Black Chantry: The Sabbat

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https://www.blackchantry.com/2023/11/14/4207/

Vampire: The Eternal Struggle Product Roadmap 2023-2024

Words by Ben Peal, Product Director, Black Chantry Productions:

[...]

The Sabbat
Following the 30th Anniversary deck, we’ll finally be covering the long-awaited Sabbat. I strongly recommend reading the Fifth Edition Sabbat book to get an understanding of how the Sabbat are currently being handled in Vampire: The Masquerade. The main thing – the core principle – is that the Sabbat largely discard any clan affiliation and instead adopt a Path-aligned ideology. So instead of having clan-themed pre-constructed decks for the Sabbat, we’ll have four Path-themed decks: Path of Caine, Path of Cathari, Path of Death and the Soul, and Path of Power and the Inner Voice. The crypt cards will be of non-antitribu clans, but with the Sabbat sect and an indicator of the vampire’s Path. There will be Sabbat-specific and Path-specific cards, as well. I’m sure you all have a lot of questions about the Sabbat, and we’ll have more answers for you sometime next year.

After the release of the Sabbat pre-constructed decks, I think we’ll be generally done with pre-constructed decks as the primary format for new cards. We’ve given you a steady diet of those over the past several years and we plan for future releases to be in fixed-bundle formats akin to Fall of London.

[...]

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Aus dem Vampire: Elder Kindred Network Newsletter March 2024:

https://www.vekn.net/2-uncategorised/58 ... march-2024

Four Sabbat preconstructed decks are in early design stages, not quite ready for the first round of playtest yet.

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Aus dem Vampire: Elder Kindred Network Newsletter April 2024:

https://www.vekn.net/2-uncategorised/58 ... april-2024

• Design of four Sabbat preconstructed decks is in progress.

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Aus dem Vampire: Elder Kindred Network Newsletter May 2024:

https://www.vekn.net/2-uncategorised/59 ... r-may-2024

Pre-playtesting design of four Sabbat preconstructed decks is in progress.

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Aus dem Vampire: Elder Kindred Network Newsletter June 2024:

https://www.vekn.net/2-uncategorised/59 ... -june-2024

• Design of four Sabbat-themed preconstructed decks moves on, soon for eager playtesters to have first bite at!

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Aus dem Vampire: Elder Kindred Network Newsletter July 2024:

https://www.vekn.net/2-uncategorised/60 ... -july-2024

• Design of four Sabbat-themed preconstructed decks moves on, hopefully soon ready for a first round of playtesting.

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Aus dem Vampire: Elder Kindred Network Newsletter August 2024
https://www.vekn.net/2-uncategorised/61 ... ugust-2024

• Before travelling, Ben sent a MASSIVE bunch of cards for playtesting. It was no less than 97 new cards for the four 2025 Sabbat preconstructed decks that went for a first round of testing. The first opinions voiced as usual range from "meh" to "way too pushed", but we´ll see, it is the grade statistics and the formal comments that count!

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Aus dem Vampire: Elder Kindred Network Newsletter September 2024
https://www.vekn.net/2-uncategorised/61 ... ember-2024

• The first round of playtesting of four 2025 Fifth Edition Sabbat preconstructed decks has concluded. Thanks to all that tested and the playtest coordinators! Now the design team will analyse grades and comments and prepare the next round of testing.

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Aus dem Vampire: Elder Kindred Network Newsletter October 2024
https://www.vekn.net/2-uncategorised/62 ... tober-2024

• Other projects are in progress: 2025 Fifth Edition Sabbat preconstructed decks are moving towards a second round of playtesting soon, the Hecata preconstructed deck will hopefully be in stores in January, the five next New Blood packs (Lasombra, Hecata, Ravnos, Salubri and Tzimisce) are planned for late first quarter next year.

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Aus dem Vampire: Elder Kindred Network Newsletter November 2024
https://www.vekn.net/2-uncategorised/63 ... ember-2025

• The second round of playtest of the four 2025 Fifth Edition Sabbat decks has started! This time 98 cards was presented to the playtest groups to try out and give feedback. This round ends January 2.

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Aus dem Artikel "Vampire: The Eternal Struggle Product Roadmap 2024-2025"
https://www.blackchantry.com/2024/12/31 ... 2024-2025/

We are currently in Round Two of playtesting of the Sabbat pre-constructed decks. It’s an ambitious project, exploring the Sabbat in much more depth and in ways that encompass previously-published Sabbat kindred, so we may need a fourth round of playtesting for it. As it stands, we’re aiming for a release date timed with the Week of Nightmares in Columbus, Ohio in June of 2025.

As I’ve mentioned previously, I strongly recommend reading the Fifth Edition Sabbat book to get an understanding of how the Sabbat are currently being handled in Vampire: The Masquerade. The main thing – the core principle – is that the Sabbat largely discard any clan affiliation and instead adopt a Path-aligned ideology. So instead of having clan-themed pre-constructed decks for the Sabbat, we’ll have four Path-themed decks: Path of Caine, Path of Cathari, Path of Death and the Soul, and Path of Power and the Inner Voice. These decks will have crypt cards that are keyworded for their respective path and library cards specific to those paths. Separately from those decks, we’ll also release cards that give Paths to existing Sabbat kindred. If you don’t have a copy of the Fifth Edition Sabbat book, I recommend the Vampire: The Masquerade wiki’s page on the Sabbat as a quick primer.

Symbols of Sabbat pathes: Caine, Cathari, Death and Soul, and Power and the Inner Voice.

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Aus dem Vampire: Elder Kindred Network Newsletter December 2024
https://www.vekn.net/2-uncategorised/64 ... ember-2024

• The second round of playtest of the 2025 Sabbat cards has concluded. Now the design team will take part of all the exciting playtester feedback and prepare for the next round.

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Aus dem Vampire: Elder Kindred Network Newsletter January 2025
https://www.vekn.net/2-uncategorised/64 ... nuary-2025

• The third round of playtest of the 2025 Sabbat cards has begun! It ends on March 30, so please, if you are a playtester, have a look and try to arrange some test games!

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Aus dem Vampire: Elder Kindred Network Newsletter February 2025
https://www.vekn.net/2-uncategorised/64 ... ruary-2026

• The third round of playtesting of the 2025 Sabbat cards is ongoing, ending on March 30. Much art is delivered as this is written, looking AWESOME in a dark and grim way that reflects the terrible nature of the sect. If you are a playtester, please take your time to play some test games and leave feedback!

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Aus dem Vampire: Elder Kindred Network Newsletter March 2025:
https://www.vekn.net/2-uncategorised/65 ... march-2025

• The third round of playtesting of the 2025 Sabbat cards ended on March 30. Almost all art has been delivered, looking fantastic, a true feast for the eye!

• You are hopefully aware of the general plan forward presented in the roadmap article in December, but product director Ben Peal recently delivered a quick update to the editor: The Sabbat decks will launch BEFORE the New Blood packs for Ravnos, Salubri and Tzimisce, sometime June/July this year.