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51

Variants and Fan Cards / Fan Mechanics Week #33: Trial By Fire

« on: March 29, 2022, 06:58:50 am »

Here's an idea that I've termed burn abilities. Only playable portrait cards can have burn abilities. While a card with one is in play, its burn ability can be activated at any time for an extra effect; in exchange, the card is set aside a la Encampment (no longer 'in play', but still there to help tracking) to be trashed at Clean-up. All these rules are indicated by a below-line flame symbol.
So like this:

Mining Village - Action, cost.
+1 Card
+2 Actions
-
[flame]: +

You could play this exactly like the official Mining Village, using the burn ability straight away. Or you could wait and see if that + will be necessary to hit the desired price point, using the burn ability at the Buy phase after your Treasures are played. It's strictly better than the official card, so costs .

Two design points that came to mind:

• Putting a burn ability on a Duration expands the time window and available effect options nicely. Outside of turn, similarly to Reactions, the Duration will be set aside then trashed at the next Clean-up. Later turn on-play effects should always check the burn ability hasn't been used though, to keep tracking clean; so you choose between which effect you want. On the other hand, the non-Duration window limited to your turn can be simpler and more interesting.
• The above example can feel a bit easy to play, and the official Mining Village is probably the more interesting card. So a good burn ability might be one that creates a challenging decision.

I haven't delved much into this design space myself, but I will do as I consider your entries.

As usual I won't require mock-ups, but if you want to, here is the generator set up with the flame symbol.

Please don't feel restricted to fiery, combustible flavour, the flame can just be a generic symbol on any theme of card.

I guess since the next weekly contest started just before this, I should extend the time a bit. I will close the contest for entries on Wednesday 6th April 02:30pm forum time.

Edit: other points raised;

• A burn ability can be used in the middle of resolving the card's on-play effects; they carry on being resolved afterwards, and are not stopped (unless they're later turn Duration effects). So an on-play effect that checks it's in play or trashes itself for benefit won't work.
• A Duration burn ability won't work with the trash-at-next-Clean-up rule, creating confusion.
• Added making mandatory checking burn abilities haven't been used to on-play Duration effects.

52

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Fan Mechanics Contest 32: Season 3 Finale

« on: March 29, 2022, 04:02:57 am »

Winner: Aquila's Corvidology + Raven

OK nice, thanks. Thinking of this card made me wonder how Raven as its own Supply pile (with a self-bonus like + at cost) would work.

I left off any 'leave in play' clause because Gear and the like are discarded the same turn if nothing is set aside under them; they would track nothing.

It was a while ago I last entered these contests, but I remember saying what my next mechanic was going to be. Just setting it up now...

53

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Fan Mechanics Contest 32: Season 3 Finale

« on: March 22, 2022, 04:35:30 am »

Corvidologist - Action Duration, $5 cost.
Gain a card onto your deck costing up to $5. If you do, at the start of your next turn, play the Raven.

Raven - Action Attack, $0* cost.
Each other player reveals their hand. If the cards are not all different, they discard down to 3 and get +2 Curse tokens.

I've tried to put images up; but you probably can't see them!
You can always try to prepare for these second-turn Duration attacks, so I went quite mean on what you're hit with. If you discard down to 3 (does just saying 'discard down to 3' on the card make sense in context?), you're more likely to have all different cards so another Raven won't hit you.
Giving out Curse tokens can lead to the same problem as VP tokens if they don't bring the game towards its end, so the attack is conditional on gaining a card. I guess this wording means the card has to go onto deck as well.

54

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #146: Contacts

« on: March 19, 2022, 12:21:22 pm »

Looks like my design is quite similar to 4est's:

Syndicate - Action Liaison, $5 cost.
+1 Card
+2 Actions
Choose one: + $1; or trash a card from your hand.
Each other player gets +1 Favor.

Giving out a Favor isn't covered in Allies, and to me seems interesting; the varying giveaway bonus affects the strength of the card.
From there I thought trashing would be a good self effect as both trashing and Favors like to come in early. After fiddling around with balance I came to this trashing village that can turn into Bazaar, a rather strong effect for a $5 and very often useful. The choice is not because of Elder hype  , it's in case the Ally is something like Peaceful Cult.

55

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 24: Heritage Cards

« on: November 29, 2021, 10:31:33 am »

Pundit - Action Duration, $5 cost.
Trash a card from your hand. If this is the first Pundit you've played this turn and the previous turn wasn't yours, draw 1 card per $1 the trashed card costs at Clean-up (instead of 5) and take another turn after this one.
Heritage: Vista

Vista - Victory Heritage, $5 cost.
4 VP
-
When you trash this, +1 Buy and non-Victory cards cost $2 less for the turn.

Enlargement on Estates giving 1VP, trying to create a choice between keep or trash the Vista.
Pundit is a cost-dependent tfb that optionally discards hand and draws to X together with a fixed +$2. creates a bonus turn with X cards in hand. It replaces the typical 5, so Expedition would add 2 cards onto X.

Edit: Vista down to $5 cost so it can't be remodeled into Province, and changed Pundit's benefit.

56

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 23: Laying Down The Law

« on: November 24, 2021, 04:30:02 am »

I don’t like the first one as there are obvious broken combos with TfB and Provinces.

Edited Secrets Best Kept to not Exile cards costing $8+. I feel Provinces and Colonies are the only main problem because of the work needed to pull off the combos for yourself; you'd have to get a tfb played at start of turn together with a Bridge effect. Canal or Bridge Troll and Captain-Remodel with Province in starting hand is the simplest way, or Turtled Bridge and tfb, but they're fairly costly.

57

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #135: Go Big or Go Home!

« on: November 23, 2021, 07:25:40 am »

I've also gone down a tfb route:

Regenerate - Event, $7 cost.
Set aside any number of cards from your hand. For each one, trash it, then gain a card costing up to $2 more than it.

Assess how much you want to play during the turn, and you much you want to remodel.

Edit: changed from Remodel any number of times because Fortress, thanks silverspawn and emtzalex below.

58

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Wilderness

« on: November 21, 2021, 08:17:48 am »

Just one idea:

Adjourn - Act
+1 Action
For the rest of the turn, set aside any cards you draw from +Cards face down. Put them into your hand at end of turn.

Should it be a Way? It gets more flexibility then, but this is simpler to grasp.

59

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Arcadia

« on: November 20, 2021, 05:33:36 pm »

Redsmith: It's a potent Copper trasher that needs to keep re-trashing the Coppers it gains, which won't be too hard seeing that the gained Coppers go to hand. Sometimes of course the Copper is needed for economy, and depending on how many Redsmiths are in the deck trashing it later won't be too hard. So it likes having several copies, and some non-Copper payload. It could be rather strong, like Masquerade with 1 more +Card.

Whitesmith: The +Buy can be tricky to use, always coming with a Silver, and that's a good thing. Because of the Silvers and the implication of the choice 'what do you need more now?', it feels less about engines and more about big money or good stuff decks. It can play like Wayfarer in an engine of course, an expensive Smithy that injects some money into the deck.

Travelling Merchant: X-tra said it, it's draw with a safety net. It's only mildly interesting to me for this reason, there's not much strategy to it other than try to keep it for a while to maximise the investment. I guess it's another awkward +Buy. Other Smithy variants would be preferential in an engine, but in a thick good stuff deck it's desirable. Several cards in this set make this kind of deck, and it's a strategically easy card, so it's a good fit.

Spinster: I think I agree it's a touch too strong. But then if it cost $6, by the time you can afford it you would unlikely still be choosing $3s and $4s unless you were emptying piles.

Carpenter: I've toyed with buy-to-hand ideas for a while. Good that this is a terminal Action so it's hard to use bought Actions straight away, and the need for Action $ only (barring Capitalism) adds further challenge. I'm seeing neat interactions within this set too, like Redsmith and some of the outtakes.

Meadow: X-tra's comments are concise with regards the principles of how it feels. Investing $6 into a pure Victory, you'd want it to give 5 or maybe 4 VP, which would be 4 or more left in the pile. The maximum point potential for one is 5 for 2-player, 7 for 3+, so initially a strong investment. With each purchase there's a potential extra point swing with the reduction to other players, so each Meadow is often at least 3VP.
So: this is very influential and not in too fun a way. If it were weaker, it would just feel worse in the way X-tra described. The premise of high payoff that depletes over time, so to think ahead to a realistic expected final outcome, could certainly go somewhere; but when other players cause the depletion it's sad. Who wants to set themselves up?

I may get to the outtakes later. Of these, I quite like Carpenter, and I'm lukewarm about the others; not that they're bad, they really do suit this expansion. Meadow, Spinster and Redsmith are to check for balance.

60

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Arcadia

« on: November 19, 2021, 10:15:34 am »

As an expansion: it's adding more of the base set to the game. In fact it appears even simpler than the base set with less variety, although there are fewer cards at the moment. Definitely for players wanting a relaxing, easy time, without much player interaction.

Tin: Power wise, you could take a leaf from Fool's Gold. 2 FGs in play makes $5. The Journey token bonus could be bigger, and I think it would be more interesting with it; Journey token cards are all about big spikes. Although if there's another Journey token card in the game, Tin is good at absorbing face-down plays.

Statue: I get how it's boring, rewarding self-junking with VP doesn't feel great; when it's strong, there are a lot of Coppers to empty out, creating a long and repetitive game. Outside of engines, like especially Gardens or Duke strategies, this might be a powerhouse needing to be tamed.

Sawyer: I basically echo X-tra. It's a very engine-focused card, so much so that you only need one of them. There's something about this that bores me slightly...like, it feels as though it's trying to be a Project?

Miller: Almost entirely about emptying piles, the times when you'll gain a different card are few; Curses to Coppers, a trasher finished with, gained Silvers to a $3 Action, Cavalry. It's unreliable as well so it's not that great at game speed control since it can't easily focus select piles, and chance removing Provinces when you're behind is a sting too.

Cheesemaker: City Quarter is fun to build towards, so this cheap lab is simple yet fairly interesting. It may be $4.

Pastoral Village: Very simple, it can be Fugitive but with more restrictions. Just the sort of Village for this set, especially with the various ways to gain Victories to hand.

Cliffside Village: Optional Treasure injection for an engine. It can exist for sure, mildly interesting. Sometimes gaining a Copper to hand early in the turn (when you play Villages), just in case, then to go on to draw well enough can be sad, but that's part of the newbie trap of this card. As X-tra said tfb is among the strongest synergies.

Potter: Looks like you should try to get this mid game to get $5+s and ultimately one for a Province or Colony. Possibly just because it can gain Victories, some of the vanilla should be dropped for balance, but it's nice how this likes cantrips yet it would ask quite a lot of the Kingdom for this to like chains of itself. It should be interesting to analyse its viability and timing each time.

Out of time now, but Cheesemaker, Pastoral Village and Potter get good votes from me.

61

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #134: This is Worthless

« on: November 14, 2021, 03:55:58 am »

Components - Action, $5 cost.
+1 Buy
You may trash this and another Components from your hand. If you trash two Components, gain a Spinning Mule.

Spinning Mule - Action Duration, $0* cost.
For the rest of the game, your Coppers are also Actions with '+1 Card and +1 Action'.
(This stays in play. This is not in the Supply.)

There need only be 6 Spinning Mules, since players should only get one.
Tricky to know whether Components should be $4 or $5. I thought with +Buy it could go up to $5.
The more Coppers you keep early, usually the harder it is to connect two Components.

62

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 23: Laying Down The Law

« on: November 12, 2021, 05:16:31 pm »

This mechanic should add interest to the game if done right, but there's also the potential to take it away. It's a good challenge!

Firstly, I think I prefer to call them Policies, since they're a bit more open than laws. You can't really choose which law to obey, but you can follow different policies.
Secondly, I assume they will be included in games randomly along with WELPs, with one set being one of the recommended 2 landscapes?
Thirdly, I agree to 4 per set with one cube denial for 2 player and two for 3+.
In any case, some design observations:

• They add a bit of player interaction and more poignantly make each turn different, so they can move games away from exact mirrors.
• One player can get one effect at most every other turn.
• They should all be on the same power level, and each be relevant in every game (maybe one could get away with being niche), so the choosing is always interesting.
• Keep an eye on first player advantage. Effects that are strong early may be best made available on 2 or more Laws/Policies.
• Speaking of power level, they're free global effects. More positive effects will definitely speed the game up more, and negative slow it down. They could each have a positive and negative to them, but, they should probably be all positive, all negative or all mix, so there's no sting of all the positives being unavailable.
• Adding some kind of cost might often be necessary to open up a stronger positive effect without losing game balance.
• If effects are made to come in later game (e.g checking for empty Supply piles) the choosing aspect is lessened and an ideal game course can be set up.
• Effects requiring another mechanic to be present in order to work can be done if another one of the Laws/Policies makes it happen.

I focused on this last point and made a set about the trash:

Secrets Best Kept - Policy
At the start of your turn, Exile a card from the trash that doesn't cost $8 or more.

One Man's Trash - Policy
At the start of your turn, trash a card from your hand for +1 Buy.

Another Man's Treasure - Policy
At the start of your turn: you may trash a card from your hand. Gain a card from the trash to your hand.

Risk Assessment - Policy
At the start of your turn, trash the top 2 cards of your deck, then gain 1 or 2 cards from the trash onto your deck in any order.

One Man's Trash and Risk Assessment are the only 2 that thin the deck, so they will likely be the hot focus. Sometimes Exiling an Estate, borrowing a Copper, knowing the top of your deck or getting a crucial +Buy is best. And there are times when you don't want to do anything, and there are 3 that can effectively do that.
Of course nice things can visit the trash in some games, but I suspect this will make players think twice about tfb strategies.

So, this set overall gives a quaint bit of interest to the game, making the trash much more of a shared pool of cards. For being completely free, I think it should be quaint.

Edit: limited Secrets Best Kept as per comment below.

63

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #133: A Time to Feast

« on: October 31, 2021, 12:58:10 pm »

Hollow - Action Duration, $3 cost.
Either now or at the start of your next turn, choose one: draw until you have 6 cards in hand; or discard any number of cards to gain a card costing up to $1 per card discarded.

If you do the discard function next turn, typically it can be Feast. If you played another Hollow for next turn with it, you can then draw 6 cards. Big investment for big payoff, and hopefully Throning it will most of the time reduce hand size sufficiently to balance it out.

64

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: My card generator (WIP)

« on: October 28, 2021, 07:09:07 am »

Two things I've noticed:

- The dividing line doesn't work, or I can't see how to do it. Putting a '-' on a line by itself creates a space in the text, but no dividing line appears.
- When there's one type colour, the text box is completely filled. On official cards, only the edge is coloured.

Also, what puts me off using generator images for my own mock-ups is the Action card template isn't quite right:


https://trello.com/1/cards/617a7cebb8f1b047ae130ced/attachments/617bb4151e66885edd1a45e2/download/Blank_action.png
https://trello.com/1/cards/617a7cebb8f1b047ae130ced/attachments/617bb41a2dcb833d038948fb/download/Blank_Reaction.png
https://trello.com/1/cards/617a7cebb8f1b047ae130ced/attachments/617bb41ed344102390aabbd3/download/Blank_Treasure.png

Hopefully you can see these templates I made from LFN's mock-ups. The bottom banner hasn't got the extra dark bit in the middle, and the bottom right corner has the fold. The picture frame has been trimmed of the black around its edge. The Action banner may not be 100% correct, since I just re-coloured it from the Reaction, but if you like them feel free to put them in the generator. Same for ShardofHonor and his generator, or anyone else doing their own mock-ups.

65

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 22: Travellers cheques

« on: October 28, 2021, 06:32:39 am »

Labourer, Action Traveller, $2 cost.
Gain a card costing up to $3.
-
At Clean-up, you may trash a card costing more than this from your hand, to exchange this for an Entrepreneur.

Entrepreneur, Action Traveller, $3* cost.
+1 Card
+1 Action
Reveal the top 2 cards of your deck. Put one of the Actions into your hand. Discard the rest for + $1 each.
-
At Clean-up, you may trash a card costing more than this from your hand to exchange this for a Magnate.
(This is not in the Supply.)

Magnate, Action, $6* cost.
+1 Buy
+ $1 per Action you have in play.
(This is not in the Supply.)

66

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #131: Novel Ways to Overpay

« on: October 13, 2021, 12:38:24 pm »

Forbidden Text - Action, $3+ cost.
+1 Action
Draw until you have 7 cards in hand. Return this to its pile.
-
When you buy this, you may pay $4 more to gain a Madman.

It would be nice and elegant if the overpay could be $3 more, but comparing Madman at default 4 Cards 2 Actions against Experiment I don't think a bundle of Forbidden Text and Madman could get away at $6. And I don't want to go to $8.

Edit: simplified text (box only for those who can see the mock-up) to 'pay $4 more'. I could even make it 'when you gain this, you may pay $4...', but I'll stick to on-buy to be more true to overpay.

67

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Wilderness

« on: October 08, 2021, 07:46:48 am »

I did a fairly big update here.

Water Source Wanderer Boomerang Offer

Water Source is out, so now there are just 4 different Resources, 40 total. It was substantially less useful overall than the other Resources and didn't belong.

I committed to the Ancient Ruins change I suggested and brought the cost down to $4. A nicer play experience for you and the opponents, with a high reward for an awkward condition.

I swapped the below-line effect on Despoiled Village around, so you gain the card you have a copy of in hand and discard the copy for a free Village. More accessible and interesting with weighing up cheap or expensive gains.

The discard benefit on Hollow is now Artificer without the top-decking, rather than + $1 per card discarded. It's no longer a single card engine with (Workers') Village support.

Mirage Island now costs $3. It rarely affects the opening, and being cheaper helps its reaction out.

Subsidy was renamed Sponsor, and rather than gain a Resource on gain you can trash one from hand. Much weaker for balance.

Survivalist was a Lost City+ too often before, so the on-play effect is weakened from being cantrip and the cost is now $4. It can trigger itself too.

Tinker is down to $5 cost. It isn't powerful all the time.

I got tired of Wanderer being so inelegant, and Boomerang being so swingy in the opening. So they're out.

Conclude checks for discarded cards like Tactician does, rather than be once per turn. It's cool when you can repeat it so why not? It's better than getting a free $3 when you empty hand of good cards with an Action left.

Offer was never going to work and I couldn't get to a sensible variant. So it's out.


And a new idea:

Dig >

Key to the Past - Treasure, $4 cost.
Cards in the trash cost $2 less this turn. You may buy a card from the trash.
-
Setup: trash a Gold from the Supply per player, and put an extra Kingdom pile costing $5 in the trash.

A recent WDC entry to replace Dig. When good things were visiting the trash, Dig made things a bit too easy to get them back. So this Kingdom pile calls for more commitment to a repeating tfb strategy. And when there isn't tfb, there is still a unique card this can access.

These changes are on the OP and the History added on.

68

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #130: Sidekicks

« on: October 03, 2021, 03:34:40 am »

On top of Venture:

Projection - Treasure, $2 cost.
At Clean-up, you may trash a Treasure card you would discard from play this turn, to gain a Treasure costing up to $3 more than it.

Artificially cheap to avoid it being a two-step Gold.

69

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #129: In Play

« on: September 24, 2021, 08:39:48 am »

I entered this into a contest before, only it was too cheap. Tracking can be an issue, but I like the strategies it creates if people can get past that:

Hostile Village - Action, $5 cost.
+3 Cards
+2 Actions
Trash a card you have in play that would be discarded this turn.

70

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Fan Mechanics Week #11: Acting Sideways

« on: September 22, 2021, 04:42:58 am »

Hey Aquila: do Acts count as a card played? Asking for a conspirator.

As Gendo said, Acts are not Actions, so they do nothing for Conspirator.

With Hire, I did say that it counts as a 'played Attack card' for Moats; that's the whole point of the Attack type of course. But, for breaching the rule that sideways cards are not 'cards', all it's achieving is being a pure attack. Other hypothetical Act Attacks would probably be also to keep within their low power cap. So, it's going to be a design flaw in most people's eyes, so Hire probably shouldn't exist.

71

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 20: Season 2 Finale (One plus One)

« on: September 12, 2021, 04:17:17 am »

Survey • Act
Gain an Idle Hands. +1 Route.

I thought of an Act with +1 Route by itself, but was put off by the radical openings that could occur. Like with a $5/$2 split, playing a $5 on turn 2 or a Night $5 immediately. The Idle Hands might soften this a bit, but not much with said Night cards.

Mustang
$3* - Dawn
+2 Cards
Return this to its pile.
-
When you discard this, you may reveal it to put it on top of your deck
(This is not in the supply)

The thought is this: Beneficiary lets you for example pay to play cards you bought this turn at the start of your next turn, alternatively just accelerating your deck with a Ghost-like effect. Living Grounds lets you slightly mitigate the tempo loss of gaining a Victory card by gaining a Dawn horse, but it might backfire on you. The interaction between Beneficiary and Mustang is twofold: playing actions at the start of your turn minimize the risk of drawing Mustang dead, and if it flips Mustang, you can topdeck it and be guaranteed to be able to play it during your next turn.

So is Mustang like Tunnel, a Reaction that triggers when it's discarded 'other than during Clean-up'? Do you also want it to react when discarded from hand at Clean-up? Either way it needs the Reaction type.

72

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 20: Season 2 Finale (One plus One)

« on: September 12, 2021, 03:47:29 am »

Audience - Action, $5 cost.
Choose one: play an Action card from your Queue; or play an Action card from your hand twice, Queuing it when it's discarded from play.

Prepare - Act
At Clean-up, put one of your Actions onto your deck when you discard it from play.

Prepare an Audience to keep meeting its target when it returns from the Queue each turn.

73

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #128: Look at the trash!

« on: September 10, 2021, 10:34:07 am »

Shovel - Treasure, $4 cost.
Cards in the trash cost $2 less this turn. You may buy a card from the trash.
-
Setup: add to the trash a random unused Supply pile costing $5, and one Gold per player.

74

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Fan Mechanics Week 19: Join the Queue

« on: September 09, 2021, 04:16:10 pm »

Looks like you missed my Commissioner. Does the mock-up load for you? Just recently they haven't been on one of my devices.

75

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Fan Mechanics Week 19: Join the Queue

« on: September 07, 2021, 07:55:47 am »

I thought of queuing commands on a computer program and came to:

Commissioner - Action, $5 cost.
+ $2
You may play an Action card from your Queue.
-
When you gain this, Queue any number of Action cards you have in play.

I really like the concept but I’m not sure about the power level.  With the way the Queue mechanic works you will eventually run out of Action cards in the Queue even without playing Commissioner.  If gaining Commissioner is the only way to add more Action cards to the Queue, you risk adding a bunch of $5-cost terminal silvers to your deck.

True, sometimes waiting for setting up big Queues to condense the deck down to mainly Commissioners won't work. So I added self-Queue if you choose not to play something from your Queue. They can stack themselves up for big payload.
Hopefully not overloaded with options like this.