I'd really like more cards that interact with the 3 mats of this game
The name Ferry is already taken by an official card:
Name change to Transport Ship
You said I could design a revised card for seaside. Is this too similar? Should it be a "new" card?
I like this change to Pearl Diver, but yeah for the purposes of this contest, this feels a bit more like errata to an existing card than an original design. I'd encourage you to design something new, or if you want to riff on an old card, try for a full replacement card rather than minor revision.
Master Laborers by CaptainReklaw
This one really suffers from too much text, which admittedly is going to be a natural problem to run up against with this contest. I guess the idea here is to choose a card that's not otherwise playable? And the Curse-gaining option is there in case you've chosen Curse for this and want to gain more of them? But even then, a non-terminal +1 Buy and +$1 with -1 VP attached to it doesn't sound great. Maybe there's something I'm missing here.
Hack of all Smithies by LibraryAdventurer
Well the options are pretty bland, but I like that it only happens every other time due to the Journey token. That makes the card more interesting. In a game with more players, I'm guessing the Copper-junking will get really oppressive though. Yeah it's only every other play, but if this is your smithy you're often going to be playing several each turn.
Foreman by Xen3k
Six options is a lot! It's a tough line to walk between having terse options and having interesting ones. I do appreciate that the text isn't tiny. Gaining a card to your hand is pretty unique. I don't know, I'd probably cut at least one of these options for simplicity and with the hope that players will resolve it faster.
Weaver by AJL828
It reminds me a lot of Scrap! Still, it seems like a perfectly reasonable card. Simple too.
Worm Hole by mathdude
Tiny text! Choosing effects for yourself and an attack for others is clever, but it's political in a very un-Dominion way. Specifically the ability to choose the topdecking attack which may only hit the player to your right. Are they winning? Hmmm.
Black Spot by spineflu (with Marked)
OK. I feel like a lot of work went into this one to plug all the holes, but the whole thing still feels kludgy in a Fool kind of way. And I fought to keep Fool in Nocturne! Am I a hypocrite? Sort of. I think having "the first time you play this" on Fool would have been better than Lost in the Woods. Aaaaanyway I like the core premise of choosing Hexes, but I think that premise could be done more simply. Though maybe not with "Choose 3"! Man this is a hard contest.
Railway by Augie279
Buh. That's a lot of text and options. Um, hmmm. So it's a strong card that makes it easier to gain more of itself. I'm glad none of the options is +Actions. I think overall there must be some version of this that doesn't have the +1 Buy and "Discard a card" up top. As it is the card is so busy.
Monastic Village by JW
Well outside this contest, this could be worded a lot better. I'm not going to hold that against it though. Yeah, this is pretty cool. The only thing I don't like about it is that it's so similar to Chapel in how quickly it can trash early on. It's OK if some cards are similar to others, but that's an effect that I don't think there should be much of in the game. Still, cool card.
Will by 4est
OK, this one I'm all about. My instinct says it's weak early on. It might need some tweaking. But as a premise it's solid and I think it's probably close to being a great card. The thing I worry about it it running piles pretty fast. And in games with a cheap alt-VP it can gain a ridiculous amount of VP in the end-game. Maybe you can even just rush it. Hmmmm. In any case I feel like the concept has a lot of potential.
Informant by scolapasta
Bile rises in my throat when I see so many different expansion mechanics in a single card. Other than that I like it. A unique mechanic, not too wordy. I think requiring the choices to be different is the way to go regardless of the Tavern mat. Otherwise you just give them Villagers forever. Eventually you have enough Villagers, you know? But honestly the card would be better if the options weren't all things you could save. As it is the context of what you give them matters less, and therefore the decision is slower.
Cleanse by xyz123
I wonder if this fits on an Event with the large font. Um, this is maybe balanced. It doesn't really grab me. It gives you so much of exactly what you want. I don't know.
Town Hall by The Alchemist
Well that's sure a powerful effect. A super-Count. I have no idea if it's balanced. Probably not though, right? I mean you can just choose to topdeck two cards and discard 3, and often that's better than discarding your hand to Tactician. And the payoff is arguably way better. But of course it costs $8. Maybe it's weak at that cost! Either way it's complex.
Cursed Bishop by Lackar
Yeah I think it's too much like Bishop. Also trashing a Silver from hand is a very steep price to pay in order to Hex other players. I guess technically you could choose that option without a Silver in hand, but I doubt that's the intent.
Tres Leches by arowdok
Too much text! The 3 thing is cute, but I think you went overboard with it.
Yacht by jakav
Huh. This is an interesting one. I think I'd put the gaining option last. I was thinking it should be first so you can gain Copper and then draw it, but there's already +$1 as an option. Anyway I like the premise. The execution is a little too much of "everything you want in a Smithy", which is a neat trick with so few words.
Scrier by exfret (with Spells)
Whoa that feels like a lot of options, mostly because the ordering matters so much. It's an interesting way to do it, though.
Geisterschloss by Meta
Uh well, this doesn't really grab me either. Well I think I maybe like that +2 Cards and +1 Card are both options. That's cute in a way. But drawing 3 and then putting two back, and then drawing 2 or 3? Seems real fiddly.
Swiss Village by NoMoreFun
Perfectly reasonable, but not interesting.
I feel pretty bad. I think you all did well considering what an absolute beast this prompt was. Sorry for being harsh.
Honorable Mentions:
Weaver by AJL828
Monastic Village by JW
Foreman by Xen3k
Runner-up:
Informant by scolapasta
Winner:
Will by 4est
The other problem I see with this is that tasks just don’t seem to change the game. Yeah, if I have the extra $ and buy I’ll buy a task since there’s no downside. I’ll take them. And if I happen to complete the task it’s cool. Maybe it’ll convince me to play one card over another once, but it won’t really change the game at all. So what’s the point?
i like these questions because it gives the start of a good design brief. "i want this card to change the game using tasks", etc
I don't think all fan mechanics need to change the game in a significant way. Would this get included in a real expansion? Likely not. Could some casual players add this to some games they play? Sure. Is it swingy? Sometimes... but so are Boons, shuffling, and some other parts of the game.
CONTEST CLOSED!!!
Sorry for the delay in posting this. I got stuck in a meeting. Once again, I am posting what I think is the complete list of all of the submissions. If I am missing any, or if the link is to the the wrong one, please let me know ASAP. I will try to have the judging completed in a day or two.
Lackar, I am planning to judge the last version of Cursed Bishop you posted (on Thursday at around 2:00 p.m. contest time) unless I hear otherwise.
- Master Laborers by CaptainReklaw
- Hack of all Smithies by LibraryAdventurer
- Foreman by Xen3k
- Weaver by AJL828
- Worm Hole by mathdude
- Black Spot by spineflu (with Marked)
- Railway by Augie279
- Monastic Village by JW
- Will by 4est
- Informant by scolapasta
- Cleanse by xyz123
- Town Hall by The Alchemist
- Cursed Bishop by Lackar
- Tres Leches by arowdok
- Yacht by jakav
- Scrier by exfret (with Spells)
- Geisterschloss by Meta
- Swiss Village by NoMoreFun
I like the card and the fix, but the image really looks like a toaster
The strength of the card really depends on how your deck is set up, which then depends on the kingdom. If you have Chapel, Festival, and Hunting Grounds, then you can very easily build a strong engine and this card will make it even better (likely buying 1 or 2 of them). If you have Chapel, and not many engine components available, and run mostly Big Money, getting your "coin density" of your deck up to 2 or higher, then this card becomes super strong too, and you could probably afford getting a few of them.
But if you have no trashing in the kingdom, and maybe even cursing, then your coin density may never even get much above 1 (or in some cases, not even that high). At that point, the +3 Cards, take 1 Debt ends up averaging out to just being +2 cards, and then it's very similar to a Lab (on average... some turns it would be better, other turns worse). But unlike a Lab, you couldn't get very many of these, because when they collide they become that much worse (although in this hypothetical setup, you could probably just discard those initial estates and all the curses you've received, so maybe not quite so bad).
Is it strong for $5? Probably. Is it broken? Likely not. Have you tried playing it with "round up" instead of "round down"?
I really like this analysis (in addition to silverspawn’s comment). It’s much more useful than pointing out a card is “too” strong. I will admit in playtesting a little more, I’ve realized it was probably too much of an auto-grab as is, since the first one playing as a double lab is just too good most of the time. I’ll try with rounding up.
I really like the concept of a card that gets worse the more copies you have of it.
If you change it to rounding up, I think the power level will be fine: The first two copies played each turn will usually be somewhat better than Lab ("Lab+Fugitive-Peddler"), while any further copies don't give any net card draw: The third and fourth copy are just sifters, strictly worse than Forum (+3 cards, +1 Action, discard 2 cards, +1 debt); and any further copies actually reduce your handsize and are strictly worse than Warehouse.
So Research Lab is great for increasing your handsize, but usually doesn't allow you to draw your deck without some other card draw.
The strength of the card really depends on how your deck is set up, which then depends on the kingdom. If you have Chapel, Festival, and Hunting Grounds, then you can very easily build a strong engine and this card will make it even better (likely buying 1 or 2 of them). If you have Chapel, and not many engine components available, and run mostly Big Money, getting your "coin density" of your deck up to 2 or higher, then this card becomes super strong too, and you could probably afford getting a few of them.
But if you have no trashing in the kingdom, and maybe even cursing, then your coin density may never even get much above 1 (or in some cases, not even that high). At that point, the +3 Cards, take 1 Debt ends up averaging out to just being +2 cards, and then it's very similar to a Lab (on average... some turns it would be better, other turns worse). But unlike a Lab, you couldn't get very many of these, because when they collide they become that much worse (although in this hypothetical setup, you could probably just discard those initial estates and all the curses you've received, so maybe not quite so bad).
Is it strong for $5? Probably. Is it broken? Likely not. Have you tried playing it with "round up" instead of "round down"?
If you want more immediate feedback, I suggest you post cards on Discord: https://discord.gg/PzrKdDFGpuI kind of wish people wouldn't tell people to post on discord instead. I don't think discord is a good place to talk about fan cards because if two people post cards close together, the discussions get mixed together or one of the cards gets ignored. And then anyone who goes to look at the thread later can't choose which fan card they want to read about because they have to sort through discussion on both cards because you can't post separate threads for different fan cards. ...it's messy. It's especially terrible if you want feedback on a fan expansion.
I just think the forum works way better for discussing fan cards.I think Corgi has a bit of a tracking issue. You can usually tell how much money you have by looking at the cards you have in play. Corgi messes that up because your Copper gets trashed, but you still got +1$ from playing it. This can be easily fixed by making it mandatory: «When you play this, trash a Treasure card you have in play. If you did, +1 Coffers.» This would make Corgi anti-synergize with Bank, but I think it's a good fix.Several cards have the same tracking difficulty and they still work fine (Counterfeit, Goat, Spoils,...). Still, I think making it mandatory would be a good idea to make it a less strong and more different from Goat.
I think this will still be very strong even with the drawbacks.
I don't think there's anything wrong with the theme (although I'm sure you could find better art...).
Clearly overpowered.
The first two copies you play are Lab+Fugitive whereas the third and fourth copy you play are Forums.
Hello all. This is my first post here and I was looking for some feedback on a card I have been working on for my biggest competitor of all, my wife.
My first instinct however is that the reveal is to strong, with a few +actions this could have a large outcome. Should this be reduced to a discard any number of Victory Cards for 1 each?
Thank you all for this amazing resource here. So many cards to start a fan card collection. If anyone has any must have collections, I would love a link!
Choose three:
Trash 2 Cards from your hand; +3 Cards, put 2 cards from your hand onto your deck;
+2 Cards; +1 Card; +1 Buy; +1 Coffers.
The choices must be different.
6$ Action
Note that this is strictly more powerful than a Hunting Grounds without the Duchy gain ability on trashing, because the +4 Cards is an option *in addition* to other choices you have. The other combinations of choices don't seem like much to write home about, but the flexibility plus the fact that this is Hunting Grounds at a minimum makes this too strong IMO. You could increase cost to $7 but I think generally it's better to decrease the power level than have a card with a really high cost. That being said, I can't see it being too broken, just seems like it would play like Wharf where you get it almost every game since it was balanced on the (much) stronger side.
Yes it's better than Hunting Grounds, but not strictly. Being able to trash it to gain a Province and a duchy with remodel is something you can't do with my card, so I have to disagree with you.
I would never increase the cost to $7 as that wouldn't be much fun with the current concept.
I also don't think the card is too good, as hunting grounds is in my opinion not worth the 6$, especially as it's not better than Wharf, which only costs 5$.
The only thing I would consider changing is making it so that if you "choose" +4 Cards, that you have to discard one afterwards.
But to be honest, I don't really like this card either.
Swiss Village
Action - $4
Choose three (the choices must be different):
+1 Card; +1 Action; another +1 Action; +1 Buy; trash a Copper from your hand.
Rules clarification: After you choose, the options are performed in the order that they're written (so you can trash a Copper from your hand after drawing)
Choose three:
Trash 2 Cards from your hand; +3 Cards, put 2 cards from your hand onto your deck;
+2 Cards; +1 Card; +1 Buy; +1 Coffers.
The choices must be different.
6$ Action
The most accurate translation of the cards name would probably be "Haunted Castle", but that name is already taken by an offical card.
The choices may seem confusing at first, but there is a lot of flexibility. E.g the card can be equivalent to Hunting Grounds (+4 Cards) or Tragic Hero (+3 Cards and +1 Buy), which is also the reason why the card costs 6.
Furthermore the trashing and coffers allow for situational plays.
The chosen actions must be followed in the order in which they are listed (similar to Scrap).
I can also create a version that follows the rules of this contest more strictly, although the card image generator isn't working for me right now so it'll have to be later. In case I don't get to it before the contest deadline, here is what it would look like (it is still an Action costing $5).
If you do end up using this version of the card, I would recommend reordering the list, so it is more synergistic. To my understanding, "choose cards" work by first choosing all the options, then by resolving them in the order they are listed on the card.
The final 3 options would likely prefer to be "look at top 5 cards", then "discard the top 3", then "look through discard and trash. It's also possible you might want at least the first two of these to happen before the option to "+1 Card".
