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Messages - rinkworks

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1
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: A Dominion Fan Card Creation Guide
« on: October 27, 2013, 10:43:30 pm »
Right, duh. Still think it should point out that that effect is on official cards now, though.

You're right; it should.  I've tweaked the wording to take the Dark Ages cards into account.

2
Okay, now let's tell some truths I hold for myself too long...

You probably should have held onto those truths.  To my eye, this post isn't so much about constructive criticism as the venting of a poor loser.  If this was not your intent, feel free to correct me; either way, I would encourage you to reconsider the parts of your post that perhaps come off too personally or aggressively.  I'm sure we'd all like to see people being encouraged to submit their ideas here, not greeting their efforts with degrees of hatred on a scale.  In the end, different people are going to have different opinions about what works and what doesn't, what's fun and what isn't.  We have to respect that.

3
Mini-Set Design Contest / MOVED: Crusader
« on: March 01, 2013, 09:39:59 am »

4
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Using size of supply piles
« on: December 07, 2012, 01:56:56 pm »
It's probably worth pointing out that both City and Trade Route has increasing usefulness, rather than dwindling usefulness.  That way you have to work or wait to unlock their power, rather than race for it, with the latter almost necessarily making the card swingy and luck-based.

What would the reverse be?  Gain a card from a supply pile with just 3 or fewer cards left in it?  That wouldn't be as bad, because the timing of when the race starts is in the hands of the players, so they could jockey for the best position to start the race.  It also means the outcome of the race won't matter quite so drastically as (1) the game will be further progressed, when the impact of individual cards added to your deck isn't as great; and (2) with a bunch of cards gone from the supply pile already, it probably means all players already have -- or at least have had the opportunity to have -- a share of those cards.

I'm not saying that specific idea will work.  It sounds super marginal to me, frankly, since by that point in the game you can probably just buy the card you want, rather than buy something to get it for you, and how often will you even be able to time your purchase correctly anyhow?  I only put forth this variation to illustrate the point about swinginess and races.

5
Love this idea.  You're right, it's sort of like Potions-after-the-fact.  The big difference is that a single Potion can get you multiple Potion-cost cards, whereas getting multiple Cave-In cards incurs multiple Cave-Ins.  That might mean you can make them stronger than comparably priced Potion-cost cards.

I notice that a number of your Cave-In cards discentivize buying multiples, though, so that's an interesting part of the equation too.

6
Mini-Set Design Contest / Re: The Contest Set Card List
« on: November 27, 2012, 02:21:43 pm »
Still around.  The contest did wear me out, but I'm not gone.  Just needed a little while to recharge.

7
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Experiments in formulaic card design
« on: October 24, 2012, 02:48:40 pm »
Theory: Take a $5 cantrip, remove +1 card +1 action, double the rest of the effect, and you have a $4 card.

Conversely, take a $4 card, halve the effect, add +1 card +1 action, and you have a $5 card.

This is a really interesting idea.  Like you, I was surprised at how many of the results were balanced, or thereabouts.
A few comments on some:

Quote
$4
Cruddy Treasury
+$2
When you discard this from play, if you didn’t buy a Victory card this turn, you may put this on top of your deck.

I think this very card has been proposed, at this price, before, though without the no-Victory condition. I think it would be a lot of fun, and very strong if there are no other good early terminals, or an abundance of +actions.

Donald reported experimenting with this card in (I think) the Secret History of Dark Ages, or possibly the discussion thread about that.  He said that one of his playtesters persuaded him that it was a broken card and eventually agreed, but he didn't say what was broken about it.  Now I'm wondering if the no-Victory clause would have fixed it.

Quote
$5
Super Scout
+1 card
+1 action
Reveal the top 3 cards of your deck. Put the revealed Victory cards into your hand. Put the other cards on top of your deck in any order.

Much better than Scout. This is a Lab variant. Better than Lab if more than 1/3 of your deck is victory cards. I didn't quite halve the effect as I normally do because Scout already has a +action, all he needed for a cantrip was +card.

Top 2 cards only, right?  At only 2 cards, Vagrant will often be better (in cursing or DA games) but not usually.  $5 still seems steep.

Quote
$5
Super Salvager
+1 card
+1 action
+1 Buy
Trash a card from your hand. +$ equal to half its cost, rounded down.

If you trash an estate this is a Market. Plus it gets rid of an estate! The problem comes when you start running out of junk in your deck. With Upgrade and Salvager this is (often) no problem because trashing even good cards continually improves your deck with these. But Super Salvager reduces the value of whatever it touches. And like Upgrade it has the conundrum that you have to play it if you want to see your next card, and maybe hope that it's junk. IMO too risky to buy unless it's the only trasher.

Shouldn't be any riskier a buy than Junk Dealer, which is a worthwhile point of comparison.  When you trash Copper or Curses, this is a Junk Dealer that gives +1 Buy instead of +$1, but if you trash anything priced $2 or above, it's strictly superior to Junk Dealer.  Strong card, in other words.

Quote
$5
Super Monument
+1 card
+1 action
+1 VP
A Great Hall that's worth 1VP for every cycle of your deck. Much stronger than it looks IMO. Crazy in draw-your-whole-deck decks. It'll be worth 1VP per turn in the game!! Alternatively..

Why not +$1 and +0.5 VP?  That's also crazy strong.

Quote
$5
Super Menumont
+1 card
+1 action
+$2

Another crazy good card. Compared to Market you sacrifice +buy for +$. Who wouldn't do that?? This is the card Donald originally intended Grand Market to be, and he priced it at $6 without the no-copper condition.

He priced that version at $7, in fact.  It would make sense at $7.  Were the +1 Card another +$1 instead, you'd have a Gold equivalent, balanced at $6.  But +cards on a non-terminal is stronger than +$, hence why Laboratory costs $5 instead of $3.

8
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Minister
« on: October 23, 2012, 03:47:25 pm »
Bad when you play it and do something other than trash, as it puts you down a card on your current turn for either nothing or, at best, an extra useful card next turn, making it a wash.  But if you do play it and trash, then that's quite good.  It could be a good opener, since most of what you're liable to turn up with it will be something you'd want to trash.

Still, even as an opener, the benefit would be slow to manifest itself, so except on a slow board you probably need to have a use for the reaction effect for the card to be worthwhile often.  And it's not good enough to trigger the reaction from other copies of this card.  Why?  With two copies in your hand, you play one, trash the top card, use the second copy to put it in your hand instead of the trash, and presto -- you've successfully pieced together a cantrip!  And all it cost you was a card slot for that second copy that's still eating up a slot in your hand.

So you need a separate trashing effect to use this.  But if you've got that, it could be great.  Trash-for-benefit cards like Apprentice, Salvager, and Remodel may be used on power cards and Provinces without sacrificing them.  Sweet stuff.  Also, you're immune to trashing attacks, which wind up helping you rather than hurting you -- but for that reason, your opponents will probably avoid trashing attacks when this is around, in which case you don't need this after all.

What about non-for-benefit trashers?  Loan and Lookout will each put a card in your hand, but those combos aren't much better (if at all) from cantrips.  Reacting to trash-from-hand (Chapel, Steward) is basically useless, since you're just undoing what they do.

So I think this will be a pretty situational card.  You need either trash-for-benefit cards or a slow board with little or no other trashing.  I think there are probably enough of those kinds of boards to justify the card (certainly there are narrower official cards), but you have to expect it'll stay on the table a lot of the time.

9
Yeah! Second best of the second bests ;)! But, thanks to rinkworks to all of his efforts, not bad for a card I spent about 3 minutes on.
Edit: wait, do top two get in? It says so in the first post but isn't made clear in the results.

Oh!  I totally forgot about that.  You're right, your card also made it in.  Congrats!

 ???

I'm not sure what you're saying here.  The #2 card here was Tdog's.

10
Updated the ballot to name Tdog's Thanksgiving card as one of the two winners of the round.

11
Yeah! Second best of the second bests ;)! But, thanks to rinkworks to all of his efforts, not bad for a card I spent about 3 minutes on.
Edit: wait, do top two get in? It says so in the first post but isn't made clear in the results.

Oh!  I totally forgot about that.  You're right, your card also made it in.  Congrats!

12
At last, the results of the Second Chance challenge are in, and we have two more cards to round out the community set.  They are...(drum roll)....


#1 - Recruiter by yuma with 12 points (Recruiter)
$5 - Action-Attack
Choose one: +1 Action and gain an Attack card from the supply; or all other players gain a Curse card.
--
If you have played 2 or more Attack cards this turn (counting this): +$1.

#2 - Thanksgiving by Tdog with 8 points (Thanksgiving)
$5 - Action
Trash this card.
Gain two cards costing up to a total of 7. Put the cards on your deck.



The set gets another Attack card and another one shot.  Recruiter is a card that can accrue copies of itself, or of other attack cards, and ramp up a violent game quickly.  On its own, it's a Cursing attack that, unlike most cursing attacks, can probably be passed over on many boards.  But if another Attack card is present (including a stronger curser), this card becomes more powerful, with a greater number of potentially lucrative interactions possible.

With Thanksgiving, you can slingshot your way up to an early $6 or $7 card at the expense of a $5 buy that might have been something else instead.  It can also rescue you from a 5/2 start on a board where 4/3 is clearly dominant.  Since the cards go on top of your deck, it doesn't suffer the drawback of most gainers, which is that by the time you get the gainer, play the gainer, gain a card, and see that gained card in your hand, at least two shuffles have gone by.

The rest of the ballot:


#3 (tie) - Ghost Town by Rush Clasic with 7 points (Ghost Town)
$2 - Action-Reaction
+2 Actions
--
When you discard other than during a Clean-up phase, you may reveal it. If you do, put it in your hand.

#3 (tie) - Emerald by Robz888 with 7 points (Emerald)
$4 - Treasure
Reveal your hand. This is worth $1 per Victory card in your hand.
--
In games using this, when you buy a Victory card, you may gain an Emerald.

#3 (tie) - Astrologer by A Drowned Kernel with 7 points (Astrologer)
$4 - Action-Attack
Trash two cards from your hand. If they are the same card, each other player gains a copy of that card. Otherwise, +$ equal to the difference in cost between the two.
--
When you gain this, each other player may trash a card from his hand.

#6 - Flea Market by tyr10n with 6 points (Flea Market)
$2 - Action
+2 Actions
You may return a card from your hand to the supply. If you do, gain a card with the same cost, putting it in your hand.

#7 - Diviner by PurplePotato with 5 points (Diviner)
$3 - Action-Reaction
+1 Card
+1 Action
Look at the top card of your deck. You may discard it or put it back.
--
When you would discard a card other than during your clean-up phase, you may reveal this from your hand. If you do, trash that card instead.

#8 - Survivor's Village by ChocophileBenj with 4 points (Survivor's Village)
$5 - Action
+1 Card
+2 Actions
--
When you gain this, gain a Survivor's Village token.
--
At the start of any turn, you may return one Survivor's Village token before you play your first action. If you do, +1 Action.

#9 (tie) - Zealot by Sakako with 3 points (Zealot)
$4 - Action
+1 Card
+1 Action
If you have an even number of cards in play (including this), +1 Card.

#9 (tie) - Heirloom by andwilk with 3 points (Heirloom)
$5 - Treasure-Reaction
Worth $1
Gain a Silver, placing it on top of your deck.
--
If this card is trashed in any way, reveal it and gain a Gold on top of your deck.

#9 (tie) - Cobbler by Tables with 3 points (Cobbler)
$3 - Action
+3 Cards
+1 Action
Put two cards from your hand on top of your deck.

#9 (tie) - Bursar by Qvist with 3 points (Bursar)
$5 - Action
Look at the top 2 cards of your deck. Put one into your hand, discard the other card.
+1 Action
+$1

#9 (tie) - Archaeologist by Green Opal with 3 points (Archaeologist)
$3 - Action
+$2
You may put a card from your discard pile on top of your deck.

#14 (tie) - World's Fair by Mecherath with 2 points (World's Fair)
$3 - Action
Trash this card.
Gain a card costing up to $6, placing it on top of your deck.
Each other player may gain a copy of the card you gained.

#14 (tie) - Town Fool by andwilk with 2 points (Town Fool)
$4 - Action-Attack
+$2
All other players gain a Curse and choose to either trash a card from their hand or draw a card.

#14 (tie) - Retirement Village by Michaelf7777777 with 2 points (Retirement Village)
$3 - Action-Victory
+2 Actions
+1 Buy
--
1 VP

#14 (tie) - Plaza by Celestial Chameleon with 2 points (Plaza)
$3 - Action
Reveal cards from your deck until you reveal 3 cards costing $4 or less.
Put all revealed cards costing $4 or less into your hand and discard the other revealed cards.

#18 (tie) - Watchmaker by A Drowned Kernel with 1 point (Watchmaker)
$4 - Action
Reveal the top four cards of your deck. Put two into your hand and discard the others.

#18 (tie) - Tithe by Fragasnap with 1 point (Tithe)
$4 - Action-Victory
+1 Buy
You may trash a Victory card from your hand. If you do, +2 VP and gain a differently named Victory card costing up to the cost of the trashed card.
--
Worth 1 VP for every 2 Estates in your deck (rounded down).

#18 (tie) - Street Performer by Tables with 1 point (Street Performer)
$3 - Action
+$2
--
At the start of Clean-up this turn, choose up to two cards you have in play. For each you would discard from play this turn, shuffle it into your deck.

#18 (tie) - Sorry Witch by Titandrake with 1 point (Sorry Witch)
$4 - Action-Attack
+2 Cards
Each other player gains a Curse and draws a card.

#18 (tie) - Repair Shop by Mecherath with 1 point (Repair Shop)
$5 - Action-Reaction
Gain a card costing up to $4.
--
When you gain a card you may discard this.  If you do, trash that card and gain a card costing up to $2 more.

#18 (tie) - Planchet by Qvist with 1 point (Planchet)
$2 - Treasure-Reaction
Worth $1
--
When you would discard this other than during a Clean-up phase, you may set this aside from your hand instead.  If you do, +$2 and return it to the discard pile at the end of your turn.
--
(Rule clarifications: If you discard this during another player's turn (e.g., because of Militia), you get +$2 at the start of your next turn.)

#18 (tie) - Diplomat by gman314 with 1 point (Diplomat)
$4 - Action-Attack
+2 Cards
Choose a card from your hand and put it on the bottom of the Diplomat deck. Reveal the top card of the Diplomat deck and return it to the supply. Each other player gains a copy of the revealed card.
--
Setup: Shuffle a Diplomat deck containing 1 Copper, 1 Estate, 1 Silver and 1 Curse. (From the supply.)

#18 (tie) - Bribe by DWetzel with 1 point (Bribe)
$4 - Treasure-Reaction
Worth $2
--
When another player plays an Attack card, you may reveal this from your hand.  If you do, you are unaffected by that Attack; return Bribe to the supply and gain a Silver, placing it in your hand, and the attacking player may gain a Copper, placing it in his hand.

#26 (tie) - Caretaker by jonts26 with 0 points (Caretaker)
$5 - Action
Reveal the top 4 cards of your deck. The player to your left chooses to discard them or return them to the top of your deck.
+4 Cards

#26 (tie) - Broker by nopawnsintended with 0 points (Broker)
$4 - Action
+1 Action
+$1
Choose one:  Discard 2 cards and draw 1 card; OR draw up to 5 cards.

13
Mini-Set Design Contest / Re: The Contest Set Card List
« on: October 16, 2012, 03:46:02 pm »
Someone designed an image for Archivist already.  I thought it was in the Archivist thread, but apparently not.  Anybody remember where that was?  If so, that's one less image that still needs to be made for the set.

14
Quote
Bribe
$4 - Treasure-Reaction
Worth $2
--
When another player plays an Attack card, you may reveal this from your hand.  If you do, you are unaffected by that Attack; return Bribe to the supply and gain a Silver, placing it in your hand, and the attacking player may gain a Copper, placing it in his hand.
for the set: I don't like better silvers for $4. poor
overall: poor

While the original card fit into this category, this revision is no longer a "better Silver."  I mean, it might be generally superior to Silver (which is fine), but it's no strictly superior to Silver.  The Donald quote that cemented this rule of thumb was only talking about $4 Silvers "with no penalty."  Here, a possible opponent benefit requires you to think a little before picking this up in preference to Silver.
What?  No.  Pick it up instead of Silver all the time, never use the reaction.  You now have a Silver that works better for TFB.  Strictly better.

That is...an incredible...reach.  By that logic, we can make every card better just by making it more expensive.  Like Hamlet at $2?  You'll LOVE it at $6!

Come on.  It's not strictly better.  It costs more.  When weighing one card against another, you either don't consider the price at all (in which case you might say "strictly better effect"), or you have to weigh the pros AND cons of the price.  You can't say "Well, with TFB, sometimes a higher cost is better, so it's strictly better!", ignoring the fact that, you know what, sometimes a card having a higher cost means you can't buy it this turn, or can't buy as many copies, etc.

I mean, if you're still concerned about having a $4 card that you can use as a Silver (but nothing better than a Silver, if you want to circumvent its penalty), that's a reasonable and defensible position.  But it's not because the card is strictly better (it isn't), and not because of TFB (which is only a factor in a minority of kingdoms -- as opposed to the proper $4 Silver principle, which holds for all kingdoms).

This is just not the situation Donald was talking about.  The exact quote:  "I can't make a treasure that costs $4, makes $2, and has a bonus but no penalty."

If you don't use the Reaction, Bribe is a Treasure that costs $4, makes $2, has no penalty, but has no bonus either.  Costing an extra $1 is not a bonus.

And if you do use the Reaction, it does have a penalty.  So you get both or neither, but never the configuration that Donald was calling problematic.

15
Quote
Bribe
$4 - Treasure-Reaction
Worth $2
--
When another player plays an Attack card, you may reveal this from your hand.  If you do, you are unaffected by that Attack; return Bribe to the supply and gain a Silver, placing it in your hand, and the attacking player may gain a Copper, placing it in his hand.
for the set: I don't like better silvers for $4. poor
overall: poor

While the original card fit into this category, this revision is no longer a "better Silver."  I mean, it might be generally superior to Silver (which is fine), but it's no strictly superior to Silver.  The Donald quote that cemented this rule of thumb was only talking about $4 Silvers "with no penalty."  Here, a possible opponent benefit requires you to think a little before picking this up in preference to Silver.

16
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Card that name: Tax Collector
« on: October 16, 2012, 12:23:31 pm »
The card I usually see with this name has something to do with putting coin tokens on supply piles.  Cards in those piles cost $1 more per token on top.  There are plenty of variations within that theme, such as whether there can be multiple tax tokens or just one that's moved from pile to pile.

Deceptively, it's more damaging than Embargo, because with Embargo the Curses can run out, or there can be a way to circumvent them (Watchtower, Trader), or you can have a junk-tolerant deck (heavy drawing, trashing, or trash-for-benefit).  By increasing costs, you really can't get around the penalty.  Even most gainers have cost-based restrictions.

17
Mini-Set Design Contest / Re: Mini-Set Design Contest: RinkWorks Cards!
« on: October 16, 2012, 12:19:23 pm »
The results are in!

--

#1 - Archivist by rinkworks with 10 points (Archivist)
$5 - Action
+1 Action
Choose one:  Draw up to 6 cards in hand; or +$1 and discard one or more cards from your hand.

#2 - Sorceress by rinkworks with 8 points (Sorceress)
$5 - Action-Attack
Each other player gains a Curse.
If one or more supply piles are empty, +1 Card and +1 Action.
If two or more supply piles are empty, +1 Card.

#3 - Museum by rinkworks with 6 points (Museum)
$3 - Action
+$1
You may choose a card from your hand that you do not already have a copy of on your Museum mat.  Place it on your Museum mat.
If you have at least 4 cards on your Museum mat, you may trash 4 of them and gain a Prize (putting it on your deck) and a Duchy.

#4 - Royal Scepter by rinkworks with 5 points (Royal Scepter)
$7 - Action
Reveal cards from your deck until you reveal an Action card.  Discard the other revealed cards.  Play the revealed Action card twice.

#5 (tie) - None with 4 points (None)
Vote for this if you don't want to have any of these cards in the set.  I won't take offense if you do this -- I'll assume a vote for "None" means "Your cards are clearly awesomeness incarnate; it's just that the set doesn't need any of them."

#5 (tie) - Matador by rinkworks with 4 points (Matador)
$3 - Action-Attack
+2 Cards
Each player (including you) reveals a card from his hand.  He discards it or puts it on top of his deck, your choice.

#5 (tie) - Architect by rinkworks with 4 points (Architect)
$3 - Action
+3 Cards
+$2
Put 3 cards from your hand on top of your deck.

#8 - Magistrate by rinkworks with 3 points (Magistrate)
$4 - Action-Reaction
+$2
Look at the top 3 cards of your deck.  Discard any number of them.  Put the rest back on top in any order.
--
When another player plays an Attack card, you may set this aside from your hand.  If you do, look at the top 3 cards of your deck, discard any number of them, put the rest back on top in any order, and at the start of your next turn return this to your hand.

#9 (tie) - Hunter by rinkworks with 2 points (Hunter)
$5 - Action
+1 Action
+$1
Look at the top card of your deck and choose one:  Put it in your hand and discard the top card of your deck; or discard it and +1 Card.

#9 (tie) - Healer by rinkworks with 2 points (Healer)
$2 - Action
+1 Action
Reveal cards from the top of your deck until revealing a Victory or Curse card or until revealing 4 cards, whichever comes first.  If you revealed a Victory or Curse card, trash it or discard it.  Put the other revealed cards back on top of your deck in any order.

#11 (tie) - Street Sweeper by rinkworks with 1 point (Street Sweeper)
$3 - Action
Choose one:  +2 Cards; or look through your discard pile and put one card from it into your hand.

#11 (tie) - Huckster by rinkworks with 1 point (Huckster)
$5 - Action-Duration
At the start of your next turn, +1 Buy and +$3.

#11 (tie) - Highwayman by rinkworks with 1 point (Highwayman)
$5 - Action-Attack
+3 Cards
+1 Buy
Each other player with 5 or more cards in hand chooses one:  He discards down to 3 cards in hand, or he discards his hand and draws 4 cards.

#11 (tie) - Grand Bazaar by rinkworks with 1 point (Grand Bazaar)
$6 - Action
+1 Card
+2 Actions
+$2
--
You can't buy this if you have any Copper in play.

#11 (tie) - Banquet Hall by rinkworks with 1 point (Banquet Hall)
$4 - Action-Victory-Reaction
Choose one:  +1 Card, +1 Action; or +2 Cards.
--
When another player plays an Attack card, you may set this aside from your hand.  If you do, +1 Card, and return this to your hand at the start of your next turn.
--
Worth 1 VP

#11 (tie) - Auction House by rinkworks with 1 point (Auction House)
$4 - Action
+1 Card
+1 Action
+1 Buy
Trash a card from your hand.

#17 (tie) - Sailboat by rinkworks with 0 points (Sailboat)
$5 - Action-Duration
Discard two cards.
At the start of your next turn, +2 Cards and +$2.

#17 (tie) - Lockbox by rinkworks with 0 points (Lockbox)
$2 - Action
+1 Card
+1 Action
--
While in play, at the start of your buy phase, you may trash this card.  If you do, +$2.

18
Here is the revised ballot for the runners-up round.  The top two finishers will be inducted into the set.  Voters are due Monday.

--

Voting Rules:

Each person may cast votes as follows:  For each Challenge, you may fill your ballot out in one of two ways:

(1) Award 3 points to one entry.  Award 1 point to any number of other entries.
(2) Award 2 points to each of two entries.  Award 1 point to any number of other entries.

Submit your votes via PM to me by Monday, October 22, 2012, 10am EDT in the following format:

Quote
Challenge 1

3 CardName
1 AnotherCardName
1 StillAnotherCardName
1 AnotherCardNameGoesHereToo

Challenge 2

2 CardName
2 AnotherCardName
1 StillAnotherCardName

Please use the above format!  One card per line, with the number of votes given before it, and no extra punctuation or anything.  This will make it easy for me to copy-and-paste your votes into the format my vote-counting script needs it to be in.

Do not submit votes for your own cards.  (If you do, my script will catch you anyway.)

By submitting vote(s) for a challenge, you will automatically earn 1 point for your entry in that challenge.  This is to incentivize contestants to submit votes.  (My script does this automatically, so don't worry that I'll forget to do this.)

As a voter, you may use whatever criteria you wish in determining what your votes will be.  Be as forgiving or particular as you like concerning conformance to standard Dominion terminology.   For all winning cards, there will be a chance to tweak the wording as a community, if necessary, before they are canonized.

--
World's Fair
$3 - Action
Trash this card.
Gain a card costing up to $6, placing it on top of your deck.
Each other player may gain a copy of the card you gained.


Heirloom
$5 - Treasure-Reaction
Worth $1
Gain a Silver, placing it on top of your deck.
--
If this card is trashed in any way, reveal it and gain a Gold on top of your deck.


Watchmaker
$4 - Action
Reveal the top four cards of your deck. Put two into your hand and discard the others.


Diplomat
$4 - Action-Attack
+2 Cards
Choose a card from your hand and put it on the bottom of the Diplomat deck. Reveal the top card of the Diplomat deck and return it to the supply. Each other player gains a copy of the revealed card.
--
Setup: Shuffle a Diplomat deck containing 1 Copper, 1 Estate, 1 Silver and 1 Curse. (From the supply.)


Street Performer
$3 - Action
+$2
--
At the start of Clean-up this turn, choose up to two cards you have in play. For each you would discard from play this turn, shuffle it into your deck.


Retirement Village
$3 - Action-Victory
+2 Actions
+1 Buy
--
1 VP


Broker
$4 - Action
+1 Action
+$1
Choose one:  Discard 2 cards and draw 1 card; OR draw up to 5 cards.


Emerald
$4 - Treasure
Reveal your hand. This is worth $1 per Victory card in your hand.
--
In games using this, when you buy a Victory card, you may gain an Emerald.


Caretaker
$5 - Action
Reveal the top 4 cards of your deck. The player to your left chooses to discard them or return them to the top of your deck.
+4 Cards


Recruiter
$5 - Action-Attack
Choose one: +1 Action and gain an Attack card from the supply; or all other players gain a Curse card.
--
If you have played 2 or more Attack cards this turn (counting this): +$1.


Town Fool
$4 - Action-Attack
+$2
All other players gain a Curse and choose to either trash a card from their hand or draw a card.


Ghost Town
$2 - Action-Reaction
+2 Actions
--
When you discard other than during a Clean-up phase, you may reveal it. If you do, put it in your hand.


Plaza
$3 - Action
Reveal cards from your deck until you reveal 3 cards costing $4 or less.
Put all revealed cards costing $4 or less into your hand and discard the other revealed cards.


Planchet
$2 - Treasure-Reaction
Worth $1
--
When you would discard this other than during a Clean-up phase, you may set this aside from your hand instead.  If you do, +$2 and return it to the discard pile at the end of your turn.
--
(Rule clarifications: If you discard this during another player's turn (e.g., because of Militia), you get +$2 at the start of your next turn.)


Astrologer
$4 - Action-Attack
Trash two cards from your hand. If they are the same card, each other player gains a copy of that card. Otherwise, +$ equal to the difference in cost between the two.
--
When you gain this, each other player may trash a card from his hand.


Diviner
$3 - Action-Reaction
+1 Card
+1 Action
Look at the top card of your deck. You may discard it or put it back.
--
When you would discard a card other than during your clean-up phase, you may reveal this from your hand. If you do, trash that card instead.


Cobbler
$3 - Action
+3 Cards
+1 Action
Put two cards from your hand on top of your deck.


Archaeologist
$3 - Action
+$2
You may put a card from your discard pile on top of your deck.


Survivor's Village
$5 - Action
+1 Card
+2 Actions
--
When you gain this, gain a Survivor's Village token.
--
At the start of any turn, you may return one Survivor's Village token before you play your first action. If you do, +1 Action.


Repair Shop
$5 - Action-Reaction
Gain a card costing up to $4.
--
When you gain a card you may discard this.  If you do, trash that card and gain a card costing up to $2 more.


Thanksgiving
$5 - Action
Trash this card.
Gain two cards costing up to a total of 7. Put the cards on your deck.


Zealot
$4 - Action
+1 Card
+1 Action
If you have an even number of cards in play (including this), +1 Card.


Bribe
$4 - Treasure-Reaction
Worth $2
--
When another player plays an Attack card, you may reveal this from your hand.  If you do, you are unaffected by that Attack; return Bribe to the supply and gain a Silver, placing it in your hand, and the attacking player may gain a Copper, placing it in his hand.


Bursar
$5 - Action
Look at the top 2 cards of your deck. Put one into your hand, discard the other card.
+1 Action
+$1


Flea Market
$2 - Action
+2 Actions
You may return a card from your hand to the supply. If you do, gain a card with the same cost, putting it in your hand.


Sorry Witch
$4 - Action-Attack
+2 Cards
Each other player gains a Curse and draws a card.


Tithe
$4 - Action-Victory
+1 Buy
You may trash a Victory card from your hand. If you do, +2 VP and gain a differently named Victory card costing up to the cost of the trashed card.
--
Worth 1 VP for every 2 Estates in your deck (rounded down).

19
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Jeweler
« on: October 11, 2012, 10:33:18 am »
Would it be too powerful if the discard were optional?
Yes.

Took me a minute to figure out why it would be.  I was interpreting the "discard being optional" as meaning that if you chose not to discard, you wouldn't reveal a card at all and would not get any coins.  I think that would be fine.  You can play it for just +1 Buy, or you can get +1 Buy AND discard a card for coins.  That said, having that choice is not necessarily that interesting.  I'd rather see the discard be mandatory, to require the player to strategize around it.  But it's not unbalanced if it's optional in this way.

But yeah, I'm with One Armed Man if what you meant was that you could reveal a card and get the coins even if you don't then discard it.  Then it's basically lots of money almost all the time, with no drawback, and extremely overpowered.

20
Do the revised cards need to satisfy the contest that they were originally designed for?

No.

21
Mini-Set Design Contest / Re: Mini-Set Design Contest: RinkWorks Cards!
« on: October 11, 2012, 09:54:43 am »
Quote
Matador
$3 - Action-Attack
+2 Cards
Each player (including you) reveals a card from his hand.  He discards it or puts it on top of his deck, your choice.

Am I missing something about this card, or can it pretty easily wipe out you opponents' turns if played repeatedly?

Yup, that was supposed to only be for players with 5 or more cards in hand.  What the heck?  I apparently sleptwalk through my own submissions.  I was sick over the weekend; I'm going to blame all these mistakes on that.

I'm on record, though.  As you can see, LastFootnote helped me refine the wording, so thanks to him for that, and thanks to me for screwing it up in the transcription here.

22
Mini-Set Design Contest / Re: Mini-Set Design Contest: RinkWorks Cards!
« on: October 10, 2012, 02:42:28 pm »

I'm embarrassed to say that that's how my card is actually worded, and I just screwed up in retyping it here.  Well, the ballot is fixed now.

No it's not ???

Oops.  I meant "fixed" as in "finalized."  I didn't let other people revise their cards after the ballot was posted (unless the mistake was mine), so I won't let myself make changes either.

It's not just "random 4," though.  It's "your choice of best 3 of 5 or random 4."
I realize, but best 3 of 5 is worse than 3 of 6. Also, random 4 is (usually) worse than 3 of 6. Giving the defending player a choice between two slightly worse options means the outcome on average may be slightly weaker or stronger.

That sounds logical and all, but it doesn't really work out like that in practice.  In playtesting, the two extremes are "Highwayman hurts a little more" and "Highwayman helps WAY more."  There are lots of different possibilities, but mostly you'll have one of three situations:

* You have a good hand, with the strength of the hand uniformly distributed across all the cards.  In this case, both attacks hurt.  Highwayman might hurt more, probably not hurt less, but it's not a huge disparity.  With such a hand, you're unlikely to draw a HUGELY better card from Margrave, because all your cards are already generally good already.  Advantage to the attacker:  Highwayman by a nose.

* You have a good hand overall -- better than an average hand -- but also some junk cards.  Neither attack hurts you, because you can just discard junk cards.  Margrave probably helps you, because either you replace a bad card with a good one, or you cycle past a bad one you'd have drawn later.  On the other hand, Highwayman gives you a shot at an even bigger improvement.  You probably wouldn't take it, but if you happen to know, for example, that the only dead cards in your deck are the two Curses you're currently holding, then 4 random cards might well be better than the 3 known good cards you've got.  Margrave is still a little more likely to help, though.  Advantage to the attacker:  Highwayman by a nose.

* You have a bad hand.  In this case, Margrave will probably help, but Highwayman will almost certainly help more -- a LOT more.  Highwayman saved your whole turn.  Advantage to the attacker:  Margrave by a LOT.

That would appear to average out to a dead heat, but note that the middle case is rarer than the other two.  If you've got two dead cards in hand, the other three cards have to be pretty strong to be preferable to 4 unseen random cards.

23
Authors should make sure all revisions preserve the underlying spirit of the card as listed in the OP.  That is, don't abuse the opportunity to submit a "revision" that is really a brand new card.  If you're unsure about whether a change is too severe or not, feel free to include two different possible revisions in your PM to me:  a more extensive revision you prefer, and an alternate revision if I deem it too much of a change.  I'll tend to err in your favor, though; I don't really want to police this any heavier than I have to.

When you think about it, Bazaar is really just a slight revision to Woodcutter. They just replaced the Buy with 2 actions and a card, then lowered how much money you get and raised the price to balance it out.

Donald is fond of telling the story of how, in the early days of Dominion, he didn't have Golds.  This was to encourage people to buy expensive action cards instead of just buying up more Treasure.  But the game was too laborious when none of the action cards provided virtual coins.  So he thought, hey, what if I took Black Market, stripped out the special deck and the ability to play Treasures early, increased the amount of money it made, made it a Treasure, and doubled the price?  That seemed to do the trick:  it worked so well that the revised Black Market became a basic card.  As a gift to fans curious about Dominion history, the original Black Market was released as a promo.

True story.

24
Mini-Set Design Contest / Re: Mini-Set Design Contest: RinkWorks Cards!
« on: October 10, 2012, 01:51:18 pm »
Quote
Highwayman
$5 - Action-Attack
+3 Cards
+1 Buy
Each other player with 5 or more cards in hand chooses one:  He discards down to 3 cards in hand, or he discards his hand and draws 4 cards.
A hand-size attack that is too similar to Margrave. The exercise is interesting. I think best 3 of 6 cards is nearly always better than a random 4, so this is stronger.

It's not just "random 4," though.  It's "your choice of best 3 of 5 or random 4."

Quote
Street Sweeper
$3 - Action
Choose one:  +2 Cards; or look through your discard pile and put one card from it into your hand.

Did you ever consider this?

$3 - Action
Look through your discard pile.
Choose one: +2 cards; or put one card from your discard pile into your hand

Ok, so the wording is definitely more annoying. But I'm not sure I like the idea of adding an extra element of memory as to whether or not you have a card in your discard that you want to play. Hermit allows you to look through your discard pile before choosing if you want to trash from hand or from discard.

I'm embarrassed to say that that's how my card is actually worded, and I just screwed up in retyping it here.  Well, the ballot is fixed now.  If it wins, we can discuss as a group whether to make that change or not.

I also screwed up with Royal Scepter, too:

Royal Scepter -- should it exclude other Royal Scepters, a la Golem?

It should, and the version I actually play with does.  I did initially playtest it without that clause, and it was sheer madness.  One problem is that having Golem and Royal Scepter together would enable them to alternate between each other and still achieve a certain level of madness, but that's a lot rarer and requires a lot of differently expensive cards to do it.  Still, it's a risk voters should probably take into consideration.

Quote
I made this before Hinterlands came out.  Margrave turned out to be similar, but I think there's still a place for this too.  Margrave hurts more the first time you play it, but helps more on subsequent plays.  Other than that subtle difference, they're largely similar:  +3 Cards and +1 Buy in exchange for a weak hand size attack.  When both are on the table, you probably want both:  one Margrave and Highwaymen thereafter.  In an engine, playing Margrave first, then your Highwaymen maximizes the harm you can do to your opponent and minimizes the risk of helping him.

But after Margrave, your opponents will no longer have 5 cards in hand and thus won't be affected by Highwayman.

Precisely.  For the initial attack, a Margrave hurts more than a Highwayman, so you'd prefer to play a Margrave.  Thereafter, you'd prefer to play Highwaymen, because they have no effect, whereas additional Margraves actually help the opponent.

The attack on Highwayman is of no consequence in this case (well, it's still good when your hand includes a Highwayman but not a Margrave), but presumably if you're chaining these together, you're doing so for the draw.

25
Seems like we have a community consensus.  The people have spoken!

Voting for these cards has been suspended.  Instead, the authors of cards in this contest have until Monday, October 15, 2012, 10am EDT, to submit revisions of the cards included on the ballot.  Send your revisions by PM to me.  If I receive no revision for a particular card, I will keep it as-is.

Authors should make sure all revisions preserve the underlying spirit of the card as listed in the OP.  That is, don't abuse the opportunity to submit a "revision" that is really a brand new card.  If you're unsure about whether a change is too severe or not, feel free to include two different possible revisions in your PM to me:  a more extensive revision you prefer, and an alternate revision if I deem it too much of a change.  I'll tend to err in your favor, though; I don't really want to police this any heavier than I have to.

On Monday, I'll post a revised ballot and open the voting again.

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