The Eternal Jyhad : Looking Back at 2009, Looking forward to 2010.

2009 is an interesting year for us Singapore Methuselahs. It was an exciting year, a year of growth, of expansion, a year bountiful for Vtes in general.

Community

Our community has grown quite a bit in 2009, especially after SPORECON that was held by PI. We attribute it to the free Black Hand starters that were given as door gift for every attendee. The Black Hand starters story started with me requesting help from PI to contact White Wolf for some promotional materials for an event. I needed a hundred starters or so for the door gifts in this event, and I was hoping that this will more or less attract some of these people to visit PI and become Vtes players. For that one, it was pretty much a complete write-off since as far as I know, none of those who received the starters in that event had turned up in PI.

However, White Wolf sent us quite a few extra starters - enough to use it again as door gift in the SPORECON (PI's own game con) during June. Many thanks to all the volunteers to demo the game during the 2 SPORECON days and many thanks to the prince for organizing the demo. We net a few players during this event, and some of them are now active Methuselahs in the community. Regardless, the reputation of Vtes has definitely increased after this event.

We now also have a monthly (more or less) sortie to buy singles on the internet. This mission is usually organized by G1.

I will try to list the names of the Methuselahs that are currently active in the Vtes community (in PI) in Singapore, let me know if I miss out anybody~ for those who do not generally jyhad at PI, please let me know if there is anyway to include you guys in the blood pool. Please consider making time to visit PI on Tuesday nights from 7pm onwards, we play pretty much every week.

1. Me

2. Bann. Prince of Singapore.

3. Ben Chia

4. YY

5. Damien

6. Ben Sum (The New Ben)

7. Danz (Ex-Prince of Manila)

8. BK

9. Patrick

10. Nash (let me know if I got your name right)

11. Alvin

12. Joshua (once in a while)

13. QX

14. Cockroach

15. Dzaki

16. Richard

17. Donkey

18. G1

19. Keith aka Zombieboy

20. Kenneth (once in a while)

We lose a few older players, mostly because they have to leave town for work on projects, studies or even semi-permanent appointments. I hope they return soon and add to our blood pool. We also lost a few players to job requirements, or to changes to their priorities in life. (To all those newly-wed, or to-be wed Methuselahs, congratulations, but please remember that Vtes should not necessarily be excluded in married life - I am a prime example of that. (Though I have met total disaster in my attempts to interest my wife in playing Vtes, my sons, however, had great fun tearing up the cards))

We are still short on female players in the Vtes community over here. Cockroach being the only girl who plays with us. Don't worry, we do not give preferential treatment to ladies and we do not stereotype the girls who play CCG, especially Vtes, so please feel free to join us for the game and/or introduce your other half to this magnificent game. (A note to Cockroach - you're a great addition to our community. Also, your current hair style is...stunning...)

Card Name : Cockroach Hairstyle 2009 December

Action

+2 Stealth

Put this card in play. All other Methuselahs take 2 pool damage every turn this card is in play. The owner of this card can take a -1 Stealth action to burn this card to gain 30 pool. Only 1 Cockroach Hairstyle 2009 December can be played in a year.

I'm not too sure about the communal pool status, but the pool is now limited to members only. The cost of joining the membership (hey guys, we should think of a cool name for this and give some good membership benefits to entice more people, not that there are still anyone who isn't a member...) is S$10 for a year. (Technically, it's unlikely that you need to renew the membership if the pool is the concern, you'd probably have more than enough cards in a year's time.) We need to organize a time for pool-sorting again since the pool is in a total mess. A charity drive to secure more cards for the pool should be organized too.

Tournament

I think we held 2 tournaments this year. The latest one was the Eden storyline. The turn out for the tournaments are usually good, ranging from 8-12 players most of the time. I hope we will have more tournaments this coming year since we technically have more active players now.

I think we also should start to train our new players in drafting, since the draft environment is probably one of the most interesting and unique aspect of Vtes. Draft is more expensive though, so maybe we need to start thinking about some alternative ways of financing that.

Expansions

There is only one expansion this year. Ebony Kingdom focus on Laibons, and it is not exactly a most ground-breaking set since there are very few changes to the mechanics (if any) and no major earth-shaking cards or combos to excite the environment. It did give a breather to the wallet of the Methuselahs over here after the great expenses associated with the re-emergence of the Camarilla in KOT. It also made 2009 a good year to consolidate, and allow newer players to catch up with ease.

We should've had Heirs to the Blood as a 2009 expansion too, but it was delayed to 2010 Feb. Let's hope that there are no more delays, I'm kinda keen to lay my hands on Bloodline cards.

Environment

We're still playing in PI, located at Orchard Road, the center of Singapore's shopping district. It is still very easy to get there. There was quite a bit of renovation in the building this year so we did suffer a little from frequent escalator break down, elevator breakdown, air-con breakdown, air-con repairs. There is now a new Indonesian food place on B1, and it is pretty nice. Quite a number of the new shopping centers are now ready, giving us a lot of options for food and other entertainment if we want. (Orchard Central, Somerset 313, ION and Mandarin Gallery are now all ready for use)

Our deck environment had been enriched. The new players seemed to have moved on from the stealth bleeds and we're beginning to see themed, tuned and effective decks being played. Older players are also keen to explore new deck types, I see powerful combo decks, funny no-point decks, among other things. We can now no longer easily associate players with decks, as most of our older players now boast at least 3 decks to play with, if not more.

Player of Note

ZombieBoy. He's the only person I know, whom when he put down a Giovanni deck, nobody will know what kinda Giovanni it is. He has Giovanni Khazar Diary, Giovanni Shambling Hordes, Giovanni Anarchs, Giovanni bleeds, Giovanni Laibons...you get the point. His decks are all Giovanni, and his themes are always consistent. I don't think I've seen any other player that is as loyal as he is to a single clan.

In 2010

Definitely another door gift and demo session for SPORECON in June. I heard secretive talks of a grand tournament finals to be held there, stay tuned for more details as I gain access to them.

Personally, I now have access to efficient and cost-effective means to manufacture a good range of merchandise products after my research project in China, GuangZhou. So in theory I can manufacture low quantity of selected items at an affordable price for our local community, including stuff like T-shirts, Mugs, Posters, Pillow/Bolster cases (^.^), so I'm actually thinking about the possibility of acquiring artwork license from White Wolf for Vtes and producing a little to test the viability of such promotional merchandise. Will explore more of this in 2010.

I think 2010 will be an exciting and fruitful year for Vtes in Singapore.

For me, I'll strive to keep this blog alive. 2010 is a consolidation year for me, both for the family as well as my career, so I'm not expecting major changes in my lifestyle. All these are auspicious portent for Vtes in my life.

Happy New Year to everyone! May Gehenna never comes!

(o.o)Happy New Year!