Dominion Strategy Forum
Dominion => Rules Questions => Topic started by: Doom_Shark on February 17, 2017, 11:26:16 pm
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I'm pretty sure I know the answer, just bringing this up because there could be other overly logical people here. Cost reducers include a clause stating that cards cannot cost less than zero. However potions and debt are neither more nor less than zero coin. So, by a strict reading of the rules, would it be possible to make, say, transmute cost $-1P?
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(http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/thumb/7/7a/Potion.png/9px-Potion.png) and (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/thumb/8/81/Debt.png/18px-Debt.png) are neither more nor less than a positive amount of (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/thumb/6/6d/Coin.png/16px-Coin.png). They are certainly both more than (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/thumb/5/5d/Coin0.png/16px-Coin0.png). Think of (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/thumb/5/5d/Coin0.png/16px-Coin0.png) as the origin of a three-dimensional Cartesian graph, with (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/thumb/6/6d/Coin.png/16px-Coin.png), (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/thumb/7/7a/Potion.png/9px-Potion.png) and (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/thumb/8/81/Debt.png/18px-Debt.png) along each axis. Any positive amount in any direction is going to be greater than 0.
Another interpretation is that "not less than (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/thumb/5/5d/Coin0.png/16px-Coin0.png)" refers only to the (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/thumb/6/6d/Coin.png/16px-Coin.png)-axis, and has no effect on the other two.
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I think a strict reading would allow for that. It would also be the only consistent reading; it is established by other card rules that $3P is neither more nor less than $4, so why should $-1P be more or less than $0?
This could be resolved by saying that card cost in coins can only take natural numbers (yes the natural numbers include 0!) as values, making as "but not less than $0" lines redundant. Then a cost reduction would never lower the cost below $0P, and the rules for what to do when the cost is already $0P would be covered through the "do as much as you can" rule.
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(yes the natural numbers include 0!)
They also include 0.
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(yes the natural numbers include 0!)
They also include 0.
Thanks for making my joke funnier.
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(yes the natural numbers include 0!)
They also include 0.
Thanks for making my joke funnier.
You're welcome.
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Pretty sure this was discussed once before. The answer is that yes, a literal reading would allow that, but there's times in Dominion where common sense overrides literal readings, and this is one of them. You should read Highway and others as though they said "but not below $0 in coins".
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Pretty sure this was discussed once before. The answer is that yes, a literal reading would allow that, but there's times in Dominion where common sense overrides literal readings, and this is one of them. You should read Highway and others as though they said "but not below $0 in coins".
I understand this, it was just a "this could be a thing," and was mostly a joke, and let's face it, this is not going to come up very often anyway.