Bloodlines (VTES)

"Bloodlines" (BL) is the third expansion of White Wolf, Inc.'s trading card game released on February 21, 2005. The expansion's theme are the bloodlines, minor clans and often offshots of the 13 major clans.

New clans

The expansion added a large number of new bloodline clans as well as their special disciplines (powers). The new clans are
* Ahrimanes
* Baali
* Daughters of Cacophony
* Gargoyles
* Harbingers of Skulls
* Kiasyd
* Nagaraja
* Salubri antitribu
* Salubri
* Samedi
* True Brujah

Contents

This expansion only consists of booster packs with 11 cards each (7 common, 3 uncommon, and 1 rare). There is a total of 196 cards, all of which are new. The vampire "The Baron" (also included in this set) was given as a promo card in a number of magazines.

Mechanics

* "Burn Option" -- to make inclusion of certain clan based cards more efficient, it is allowed to discard cards with the "burn option" even though it is not the player's discard phase. The player can do this in each player's untap phase when none of this vampires meet the requirements for playing the card.
* "Multi-Discipline" -- a library card often requires a certain vampiric discipline (power). Multi-Displince cards either require two discipline at once, or if they are require a discipline, native only to a bloodline clan, offer a second alternative use with a "regular" discipline as requirement.
* "Cold Iron Vulnerability" -- vampires with this trait take extra damage from weapons marked as being made from "Cold Iron".
* "Flight" -- a discipline-like ability.
* "Infernal" -- vampires with the "Infernal" trait (usually of clan "Baali") are usually more powerful than a vampire of the same generation (age). On the other hand a player must pay a fee to avoid tapping "infernal" vampires after the mandatory untap. This rule was later changed slightly in the Kindred Most Wanted expansion.
* "Scarce" -- to avoid a larger number of small bloodline vampires played, the "Scarce" trait was introduced. It imposes a severe penalty for playing vampires with the "Scarce" trait after the first of each clan.
* "Slave" -- vampires with the "Slave" trait (usually Gargoyles) cannot take directed actions, unless a "master" vampire of a designated clan is ready (in play).
* "Sterile" -- vampires with the "Sterile" trait cannot reproduce, i.e. create other vampires.

Notable Cards

* "Call the Great Beast" -- an action requiring "Daimonium" which summons a powerful vampire although at the cost of sacrificing the acting vampire.
* "Beast Meld" & "Neutral Guard" -- action modifiers which deny any block attempts either to vampires ("Beast Meld") or younger vampires and allies ("Neutral Guard").
* "Huitzilopochtli" -- an old and powerful vampire of clan "Baali".
* "Matthias" -- a "Salubri" vampire.
* "The Baron" -- the head figure of the "Samedi" bloodline.

External links

* [http://www.white-wolf.com/vtes/ The official site]
* [http://www.white-wolf.com/vtes/index.php?line=Checklist_Bloodlines Checklist for the expansion]