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1


This breaks contest rules. Potions are a mechanic from Alchemy, and would require a rulebook addition to explain what those symbols mean.

I made this ruling here

2
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 85: March Matness
« on: March 26, 2024, 02:52:48 pm »

Quote
Nobleman | Action | $5
Gain and play an Action card other than Nobleman.

Each other player may Shadow a copy of it from the Supply.

3
Can the submission use expansion-specific mechanics from other expansions?

No unique mechanics to an expansion other than those 3 is allowed.
So no boons, artifacts, spirits, loot,etc is allowed.

However motifs from other expansions are allowed. Like seaside had a top deck and duration motif, that’s fine to use. Renaissance has a simplicity motif, that’s fine. Loot had “next time” motif, that’s fine. New Non supply piles are fine.

The line is a little fine between the two, ask with your submission and I can tell you if it fits the guidelines. In general, your card should not need extra rulebook to understand other than the rule books in cornucopia and guilds and menagerie

4
Weekly Design Contest #214: Cornucopia AND Guilds AND Menagerie

I really like the motifs and mechanics of Cornucopia, Guilds, and Menagerie (the expansion). I think there's fun ways they could work together in a single card or card-shaped thing. In celebration of the 2nd edition of Cornucopia and Guilds being released, I wanted to create a contest, adding in Menagerie.

Create a new "promo" card that used motifs and/or mechanics from at least 2 of Cornucopia, Guilds, and/or Menagerie

Motifs and Mechanics
For your reference, here is an (incomplete) list of motifs and mechanics in the expansions:
  • Cornucopia:
    • Cards that care about variety (Menagerie, Shop, Hunting Party, Fairgrounds, Horn of Plenty, Carnival)
    • Cards that add variety (Joust,  Ferryman,  Young Witch)
    • Discard (Hamlet, Young Witch, Ferryman )
    • The Rewards
  • Guilds:
    • Coffers (Candlestick Maker,  Plaza, Baker, Butcher, Footpad, Merchant Guild)
    • Overpay (Farrier, Infirmary, Stonemason, Herald )
    • Cards that change the game without being bought (Baker, Footpad)
    • Name a Card (Journeyman, the removed Doctor)
  • Menagerie:
    • Horses
    • Exile
    • Playing actions at Unusual Times (Black Cat, Sheepdog,  Village Green, Falconer, Gamble, Toil) )
    • Changing Costs (Fisherman, Destrier, Wayfarer, Animal Fair)
    • Ways
    • Events
    • Either now or Next Turn (Village Green, Barge)


Contest Guidelines
  • You have to use at mechanics or motifs from at least two of the "three" expansions (for this purpose, Cornucopia and Guilds count as two different expansions)
  • Please include your card-text as text, and with a mock-up. You don't need to add card art, but I want to see the text fit on a card. I recommend using this mock-up tool.
  • Make a new post if you update your entry, please do not edit posts. I include this because I might miss your update!
  • No unique mechanics to an expansion other than cornucopia, guilds, or menagerie are allowed.
    No boons, artifacts, spirits, loot,etc is allowed. However motifs from other expansions are allowed. Like seaside had a top deck and duration motif, that’s fine to use. Renaissance has a simplicity motif, that’s fine. Loot had “next time” motif, that’s fine. New Non supply piles are fine. If your entry breaks this rule I will tell you

Examples
  • Valid: If Huge Turnip was not already a card, it would qualify for incorporating Coffers (Guilds) and Rewards (Cornucopia)
  • Valid: If Hostelry was implemented with Overpay instead of discarding treasures, it would qualify.
  • Valid: An Event (Menagerie) that gives Coffers (Guilds)
  • NOT Valid: A Way that says "+2 Horses." This is only using motifs or mechanics from only Menagerie.
  • NOT Valid: A card that says "Trash this to gain a Reward." This is only using motifs or mechanics from only Cornucopia

Judgment Details:
  • The contest will close roughly one week from today. 
  • I will judge the entries based on balance,  how well it fits in existing Dominion design-practices (for example, attacks are not political), how fun I think the card is, and simplicity where possible.


Entries:
  • Kingswood by grep. A victory rewarding Action variety, with an Overpay to get those actions.
  • Prism by BryGuy. A Treasure granting coffers or Horses based on variety
  • Conformist by czzzz. A Coffer gaining smugglers for in-play cards, that plays from hand 
  • Beguiler by 4est. A sort of storyteller for Coffers that can be played when anyone gets Coffers
  • Urban Farm by NoMoreFun. A terminal drawer that can set-aside cards to play next turn, playable when a card is gained for the first time
  • Ancient Gear by J410. A terminal draw Menagerie that rewards with Coffers instead of more draw that costs less if you didn't gain Coffers that turn
  • Diversify by Will(ow|iam). An Event granting Coffers for treasure variety
  • Bounty by AJL828. A treasure-victory action player and gainer. With gaining and VP based on card type variety.
  • Harvester by LibraryAdventurer. A silver +buy action exiler that grants coffers for exiling more expensive cards
  • Stage Coach by fika monster. A sort of storyteller for Coffers that can be played when you gets Coffers or $
  • Convoy by silverspawn. Cheap terminal draw that becomes non-terminal to release Victory cards from Exile, with an Exile on overpay mechanic.
  • NAME OF ENTRY by AUTHOR. Brief Description

5
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #213: GREEN
« on: March 21, 2024, 05:59:20 pm »
Thank you for the judging. I’m very sorry for your loss and wishing you comfort and ease whenever possible in the coming days.

I’ll have a new contest in in the next few days.

Also, I reallllly liked monkstead.

6
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #213: GREEN
« on: March 16, 2024, 11:35:56 pm »
Combos with Border Village!

Did not realize that, but if you're willing to bloat your deck with 8 Villages and 8 Estates, then sure, go for it. Eight stop cards is a lot after all.

It’s more kind of scary that if you can empty one pile on your turn and then have $4 leftover,
you just win — nearly  insta-empty the final two piles and get 8VP (in a two player game). most times at least two border villages will be gone already.

If you want to design around this, you could say “gain a card costing up $6 you have not gained this turn”

However, I personally just think that it’s fine to leave that killer combo in and keep current phrasing — even if it’s a dominant combo, it would result in fairly quick games so you can just play another game without the combo. I like the card as is.

7
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #213: GREEN
« on: March 16, 2024, 10:05:52 am »


Unless you want it to counter handsize attacks, can't it say, "When you gain this, +2 Cards at the end of this turn"?

It’s to make it easier to not forget. I play most of my dominion in person, and it’s quite easy to forget stuff like this. The two cards being set aside is the visual reminder. Without the set aside card it could be easy to forget, especially if you gain it in the start or middle of a big turn. For example, the river’s gift stays until clean up to be a visual reminder. But this card is gained and can’t be a reminder, so the set aside cards ARE the reminder. Expedition doesn’t do this because your buy phase is almost always near the very end of your turn.

There’s enough mid-turn 4 cost gainers that I thought it was relevant. I’m open to being persuaded to the simpler wording, but the “reminder” is the main intention.

It does have the benefit of soft-countering militia attacks (self-junk instead — design neutral for me). It also has the downside (that I consider a design positive ) that it fails in deck-drawing scenarios: it either prevents you from drawing 2 set aside cards this turn, or next turn it might only draw the estuary if you’ve already drawn your deck.

Anyway, when first designing I thought of all of this, and thought the wordier phrasing was a better overall design.

8
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #213: GREEN
« on: March 13, 2024, 12:17:20 pm »


Quote
Estuary | Victory | $4
2
-
When you gain this, set aside the top 2 cards of your deck. At the start of your next turn, put them in your hand.

Estuary gives you draw next turn! Unfortunately, it clogs your deck for the rest of the game. Sometimes you'll want the extra draw early on to spike something. Sometimes you've got a deck that can trash those extra cards. Sometimes it'll become an interesting decision between this and a duchy if your deck starts to stall out in a slog-like environment.

9


Quote
Scientist | Action | $3
+2 Cards
+1 Action
If this is the first Scientist you played this turn, the player to your left names a card. This turn, when you gain a copy of the named card, trash it.

You may trash this.

Getting one scientist is quite a waste, since the penalty happens only on the first play. But getting lots of scientists mean you sort of contraband yourself every turn, yeesh. Hopefully there's a variety of cards you want! In the end-game, the player to your left will name Provinces leaving your scientists useless, or force you into an alt-victory scenario. You can always self-trash Scientists when you're done with them, but that doesn't help this turn at all.

I've made Scientists "prevent" all gaining of the card, not just buying. It trashes instead of prevents the gaining to avoid directly conflicting with cards. The "stop moving" rule still applies.

10


Quote
Pastoral Village | Action | $4
+1 Card
+4 Actions

When you play an Action card you have a copy of in play, you first spend an extra Action.

Rules Clarification: you cannot spend actions you don't have (ie go below zero), and spending an extra Action occurs "when you play ... you first" so it counts after you play the card, but before the card effects occurs, making this a little stronger. Think of it like Adventure Tokens.

For example, let's say you play a
Peddler (1 action after finish resolving)
Pastoral Village ( 4 actions after finish resolving)
Smithy (3 actions ...)
Smithy (1 action ...)
Peddler (you spend 1 action to play the card, going to 0, then Pastoral Village instructs you to spend an Additional action, which you fail to do so because you have 0, then Peddler grants you an Action so you have 1 action remaining after finish resolving)

Pastoral Villages stack so here's a one example:
Pastoral Village (4 actions after finish resolving)
Pastoral Village (6 actions after...)
Smithy (5 actions ...)
Smithy (2 actions ...)
Smithy (0 actions ...)

and one last example:
Pastoral Village (4 actions remaining)
Pastoral Village (6 actions remaining)
Pastoral Village (7 actions remaining)
Pastoral Village (7 actions remaining)
Smithy (6 actions remaining)
Smithy (1 action remaining)
Smithy (0 actions remaining)

In comparisons with Snowy Village and normal Village, it felt like it needed to cost $4.

11
Hopefully removed cards are fair game.



Quote
Global Embargo | Treasure - Duration | $4
Exile a card costing up to $6 from the Supply.

The next time anyone gains a copy of that card, they gain a Curse, and you discard your exiled card.

I like the mechanic of embargo, so wanted to play off of it, and create a version that would actually get used! This actually hits opponents harder than embargo, since they get cursed, and you get to take that gained card out of exile. For the attack reason, it's stronger than Camel Train, although you don't get a gold with it. You also can Exile Duchies with this, nice! However once someone else gains a duchy, yours will be released into your deck again.

If everyone avoids your embargo'd card, well then you can buy it yourself, at the cost of a curse. In that way, it operates more like a Cursed Gold with a +buy -- it's like you can pay for an expensive card (exilling it), though the gain is delayed, you get a curse,,and you actually have to be able to afford that card later on. Global Embargoes are also slow since the sit around until they do something.

One counter to the Global Embargo is to use Global Embargos yourself! Since exiling does not mean gaining, it doesn't trigger. This might make it seem like it makes everyone buy up the embargos -- they stack, so someone might get double cursed, which means they probably won't buy the card, so then YOUR global embargos sit around forever doing nothing, which makes them weak and then everyone WON'T buy up the global embargoes. So it's dynamic. Maybe everyone tries to play around that good card, or maybe that card is good enough that you suck it up and get heavily cursed.

12

Quote
Bricks
➁ Treasure - Duration

+1 Buy
The next time anyone
gains a Victory card,
trash this for +1 VP.
Quote
Bricklayer
➑ Action
+3 Cards
Choose one:
Play a Treasure from the
trash; or +① per Bricks
you have in play.

Split pile, for Empires.
Yeah, those Bricks are great for business. They're not really that great on their own though. This is why Split piles are a pain to design...

Bricks is not priced correctly — it’s a disappearing 1vp, like mill, which costs 3. Except it gives an additional $ and +1 buy which arguably makes it way stronger than mill.

Mill did get replaced, but this is too strong for $2. Compare it to estate, as well.

I’d say make bricks stronger, price it for $4 and allow it to gain Bricks so you can run the pile more quickly.
Maybe something like “+$2, you may gain a Bricks. The next time …”

I like this general concept and idea .

13
Updated submission


Quote
Vallary | Treasure - Duration | $5
+$2

You may play an Action card from your hand to gain a Horse.

The next time you play a non-Supply card, +1 Card

You can sort of interpret this as a slower +2$ and gain two horses (why gain two horses? Because when you play a horse it gets doubled by the "next time +1 Card" clause), at the cost of having to save an action card in your treasure phase.
This intends to tie in Menagerie themes of Horses, and more generically delayed-draw (Horses, Village Green, Barge), and playing cards at unusual times (action cards in the buy phase).

Thank you faust for pointing out a serious design flaw in the earlier version of this card. I had wanted it to be like rats which is useless if there aren't trashers, but good cards in exile are a lot more rare than trashers, and so it didn't work in the previous design. Thanks for the feedback.

14
This submission is OUT OF DATE, newer submission in a new post


Quote
Vallary | $5 | Treasure - Duration - Command
+$2

Choose one: play a non-Command card from your Exile mat, leaving it there; or gain a Horse.

The next time you play a non-Supply card, +1 Card

Plays with several of the menagerie concepts: horses, exile, and playing cards during unusual times.
Let's talk about that last one -- it let's you play a non-Command card from your Exile deck. If you choose to play a non-playable card (right now, not a Night, Action, nor Treasure), then nothing happens. But it lets you play Nights and Action Cards in unusual times, and lets you play cards you haven't even gained yet (Camel Train combo, anyone?)

Horses are a non-Supply card, so you can gain one, and play it later to release the Vallary for an additional card. But there's a lot of non-Supply cards in Dominion, so this also could get triggered with Prizes, Loot, Spoils, Spirits, Madmen, Mercenary, Travelers, Bat, Wish, (did I miss any?).

If you have a Horse in Exile, and you play it, well, that is before the "next-time" clause, so your Vallary doesn't trigger. It also adds a Silver+ to Menagerie, which doesn't have one.

The one problem is that this card is very strong when desireable cards get put into Exile, like Camel Train, Stockpile, Displace, and to some extent Bounty Hunter (and it's a soft-counter to Cardinal and Gatekeeper). Right now I'm thinking, fine, there are many strong cards in Dominion. It is also slowed down slightly by the "next-time" duration quality. If you randomly generate a Kingdom, there won't be too many Exiles, and I tried to make it still feel interesting (Horses and non-terminal draw attached to a silver can help many decks).

Open to feedback

15
Updated entry



Quote
Scavenger Dog | Action - Looter | $3
+2 Cards
You may play a Ruins from the Supply or your hand.
-
When you trash this, play it.

I've updated Scavenger Dog, it's now a soft-counter against most of the attacks in Dark Ages, similar to Watchtower was. You can choose to play a Ruins from the Supply which puts it in play without gaining the card, next turn it goes into your deck. Or, you could play a Ruins from your your hand, maybe you got junked by Marauder, or maybe you self-junked yourself with a previous Scavenger Dog. This doesn't defend against discard attacks though. Then there's the on-trash aspect, which defends against knights. I think the only interaction Scavenger Dog is missing is Spoils, but you can't put everything on one card then it would look like Junk as opposed to just a Junk Dog

16
Edit: I have updated the entry in a later post here


Quote
Junk Dog | Action - Looter | $3
+2 Cards
You may gain a Ruins from the Supply to play it.
-
When you trash this, play it

If ruined library is showing as the top Ruins, you could make this a smithy this turn (at the cost of self-junking the Ruin Library in your deck for future turns)

Junk Dog ties in a lot of Dark Ages themes. It's got a when-trash, which is of course fun. It also is a looter. It incorporates a sub-theme of self-junking for a gain this turn, like Beggar and to some extent Death Cart does. Lastly, it continues the "play a terminal action" theme from Cultists.

Open to feedback. Specifically I'm wondering whether I should do "You may gain a Ruins from the Supply. You may play a Ruins from your Hand" which makes it a lot stronger at handling Ruins from itself on future turns and other sources. I feel like that would push the cost to $4? Not sure if that would be worth it.

One thing is that I find Knights is often monolithic. They're fun, but it feels like you can't ignore them. I love having soft counters like fortress; Junk Dog is another counter, though it's terminal so you can't over-load up on them like you can with fortresses.

17
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #207: Vanilla on the Side
« on: December 26, 2023, 04:12:05 pm »
Updated Entry



Quote
Magi Workshop | Night | $4
If you have no treasures in play, gain a Spoils.
If you have less than 8 cards in play, gain a Horse.
If you have no cards costing $2 or less in play, gain a Will-o'-Wisp.
If you have at least 3 copies of an Action card in play, gain an Imp.
 

The change I made is that this no longer gains Ghosts, as that is probably too strong in the opening. Now it can gain Will-o'-Wisps, but only if you don't really want them (when you don't have cards it will draw in play -- including Will-o'-Wisps). In the opening it could be worth getting this and then on T3/4/5 not playing anything to gain a Spoils, Horse, and a Will-o'-Wisp, at the cost of not doing much with your turn.

Thanks to segura for pointing out the original Ghost gaining was probably too strong in the opening.

18
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #207: Vanilla on the Side
« on: December 23, 2023, 01:42:28 pm »
OLD submission, newest version is now in this post



Quote
Magi Workshop | Night | $4
If you have no Action cards in play, gain a Ghost.
If you have no treasures in play, gain a Spoils.
If you have less than 8 cards in play, gain a Horse.
If you have at least 3 copies of an Action card in play, gain an Imp.

The card name is a play on the story "gift of the magi", because it tends to give you gifts you don't really need. If you have few actions, why get a Ghost? Or, if you've loaded up on copies of the same action card, those Imps are just going to draw dead. The Spoils drawback is a little subtler: if you aren't using money your deck might not want it. The Horses is sort of like the whole point of Horses is so you can put a lot of other cards in play, so if you are able to do that, well this card stops giving you horses. Also, early on if you just play normal turns this card will just gain A Horse and be like a weak Caravan.

None of these gaining cards are optional. If you fit the criteria, you get the card.

In weak decks, it can be pretty strong, as you just skip to night phase and gain a ghost, horse, and spoils. In middle-to-strong decks it loses a lot of power. Though it can transition to being an imp gainer (my favorite non-supply pile). I also love Ghosts a lot, and wanted there to be more ways to gain them.

Always open to feedback. I attempted to order the clauses from easiest to check to hardest. (super easy to see if you have no actions or treasure in play, a little complicated to count total cards, and most complicated to check if you have at least three copies of a given action card)







Oh yeah it's an event I forgot to add that in the mockup

I feel that this is kinda weak. It's rare to want to trash an action or treasure that costs $3 or more, so this becomes like a weaker ride. I think you can include the ability to trash victory cards and it becomes better.

19
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #207: Vanilla on the Side
« on: December 21, 2023, 08:16:59 pm »
Could your card be allowed if it gains non-vanilla non-supply cards?

For example
“Gain a Horse. If you have an odd number of cards in play, gain an imp”
Where imp is not vanilla.

Not my real entry.

20
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #206: Evolution
« on: December 18, 2023, 06:17:18 pm »
fwiw my card changes when any supply pile is empty not just it's own, you might have known that but it was hard to tell.

Ah crap, I did miss that. I don't think that changes my analysis, and in fact, exacerbates the problems I had with it.

21
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #206: Evolution
« on: December 18, 2023, 06:07:01 pm »
Analysis
Art Gallery by Cutepelican126

Action  $5
+1 Card +1 Action If any supply piles are empty, +1 Action +1$, Otherwise +1 card.
I think there's a cool concept in here of a strong card that gets weaker, opposite of city. Something you want a lot of early on but then your deck is damaged because of it. As such, a cheap lab that becomes terminal is interesting, a lab that becomes a cantrip also could be interesting. I think this design is missing something. Bazaar is a card you really want because of its village properties, if you had a cheaper village, you'd rather get that and a terminal draw or stronger terminal $. Also, it's pretty awkward to flood villages into the deck, since buy the time a 10-size pile of 5-cost cards is empty, you're well into the mid-game. So you either (1) already had to either have a balance of villages in your deck (so the new bazaars don't help), or (2) built a deck without villages, at which point the addition of 3-7 villages isn't all that helpful. In niche cases with villagers it becomes interesting, specifically acting troupe which might sustain you to piling out the Art Galleries (and a fun synergy of name), but that's a rare case. Labs are fun because of their high-drawing potential. In most cases this is just a lab minus the high-drawing potential later. It just doesn't look favorable compared to other labs right now (like lab, lost city, etc). The one place this shines is in the lab-deck. Against beginners, I'm able to crush them without trying just by piling out the labs (or even cities) before they realize how good it can be to have a ton in deck. This card does solve the problem that if I pile-them out, I end up with a weaker card. That is actually really cool design, and solves some problems with lab, I just think transforming to a bazaar is a not-very compelling answer. I think the simplest fix to make this more compelling is costing it 4 and transforming it into village. The $4-cost solves the village problem (now we can pile them out before the mid-late game). You could also consider transforming it into something terminal and costing 4, or even a terminal curser and costing it 5. Those ideas feel more compelling to me than a 5-cost weaker lab.






Musician by NoMoreFun

Action  $5
Choose one: Gain a Musician;
or +1 Card for every 2 cards (rounded down) in the Musician pile, and you may return this to its pile for +2 Actions.
The first two Musicians could be a one-shot +4cards +2actions for 5. So, that's kind of like playing a Madman. Which is similarly priced to Musician pile, the difference is Madman costs 1 extra buy and hermit is a lot cheaper. The problem is that that's only the first two musicians. After that, it's a slightly impressive one-shot of 3 cards two actions.
It's a little hard to reason about one-shots since there are fewer of them, but we could kind of interpret it as a duration if we squint, thinking this turn we gain a new musician, and next turn we return that musician to its pile. The duration equivalent would be "at the start of next turn +Xcards +1 action," where X would be  "1 Card for every 2 cards (rounded down) in the Musician pile - 1" (-1 because we didn't have to play it this turn).
This is kind of like last turn you bought expedition and played a ghost town. Which seems okay for a 5. But that's the best this duration equivalent of a Musician could be.
More often it would be like Caravan + Ghost Town, or just a Ghost Town, with all the drawbacks of having to play a terminal the previous turn.
Looking through these scenarios, we can see that Musician is too weak for a $5.
Aside from that, I love the concept your are exploring. Tying the card to the count in its pile is super interesting, and I love the mechanism to easily manipulate the size of the pile (via gaining and returning). That's elegant, awesome design.
I think it also adds some fun dynamics, I can't let you have the only Musician, so I need to buy one. But then if I just one-shot it, I lose it! So I have to gain another. I don't think I'm explanining my point well here, I just like that the card really invites you to play it.
I think it needs to be stronger. If you want to keep it a $5, a slight boost would be returning to pile before counting the Musician pile, but not sure if that is enough.
Alternatively, I think it could potentially be priced at $4 and only give +1 action when returned.
My last note here is that this doesn't scale well to multiplayer, the pile quickly drains it becomes weaker even faster.
Interesting design space! I just think it's not quite balanced. I could be wrong though, it would require extensive playtesting to be sure.



Keg by X-tra

Action - Reserve - Victory  $3
Put this on on your Tavern mat, then +1 Card per Keg on your Tavern mat. | 1VP
This is simple card, and I mean that as a compliment. It's hard to find new design space and be straight-forward, so kudos to that.
This is kind of like a Great Hall/Distant Lands at first -- let me explain. A Great Hall proxies a VP token by being a cantrip "disappearing" card.
After playing it, Keg is also a "disappearing" card, at the cost of one more terminal action than Great Hall.
Of course, Great Hall isn't a great card -- it got removed. Your second play of Keg is a one-shot +2 cards, which isn't that much better. If your deck has the terminals to support Distant Lands, it's certainly happy to get those terminal draw attached to Key instead.
It keeps scaling up. But the problem is they each cost a buy, which is really expensive. Distant Lands are worth it because one buy and an action sorta gives you 4vp tokens.
Keg costs a lot more than that to get 4vp (4 actions, 4 buys, and $12), and the cumulative +10 cards is not even that impressive, distributed over the 4 plays.

I think this needs to be stronger. The only way I can think of doing it is making it non-terminal sometimes. For example "If you have less than 8 cards in hand +1 action." All the sudden, you don't have to worry about it costing an action at first, and it encourages you to buy the first few kegs, knowing you get a cheap lab. Once it gets up to a one-shot 4, it's fine to become terminal.







A ghostly Traveller line with terminal draw and silver trashing by silverspawn

Whimsical Wisp | Action - Traveller $3*
+2 Cards Each other player may trash a Silver from their hand, to gain a card costing up to $6.
--------------------
When you discard this from play, you may exchange it for a Bargaining Banshee.

Bargaining Banshee | Action - Traveller $4*
+3 Cards Each other player may trash a Silver from their hand, for +3 Cards
--------------------
When you discard this from play, you may exchange it for a Malevolent Phantom. (This is not in the Supply.)

Malevolent Phantom | Action - Attack - Traveller $5*
+4 Cards Each other player may trash a Silver from their hand. If they don't, they gain 2 Curses.
--------------------
When you discard this from play, you may pay $2 to exchange it for a Tyrant Specter. Otherwise, trash it. (This is not in the Supply.)


Tyrant Specter | Action $8*
+8 Cards You may trash a Gold from your hand. If you don't, discard 8 cards. (This is not in the Supply.)

You're free to design cards however you see fit. One of the judgement guidelines I put is "how well it fits in existing Dominion design-practices," and there's a lot here that doesn't fit. There's a general concept of negative-for-positive in Dominion, where you do something negative to yourself to get something positive. So, trash for benefit is a big example of this. Or cursed gold. Or Count. And it's interesting because on your turns, you have full control of your deck and the situation to try and minimize the negative and maximimize the positive, and that challenge is interesting. You don't have as much control when your opponents trigger it, so you'll notice Dominion is very light on opponent-triggered negative-for-positive. Vault is one of the only examples I can think of. You have a lot of it, which doesn't fit so well in existing Dominion paradigms. You also have silver-trashing, without any easy way to gain silvers. Seems kind of random and strange that Silver is thrown in there, which also doesn't fit well with Dominion paradigms. You even have pay to traveller upgrade to tyrant specter, which is confusing and goes against all the other traveller upgrades that exist. You also have a card that gives two curses, which just doesn't fit.

To me, I want my dominion fan-cards to feel like they could hypothetically have been printed in a real expansion, and these just don't seem to fit for me.

Lastly, each card is sort of a stronger version of the previous one, and you'll notice the existing traveller cards don't do that. It's more fun to have variety in the traveller-line, and it makes it more reasonable you might want to have different levels of the same-line in your deck at the same time.




















































































Tranquil Village by 4est

Action-Victory  $4
If the Tranquil Village pile isn't empty, +1 Card and +1 Action
--------------------
Worth 2VP if the Tranquil Village pile is empty (Otherwise worth 0VP).
I can imagine village idiots piling these early, and peacefully frolicking in their victory cards, with a dead deck.
You say the tricky thing is timing of piling it out, but I think that timing is largely out of your control. Which in
this case, makes it slightly less interesting, but still interesting.
In games where this is the only village it is most interesting. Can you build an engine in time to make it worth your while before the pile empties? I wish there were more than 8 of them in two player though, since that really doesn't give much time before they run out.
In games where there are multiple villages, this becomes also pretty interesting, especially in the case of 5 villages. You might grab a couple of these for cheap, then try to pile towards end game to get some points in.
This doesn't really do anything in games where there's no need for this 4-cost village (ie you already have village green and fishing village on the board, or you have a slog), in those games, you won't have time to pile this to make them worth VP, so they will sit around and never be bought, really.
Not every card has to be useful in each situation, but it's a slight mark against it. Plus, in those situations, any weak village would not be bought as well.
I think this is an interesting card for sure. I'm wondering if it could do with some more pile manipulation, like, "you may return this to its pile for +2 cards"








Finalist




Shapeshifting by grrgrrgrr

Shapeshifting | Trait
When you discard a Shapeshifting card from play, exchange it for a Shapeshifting card of the other pile.
--------------------
Setup: Set aside an unused Kingdom Supply pile costing the same as the Shapeshifting pile. These are also Shapeshifting cards.

I think I'm, at least initially, more drawn to your original submission, although I would have made it "If a supply pile is empty: when you discard a Shapeshifting card from play, exchange it for a card from the set aside pile."
I like the originally idea because it adds a lot of strategy about when the switchover happens, which can make some cards viable or not. It also would allow you to get one play of the old card if you gained it late.
This turns a card into a vampire/bat sort of thing. Which is interesting, but highly pair dependent and it's hard to analyze. And at the any of the day, traits aren't really about balance, they're about fun and variety.
This does introduce some fun and variety. I think a little less than the original version -- what made you swap to your second version?
You do have a problem in your phrasing -- what if there is no unused Kingdom Supply pile costing the same as the Shapeshifting pile? Engineer, Golem, Peddlers (assuming you don't own Prince) all present big problems.
Almost all of those is solveable by this phrasing "Set aside an unused Kingdom Supply pile costing the same in $ as the Shapeshifting pile. These are also Shapeshifting cards."
But Peddlers doesn't work, still. There's no elegant way to do it with having it be the same cost. You could try "Set aside an unused Kingdom Supply pile. These are also Shapeshifting cards."
or "Set aside an unused Kingdom Supply pile costing $5. These are also Shapeshifting cards." The last one is kind of nice as it will be an upgrade for almost all cards, but it's temporary since it switches back.

So, I think there's ways to make this better, but the general concept is interesting for sure

Finalist


A 7 card Traveller line with mandatory exchanging that loops, using themes from a variety of expansions by Zoyarox
 
I'm not sure how to provide critique here as there are 7 different cards to look at, plus how they work together in a line. It's a little bit too much for me to give you thorough feedback.
The fact that they are mandatory exchanges doesn't fit in with existing traveller paradigms and it removes the ability to keep a particular card in your deck, which is a super interesting aspect of the traveller lines.
You have sort of addressed with Nimmersatt going back down to Intrigant; however, it becomes out of the player's control which cards in the line to keep in their deck, and removes an interesting choice.
You also costed them at $0 which is strange.
One of the judgement guidelines I put is "how well it fits in existing Dominion design-practices," and due to a lot of those aspects, it does not fit.
Some individual notes:
  • Aspirant -- it was already done with Mission, which is an event for good reason. Some times you have nothing to do besides buying cards. This traveller line sort of fixes the problem by providing things to do (trashing, exiling, etc), but still this feels like not the best design here
  • Praetor -- This is missing the attack card type. I don't like the unconditional debt for VP gaining, it seems kind of harmful at many points of the game.
  • Nimmersatt -- it does not say what to do with the loot pile later. Normally you'd want to shuffle it. It also seems unconventional to pick which loot you gain.
I like that you fully embraced evolution, but I think the design has some gaps.




Explosion by Will(ow|iam)

Event  $3
Once per game: +10 Cards, +4 Actions, +3 Buys, and return to your Action phase.
I'm curious about the 3 cost. It seems like no matter what you cost this card, it would be worth it, so then you want to cost it for one of three conditions:
1. Cost it low so it can be bought whenever ($0-$4)
2. Cost it high-ish so it can be bought mid-game ($5-$7)
3. Cost it very high so it's debatable whether it's worth it, or whether you'd rather just get a province ($8+. Although probably it'd have to be 10+)

Seems like you chose to cost it low. In that case, $3 is hardly a penalty, and I think it would be fine at $1 or $0. $3 seems strange since it's so low it hardly affects things. I actually like $0 because it could enable a cost-reducer gainer pile out.
I also think this event would be interesting at $10
As of right now, you have to buy it, it's a matter of when. I think most events are priced in a way that you don't have to go for it, so this is strange design. The notable exception is Donate, but it has such high strategic choice on how and when you buy it, that it makes up for it. Because this card gives you extra buys, it's sort of like saying take two turns in a row (and each turn gets an extra action and half a buy). So basically, you buy this card as soon as you have a deck that is bloated enough that it would take advantage of two turns simultaneously, or, if you're building an engine that will soon draw-deck, as soon as you can handle one more turn. This decision is a little less interesting than donate, so I think more of the strategic fun of this card could and should come from a higher price point.

Ringleader by faust

Action - Command  $6
+1 Card +1 Action Play the card with the Ringleader token on it, leaving it there.
--------------------
When you gain this, place the Ringleader token on a non-Command Action supply pile.
I like player interaction like this! Really interesting to have the Ringleader token keep moving around.
One issue I have with this is that it's very strong and could create a compounding effect that isn't balanced. Grand Market has the same issue where Grand Markets make it a lot easier to buy Grand Markets, and so on. If someone gets a lucky shuffle they can quickly get a majority and win. Ring leader has the same problem, because it's essentially +2Cards +2Actions and one of the two cards you draw is almost guaranteed to be very good. It's like a super lost city! And Lost City has a huge drawback when you gain it.
I'm imagining using the token on a card like Grand Market, or Hunting Grounds, Margave, Old Witch. Any of those easily allows you to afford more Ringleaders and creates that compound effect. But I think costing this $7 is prohibitive and $5 makes it real tough for a 2/5 vs 3/4 start. I'm wondering if you could investigate adding a penalty to the gain. You could try Lost City's penalty, you could try a "gain a curse, if you do place the Ringleader token..." which adds additional strategy about piling out curses to "freeze" the ringleader pile, though a self-cursing might be too prohibitive of a cost and would have to drag it to a $5.
I do like this card a lot, and I will take a more in-depth look at Kingdoms to think about its power level later. I love that the token could move around a lot. Early on it wants to be on Witch, but then you switch it over to a "weaker" card like Smithy. Very cool.


Finalist












Outcast/Wilderness Throne by SignError

Outcast
Action  $2
+1 Action Exile a card from your hand. If it’s an Action, +2 Cards. Otherwise, gain an Outcast.


Wilderness Throne
Action $5
You may play an Action from your Exile or hand.  Play it again.


There's a lot of very nuanced and complicated design behind this simply-phrased cards, and I applaud you for that. I was thinking about how Wilderness Throne was far too powerful since it throne rooms your card of choice, but then I realized the card goes into play and you no longer can throne that card with subsequent Wilderness Thrones. And now you are stuck with that card out of Exile for next turn (though if you get it in hand you can throne it). So there's a great balancing there.
I think both cards are well-designed and would be worth buying as single-piles (although Wilderness Throne would need an exiling mechanic, but that's what Outcast is for).
Since there are only 5 Outcasts, they will run extremely quickly. It's a cheap non-terminal single-card thinner, so absent of stronger trashing, you probably would buy more than one anyway, making the pile effectively run low to uncover wilderness thrones. I don't know if it needs to run its own pile out so quickly with the self-gains. I actually think I like the design a lot more if you dropped the self-gaining clause, or else made the self-gaining clause not hit as often ("if it costs $2 or more" or "if it's a treasure")
But overall, this looks novel, balanced, and fits well with existing Dominion paradigms. Very well done.


Finalist






















































A traveller line with sifting and trash for benefit by BryGuy

Field Mouse | Action - Traveller $3
+1 Action Reveal your Deck's top card. If it ... costs $1 or less exchange it for a Field Mouse;
otherwise you may discard it.

--------------------
At Clean-up, you may exchange this for a House Cat.

House Cat | Action - Traveller $4*
+2 Actions Reveal cards from your Deck until you reveal a Rats or a card costing $2 or less, trash it.
--------------------
At Clean-up, you may exchange this for a White Wolf. (Not in the Supply)

White Wolf | Action - Traveller $5*
+1 Card +2 Actions +$1 You may trash a card from your Hand to gain a Field Mouse.
--------------------
At Clean-up, you may exchange this for a Wild Jaguar. (Not in the Supply)

Wild Jaguar | Action - Traveller $6*
+4 Cards +1 Action Discard two cards. You may trash a card for $2.
--------------------
At Clean-up, you may exchange this for a Brown Bear.
(Not in the Supply)


Brown Bear | Action - Traveller $7*
+3 Cards +2 Actions Review your deck's top five cards, discarding any. You may exchange a Brown Bear from your Hand for a Wish. (Not in the Supply)

Before talking about the line overall some individual notes
Some individual notes:
  • Field Mouse -- There's no need for the "..." I think that was with an earlier design. Also this card seems pretty weak. It discards estates and good cards from top of your deck? At the value of potentially gaining another Field Mouse? It is weak, of course it's the start of the line so it should be weak, but I think it should have some value. Page and Peasant both feel better. If the end of the line was super strong, maybe field mouse makes sense, but then it's a feel-bad card to play: either you rejoice at another Field Mouse, or you don't get one AND you discard a good card. Yikes!
  • House Cat -- it's very weird for this to refer to a card "Rats" that is not even guaranteed to be in the game, and in most games, won't. Very anti-Dominion design patterns. I'm a big fan of loan as a trasher, and this seems even better, so I like it.
  • White Wolf -- Bazaar is always welcome, and maybe some games you stop here if you need Villages. I think a strong Village is a very compelling design to put in a traveller line because it opens up the question of whether to stop or not. Unfortunately, you discredit this with Brown Bear also being a village and House cat being a village. Would be better if Brown Bear only gave 1 action. I still think this card is over-powered. Bazaar is already a $5, and this allows you to trash more? Also incorporating trashers later in the line make people less likely to hold onto their House Cats and Field Mouses, which makes it less interesting
  • Wild Jaguar -- This is one of the strongest lab variants, on par with Sibyl. A little strong for my taste, but it's the 4th in a Traveller line so it can work.
  • Brown Bear -- This is crazy strong. It's a double lab! AND it's a village? It does not need that extra action. Also "Review" is not a thing in Dominion. Did you mean "reveal?" And what happens to the rest you don't discard? I think you need "put the rest back in any order." But it'd be better if you killed that clause, super lab is strong enough. You can exchange other Brown Bear's for Wishes, but why would you? Super-lab is a super-lab. I think Brown bear could read "+3 Cards +1 Actions" with no other text and it'd be better designed.[/i]
Overall, you have too many cards in the traveller line that that are basically pure upgrades of cards earlier in the line. This is bad design because it takes away the choice of when to stay. I've noted some places to fix (multiple trashers, multiple villages), but I think you could overall rethink this to incorporate the design lessons from existing Traveller Lines.





Finalists and sample Kingdoms

Okay for the finalists, let's look at a few randomly generated Kingdoms. I'll generate a Kingdom of 9, then add an additional card for shapeshifting, randomly select the shapeshift, then add a card with same cost.

First Kingdom
Raze, Underling, Lookout, Blessed Village, Courier, Ironworks, Cobbler, Mandarin, Kings Court
Way of the Turtle
Ally: Island Folk

Shapeshifter adds Golem. And the shapeshifter is Mandarin/Master Mind. (First time I rolled for the first shapeshifter card it hit Golem, so I had to re-roll)
General Thoughts: good non-terminal trashing, but no +buy and difficult drawing limits the engine. However you can get two Provinces a "turn" via consistent Island Folk usage and King's Court makes it viable, and interesting.
  • Shapeshifting: Adding Golem gives us a little bit more draw which is helpful. In this particular Kingdom, we don't really need Master Mind since we already have King's Court, so it doesn't feel that interesting. In general looking at the pairing of Mandarin/Mastermind is interesting and makes the pile more viable, but not looking engaging in this particular Kingdom.
  • Tranquil Village: Blessed Village is hard to beat here, as the added boons could be nice. But I think this is an interesting card here, you could try to get the Tranquil Villages earlier on before you've got a full engine up, and then once it's going, you can handle all the alt VP flooding your deck. It's definitely an interesting decision, and while it's hard to handle all 8 in your deck, Way of the Turtle gives you a way to secret them away. So I think it works a lot!
  • Ring Leader: Kings Court is now cheaper. This becomes a super powered card. A nefarious opponent could turn it into a Village (with token on Raze). Putting it on Underling turns it into lost city with a favor, which would be a great way to rack up the favors for Island Folk. Either way, you have to go for it, and I think the added accessibility of King's Court is cool here.
  • Outcast/Wilderness Throne: There's a lot of non-terminal single-card thinners already, so it's debatable whether you'd go for the Outcasts. With King's Court, you probably don't even need the Wilderness Throne as much, so I think you have to think twice about this card. But I think that's interesting. You also may go for the thinner since it exiles for you and you can spend your early buys on the non-thinner cards instead. Hm.


Second Kingdom
Transmute, Chapel, Coin of the Realm, Hamlet, Castles, Mill, Counterfeit, Harvest, Hireling
Shapeshifter adds Transmogrify. And Shapeshifter is Hamlet/Crossroads
Event: Toil

General Thoughts: Megatrashing with chapel, and hamlet and counterfeit gives the buy, but there is no draw engine here, you gotta buy a bunch of Hirelings and hope that's enough. With Mill and Harvest slightly pulling me to the Castles pile. There aren't that many terminals to play but I'm happy to keep a Coin or two to help me when I need them.
  • Shapeshifting: Transmogrify does a bit to do something with your Chapel and helps you get up to Hireling slightly. I think the Hamlet/Cross roads is quite interesting of a combination. It certainly accelerates the push towards castles, and it helps you get a lot of crossroads because some will be Hamlets instead. Pretty cool!
  • Tranquil Village: Well, we don't have a need for Villages so much, though it does something interesting with the castle pile as it could be a nice third pile to pile out, if you plan right, the extra points are nice. It's just hard to justify the initial cost since you don't need the villages so badly here. But it's an interesting decision.
  • Ring Leader: Well, you could make an improved Hireling (I believe it works) where you make it non-terminal. You can also make it hamlet or mill to get some lab drawing in, all the sudden a draw engine becomes a little more possible. You can punk your opponents into ring leading a transmute and chapel which is funny. Toil has a nice interaction where you could buy a Ring leader to change the token, then toil to play a ring leader from hand as the new type.
  • Outcast/Wilderness Throne: Exiling the castles and the chapel is pretty nice, so you might have a use for those outcasts anyway. A wilderness throne can also help with the draw slightly if you happen to play the exiled card, so that's interesting. I'd like to get one.

Third Kingdom
Pixie, Menagerie, Monkey, Sentinel, Rats, Temple, Walled Village, Den of Sin, Storyteller
Shapeshifter adds Trading Post. And Shapeshifter is Walled Village/Scavenger
Landmark: Labyrinth

General Thoughts: Draw with Storyteller, Monkey, Menagerie. Trashing with Sentinel. No multiple gains, but there's fun alt VP with Temple and Rats Labyrinth. Those shenanigans might be worth it since you can otherwise only build up to a province a turn. You'll need treasures since that's the only source of money, and I'm sure someone would try a Den of Sin Big Money thing and try to race without getting any of those alt-vps, and they might win.
  • Shapeshifting: Trading Post gives an additional Labyrinth source which is nice. Giving a card with money has an impact in this kingdom, and you don't need that many villages, so the shapeshifting works here.
  • Tranquil Village: We don't really need that many villages. The alt-vp source would be helpful, but I don't see piling out happening here.
  • Ring Leader: Gets to be a Lost City+ with storyteller so it's worth it for the draw. Could potentially be a nice source of VP with Temple. Interesting, you could definitely switch it throughout the game. I like it. Your opponent can put it on rats, dangit! But that's fun because it gives you some temple fodder. 
  • Outcast/Wilderness Throne: Great use of non-terminal thinning here, especially as it can enable Menagerie plays. So outcast has a great role here, and throning some cards could be nice, but maybe not as valuable this game.

Looking at this, I learned that Shapeshifting made some cards more worth it than previously, which was not what I thought.
I learned Tranquil Village seems to really depend on the Kingdom's needs of villages, and I didn't see a scenario where it was extremely compelling in my small sample size of three kingdoms.
I learned Ring Leader is as powerful as I thought, but in a "fun" kind of way, which was interesting.
I learned Outcast/Wilderness Throne is very well balanced.

Honestly, I really like all 4 of these cards. I see them all fitting in with Dominion. To really evaluate, I'd have to do dozens of playtest games which I don't have the time for. At the end of the day, there has to be a winner.

Ring Leader and Outcast/Wilderness Thrones were my favorite from the test Kingdoms, and I enjoy them both a lot. I think that Ring Leader is slightly less balanced than outcast/wilderness throne though.



Results



Winner: Outcast/Wilderness Throne by SignError
Runner up: Ringleader by faust

3rd/4th: Shapeshifting by grrgrrgrr/ Tranquil Village by 4est


Thanks everyone! Feel free to push back on anything I said, I am not infallible. My hope is that my critique can help you improve your card designs. If it didn't, well, like I said, I'm not infallible.


22
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #206: Evolution
« on: December 15, 2023, 06:41:55 pm »
submissions closed

Will judge this weekend

23
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #206: Evolution
« on: December 14, 2023, 01:32:10 pm »
You seem to have missed my submission- PAWNSHOP

You didn't follow the Contest Guidelines
 

24
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #206: Evolution
« on: December 14, 2023, 12:39:37 pm »
24 Hour Warning. Check the First Post to make sure your submission is listed. If it is not listed, either I missed it or you missed one of the submission instructions.

25
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #206: Evolution
« on: December 08, 2023, 01:21:56 pm »


Quote
Explosion
$3 Event
Once per game: +10 Cards, +4 Actions, +3 Buys, and return to your Action phase.

It evolves from "It doesn't do much" to "It lets you play a bunch of actions" to "It lets you double province on a board where that might not have otherwise been possible", or it could evolve to "You can't buy this anymore because you bought it already.

The "evolution" feels kinda tenuous, so lmk if it doesn't count and I'll submit something else.

This counts enough for the contest. Adherence to the theme isn’t a judging criteria as long it fits in some way, and you’ve explained a way it fits.



zoyarox: if you submit 7 cards in a traveller, I won’t be able to give the same level of critique in the end as I would if it were fewer cards, unless each card is super simple.

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