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1

Dominion General Discussion / Dominion Top Ten: Facial Hair

« on: August 04, 2014, 02:25:09 pm »

	10. Swindler A slick 'stache and goatee combo.  Really helps to convey his swindling ways.
	9. Beggar A bushy white beard.  Not bad at all for a beggar.  One Silver goes on top of your deck, but the other must go towards maintaining that jutt.
	8. Mint A good, solid, kempt beard.  Looks a lot like mine.
	7. Smithy I'm not such a fan of the styles on these two smiths, but how could I leave them off the list?
	6. Marauder Now we're getting to real facial hair.  Marauder's fearsome beard speaks volumes.  And speaking of volume, you just know he spoils himself in the salon for big red beard which screams out "I'm gonna ruin your day!"
	5. Goons That middle goon may not have a beard, but that is one hell of a big bushy moustache.
	4. Envoy I know everyone teases Envoy.  But despite a mediocre face and having a scroll embedded in his palm, he is staring Catrein right in the eyes with confidence as he poses for this portrait.  Where does that confidence come from?  Isn't it obvious?  And isn't that what facial hair is really about?
	3. Market Square I know what you're thinking.  Just a shadow you say?  There's no such thing as a bearded lady?  Well, I'm not so sure.
	2. Transmute Hands down the fullest, most majestic natural beard in all of Dominion.  My hands could get lost in that beard for days, which coincidentally is about how long it takes him to turn my Estates into Gold.
	1. Alchemist Was there ever any doubt?  Herbalist has known it for years:  Alchemist's beard puts everyone else's to shame.

Best Fan Card. Stache Sorry creepy Pawn Shop dude.  This Mario-esque masterpiece is what inspired the entire list.  Well, that and JSH's Art Rankings.

2

Variants and Fan Cards / Tavern and Legends

« on: July 30, 2014, 04:42:14 pm »

This should be seen an attempt at fixing my Crown Jewels idea.  I figured that starting a new thread would be the least confusing.

Tavern
$5 Action
+1 Card
+2 Actions
---
When you gain this, gain a Legend from the Legends pile.

There are ten Legends.  Each is a victory card which worth 3 VP is a certain condition is met, and grants a free treasure if trashed.  For nine of ten Legends, the condition is to have the most of something (a tie counts as meeting the condition).  For the tenth Legend, the condition is for the game to end on an opponent's turn. This guarantees each Legend is always feasible for at least one of the players.  Moreover, even when your opponent snatches the Legend you had your eyes on, it is still in your best interest to compete with her on the condition to deny her the points, providing fun interaction.  In multiplayer this could turn a bit political, but I don't think it would be so bad.

The Old Peak
$0*  Victory-Legend
Worth 3 VP if you have the most cards in your deck.
---
When you trash this, gain a Treasure.
(This is not in the Supply)

The Old Mine
$0*  Victory-Legend
Worth 3 VP if you have the most Treasure cards in your deck.
---
When you trash this, gain a Treasure.
(This is not in the Supply)

The Old Manor
$0*  Victory-Legend
Worth 3 VP if you have the most Victory cards in your deck.
---
When you trash this, gain a Treasure.
(This is not in the Supply)

The Old Church
$0*  Victory-Legend
Worth 3 VP if you have the most Action cards in your deck.
---
When you trash this, gain a Treasure.
(This is not in the Supply)

The Old Fort
$0*  Victory-Legend
Worth 3 VP if you have the most Attack cards in your deck.
---
When you trash this, gain a Treasure.
(This is not in the Supply)

The Old Cemetery
$0*  Victory-Legend
Worth 3 VP if you have the most Curses in your deck.
---
When you trash this, gain a Treasure.
(This is not in the Supply)

The Old Bridge
$0*  Victory-Legend
Worth 3 VP if you have the most cards costing $5 in your deck.
---
When you trash this, gain a Treasure.
(This is not in the Supply)

The Old Statue
$0*  Victory-Legend
Worth 3 VP if you have the most Legends in your deck.
---
When you trash this, gain a Treasure.
(This is not in the Supply)

The Old Forest
$0*  Victory-Legend
Worth 3 VP if you have the most differently named cards in your deck.
---
When you trash this, gain a Treasure.
(This is not in the Supply)

The Old Mirror
$0*  Victory-Legend
Worth 3 VP if the game ends at the end of an opponent's turn.
---
When you trash this, gain a Treasure.
(This is not in the Supply)

3

Variants and Fan Cards / Crown Jewels

« on: July 28, 2014, 03:19:08 pm »

The premise is that there are 12 Crown Jewels.  Like Knights, they form a single pile. In a 2 player game, 8 are chosen at random to play with.  Each one is a Treasure-Victory-Gem (Gem is a new type, like Knight), which functions as a Copper but is worth a Duchy if a certain condition is met.  The condition varies from gem to gem.  Each has a cost of $4, but can be gained for free when you purchase a non-Victory costing at least $5 so that you have an incentive to gain the gem early on before you know for sure whether you'll be able to meet the condition.  In other words:

Basic Template
Gemstone
$4 Treasure-Victory-Gem

$1

Worth 3 VP if... [condition]
---
In games using this, when you buy a non-Victory costing at least $5, you main gain a Gem.

Here are my ideas, based on this list of birthstones.  Generally I erred towards making the conditions easy to meet, since you don't want to be diverting too much attention towards just a few VP.  I'm aware that Bloodstone is impossible to activate on some boards, but it is doable on many, and may be worth gaining as Trash-for-Benefit fodder in others.

Garnet
$4 Treasure-Victory-Gem
$1
Worth 3 VP if you have at least 30 cards in your deck.
---
In games using this, when you buy a non-Victory costing at least $5, you main gain a Gem.

Amethyst
$4 Treasure-Victory-Gem
$1
Worth 3 VP if you have at most 30 cards in your deck.
---
In games using this, when you buy a non-Victory costing at least $5, you main gain a Gem.

Bloodstone
$4 Treasure-Victory-Gem
$1
Worth 3 VP if you have at least two Attack cards in your deck.
---
In games using this, when you buy a non-Victory costing at least $5, you main gain a Gem.

Diamond
$4 Treasure-Victory-Gem
$1
Worth 3 VP if you have at least three Action cards costing $5 or more in your deck.
---
In games using this, when you buy a non-Victory costing at least $5, you main gain a Gem.

Emerald
$4 Treasure-Victory-Gem
$1
Worth 3 VP if you have an Estate, Duchy, and Province in your deck.
---
In games using this, when you buy a non-Victory costing at least $5, you main gain a Gem.

Moonstone
$4 Treasure-Victory-Gem
$1
Worth 3 VP if you have at least one Curse in your deck.
---
In games using this, when you buy a non-Victory costing at least $5, you main gain a Gem.

Ruby
$4 Treasure-Victory-Gem
$1
Worth 3 VP if you have at least 5 Action cards in your deck.
---
In games using this, when you buy a non-Victory costing at least $5, you main gain a Gem.

Peridot
$4 Treasure-Victory-Gem
$1
Worth 3 VP if you have no Duchies in your deck.
---
In games using this, when you buy a non-Victory costing at least $5, you main gain a Gem.

Sapphire
$4 Treasure-Victory-Gem
$1
Worth 3 VP if you at most two Attack cards in your deck.
---
In games using this, when you buy a non-Victory costing at least $5, you main gain a Gem.

Opal
$4 Treasure-Victory-Gem
$1
Worth 3 VP if you have at most 5 Action cards in your deck.
---
In games using this, when you buy a non-Victory costing at least $5, you main gain a Gem.

Topaz
$4 Treasure-Victory-Gem
$1
Worth 3 VP if you have at least 3 Gems in your deck.
---
In games using this, when you buy a non-Victory costing at least $5, you main gain a Gem.

Turquoise
$4 Treasure-Victory-Gem
$1
Worth 3 VP if you have at most 3 Gems in your deck.
---
In games using this, when you buy a non-Victory costing at least $5, you main gain a Gem.

4

Variants and Fan Cards / Governess

« on: June 24, 2014, 03:25:48 pm »

Governess
$1 Action

+2 Actions

Each player gets +1 Card (You get +2 Cards).

The price is mostly a joke to continue the trend of the female version costing substantially less than the male version (Princess/Prince, Duchess/Duke).  What do you think of a card like this?  It would be ridiculous strong without the Council Room effect, which ought to limit the number you are willing to play in your engine.  I'd probably still pick up a few for an engine if I had spare buys and needed the villages.

5

General Discussion / 206th card [Serious]

« on: June 24, 2014, 02:29:06 am »

6

Dominion General Discussion / Dominion oxymorons.

« on: June 24, 2014, 01:39:27 am »

Universal edge case

7

Variants and Fan Cards / Request: Fan card mock ups for Dummies.

« on: May 07, 2014, 06:09:56 pm »

I want to learn how to make nice looking fan cards.  I don't know anything about image editing beyond the simplest MS Paint tools and using Mario Paint for the SNES.  A few months ago I downloaded gimp and a template that was posted here and was omg so overwhelming confused.  Any help?

8

Variants and Fan Cards / Courier

« on: May 06, 2014, 01:33:49 pm »

Courier
$2 Action

+1 Action

Look at the top 4 cards of your deck.  Put one into your hand and put the other cards back on top of your deck in any order.

edit:  Changed it from "reveal" to "look at".

9

Puzzles and Challenges / Common theme, holiday edition.

« on: May 04, 2014, 01:52:34 pm »

There's a card not on this list which should be.  Which one?

Thief
Mining Village
Bishop
Horse Traders
Tournament
Young Witch
Jack of All Trades
Spice Merchant
Trader
Death Cart
Ironmonger
Procession
Scavenger
Herald
Plaza
Taxman
Walled Village

10

General Discussion / Web Comics

« on: April 26, 2014, 11:38:40 am »

Which web comics do you read?  My favorites are:

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
xkcd
Perry Bible Fellowship
The Awkward Yeti
Channel ate
Three Word Phrase

11

Rules Questions / Empty Black Market Deck. Can I still play Treasures?

« on: April 07, 2014, 01:56:21 pm »

If the Black Market deck is empty, will it still let me play Treasure cards?  I'd guess yes.

12

Variants and Fan Cards / Wayfarer

« on: March 19, 2014, 08:42:12 pm »

Wayfarer
$2 Reaction

At the start of your turn you may reveal this from your hand.  If you do: +1 VP, +1 Card, +1 Action, and put this into the discard pile of the player to your left.
When you gain this from the Supply, put it on top of your deck.

The Wayfarer wanders from player to player.  If he is in your starting hand you get a nice bonus and he continues on his way.  If you draw him mid-turn, he is a dead card.  To prevent him from discouraging engines too strongly, he has a village effect.  I'm not married to the specific bonus he gives.

Note:  In my initial idea he did not move from deck to deck.  Then I realized that trashing down to a deck of just Wayfarers was nuts and didn't advance the game towards ending.  So I added in the wandering, which in turn led to the name.

13

Variants and Fan Cards / Commonwealth

« on: March 19, 2014, 05:42:11 pm »

I was trying to come up with pure VP card that could push players toward new strategies.  This is one idea I came up with.  The wording could use some work.  It could provide an alternative to competing over key splits.

Commonwealth
$5 Victory

Worth 1 VP per copy of the player to your right's most plentiful card in his deck (excluding Copper, Curse, and Province).

The wording is confusing.  The point is, if the player to your right has 7 Minions, this card would be worth 7 VP (unless he had even more than 7 copies of some other card).

14

Puzzles and Challenges / Edge Case Challenge: Drawing a Blank

« on: January 23, 2014, 09:17:29 pm »

The base set and some expansions come with blanks.  If you lose a card, you can write out the necessary info on a blank and use it as a replacement.  The blanks have the standard backs, but it will be evident that it is the blank when reading the front.

What are some edge cases where this difference would impact the game?  I have a couple in mind.

15

Variants and Fan Cards / Heir: The Victory Card with post-game choices.

« on: January 21, 2014, 04:36:24 pm »

Heir
Types: Victory
Cost: $4
At the end of the game, choose one: Trash an Estate from your deck and this is worth 1 VP per Estate in your deck; or trash 2 Curses from your deck and this is worth 2 VP; or trash 3 Coppers from your deck and this is worth 3 VP if you have no Treasures in your deck.

This is the card I submitted to the Intrigue challenge a while back.  I had meant to make a topic about it later, but never got around to it.  I don't particularly care about this card itself, but I wanted to talk about the ideas that went into this and get feedback on those broader ideas.

So, Intrigue.  I wanted a Victory card with choice.  Now, alt-VP often gives a choice already.  If Vineyard is on the board, you have the option of pursuing Vineyards instead of Provinces, which causes one's deck to evolve along a completely different path.  But I wanted a choice Victory card which allowed multiple different paths.  The most natural time to actually make the choice is at the end of the game (I'll come back to this complication later).

For instance, I could have designed a card that effectively says "At the end of the game, either score this as a Duke or score it as a Gardens".  Simple enough, but there are two issues.  The first is that the choice is boring at the end.  In reality, you chose long ago as you built your deck whether these would be Dukes or Gardens.  Second, Duke and Gardens are already good enough to be stand alone VP cards.  What I wanted was a choice card where:

1) You wouldn't make the same choice for each copy at the end of the game.

2) We take advantage of the fact that a choice is granted to employ options that wouldn't viably stand alone.

Ok.  So what can you do at the end of the game?  Since turn order breaks down here, I wanted the choices to be independent, so that turn order would be immaterial.  The choices could reference your deck's composition, the Supply's state, or the Trash's state.  Since the Supply and Trash are shared, you cannot both use their states and change them, or else independence would be lost and turn order would matter.  But if you don't change these states, then one option will be the best and you'll choose that one for all of your copies of Heir.

So I decided that the choices will have to rely on changing your own deck's composition.  Now, you can't add to your deck, since those cards would come from a limited Supply or Trash, and turn order will matter.  So instead, you should trash from your deck.  Also, you can't trash just anything, or else you'll begin triggering on-trash effects.  So I need to specify what you can trash.  I don't want to specify "Action" or "Victory" because of Catacombs and Feodum.    So I decided to name specific cards.  This means that they should be cards which are common to all games.  That limits you to EDPCSG, Curse, and Heir itself.  You probably don't want to trash Duchies or Provinces at the end.  Three choices always seemed best, so I naturally looked at Estate, Curse, and Copper.

Curses.  Trashing Curse is already cool.  It is sort of like those elusive Victory cards that count Curses.  One problem with such a hypothetical Victory card is that you could theoretically gain 30 Curses in a 4-player game, which would make balancing nuts.  But since Heir is just an after the fact trasher, there is no incentive to actively gain Curses, rather it just makes receiving them less bad.  This effect would not stand alone, but is useful often enough to be a nice option out of 3.

Estates.  The Estate-Duke is another common but troubled fan idea.  It is tricky to get a good value on how many Estates you should need per 1 VP.  It would be too strong if it were just a flat "1 VP per Estate".  It would probably be too weak at "2 VP per Estate".  Here, since the Heirs trash Estates, you get a more delicate balance.  A big stack of Estates will allow for a few high valued Heirs, but if you go for too many Heirs then your point total will actually drop back down because you've trashed away all of your Estates.  That would be a problem as a stand alone card, but since Heir has other choices, you will simply choose "Trash Estate" for a few Heirs, and different choices for the others.  This also helps remedy the fact that Estate-Duke is just a boring, uninspired idea.

Copper.  I wanted a third option.  The Curse option gives a default 2 VP plus some post-game cleaning.  The Estate option incentivized buying Estates.  For balance, it seemed like you wanted to trash 1 Estate but 2 Curses.  So I decided to go with 3 Coppers, and decided that this could be an option which rewards a truly Treasure-less deck. Now, your deck already starts with Treasure (7 Coppers), so unless you have a way to trash them you wouldn't be able to activate a Treasure-less reward.  But since this option trashes 3 Coppers, it provides its own way to trash down.  So, buy three Heirs and no additional Treasure, and you'll be able to access this option even without the presence of other Trashers.

Yeah, so that was the reasoning, more or less.  I liked that the optimal choice in the end is often a mix of the three options.  One complaint that I saw was that the calculations to choose them optimally were too complicated.  Maybe this is true.  As a mathematician, it can easy to overlook that, or more importantly to realize that many will see that as a bug rather than a feature.  Still, I think most people would get a good feel for it after a few games and some reflection.  Also, I spent a lot of time analyzing the Heir-Estate rush, and it is slightly weaker than Gardens or Silk Road, if I'm remembering correctly.  It improves a bit if you can go Treasure-less.

16

Dominion General Discussion / Theme Board: A Christmas Story

« on: December 24, 2013, 09:22:13 pm »

Secret Chamber "Ninety seconds later I'm in the only room in the house where a boy of nine can sit in privacy and decode."
Masterpiece "I knew I was handing Miss Shields a masterpiece. Maybe Miss Shields, in her ecstasy, would excuse me from theme writing for the rest of my natural life."
Sage "Oh, rarely had the words poured from my penny pencil with such feverish fluidity."
Scheme "My mother, grabbing for her copy of Look magazine would find herself cleverly trapped into reading a Red Ryder sales pitch."
Feast "The heavenly aroma still hung heavy in the house. But it was gone. All gone. No turkey. No turkey sandwiches. No turkey salad. No turkey gravy, turkey hash, turkey a la king, or gallons of turkey soup. Gone. All gone."
Tournament "I've won! I've won!  A major prize!"
Haggler "The old man loved bargaining as much as an Arab trader, and he was twice as shrewd."
Jester "Hey, kid, hurry up, the store's closing!"
Rabble "In our world, you were either a bully, a toady, or one of the nameless rabble of victims."
Tactician "My mother was about to make another brilliant maneuver in the legendary battle of the lamp."

17

Rules Questions / Top card of your discard pile after Chancellor.

« on: November 03, 2013, 12:48:24 pm »

http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Chancellor

Your discard pile is ordered.  In particular, the top card of your discard pile is public information, and there are certain "Lose Track Rule" interactions with the order.

When you discard a card, you place it on top of your discard pile.  The same when you gain a card.  But what about Chancellor?  The wording says that you put your deck "into" your discard pile.  The FAQ further specifies that you may not look through your deck while putting it into your discard pile.  So how is the order determined?  Do the cards from your deck go on top of your discard pile, and if so which card goes on top and is thereby publicly revealed?  Or should I interpret "into your discard pile" to mean that the cards from your deck go under the top card of your discard?

18

Dominion General Discussion / Yarrr, this be a Talk Like A Pirate Day themed board!

« on: September 19, 2013, 07:44:01 am »

Lookout
Smugglers
Marauder
Pirate Ship
Rats
Treasure Map
Ghost Ship
Ill-Gotten Gains
Pillage
Stash

19

Variants and Fan Cards / Foot Hills, an alt VP worth your median cost.

« on: September 16, 2013, 11:04:19 pm »

With the contest underway, I'm wary of posting any card ideas since I made be spoiling someone else's idea.  But hopefully this idea wasn't on anyone's mind.

Foothills
$?  Victory

Worth a number of victory points equal to the median cost in coins of the cards in your deck, rounded down.

So I chose to use the median cost since that would be reasonably quick to determine without computations.  This card wants a deck composition with a distinctly different flavor from Gardens and Fairgrounds.  What do you think would be a common value for your median cost?  Also, what might a card like this cost?  Its cost has an interesting effect on its own power.

20

General Discussion / Your personal (American) dialect similarity map.

« on: August 31, 2013, 04:27:01 pm »

You can take this survey from North Carolina State University and see your dialect similarity map.  It is designed for speakers of American English, but it could be fun for any English speakers to see what region of the States they are most similar to.

Here is my map:



Most Similar Cities:
Worcester MA, Falmouth MA, Lowell MA, New Bedford MA, Plymouth MA

Least Similar Cities:
Duluth MN, Little Rock AR, Jackson MS, Shreveport LA, Huntsville AL

21

Variants and Fan Cards / Bad Variant: Costs score victory points.

« on: August 05, 2013, 02:08:36 pm »

In another thread we were discussing other deck builders.  I mentioned that one nice feature of Dominion is that greening clogs your deck, thereby creating a negative feedback loop where scoring points (usually) lessens your ability to score additional points.  In contrast, certain other deck builders have a positive feedback loop, where the powerful card are themselves worth lots of points.  I was originally going to suggest the following as a rough analogy, but instead I decided to present as a (purposefully flawed) variant.

At the end of the game, each card is worth 1 VP for each $1 of its cost.  So for instance, King's Court is worth 7 VP, Cellar is worth 2 VP, Philosopher's Stone is worth 3 VP, etc.  I suppose this is really variants:

A)  Only costs count (e.g., Province would be 8 VP)

B)  Ordinary VP counts also (e.g. Province would be 6 VP + 8 VP = 14 VP)

What do you think would be the consequences of this variant?  Would you still buy green often in variant B?

22

Dominion General Discussion / Tactician/Outpost/Scheme

« on: July 04, 2013, 01:04:07 pm »

During your Tactician hand, play both a Scheme and Outpost.  During clean-up, topdeck your Tactician with Scheme, and play it during your Outpost hand.  Repeat to have a Tactician hand every (non Outpost) turn.

Does this work out?  Have any of you tried this?

23

Variants and Fan Cards / Lottery

« on: June 28, 2013, 01:14:47 pm »

Lottery
$6 Victory

At the end of the game, this card is worth 1d6 victory points.

Raffle
$4 Action

Gain a card costing up to 1d6 coins.

What do you think of cards like these?  Do you think dice could have a place in Dominion cards?

24

General Discussion / Bill Clinton, My Little Pony, and Dominion?

« on: June 25, 2013, 06:55:20 pm »

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/25/bill-clinton-facts_n_3497083.html

 

Edit:  This is not intended to become a political discussion.  Please don't make it into one.

25

Help! / I do not understand how to use Governor.

« on: June 19, 2013, 09:58:30 pm »

http://dominionlogs.goko.com//20130619/log.505c56d8a2e6c78ad2ed5a68.1371693159075.txt

This seemed like a great board for Governor.  There was Border Village to get a free $6 cost card with Governor, and there was Moneylender to trash out Copper.  In the end though, as always, the megaturn is a complete flop.  It's so hard to ever have more than one Governor in hand!  The +3 Cards option simply does not seem to work.