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Dominion FAQ / Re: How many people have Gold Memberships on Dominion Online?
« on: April 11, 2020, 10:47:01 pm »
I bought a Gold to play during the lockdown.
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Variants and Fan Cards / Re: [Release] Dominion: Antiquities!
« on: April 08, 2020, 10:34:20 am »Thanks for sharing your Python randomizer code.
There's actually a site for it, too:
https://dominion-randomizer.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/randomizer.html
I need to update it to handle Menagerie, though, as well as implement love and ban lists.
Note on my randomizer: you may notice (depending on the version you use) that I use some alternative ways of determining inclusion of stuff like Platinums + Colonies. This is partly because if you have all the sets (something I do irl, except Menagerie hasn't arrived yet) then you will find that the probability of getting Platinums and Colonies is pretty bad.
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Variants and Fan Cards / Re: [Release] Dominion: Antiquities!
« on: April 03, 2020, 04:17:46 pm »
Remember this?
Errata:
The "Memory mat" used by Mausoleum should be considered the Exile mat.
Errata:
The "Memory mat" used by Mausoleum should be considered the Exile mat.
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Variants and Fan Cards / Re: New fan based alchemy cards.
« on: April 01, 2019, 10:47:39 pm »
Botanist to me makes perfect sense; it's a little weird though because it seems pretty hard to make the VP payoff work, and costly to make it work consistently. This could lead to people being frustrated if the Botanist pile starts filling up with VPs that nobody can get... then later, one player scores and makes off with a huge pile of VPs.
That could be the point, though.
That could be the point, though.
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Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Indian Reservation
« on: March 27, 2019, 10:15:02 am »
I know there was a request for us not to talk about the name, but I think there's a possibility to learn here. Here's my thoughts on the matter.
For "credentials" I ran a long-running modding series for Civ V focused on indigenous peoples and only got called a racist once.
In the U.S.:
The legal/agreed term for indigenous people (based on the majority of American treaties signed) is "Native American". I can't comment much on the nuances of the term in legal use, I'm Canadian.
In Canada:
The legal/agreed term for (most) indigenous people (based on the majority of British treaties signed) is "First Nation". Additionally, when you go to a reserve in Canada, you're actually entering a... sort of... other country. First Nations in Canada enjoy a certain degree of sovereignty. Technically it's like being a country of your own where everyone is a dual-citizen; you could be Blackfoot, but then (assuming you live on a Canadian reserve) Canadian at the same time. First Nations can have their own laws, legal government bodies, even have absolute rulers via birth heredity, as long as those laws don't get overturned by Canada directly (which is rare, but say, slavery is not allowed) and of course illegal actions involving Canadians (which is the First Nations members as well) are also going to get prosecuted by Canada if they get attention.
There's a bunch of extra comments in the above which may sound judgemental (hereditary rulers, slaves) but those are actual cases that I brought up to show the variances in how much sovereignty you have.
So how does this pertain to this card? I'd say this card is reminiscent of Native Village and that's the whole reason for the current name. So I'd suggest "Native Freehold" or something of the sort, using "Native-" with some sort of idea of independent self-rule, possibly shared by agreement with you, the player.
For "credentials" I ran a long-running modding series for Civ V focused on indigenous peoples and only got called a racist once.
In the U.S.:
The legal/agreed term for indigenous people (based on the majority of American treaties signed) is "Native American". I can't comment much on the nuances of the term in legal use, I'm Canadian.
In Canada:
The legal/agreed term for (most) indigenous people (based on the majority of British treaties signed) is "First Nation". Additionally, when you go to a reserve in Canada, you're actually entering a... sort of... other country. First Nations in Canada enjoy a certain degree of sovereignty. Technically it's like being a country of your own where everyone is a dual-citizen; you could be Blackfoot, but then (assuming you live on a Canadian reserve) Canadian at the same time. First Nations can have their own laws, legal government bodies, even have absolute rulers via birth heredity, as long as those laws don't get overturned by Canada directly (which is rare, but say, slavery is not allowed) and of course illegal actions involving Canadians (which is the First Nations members as well) are also going to get prosecuted by Canada if they get attention.
There's a bunch of extra comments in the above which may sound judgemental (hereditary rulers, slaves) but those are actual cases that I brought up to show the variances in how much sovereignty you have.
So how does this pertain to this card? I'd say this card is reminiscent of Native Village and that's the whole reason for the current name. So I'd suggest "Native Freehold" or something of the sort, using "Native-" with some sort of idea of independent self-rule, possibly shared by agreement with you, the player.
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Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Snowline fan-based expansion.
« on: March 21, 2019, 10:12:43 am »
I'm glad to hear that you're getting to test your cards with friends! It's a good feeling.
I like Crossbow; the top is a bit busy for my liking, but I really like the idea of having in hang out in reserve until I either sacrifice a hand to get it back, or have a bad hand and take the chance to hit the other players.
I like Crossbow; the top is a bit busy for my liking, but I really like the idea of having in hang out in reserve until I either sacrifice a hand to get it back, or have a bad hand and take the chance to hit the other players.
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Variants and Fan Cards / Re: A Dominion Fan Card Creation Guide
« on: March 21, 2019, 10:07:23 am »
From my own experience working on my Antiquities fan-set, I'd suggest this Addendum to Part II:
Cards that have a significant difference in power based on the number of players in the game.
I'm going to give an example so obvious that it's almost absurd:
"Taxes - Treasure - $5
+$1 for each other player"
This is a horrible idea, but maybe it sounds good to you when you came up with it. But how much *should* it cost? In a four player game, it should clearly cost $6. In a two player game, it should cost $0.
Obviously, this can come in much more subtle forms:
"Cursed Idol - Treasure - Reaction - $4
Whenever an other player plays a Cursed Idol, you can reveal this from your hand.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3 Money.
At the end of your turn, if any player revealed a Cursed Idol when you played this card, gain two Curses."
This seems much more balanced, but it still is better when you only have to run the gauntlet of one other player instead of 3 or 5.
Cards that have a significant difference in power based on the number of players in the game.
I'm going to give an example so obvious that it's almost absurd:
"Taxes - Treasure - $5
+$1 for each other player"
This is a horrible idea, but maybe it sounds good to you when you came up with it. But how much *should* it cost? In a four player game, it should clearly cost $6. In a two player game, it should cost $0.
Obviously, this can come in much more subtle forms:
"Cursed Idol - Treasure - Reaction - $4
Whenever an other player plays a Cursed Idol, you can reveal this from your hand.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3 Money.
At the end of your turn, if any player revealed a Cursed Idol when you played this card, gain two Curses."
This seems much more balanced, but it still is better when you only have to run the gauntlet of one other player instead of 3 or 5.
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Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Indian Reservation
« on: March 20, 2019, 06:56:28 pm »
To echo AJD, I'd write this something like this:
First Nation [Action-Duration] $4.
Set aside a non-Duration card from your hand.
Now and at the start of your next turn,
play the set aside card.
You don't need to set aside the card face down, especially since you're about to play it immediately, making it not a secret to anyone what card it is and what it does.
I renamed the card because I'm Canadian and politics. (First Nation is the legal term for (most) Indian uhhh groups.)
Technically, this also allows you to play Victory cards and Curses. They would do nothing, but they'd be in play-ish.
First Nation [Action-Duration] $4.
Set aside a non-Duration card from your hand.
Now and at the start of your next turn,
play the set aside card.
You don't need to set aside the card face down, especially since you're about to play it immediately, making it not a secret to anyone what card it is and what it does.
I renamed the card because I'm Canadian and politics. (First Nation is the legal term for (most) Indian uhhh groups.)
Technically, this also allows you to play Victory cards and Curses. They would do nothing, but they'd be in play-ish.
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Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Where to buy blank cards?
« on: March 14, 2019, 12:49:21 pm »
My understanding is that Board Game Geek did have an exclusive deal at one point; along with promos, this was Donald X's way of supporting the site.
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Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Really bad card ideas
« on: March 14, 2019, 10:41:55 am »Ooh - interesting.
There's some fairly deep game theory, especially with more than two players. But there's also the risk that the person who ends the game will grab one.
Things get really fraught in conjunction with Fleet...
The best way to stop the person who ends the game from grabbing an 11VP Oceanfront Property is to buy 3 yourself
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Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Really bad card ideas
« on: March 14, 2019, 10:35:09 am »I made the same mistake and had to go back and fix my comment -- Colony is 10VP, not 11VP.I'm filing this idea under "Really bad card ideas" because I feel like it's intriguing but not worth the trouble of making it work. Sorry if not original:It's not a better Colony for 9, it is a Colony for 9.
Oceanfront Property - Victory -$9
Worth 1VP for each Oceanfront Property in the supply at the end of the game.
Woah, it's a better Colony for $9?? How broken! I'll take 4!
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Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Really bad card ideas
« on: March 13, 2019, 03:16:34 pm »
I'm filing this idea under "Really bad card ideas" because I feel like it's intriguing but not worth the trouble of making it work. Sorry if not original:
Oceanfront Property - Victory -$9
Worth 1VP for each Oceanfront Property in the supply at the end of the game.
Woah, it's a better Colony for $9?? How broken! I'll take 4!
Oceanfront Property - Victory -$9
Worth 1VP for each Oceanfront Property in the supply at the end of the game.
Woah, it's a better Colony for $9?? How broken! I'll take 4!
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Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Witch Hunter
« on: February 25, 2019, 04:28:17 pm »The one who has Witch Hunter in hand discards, right?
Yes; there's the word "Curse" in its text.
Overall this card was meant for musing; It does some things I like, but without another way for your opponents to get Curses, it's not a great card design. On the one hand I like the part where it affects both Curses and Cursers and anti-Cursers. On the other hand I think the best defense against it is to just never buy it.
Edit: the point of taking Fear out of the Hexes pile, besides for the heck of doing something weird, would be to shrink the number of options in the Hex deck, making other Hexes... stronger? weaker? Perhaps I should have designed this around the worst hex, making all other hexes better.
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Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Witch Hunter
« on: February 20, 2019, 11:34:56 am »
Quick comments:
The card is a duration because, at one point, it made people take Fear at the start of their next turn. I decided that was too weak, but forgot to knock off the Duration type.
Fear causes you to discard an Action or Treasure.
Text is the rules part of the card, so it would trigger on Cursed Gold but not Cursed Village; I could add names, or Hexes, to the target.
The card is a duration because, at one point, it made people take Fear at the start of their next turn. I decided that was too weak, but forgot to knock off the Duration type.
Fear causes you to discard an Action or Treasure.
Text is the rules part of the card, so it would trigger on Cursed Gold but not Cursed Village; I could add names, or Hexes, to the target.
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Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion Wild Lands
« on: February 19, 2019, 06:37:18 pm »
Sure, I'll bite. Both cards seem decent as-is.
Black Panther could actually not wait till discard from play to put Actions on your deck, because it's the Night phase; what shenanigans may ensue from you doing it immediately? I'm not sure yet. Black Panther's score rule could use some clarifications; I'm assuming it's 1vp per two attack cards in your deck?
Tribal Dance is good as designed, I think, assuming that you would balance the cost after playtesting; $2 may be too expensive, since the drawback is huge.
If it were up to me, I'd consider giving Tribal Dance a Duration: at the start of next turn, +1 Card in addition to its other effects.
Black Panther could actually not wait till discard from play to put Actions on your deck, because it's the Night phase; what shenanigans may ensue from you doing it immediately? I'm not sure yet. Black Panther's score rule could use some clarifications; I'm assuming it's 1vp per two attack cards in your deck?
Tribal Dance is good as designed, I think, assuming that you would balance the cost after playtesting; $2 may be too expensive, since the drawback is huge.
If it were up to me, I'd consider giving Tribal Dance a Duration: at the start of next turn, +1 Card in addition to its other effects.
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Variants and Fan Cards / Witch Hunter
« on: February 19, 2019, 06:16:36 pm »
This was an attempt at making a card that totally would never fit into my Antiquities set.
It's sort of a card for a set that assumed that you own each and every expansion.
It's not a good card, I'd say, but it's a fun-ish one.
It's sort of a card for a set that assumed that you own each and every expansion.
Quote
Witch Hunter - Action-Duration-Attack - $5
+2 Cards
+1 Action
Each other player draws a card, then reveals their hand. If a player reveals a card with the word "Curse" in its text or types, he or she receives Fear.
-
Setup: Set Fear aside face up.
It's not a good card, I'd say, but it's a fun-ish one.
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Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Roles
« on: February 14, 2019, 12:30:07 pm »
An interesting way to implement a similar which is a bit different, perhaps, is to give everyone this at the start of the game, replacing one of their starting cards.
[Hidden Destiny] -- $0?
Exchange this for a card in the Kingdom. If you do, take debt equal to that card's cost.
Type Shelter?
[Hidden Destiny] -- $0?
Exchange this for a card in the Kingdom. If you do, take debt equal to that card's cost.
Type Shelter?
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Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Roles
« on: February 13, 2019, 06:55:27 pm »
Specifics aside, the idea has merit, as it's already featured heavily in games like the DC Deckbuilder, Mystic Vale, etc.
There is of course a "take it or leave it" type of thing; many Dominion fans like the fact that all players start on a relatively level playing field; many players can't even stand the typical 4/3 vs 5/2 unevenness.
You don't have to be one of them, it's okay to like something that many players may not.
Note: written before Asper posted.
There is of course a "take it or leave it" type of thing; many Dominion fans like the fact that all players start on a relatively level playing field; many players can't even stand the typical 4/3 vs 5/2 unevenness.
You don't have to be one of them, it's okay to like something that many players may not.
Note: written before Asper posted.
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Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Playtesting and Printing non-Fan Cards?
« on: February 13, 2019, 02:36:59 pm »You could use blank cards, and pull up an image of the fan card on a phone for reference. If you don't have blanks, you could use a different stack of kingdom cards and pretend they're he fan card.
ex: take out the pile for cellar, but tell who you're playing with "This pile is "fan card name"."
This.
When testing my Antiquity expansion, I would have a spreadsheet of the rules, like: Card: Ghoul. Rules: It does this. It's being played by: Rabble. etc.
Then, I rotated the Kingdom piles by 90 degrees, to remind players to look at the spreadsheet. After a few times, people got it.
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Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Nobility
« on: February 11, 2019, 03:24:44 pm »
Bonus round:
King's Festival - This card is literally trying to do too many things. But let's say you like it and you don't want it to die... what to do?
I'd suggest moving the "you can pay with actions" part to an event. Add an event, dunno, "King's Favor" that lets you discard Actions to get 1/2 their cost in money.... so "$0. +1 Buy. Discard an Action for +$1 for each $2 it costs, rounded down." Include it in the game whenever King's Festival is in the game. If you want, you could make it so that the event says "You can only buy this when you have King's Favor in play."
Uh then what? move the rest of King's Festival to an event as well. "$*. +1 Buy. Pay what you want, get the rewards." You can also restrict it to when King's Festival is in play.
It's a weird way to implement it, as separate events, but I feel like it'll work better than having everything crammed into one card; at this point you'd almost be better to have the card just say "Please consult the rulebook" rather than trying to tell you what to do.
King's Festival - This card is literally trying to do too many things. But let's say you like it and you don't want it to die... what to do?
I'd suggest moving the "you can pay with actions" part to an event. Add an event, dunno, "King's Favor" that lets you discard Actions to get 1/2 their cost in money.... so "$0. +1 Buy. Discard an Action for +$1 for each $2 it costs, rounded down." Include it in the game whenever King's Festival is in the game. If you want, you could make it so that the event says "You can only buy this when you have King's Favor in play."
Uh then what? move the rest of King's Festival to an event as well. "$*. +1 Buy. Pay what you want, get the rewards." You can also restrict it to when King's Festival is in play.
It's a weird way to implement it, as separate events, but I feel like it'll work better than having everything crammed into one card; at this point you'd almost be better to have the card just say "Please consult the rulebook" rather than trying to tell you what to do.
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Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Nobility
« on: February 11, 2019, 02:34:47 pm »
Frankincense - Solid card. Take another turn with what's left over from your hand, +1 card. Could maybe land you in trouble if one player has a lot of Frankincense, but I like that it doesn't discard from play, so you can only possibly chain 10 turns.
General - Another solid card. But, have you thought of the scenario where I play Big Money + Generals and the only card I ever name is General? This could result in a huge Coffer engine.... OR it could be too slow to matter. And I'd have to avoid buying Duchies.
Guillotine - As everyone else has mentioned, this is super punishing in the early game. Dropping your opponents to 1 Copper, 1 Estate, +1 card is too broken to live. I'd suggest either discarding 1 copy of each card in their hand, or discarding 1 copy of each card in their hand that they have more than one of, or excluding Coppers. Alternative suggestion, make everyone discard down to 1 copy of each card, then draw up to 4 cards.
Heir - I really, really like this card! However, I'd rename the Inheritances to something that doesn't get confused with the current Event, which is a source of so much confusion already.
High Throne - (Side note: I can see it today. Not quite sure what was going on... o.O) This one is okay; I disagree that it's strictly a rehash of a card that Donald tried and gave up on, because of it allowing cards from the discard pile. Were it up to me, I'd actually reverse the... polarity... and make it try your discard pile first before allowing you to play from your hand: "Play a differently named Action card from your discard pile. If you can't, play one from your hand." If not, I think you need to fiddle around with the wording to eliminate the implicit reveal vs an explicit one. Also, I think this should be a Duration card, since it is doing something on this turn and on the next.
General - Another solid card. But, have you thought of the scenario where I play Big Money + Generals and the only card I ever name is General? This could result in a huge Coffer engine.... OR it could be too slow to matter. And I'd have to avoid buying Duchies.
Guillotine - As everyone else has mentioned, this is super punishing in the early game. Dropping your opponents to 1 Copper, 1 Estate, +1 card is too broken to live. I'd suggest either discarding 1 copy of each card in their hand, or discarding 1 copy of each card in their hand that they have more than one of, or excluding Coppers. Alternative suggestion, make everyone discard down to 1 copy of each card, then draw up to 4 cards.
Heir - I really, really like this card! However, I'd rename the Inheritances to something that doesn't get confused with the current Event, which is a source of so much confusion already.
High Throne - (Side note: I can see it today. Not quite sure what was going on... o.O) This one is okay; I disagree that it's strictly a rehash of a card that Donald tried and gave up on, because of it allowing cards from the discard pile. Were it up to me, I'd actually reverse the... polarity... and make it try your discard pile first before allowing you to play from your hand: "Play a differently named Action card from your discard pile. If you can't, play one from your hand." If not, I think you need to fiddle around with the wording to eliminate the implicit reveal vs an explicit one. Also, I think this should be a Duration card, since it is doing something on this turn and on the next.
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Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Nobility
« on: February 08, 2019, 12:30:52 pm »
Continuing...
Before I start, side note, I don't see a "High Throne"... was it removed? Is Aquila that influential? Or is there a problem on my end?
Castle Grounds - Solid. Cost might be too low, even; in some ways, think of it as +3 Actions +1 Card, with the drawback of, you can only use the third +Action to play this, except you can play this to use that Action on itself. But if you, say, played Smithy, drew 3 actions and one of them was this, then it's giving you 3 Actions in principle. Still, not entirely sure. Also, unless you plan on people being able to play this during Buy or Night phase, which I sort of doubt, I suggest replacing the "You may play this..." with what I used for this sort of ability on my Mastermind, (below a line) "Directly after resolving an Action, if you have no unused Actions, you may play this." I don't know, could be confusing, but it borrows from both Reserve calling and Diadem.
City State - I think this is good? It's going to only be worthwhile when you can get at least 4VP for it -- the +2 Actions is not really worthwhile as a functional bonus to your deck, since to make this work you're going to have to have so many other +Actions that the +2 Actions on this won't be impactful other than of course helping the City State score more, which is the point. So you should only really go after this if you can hope to get +32 Actions in your deck or more. That might be a good balance point, might not be. I feel like it might be too weak, really, but, I also feel like the design is solid and that "per 8" is a great knob to turn up or down as testing proves me right or wrong. I would borrow much more closely from Capitalism's wording, though: "Worth 1VP per 8 +Action bonuses in the text of cards you own (round down.)" I think there's a good questions as to whether "bonuses" is the right word for +Actions, it could be "amounts" like in Capitalism but amounts does sound money-like.
Dictator - Wow, I like this design. I'm not sure about balance, but my gut says it's okay; maybe extra powered in a 5/2 vs 4/3 scenario where you buy it asap.
Diviner - Wow, I like this design too. I'm not sure about "put the others back in the same order" because it might be prone to mistakes.
Endowment - it's a cool idea but it needs to somehow limit the targets to non-debt cards or cards with only $ in their costs; past that, I think I'd rewrite the wording to make the timing more explicit: "Starting next turn, directly after playing a card, if your $ is equal or greater that the set-aside card's cost, put..." I know it's a bit more wordy but it removes some of the weirds. Another way you could do this is to put Endowment aside with a number of tokens on it, and then play the card when you have more $ than tokens. Then you don't have to pick your Treasures back up: "Set any Action card from the supply with this and its $ cost in tokens. Starting next turn, after playing a card, if your $ is equal or greater than the number of tokens on the set aside card, play it and return it to the supply."
Before I start, side note, I don't see a "High Throne"... was it removed? Is Aquila that influential? Or is there a problem on my end?
Castle Grounds - Solid. Cost might be too low, even; in some ways, think of it as +3 Actions +1 Card, with the drawback of, you can only use the third +Action to play this, except you can play this to use that Action on itself. But if you, say, played Smithy, drew 3 actions and one of them was this, then it's giving you 3 Actions in principle. Still, not entirely sure. Also, unless you plan on people being able to play this during Buy or Night phase, which I sort of doubt, I suggest replacing the "You may play this..." with what I used for this sort of ability on my Mastermind, (below a line) "Directly after resolving an Action, if you have no unused Actions, you may play this." I don't know, could be confusing, but it borrows from both Reserve calling and Diadem.
City State - I think this is good? It's going to only be worthwhile when you can get at least 4VP for it -- the +2 Actions is not really worthwhile as a functional bonus to your deck, since to make this work you're going to have to have so many other +Actions that the +2 Actions on this won't be impactful other than of course helping the City State score more, which is the point. So you should only really go after this if you can hope to get +32 Actions in your deck or more. That might be a good balance point, might not be. I feel like it might be too weak, really, but, I also feel like the design is solid and that "per 8" is a great knob to turn up or down as testing proves me right or wrong. I would borrow much more closely from Capitalism's wording, though: "Worth 1VP per 8 +Action bonuses in the text of cards you own (round down.)" I think there's a good questions as to whether "bonuses" is the right word for +Actions, it could be "amounts" like in Capitalism but amounts does sound money-like.
Dictator - Wow, I like this design. I'm not sure about balance, but my gut says it's okay; maybe extra powered in a 5/2 vs 4/3 scenario where you buy it asap.
Diviner - Wow, I like this design too. I'm not sure about "put the others back in the same order" because it might be prone to mistakes.
Endowment - it's a cool idea but it needs to somehow limit the targets to non-debt cards or cards with only $ in their costs; past that, I think I'd rewrite the wording to make the timing more explicit: "Starting next turn, directly after playing a card, if your $ is equal or greater that the set-aside card's cost, put..." I know it's a bit more wordy but it removes some of the weirds. Another way you could do this is to put Endowment aside with a number of tokens on it, and then play the card when you have more $ than tokens. Then you don't have to pick your Treasures back up: "Set any Action card from the supply with this and its $ cost in tokens. Starting next turn, after playing a card, if your $ is equal or greater than the number of tokens on the set aside card, play it and return it to the supply."
23
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Nobility
« on: February 07, 2019, 12:00:21 pm »
I will try to be gentle but will rip on a bunch of cards, and praise others. Overall I echo what Aquila said: this is a well-themed set that has had a lot of thought given to it.
Almoner - The wording of this card puts it all over the place. I can see that the design of this card is: if you don't have a thing, get some! But I can't necessarily read it and know what I'm doing. For instance, I think the intent is:
--> If you have one or less cards in your hand after you play this, +2 Cards.
--> If you have spent all of your intangible actions by playing this, +2 Actions.
--> If you reveal your hand and it contains a 0 cost card, + 1 Buy.
--> If you do not have any +$ from Actions in play, +$1
--> If you do not have any Treasures in your hand, receive a Boon.
But this is up for interpretation, for instance it could start by making me reveal my hand, then give me cards if I only reveal 1 or less cards, actions if I reveal no actions, buy if I reveal a $0, $1 if I reveal no Actions with +$1 in my hand, and a Boon if I reveal no Treasures. Which one is it?
In either case I think the text can be streamlined to make the card more clear. Once I have a better understanding of the card, I can comment on power level.
Assassin - hot take: this card needs to die. Nicer take, well, if you're not going to kill it, here's how I'd redesign it:
The two issues I take with it is, 1) "Each other player reveals a copy of the named card, if they can" -- Dominion doesn't work that way, instead Each other player reveals a copy of the named card, or reveals they can't. In which case this messes with the final line, which is that if no-one reveals, you shuffle this card back into your deck. So everyone must reveal, and you're always going to shuffle this card back into your deck... semantics, I know.
2) it does different things at different payments, which I dislike, since you have to balance each payment at powerlevels.... and wordy... and... such.
Here's my thought: why not instead, make it do something like....
It's different, maybe it's bad, maybe I'm bad for disliking this card
It's your expack, do what you want
Audience - I think Audience is great. I think it's probably perfect as-is, unless it should cost $1, not sure. The quibble I have is that it quickly becomes very costly for a small reward; you're only ever going to want to spend more than $1 on it if you KNOW that the payoff is going to worth it. Because a Laboratory with $-1 for $2 is probably good, but a cantrip for $-1 for $2 is not. And a Laboratory with $-2 for $2 is not good, I'd say. So maybe even making Audience give +$2 baseline is okay? But then what's the price value for a +1 Action +$2? Basically a Silver at that point... hmm. Maybe it's not perfect-as-is? It's still a great idea, I just wonder if it's a tad on the weak side right now.
Burgrave - Should probably be recast to use "set aside" wording, i.e., "..gain a card costing $4 or less, setting it aside. Put it in your hand after the attack resolves."
Camarilla - I echo Aquila, this card is nice, I like it a lot. It's a nice variant to Contraband. I assume if you gave it a +1 Buy, however, you have to let someone else dictate your buys twice. Now at that point I assume you go, I have $16, do I buy Colony or Province? They say, Province. You say, I now have $8, do I buy Province or Duchy? etc.
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I'll try to get to 5 more cards later. I tend to do this in batches so I don't get overwhelmed. Or fired.
Almoner - The wording of this card puts it all over the place. I can see that the design of this card is: if you don't have a thing, get some! But I can't necessarily read it and know what I'm doing. For instance, I think the intent is:
--> If you have one or less cards in your hand after you play this, +2 Cards.
--> If you have spent all of your intangible actions by playing this, +2 Actions.
--> If you reveal your hand and it contains a 0 cost card, + 1 Buy.
--> If you do not have any +$ from Actions in play, +$1
--> If you do not have any Treasures in your hand, receive a Boon.
But this is up for interpretation, for instance it could start by making me reveal my hand, then give me cards if I only reveal 1 or less cards, actions if I reveal no actions, buy if I reveal a $0, $1 if I reveal no Actions with +$1 in my hand, and a Boon if I reveal no Treasures. Which one is it?
In either case I think the text can be streamlined to make the card more clear. Once I have a better understanding of the card, I can comment on power level.
Assassin - hot take: this card needs to die. Nicer take, well, if you're not going to kill it, here's how I'd redesign it:
The two issues I take with it is, 1) "Each other player reveals a copy of the named card, if they can" -- Dominion doesn't work that way, instead Each other player reveals a copy of the named card, or reveals they can't. In which case this messes with the final line, which is that if no-one reveals, you shuffle this card back into your deck. So everyone must reveal, and you're always going to shuffle this card back into your deck... semantics, I know.
2) it does different things at different payments, which I dislike, since you have to balance each payment at powerlevels.... and wordy... and... such.
Here's my thought: why not instead, make it do something like....
Quote
Name a non-Victory card. Then, pay any amount of $. For each $ you paid, look at the top card of the Hexes, and choose one. Each other player may discard a copy of the card you named. If they don't, they receive the Hex you chose. If anyone discarded a card, shuffle this into your deck.
It's different, maybe it's bad, maybe I'm bad for disliking this card
It's your expack, do what you want Audience - I think Audience is great. I think it's probably perfect as-is, unless it should cost $1, not sure. The quibble I have is that it quickly becomes very costly for a small reward; you're only ever going to want to spend more than $1 on it if you KNOW that the payoff is going to worth it. Because a Laboratory with $-1 for $2 is probably good, but a cantrip for $-1 for $2 is not. And a Laboratory with $-2 for $2 is not good, I'd say. So maybe even making Audience give +$2 baseline is okay? But then what's the price value for a +1 Action +$2? Basically a Silver at that point... hmm. Maybe it's not perfect-as-is? It's still a great idea, I just wonder if it's a tad on the weak side right now.
Burgrave - Should probably be recast to use "set aside" wording, i.e., "..gain a card costing $4 or less, setting it aside. Put it in your hand after the attack resolves."
Camarilla - I echo Aquila, this card is nice, I like it a lot. It's a nice variant to Contraband. I assume if you gave it a +1 Buy, however, you have to let someone else dictate your buys twice. Now at that point I assume you go, I have $16, do I buy Colony or Province? They say, Province. You say, I now have $8, do I buy Province or Duchy? etc.
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I'll try to get to 5 more cards later. I tend to do this in batches so I don't get overwhelmed. Or fired.
24
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread
« on: January 24, 2019, 09:10:53 am »In games using any cards from (this fan expansion), replace half of the Curse pile with Jinxes and the other half with one of Curios, Heretics, or ***. These cards are both part of the same pile and can be gained or bought in any order.
Who decides which Curse is gained? If I play Witch, do I get to choose whether I hand out Jinxes or say, Heretics? Or does the person being Cursed make the call?
25
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion Exhibition mini set
« on: January 21, 2019, 02:37:09 pm »#11 Dual type
Agent ($4 Action-Victory)
+2 Cards
Move the token on the Agent mat to the next square if possible.
At the end of the game, this is worth the number of points indicated on the square with the Agent token.
Setup: each player puts an Agent token on the first square of their Agent mat.
Extra information: the Agent mat has 16 squares on it with the following labels: 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5.
#12 Non-terminal drawer
Home Laboratory ($4 Action)
+1 Action
Reveal cards from your deck until you reveal 2 cards costing at most $4. Put these into your hand and discard the other revealed cards.
#13 One Shot
Chaplain ($3 Action)
Return this to the Chaplain pile. Trash any number of cards from your hand.
When you buy this, you may trash any number of cards from your hand.
#14 Self synergising
Study ($3 Action)
+1 Card
+1 Action
Reveal your hand. +1 Card for every Study in your hand.
#15 $2
Night Shift ($2 Action)
+1 Card
+1 Action
Gain a coin token.
All cards cost $1 more this turn (before any cost reductions).
More thoughts.
Off the top of my head these 5 cards are all very solid. Nitpicks will abound below.
Agent is good, test for balance of course, but the idea is very sound. It's maybe a bit too powerful with King's Courts and the like, though; I wonder if it should cap at 4VP instead of 5VP; 4VP for a $4 victory is already great. But, there's a risk involved in buying something for $4 that might end up being only 1VP, plus you need to buy this early and use it if it's going to be any reward at all, so you're giving up buying and using other cards; so perhaps the huge payoff is worth the significant strategic risk.
Home Laboratory is a good design as written. It might even be a bit weak; I could see it as a $3 card (compare it to Seer, which is a $5 but can't pick up $0-1 cost junk).
Chaplain is good, a 2-use Chapel of sorts. I think it might need to cost a bit more, though, as it might be too convenient to purchase in early game. I guess the question becomes how powerful the boost is when you buy it turn 1 or 2 to removes some Estates and coppers. As usual, testing will tell.
Study.... Study might need to cost less. The reason is that Study is basically a no-card if it is the only Study in your hand. It's also a no-card if it's the last Study you play this turn. So basically:
5 card hand, 1 study: study is worthless ($0-1 value)
5 card hand, 2 studies: study draws 2 cards (laboratory! $5 value) but if it doesn't draw another study, then the 2nd study is worthless.
5 card hand, 3 studies: study draws 3 cards (OP!!!) and then probably spirals out of control if you have more studies!!!
I find that the projected power of study, then, is based on the number of studies you can have in your deck vs the size of your deck. A 15-card deck with 5 studies in it is probably obscenely good, but otherwise it's maybe underpowered? There's also a problem of player count; if everyone goes for the dream of endless Studies, then the more players there are, the worse it is. That said, I think the downside of Studies being bad if you don't have many will offset them nicely in a 4-player game. So just food for thought: may be more powerful in 2-player than in 4.
Night Shift: As I understand it, this basically takes $1 from this turn and saves it for later, by making cards cost more. In some ways, it'd be better balanced if it simply was "+1 Card, +1 Action, when you discard this from play, +1 Coffer". At the same time, if you have, say, Butcher, then trashing a card to get its cost in Coffers, this would be great. Except that's really the only scenario in which it's all that great; I supposed you could also make certain other cards with price bands behave differently, but not enough for it to matter and usually you don't want cards that normally cost 0 to start costing 2 or 3. So, unless I'm missing something (which is pretty likely) I would price this card at $0 or $1 as written; if you used my suggestion, I'd probably still cost it at $1 or $2; see Ducat for instance (for counterexample, see Baker).
Anyhow, those are my thoughts! I'll try get to the last 3 soon!