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Topics - Erick648

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Hello, and welcome to the new season.  To start this season off, we'll have a challenge inspired by my favorite animal:  The octopus.

Among octopuses' many bizarre sci-fi-esque abilities is the ability to dynamically change their form mimic their surroundings, or even other creatures.  This ability is the basis for this week's challenge.



The fan mechanic of the week is mimic tokens.  Mimic tokens are tokens that go on supply piles to facilitate an ability along the lines of "Play a card in the Supply that has your Mimic token on it, leaving it there."  Inheritance would be the closest official equivalent, but I think we can do something a bit more flexible.

In short, there are two rules for this week's designs:
  • You must have a type of token that goes on a Supply pile (or a non-Supply pile, if that's what you want).
  • You must have some ability that lets you play the top card of the Supply pile with the token on it.
Also, I'm fine if you have more than one card-shaped object, but they should be connected---an entry consisting of Marauder, Spoils, and the five Ruins would be related enough, but Marauder and Cultist would not.  That said, I'm not super-strict on this as long as you don't go overboard.

I will prefer designs that allow flexibility, but aren't as open-ended as, say, Band of Misfits.  More generally, I like cards with good flavor and interesting choices.

Speaking of flexibility, here are some things that aren't restrictions on this week's designs:
  • You don't need to call your tokens "Mimic tokens"---name them whatever fits your flavor.
  • You don't need to limit yourself to one Mimic token per player---you can use as many as you want.
  • You don't even need to make the Mimic tokens player-specific---if you want the players to move around a shared Mimic token, that's perfectly fine.
  • You can use any sort of card-shaped objects, even ones from different expansions---if you want an Artifact that moves a Mimic token between Spirit piles, go ahead.
  • And to be clear, while octopuses inspired this fan mechanic, your entries don't need to be octopus-related in any way.
Here's an example of mimic tokens at work:

Quote
Way of the Octopus
Way
Choose a card in the Supply costing less than this that has one of your Octopus tokens on it.  Play that card, leaving it there.

Setup: Place your Octopus tokens on two Action supply piles.

As usual, the contest will run for one week (ending at midnight EDT or 4:00 a.m. GMT), and I'll post a 24-hour warning. 

Thanks, and have fun!  I look forward to seeing your entries.

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Variants and Fan Cards / Dominion: Realms
« on: April 02, 2016, 11:00:52 pm »
So, a couple months ago, before Empires was announced, I was wanting to mix things up a bit, so I came up with the idea of "realms."  These are fixed effects, chosen as part of the Kingdom selection, that affect all players (for example, a realm that said, "At the start of each of your turns, +1 Card," would have the same effect as each player having a Hireling in play, barring edge cases like Peddler).  Some of them do nothing, so you still get some normal games.  Note that a couple of them do use Coin tokens or Dark Ages cards (shelters and ruins).

There are two types of Realms: Government, and Terrain.  They are mixed together in a deck, and you draw until you've drawn one of each.  Keep the first Government Realm, and all Terrain Realms (except superfluous Grasslands; see below).  Put the selected Realms next to the Supply.

Of course, you can tweak the setup rules and the number of "No effect" Realms to suit your tastes.


Terrains:

Grasslands (4 copies):  No effect.
Note:  As noted, I'd recommend not using this if you also drew another Terrain card (and not using more than one Grasslands if you drew multiple copies).  If your only Terrain card is a single Grasslands, it's nice to have it to show that there's no Terrain effect, but otherwise, it's just superfluous.

Fertile Plains:  At the start of each of your turns, +1 Action.

Coastlands:  At the start of each of your turns, +1 Buy.
Note:  I started with the basics.  I didn't include +1 Card or +$1 Realms because I didn't think that would change the gameplay as much as automatically getting an extra Action or Buy each turn (having 6-card starting hands isn't that much different from having 5-card starting hands, and there are plenty of ways to generate income).

Great River:  When you gain a card, you may put it anywhere in your deck.  If you would put a gained card on top of your deck (except by this ability), you may instead set it aside.  If you do, put it in your hand at the start of your next turn.

Rocky Highlands:  Victory cards are worth 1VP more.  Provinces and Colonies cost $2 more, and all other Victory cards cost $1 more (prior to any cost reductions).
Note:  The reason Provinces and Colonies have a bigger cost increase than other Victory cards is to reduce the adverse effect on alt-VP.

Vast Steppes: Each non-Kingdom Victory pile has 50% more cards than normal.
Note: Yes, this requires both the base game and Intrigue (or the Base Cards set) for multiplayer, but I assume most players have that.  In a perfect world, it would also affect Kingdom Victory cards, but that wouldn't work in multiplayer (unless you had multiple copies of the same set, or used placeholders).

Groves:  At the start of the game, each player places a Coin token on each Kingdom Supply pile.  The first time you gain a card from a pile, take your Coin token from it.
Note:  A little reward for variety.  The reason it only effects Kingdom cards is because it

Dense Woodlands:  After resolving each Action and at the start of your Buy phase, you may discard a card from your hand.  If you do, choose one: +1 Card, +1 Action, +1 Buy, or + $1.  You may choose each bonus only once per turn.
Note:  You have to select a bonus if you can (so if, for some reason, you want to discard a fourth card when you've already selected +1 Action, +1 Buy, and +$1, you have to take the +1 Card, even if you'd rather not draw a card).  However, after you've selected all of the bonuses, you can still discard cards if you want (although Dense Woodlands doesn't give you anything for it).  I tried a version that set aside cards and discarded them during the Clean Up phase to avoid triggering Tunnel, but I'm not sure that combo is so overpowered to require the additional complexity (compare, say, Market Square-Bonfire or Market Square-Plan).

Rich Valley:  At the start of the game and the first time you gain a Victory card, take 3 Coin tokens.
Note:  A nice boost to the opening, and another when you start greening.  You could purchase an early Estate just to get the Coin tokens sooner, but unless you have a specific plan for it, I don't think it's generally worth it.


Governments:

Feudal Kingdom (8 copies):  No effect.

Fallen Empire:  Replace your starting Coppers with 1 Estate, 1 Curse, 2 Ruins of your choice, and 3 Spoils.  You may choose the order of your starting deck (prior to drawing your first hand).
Note:  Make sure to buy some Treasure (or virtual coin, gainers, etc.) or you could be stuck buying Copper.  I let you choose the order of your starting deck because the difference between a 6-3 split and a 9-0 split is often too great to leave it up to luck (or maybe I'm just risk-averse; to be honest, I already normally play with a house rule that you can choose the order of your starting deck).

Ancient Kingdom:  At the start of each of your turns, you may trash a card from your hand; if you do, +1 Card per [coin] it costs.  You may buy or gain cards in the trash as though they were in the Supply.
Note:  The initial idea was to buy or gain cards from the trash, which meant I needed an incentive to trash decent cards.  In the end, the Apprentice ability overshadowed the gain-from-trash ability, but it's turned out to be fun enough that I kept it.

Noble Cities:  The first player starts with a Curse as an additional starting card.  At the start of each of your turns, +2 Cards, then put a card from your hand in the discard pile of the player to your left.
Note:  This was my brother's idea.  Like Masquerade, but without the trashing (and it gives you +2 Cards for the same reason as Masquerade).  I added the starting Curse because I thought it would be fun to have an "Old Maid" to pass around in games without junkers.  Note that the Curse doesn't come from the Supply; you still have (n-1)*10 Curses in the Supply in an n-player game (just like how starting Estates don't come from the Supply).

Uninhabited Lands:  Start the game with no starting cards and 5 Coin tokens (prior to any setup effects).  Include Platinum and Colonies in the Supply.  When you would trash a card during your turn, you may instead gain a Copper; if you do, +$1.
Note:  This is the oldest Realm; it started from an idea that it would be fun to play a game with a single Workshop as the only starting card, or with no starting cards and Alms in the Kingdom.  The reason for including Platinum and Colonies is just to add to the "building an empire from nothing" feel.  The trashing language is so that trashers aren't worthless.  The reason you don't just gain the Copper to your hand (which would be simpler) is to keep it from being too easy to autopile Rats (which happened in one of our early games).  The "during your turn" clause is to keep it from blocking trashing attacks.  Note that if you play a mandatory trasher and don't have any eligible cards to trash, you can still choose between gaining a Copper and trying to trash a card (even if the latter ultimately fails).  The same is true if there are no Coppers in the Supply (although you don't get +$1 unless you actually gain a Copper).


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