The Nossies 2008

The concept for the Nossies came about rather suddenly and on impulse. It was the night of the 80th Annual Academy Awards and I realized that while publications like InQuest and other organizations in the gaming industry had bestowed honors on V:TES over the years, I had never seen a formal or informal fan award from within the V:TES playing community.

Recognizing the best player rankings has long been a part of V:TES, and within the past year we’ve seen the introduction of the V:TES Player Hall of Fame, but a fan award for the best cards released in the past year had never been done before. On a spur-of-the-moment impulse, I figured I could at least create one and publish it online. I posted a message to the V:TES usenet group, soliciting player suggestions for possible nominees and categories to honor.

Calling the awards “The Nossies” was also impromptu. While it would most likely be the Toreador who go to the trouble of praising creativity, the combination of the Nosferatu’s nickname and the visual of a Nossie’s head on an Oscar-like statuette was too good pass up. Since the Oscars and Grammys have more categories to read through than letters on an eye chart, I felt that a simplicity to the awards should be stressed to keep them light and fun. Besides, this was the first time anything like this was put together and we could always improve upon it later on.

Jeff Thompson (www.thelasombra.com) was very helpful in advertising the nomination process further in other online V:TES forums. After a week of taking in submissions for nominees, these seven categories were selected along with a list of nominated cards:

• Best Card
• Best Vampire in a Leading Role
• Best Vampire in a Supporting Role
• Best Ally
• Best Equipment
• Best Event
• Best Artwork used in a Card

I was very pleased with the level of support players gave to the voting process. It was very satisfying to see how this idea was embraced, and I look forward to this becoming an annual tradition. Already there are improvements and additions that will make the 2009 Nossies even better. Thank you to all the fans for taking the time to nominate and vote. See you again next year!

Hundreds of votes were cast online to determine the best new cards from the past year, and seven winners were declared.

The 2008 Nossies are over and these are the winners. Thanks to all who took the time to vote.

Best Card: Target Vitals

A non-discipline combat card that allows your minion’s current strike to inflict two additional points of damage on his opponent. Any minion can use it – Fredrick the Weak, Smudge the Ignored, even cute little Alia, God’s Messenger suddenly doesn’t look so impotent. The only downside is that the opposing minion may discard two combat cards from their hand to cancel this card, but up against decks that are light on combat, that may not be a problem for the user of this award-winning card.

Best Vampire in a Leading Role: Nakhthorheb

What better way to keep your prey busy than using the vampire with a built in untap? Nakhthorheb can untap once during each of your minion phases. In addition he also has +1 strength and minions with your corruption counters cannot block him. So let’s see here – a multi-action, hard hitting, unblockable vamp… Hmm there must be something here to like, right?

Best Vampire in a Supporting Vampire: Carmen

The race for Best Supporting Vampire was the closest contest of any category. With five nominees it came down to a close horse race between the Tremere Antitribu Carmen and the Ravnos Vasiliy Vasilevich. Vasility has a nice special ability of untapping after performing a successful bleed on your prey as well as a built-in +1 bleed. But Carmen took the prize being both an inexpensive Black Hand member who gives all your non-camarilla vampires an additional +1 stealth on equip actions. That carte blanche ability was in the eyes of many the best reason to give her the award.

Best Equipment: Camera Phone

No longer limited to girls locker rooms and European beaches, the sharp little technology that is the camera phone has now made it’s way into V:TES. A useful piece of equipment that allows your minions to bleed at +1 bleed as a (D) action. It’s like your own personal, pocket-sized Computer Hack. And it’s free!
– P.S. Look for an upgraded version of Camera Phone to be released as soon as you buy this one (just kidding).

Best Ally: Nocturn

Things lurking in the shadows got a little more terrifying this year with the addition of the Nocturn. This inexpensive ally is not only able to act on the turn it’s recruited, but your acting vampire will untap the first time they bring one into play. If the acting vampire has superior Obtenebration, he or she may recruit more Nocturn on the same turn, with the cost increased by 1 blood. The Nocturn have a short life span, as you must burn them during your next untap phase. But with a few [OBT] vamps and enough Nocturns in hand, you can create a swarm of kamikaze bleeders to blitz your prey in one turn.

Best Event: Narrow Minds

It’s a common sight in any V:TES game: bleed followed by bounce. Performing all those deflections, redirections and misdirections won’t be so easy now, as this new event increases the costs of all cards that change the target of a bleed by an additional blood or life. Your pool may be protected from enemy incoming, but watch out that your minions don’t quickly run out of steam from all that bouncing.

Best Art: Liquefy the Mortal Coil

by Heather V. Kreiler
Artist Heather Kreiter won the top art prize for her rendering of this Vicissitude combat card. A powerful card to begin with – allowing your vampire to burn allies or diablerize younger vampires in combat – Heather beautifully and skillfully captured the visual of such an event with the depiction of a panicked young vampire watching her arm become liquefied.