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Topics - Marpharos

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Dominion Champions

This is an idea I've been sat on for a long time to bring more fantasy into Dominion. Nocturne touched on it, but I thought more could be done with the themes. This is very much still pre-playtesting, but the core idea is there. This is also my first time posting anything other than a weekly card idea (which I've not done for a while), so excuse any formatting inconsistencies/errors. So what makes my attempt at the fantastical different? A new card type:

Monsters

Monsters are found within a designated kingdom pile, often between a split pile. I recommend one Monster pile per game, but that isn't a hard and fast rule. These kingdom cards are labeled with the Adventurers type too, to help tell what piles will have a monster in them. There is usually one Monster card in the split pile, making them a total of 11 cards in the pile.

The split pile introduces a new resource to collect, Raiders, which are collected (as coin tokens) to a Raider's mat. You commit these Raiders to battle the Monster in the new phase of the game imaginatively called the Raiding Phase, joining forces with the neighboring kingdoms to destroy the opponent. During the Raiding phase, you check whether the Monster has been defeated by counting the Raiders on everyone's mats. If there are enough Raiders across each player's mats, the Monster is defeated and in celebration, it is flipped over to reveal the prize each player receives immediately.

So a turn would now look like this:

Action, Raiding, Buy, Night, Clean-up.

Raiders committed to battling the Monster aren't lost when they've been defeated, and each player will generally gain something from taking part in the battle with the Monster. Once the Monster has been defeated, the remaining half of the split pile becomes available.

So what's so interesting about the Monsters themselves? Design-wise, they are a double-sided landscape-type card placed within a Kingdom pile. The landscape cards already available are either Actions (events and ways) or Victory cards (landmarks). Monsters are landscape Attacks. They affect each player during their turn in some regard. Some might even be helpful, given the right kingdom!

Some card examples that I have created so far, starting with the Young Hero/Laureate. There are five Young Heroes on top, five Laureates on the bottom, and a Goliath in the middle.







The symbols are a WIP and a sour reminder of how incapable I am with graphic design. The Goliath requires 10 Raiders to be defeated, no coin is required to defeat any of these Monsters. Working within my technical capabilities, this was the clearest way I could think to represent the requirements. Choosing other symbols meant the text was hard to read.

Hopefully, the idea behind these cards is clear enough for the remaining examples I've created. I'm not 100% happy with the wordings on some cards, but as I said, it's a WIP. In some cases, I've created a Monster or part of a card. Part of me wanting to upload this in such an unfinished state is to share my idea for this mechanic with people who might enjoy it. The other reason is that what I think is a good idea / balanced is not always correct.

I would love any and all feedback on this idea, from theme to mechanic to execution. Also, if anyone can point me towards better symbols or ways to present the information let me know.

It's about time I shared some of these:

Divination Camp / Centaur / Archer









Embezzler / Demon / Warlock









Unnamed Vassal / Genie / Unnamed Throne
- The themes for this one is clear, I've just not been able to think of suitable names yet... Also, players who have Raiders will just gain 3 wishes on defeat









Fledgling Party / Goblins / Experienced Party
- This is one where I imagined there would be more than one Monster in the pile, one being shuffled in randomly to the Fledgling Party half (other than the top card of course) and one shuffled into the Experienced Party. Otherwise, the cheap cost on the Goblins didn't seem worth it. Also, This is one of the situations that made me want players to discard committed Raiders when a Monster is defeated, and to distinguish between committed and reserve Raiders.









Undecided Split Pile / Harpy / Undecided Split Pile





Ship Building / Mermaid / Shipyard









Hired Hands / Ogre / Reward









Conscription / Phoenix / Restore









Undecided Split Pile / Sorceress / Undecided Split Pile





Weaponsmith / Tanuki / Negotiator









Missionary / Zombie Overlord (Mindless Zombies) / Village Defense
- I guess there may be the same number of Mindless Zombies as Curses in any given game? That seems to make sense.











Caving (Should be Adventurer type)/ Arachnid / Tapestry









Drawbridge (Requires an actual action )/ Giant Rat (Vermin should be an Action / Piper
- Vermin are like Ruins, except they never run out. After all, Rats do multiply faster than anyone wants!











Resourceful Village / Dragon With Dragon's Lair / Loot
- Arguably my most ambitious creation, and also the one I'm least convinced about the actual execution for.









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That's the end of them so far, let me know what you think!

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