Dominion Strategy Forum
Dominion => Variants and Fan Cards => Topic started by: Co0kieL0rd on July 02, 2016, 04:43:25 pm
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The In(n)side Job
I just arrived here the day before yesterday but I already knew this was not an ordinary place. The innkeeper seemed to be a very earnest man. “The people’ve had enough,” he said, a little somberly.
I did not want to appear all too interested so I just replied, “they always wish for better times,” hoping for more.
The innkeeper went on, “they are done waiting. Now it’s time to act. They won’t stand Duke Lombard’s oppressive reign any longer.”
I snickered, “Lombard’s what?”
He scowled at me. “And what are you up to?” he replied.
“Oh, you know, I travel a lot. Bring me another beer and I’ll tell you all about it.”
So the afternoon went, and as the setting sun heralded the evening, the inn filled with townsfolk. In the midst of the noise I overheard snippets of a conversation between the innkeeper and the local blacksmith.
“Who’s in?” asked the latter.
“Teuton the butcher. Varya the baker. I think, most of the fishermen,” the innkeeper reported.
“And Roman?”
“The steward? I’m not sure.”
“How many council members…?”
I looked around and spotted the fishermen in a corner of the tavern. Next to me sat a few vagrants who arrived here at roughly the same time as me. One looked back at me and, if I was not mistaken, winked briefly. But I had a considerable amount of drink so my memory is porous.
The next day I entered the inn early in the morning with a shiver of cold. I assumed I had slept outside but I could not remember. When I was about to sit down at the counter, the innkeeper spoke to me, “You haven’t paid last night. Six pints, that’s twelve copper coins.”
I pretended grabbing for my purse, then said, “Oh curses! A thief must’ve cut my purse. Alas, but a beer will console me for my loss. I can pay you next week.”
“I’ve had enough with all you drunkards and ne’er-do-wells!” the innkeeper grumbled, “Get out!”
I wanted to talk back but suddenly I felt a firm grasp on my right shoulder. The smith’s sturdy arm dragged me back and away from the counter. “Out with you, or else!” he yelled.
I stumbled outside where the vagrants were just being chased off by the townsfolk – farmers, fishers, even miners. I also recognised Teuton the butcher among them. I followed a tramp and stopped him and said, “What did you hear?”
“Same as you,” he answered. “Should we warn Lombard?”
“You should tell his advisor. Meet him at the farmer’s market at noon.”
“Understood,” he replied and trotted away.
I left the town but it didn’t take long until I reached the next village. I asked a wine merchant for the local inn and he said, cordially, “why, friend, I was just heading there. Come with me.”
We got along well with each other and as soon as we entered at the tavern, the wine merchant – his name was Vandal – loudly, but friendly, ordered two glasses of wine. I would have preferred beer but you don’t reject free drinks. After a while, my tongue was loosened, and I whispered mysteriously to the innkeeper, “there is a revolt going on in that town in the north right now.” Vandal and the innkeeper bided in silence. “Bring me another beer and I’ll tell you all about it.”
(http://i.imgur.com/amhr8Uk.png) (http://i.imgur.com/Il793a4.png)
Innkeeper, $6 <2>, Action, Attack, Reserve
+2 Cars. +2 Actions. Each other player gains a Drunkard from the Drunkard pile, putting it on their Tavern mat. Put this on your Tavern mat.
At the start of your turn, you may call this, to look through your discard pile, reveal up to 4 Action cards from it and shuffle them into your deck.
Drunkard, $0*, Reserve
At the start of our turn, you may discard this from your Tavern mat and take <2>.
While this is on your Tavern mat, you can’t call any cards. (This is not in the Supply.)
There are 12 Drunkards in the Drunkard pile.
I wanted to make a card that somehow attacks the Tavern mat. A way to do this is to have it keep Reserve cards from being called. Obviously, this card has to be a Reserve as well so that there's always a target for the attack. It also has to be powerful enough so that you want to go for it despite the possibility of it being blocked temporarily. So Innkeeper is pretty strong, bearing a lot of resemblance to Inn whose on-gain effect would be a nice thing to call for. Drunkard, the "Tavern junk", has to give you penalty severe enough so that you don't call it automatically to get it off your mat. However you don't get punished for keeping Drunkards in your Tavern which gives you the option of ignoring Reserves and going for another strategy. Even without the attack effect, though, Innkeeper is good enough on its own. And if your opponent mirrors you, it has its own bane built-in.
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I think the most interesting thing about the card is a 3p game in which one player doesn't go for reserves. Eventually, all 12 drunkards will end up on that player's tavern mat, and the other two suddenly have greater flexibility.
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I think the most interesting thing about the card is a 3p game in which one player doesn't go for reserves. Eventually, all 12 drunkards will end up on that player's tavern mat, and the other two suddenly have greater flexibility.
Same as a 2 player game isn't it? If one player plays Innkeeper 12 times and the other ignores reserves.
Even if there weren't Ana track built in, Innkeeper sounds really strong.
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I think the most interesting thing about the card is a 3p game in which one player doesn't go for reserves. Eventually, all 12 drunkards will end up on that player's tavern mat, and the other two suddenly have greater flexibility.
Same as a 2 player game isn't it? If one player plays Innkeeper 12 times and the other ignores reserves.
Even if there weren't Ana track built in, Innkeeper sounds really strong.
It might be. So what do you suggest how expensive should it be? I have no problem raising the cost. It already got a nerf and cost increase from <8> to $6<2>.
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I think the most interesting thing about the card is a 3p game in which one player doesn't go for reserves. Eventually, all 12 drunkards will end up on that player's tavern mat, and the other two suddenly have greater flexibility.
Same as a 2 player game isn't it? If one player plays Innkeeper 12 times and the other ignores reserves.
Even if there weren't Ana track built in, Innkeeper sounds really strong.
It might be. So what do you suggest how expensive should it be? I have no problem raising the cost. It already got a nerf and cost increase from <8> to $6<2>.
Maybe knock it down to either lab or village instead of lost city? Or maybe add the discard from inn? Other than that it's a really cool concept, having the pure reserve. There coulb be other interesting things with that, like:
Card Name
Reserve-Reaction $X
When Y happens, you may reveal this card to put it on your tavern mat.
You may call this from your tavern mat to do Z
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Maybe discard 1 card to make it a fugitive-lost city?
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What you could do is make drunkard gain to discard ;
(Slight nerf) and make it +1 card, +1 action, put this on your tavern mat. That way you have the choice to either keep it as a useless card or out it on the tavern mat yourself (or trash it from hand).
Either way; innkeeper is pretty expensive, so that's ok, because drunkard is a strong attack if you use the tavern mat.
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Innkeeper is a very thematic card and I like the mechanical similarities to Inn which should help mitigate its perceived complexity. This is why, unless further testing has proven it necessary, I am reluctant to make a nerf other than raise its cost or reduce the number of cards it shuffles into your deck. Adding another line of text is not an option, as it would be too much text. And the Drunkard part is important to me.
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The only thing I would play around with is the number of action cards that you can reshuffle into your deck. 4 seems pretty strong so perhaps you might wanna reduce them to 3.
Apart from that the cards seem very good and, as you said, very thematic.