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Messages - Xen3k

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26
WDC #181: Building a Better Harem

The challenge this week is to design a Treasure - Victory card and make it interesting. The goal is not to actually design a replacement for Harem, but to try and make something interesting out of a limiting card type combination. This can be a Kingdom card, part of a split pile, or a non-supply card that something else interacts with. You can give it additional types, but refrain from having more than one dividing line or microscopic text. I want to leave this open to interpretation and only be restrictive in that it includes a Treasure - Victory card.

All official mechanics are fair game. Please limit the number of components (card shaped things) submitted to 4 at most. I will be judging based on my own preferences, but I will try to be as fair as I can be. Factors I try to look at are simplicity of design, thought provoking design/mechanics, flavorful name/concept, and balance/playability.

I will be giving a 24 hour warning a week from yesterday and then close it the following day. I hope to have judging done and posted by the end of that weekend. I look forward to seeing what you all come up with! Have fun!

27
Thanks for coming up with the contest and giving the detailed judgements! I will be working to get the new design challenge out later today.

28
Repurpose - $5
+1 Action
Trash a card from your hand.
Gain 2 cards costing up to $1 less than it. If you gained a...
Curse, gain a Loot.
Treasure card, gain a Spoils.
Victory card, +2 %.
Action card, gain 2 Horses.
It's clear what the card is doing, but I'll still offer a wording suggestion: if you want, you can just say "costing less than it" rather than "costing up to $1 less than it", like Stonemason.

Cool card!

Well, that is strictly better. The current wording was from earlier versions that gained cards costing up to $2 less than it, but the wording change would still be better in that case too. Thanks!

29


Quote
Repurpose - $5
+1 Action
Trash a card from your hand.
Gain 2 cards costing less than it. If you gained a...
Curse, gain a Loot.
Treasure card, gain a Spoils.
Victory card, +2 %.
Action card, gain 2 Horses.
Quote
Last Will - $7*
Treasure - Loot
Choose one: Trash this to gain a Duchy and a Silver to your hand; or +1 Buy and +$3.

Repurpose can only trigger each of the conditional effects once. So, if you gain 2 Curses off it, you only gain 1 Loot.

Edit: simplified the wording on Repurpose.

30


Quote
Miners Lamp - $3
Treasure
If you have...
1 Buy remaining, +1 Worker and +$1.
2 or more Buys remaining, +$2.
5 or more Workers, -3 Workers and trash this to gain a Gold.

A conditional Silver that can grow into a Gold if you play it as a Ducat instead. Was going to price it at $2, but because it can be a Silver pretty easily, left it at $3. Went with Workers as the +Buy Tokens. I am under the impression you can spend the tokens while playing Treasures, so you can spend the first gained Worker to make any Miners Lamps played afterwards Silvers.

31
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Fan Mechanics Week 58: Be Resourceful
« on: February 23, 2023, 09:43:30 pm »


Quote
Dogsled - $3
Action - Reaction
+2 Cards
You may play a Resource from your hand.
----
When any player gains a card with 2 or more types, you may discard this, to gain a Resource to your hand.

32


Quote
Open Plains - $4
Victory - Reaction
2VP
----
When you discard this other than during Clean-up, you may reveal it to gain 2 Horses.

Considering that Experiment costs and Gold costs , I don't think this needs to cost more than Tunnel.

I was going to price it at $3 and only give 1 Horse. After I bumped it up to 2 Horses I also bumped up the price. The thought process is that unlike adding a Gold to your deck, adding 2 Horses helps increase the likelihood to collide Open Plains and a discard effect and retrigger the effect. This can be good fuel for an Engine.

Seguro also makes a good point that more Horses never hurts, more Gold can cause an engine to falter.

33


Quote
Open Plains - $4
Victory - Reaction
2VP
----
When you discard this other than during Clean-up, you may reveal it to gain 2 Horses.

34
Fan Card Mechanics Week 57: Temp Worker (Non-Supply Remodeler)
Thank you to those who entered this challenge! I’ll move right along to the entries.
Results


Investigator/Rascals by czzzz
Quote
Investigator - $3
Action
If the trash is empty, +$2.
Gain a card from the trash; if you did, gain a Rascals.
You may trash a Silver from the Supply or Exile a card from the trash.
Quote
Rascals - $3*
Night
Trash a card from your hand.
If it costs $2 or less, trash a Copper you have in play.
Otherwise, gain a card costing exactly $5 to the top of your deck, and return this to its pile.
Judgement
Starting with the non-supply card Rascals. It is either a reusable trasher if you only trash cheap cards, or a one shot Altar. I like that it is a Night card and all the effects are appropriate to make it an appealing non-supply card to aim for. I can see Rascals being used by other cards, but the effects are a bit powerful and the name is a bit limiting. Those aren’t bad, they would just be a challenge for someone to design a card that uses Rascals. I like it!
As for Investigator, gaining cards from the Trash can always be a dangerous prospect if there are other better trashers. Investigator does have its own method of seeding the trash with Silver, but that is optional and it can empty the trash twice as fast as seeding it. This means it will really be relying on Rascals to seed the trash more often than not, and Rascals will mainly be trashing Coppers and Estates. I do appreciate you get +$2 if the trash is empty. Over all, I’d have to test it out a bit more, but I have the impression that the gain from trash effect may result in self junking more often then not, or at least constantly trashing Coppers with Rascals and gaining them back with the Investigator. There is a cycle where you can gain Silvers from the trash, gain a Rascal with it, then remodel the Silver with the Rascal for a $5 cost card. That seems the best case scenario, which is an appealing one to me. Really good concepts.


Kind Teacher by BryGuy
Quote
Kind Teache - $5
Action - Duration
You may trash a card from your hand for +1 Card and gain a Temp Worker. If the trashed card costs $0, gain a Temp Worker.
At the start of your next turn, +1 Card, +2 Villagers, +1 Buy.
Judgement
Kind Teacher uses the Temp Worker design, so we’ll go right to it. Being able to trash a Curse of Copper to get 2 Temp Workers seems pretty good. The +1 Card without a +Action is kinda awkward, but that is solved by the second part where it is basically a Workers Village with Villager. The Villagers do solve the awkwardness of the +1 Card on play, and it solves one of the biggest issues of Temp Worker, which is that it is terminal. I really like that you used Villagers in this way. I do think that it may be too strong over all. Being a Duration does mitigate this, but there is a lot Kind Teacher does, and getting 2 Temp Workers for trashing Junk is already very nice. Great design, but if you want all these effects it may be under priced.



Asset/Bailiff by Aquila
Quote
Asset - $0*
Action
+1 Card
+1 Action
You may return this to its pile. If you do, trash a card from your hand, and gain a differently named card to your hand costing up to $1 more than that card.
Quote
Bailiff - $4
Action
Trash this. If you do, gain 3 Assets.
Judgement
Asset is a really clean and simple design. The wordiness is reasonable and makes sense. I can see many different designs incorporating this the same way Horse can be incorporated. Phenomenal design.
Bailiff is a simple single shot, Acting Troupe style Asset gainer. No issues here.
I would be interested in seeing what other designs can use Asset. Great work.




Sleight of Hand/Master Thief/Robbed by emtzalex
Quote
Sleight of Hand - $5*
Action
+1 Card
+1 Action
Return this to its pile to trash a card from your hand. Gain a card to your hand costing up to $2 more than it.
(This is not in the Supply.)
Quote
Master Thief - $5
Action - Attack
+3 Cards
Discard a card. If it's an...
Action card, gain a Slight of Hand;
Treasure card, trash it;
Victory card, each other player takes Robbed.
Quote
Robbed
State
When you play a Treasure card costing more than $0, it does nothing, trash it, and return this.
Judgement
Starting with Sleight of Hand, great name. The design is quite a bit more powerful then Asset. This will make it harder to just throw gaining one into a design. No complaints about the design, but it does not prevent piling out a card by trashing something and gaining a copy of the trashed card.
Master Thief is doing a lot, but it is broken down into very digestible parts. I like that it is just discarding cards for effects. This makes the remodeling of Sleight of Hand more significant. Trashing the treasure is mainly to Copper trash, which is fine. I like that the attack requires you to have Victory cards. This creates a choice on whether you want to remodel your VP cards or hold onto them to attack. However, this will make the attack more ubiquitous at late game when greening.
This lead to the State Robbed. This is a strong attack. Being a State means it does not stack, but also means it will never miss. Master Thief lets you get rid of Coppers pretty easily, so if all players get Master Thief the late game will involve a lot of Silver trashing. If there is no easy way to gain Silvers this could be a brutal end game. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Really great design.


I really appreciate everyone that participated! With only four entries I’ll go straight to the winner. Hope you had fun!

Winner
Asset/Bailiff by Aquila

35
24 Hour Warning

Closed

36


Quote
Plow $4
Treasure
Reveal the top 4 cards of your deck. Choose one: Set aside a revealed Action or Treasure; or discard up to two of the revealed cards.
Return the rest in any order, then play the set aside card.

Was thinking of making this an Action - Treasure, but decided to just leave it as a Treasure. I am not sure if the text can be simplified more. Setting the card you play aside first was to ensure it is clear you decide the order of the top cards of your deck before it is played, just in case that matters. I am also not sure if revealing 4 cards is too much. I flip-plopped between 4 and 3. Feedback is appreciated.

37
For the week 57 challenge I am challenging you to design a card shaped thing that interacts with a non-supply remodeler. As an example of what I am talking about, here is a design I made for a past Weekly Design Contest: Plot of Land and Temp Worker.



If you would like to use Temp Worker as your non-supply remodeler, feel free to use it and rename it as needed. If you would like to design your own non-supply remodeler, that is perfectly fine as well. I want to give you the freedom to design what you like, but I do have a few rules for the non-supply remodeler.

1) It must return itself to its pile after being played at some point. It doesn't have to be every time it is played, like Horse, but returning to its pile must be a feature.
2) It needs to be a true remodeler. It must trash a card you own and then you must gain a card. Don't want to limit the creativity any more than that.
3) It should be themed/designed in such a way that you can imagine multiple cards or card shaped things interacting with it, like Horses or Spoils.

That's it. So, the challenge; design a card shaped thing to interact with a non-supply remodeler (either Temp Worker or a design of your making). All official mechanics and fan mechanics are fair game. Please limit the number of components submitted to 3 at most. I will be judging based on my own preferences and the above criteria, but I will try to be as fair as I can. Factors I try to look at are simplicity of design, thought provoking design/mechanics, flavorful name/concept, and balance/playability.

I will be giving a 24 hour warning a week from yesterday and then close it the following day. I hope to have judging done and posted by the end of that weekend. I hope this deviation from the usual challenge where the custom mechanic (the non-supply card in this case) is not necessarily already designed is acceptable. I look forward to seeing what you all come up with! Have fun!

38
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 56: With Great Power
« on: February 09, 2023, 12:17:57 pm »

Fan Card Mechanic Contest #56: With Great Power


The Results

Thanks to everyone who participated. Here are the results:

Honorable Mention:

Nature Preserve by Violet CLM

Runner Up:

Duelist by czzzz



Winner:

Go-Getter by Xen3k


Oh, wow. Thanks for the win, I really had no idea what to call my card, so I agree the name is pretty weak. I will work to get a new challenge up either today or tomorrow.

39
Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 56: With Great Power
« on: February 06, 2023, 11:14:02 pm »


Quote
Go-Getter - $3
Action
+1 Power
Choose a different thing per 2 Power (round up): Discard a Card; gain a Copper; gain a Curse.
Choose a different thing per Power: +2 cards; +1 Action; +1 Buy; +$2; -2 Power; trash 2 cards from your hand.

Choose draw back then choose benefit. Scales with power.

40
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #177: Groundhog Day
« on: February 03, 2023, 03:22:58 pm »


Quote
Déjà Vu - $7
Night
If this is the first time you played a Déjà Vu this turn, +1 Buy, trash this, gain a Gold, discard your hand, and set aside all non-Duration cards you have in play. Return to your Action phase and play each set aside card in any order.

Had a great turn? Take it again! I am sure the card text can be cleaned up to stop loops and such, but this is the general idea in plain text. Will likely update it when I have more time. If anyone has suggestions, I appreciate all feedback.

Edit: Alright, changed the text a bit. Now returns you to the start of your turn instead of giving you another turn. I added in setting aside the cards that would be played again to prevent any weird interactions not doing so may cause.

41
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #176 - Game Changer
« on: January 31, 2023, 07:57:43 pm »


Quote
Midnight Witch - $5
Night - Duration - Attack
Each other player gains a Curse.
At the start of your next turn, +2 Cards, then discard a card.
---
In games using this, Curse is also a Night-Duration card with "At the start of your next turn, +1 Card, then discard a card."

A Witch variant. Non-terminal as it is a Night card, but now has a delayed Fugitive draw and Curses don't clog the deck as bad as they normally do. Was originally going to have this cost $4, but figured that would be too good. Not sure if the delayed draw 2 then discard is too weak or not. Feedback is appreciated.

42
Thanks czzzz for running the challenge and the detailed judging. I am quite busy with some real life stuff so I don't think I can run the next challenge. If it is alright with everyone, Aquila could run the next challenge if they wish.

43


Quote
Hippocampus - $3
Action - Mount
+1 Action
Look at the top card of your deck. You may put it on the bottom of your deck. Then, +1 Card.
----
Mount: At the start of your turn, look at the bottom card of your deck. You may discard it, or Dismount to put it into your hand.

Hippocampus does what we want Pearl Diver to do. The Mount effect of looking at the bottom card is the only mandatory part. Discard ing the card is optional and dismounting to put it into your hand is optional. May need to be priced at $4, because of the flexibility. Feedback appreciated.

44


Quote
Special Delivery - $4
Charter
Exile a non-Victory card from the Supply.
The next time you discard a card from Exile, gain a Horse.

Camel effect in a landscape form. Had this priced at $3, but that would create advantages if only some players got a $3/$4 start. The Horse gain gives a trigger to getting your cube back and justifies the cost.

45
Thanks for the judging, Xen3k. There were definitely some interesting mechanics this season.

Thanks!

I really like Dolphin. Hidden Path seems really cool, but I get the feeling there could be some combos that cycle cards from play, into queue, and back into play that could break it. Archmage is bonkers, and I love that you managed to use all those mechanics.

Cheers and happy holidays.

46
Fan Card Mechanics Week 51: Season 5 Finale Challenge
Ok, this is the final challenge for season 5, and I am really impressed with the great use of the custom mechanics chosen. Onto the entries!

Results


Bland Bazaar/Legacy by BryBuy
Quote
Bland Bazaar - $4
Action Enchantment
Premonition: Legacy
+1 Buy
+$1 for each unused Buy
----
Enchant a Treasure card. Copies of that card also has +1 Buy,
Quote
Legacy
Premonition
At the beginning of each player’s seventh turn, they gain a card from the Legacy pile.
Setup: Place two Gold per player on the bottom and two Silver on top of the Legacy pile.
Judgement
Starting with Legacy, the setup implies players will gain the top card off of the Legacy pile multiple times, but as currently worded it only happens once for each player on their seventh turn. Potential alternate ways for this to trigger would be on each turn starting on the seventh turn or every seventh turn. I like the idea of it triggering every turn starting on the seventh turn as it will more likely go through the Legacy pile. There are potential issue with extra turn cards, so maybe something like “at the beginning of each players 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th turn…”. There would still be an issue where taking extra turns early would be bad as you would get more silver than other players.

Bland Bazaar has a pretty simple Enchant effect that adds +1 Buy, and I like this. The on play effect is deceptively simple as well, because it is in fact bonkers. A single Workers Village turns one Bland Bazaar into +$3, and there are plenty of cheap cantrips that add buys. I like the idea of gaining virtual coin based on Buys, but at this price point it will accelerate games quickly in some Kingdoms. I like the design, but am concerned about its power level.


Tyrant by czzzz
Quote
Tyrant - $5
Action - Activation
Gain a Gold to your hand.
+5 Mutineers
----
When you activate this, draw until you have 5 cards in hand.
Judgement
Tyrant is a really cool Gold gainer and card draw engine. The above the line effect seems pretty reasonable, as for an action you gain a Gold to hand and have to deal with a sizable number of Mutineers. However, the Activation effect of using an action to draw up to a 5 card hand kinda turns the draw back Mutineers pose into a benefit, as long as you have spare actions. By the time you have a Tyrant, you likely won’t often get a 5 card hand you would want to chuck away fully, making it so some Mutineers will likely stick around after using the Activation. However, I think this is still pretty strong at $5. The Mutineers gain can be bumped up by one or two to make them sting a bit more, but as long as there are villages in the Kingdom the Activation effect will greatly mitigate the Mutineers. Really cool design.


Abbot/Succession Crisis by Erick648
Quote
Abbot - $4
Action
Premonition: Succession Crisis
+1 Piety
Trash a card from your hand. +1 Piety per $1 it costs.
Quote
Succession Crisis
Premonition
After each player has taken seven turns, the player with the most level 3 Pieties (including ties) each gain a Province.
Judgement
Starting with Succession Crisis. This Premonitions creates a race for a Province situation that is really novel. I like that it rewards a Province as the Piety gained can never trash the Province for any kind of benefit and the Province will be high value junk that anyone who did not try and race for it won’t have to deal with. I really like this Premonition and how it uses the Piety concept.

Abbot is a pretty straight forward Piety generator. Benefits most from trashing Estates or early purchased cards to fuel the Succession Crisis race. It is really nice that after you are done getting all those level 3 Pieties you can use them to turn Abbots into Gold and 3VP. Also, it would be interesting to figure out if using an early game level 2 Piety on a Silver would be worth it to trash the gained $5 cost card for all that Piety. I think it would be a net gain, but there is the chance to have an Abbot and that $5 card not collide. There is a concern that Abbot will be too centralizing, especially if there is no other trashing, but that would be the same for any Kingdom card that is the sole trasher. Great design!



Field Medica/Captain of the Guard by emtzalex
Quote
Field Medic - $4
Action
+1 Action
Choose one: trash a card from your hand; or draw until you have 5 cards in your hand.
Quote
Captain of the Guard - $5
Action - Activation
Gain an Action card costing up to $4 onto your deck.
When you activate this, reveal your hand. Discard any non-Action cards, then play the revealed Actions in any order.
Judgement
Field Medic is a great anti-attack card that does not simply moat. I am a big fan of “draw until” effects, and this being non-terminal will make it really appealing in some Kingdoms. The trashing is always nice, but bringing yourself down to a 3 card hand will feel bad, unless you have another Field Medic to draw back up to 5 cards. Really cool card.

Captain of the Guard is the second of this duo, and it can set up a Field medic for the following turn, which is great. The Activation effect is a super Necropolis that gets rid of any non-Actions in hand, which is fixed by the Field Medic you just gained and top-decked, which makes it even better. I appreciate the clarification that the Actions revealed are not in hand, but it may mechanically be necessary to say that you set aside the remaining cards in your hand before playing them. Not too sure on the minutia of that. The synergies between the two cards are very satisfying, but not overly strong. I can see Field Medic being a stand-alone card, if a bit mediocre at $4. Together they give a bunch of cool interactions with each other, and even more when you add the rest of the Kingdom.


Smuggling Run by Aquila
Quote
Smuggling Run - $5
Event
Once per game: +5 Routes. Each other player gets +5 Mutineers.
Judgement
Smuggling Run is a straight forward one-shot Event that gives everyone some tokens. The routes you gain and the Mutineers handed out will be of different value at different times in the game. Routes will obviously be of greater value earlier to better stop curse and junk gain as well as setting up big combos and turns. Mutineers are a nuisance early game, but can be a whopping -5vp for each opponent if given out right before ending the game. Late game, Mutineers can still be pretty painless to get rid of by discarding green, but there is the chance you have a hand that requires you to keep some Mutineers. I really like the choice this provides each player and how it will reward players who keep track of how close the game is to ending.


Collaborator/Changing of the Guard by NoMoreFun
Quote
Collaborator - $1
Action/Command/Roster
Premonition: Changing of the Guard
You may play an Action or Treasure from your hand. If you did, play the card with the same cost in $ from your Roster afterwards, leaving it there.
Quote
Changing of the Guard
Premonition
Every seven turns, Rosters rotate to the left, and each player gains a Collaborator.
Judgement
Collaborator is almost just a Ruined Village, though it does allow you to play a treasure, which is nice. However, what it really does is act as an Emulator for your Roster based on the cost of what you play. This is a really cool way to restrict the power of Collaborator and justify the $1 cost. It also allows you to play the $1 card from your Roster by playing a Collaborator off a Collaborator. Great design.

Changing of the Guards is an excellent Premonition that triggers every seven turns. Rotating the Roster changes up the draft quite a bit. Now you are trying to draft based off what you want early game and what you don’t want others to have later game. Because of how Collaborator works, you also have to plan around what cards you will want to buy in the game to activate cards off your Roster. This is a really cool combination of custom mechanics working together to make people think. Excellent design.


I really had trouble choosing the winner as every entry had an interesting design idea. Thanks to everyone that participated! Hope you had fun!

Runner-Up
Abbot/Succession Crisis by Erick648
Field Medica/Captain of the Guard by emtzalex

Winner
Collaborator/Changing of the Guard by NoMoreFun

47
Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #172: Trait Me Right
« on: December 19, 2022, 10:40:52 am »
Quote
Grand
Trait
You can’t buy Grand cards if you have any Coppers in play.
When you gain a Grand card you bought, gain another Grand card.

Make anything Grand! Gainers avoid the Copper limitation, but only benefit from the Port effect if you can gain a Grand card during your Buy phase. If you do buy a Grand card, you get another for free.

Edit: Simplified wording to just trigger the extra gain when gaining a Grand card you bought.

48
Challenge Closed

I'll work to get this judged within a day or two.

49
24 Hour Notice

Current Entries
BryBuy: Bland Bazaar/Legacy
czzzz: Tyrant
Erick648: Abbot/Succession Crisis
emtzalex: Field Medica/Captain of the Guard
Aquila: Smuggling Run
NoMoreFun: Collaborator/Changing of the Guard

50
Season 5 Finale Challenge!

Season 5 Mechanics.
-Activation mechanic
-Piety mechanic
-Premonition mechanic
-Roster mechanic
-Singleton mechanic
-Mutineers mechanic
-Terror mechanic
-Enchantment mechanic
-National Park mechanic

For this Finale Challenge, design a Card Shaped Thing (or set of them as needed) that incorporates two custom mechanics with at least one of them coming from Season 5. Try and limit the number of custom mechanics to two and limit the number of cards submitted to 4 max. Submiting a large number of cards will be harder to judge so ensure that it is meaningful to have so many, like a 4 card pile. All official mechanics and components from Dominion are allowed.

You can access all other custom card mechanics through the Fan Card Mechanics Contest -- Index.

I will be judging based on my own preferences, but I will try to be as fair as I can. Factors I try to look at are simplicity of design, thought provoking design/mechanics, flavorful name/concept, and balance/playability.

I will give a 24 hour warning a week from yesterday and then close it the following day. If the number of submissions are very few in number, I may extend the time table out, but submitting something sooner rather than later is appreciated. Let me know if I missed anything in the description of the challenge or if you have any suggestions. Nothing more to say other than have fun! I look forward to see what you all design!

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