V:TES Cards — Redesigned 2.0

Version 2.0 of the redesigned Crypt and Library cards are now available on: amaranth.vtes.co.nz

So far high res artwork has been implemented for all KOT and HTTB cards +  a few others — more to come soon.

Am fairly happy with the end results:

















And some direct comparisons:































These are all now live on https://amaranth.vtes.co.nz.

Amaranth:DB Proxy / Deck tool

Am pleased to announce Amaranth: https://amaranth.vtes.co.nz

It started off as a tool to test the redesigned cards — but grew from there into a fully fledged deck building tool.

Features include:

Print full decks (new design and old cards)
Partial print decks (good for changes / old proxies)
Full text searching / easy filters
Import from: Secret Library (public)
Export to: Lackey, JOL, Text

There's a feedback icon on cards to report any issues with cards — more features to follow soon.

iOS and Android versions will also be released soon.

Screen shots below...

Quick Start Decks

One of the issue promoting the game to new players in New Zealand is the lack of stock available in the country. I have built up a decent amount of starter deck stock, however they're not that good and only offer so much in terms variety (we don't want everyone playing the same black hand decks!).

So we've built decks using a shared pool of cards that are designed to be competitive from out of the box and follow popular and proven archetypes. They're packaged in a basic cardboard box with a custom label and include a copy of the new player guide so they still feel more substantial than a stack of cards.

They're also proving quite useful as decks for players to just play or to use to demo with.

Here's all the decks created so far...

VTES Card Separators Redux

So the time came to tidy up the collection again. Since the last time this was done, I have acquired quite a few cards and the seemingly ever growing pile of chaff (half completed or destroyed decks) and purchased cards was as intimidating as ever. This also lead to inefficient eBay purchases — unnecessary buying cards I already had plenty of... Not cool.

As part of this process I needed to replace my tired card dividers. Whilst they have served me well for the last 3 - 4 years, some had disappeared, others had become damaged and some I had simply not bothered to print (am looking at you Abombwe). This posed an issue as they required special printing on photographic paper and I had since left that printer in the UK.

So I took the opportunity to redesign the separators. The first priority was to make them work with standard printers / A4 paper, the second was to make them most robust yet still use standard paper. The first problem was easily solved with a new layout. The second required a little more thinking, although the solution in hindsight was obvious — sleeve the divider.

Here's the end result:

I had plenty of shiny ultra-pro sleeves which I no longer used so this was the perfect use of them.

You can download PDF templates below:

Main VTES Separators PDF (1MB)

Sub VTES Separators PDF

New Player Guide / Cheatsheet

Have had a couple of new players join and one of the things they struggled with the most was turn and combat sequencing. Including things like when to play an action vs an action modifier or even a reaction card.

So I put together a cheat sheet / new player guide which is clear and doesn't contain too much noise. It's not meant to be a replacement for the rules, but it should be enough for a new player to get up to speed with the core mechanics of the game and when to do what.

Has been picked up by the VEKN now and is also available here.

High quality A3 PDF: https://db.tt/x8Sp5wdV (11MB — recommended)

High quality A4 PDF: https://db.tt/eToTCTHk (11MB — two sheets)

150 DPI Images:

A3: https://db.tt/jxPGZCMh

A4: https://db.tt/2GtdDHAz and https://db.tt/Tx1dDhdj

This is open for discussion over at the VEKN forums here.

Counting cards? — No thank you.

So call me lazy, call me un-disciplined — but after playing and designing decks on Lackey, I'd find that when building them in real life I'd get card creep and end up with more than 60 cards. I also got tired of counting the cards each time I made changes to physical decks, so I thought I'd try find a solution.

I came up with the below PDFs:

Essentially each A4 sheet holds 30 cards (60 cards on the A3 version) and as you add cards to the deck you lay them on the sheet by priority or card type — simples. It may seems pedantic but I tried it last night when prepping for the Danish ECQ and it worked really well — it seemed to provide a better feel for the deck.

You can download the PDF's here:

     A4 (30 Cards) or A3 (60 Cards)

Let me know if you find them useful...

VTES, IKEA and 60 cards

It turns out we can thank the swedes for more than 60 card decks.

As part of the constant pursuit for gaining control of my card collection, I turned to IKEA's catalogue searching for something cheap and practical to store cards in. Previously I had been using 5000 capacity card board boxes to store cards — but they were large and cumbersome.

I found a cheap practical solution — multiple sets of Helmer drawers. Each one can hold approximately 12,000 cards and the draws come up completely (which is great when working with single disciplines or clans). They were only £25 / €25 an absolute bargin.

I simply sliced up the boxes they came in for dividers and glued them in place — here are some pics.

Basic VTES set buying guide.

Just came across a useful breakdown of the various VTES sets, what to buy and what you should expect to pay — it's a useful guide if slightly dated:

VTES Newbie — Guide to Collecting VTES

The most obvious change is the availability of the more recent sets (Keepers of Tradition etc) but a lot of the information seems to hold true and it contains a useful overview for new buyers. The site also has some good pointers for teaching the game to new players — definitely worth a quick scan.

Bringing Order to Chaos — sorting out the cards.

I spent a large part of the weekend sorting out my collection. After asking around for ideas on how to do so I believe I reached a balanced approach without having to head down the meticulous A-Z approach (not a realistic solution for myself).

Essentially I've broken down my cards by discipline and then when warranted: action, reaction, combat, ally etc... this allows for  granularity when required and "just a bunch of cards" for disciplines that I don't carry much of.

I wanted a quick way of spotting and scanning through cards. So I created a template for all of the disciplines, clans and master card types. The great thing about this approach is that a) I can create / print new separators as needed and b) I can "flick" through the cards as if it was a record or heaven forbid a CD collection which is very quick and convenient. You can download the PSD template here.

I ordered a large number of smaller (500 - 1600) cardboard boxes to store the cards in smaller more manageable groups (versus large boxes of 5000). Unfortunately the small boxes are landscape oriented which means they don't work with the separators I've created. So for the time being I'll still have to use some of the unwieldily 5000 boxes.

The end result is really functional and as a bonus also looks great. Hopefully it'll help things along in terms of deck building — no doubt I'll still experience those "where is that card!" moments...