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1

Variants and Fan Cards / Fan Card Mechanics Week 89: Workers

« on: Today at 08:40:07 am »

This week's challenge is to use D782802859's Worker. You will design a Worker and a Kingdom card that would bring that Worker into the Kingdom. Below is a brief explanation.

Workers are non-Supply piles of cards with five cards in them each. When you buy a copy of a Worker, it goes in front of you face-down. The backs are different. At any point during your Action phase, you can over-turn a Worker to receive the effect on the card. You can only over-turn a worker once per turn and you can only have one worker at a time. During your Cleanup phase, you return all face-up Workers to their pile.

Below are some Worker examples.

My main judging criteria is whether I would be excited to see the design in a Kingdom. Important factors:
* balance: is it useful, but not overpowered (both in general and in a variety of Kingdoms)
* playability: it is fun to play and works with more than one type of deck
* simplicity: this doesn't always mean fewer words; a card with lots of text that, once you understand it, can be easily and intuitively be played is better than one with four lines of text that is difficult to understand
* topicality: designs something within the specifications presented

Have fun! I look forward to seeing your entries.

2

Variants and Fan Cards / Fan Card Mechanics Week 87: Seed mat

« on: April 08, 2024, 09:58:37 am »

Howdy All,

This week's mechanic is to make a card or Horizontal that would work well with czzzz's Seed Mat. Let me know which version you use (A or B). Version-A:

Seeds...they don't do much. But sow (shuffle?) them and you get Trees! You could always cut them down, but you're no Woodcutter. Let them live and you'll see the Fruits of your labor, something to feed the Horses.

Seeds
When you shuffle, +1 Fruits for each Trees you have.
Move all your Seeds to Trees.
During your Buy phase, you may remove Trees for +$1 and +1 Buy each; and remove Fruits to gain a Horse onto your deck for each.

Version-B:

Seeds
When you shuffle, +1 Fruits for each Trees you have.
Move all your Seeds to Trees.
During your Buy phase, you may remove Trees for +$1 and +1 Buy each; and remove Fruits to gain a Spoil for each.

My main judging criteria is whether I would be excited to see the design in a Kingdom. Important factors:
* balance: is the mat useful, but not overpowered (both in general and in a variety of Kingdoms)
* playability: the mat is fun to play and works with more than one type of deck
* simplicity: this doesn't always mean fewer words; a mat with lots of text that, once you understand it, can be easily and intuitively be played is better than one with four lines of text that is difficult to understand
* topicality: designs something within the specifications presented

Have fun! I look forward to seeing your entries.

3

Dominion General Discussion / Horizontal Card backs

« on: March 18, 2024, 09:11:33 am »

I was wondering if anyone could direct me to card backs not readily available on dominionstrategy.com...Landscape. Specifically the one that are not there Events, Landmarks, States, Ways, and Traits. Otherwise, would anyone be willing to design these?

4

Variants and Fan Cards / Fan Card Mechanics Week 84: Multi-part mat

« on: February 23, 2024, 09:56:25 am »

Fan Card Mechanics Week 84: Multi-part mat

Howdy All,

This week's mechanic is a multi-part mat. Your objective is to design a mat that has two or three parts. My thought was the winner would use that mat for the next contest where we would design a card that would work well with this week's winning mat. An example could be something like:
"Nuts: Directly after playing an Action card, you may remove a token from here for +1 Action and +1 Buy. At the start of your turn if you have three tokens here, you may move one token to Banana.
Banana: After trashing a card, you may remove a token here for +1 Card."

My main judging criteria is whether I would be excited to see the design in a Kingdom. Important factors:
* balance: is the mat useful, but not overpowered (both in general and in a variety of Kingdoms)
* playability: the mat is fun to play and works with more than one type of deck
* simplicity: this doesn't always mean fewer words; a mat with lots of text that, once you understand it, can be easily and intuitively be played is better than one with four lines of text that is difficult to understand
* topicality: designs something within the specifications presented

Since entries seam to be in short supply as of late, I'll run the contest for a minimum of a seven days, but long enough to garner four entries. Then i'll provide a deadline notice.

Have fun! I look forward to seeing your entries.

So i have been giving the winner of the last contest some time to get another contest together, but it has been several weeks now.

5

Variants and Fan Cards / Fan Card Mechanics Week 82: Pupil

« on: January 11, 2024, 11:32:25 pm »

Howdy All,

This week's mechanic is Pupil, a mat that i found on Reddit. This is the best use of a +1 Card token i have found to date. The mat states:
"Pupil: Directly after playing an Action card, you may remove a token from here for +1 Card."

Your task is to design a card that would use this mat well.

Here are two of the Author's cards:

My main judging criteria is whether I would be excited to see the design in a Kingdom. Important factors:
* balance: is the card useful, but not overpowered (both in general and in a variety of Kingdoms)
* playability: the card is fun to play and works with more than one type of deck
* simplicity: this doesn't always mean fewer words; a card with lots of text that, once you understand it, can be easily and intuitively be played is better than one with four lines of text that is difficult to understand
* topicality: uses this mechanic in an interesting way

Since entries seam to be in short supply as of late, I'll run the contest for a minimum of a seven days, but long enough to garner four entries. Then i'll provide a deadline notice.

Have fun! I look forward to seeing your entries.

So i was a little surprised i won the last contest. I was also not prepared, but this offered the opportunity to review other mechanics and now i have some ideas ready for next time. If you need some ideas, there are plenty here:

6

Dominion General Discussion / Allies' split piles & Ally

« on: January 03, 2024, 01:30:17 pm »

Context:
We got Allies about two months a ago and have used it about a dozen times. While initially i was excited to get this expansion, my interest after playing has waned.

Split Piles:
How often in games where you have a four-card split pile do you even have the opportunity to buy the fourth card? We have never had a game where the fourth card was available to buy. I even had one game where i used four of the six, while most games had one and maybe 1/3 had none. I wonder if part of the issue is the pile does not scale to player count. I wonder is part of the issue is that four different cards is too much for one pile.

Allies:
The consensus at our house seams to be "unimpressed". We have never used the same Ally, but they were fairly meaningless in all but one game.

7

Dominion General Discussion / Card Tray design by BryGuy

« on: November 21, 2023, 02:49:08 pm »

I was thinking about making something like the rendering below. This one measures 18 inches across. Has six places for cards to sit upright and three places for Horizontals to sit upright. This has 12 spots for cards to rest on their back along the perimeter and four places in the center for Trash, Horse, Loots, Spoils, Curses, etc. The 12 spots between the cards could hold the chits used for Villagers, Coffers, etc. and enough for the Victory tokens too. Thoughts before i commit to expending resources?

8

Variants and Fan Cards / Fan Card Mechanics week 77: Trope (Horizontal)

« on: November 08, 2023, 11:31:08 am »

.           
Howdy All,

This week's mechanic is Trope, a new kind of Horizontal. Like how Traits affect a Kingdom pile, Tropes affect every player's Deck the same. There would be only one Trope used per game unless something explicitly stated otherwise.
.           
Your task is to design a Trope that would work well.

Here is a Trope made from one of DXV's Projects:


Here are two of the five i have made:


.           
My main judging criteria is whether I would be excited to see the design in a Kingdom. Important factors:
* balance: is the card useful, but not overpowered (both in general and in a variety of Kingdoms)
* playability: the card is fun to play and works with more than one type of deck
* simplicity: this doesn't always mean fewer words; a card with lots of text that, once you understand it, can be easily and intuitively be played is better than one with four lines of text that is difficult to understand
* topicality: uses this mechanic in an interesting way

Since entries seam to be in short supply as of late, I'll run the contest for a minimum of a ten days, but long enough to garner three entries. Then i'll provide a deadline notice.
.           
Have fun! I look forward to seeing your entries.
.           
Secret History: Shortly after i saw Traits, i though why not something to affect each player's deck, so i started to design some Tropes.

9

Variants and Fan Cards / Fan Card Mechanics Week 74: Tiny Isle

« on: October 02, 2023, 05:23:57 pm »

This week's mechanic is Tiny Isle, a mat for each player that note:
At the start of your turn, when there are more than five cards on this, move all cards in excess of five from this mat into your Hand.

Your task is to design a card or Horizontal that would work well in a set with this mat.

My main judging criteria is whether I would be excited to see the design in a Kingdom. Important factors:
* balance: is the card useful, but not overpowered at its price point (both in general and in a variety of Kingdoms)
* playability: the card is fun to play and works in more than one type of deck
* simplicity: this doesn't always mean fewer words; a card with lots of text that, once you understand it, can be easily and intuitively be played is better than one with four lines of text that is difficult to understand
* topicality: the card or Horizontal uses this mechanic in an interesting way

I'll provide a notice when the deadline is approaching.

Have fun! I look forward to seeing your entries.

Secret History: While I like the Exile mat, I was wondering if there were other similar mat ideas where cards went but had other mechanisms that returned the cards to your Deck. The two ideas I kept are Geyser (Fan Mechanic 68) and Tiny Isle (Fan Mechanic 74).

10

Dominion Online at Shuffle iT / Weaver issues 20230917

« on: September 19, 2023, 07:54:46 am »

Two days ago i had a Weaver, but it never allowed me to use the "gain a card costing up to $4" option. It would only give me two Silvers.

11

Variants and Fan Cards / Fan Card Mechanics Week 68: Geyser mat

« on: June 24, 2023, 05:30:15 pm »

Design a card around this mat:

Geyser
Mat
If there are are any cards on this mat, at the start of your Buy phase, reveal your Deck's top card, if it is a Victory, take Blast.

Blast
State
At the start of your Action phase, place all cards from Geyser into your Hand. Return Blast.

Secret History: While I like the Exile mat, I was wondering if there were other similar mat ideas where cards went but had other mechanisms that returned the cards to your Deck. The two ideas I kept are Geyser (Fan Mechanic 68) and Tiny Isle (Fan Mechanic 74).

12

General Discussion / Dominion terms

« on: May 03, 2023, 09:51:27 pm »

I'm learning German. I find it interesting how "Koffer" means suitcase and how many English words are translated into German by changing the "c" to a "k". An example: (English) camera = Kamera (German)

13

Variants and Fan Cards / Dominion: Experimental

« on: January 27, 2023, 10:41:48 am »

Howdy All, 
I am embarking upon developing set-5, Experimental, an Alchemy reformulated set. I am soliciting constructive criticism on these cards before expending a large effort to print. Please be mindful some of these are not entirely my idea, but are helpful to see the whole set. About 60% of cards by count are mostly mine.

It appears that Alchemy was rushed to publication and did not get the level of play-testing it deserved. The following cards offer fans a set to enhance their enjoyment of this expansion. To understand why this new set was developed, it is helpful to understand Alchemy's four main issues.

Issue-1, Alchemy's economy. The Treasure “Potion” is the only card to provide Potions. There are no other Treasures cards, Action cards, or Ways to provide potions. Playing games with Alchemy in this limited state is akin to playing other expansions without Silver or Gold, or any Action that provides coins. While, it can be done, why make it so difficult? To improve the economy, this set offers many solutions. There are Treasure-Magic cards added as an additional Base card pile – each providing both Potion and Coin. This set introduces Elixir, what Coffers does for coins Elixir offers for Potion, a Potion on demand. There are Treasure-Duration cards, Actions that provide Potion, and many other economic support cards not unlike what is found in other expansions, but tailored to Alchemy.

Issue-2, Alchemy does not provide any double or triple potion costing cards. This limits Potion's usefulness and renders Potion as a mere gimmick instead an alternative game currency - its original intent. This is remedied by providing several, almost 30% by card count, cards that cost more than one potion.

Issue-3, Alchemy does not provide enough Potion costing Victory cards and in predominate Alchemy games, should offer an alternative to Provinces. Both of thes are in Experimental - Parish ($3P) compliments Duchy and County ($4PP) replaces Province in predominately Alchemy games. Principality ($5PPP), like Colony, also ends the game when depleted. Experimental also offers several others alternative Victory options, including Landmarks.

Issue-4, Alchemy does not offer features found in other sets. Experimental offers four split piles, a traveler series, Ways, Events, Projects, a Spirit and its fetch, some Action-Duration cards, and some other cards found in many expansions.

With multiple currencies, this enables card cost to be variable. Some card's cost is noted as “?” and that is explained on the bottom of the card. This also allows some cards to be flexible enough to work well outside of this set. Multiple potion costs opens the possibility to use another symbol to represent this. The purple potion on M-Medicine, which provides two potions, will be used to represent double potion in the cost. Triple potion cost will be one purple and one blue potion.

In addition, Experimental suggests to retire some cards that are subpar at best and some that most players agree they are not worthy to continue. Experimental will retired the following cards: Familiar, Philosopher's Stone, and Possession.

Also, Experimental suggests to adjust a few original cards to bring them into greater alignment. University is adjusted to include Potion cost in its gaining, now Manifest Spell. All of Transmute's gains are adjusted to more align with this set. As suggested by DXV and others, the attack portion of Scrying Pool is removed, now Scrying Season. Ultimately, only Vineyard, Herbalist, Apothecary, Alchemist, Golem, and Apprentice remain unchanged.

Another way to improve Alchemy is to offer a few simple (vanilla) cards with Potion in its cost. While this started with five, three morphed and now there is only two.

Here are some sources of inspiration. I have borrowed many of these cards, name, and pictures. Thank you to all who have created card ideas or offered constructive criticism. Attribution is noted on each cards where appropriate.


Here are some cards to address issue-1, issue-3, and issue-4 by herw

Here are some cards to address issue-4 by The Alchemist.

Here are some cards to address issue-3 and issue-4 by Shael.

Here are some cards to address issue-4 by ClouduHieh.

Here are some vanilla cards and others by n_sanity.

Alchemy's Secret History.

Additional Experimental Rules: In games using these cards, include no less than two Experimental cards and add Parish to the Base cards. In games using three or more Experimental cards or at least two double or any triple potion costing cards, add M-Chalice, M-Medicine, and M-Flame, and to the Base cards. In games using five or more Experimental cards, replace Provinces with County, and add Quicksilver, M-Vapor, Principality, and Alchemical Exchange to the Base cards. Game ending is modified to either three piles are empty, County pile is empty, or Principality pile is empty.

So at almost 1000 cards by printed card count, lets get to the cards. First lets start with Base cards. 

14

Variants and Fan Cards / deviation from convention

« on: January 10, 2023, 10:53:06 am »

I was curious what others are doing in term of deviating their fan made card from the printed sets. I have slowly made a few minor changes to improve my fan cards.

For example, i will be using Shelter's red for half the colorization on my future cards where other players need to pay attention to alert them to activities they must or can do when not their turn. This would be especially helpful for cards like Council Room, Vault, Bishop, Lost City, and any Attack type.

Another example is that i will be printing only eight, instead of ten, cards for Attack types and cards that cost $6 or more, unless they are Victory type. We almost never deplete a supply pile so ten cards is super generous in most cases. Ten cards is predicated upon 2/player X 5 players.

All of my cards that include negative Victory have been given the type Cursed - it is only 21 cards, ten of which are in split piles. The card named "Curse" is considered of type "Cursed".

15

Variants and Fan Cards / Jinx Cards

« on: December 01, 2022, 10:34:53 am »

So i like kru5h's idea of Jinx. http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=16396.msg897907#msg897907
Using the idea that at the end of the game if a Landmark has not modified their use, 6 Jinx = -1 Victory. This may needs some clarification of partial Jinx. For me, i'd go with 5 rounds-up and 4 rounds-down.

Anyway, i made some cards. I started with a card Commodore Chuckles designed, Dark Village. I reviewed some other vanilla cards http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Vanilla adding the Jinx, but then also added the -1 Victory. To balance the -1 Victory i either reduced the cost by one or added another bonus. Further i thought these piles may never empty, so i decided to have these as split piles. From there it got a little out of control. I'm a fan of using cards in more than a narrow niche, so each card is used in two split piles. Here is the outcome.







[/size]









Some of the name changes had more to do with finding decent artwork, than clinging to tradition. Each set should have some trashing ability. Most sets have some additional buy ability, which i find is lacking in many real-life games i play. I'd appreciate some constructive comments before i print these and playtest them.

20221202: Updated the cards.

16

Variants and Fan Cards / BryGuy's printed Horizontals both borrowed & original

« on: October 17, 2022, 10:30:55 am »

So thank you all for so many great ideas many of which lead to ideas of my own. Below are the various landscapes that i have printed, some are mine and some are others. The attribution is on the card.

* Gopher is a token that can be traded for a future Buy, just like Coffer and Villager for future coins and actions respectively.
* A Crystal is a Treasure-Curse: $2, -2 Victory.
* A Spell is an Action-Cursed card: +1 Card, +1 Action, -1 Victory. I borrowed from Carline.

Landmarks:



Projects:







Events:





Artifacts:


States:

I have several cards that include the language on Nice. So i made this state to reduce words on those cards and make tracking a little easier. While most are a simple take Nice, Carline's Tale-Teller will take several.


Edicts:
 



So little space on these cards, had to use a different format for this one.

My general policy on Edicts is that if they can be made into an Event or a Project, then i'll do that instead.

17

Variants and Fan Cards / Dominion: Barter & Trade

« on: September 22, 2022, 12:22:02 am »

So my idea for Barter & Trade is a collection of cards that interact with other players to some degree, but light on trashing other's cards and dispensing Curses. This is an attempt to move my Dominion games away from multiplayer solitaire.

Pass Cards are passed to the right at the start of the Clean phase and put into that player's play area. Since already in play they do not use an Action, but must be played first, like Durations. Passed cards are not Gained, but in rotation. When returned to original player they are placed into their discard. If trashed by non-owner then returned to owner's discard pile instead. You may place your color token on the card to track.

Seams like i play many games where i don't have the extra buy when i need it so i made Gopher. Like Coffers for coins and Villagers for actions, Gophers are for future buys.

5 Action & Pass


2 Treasure & Pass


1 Victory & Pass


2 Actions


1 Action Duration

All too often other players leave their extra Buys unused.

1 Action Reaction


1 Night (This goes with 5 states.)




2 Events


Action that goes with the Event - 1 set of 20


Cards others have made:
LastFootNote's Almoner
ku5h's Angry Mob
4est's Ark
Mahowrath's Beguiler
Co0kieL0rd's Blueprint
Carline's Bootleg
spheremonk's Caravel
spheremonk's Carrack
Carline's Concillor
Carline's Janus
scolapasta's Informant
Co0kieL0rd's Iron Smelt
Timinou's Looking Glass
4est's Pilgrim & Path
Xen3k's Pigeon
Carline's Privilege
ku5h's Rabbits
Erick648's Santa's Workshop
Co0kieL0rd's Seeker
Carline's Shenanigans
ku5h's Tailor
Co0kieL0rd's Tolkeeper
Asper's Traitor
4est's Will
Xen3k's Yule Festival

A few cards from bought sets
Original's Council Room
Seaside's Monkey
Seaside's Smugglers
Seaside's Pirate
Prosperity's Bishop
Prosperity's Vault
Hinterlands's Fools Gold
Hinterlands's Embassy
Adventures's Lost City
Empire's Chariot Race
Empire's Gladiator / Fortune
Empire's Farmers' Market
Empire's Temple
Empire's Wild Hunt
Renaissance's Border Guard
Renaissance's Flag Bearer
Renaissance's Swashbuckler
Renaissance's Treasurer
Menagerie's Falconer
Promo's Envoy

Cards others made that i altered

18

Introductions / Howdy y'all

« on: September 14, 2022, 04:12:32 pm »

I'm Bryan. I have been playing dominion for so long i had to see when Dark Ages came out so i knew about how long - apparently before Aug 2012. At our house we love table top games and play one almost weekly. I started with the original and quickly got Intrigue. I eventually got Prosperity and Hinterlands. Sadly i didn't get Seaside until recently, or maybe not so recently. Recently I have been purchasing one expansion each year. I got Nocturne this year, Dark Ages last year, and going back each year: Mix Box (Cornucopia & Guilds), Seaside, maybe Renaissance and Adventures together. My plan is to get Empire next. I'm saving Alchemy for last.

I have been quite impressed with all the fan cards that i have seen. I have quite a few ideas myself i plan to share once i get them organized and play tested first. I think i'll start with a set with more interaction not just attacks.

ttfn