Dark Influences

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Dark Influences; The V:tR cardboard game
Topic Started: Jun 1 2009, 11:22 PM (174 Views)
Onyx	Jun 1 2009, 11:22 PM Post #1
Best Member Ever Posts: 2,108 Group: Members Member #4 Joined: May 11, 2008 What is your favorite type of game? Pen / Paper RPG	This one only barely counts as a card game. It's a board game using cards that are made out of cardboard. So it's a cardboard game... DARK INFLUENCES I finally got the opportunity to play this with 5 people. The other 4 were noobs to the game, whereas I had played like 4 or 5 games before, and decided that I need to always play Gangrel or Daeva. Since they were new and I wasn't, they demanded that we select Clans randomly (I drew Mekhet), and wouldn't let me explain things quite adequately before we started, so the first turn or two was kind of a waste, since we kept having moments of "Wow, I didn't know THAT!!" Followed by me saying, "well, that's what happens when you don't let Onyx finish explaining the game and constantly interrupt him while he tries." But after that it got awesomely fun. So... to all of you who have said with me in the past "Dude, I totally want to play this game with 5 people some time," this is for you. The Rundown You want to know that the difference is between a 3 and a 5 player game of Dark Influences? Everything... In a Three player game, large portions of the board will be unowned during most of the game. The winner will be the dude who suddenly gains 4 minions on the last turn, adding it to the ONE they had earlier. Who is ahead and who is behind can change in an instant, and there is constant tension in the air, as everyone is constantly facing instant extinction. The game consists of perpetually shifting alliances, inwhich it is always a two-on-one alliance that gets broken every half-turn, only to switch to a different two-on-one situation. The first two turns go down easily, and then by turn three everyone starts biting their fingernails. In the Five player game... or at least this particular five player game... The board was filled COMPLETELY by the Middle of turn three, all the way up to the Prince position. And it stayed that way. That means that the remaining 3 turns consisted NOT of expansion + attacking, but of huge concerted assaults followed by a football style dogpile onto the empty position. Every turn, about three or 4 minions would have 7 to 9 tokens on them from 3 different people (in addition to the 2 regnancy tokens on them from whowever currently owned it). It would always start with one person putting on token on the kindred, just to mount a tiny challenge, but during the blood placement phase, it would explode into this giant confict for ONE DUDE. And Arms race. Eventually, the winner was the Gangrel, who at the beginning of turn 6 said "Oh my god, I've been playing the Gangrel all wrong this whole game." He hadn't attacked anyone. He won because no one every attacked him, and all the dudes he owned happened to be 3 point minions. It's also true that at the beginning of turn 4, the Nosferatu player had to leave. So we just removed all her tokens from the board and continued. The result of the Gangrel not attacking, and the Nosferatu leaving very likely changed the heck out of the game. The Nosferatu are the other attacker specialist Clan. So if those two things hadn't happened, it might not have taken entire arms races to change the allegiance of ONE kindred every round. Would likely have been a VERY different game. Add to this that I made a monumental bid for power in the second turn. I mean huge. If it had worked, I would have won the superbowl, been invincible, and eaten all the tacos. Seriously. If it had worked, I would have genuinely, for serious, been invincible according to the rules. Instead I failed, and didn't just fail, but completely boxed myself in by accident so that I could not, for the rest of the game, do much. I tried desperately to break out of it, but I had screwed myself so expertly that I couldn't lose any pieces and couldn't gain them either. This was just one example of how the 5 player game might go, how it might feel. But if its any indication, it becomes an entirely different game with 5 players. It becomes more like arm wrestling with seven people at once. It becomes more like a test of strength and willpower. You get this rigid caste structure, inwhich it takes a LOT of effort and determination to change the board in a serious and lasting way. It's more like strangling your opponent, whereas the 3 player game is about stabbing them in the back. See the difference? But its still very intense. It's still cut-throat. It's still Vampire politics.
	Art may imitate life, but only propoganda can hide the bodies.


x8xid	Jun 2 2009, 03:30 PM Post #2
Owner / Clan Master Posts: 3,532 Group: Admins Member #1 Joined: May 9, 2008 What is your favorite type of game? Pen / Paper RPG	Interesting... I actually played an online version of this. (I will post the link later) and it was oddly MORE intense. It also had a mod attached to it for an OWoD version. The powers were different and you could diablarize an opponent to gain event cards and blood pool.



Onyx	Jun 3 2009, 10:33 AM Post #3
Best Member Ever Posts: 2,108 Group: Members Member #4 Joined: May 11, 2008 What is your favorite type of game? Pen / Paper RPG	In the regular game with the cardboard, one of the Event cards is Diablerie. You designate an opponent and taken one of their cards at random. I searched online for the game you spoke of and couldn't find it. Looking forward to you posting the link. Cain't wait, mang.
	Art may imitate life, but only propoganda can hide the bodies.


x8xid	Jun 3 2009, 10:47 AM Post #4
Owner / Clan Master Posts: 3,532 Group: Admins Member #1 Joined: May 9, 2008 What is your favorite type of game? Pen / Paper RPG	I think it's been taken off-line. It was a home made beta written in flash. I'm still looking. It was right after you left when I played it.



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