Master of the Night
Vampire: The Eternal Struggle, in your browser
Master of the Night
Hunt your prey. Survive your predator.
Richard Garfield's card game on a real five-player table, with the rules enforced for you — free, nothing to install, no account needed to start.
The first launch takes a moment while the cards load; after that the game stays cached. A PC or tablet screen is recommended.
- 100% free
- Account optional
- Online, 1 to 5 players
- Guided tutorial
With five players, everyone bleeds the player on their left — their prey — and defends against the one on their right — their predator. The other two are neither: natural negotiating partners, whose interests do not always match yours. When your prey falls, their prey becomes yours.
What is Vampire: The Eternal Struggle?
Born in 1994 as Jyhad, the other card game by Richard Garfield, the designer of Magic.
You are a Methuselah, a vampire so ancient that you only act through others. Your pawns are younger vampires you awaken one by one, and your pool of blood is your life: when it reaches zero, you are out of the game.
What makes VTES unique is the table. It is not a duel but a multiplayer game, and not a free-for-all either: your ordinary attacks, bleeds, only target your prey, on your left, while your predator, on your right, is coming for you. Votes, some cards and a few actions can reach the rest of the table. A turn is actions, blocks, combats and referendums where alliances are made and broken out loud.
- IAwaken your vampires. Each turn you move blood from your pool to your crypt to bring new vampires to the table.
- IIBleed your prey. Your vampires act: a bleed costs your prey blood, unless one of their vampires blocks it and starts a combat.
- IIIMake the table vote. Titled vampires call referendums that the whole table decides. That is where the most devious plays happen.
In Master of the Night, the engine enforces the rules, cards included. When a card gives you a choice, the game offers it to you; when it does not, the game decides and writes it in the game log. You focus on what you want to do; the table knows what is allowed.
Learn, practise, play, build
Nobody is born knowing VTES. The game is designed so you can learn it alone in an evening and sit at a real table the next day.
Learn
Dozens of short lessons played on the real table, not on a mock board: your side of the table, the phases, your first bleed, your first block, a full combat, torpor, allies, votes, paths, sects. Narrated aloud in English and French, written in six languages.
Practise
AI opponents that play their own deck, block when it matters and know how to get out of torpor. Twenty-one official preconstructed decks, Fifth Edition and New Blood, are included for them and for you.
Play with friends
An online table for one to five players, each from their browser or PC. Only three of you? Add two AI opponents to fill the table, or play as three.
Build your deck
A deck builder to assemble crypt and library from scratch, or to import an existing deck: a VTES Decks or VDB link, or a pasted list in the usual formats. With an account, your decks follow you from one launch to the next.
Browser or Windows?
Same game, same table. The web version is made for trying and playing without installing anything; the Windows version for those who play often.
| In the browser | On Windows | |
|---|---|---|
| Installation | None. Open the address and play. | Download the archive on itch.io, unzip it, launch the game. |
| Updates | Always the latest version, nothing to do. | The game tells you in the menu when a new version is out. |
| Devices | PC, Mac, tablet. Recent Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari. | Windows 10 and 11. |
| Languages | Interface in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Turkish. | The same. |
| Price | Free. | Free. |
| Play now | Download on itch.io |
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to know VTES already?
No. The tutorial starts from zero: it shows you your side of the table, then has you play a real turn, a real combat, a real vote, explaining at each step what is happening and why. Allow one evening to feel at home.
Can I play alone?
Yes. AI opponents fill the five-player table and play their own deck, taken from the official preconstructed decks or from the ones you give them. It is also the best way to test a deck before taking it against humans.
How do I play with my friends?
Create an online table from the game and have your friends join it, from two to five players. The remaining seats can be given to AI opponents, or left empty for a shorter table.
Do I need an account?
Not to play: open the page and you are at the table, tutorial and games included. An optional account keeps your decks from one launch to the next, and will carry what comes next, such as statistics on your games. It only asks for an email address, a nickname and a password.
Why is the first load long?
The game ships the text and images of every card. Your browser keeps them cached after the first launch, and the next ones are much faster.
Does it work on a phone?
The game runs on a recent phone, but a five-player table with its cards needs room: a PC or tablet screen is far more comfortable.
Windows shows "Windows protected your PC"
The game is published in one place only, the itch.io page: if you downloaded it there, you have the right file. The warning comes from Windows, which shows it for any program that has not bought a code-signing certificate — which this free game has not. Click More info, then Run anyway.
Is this the same game as VTES Mobile?
Yes. VTES Mobile is becoming Master of the Night; same table, same engine, same team. The itch.io page keeps its old address so your links keep working.
Is this an official game?
No. Master of the Night is a fan project, free and without in-app purchases, published under Paradox Interactive's Dark Pack programme. The card game Vampire: The Eternal Struggle is published by Black Chantry Productions, and that is where you buy the real cards.
The night is waiting.
A five-player table, five minutes to join it.
A card misbehaving, an idea? Say so on Discord or on the itch.io page: every report is read.