Stephane Lavrut (Interview from GENCON 2005)
Age: 33
From: Paris, France


BP: For how long playing have you been playing V:TES?

SL: Since it came out.  I think it was...'96.

BP: It was actually '94.

SL: '94, yeah.

BP: Why did you come to GenCon?

SL: A lot of friends here!  You among them, and a lot of guys from White Wolf I know.

BP: Where else in America did you visit on your trip?

SL: Atlanta and Athens.

BP: What is you favorite clan?

SL: Gangrel

BP: What is your favorite deck?

SL: My favorite deck is a voting deck with Ventrue and Obfuscate.  Very 
simple now, but after two year's of V:TES it is not so played at this 
time.

BP: How does your local metagame affect your deck design?

SL: Well, my local metagames...I think the other games I play - card 
games, I mean - are one-on-one, so I make no comparison with V:TES.  
There is a lot of metagames in V:TES and the tactics are quite different 
- you can't compare to other card games.

BP: What other games do you play?

SL: Well, for card games I'm playing a little bit of Lord of the Rings.  
I've played 7th Sea, which is dead now.  Magic, of course, but a long time ago.

BP: That's how we all got started.  

SL: Yeah...I play a lot of board games, and also tennis.

BP: How do other games help you play V:TES?

SL: Well, for Magic, it means a lot because I play a little bit of 
tournament Magic and I'm curious about what the other guy is doing, in 
deckbuilding, and mechanics.  

BP: What other hobbies do you have?

SL: Tennis, a lot of movies.  I like to go out for a show in Paris - there 
are a lot of shows and movies and theater things - and museums.  I love 
paintings!

BP: What are your favorite bands?

SL: Telefon - it's a French rock band.  In English, I love Eric Clapton.  
I like old kinds of music.  I don't like house music.  It's too repetitive.

BP: Tell me about your comic collection at home!

SL: I have a lot - more than a thousand comics.  A lot are from the school 
of French and Belgian guys who make a lot of very good comic books.  I 
have some comics from the USA - some superhero things.  But quite a lot of 
other things.  Some are just for fun, some are romantic, adventure.  Here 
in the US, you have some very good writers of comics who are not very 
well-known because they're not writing comics like superhero things.

BP: What di you think of the NAC?

SL: The NAC?

BP: Here!

SL: Ah, yes, here!  Sorry!  I love it to be at GenCon, because you can do 
a lot of things on your own.  There is a special mood when you're playing 
in the tournament because you're in such a huge room with thousands of 
people playing and you can think you're one of a thousand people playing 
V:TES, even if we are only a hundred!

BP: What would you like to see in V:TES?

SL: Well, hard to tell.  I think Gehenna is a good extension with a lot of 
new things.  But what I would love to see are vampires who are anarchs.

BP: How often do you travel to play V:TES?

SL: I would say about 5 and 7 times in Europe.

BP: What decks do you have currently built?

SL: The last one was an Anarch deck, but really for fun, but not in 
tournaments because Anarchs are impossible to play in tournaments.

BP: Why haven't you killed Kamel?

SL: Because he is my best friend, sadly.  We used to make a lot of big 
jokes of each other, because some jokes you can only do to your best
friend.  

BP: Tell us about the V:TES scene in Paris

SL: Paris a very huge group of players.  We can divide it into two parts.  
We have a lot of guys who are making tournaments in a regular manner, coming 
often.  And there are people who don't play tournaments - just for fun - 
but we don't know a lot about them.  We know 100 people, but there are 200 
more who never make it to tournaments - just playing in little groups with 
friends.  In the tournament scene we have such a big group because we have 
a shop where we can play and sit together - that's a very important thing 
for the game, having a meeting place.

BP: What was it like to be the back end of the cow behind Andreas?

SL: Yeah!  It was quite a good thing!  We all learned something - never 
makea bet when you're drunk, especially with Mike Tinney when you're playing 
pool!

BP: How was your day as a fairy?

SL: It was a lot of fun, because I think I should have been the most 
popular guy in GenCon.  I encountered 78 pictures taken of me.  It was 
impossible to walk because every 10 seconds people stopped me.  "Why are 
you wearing this?" "I lose a bet!"  I wish I had a microphone like you!  
It was quite funny.

BP: Does this mean your new favorite clan will be Kiasyd?

SL: *laugh*  No!  Never!