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1
Any challenge is unique, but this time we do something that's maybe more strange than other contests we've seen. All we care about today is words, or more specifically letters. After all, these are the fundamental building blocks of every Dominion card.

Are you ready for your challenge?

As your task, I set the following: Any design submitted to this contest must have its name and card text start with the same letter. Also, your submission should synergize with an official card that starts with the same letter.

Acceptance of your entry is conditional on naming the official card your entry synergizes with. All entries should use standard Dominion language. Any bending of words in order to make your initial letters fit together will be frowned upon.

Assessment of cards will start on July 01, 2023, 12:30:00 pm. All submissions need to be ready by then.

Annotations:
  • a card that starts with a vanilla effect like "+2 Cards" is considered to start with the first proper letter, in this case C.

2
Weekly Design Contest / Weekly Design Contest #182: I Choose Nothing
« on: March 21, 2023, 03:52:50 am »
WDC #182: I Choose Nothing

For this week's contest, we have a simple prompt: Create a design that offers you a choice in which you may want to choose to do nothing reasonably often.

Maybe some examples to illustrate what I mean:
Official cards that would qualify:Mill (choosing not to discard), Hamlet (same), Wayfarer (choosing not to gain Silver)
Ofiicial cards that barely qualify:Vault (you can discard nothing, but that's not usually why you get this), University (maybe there are no more Action you want)
Official cards that don't qualify:Throne Room (you can technically choose not to play a card twice, but come on), Scrap (trashing a Copper gives you "choose zero", but that's not what I mean here), Settlers (I suppose you could choose not to put a Copper into your hand), Bishop (gives your opponent a choice to not trash, but not you)

Judgment criteria:
Try not to get too deep into the "barely qualify" territory! Ideally, the choice is interesting a lot of the time, but not so much that it leads to slow gameplay. Other than that, the usual criteria apply.

3
Weekly Design Contest / Weekly Design Contest #180: Pay the Iron Price
« on: February 28, 2023, 03:28:43 am »
WDC #180: Pay the Iron Price

There is a new Plunder mechanic yet unexplored in these contests, and I am here to remedy that.

This week's contest is twofold. Each entry should be a pair of designs.

The first design should gain Loot somehow. Cards, Allies, Projects, Traits, etc. - pretty much anything goes so long as it gains Loot.

The second design should be an addition to the Loot pile. This should be a card that might well be included in Plunder - thus, it should not use any expansion-specific mechanics from sets other than Plunder.

Judgment criteria:
Other than the usual criteria like balance, fun to play with etc. there are some particular things to note here: As the design space for cards the gain Loot is wider, that entry will make up the bigger part of my judgment, roughly two thirds. When designing a Loot card, make sure that it fits well with the other Loots. Ideally, it would fill some sort of niche left untouched by the official Loots.

4
Weekly Design Contest #166: Who still cares about buying?

With recent errata, the "when you buy" trigger has been mostly removed and replaced by "when you gain" (or sometimes "when you gain a card you bought"). The buys are sad; noone pays attention to them anymore!

Therefore, your challenge today is to design a card or card-shaped object that cares about buys. It could do things upon buying stuff, or care about the number of buys, or maybe about the number of things bought by some player.

Note that you should keep to the spirit of the errata, and avoid direct "when you buy" triggers unless there is a very good reason to have them. Also note that the official Overpay mechanic is still tied to buying, so any Overpay card would be a valid entry for this contest.

5
Weekly Design Contest / Weekly Design Contest #155: Warlord's bane
« on: June 17, 2022, 04:32:14 am »
The challenge for this week shall be to design a card that can be played from somewhere other than your hand.

What place it can be played from is up to your choosing - the discard pile, the top of your deck, maybe the Exile mat or the trash? What is important is the card does not explicitly need a different card to play it: So for instance you can play any Action or Treasure from the top of your deck with Gamble, but that doesn't mean that any of these will qualify. Some examples of official cards that would qualify are
  • Village Green - can be played from your discard pile. (note that this only works if other cards discard it, but since those cards don't play Village Green, that is admissible)
  • Herald - a Herald can play other Heralds from the top of your deck
  • Necromancer - technically a Necromancer can play another Necromancer from the trash, though this is rarely useful
If you want, you can also design a split pile where one of the cards can play the other, Saunavanto-style, but from somewhere other than your hand.

Note: Despite the title of this contest, the card you design need not be an Action.

6
Alright, possibly this mechanic is just on my mind because I'm getting married in a month, but let's do it!

I am introducing a new keyword: combine.

You can be instructed to combine any number of cards. To do so, you set them aside together, in order, with some numbered token, and you take the corresponding card from the combinations pile (not in the supply) and put it in your discard pile:


The Combination card gets all types that are on any of the cards set aside with its numbered token. When you play it, you execute all on-play instructions of the set-aside cards in order. That's it! Effectively, all the cards you combine become a single card!

Here is a simple example of what a card using the keyword might look like:


Some additional clarifications:
- the cost of the Combination card is the sum of all costs of the combined cards, including Debt or Potions
- the name of the Combination card is the string "[first_card_name] + [second_card_name] + ...". Thus, two Combination cards are considered to have the same name if and only if they are made up of the same cards in the same order (the +s are in the string so that the new name doesn't accidentally turn out to the name of an existing card)
- there are 30 numbered Combination cards by default, and if there is no Combination card left, the setting aside fails. You may specify a different number of Combination cards for your submission though.
- the set-aside cards are not returned to the deck at the end of the game. However, the Combination card is worth any VP of a card it is made up of.
- any when-gain, when-buy or when-trash effects of the combined cards are ignored for the Combination. Other below-the-line effects (while in play, Reactions etc.) carry over to the Combination.
- cost reduction lowers the cost of a Combination by 1, not 1 times the number of cards it is made up of.

Good luck!

7
This week, your task is to design a card(-shaped object) with a buying or gaining restriction.

The inspiration for this contest is Grand Market. However, once-per-turn or once-per-game Events like Alms or Seize the Day would also be valid.

Here are some more precise rules:
- your submission should have some additional requirement to being bought/gained other than cost.
- if your submission is a card, it should be in the supply; a gaining restriction due to not being in the supply will not be valid. You may still involve non-supply cards.
- the restriction does not need to be explicitly stated as it is on Grand Market, so long as it has an analogous effect.

Obviously there is some room for interpretation, and I will try to be generous if it is in the spirit of the contest. Please be mindful of potential rules issues with a condition like "You may not gain this unless...".

And with that, I wish you creativity and luck! The contest will close on February 23, 2022, 03:30:00 am.

8
Dominion Articles / Dominion is getting worse with each expansion
« on: August 01, 2021, 03:30:51 pm »
We all love new expansions. Unfortunately, more expansions do not improve the game; they make it worse. At least this is the case if you are playing full random. I have been holding this thought for a while, and I think it's an interesting one to share.

In order to explain why expansions make Dominion worse, we are going to start out with a simple proposition: Games with +Buy in them are on average more interesting than games without +Buy. You might not agree with this; just note that the choice of +Buy is arbitrary - I could make the argument that will follow with any other special kind of card, like Villages, or terminal draw, or cantrips - take your pick.

Part 1: Base-only bliss

So to start out, let us strip all the expansions away until only the base game is left. The (second edition) Base set has 26 kingdom card, of which 3 are +Buy. If we choose random kindoms, what are the chances of ending up with a subpar game  (which for us means a game without +Buy)?

The chance that the first card isn't a +Buy card is 23/26. For the second card, assuming the first is already picked and not a +Buy, we have one fewer non-Buy-card in the pool, so the chances to get another non-Buy-card are 22/25 - a lower probability than for the first card. Continuing this for the second to tenth card, we can compute the chances of getting a kingdom without +Buy: It is the product of the chances for all the individual cards. Eventually, we get the result 14/65, or roughly 21.5%

So when Dominion came out, you could expect that a bit over every fifth game would not include +Buy.

Part 2: Infinite variety

Now as a hypothetical, let us imagine the other extreme - a world in which so many expansions have come out that there are effectively infinitely many kingdom cards. Let's also assume that the ratio of cards with +Buy has been kept the same since the Base set - this is roughly true, as Donald X. tries to keep expansions balanced with repect to +Buy cards, Villages, and so on. So each of our infinite number of kingdom cards has a 3/26 chance of offering +Buy.

Now we can do the same probability computation. As before, the chance of the first card not having +Buy is 23/26. But now, after picking it, we haven't reduced the number of options to choose next at all - there are infinitely many of the after all. So the second card will still have a 23/26 chance of not having +Buy. Same for each subsequent card. If we calculate the overall chance of not having any +Buy in the kingdom it is (23/26)^10, or 29.3%.

When we compare this to the situation in the base set, we note that the chance of a "bad game" significantly went up. Adding the huge number of expansions made our average game worse, regardless of the quality of the individual expansion.

Part 3: Shortcomings of the model

There are of course certain gaps in this analysis. First of all, there can never really be inifinitely many cards. As of writing of this article, there are 354 different Kingdom piles, of which 47 have +Buy (if my counting is accurate). This is a slightly higher density of +Buy than in the original Base set. Still, the current chance to get a +Buy in the Kingdom is, using the computation from Part 1, 23.6%, so even though the +Buy density increased, the chance to get a +Buy in your game actually decreased.

There are shortcomings in only considering the Kingdom piles. I have not considered sideways cards (Events, Projects, Ways) that can also provide +Buy. They change the picture for the better as they provide more total slots in which you might find +Buy - increasing the total size of the Kingdom from 10 to up to 12 - but that can only ever be a temporary solution, unless you keep increasing the stuff that is part of the Kingdom.

Finally, how you find a "bad" kingdom is more complicated than saying there's no +Buy. Some Kingdoms without +Buy can be interesting specifically because you have to play around that. But I would argue that most aren't. You could take a measure that would be more universally agreed to be bad, like Kingdom with only terminal cards. That would change around the numbers, but lead to the same general conclusion. You might also try to account for multiple factors - if there's no +Buy and no Villages, that makes things even worse. But I don't think this takes away from the overall point.

Part 4: Ways to fix this

So how can you stop the inflation of bad kingdoms? One solution available is "don't do full random". Another is "don't play with too many expansions at once". These are fine for IRL groups, but in the competitive online scene they get problematic. Another approach is similar to what I mentioned earlier: Increase the size of the kingdom. This was done, in a way, with the addition of sideways cards, but has not been done since. It would probably not be a good idea to add another card type just to increase size, but you could simply add more kingdom cards.

In the current setting, even just adding an 11th card would drop the likelihood of a no-Buy-kingdom from 23.6% to 20.4% - below the chance of that happening in a base-only game.

My proposal would be something like "add an extra Kingdom card for every 10 expansions that you play with". That would help counteract the chances of dud kingdoms increasing.

9
The challenge for the week is as follows:

Design a card-shaped object with the word "end" somewhere in its instructions.

I think this rule is fairly straightforward, but I'll offer some clarifications still:
  • "End" can have any grammatical function you desire; noun or verb is both fine.
  • "End" needs to be its own word in the text; "spend" does not qualify. That said, inflection is fine, so you may use "ends"
  • "End" does not need to appear in the on-play ability, below the line would be fine as well.
  • "End" needs to appear in the actual text body. Just designing a card that is called "Something end" is not enough.
    • that said... if you want to get really nitpicky: It is technically allowed to design two cards, one using "end" in its name, and the other referring to that card. But your design better have a good reason to be called that way if you wish to get a high ranking.

10
Variants and Fan Cards / Rules for cost increasing cards
« on: June 20, 2021, 04:16:03 am »
This topic is inspired by a discussion from the Weekly Design Contest. It point of concern is: What happens if you design a cost-increasing fac card when you also have cost decreasers like Highway around, in particular with the "cards never cost less than $0" rule.

@faust's Laborer: I'm skimming through the discussion. I hope my comments on this are not unwelcome. What if we say that cost-increasing happens before cost-reduction, as a general rule? I'm not too versed with strange costs (Wayfarer mostly), but this seems like it should solve problems.

I guess it's not my card / not my call, but picture what this looks like in terms of the dominion dot games log - all the sudden you're inserting events before the card is played. Likewise Gubump's proposal - it creates this weird inconsistency where the whole turn needs to be evaluated in one go (despite not being complete),

You don't need to evaluate the future. You only need to evaluate everything that's happened prior in the turn...just like you have to do with +Actions, +, and +Buys, among other things.

you do if you play enough cost reduction and then play cost increases. Everything else does not require this evaluation filter of "is the cost less than zero? if so, its now zero, but if you increase the cost, it was not presently zero"

Lets consider possibly the only canon example we have for what I'm describing vs what you're describing: poor house and wot chameleon, plus some source of coins on action cards.

Like a moron, I played two peddlers before drawing into my poor house. I've got $2 at the moment. Lets say other than that, I've got a hand full of Copper - 4 coppers, one poor house.
I play Poor House using chameleon, draw four cards (lets say it was a Bad 4 cards - all curses - unhelpful) and reveal my hand - four coppers there. How much money do I have at the moment? $0. $2 - $4 => $0.

Now lets play our treasures. I say we end up with $4 - we were at $0, each one contributed $1.

Your reasoning on this puts us at $2 - we were secretly at $-2 (filtered to appear at $0 before more coins were present) but then played 4×$1 worth of treasures. But we know that's wrong.

I don't see why costs should work differently here - you evaluate things in the order they're played, once you hit a floor, that's the new value.


Likewise, we know that order-of-treasures does matter with things like Bank and Fortune - we can't insert the +$ amounts before all the -$ amounts in the order things are played - time travel evaluation is not how the game works. Again, cost adjustment should be consistent with every other tool we've got.
At the core of this analogy seems to be a conflation of two different types of effect: ongoing and on-play. Of course things that the on-play ability of a card happen when that card is played; this was never in question. But this is not the same as discussing ongoing effects. My previous example was bad, so let's consider this instead:

You play a Haggler and then a Talisman. Now on buy, I get 2 effects. But I get to choose the order, even though Haggler was played before Talisman. This is how ongoing effects are resolved in Dominion, this is the precedent.

I understand if the hypothetical negative amount of coin seem counterintuitive, so here is another way to think about it: If I played 6 Highways and then had the Laborer in hand (for context: Laborer is a $5 fan card that increases in cost per Laborer in play), 5 of the Highway effects trigger to modify its cost, until it costs $0. Then the 6th effect can no longer trigger because the card costs $0. Now I play the Laborer. By Laborer's rules, it increases its cost to $1 but now that ongoing effect sees that the card no longer costs $0 and thus can trigger, again lowering its cost.

I have noticed that there is actually a real-Dominion example that contradicts you. Consider Fisherman. I play 3 Highways with an empty discard pile. By your rules Fisherman's cost reduction triggers first, then 2 or the Highways trigger, then the third Highway fails. Now what happens when I discard a card? By your logic, Fisherman's cost reduction would just stop working and the Fisherman would end up costing $3. But we know that's wrong; in this situation, Fisherman actually costs $2.

11
Welcome back to Battlestar Galactica Legacy Mafia!

Mod: faust

This is a closed game for 14 players. It is designed as the second installment in a series of four games, where ideally the same player set would play each game.


Players:
1. Jack Rudd
2. 2.71828.....
3. WestCoastDidds
4. MiX
5. EFHW
6. scolapasta
7. LaLight
8. Dylan32
9. A Drowned Kernel
10. Swowl
11. gkrieg13
12. ashersky
13. Glooble
14. mathdude

Spectators tagged: infangthief
Substitutes/waiting list:

Day starts:

General rules

Changes to the usual rule sets are marked in olive.

The Golden Rule:


Please remember that this is a game and your main objective is to have fun!  Be considerate of each other, don’t get personal, and enjoy the game. Please read The Civility Pledge before signing up for any mafia game on this site.  If you have not /pledged there, you cannot play. Excessive personal attacks or uncivil behavior may be dealt with by modifiers or modkills.

1. General Gameplay and Etiquette:

1. You may not quote information (either real or fabricated) from any game-related source other than the thread you are posting in. This means no quotes from PMs and no quotes from QTs in the main thread or in another QT. Paraphrasing is acceptable. If you are unsure whether a post is legal, please ask the moderator before posting.
2. There is to be NO personal communication outside of the forum postings and the QTs specifically designed for this purpose.
3. As a general rule you should aim for one post every 12 hours, minimum, to keep the game moving.

2. Voting, Deadlines, and Player Death:

1. Day phases will last 7 days, Night lasts at least 48 hours. Night action deadline is 36 hours after night start.
2. A simple majority (rounded up) of all living members must agree on one person for an exile to occur prior to deadline.
3. Once you have reached a simple majority no further unvoting will change someone’s fate. Further votes will also be ignored.
4. Once a player is exiled, the game enters twilight until the mod locks the thread; all players including the one who was exiled may continue to post during twilight.
5. If the deadline is hit without a player reaching the majority of votes, there will be no exile.
6. Please submit votes as: Vote: PlayerName.  Votes in another format may or may not be counted. This is up to the mod's discretion. Obvious abbreviations or nicknames will be counted so long as they are unambiguous.
7. Please submit vote revocations Unvote. Unvotes are not necessary before changing votes.
8. You may Vote: No Exile - a simple majority of these vote types are required to send the game to Night phase without an exile.
10. Any time you are dead (either via exile or night kill) you may no longer post in the game or in shared Quicktopics. This means that you do not even get a “Bah” post. The dead in this game are silent.
11. If the thread is locked, you may not post.  Threads can be locked for various reasons, but no matter what the reason, you may not post.  The mod may forget to lock the thread, but if they say it is locked, it is still locked.

3. Miscellaneous/Mechanics:

1. Bold, olive text is reserved for the mod.  No invisible/small text is allowed, nor is cryptography.
2. If you have an issue/problem with the game, please discuss this in your role QT.  Do not post issues/complaints in the game thread.
3. The Mods may make mistakes - please point out any mistakes gently.  Mistakes will be corrected where possible, but sometimes mistakes are made that cannot be reversed.  These will stand as final to be commiserated over after the game.
4. Please bold all requests to the Mods so that they don’t get missed.
5. Prods of missing players may be issued after 24 hours of no activity.  A prodded player has 24 hours to respond or risks replacement.  A player who has been prodded 2 times is subject to replacement under rule 3.9 without further notice. Players with announced VLA are exempt from this rule the first time it happens.
6. If you anticipate being unavailable for more than a 48-hour period please post a notice to that effect in the thread.  Treat this game as a commitment.  Be considerate – don’t leave us hanging. Players who fail to post for 48 hours without an announcement risk being subject to replacement and/or being modkilled without further notice.
7. Please do not discuss ongoing games, it can unintentionally affect the other game. Do not discuss this game in any thread that is not directly related to it.
8. Rule violations will be dealt with according to their severity, which may include modkill(s) if needed.
9. Players who discover they are too busy to play in a game or want to leave the game for civility issues are not allowed to officially /out in the thread.  A request to /out must only be done via a post in the role QT. Please do not use this as a manipulation technique.  (Note players may continue to threaten to /out or imply that they might as long as it does not include an official request). Requests to /out are final once submitted. There will be no /outing and then /inning back into the game so make sure that when you /out you have thought it through and really want to do it. Players that can't be replaced will simply be mod-killed. Whether your request to /out will lead to replacement or a modkill is up to the mod's discretion.

12
Welcome to Battlestar Galactica Legacy Mafia!

Mod: faust

This is a closed game for 14 players. It is designed as the first installment in a series of four games, where ideally the same player set would play each game. Please consider whether you would be ready to play in the subsequent games when you sign up.


Players:
1. Jack Rudd - Cylon-aligned Leoben Conoy, survived
2. SpaceAnemone - Human-aligned Felix Gaeta, incapacitated N5
3. WestCoastDidds - Human-aligned Kara "Starbuck" Thrace, incapacitated N5
4. MiX - Human-aligend Gaius Baltar, endgamed
5. EFHW - Human-aligned Anastasia "Dee" Dualla, incapacitated N5
6. scolapasta - Cylon-aligned Number Five, survived
7. LaLight - Human-aligend Karl "Helo" Agathon, incapacitated N4
8. Dylan32 - Cylon-aligned Caprica Six, survived
9. A Drowned Kernel - Self-aligned Lee Adama, sent to the brig D5
10. Swowl - Human-aligned Sharon "Boomer" Valerii, incapacitated N3
11. Robz888 - Human-aligned Callandra Henderson, sent to the brig D4, killed postgame
12. ashersky - Human-aligned Galen Tyrol, endgamed
13. Awaclus - Human-aligned Billy Keikeya, incapacitated N2
14. mathdude - Human-aligned Laura Roslin, incapacitated D1

Spectators tagged: infangthief
Substitutes/waiting list: jotheonah, gkrieg13, Galzria

Day starts: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Game end | Postgame modifications

General rules

Changes to the usual rule sets are marked in olive.

The Golden Rule:


Please remember that this is a game and your main objective is to have fun!  Be considerate of each other, don’t get personal, and enjoy the game. Please read The Civility Pledge before signing up for any mafia game on this site.  If you have not /pledged there, you cannot play. Excessive personal attacks or uncivil behavior may be dealt with by modifiers or modkills.

1. General Gameplay and Etiquette:

1. You may not quote information (either real or fabricated) from any game-related source other than the thread you are posting in. This means no quotes from PMs and no quotes from QTs in the main thread or in another QT. Paraphrasing is acceptable. If you are unsure whether a post is legal, please ask the moderator before posting.
2. There is to be NO personal communication outside of the forum postings and the QTs specifically designed for this purpose.
3. As a general rule you should aim for one post every 12 hours, minimum, to keep the game moving.

2. Voting, Deadlines, and Player Death:

1. Day phases will last 7 days, Night lasts at least 48 hours. Night action deadline is 36 hours after night start.
2. A simple majority (rounded up) of all living members must agree on one person for an exile to occur prior to deadline.
3. Once you have reached a simple majority no further unvoting will change someone’s fate. Further votes will also be ignored.
4. Once a player is exiled, the game enters twilight until the mod locks the thread; all players including the one who was exiled may continue to post during twilight.
5. If the deadline is hit without a player reaching the majority of votes, there will be no exile.
6. Please submit votes as: Vote: PlayerName.  Votes in another format may or may not be counted. This is up to the mod's discretion. Obvious abbreviations or nicknames will be counted so long as they are unambiguous.
7. Please submit vote revocations Unvote. Unvotes are not necessary before changing votes.
8. You may Vote: No Exile - a simple majority of these vote types are required to send the game to Night phase without an exile.
10. Any time you are dead (either via exile or night kill) you may no longer post in the game or in shared Quicktopics. This means that you do not even get a “Bah” post. The dead in this game are silent.
11. If the thread is locked, you may not post.  Threads can be locked for various reasons, but no matter what the reason, you may not post.  The mod may forget to lock the thread, but if they say it is locked, it is still locked.

3. Miscellaneous/Mechanics:

1. Bold, olive text is reserved for the mod.  No invisible/small text is allowed, nor is cryptography.
2. If you have an issue/problem with the game, please discuss this in your role QT.  Do not post issues/complaints in the game thread.
3. The Mods may make mistakes - please point out any mistakes gently.  Mistakes will be corrected where possible, but sometimes mistakes are made that cannot be reversed.  These will stand as final to be commiserated over after the game.
4. Please bold all requests to the Mods so that they don’t get missed.
5. Prods of missing players may be issued after 24 hours of no activity.  A prodded player has 24 hours to respond or risks replacement.  A player who has been prodded 2 times is subject to replacement under rule 3.9 without further notice. Players with announced VLA are exempt from this rule the first time it happens.
6. If you anticipate being unavailable for more than a 48-hour period please post a notice to that effect in the thread.  Treat this game as a commitment.  Be considerate – don’t leave us hanging. Players who fail to post for 48 hours without an announcement risk being subject to replacement and/or being modkilled without further notice.
7. Please do not discuss ongoing games, it can unintentionally affect the other game. Do not discuss this game in any thread that is not directly related to it.
8. Rule violations will be dealt with according to their severity, which may include modkill(s) if needed.
9. Players who discover they are too busy to play in a game or want to leave the game for civility issues are not allowed to officially /out in the thread.  A request to /out must only be done via a post in the role QT. Please do not use this as a manipulation technique.  (Note players may continue to threaten to /out or imply that they might as long as it does not include an official request). Requests to /out are final once submitted. There will be no /outing and then /inning back into the game so make sure that when you /out you have thought it through and really want to do it. Players that can't be replaced will simply be mod-killed. Whether your request to /out will lead to replacement or a modkill is up to the mod's discretion.

13
Weekly Design Contest / Weekly Design Contest Discussion
« on: January 13, 2021, 06:31:24 am »
Now that we've separated out the individual contests, it would be good to have a central place to discuss anything related to the organisation of the contest. This is that place! New contests can also be announced in here.

14
Forum Games / Battlestar Galactica Legacy - RMM series
« on: December 16, 2020, 11:01:49 am »
Dear friends,

I have been working on making a 4-part series of RMM games with Battlestar Galactica flavor. The first of those games will be ready to go soon. There is, of course a lot of stuff going on, and I still have some things to work out, but I wanted to see if people would be interested in this experience.

I think we could start the first game some time close to the end of January. It will fit 14 players. There will be legacy elements, and if possible I would try to keep more or less the same group of players for all 4 games. of course, life happens and it will definitely be necessary for people to replace in and out at some points.

I want to collect some feedback on the Legacy system so that can be as solid as possible once we start with the actual game. Of course, I cannot share too much, but you can find a set of rules regarding the legacy elements below:

Legacy rules

Scoring.
Players get points in each consecutive game. Winning a game awards 5 points as town. Other factions' benefits may differ. Another way to score points are character arcs, see below. The player(s) with the highest score when the game ends will be considered the overall winner(s). Scores are generally secret.

Turning points.
Certain powers, or game states, trigger turning points. If an individual player has a power that triggers a turning point, they will know. Turning points based on game states are public knowledge. In general, it will not be clear what effects a given turning point has until it is reached.

Character arcs.
Each charcter has a unique character arc, which is a goal they want to achieve for additional points. To prevent players playing against their win condition in any given game, these will usually only be obtainable when the player won a game. Character arc success is usually checked at the end of the game. If successful, the character may become unplayable or get a new arc. Completing a character arc counts as a turning point.

Flavor, death and exile.
Since the idea is to play the same character over multiple games, elimination from the game will not usually be flavored as dying. Instead, exiled players are sent to the brig and player that are killed by other means are incapacitated. It may be possible by certain abilities to permanently remove characters from the campaign.

Character persistence.
Every player may keep the character that they played from one game to the next, unless they have been eliminated from the game. Role and alignment will change from one game to the next, the character arc remains intact. Alternatively, they may choose another character, which will be chosen from the pool of available characters. A player may receive a character that has previously been played by someone else this way.

Game end.
The winning players may select one permanent rule change to affect future games. Additionally, individual players may be able to make choices for their characters. The President may execute one character that was sent to the brig. That character will die and be removed from the campaign. Doing so triggers a turning point. Night actions are not revealed until the campaign ends.

15
Dominion General Discussion / White and PoC cards
« on: July 10, 2020, 03:16:28 am »
This thread has been around for while, and I thought it would be interesting to look at representation in Dominion through a different lens. I'm going to keep the format of the male and female card list.

[EDIT 1: Moved Harem to both, Margrave, Spice Merchant and Peddler to PoC, Summon and Miser to Ambiguous.]

BASE
White: Harbinger, Merchant, Vassal, Bureaucrat, Militia, Moneylender, Poacher, Smithy, Bandit, Festival, Market, Sentry, Witch, Artisan
Person of color:
Both:
Unknown/Ambiguous: Village, Laboratory, Library, Mine

INTRIGUE
White: Lurker, Pawn, Masquerade, Shanty Town, Steward, Swindler, Wishing Well, Baron, Diplomat, Coutrier, Duke, Minion, Replace, Trading Post, Nobles
Person of color:
Both: Harem
Unknown/Ambiguous: Conspirator, Ironworks, Torturer, Upgrade

SEASIDE
White: Fishing Village, Smugglers, Navigator, Salvager, Sea Hag, Bazaar, Explorer, Tactician
Person of color: Native Village, Ambassador, Lookout
Both:
Unknown/Ambiguous: Embargo, Lighthouse, Pearl Diver, Cutpurse, Merchant Ship, Wharf

ALCHEMY
White: Transmute, Herbalist, Apothecary, Scrying Pool, Alchemist, Golem, Apprentice, Possession
Person of color:
Both:
Unknown/Ambiguous: Familiar

PROSPERITY
White: Bishop, Counting House, Mint, Mountebank, Rabble, Venture, Goons, Bank, Forge
Person of color:
Both: Grand Market, Peddler
Unknown/Ambiguous: Trade Route, Workers' Village, King's Court

CORNUCOPIA
White: Fortune Teller, Menagerie, Farming Village, Horse Traders, Young Witch, Jester, Fairgrounds, Followers, Princess
Person of color:
Both:
Unknown/Ambiguous: Tournament, Harvest, Hunting Party

HINTERLANDS
White: Duchess, Oracle, Scheme, Jack of all Trades, Noble Brigand, Trader, Cartographer, Stables
Person of color: Nomad Camp, Haggler, Mandarin, Margrave, Spice Merchant
Both: Embassy
Unknown/Ambiguous: Develop, Silk Road

DARK AGES
White: Beggar, Forager, Hermit, Market Square, Sage, Urchin, Armory, Ironmonger, Marauder, Scavenger, Wandering Minstrel, Band of Misfits, Bandit Camp, Count, Graverobber, Junk Dealer, Mystic, Pillage, Rogue, Hunting Grounds, Dame Anna, Dame Josephine, Dmae Natalie, Dame Sylvia, Sir Destry, Sir Martin, Sir Michael, Madman, Mercenary
Person of color:
Both:
Unknown/Ambiguous: Squire, Vagrant, Death Cart, Procession, Cultist, Dame Molly, Sir Bailey, Sir Vander, Survivors

GUILDS
White: Cnadlestick Maker, Sonemason, Doctor, Advisor, Plaza, Taxman, Herald, Baker, Butcher, Merchant Guild, Soothsayer
Person of color:
Both:
Unknown/Ambiguous: Journeyman

ADVENTURES
White: Page (and thier line), Peasant (and their line), Ratcatcher, Caravan Guard, Guide, Ranger, Transmogrify, Artificer, Giant, Royal Carriage, Storyteller, Swamp Hag, Wine Merchant, Alms, Borrow, Save, Scouting Party, Travelling Fair, Bonfire, Plan, Pilgrimage, Ball, Trade, Lost Arts, Training
Person of color:
Both:
Unknown/Ambiguous: Raze, Duplicate, Messenger, Bridge Troll, Distant Lands, Hireling, Quest, Ferry, Mission, Raid, Pathfinding, Miser

EMPIRES
White: Engineer, Overlord, Royal Blacksmith, Encampment, Patrician, Chariot Race, Enchantress, Farmers' Market, Gladiator, Fortune, Sacrifice, Groundskeeper, Legionary, Triumph, Annex, Donate, Advance, Delve, Tax, Banquet, Salt the Earth, Wedding, Windfall, Conquest, Dominate, Basilica, Baths, Battlefield, Triumphal Arch
Person of color:
Both:
Unknown/Ambiguous: Settlers, Bustling Village, Rocks, Bandit Fort, Keep, Museum

NOCTURNE
White: Druid, Pixie, Changeling, Fool, Leprechaun, Night Watchman, Bard, Blessed Village, Conclave, Devil's Workshop, Exorcist, Necromancer, Cobbler, Pooka, Tragic Hero, Vampire, Raider, Delusion, Fear, Greed, Haunting, Locusts, Misery
Person of color: Werewolf
Both:
Unknown/Ambiguous: Guardian, Tracker, Shepherd, Skulk, Tormentor, War

RENAISSANCE
White: Border Guard, Lackeys, Acting Troupe, Experiment, Improve, Flag Bearer, Inventor, Patron, Priest, Research, Silk Merchant, Old Witch, Recruiter, Scholar, Seer, Swashbuckler, Treasurer, Key, Lantern, Pageant, Capitalism, Road Network
Person of color:
Both:
Unknown/Ambiguous: Hideout, Villain, Sinister Plot, Barracks

MENAGERIE
White: Goatherd, Scrap, Bounty Hunter, Cardinal, Groom, Barge, Falconer, Livery, Mastermind, Wayfarer, Animal Fair, Delay, Desperation, Pursue, Ride, Toil, March, Transport, Bargain, Invest, Demand, Reap, Alliance, Populate
Person of color: Camel Train, Commerce
Both:
Unknown/Ambiguous: Sleigh, Cavalry, Coven, Gatekeeper, Fisherman, Gamble, Seize the Day

PROMO
White: Dismantle, Envoy, Governor, Captain, Prince
Person of color:
Both:
Unknown/Ambiguous: Black Market, Summon

16
Welcome to M127: Customer Service Hotline Mafia!

Mod: faust co-mod: MiX

You can choose one of three of my old original setups for a rerun. They have different player counts; the first to /in are the first to decide.


Players:
1. mail-mi
2. SpaceAnemone
3. WestCoastDidds
4. yuma
5. LaLight
6. Joseph2302
7. Calamitas
8. scolapasta
9. 2.71828.....
10. A Drowned Kernel
11. DatSwan
12. Dylan32

Spectators tagged: cayvie

Day starts/ends:

General rules

Changes to the usual rule sets are marked in olive.

The Golden Rule:


Please remember that this is a game and your main objective is to have fun!  Be considerate of each other, don’t get personal, and enjoy the game. Please read The Civility Pledge before signing up for any mafia game on this site.  If you have not /pledged there, you cannot play. Excessive personal attacks or uncivil behavior may be dealt with by modifiers or modkills.

1. General Gameplay and Etiquette:

1. You may not quote information (either real or fabricated) from any game-related source other than the thread you are posting in. This means no quotes from PMs and no quotes from QTs in the main thread or in another QT. Paraphrasing is acceptable. If you are unsure whether a post is legal, please ask the moderator before posting.
2. There is to be NO personal communication outside of the forum postings and the QTs specifically designed for this purpose.
3. As a general rule you should aim for one post every 24 hours, minimum, to keep the game moving.

2. Voting, Deadlines, and Player Death:

1. Day phases will last 7 days, Twilight lasts 12 hours, Night lasts at least 36 hours.
2. A simple majority (rounded up) of all living members must agree on one person for a lynch to occur prior to deadline.
3. Once you have reached a simple majority no further unvoting will change someone’s fate. Further votes will also be ignored.
4. Once a player is lynched the game enters twilight until the mod locks the thread; all players including the one who was lynched may continue to post during twilight.
5. If the deadline is hit without a player reaching the majority of votes, there will be no lynch.
6. Please submit votes as: Vote: PlayerName.  Votes will NOT be counted if they are not bold or do not follow this syntax! Obvious abbreviations or nicknames will be counted so long as they are unambiguous.
7. Please submit vote revocations Unvote. Unvotes are not necessary before changing votes.
8. You may Vote: No Lynch - a simple majority of these vote types are required to send the game to Night phase without a lynch.
9. If the game goes on for 3 days and 3 nights without a lynch or night kill, town wins.
10. Once you are killed (either via lynch or night kill) you may no longer post in the game or in Quicktopics. This means that you do not even get a “Bah” post. The dead in this game are silent.
11. If the thread is locked, you may not post.  Threads can be locked for various reasons, but no matter what the reason, you may not post.  The mod may forget to lock the thread, but if they say it is locked, it is still locked.

3. Miscellaneous/Mechanics:

1. Bold, olive text is reserved for the mod.  No invisible/small text is allowed, nor is cryptography.
2. If you have an issue/problem with the game, please discuss this in your role QT.  Do not post issues/complaints in the game thread.
3. The Mods may make mistakes - please point out any mistakes gently.  Mistakes will be corrected where possible, but sometimes mistakes are made that cannot be reversed.  These will stand as final to be commiserated over after the game.
4. Please bold all requests to the Mods so that they don’t get missed.
5. Prods of missing players will be issued upon request after 24 hours of no activity.  A prodded player has 48 hours to respond or risks replacement.  A player who has been prodded 2 times is subject to replacement under rule 3.9 without further notice.
6. Please do not discuss ongoing games, it can unintentionally affect the other game. Do not discuss this game in any thread that is not directly related to it.
7. Rule violations will be dealt with according to their severity, which may include modkill(s) if needed.
8. If you anticipate being unavailable for more than a 48-hour period please post a notice to that effect in the thread.  Treat this game as a commitment.  Be considerate – don’t leave us hanging. Players who fail to post for 48 hours without an announcement, or fail to post for 24 hours repeatedly, risk being subject to replacement and/or being modkilled without further notice.
9. Players who discover they are too busy to play in a game or want to leave the game for civility issues are not allowed to officially /out in the thread.  A request to /out must only be done via a post in the role QT. Please do not use this as a manipulation technique.  (Note players may continue to threaten to /out or imply that they might as long as it does not include an official request). Requests to /out are final once submitted. There will be no /outing and then /inning back into the game so make sure that when you /out you have thought it through and really want to do it. Players that can't be replaced will simply be mod-killed. Whether your request to /out will lead to replacement or a modkill is up to the mod's discretion.

17
Non-Mafia Game Threads / Decrypto 3
« on: April 08, 2020, 11:43:56 am »
It's a new thread! I'm going to randomize teams. I'd also suggest opening it up for ~24 hours in case others want to join.

New teams are going to be:

faust & bitwise & DatSwan // ghostofmars & scolapasta & jotheonah

For easy reference, here is the word list generator.

18
Forum Games / Quicktopic monetized?
« on: February 11, 2020, 03:49:28 pm »
I have gotten messages on my created QTs that new messages cannot be posted unless I pay something... I don't see a way to pay, and anyways I don't want to do that.

Is it the same for you guys? Do we have an alternative?

19
Welcome to RMM55: iZombie Mafia!

Mod: faust

This is a closed game for 14 players. Some more information will be provided in the next post.


Players:
1. SpaceAnemone
2. Glooble
3. WestCoastDidds
4. DatSwan
5. MiX
6. LaLight
7. jotheonah
8. EFHW
9. A Drowned Kernel
10. raerae
11. Archetype
12. popsofctown
13. shraeye
14. Galzria

Spectators tagged: ashersky

Day starts:

General rules

Changes to the usual rule sets are marked in olive.

The Golden Rule:


Please remember that this is a game and your main objective is to have fun!  Be considerate of each other, don’t get personal, and enjoy the game. Please read The Civility Pledge before signing up for any mafia game on this site.  If you have not /pledged there, you cannot play. Excessive personal attacks or uncivil behavior may be dealt with by modifiers or modkills.

1. General Gameplay and Etiquette:

1. You may not quote information (either real or fabricated) from any game-related source other than the thread you are posting in. This means no quotes from PMs and no quotes from QTs in the main thread or in another QT. Paraphrasing is acceptable. If you are unsure whether a post is legal, please ask the moderator before posting.
2. There is to be NO personal communication outside of the forum postings and the QTs specifically designed for this purpose.
3. As a general rule you should aim for one post every 12 hours, minimum, to keep the game moving.

2. Voting, Deadlines, and Player Death:

1. Day phases will last 7 days, Night lasts at least 48 hours. Night action deadline is 36 hours after night start.
2. A simple majority (rounded up) of all living members must agree on one person for a lynch to occur prior to deadline.
3. Once you have reached a simple majority no further unvoting will change someone’s fate. Further votes will also be ignored.
4. Once a player is lynched, the game enters twilight until the mod locks the thread; all players including the one who was lynched may continue to post during twilight.
5. If the deadline is hit without a player reaching the majority of votes, there will be no lynch.
6. Please submit votes as: Vote: PlayerName.  Votes in another format may or may not be counted. This is up to the mod's discretion. Obvious abbreviations or nicknames will be counted so long as they are unambiguous.
7. Please submit vote revocations Unvote. Unvotes are not necessary before changing votes.
8. You may Vote: No Lynch - a simple majority of these vote types are required to send the game to Night phase without a lynch.
10. Any time you are dead (either via lynch or night kill) you may no longer post in the game or in shared Quicktopics. This means that you do not even get a “Bah” post. The dead in this game are silent.
11. If the thread is locked, you may not post.  Threads can be locked for various reasons, but no matter what the reason, you may not post.  The mod may forget to lock the thread, but if they say it is locked, it is still locked.

3. Miscellaneous/Mechanics:

1. Bold, olive text is reserved for the mod.  No invisible/small text is allowed, nor is cryptography.
2. If you have an issue/problem with the game, please discuss this in your role QT.  Do not post issues/complaints in the game thread.
3. The Mods may make mistakes - please point out any mistakes gently.  Mistakes will be corrected where possible, but sometimes mistakes are made that cannot be reversed.  These will stand as final to be commiserated over after the game.
4. Please bold all requests to the Mods so that they don’t get missed.
5. Prods of missing players may be issued after 24 hours of no activity.  A prodded player has 24 hours to respond or risks replacement.  A player who has been prodded 2 times is subject to replacement under rule 3.9 without further notice. Players with announced VLA are exempt from this rule the first time it happens.
6. If you anticipate being unavailable for more than a 48-hour period please post a notice to that effect in the thread.  Treat this game as a commitment.  Be considerate – don’t leave us hanging. Players who fail to post for 48 hours without an announcement risk being subject to replacement and/or being modkilled without further notice.
7. Please do not discuss ongoing games, it can unintentionally affect the other game. Do not discuss this game in any thread that is not directly related to it.
8. Rule violations will be dealt with according to their severity, which may include modkill(s) if needed.
9. Players who discover they are too busy to play in a game or want to leave the game for civility issues are not allowed to officially /out in the thread.  A request to /out must only be done via a post in the role QT. Please do not use this as a manipulation technique.  (Note players may continue to threaten to /out or imply that they might as long as it does not include an official request). Requests to /out are final once submitted. There will be no /outing and then /inning back into the game so make sure that when you /out you have thought it through and really want to do it. Players that can't be replaced will simply be mod-killed. Whether your request to /out will lead to replacement or a modkill is up to the mod's discretion.

20
Mafia Game Threads / M123: Doomsday Mafia (Town and Survivor win!)
« on: May 09, 2019, 09:37:46 am »
Welcome to M123: Doomsday Mafia!

Mod: faust, comod: WestCoastDidds

This is a semi-open setup for 15 players. For setup information see the next post.


Players:
1. Glooble
2. Debatepro
3. MiX
4. DatSwan
5. jotheonah
6. pingpongsam
7. mcmcsalot
8. EFHW
9. Uncleeurope
10. A Drowned Kernel
11. 2.71828.....
12. ashersky
13. gkrieg13
14. pubby
15. silverspawn

Spectators tagged: Joseph2302, SpaceAnemone

Subs available: Galzria, (popsofctown)

Day starts/ends:

General rules

Changes to the usual rule sets are marked in olive.

The Golden Rule:


Please remember that this is a game and your main objective is to have fun!  Be considerate of each other, don’t get personal, and enjoy the game. Please read The Civility Pledge before signing up for any mafia game on this site.  If you have not /pledged there, you cannot play. Excessive personal attacks or uncivil behavior may be dealt with by modifiers or modkills.

1. General Gameplay and Etiquette:

1. You may not quote information (either real or fabricated) from any game-related source other than the thread you are posting in. This means no quotes from PMs and no quotes from QTs in the main thread or in another QT. Paraphrasing is acceptable. If you are unsure whether a post is legal, please ask the moderator before posting.
2. There is to be NO personal communication outside of the forum postings and the QTs specifically designed for this purpose.
3. As a general rule you should aim for one post every 24 hours, minimum, to keep the game moving.

2. Voting, Deadlines, and Player Death:

1. Day phases will last 7 days, Night lasts at least 36 hours.
2. A simple majority (rounded up) of all living members must agree on one person for a lynch to occur prior to deadline.
3. Once you have reached a simple majority no further unvoting will change someone’s fate. Further votes will also be ignored.
4. Once a player is lynched the game enters twilight until the mod locks the thread; all players including the one who was lynched may continue to post during twilight.
5. If the deadline is hit without a player reaching the majority of votes, the game goes to Night without a lynch.
6. Please submit votes as: Vote: PlayerName.  Votes will NOT be counted if they are not bold or do not follow this syntax! Obvious abbreviations or nicknames will be counted so long as they are unambiguous.
7. Please submit vote revocations Unvote. Unvotes are not necessary before changing votes.
8. You may Vote: No Lynch - a simple majority of these vote types are required to send the game to Night phase without a lynch.
9. If the game goes on for 3 days and 3 nights without a lynch or night kill, town wins.
10. Once you are killed (either via lynch or night kill) you may no longer post in the game or in Quicktopics. This means that you do not even get a “Bah” post. The dead in this game are silent.
11. If the thread is locked, you may not post.  Threads can be locked for various reasons, but no matter what the reason, you may not post.  The mod may forget to lock the thread, but if they say it is locked, it is still locked.

3. Miscellaneous/Mechanics:

1. Bold, olive text is reserved for the mod.  No invisible/small text is allowed, nor is cryptography.
2. If you have an issue/problem with the game, please discuss this in your role QT.  Do not post issues/complaints in the game thread.
3. The Mods may make mistakes - please point out any mistakes gently.  Mistakes will be corrected where possible, but sometimes mistakes are made that cannot be reversed.  These will stand as final to be commiserated over after the game.
4. Please bold all requests to the Mods so that they don’t get missed.
5. Prods of missing players will be issued upon request after 24 hours of no activity.  A prodded player has 24 hours to respond or risks replacement. A player who has been prodded 2 times is subject to replacement under rule 3.9 without further notice.  If you anticipate being unavailable for more than a 48-hour period please post a notice to that effect in the thread.  Whether a prior announcement means that the missing player will not be replaced is up to the mod.
6. Please do not discuss ongoing games, it can unintentionally affect the other game. Do not discuss this game in any thread that is not directly related to it.
7. Rule violations will be dealt with according to their severity, which may include modkill(s) if needed.
8. Players who discover they are too busy to play in a game or want to leave the game for civility issues are not allowed to officially /out in the thread.  A request to /out must only be done via a post in the role QT. Please do not use this as a manipulation technique.  (Note players may continue to threaten to /out or imply that they might as long as it does not include an official request). Requests to /out are final once submitted. There will be no /outing and then /inning back into the game so make sure that when you /out you have thought it through and really want to do it. Players that can't be replaced will simply be mod-killed. Whether your request to /out will lead to replacement or a modkill is up to the mod's discretion.

22
Mafia Game Threads / RMM51: Imperial Radch Mafia (Game over)
« on: December 31, 2018, 05:07:05 am »
Welcome to RMM51: Imperial Radch Mafia!

Mod: faust

This is a closed game for 14 players. Some more information will be provided in the next post.


Players:
1. SpaceAnemone
2. jotheonah
3. LaLight
4. DatSwan
5. mail-mi
6. Awaclus
7. 2.71828.....
8. WestCoastDidds
9. Robz888 UmbrageOfSnow
10. hypercube
11. mcmcsalot
12. ashersky
13. Galzria Haddock
14. Glooble

Spectators tagged:

Day starts: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4

General rules

Changes to the usual rule sets are marked in olive.

The Golden Rule:


Please remember that this is a game and your main objective is to have fun!  Be considerate of each other, don’t get personal, and enjoy the game. Please read The Civility Pledge before signing up for any mafia game on this site.  If you have not /pledged there, you cannot play. Excessive personal attacks or uncivil behavior may be dealt with by modifiers or modkills.

1. General Gameplay and Etiquette:

1. You may not quote information (either real or fabricated) from any game-related source other than the thread you are posting in. This means no quotes from PMs and no quotes from QTs in the main thread or in another QT. Paraphrasing is acceptable. If you are unsure whether a post is legal, please ask the moderator before posting.
2. There is to be NO personal communication outside of the forum postings and the QTs specifically designed for this purpose.
3. As a general rule you should aim for one post every 12 hours, minimum, to keep the game moving.

2. Voting, Deadlines, and Player Death:

1. Day phases will last 7 days, Night lasts at least 48 hours. Night action deadline is 36 hours after night start.
2. A simple majority (rounded up) of all living members must agree on one person for a lynch to occur prior to deadline.
3. Once you have reached a simple majority no further unvoting will change someone’s fate. Further votes will also be ignored.
4. Once a player is lynched, the game enters twilight until the mod locks the thread; all players including the one who was lynched may continue to post during twilight.
5. If the deadline is hit without a player reaching the majority of votes, the player that would take the least number of additional votes to lynch dies. If there is a tie, a town player dies before a non-town player. Otherwise, who dies is determined randomly.
6. Please submit votes as: Vote: PlayerName.  Votes in another format may or may not be counted. This is up to the mod's discretion. Obvious abbreviations or nicknames will be counted so long as they are unambiguous.
7. Please submit vote revocations Unvote. Unvotes are not necessary before changing votes.
8. You may Vote: No Lynch - a simple majority of these vote types are required to send the game to Night phase without a lynch.
10. Any time you are dead (either via lynch or night kill) you may no longer post in the game or in shared Quicktopics. This means that you do not even get a “Bah” post. The dead in this game are silent.
11. If the thread is locked, you may not post.  Threads can be locked for various reasons, but no matter what the reason, you may not post.  The mod may forget to lock the thread, but if they say it is locked, it is still locked.

3. Miscellaneous/Mechanics:

1. Bold, olive text is reserved for the mod.  No invisible/small text is allowed, nor is cryptography.
2. If you have an issue/problem with the game, please discuss this in your role QT.  Do not post issues/complaints in the game thread.
3. The Mods may make mistakes - please point out any mistakes gently.  Mistakes will be corrected where possible, but sometimes mistakes are made that cannot be reversed.  These will stand as final to be commiserated over after the game.
4. Please bold all requests to the Mods so that they don’t get missed.
5. Prods of missing players may be issued after 24 hours of no activity.  A prodded player has 24 hours to respond or risks replacement.  A player who has been prodded 2 times is subject to replacement under rule 3.9 without further notice. Players with announced VLA are exempt from this rule the first time it happens.
6. If you anticipate being unavailable for more than a 48-hour period please post a notice to that effect in the thread.  Treat this game as a commitment.  Be considerate – don’t leave us hanging. Players who fail to post for 48 hours without an announcement risk being subject to replacement and/or being modkilled without further notice.
7. Please do not discuss ongoing games, it can unintentionally affect the other game. Do not discuss this game in any thread that is not directly related to it.
8. Rule violations will be dealt with according to their severity, which may include modkill(s) if needed.
9. Players who discover they are too busy to play in a game or want to leave the game for civility issues are not allowed to officially /out in the thread.  A request to /out must only be done via a post in the role QT. Please do not use this as a manipulation technique.  (Note players may continue to threaten to /out or imply that they might as long as it does not include an official request). Requests to /out are final once submitted. There will be no /outing and then /inning back into the game so make sure that when you /out you have thought it through and really want to do it. Players that can't be replaced will simply be mod-killed. Whether your request to /out will lead to replacement or a modkill is up to the mod's discretion.

23
Dominion General Discussion / Research is not fun
« on: December 19, 2018, 11:45:56 am »
Ever wanted a trasher that combined the economic unreliability of Salvager and Amulet's potential to skip a shuffle if you draw it on the wrong turn? No? Really not? That sounds like a terrible idea?

...
...

Well, still, Research has got you covered!

24
Dominion General Discussion / Horn or Lantern
« on: December 05, 2018, 05:27:00 am »
With the advent of the 2018 rankings, it is also time to once and for all settle The Duel That Qvist Forgot.

 

Choose the best gear for your Border Guard!

25
Dominion Articles / Chariot Race
« on: September 18, 2018, 08:13:55 am »

Chariot Race was the card that proved the long-standing fan card guideline "don't do cantrip VP tokens" wrong. But is it any good?

The Gist

Chariot Race is bad as an opener. The best time to get it is usually around the third shuffle onwards. It behaves a lot like some other $3 cantrips (Harbinger, Scheme, Sage etc.) in that it hardly ever hurts to add it, so the main question becomes "could I do something better"? Chariot Race likes a high-value deck and thus encourages heavy trashing. You usually want maybe 3 of them, on boards where you want them. When buying them late-game, you should ask yourself whether you expect to activate them twice before the game ends. Chariot Race especially likes cards that give you control over your opponent's draw pile.

In general, it is good to keep in mind that you get Chariot Races for the VP and not so much for economy.

Diminishing returns

This section is devoted to just a bit of simple math that helps us understand Chariot Races a bit better. Let us for a moment assume a hypothetical situation in which your opponent and have decks consisting of 5 $3-costs and 5 $5-costs each. If you add a Chariot Race here, the chance that it fires is 25%: You need to flip a $5 and your opponent needs to flip a $3. So the expected output is 0.25 VP, 0.25$.

Now what if you add second Chariot race? The chance that one of them fires decreases, since you now have an additional $3 in your deck. The output drops to 0.23 VP, 0.23$. But of course you now have two, so the total expected output is 0.46 VP, 0.46$, a plus of 0.21 from the single Chariot Race case. (I am dismissing some technical details on conditional probability that would have some impact here.)

Now let us say you add n Chariot Races. The chance of firing for each will be 5/(2*(9 + n)). But of course you have n of them, so the total output is 5n/(18 + 2n). As n tends to infinity, this expression approaches 2.5. That means that no matter how many Chariot Races you add, you will not make more than 2.5 VP per turn on average.

What this shows is that the more Chariot Races you have, the less benefit you receive from each new one you add. This is bad. Generally speaking, if you build a deck you'd want the benefit-per-turn of each new card you add to be at least as high as the one of the cards you already bought. This is the reason why on most boards, you do not want to gain more than maybe 3 Chariot Races - at that point, there is usually something better you could do for your deck.

What makes Chariot Races better

The first thing to notice is that when the game starts, you have a lot of $0 cost cards in your deck. These will never provide any benefit to Chariot Race, so a key ingredient for a Chariot Race deck is trashing.

With the same reasoning, Chariot Races of course want expensive cards in your deck, and cheap ones in your opponent's. Since you don't normally go for Chariot Race straight away, by the time you would get them you can usually tell which of you has the higher-value deck. If that is you, then grab the Chariot Races. If not, then you better have a plan to end the game quickly before your opponent grabs lots of VP tokens. The expected outcome however is that there is not much of a difference to speak of. In that case, Chariot Races are available as a gain when you have nothing better to do.

A cute trick you can do to improve your Chariot Races is deck inspection and manipulation. If you know just which cards are on your - or your opponent's - deck, then you can choose the best moment to play the Chariot Race. It is good to keep some things in mind however.
  • generally speaking, manipulating your opponent's deck is much better than manipulating your own, since your opponent's card stays on top for the rest of your turn while yours will be in your hand after you play one Chariot Race.
  • you will still be forced to play your Chariot Races without prior inspection a good amount of the time, so don't overrate the effect that deck manipulation has.
  • for your own deck, inspection beats manipulation: cards that let you look at the top of your deck (Mystic, Herald, Ironmonger, Doctor etc) usually have a much lower opportunity cost than cards that specifically put certain cards on top of your deck (Mandarin, Count, Secret Passage etc.)

A final, if a bit niche, situation that benefits Chariot Races is discard + overdraw. With overdrawing, you can draw your deck while holding on to most of your Races. Then you can use a discarder to discard your expensive cards, and draw them back up with your Chariot Races.

Pitfalls

Generally speaking, when none of the options discussed above is applicable, then you should not go out of your way to get Chariot Races. But there are some noteworthy cases that can make it particularly bad.

One such case are non-standard costs. A City Quarter on either of your decks will almost always mean that there will be no VP to be gotten. Potion-costs have the same issue. A game where either debt cards or Potion cards feature prominently will make Chariot Race next to useless.

Some attacks - most notably Ghost Ship - can actively help your opponent block your Races.

Finally, if you build a thin deck, then you need to ensure that your Races still have things left to draw by the time you play them. Cards like Scrying Pool can lead to problematic situations; in such cases you usually want to play your Races as early as possible.

Some notes on deck tracking

Finally, it should be pointed out that you can get more value from your Races if you track your deck. Also, once you have already played a Chariot Race, remember what card is on top of your opponent's deck. Sometimes you can guarantee that you flip a higher card if you know what's left in your draw pile. Or there may be an opportunity to let a well-timed Swindler remove that troublesome Province from the top of your opponent's deck.

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