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1

Variants and Fan Cards / New Ruins and Looter Ideas

« on: November 17, 2021, 03:39:50 pm »

Here are my ideas for 3 more Ruins, and a fix to an existing Ruin:

Ruins are inspired from base Dominion set, buildings rather than people.

- 3 new Ruins
- - Abandoned Chapel = "You may trash up to 2 cards from your hand" - Two fewer cards to trash than Chapel, costs 2 less
- - Ruined Workshop = "Gain a card from the trash worth up to $4" - Trash has mostly worthless cards, unless...
- - Vacant Throne = "You may play a Ruins card from your hand twice" - Meh, unless you have other Ruins you want to play...

- "Fix" to existing:
- - Ruined Village = "+2 Actions; Discard a card." - This makes sense since Necropolis is worth $1. Now not totally worthless

2 new Looters:

The problem with Looters is, there doesn't seem to be enough. I basically repurposed broken or overpowered cards.
2 new Looters (same artwork as removed Saboteur; Donald X has commented that Rebuild should be removed in future.)
- - Saboteur ($4) = "+$2; Each other player either discards 2 cards or gains a Ruins to their hand, their choice. (They may pick an option they can't do.)"  A hybrid of Militia and Torturer. The artwork seems to inspire Ruins.
- - Rebuild ($5) = "Trash a card from your hand. Gain a card costing up to 2 more than it. If the gained card is an Action or Treasure, put it onto your deck; if it's a Victory card, each other player gains a Ruins." A variant of Replace.

My apologies if someone has posted ideas along these lines before, I haven't read everything here.  (Also, I don't know how to attach images.)

Enjoy!
Nate

"If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all" - my Mom

2

Variants and Fan Cards / Black Market variants

« on: October 28, 2021, 01:36:54 am »

Years ago I meddled with the idea of a Black Market (hereafter BM, I apologize for the resemblance to another acronym) variant.  I had cool artwork and a bunch of other stuff. Basically I never got around to sharing the idea. I must be getting old now because I am losing patience.

Here were some of the concepts I designed, take them and run with it if you so desire:
- Wizard: an Action card and BM variant that allows one to purchase cards from a side deck of Alchemy expansion which are unused in kingdom, but gives plus potion and plus coin, possibly reducing the need for potion purchases
- Pirate: an Action card allowing purchase of unused Seaside expansion cards in a side deck
- Spy: Bm variant for unused Intrigue cards
- etc

Then the next thing would be including this concept in larger expansions going forward,  as a way to introduce new cards into play or add more variety for that Fairgrounds strategy.

Yep you guessed it, then I would want an epic Dominion game with 10 bm variants representing 10 different expansions.

Wrap your head around that one...

Nate

3

Variants and Fan Cards / Borrowing concepts from Magic

« on: October 28, 2021, 01:21:02 am »

So it looks to me like the latest release of Magic the Gathering: Midnight Hunt has "borrowed" the idea of a Day vs Night phase from Dominion Nocturne.  I got to admit,  it's pretty cool. The previous Magic release borrowed ideas from Dungeons and Dragons.

In another post, I analyzed in detail one of my favorite concepts in Magic, that of cards which "flip" (typically werewolves but there are a few other kinds.)

Another one of my favorite concepts is that of the alt win, which in Magic exists in cards like "Near Death Experience", "Revel in Riches", etc. We see this in Dominion as "Gardens", "Duke", the victory tokens in Prosperity,  etc.

What are some of your favorite concepts in Magic, which have no clear resemblance in Dominion as of yet? (Note: Mr. Donald X has greatly contributed to the design of Magic also.)

Nate

4

Variants and Fan Cards / Flips

« on: October 27, 2021, 09:59:41 am »

One concept that has not been implemented in Dominion, which has been implemented in its sister game Magic: The Gathering, is the idea of cards that flip. While this may make shuffling a challenge, cards could be inserted into card sleeves, similar to what is often done in Magic, as the cards themselves are similar sized. In addition to providing more gameplay variety (and a slight increase in complexity), this could also reduce some needs for storage space.

Obvious examples: Cards which are already directly related.
-Hermit / Madman - No need for separate pile, requires less tablespace.
-Urchin / Mercenary
-Vampire / Bat
-Starting Estates / Shelters - Determine which side you start with, based on kingdom cards present for a given game as in the rulebook.
-Page / Traveler line - No more looking for the card to exchange into. It's right there on the back.
-Peasant / Traveler line - Same as Page note.


Not-so-obvious examples: Cards not directly related, but could be.
-Squire / Knights - When Squire is "trashed" (by any other card, Chapel or Remodel, etc.) can advance into a Knight, or any other card. Just because a Padawan was studying to be a Jedi, does not mean they did not fall to the dark side...
-Ruins / Base card - Matching the Art Trivia comment from Donald X. Only exception is Survivors / Rabble.  Now if a card dishes out a Ruins to you, you have the option, if you can pull it off, to Remodel or Upgrade or Expand that Village back into a Walled Village: the people learned the value of a good defense going forward.  Or, if your card is trashed (by a Knight, Swindler, etc.) and you have a Ruin option, you may choose to Ruin it rather than trash it.
-Starting Coppers / Heirlooms - Same as Shelters note. Except Mirror could have backside of Ghost...
- Catacombs?
- Rats?
- Tragic Hero?
- Mining Village? - I wouldn't consider this a "one-shot" because trashing is optional; versus Embargo where trashing is mandatory.

Generally speaking...
- Bad candidates for Flips: Non-action cards - Victory, Treasure, Duration, Reaction, etc. Action cards that give VP coins. Victory would be worst because the penalty would be fewer points at the end.  Durations and Reactions complicated enough. Treasure might work as a flip in fringe cases, like Heirlooms perhaps. One shots would be bad for Flips because how would you ever unlock the other side? Plus having one shots go to the trash helps cards like Rogue, Lurker, Graverobber.
- Good candidates for Flips : Action cards which are similar functionally and thematically, but differ in price. Cards which trash or discard into other cards are ideal. Also if the cards are similar, you probably wouldn't want both in the same kingdom anyhow. For example, Smithy could discard (like a Traveler) into Torturer (i.e. he found a new use for his tools... ahem...) because you probably wouldn't want both in the same 10 card kingdom set. Or Young Witch can discard into Old Witch, etc.

Nate