted people kept pushing their way to the front of the queue.
Perhaps that should change. I'd happily write about the games I'm playing, old favourites I keep returning to, interesting discoveries and whatever digital world happens to consume my evenings. I just don't know whether that's something people coming here for VTES and Malifaux would actually want to read.
Which brings me rather conveniently to you.
What do you want to read?
As Respawn at Midnight enters its second year, I'm curious about what you actually enjoy reading here.
I know which articles I enjoy writing, but blogs are strange creatures. Sometimes the article you spend days researching quietly disappears into the internet, while something you wrote because you were wondering why there aren't enough vampires called Wilhelmina gets considerably more attention than expected.
So I'd love to hear from you.
Over the past year, the blog has covered (or, in one notable case, promised to cover) topics such as:
VTES game and tournament reports – stories from actual tables, including the questionable decisions made around them.
VTES deck building and experiments – building decks, changing strategies and discovering whether the theory survives contact with another Methuselah.
Clans, cards and playstyles – exploring different clans, interesting cards and what makes particular strategies appealing.
New VTES cards and releases – first impressions, ratings and thoughts about where new cards might fit.
VTES statistics and strange investigations – tournament numbers, card data and questions nobody realised needed answering.
Vampire: The Masquerade and World of Darkness – lore, RPG changes and what developments such as V6 could mean for VTES.
Malifaux game reports – adventures through the Breach as I learn different crews and introduce new players.
Malifaux crews and tactics – what I'm learning about Masters, crews and how they actually work once the cards start flipping.
Painting, miniatures and terrain – hobby projects that eventually make their way onto the gaming table.
Teaching games and introducing friends to the hobby – what happens when unsuspecting people encounter VTES or Malifaux for the first time.
Computer games – my adventures on the PC, currently represented by an impressive collection of zero articles.
General hobby stories and experiments – everything else that somehow turns into an article.
So consider this my first, extremely informal, reader survey.
What would you like to see more of in year two? More battle reports? Deck-building experiments? Deeper dives into clans and cards? More Malifaux? World of Darkness lore? Painting and hobby projects? More completely unnecessary statistics?
And importantly: would you be interested in reading about the computer games I'm playing as well?
Leave a comment, send me a message on Discord, hire a magician to project your preferences onto the night sky, whatever method you choose, just let me know what you'd like to read more of. I can't promise the results will be analysed with anything resembling proper scientific methodology, but rest assured that the Tremere Research Department will record every response, regardless of whether it arrives by comment, Discord or blood ritual.
A year ago, I started this blog without really knowing where it would go. Since then I've met players, travelled to tournaments, introduced friends to games I love, painted tiny monsters, summoned an unreasonable number of zombies and written about all of it.
Thank you to everyone who has stopped by to read, comment, share a post or simply follow along. It's been considerably more fun knowing there are people on the other side of the screen.
Year two begins here.
The game never ends, only pauses. I'll see you at the next move.
Custodian Hargrave
