Demo-ing V:tES

Here's something I found while rummaging through The Lasombra's web site:

Ten commandments of VTES demos

I think the two most frequent demo problems I see are that 1) people often
try to teach from the rulebook, and 2) demo-ers get caught up in explaining
the details of play for this or that card.  The Rulebook is great as a
collected reference, but as a such, it isn't organized to run through the
basic concepts of the game quickly (nor should it!)...

The basic principles
(the Ten VTES Demo Commandments) I try to teach are
(in order)

1. Setup
2. How to Win
3. how to play a master card (introducing concept of pool cost)
4. How to influence vampires
5. how to take, and resolve, an action (first a simple bleed,
 later other actions; equip, rush, retainers, etc.)
6. how to block
7. how to resolve a simple combat (no maneuvers, strikes for hand damage)
8. Stealth/intercept concept, which segues nicely into
9. action modifiers and reaction concept(s).
10. The absolute VTES timing rules (ie. there is no 'interrupting' another
 person's card play)

The above gives a framework that is sufficient to play a game with the demo
decks, and is a foundation upon which the player can categorize more
detailed card play (equip actions are just like any other action; something
your minions do to generate a game effect).  The first four are absurdly
simple concepts, which take all of three minutes to explain.  Items 5, 6 & 7
go hand in hand, and take about ten minutes.  8 & 9 are another five
minutes.  10 is a one minute explanation, but is important enough to merit
its own Commandment.

From there, I generally focus a little more on "why" you would do, or not
do, any of the above in a given situation (ie. why you won't generally spend
yourself down to three pool).  As others mentioned, I'd leave off on
political actions for the first session, but then roll them in quickly..
Given more time to demo, I'd elaborate on combat phases, and show what you
can do there to get various combat outcomes.  If it comes up as a result of
play, you can address things like political actions, contesting, etc, as
needed.  Let player questions be the way to raise the niche issues, rather
than trying to voluntarily address them all of them yourself.


Regards,
DaveZ
Atom Weaver
atomweaver // at \\ sbcglobal.net

Maybe we can consider splitting the demo into parts?

Part 1 - Game Basics
- Get demo decks with no combat cards or political actions
- Introduce the cards
- Setup the game with each player starting at 10 pool
- Talk about the phases
- Run through the phases
- Leave out diablerie
- Reduce combat (when blocked) to "hands for 1"
- End game (maybe talk about VPs)

Part 2 - More Rules
- Add combat cards into the decks
- Restart the game with each player still at 10 pool
- Run through the phases, explaining combat when it occurs
- End game (explain how votes and political actions work)

Part 3 - Full Demo
- Get existing players to join in to form a game with 4-5 players
- Run a full demo