I continue quoting and commenting some passages from Richard Garfield’s chapter in “The Eternal Struggle – A Players Guide to the Jyhad”. If you missed part 1, read it first, over here.
“So this is the reason you are limited to attacking the person to your left, your prey. All the other players are your enemy, as must be the case, but your prey is a special enemy, someone whose removal gives you a special advantage. This may seem artificial, but in real life the relationships between groups of factions resemble neither teams, as portrayed in most games that simulate World War II, for example, nor complete anarchy. This artificial structure gives rise to a compromise between these extremes. The alliances which do evolve in Jyhad™ are a function of the players' individual positions rather than a consequence of the rules or players' whims.”
Yes, this often strikes me: the prey-predator relationship can seem very artificial. But on the other hand, as a seasoned Vampire: The Masquerade player, I know that the whole setting builds on century old grudges between Methuselahs, ancient creatures with strange psychological flaws and derangements, so why not? Sure “I” have a hang up on murdering my adversaries in a very special order!
And of course this solution is elegant, as you are forced to forge alliances with your enemy´s enemy, but you must be cautious not to help that ally too much, because they indeed become your next prey or predator as soon as anybody is ousted. It´s very delicate, and it always appeals to people I introduce to the game. There can be only one!
“Some players complain that knocking out a person other than your prey should give you an advantage, such as a victory point or blood, or at least knowing that the predator of the victim will not be rewarded. This reminds me of the old roleplaying games where the person who deals the killing blow to the monster gets the experience points, and so a high-level character could knock a monster nearly dead, allowing a low-level character to exercise the coup dc grace and advance a level quickly. Blechh! If a player is inclined to remove a player other than her prey then she is either gaining some advantage from that move, and hence is being rewarded, or she should reconsider her strategy.”
God bless he didn´t take that route! Next Garfield kind of goes into that “fly under the radar”-strategy I mentioned earlier:
“You can use this structure to your advantage in many strategic ways. Underdeveloping your side intentionally can he strategically valuable if you can get away with it. You then look like less of a threat to your prey's prey, and may actually get help from them in destroying your prey. Of course, this will work best if your predator's predator is strong enough to keep your predator busy!”
“There is a massive tendency for a multi-player game in which conflict is mutually destructive, as it is in Jyhad™, to stagnate into a stalemate. There is little more boring than a game in which the optimum strategy for all players is to do nothing. This explains several elements in the game. The blood reward you get for knocking out your prey often compensates for losses taken in the fight. The Edge is a carrot to encourage players to bleed one another, and also serves to destabilize the game in stand-offs. If one player is getting blood from the Edge for any length of time, the others had better consider breaking the peace, or conceding the game.”
The Edge is another slick mechanic. Of course, just as Garfield says, it´s needed to prevent the game of going into stale-mate, but it´s also highly thematical, considering the compulsive Eternal Struggle of the elder vampires.
“The Beta version of Jyhad™ had few political cards relative to what was eventually published. The political cards were being tested to see if the flavor they added justified the complexity they added to the rules. I knew we had to have princes and Justicars, the only question was whether they added the depth of a political system or were just more of the same. The political cards were greatly loved and served to throw some curveballs in the two major strategies that were evolving: the combat monster strategy, and the sneak-and-bleed strategy.”
This is quite surprising – most V:TES-players I talk to state the political part of the game among their favorite parts, and highly thematical. Sure, it complicates the game, but surely not nowhere near as complex as for example the sub-game that is combat.
“The combat monster strategy was pretty straightforward: if your vampires were so deadly in combat that no one dared to block them, you could just waltz over to your prey and bleed him at will. Your predator, on the other hand, would think twice about sending a vampire to bleed you when she might have to face one of your servants in combat. The two major clans used for this purpose were the Gangrel and the well-armed Brujah, though the Tremere could give a run for the blood. The Gangrel had the edge in combat over the others, because of their claws and fortitude. After all, the Brujah do have Presence.”
… or maybe, it´s mainly cards created _after_ 1994 that complicates combat? Cards like Carrion Crows, Blood to Water and Thoughts Betrayed? I´m not sure. Many rather complex combat stuff is in Jyhad too, like Form of Mist, Psyche!, Rötschreck, Weather Control, Flesh of Marble and the mysterious First Strike-mechanic.
“The sneak-and-bleed strategy was built about the premise that if you can't catch my minions then I don't have to worry about giving them combat skills at all. Just needing stealth cards for this gives me plenty of room in my deck to devote to enhanced bleedings. This strategy was used most effectively with Malkavians who had Obfuscate for the stealth and Dominate for the bonus bleeds.
After Gamma I was pretty sure that I wanted to equalize the pursuit of the combat monster, sneak-and-bleed, or political decks. Ideally the best decks would have elements of at least two of these pursuits. After all, a few enhanced bleed cards in a Brujah combat deck can really be an improvement.”
Yes, no really good decks do all three of bruise, bleed and vote. Sometimes I also add a general “defense” ability to that trio of factors.
“The political cards were even wilder than I anticipated. Sometimes they are nearly meaningless while other times you cannot win without political influence. The political deck has weird tricks and traps whereas the others are fairly straightforward, at least in their purest form. I fondly recall the time my predator attempted to play Kine Resources Contested, so it would cost me three blood and himself one. The other two players in the game liked that idea, so they voted in favor. Fortunately I had some hidden votes and was able to vote down the motion. Then the two other players both shrugged and played Political Backlash on my predator, which costs a player making a failed vote some blood, knocking HIM out of the game. So be aware that politics are dangerous to deal with.”
This is highly original. I´ve played the game since 1994, with a break about 1996-2000, and I´ve NEVER seen Political Backlash played.
“The effect of having unique cards, meaning that only one such card can be in play at a time, was striking. I nearly lost faith in the concept after people had noticed so many conflicts, and the effect of a contested card was so dramatic and often decisive to the game. Skaff Elias convinced me it was too good a tool to discard, because how can a player assemble an always-winning deck when she can't even rely on her vampires being hers when all the smoke clears?”
Contest is an excellent mechanic IMHO.
“The twilight of the Jyhad™ project was very painful. We always knew it was going to be, and I only agreed to a Gencon release with the understanding that there would be many all-night sessions editing and laying-out cards and rules. Matters were not helped by the fact that Beverly Marshall Saling, our Senior Editor, was laid up by a car accident. Because of this, editing fell into the hands of Bob Kruger, who was forced to start his tenure at Wizards of the Coast™ at a full run. It is amazingly difficult to edit a Deckmaster™ game to begin with, so this was taxing for everyone involved.”
Sure, I´ve worked as an editor myself for many years, and I understand how hard proofreading when stressed can be, but Jyhad had a bit too many errors. Nothing as bad as the 3rd Edition flipped backs-thing, but yet a bit too many for a premium product with a large print run.
“There were nights when at about 3 a.m. I would wander away from those doing editing to hide and play computer games, unable to concentrate any longer on cardlists. Occasionally the others, needing my input, would page the entire building to find me.
I would page back, "What?' as I was unwilling to yield my position.
A page would come, "If you play two Ordeals on a Gangrel should their hand damage go up to 4?"
I would page back, "No — you don't get +1 hand damage, you get 2 hand damage period."”
I guess he is referring to Ritual Challenge here, a really crappy card that IMHO maybe could have been +1 strength for each card and not limited to just one per minion. Or at least have a untap effect? The card is seldom played.
“In the end though, Jyhad™ weathered its frenzied birth well. It looks stunning. The number of mistakes on the cards and in the rules, while being more than I find acceptable, is not unreasonable for a first printing. The system is rich enough so that if demand warrants it, several colorful expansions are possible. Thank you, White Wolf, for providing such a compelling world setting and for your help with this project!”
Yepp, we have had no less than 24 or so expansions since this was written, and still I feel there are many game mechanical venues to explore, even while staying inside the original framework. The VEKN design team has a goal not to invent drastically new concepts in the VEKN pdf-sets, so let’s hope a real publisher turns up soon to take the game further. Maybe they might even ask Richard Garfield of his thoughts?
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That´s it folks. Here´s some links you might enjoy:
- An interview with Garfield, mainly about his designing style, but sadly without V:TES being discussed at all::
https://opinionatedgamers.com/2012/07/02/the-art-of-design-interviews-to-game-designers-20-richard-garfield/
- Garfield about Android Netrunner, just after that game was launched:
https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2012/7/13/tapping-the-source-code/
- Another fairly recent interview:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-05-25-richard-garfield-king-of-the-cards
- ... and one more, also from 2014:
https://www.vice.com/read/an-interview-with-richard-garfield-creator-of-magic-the-gathering
