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26

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Ghost Town: +2 action card that can be set aside.

« on: June 21, 2012, 06:17:15 am »

How about: "When you draw this card, you may set it aside. At any time during your action phase, you may return it to your hand." ? In a digital version, there'd just be some button you can hit that returns one to your hand.

Edit: There'd also need to be something like "During your clean-up phase, if this is set aside, discard it."

This is my favorite. It interacts interestingly with Militia, Torturer, Margrave, Followers, Goons, Ghost Ship, Minion, Young Witch, Masquerade, Horse Traders, Tactician, Hunting Party, Menagerie, Shanty Town, Jack of All Trades, Library, and Watchtower.

The tactician trick might really make this over powered. Especially at just $4. You could play multiple tacts per turn, and that really unbalances a lot. I think we'd have to further tweak the language to:

"When you draw this card, you may set it aside on the ghost town mat. At any time during your action phase, you may return it to your hand. During your clean-up phase or if you're made to "discard your hand," discard any cards on the ghost town mat."

Hopefully there's a more concise way to put it than that...

27

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Ghost Town: +2 action card that can be set aside.

« on: June 21, 2012, 05:55:27 am »

How about: "When you draw this card, you may set it aside. At any time during your action phase, you may return it to your hand." ? In a digital version, there'd just be some button you can hit that returns one to your hand.

Would this impact how many cards you draw at the start of a new turn? Doesn't seem like it will, but it's something to consider in case someone might misconstrue it.

Edit: There'd also need to be something like "During your clean-up phase, if this is set aside, discard it."

We'd probably need to tweak this a little so that it doesn't interfere with haven/native village/island (all of which include "set aside" language). Maybe we'd change the description to "When you draw this card, you may set it aside on the ghost town mat. At any time during your action phase, you may return it to your hand. During your clean-up phase, discard any cards on the ghost town mat."

28

Dominion Isotropic / Re: So, ARTjoMS and ddubois changed their usernames...

« on: June 21, 2012, 05:23:17 am »

What do they play under now? I have no interest in playing either of these two. "inverseParanoid" is ranked similarly to ARTjoMS and seems comparably obnoxious.

This surprises me slightly as in my 20 games with RomaNorgy I've never encountered any such behaviour you're hinting at.

Blueblimp never actually played a game with me as "inverseParanoid." So I'm guessing it was one of those situations where since he thought I was ARTjoMS, he saw those qualities when he looked at me.

I know I've played games against him as RomaNorgy, though, and don't recall any bad blood between us. So I'm sure it was all just a misunderstanding.

29

Dominion Isotropic / Re: So, ARTjoMS and ddubois changed their usernames...

« on: June 21, 2012, 03:47:50 am »

Hey all,

I changed my name when I signed up for the FunSockets beta because I wanted to add my name to the list as inverseParanoid (my preferred handle), and thought there might be an increased chance that I'd get in on an early beta if my Iso name was also inverseParanoid and people could recognize me.

I've had many confrontations with ARTjoMS in the past and have even quit playing against him for periods of time, so I understand blueblimp's concern. But I also learned a lot about letting go and not needing to prove myself to others from playing with him. So, all in all, I'd say I gained more in perspective than I lost in time spent engaging in childish arguments about who got luckiest.

PS: Sorry if I was ever a dick to anyone. Sometimes my frustration gets the best of me and lose sight of the fact that this is just a game.

30

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Ghost Town: +2 action card that can be set aside.

« on: June 06, 2012, 02:14:30 am »

I think it's cute, but unnecessary. If it were me, I'd remove it.

Yeah, it was the first thing to go once I realized proper wording just for the "not counting" affect was going to take a lot of words. Better to keep it focused in a singular direction.

31

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Ghost Town: +2 action card that can be set aside.

« on: June 06, 2012, 12:49:29 am »

You know, the more I think about it, the more I like the original wording of, "This card does not count toward your total hand size," or whatever it was. With a special card back, I think it's probably fine. I generally like to avoid cards with different backs if possible, but I think it's worth it here.

Oh, I accidentally pasted over the original wording. It's been restored now in the quoted portion of the OP.

This card does not count as a card "in hand." All ghost towns are trashed at game's end, prior to tallying the final score.

What do you think of the original Gardens/Fairgrounds penalty (trashing the Ghost Towns at game's end so they don't count in your final card total or as a unique card for fairgrounds)?

32

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Ghost Town: +2 action card that can be set aside.

« on: June 05, 2012, 08:55:43 pm »

Like drawing six or seven cards in your cleanup phase when draw a ghost town, because it isn't there?

Haha, that was one of the overpowered traits I was trying to avoid with the original wording.

33

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Ghost Town: +2 action card that can be set aside.

« on: June 05, 2012, 08:45:25 pm »

The original idea behind ghost town was sort of a card that was there "but wasn't there." Almost like a ghost town. It's still a town, it's just that there's no one there anymore.

I wonder if with that explanation the card could take on a wider meaning or slightly different functions.

34

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Ghost Town +2 action card that doesn't count "in hand."

« on: June 05, 2012, 08:15:10 pm »

Didn't you consider my wording?
It would leave everything intact, but it would strip Tactician functionality, which is pretty much what you want.

I updated the OP before reading your post. If you have a way of wording it that also allow for smooth play on Isotropic, I'd be all for it.

However, I recognize the odds of a user-designed card actually making it onto Iso are very slim, but that's where I do almost all my playing, so it's hard to de-couple the association I make between Dominion and Iso. Would it be best for the thread to focus on optimizing this card only for real life play, and not for online?

35

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Ghost Town +2 action card that doesn't count "in hand."

« on: June 05, 2012, 08:10:58 pm »

I like the concept, but the main problem is that this is just a really expensive village in Kingdoms without cards that react to hand size.

Hopefully dropping the price to $4 resolves this.

For the wording, I suggest simply this:

Ghost Town

+1 card
+2 actions

You may set this card aside or put it back into your hand at any time, unless you played it. If you have this set aside at the beginning of your cleanup phase, discard it.

That will also make it a lot easier to resolve attacks with it.

That would probably work well for live games, but I'm just thinking of playing on Isotropic and having to answer a reaction pop-up EVERY single time an opponent plays an action. I think narrowing it down to a limited number of actions that it directly interacts with (Library, Watchtower, Jack of All Trades, Minion, Militia, Goons, Margrave, and Followers) would make for much smoother gameplay.

36

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Ghost Town +2 action card that doesn't count "in hand."

« on: June 05, 2012, 07:55:44 pm »

Do you have to reveal the card? If I play a militia, and an opponent doesn't discard any cards claiming to have ghost towns, do they have to reveal them at the same time?  And the way it's phrased, it's not optional - it says "it does not count as a card in hand", not that it MAY not be counted, it's mandatory, but how would anyone else know if it's not revealed?

Yes it would have to be revealed. And it would be labeled as an Action-Reaction like Secret Chamber.

"whenever someone plays an action card, you may reveal Ghost Town and set it aside until the action is resolved; then, return it to your hand". That would trigger menageries though, but maybe that's okay, for a $5 village. Oh, and I guess it would have other effects, it would save you from Masq pins...

I think the added Masq and Menagerie utility are fine as well. The only tricky part is that now you can set this aside when playing a Tactician.

So I think a hybrid of your two descriptions "Whenever someone plays an action card that requires counting the cards in your hand, you may reveal ghost town and set it aside; return it to your hand after the action has been resolved"[/b] would be pretty close to perfect.

That would strip Masq, Menagerie, Tactician and Shanty Town functionality, but would also justify lowering the price down to $4 as you've suggested.

I guess mostly I'm playing with words and  trying to avoid having a card claim to be something it's not. It's like a card that says "Action" and then the text says "this card does not count as an action card" - just seems sort of self-contradictory, and the set-aside mechanic seems like it would be a way to get the same effect without having to clarify how, exactly, a card that's in your hand can "count" as a not a card in your hand.

Thanks! I really appreciate your help in clarifying the wording / function. I was trying to think of a way to word it concisely and clearly and the original definition was as far as I got.

I'm going to update the OP with your suggestions.

37

Variants and Fan Cards / Ghost Town: +2 action card that can be set aside.

« on: June 05, 2012, 05:44:22 pm »

(Now available with two different images. Pick and print whichever you like best. And feel free to give feedback or suggest a new image in the thread below.)

OR

NOTE: The above description has been modified to include the feedback below. The original OP and a second draft are quoted below. Special thanks to pokeman7452 for the graphic creation, Thanar for his help with the image search, blueblimp for help with the final description, and ftl for his work on the second draft. And another round of thanks for the many great ideas and feedback from all the wonderful people below (including Schlippy, LastFootnote, Matt_Arnold, rinkworks and eHalcyon)!

*Second Draft*

Ghost Town

+1 card
+2 actions

Whenever someone plays an action card that requires counting the cards in your hand, you may reveal ghost town and set it aside; return it to your hand after the action has been resolved.

$4 Action-Reaction

*Original Version*

Ghost Town

+1 card
+2 actions

This card does not count as a card "in hand." All Ghost Towns are trashed at game's end, prior to tallying the final score.

$5

Ghost Towns can have a tremendous affect on all action cards with "in hand" in their description. I'll attempt to outline all the potential scenarios it might impact below.

• When playing Library, Watchtower, or Jack of All Trades, draw until you have 7, 6 or 5 non-Ghost Town (non-GT) cards "in hand" (respectively), keeping any Ghost Towns but omitting them from your total "in hand" count.
• When attacked by Militia/Goons/Margrave/Followers you only have to "discard down" to 3 non-GTs "in hand," keeping any Ghost Towns but omitting them from your total "in hand" count.
• When attacked by Ghost Ship you only have to place cards on top of your deck until your hand contains 3 non-GTs. Note: you may still place Ghost Towns on top of your deck — perhaps for use in combination with multiple Shanty Towns or Menageries (see below for more info on the relationship between Ghost Town and those cards).
• If you're attacked by a Minion and you have a hand with 5 or more cards but 4 or less non-GTs, you may choose to discard your whole hand and draw 4 new cards, or reveal your Ghost Town(s) and keep your hand.
• When you play a Minion or a Tactician, you discard Ghost Town with the rest of your hand (since those specific functions aren't impacted by cards "in hand").
• Shanty Towns played with Ghost Town(s) and no other actions "in hand" still yield +2 cards.
• When you play a Menagerie and reveal a hand with duplicate Ghost Towns you only draw +1 card. (Again if "in hand" isn't in a card's description, Ghost Towns are treated like any normal card.)
• Since all Ghost Towns are trashed at game's end they do not count toward total deck size with Gardens, or as a unique card with Fairgrounds.

With #8 I wanted to create some sort of penalty to help balance the positive aspects of Ghost Towns out. I thought about it also not counting toward treasures like Horn of Plenty or Philosopher's Stone, but the card description already seemed too long to add any anti-HoP text, and the deck and discard counting function of Phi Stone means that it would make that card a real pain.

Let me know if you have any feedback.