(https://i.imgur.com/AMma9jM.jpg)
I posted about this a couple years ago, and I've done quite a bit of playtesting on it since then, and I think it's in a pretty good place now. Good enough that I'd like to try showing it off to the Dominion community and seeing what they think.
Rules document (for reference) (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1W7mpx-e7AYVLd4Jssfms2R1ghWMtYls6v2LTSYCrZaQ/)
First, to get it out of the way, how is this exactly like Dominion?
- It is a deckbuilder.
- 5 card hands, you play "Actions", play "Treasures" and buy stuff, then discard and draw.
- Some of the cards are pretty similar to Dominion cards, but honestly there's only so many ways you can do "draw 2 cards".
- There is a fixed Supply each game, rather than a randomized center row like Ascension or Clank.
So, how is it different?
- Instead of getting Victory cards, you compete for the favor of Gods, who give the player who has them a powerful effect, as well as some points. Gods can be stolen from other players! This requires you to spend more resources, though, and a couple Gods are Steadfast, and remain with the first player who takes them.
- There are four different resources - two for buying cards (Drachmas and Might), two for gaining the favor of Gods (Faith and Blood).
- Faith and Blood are accumulated, like Coin tokens, and can be saved up for getting the expensive Gods.
- You can play any number of cards per turn, and buy any number of cards per turn. There are thus no "Village" or "+Buy" cards, but does mean I can focus interesting decisions elsewhere.
- You can exchange resources for each other, at an unfavorable rate. Exchanging Money/Might into Faith/Blood becomes more favorable if other players have more Gods than you do, as a catch-up mechanic.
- There is an optional Adversary, which makes a rule change for the game, making it more challenging, and can also capture Gods, meaning it's possible for all players to lose, adding a slight bit of cooperative play.
- Having no terminal Actions means there's no terminal draw, thus no unrestricted cheap draw (like Smithy), which has forced me to get creative with draw cards if I don't want them all to cost (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/thumb/b/bc/Coin7.png/16px-Coin7.png) or something ridiculous.
- Instead of Curses, there are Fate cards, which are more like Confusions/Ruins - they don't make you lose points, they just take up space, but you can also get rid of them if you take a penalty (losing 2 Faith, for instance). So you might get "you are Fated to lose 2 Blood" and you lose your two Blood and you get to trash the card.
- There are player mats! Including little spots to put your Faith and Blood tokens.
I've played this with people who are familiar with Dominion, and with deckbuilder novices, and for the most part they've liked it. I've made lots of changes in response to feedback, and I think the core game right now is pretty solid.
Let's see some of this:
Starting cards - each player starts with 3 Militia and 7 Silver. These cannot be bought, but can be gained from the Sacrifical Pit (trash) if you're desperate.
(https://i.imgur.com/ON5ArH8.jpg)
These basic cards are in every game. There are 3 different Fate cards, and the stack is shuffled.
(https://i.imgur.com/EAYtNTj.jpg)
The Agora is the resource exchange I mentioned. It's also got a spot for the Sacrificial Pit (trash).
(https://i.imgur.com/qcmD1TU.jpg)
Here are some of the cards I've come up with:
(https://i.imgur.com/StemXeW.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/vRmxkTe.jpg)
And some of the Gods:
(https://i.imgur.com/jD4ooZ1.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/SNBxSAL.jpg)
And Adversaries:
(https://i.imgur.com/LrmthXg.jpg)
And here's my mock-up for a player mat:
(https://i.imgur.com/JPtr1aa.jpg)
Please let me know what you think!