Rising Out of Torpor 2023

 

Last Saturday, more than a dozen Vampire: The Eternal Struggle (V:TES) players descended on 89 Panay to play V:TES. For a number of us, it was the first time to play since before the pandemic. In my case, I had played with two friends a few months ago, but, since V:TES is generally better when there's four or more players, it was merely a taste of what went through last Saturday.

V:TES is the card game created by Richard Garfield, the creator of Magic: The Gathering (M:TG), and is based on Vampire: The Masquerade (V:TM) the popular vampire role-playing game created by Matt Rein Hagen. Instead of wizards battling for supremacy, the game sees the players as Methuselahs, ancient vampires orchestrating moves planned over centuries to influence the world. The game is built for a multi-player set-up of around 4-5 players, which means that table dynamics usually involve making (and breaking) deals with your opponents. It would be too much to try to explain the rules of V:TES here; you can go here to learn more about this game. 

89 Panay is an outdoor resto-bar-cafe along Panay Ave., and serves a variety of food, including breakfast meals, sandwiches, and grilled meats and seafood. While it's a little on the pricey side, each meal is sumptuous, especially the breakfast meals, which can probably feed two people. Its proprietor Rommel was on hand to welcome the players and while the game intrigued him, he was more content to watch the Meths take each other on.

In my case, I hadn't been able to tune any of my decks since before the pandemic, but I was able to play three games with three different decks. With me making the slow rise to torpor, I'll likely try to write more often in this blog, with the next post being about the decks I used last Saturday.

The game continues to evolve and grow, with Black Chantry Productions continuing to come out with new decks and cards on a regular basis. The RPG has also evolved, with a number of vampire clans going through some major changes, as part of the game designer's attempts to attract new players into the game. Similarly, V:TES has also evolved, incorporating the RPG changes into the cards, which then provide the spark for new deck designs.

While I'd love to introduce the game to my students, I can't, since V:TES is still basically a horror game meant for older players. The themes, as well as a good number of the card images, would not be suitable for the levels that I handle.

Aside from the games itself, it was a first-time meet-up with some of the other players in Metro Manila for me. While I've been following some of the games on Facebook, I had not yet met a number of these new and old players, and I was glad to finally make their acquaintance. The games last Saturday also brought a number of veteran players out of torpor, that term of course referring to vampires who've gone into a deathlike hibernation status. Thus, it was an afternoon and evening of games and conversation.

Last Saturday's gathering showed that V:TES remains alive and ready for those interested to learn the game. Hopefully, game sessions such as these will become more common as the days go, with official tournaments becoming a thing once more. Such excitement to come!

My second round table. Mine are the cards on the lower left corner.