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301

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #102: Unspent

« on: January 20, 2021, 10:45:03 pm »

Shipping Village - $3
Action
+1 Card
+3 Buys

Ignore any further +Buys you get this turn.
-
While this is in play, you may spend 1 Buy for +1 Action.

A Snowy Village for Buys that allows you to use Buys as Actions? Is this even useful? I think it could be good in some Kingdoms with cantrip +Buys and terminal draws, but I really am not sure. The price and number of Buys it provides is up for adjustment as needed. I am more than happy for any feedback offered.

302

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #101: You may turn your Journey token over

« on: January 17, 2021, 11:28:38 am »

Snake Oil - $4
Treasure - Night
If it's your Buy phase: If your Journey token is face down (it starts face up), you may turn it over for +1 Buy and +$3. If you don't, +$2. If it's your Night phase, you may turn your Journey token over.

You could improve the wording by taking the +2$ out of the conditional, like so (with additional removal of some conditionals):

+2$
If your Journey token is face down (it starts face up) or it's your Night phase, you may turn it over for +1 Buy, +1$.

(it technically now gives coins and Buys even in the Night phase, but that should not matter.)

Producing $ during the Night phase can technically matter for Wine Merchant, but that's just a fun coincidence.  The change is worth the simplicity (though I often prefer combining identical resource production as Giant does).
Either way, Snake Oil still looks amazingly worse than Fool's Gold.  3 Snake Oils ($12 in 3 Buys) with setup produce +1 Buy and +$7 or otherwise produce +$6 where 3 Fool's Golds ($6 in 3 Buys) always produce +$9.  +Buys are nice, but stop cards are expensive in their own right.

Thanks for the feedback! I think one way Snake Oil differs from Fools Gold is that you do not necessarily want a bunch of Snake Oils. I agree the reward for setup of just +$1 and +1 Buy is pretty weak, so I was thinking of bumping it up to +$2 and +1 Buy. The concern there would be making it a no brainer first buy to guarantee an upgrade to Gold when you have Snake Oil and two Coppers or their equivalent. Not sure if it would be busted making an additional +$2 instead of +$1, or just really good as a one-of.

Edit: Updated my original entry HERE. Changed it to a $5 cost treasure. The concept just seems to function better in this form.

303

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #101: You may turn your Journey token over

« on: January 14, 2021, 11:35:36 pm »

Snake - Oil
Treasure - Night
If it's your Buy phase, you may turn your face down Journey token over (it starts face up) for +1 Buy and +$3, otherwise +$1. If it's your Night phase, you may turn your Journey token over.

This is a really difficult competition. I am going with a design that I am not sure is appealing, let along balanced. Similar to Stockpile or Fools Gold, this has a conditionally greater value than expected. However unlike the examples, getting multiple copies of it does not produce a huge payload. It may be a bit weak as it currently is, but was told it looked busted if it produced more or was cheaper. Feedback is appreciated.

This is overpriced. The only thing that makes this better than Fool's Gold is the +Buy. Fool's Gold can be stronger if you have more of them (and another source of +buy) because only one Snake Oil per turn can give $3.

I originally had it priced at $2, but was told that looked busted. It may just not be a workable concept to have a "reverse" Fools Gold, but I wanted to give it a shot.

I'd suggest making it give $2 when you don't turn it face-up. Then it's good at $4 cost (and not too much better than Silver because you still have to play one at night for no coin in order to get the $3 and a Buy next time).

Yeah, that looks much better than what I was trying to do. Idea implemented. Thanks for the feedback and help!

304

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #101: You may turn your Journey token over

« on: January 14, 2021, 11:11:51 pm »

Snake - Oil
Treasure - Night
If it's your Buy phase, you may turn your face down Journey token over (it starts face up) for +1 Buy and +$3, otherwise +$1. If it's your Night phase, you may turn your Journey token over.

This is a really difficult competition. I am going with a design that I am not sure is appealing, let along balanced. Similar to Stockpile or Fools Gold, this has a conditionally greater value than expected. However unlike the examples, getting multiple copies of it does not produce a huge payload. It may be a bit weak as it currently is, but was told it looked busted if it produced more or was cheaper. Feedback is appreciated.

This is overpriced. The only thing that makes this better than Fool's Gold is the +Buy. Fool's Gold can be stronger if you have more of them (and another source of +buy) because only one Snake Oil per turn can give $3.

I originally had it priced at $2, but was told that looked busted. It may just not be a workable concept to have a "reverse" Fools Gold, but I wanted to give it a shot.

305

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #101: You may turn your Journey token over

« on: January 14, 2021, 11:08:46 pm »

Snake - Oil
Treasure - Night
If it's your Buy phase, you may turn your face down Journey token over (it starts face up) for +1 Buy and +$3, otherwise +$1. If it's your Night phase, you may turn your Journey token over.

This is a really difficult competition. I am going with a design that I am not sure is appealing, let along balanced. Similar to Stockpile or Fools Gold, this has a conditionally greater value than expected. However unlike the examples, getting multiple copies of it does not produce a huge payload. It may be a bit weak as it currently is, but was told it looked busted if it produced more or was cheaper. Feedback is appreciated.

I recommend wording this "If it's your Buy phase: If your Journey token is face down (it starts face up), you may turn it over for +1 Buy and +. If you don't, +. If it's your Night phase..." to make it harder to misread. I misread it at first and was very confused.

Like this?
"If it's your Buy phase and your Journey token is face down, you may turn your Journey token over (it starts face up) for +1 Buy and +$3, otherwise +$1."
The concern I have is that it would give the impression it will not produce +$1 if the Journey token is face up.

I made an edit with a better wording while you were responding.

That is much more concise than what I was going to change it to. Thanks! Original post updated with new wording.

306

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #101: You may turn your Journey token over

« on: January 14, 2021, 10:51:58 pm »

Snake - Oil
Treasure - Night
If it's your Buy phase, you may turn your face down Journey token over (it starts face up) for +1 Buy and +$3, otherwise +$1. If it's your Night phase, you may turn your Journey token over.

This is a really difficult competition. I am going with a design that I am not sure is appealing, let along balanced. Similar to Stockpile or Fools Gold, this has a conditionally greater value than expected. However unlike the examples, getting multiple copies of it does not produce a huge payload. It may be a bit weak as it currently is, but was told it looked busted if it produced more or was cheaper. Feedback is appreciated.

I recommend wording this "If it's your Buy phase: If your Journey token is face down (it starts face up), you may turn it over for +1 Buy and +. If you don't, +. If it's your Night phase..." to make it harder to misread. I misread it at first and was very confused.

Like this?
"If it's your Buy phase and your Journey token is face down, you may turn your Journey token over (it starts face up) for +1 Buy and +$3, otherwise +$1."
The concern I have is that it would give the impression it will not produce +$1 if the Journey token is face up.

Edit: I am gonna try and make an adjustment.

307

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #101: You may turn your Journey token over

« on: January 14, 2021, 10:41:28 pm »

Snake Oil - $5
Treasure - Night
$2
If your Journey token is face down (it starts face up) or it's your Night phase, you may turn it over for +1 Buy and +$2.

This is a really difficult competition. I am going with a design that I am not sure is appealing, let alone balanced. Similar to Stockpile or Fools Gold, this has a conditionally greater value than expected. However unlike the examples, getting multiple copies of it does not produce a huge payload. It may be a bit weak as it currently is, but was told it looked busted if it produced more or was cheaper. Feedback is appreciated.

Edit: Changed wording to be more clear. Changed price to $3, may still be a bit weak.

Edit2: Changed per the suggestion of LibraryAdventurer.

Edit3: A complete rework on the layout. Looks much more presentable. Thanks goes to LibraryAdventurer, once again.

Edit4: Changed the intent of the card. Not gonna compete with Fools Gold as a cheap conditional treasure. Now it acts more like a Silver you can save for later use alongside another Snake Oil. It costs $5 now to prevent it being an easy early game pick up to accelerate you. Could still feel weak, but now should feel more enjoyable to use.

Old Versions

308

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Set Expansion Contest

« on: January 12, 2021, 12:27:21 pm »

Isn't this busted? The top half is significantly better than that of Hunting Grounds, and the card is effectively cheaper. Exiling an Estate to get this is super good.

You have to Exile an Action card to make it cheaper, but it does look really good otherwise.

309

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Set Expansion Contest

« on: January 10, 2021, 01:32:33 pm »

Congrats to grrgrrgrr! I would recommend that after we finish up with all the sets that we design cards for a hypothetical combination set. So we choose two existing sets and design a card that would be a merger of those two themes and mechanics. I believe someone previously suggested this, so it is not my own, but I wanted to throw that out there to either continue this thread or spur the creation of a new thread. It has been fun.

Horse Thieves - $4
Action - Attack
+$2
Each other player with 4 or more cards in hand discards a Treasure card (or reveals a hand with none). Either gain a copy of a discarded card or gain a Horse onto your deck.

I originally designed this as an improved Cutpurse a while back. I like that buying A Horse Thieves defends against the card by giving you horses, if you forgo gaining a treasure off the attack. Not sure if it is too good in its current state, but I can always adjust the price or the number of cards in hand needed for the attack to land. Feedback is appreciated.

This is strictly better than the mentioned Cutpurse, which hasn't even been removed or anything.

Technically Cutpurse can reduce a players handsize below 3. This was designed originally as a better, more appealing cutpurse. I have found Cutpurse an unappealing attack in general, but bumping up the price is probably warranted. Thanks for the feedback.

310

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Set Expansion Contest

« on: January 10, 2021, 09:58:28 am »

Congrats to grrgrrgrr! I would recommend that after we finish up with all the sets that we design cards for a hypothetical combination set. So we choose two existing sets and design a card that would be a merger of those two themes and mechanics. I believe someone previously suggested this, so it is not my own, but I wanted to throw that out there to either continue this thread or spur the creation of a new thread. It has been fun.

Horse Thieves - $4
Action - Attack
+$2
Each other player with 5 or more cards in hand discards a Treasure card (or reveals a hand with none). Either gain a copy of a discarded card or gain a Horse onto your deck.

I originally designed this as an improved Cutpurse a while back. I like that buying A Horse Thieves defends against the card by giving you horses, if you forgo gaining a treasure off the attack. Not sure if it is too good in its current state, but I can always adjust the price or the number of cards in hand needed for the attack to land. Feedback is appreciated.

Edit: Bumped up price to $5.

Edit 2: Changed price back to $4, made the attack only effect players with 5 or more cards in hand. To clarify, the "gain a discarded card" is mainly there for flavor and as a deterrent in trash heavy games. Getting a treasure you want is something that is appealing, even if it rarely happens.

311

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Set Expansion Contest

« on: January 07, 2021, 06:15:57 pm »

Theatre Venue
Victory
Worth 1% plus an additional 1% for every 2 Villagers you have (rounded down).
-
When you gain this, if you have no Villagers, +3 Villagers, otherwise +1 Villager.

A VP card that scales with additional Villagers. Some of the other Villager cards could make this busted, so I am thinking it may be too good as is. I am thinking of changing it to be a set bonus VPs for just having a minimum number of Villagers, something like +2 VP for having at last 4 Villagers or something. It is still a decent source of villagers regardless and can be remodeled if that is an option in the Kingdom if you are not going "big villager". Feedback would be appreciated.

Villagers are unbounded, so the infinite VP,  endless game potential here might be quite likely? (Patron and Expedition don't push the game to its end.)

It is a good point that Villagers are indeed uncapped. I still want it pseudo scaling with the number of villagers you have, so I changed it to be capped based on how many Theatre Venues you have.

Theatre Venue
Victory
Worth 1VP plus an additional 1VP per set you have of Theatre Venue - 2 Villagers.
-
When you gain this, if you have no Villagers, +3 Villagers, otherwise +1 Villager.

Updated the original post here. Hopefully this change will address the potential infinite VP concern without nerfing the card too hard.

I don't think the potential danger of a golden deck with one of only two specific two-card combos* requires making Theatre Venue significantly more complicated (I consider your original version much simpler and more elegant than the update).
You'd already need two Theatre Venues (original version) in your deck (i.e. two otherwise dead cards) just to make Patron equivalent to Monument in terms of VP's gained per turn, and Monument is an official card that allows for a (weakish) golden deck without any help (except for a trasher). And just like Monument, Patron and Exploration do push the player toward buying more cards instead of building a golden deck, by giving $2 or 1 Coffers, respectively.
Finally, I don't see any "Villager golden deck" with TV even coming close to the Fortress-Bishop golden deck (which is guaranteed to give at least 12 VP per turn indefinitely): E.g. Exploration+your original TV gives at most 4 VP per turn, even if you managed to get all 8 TV's.


*Actually, Patron+TV is rather a 3-card combo, as you also need a strong trasher to create this golden deck.

Thanks for the feedback. I am concerned about the centralizing nature of the card if it has the infinite VP potential. I am also thinking of fan content that is more generous with Villagers than the official cards. I agree with you that the original is more straight forward, and I actually prefer it, but am concerned the infinite VP potential is too verboten as a general rule to allow. I would appreciate additional opinions on it as I am not fully familiar with peoples opinions on how detrimental it is to have a card give the potential for a "golden deck".

312

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread

« on: January 04, 2021, 12:52:41 am »

Posted this in the Dominion Discord, mostly to get the wording right:

I like the idea, however, as chronostrike says above, it does seem pretty easy to get a ton of Wishes. Perhaps have a contingency on the Wish gain that you can only have at most 1 Night card in play as well as at most 1 Action card. It would at least slow the gain to 1 Wish a turn. Just a thought, but I think it has potential.

313

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Set Expansion Contest

« on: January 03, 2021, 08:10:47 pm »

Theatre Venue
Victory
Worth 1% plus an additional 1% for every 2 Villagers you have (rounded down).
-
When you gain this, if you have no Villagers, +3 Villagers, otherwise +1 Villager.

A VP card that scales with additional Villagers. Some of the other Villager cards could make this busted, so I am thinking it may be too good as is. I am thinking of changing it to be a set bonus VPs for just having a minimum number of Villagers, something like +2 VP for having at last 4 Villagers or something. It is still a decent source of villagers regardless and can be remodeled if that is an option in the Kingdom if you are not going "big villager". Feedback would be appreciated.

Villagers are unbounded, so the infinite VP,  endless game potential here might be quite likely? (Patron and Expedition don't push the game to its end.)

It is a good point that Villagers are indeed uncapped. I still want it pseudo scaling with the number of villagers you have, so I changed it to be capped based on how many Theatre Venues you have.

Theatre Venue
Victory
Worth 1VP plus an additional 1VP per set you have of Theatre Venue - 2 Villagers.
-
When you gain this, if you have no Villagers, +3 Villagers, otherwise +1 Villager.

Updated the original post here. Hopefully this change will address the potential infinite VP concern without nerfing the card too hard.

314

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread

« on: December 31, 2020, 05:46:06 pm »

 

Fae Queen - $6
Action - Doom
+3 Cards
+1 Action
Trash this or a Treasure from your hand. If you trash a Copper, receive a Hex.
----
Instead of paying this card's cost, you may trash a Lucky Coin from your hand.

Lab variant. Most comparable to Stables. It has some bells and whistles added for flavor and to meet the contest criteria. Not sure if completely balanced or appealing, but I am not a huge fan of Fool and wanted to try my hand at coming up with an alternate companion to Lucky Coin. Feedback is appreciated.

You should probably word this like Death Cart: "You may trash this or a Treasure from your hand, for +3 Cards and +1 Action. If you trashed a Copper, receive a Hex."

I was hoping to have the trash trigger after the draw. Gives it more oomph and makes it more appealing at $6 compared to Stables.

Ah, right. Since you Hex yourself if you trash a Copper, it would actually be pretty sorry compared to Stables if you had to trash before drawing.

Right, if the concern is regarding its interaction with emulators, which I think is why Death Cart has that wording, I can always change it to a Command card. I guess the potential issue is when you cannot trash the Fae Queen (Necromancer) and have no treasures in hand to trash (or claim to have none).

315

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread

« on: December 31, 2020, 05:23:38 pm »

 

Fae Queen - $6
Action - Doom
+3 Cards
+1 Action
Trash this or a Treasure from your hand. If you trash a Copper, receive a Hex.
----
Instead of paying this card's cost, you may trash a Lucky Coin from your hand.

Lab variant. Most comparable to Stables. It has some bells and whistles added for flavor and to meet the contest criteria. Not sure if completely balanced or appealing, but I am not a huge fan of Fool and wanted to try my hand at coming up with an alternate companion to Lucky Coin. Feedback is appreciated.

You should probably word this like Death Cart: "You may trash this or a Treasure from your hand, for +3 Cards and +1 Action. If you trashed a Copper, receive a Hex."

I was hoping to have the trash trigger after the draw. Gives it more oomph and makes it more appealing at $6 compared to Stables.

316

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread

« on: December 31, 2020, 05:15:58 pm »

 

Fae Queen - $6
Action - Doom
+3 Cards
You may trash this or a Treasure from your hand, for +2 Actions. If you don't or you trash a Copper, receive a Hex.
----
Instead of paying this card's cost, you may trash a Lucky Coin from your hand.

Lab variant. Most comparable to Stables. It has some bells and whistles added for flavor and to meet the contest criteria. Not sure if completely balanced or appealing, but I am not a huge fan of Fool and wanted to try my hand at coming up with an alternate companion to Lucky Coin. Feedback is appreciated.

Edit: Thanks to Gubump for feedback. Adjusted wording to better conform to the Death Cart and Stables wording while keeping the spirit of the original version. I still think $6 is the correct price point on this, but open to changes.

Edit: Changed to reward +2 Actions if you trash something. Hopefully a more appealing card at a price point of $6.

317

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Set Expansion Contest

« on: December 30, 2020, 09:14:56 pm »

Theatre Venue
Victory
Worth 1VP plus an additional 1VP per set you have of Theatre Venue - 2 Villagers.
-
When you gain this, if you have no Villagers, +3 Villagers, otherwise +1 Villager.

A VP card that scales with additional Villagers. Some of the other Villager cards could make this busted, so I am thinking it may be too good as is. I am thinking of changing it to be a set bonus VPs for just having a minimum number of Villagers, something like +2 VP for having at last 4 Villagers or something. It is still a decent source of villagers regardless and can be remodeled if that is an option in the Kingdom if you are not going "big villager". Feedback would be appreciated.

Edit: Changed the scaling VP portion to be capped by how many Theatre Venues you own. This still allows them to scale beyond Colony in Value if you have enough of them and enough additional Villager support, but now with that being less feasible I hope it will encourage the use of those Villagers more often. Not sure if this completely solves the concerns or if this nerfs it too much. Thanks to Aquila for the feedback.

Old Version

Edit 2: To Clarify, each Theatre Venue is worth at a minimum 1VP. The Additional VP looks at the number of Theatre Venues you have and the the number of Villagers you have when scoring. If you have 4 Theatre Venues you can get up to 4 additional VPs each if you have at least 8 Villagers (5VP per Theatre Venue).

318

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Set Expansion Contest

« on: December 29, 2020, 07:34:21 am »

Enchanted Orchard
Can the player receive a Boon when 0 cards have been discarded? See wording of Tactician.

Yes, you still receive the Boon even if you discard 0 cards. I just wanted to prevent a player from dropping multiple Enchanted Orchards in a single turn. At least not without effort or arcane knowledge.

319

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Set Expansion Contest

« on: December 22, 2020, 05:34:36 pm »

Enchanted Orchard - $4
Night - Victory - Fate
Discard your hand to take a Boon. Receive it now or at the start of your next turn.
----
2VP

So this is a design I have had been messing around with for a while. It is nothing too fancy. The discard is to prevent a player from hanging onto all the Boons for an entire round (a ridiculous but possible achievement), and to balance out the non-terminal reward of just having these in your deck. I could always bump up the cost to $6 and make it worth more, or just discard a set number of cards, but I find myself gravitating to, and enjoying the design of, $4 cost VP cards worth 2VP. I welcome suggestions on changes and criticisms alike.

320

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread

« on: December 21, 2020, 10:21:12 pm »

Treadwheel Crane $5
Action
Trash a card from your hand. Gain a card costing $1 to $2 more than it. If the card you gain is an...
Action Card, +1 Villager.
Treasure card, +1 Coffer.
Victory card, +1VP.

A Remodel variant. I was looking for an alternate name, but the synonyms for Upgrade or Remodel are all mostly used up. Basically it is similar to Ironworks in the bonus rewards, but uses tokens. I was originally going to give a reward based on what was trashed, but I think it is far more interesting to reward based on what is gained as their should be more options to get the reward you want. It should be ok at $5, but I am open to making adjustments to the design. Over-all a pretty simple design. Critiques are appreciated!

321

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread

« on: December 21, 2020, 12:31:46 pm »

I like this idea. I think the first part can probably be simplified as "Discard a card. Play the two set-aside cards in any order leaving them there."

Seeing as you discard a card and the card you are playing are limited to $3 or less, I think this could possibly work as a $5 cost card. Need to look at the list of card to see if that would be busted in any combination, but that is my first take.

322

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Set Expansion Contest

« on: December 15, 2020, 05:54:57 pm »

Offerings - $4
+$3
Discard 2 cards.
-
When you discard this other than during Clean-up, you may trash this.
When you trash this, +2VP.

Empire is a really difficult set for me to come up with designs, for some reason. Well, this is basically Horse Trader with an alternate reaction effect and no +buy. Best in conjunction with trash for benefits, which Empire actually has quite a few. The discard trigger for the reaction allows it to combo with itself, but relying on Offerings alone to win probably is not the best strategy. Not sure if I like it, but this is what I got for now. Feedback/criticisms would be appreciated.

I think "...you may trash this for +2VP" is sufficient.

I think the card is too similar to Horse Traders

Offerings version A - $4
+$2
Each player (including you) may discard a card to draw a card.
-
When you discard this other than during Clean-up, you may trash this for +1 Action.
If you trash this, +2VP.

Offerings version B - $4
+$2
Each player (including you) may discard a card to draw a card.
-
When you discard this other than during Clean-up, you may trash this for +1 Action and +2VP.

Ok, worked on a new version, but am trying to decide on version A on the left and Version B on the right. The main difference is that Version A works really well with both Trash for Benefit and Discard effects, but it does have an extra line and may feel like it is trying to do too much.

As for this version, it is now a terminal Silver that gives everyone the option to discard a card to draw a card. That benefit to everyone may be too beneficial to others, but I wanted to see what people thought of it. Criticism and feedback are appreciated.

Edit: I am going with version B on the right for now. Original post updated HERE.

323

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Set Expansion Contest

« on: December 14, 2020, 09:02:00 pm »

Offerings - $4
+$2
Each player (including you) may discard a card to draw a card.
-
When you discard this other than during Clean-up, you may trash this for +1 Action and +2VP.

Empire is a really difficult set for me to come up with designs, for some reason. Well, this is basically Horse Trader with an alternate reaction effect and no +buy. Best in conjunction with trash for benefits, which Empire actually has quite a few. The discard trigger for the reaction allows it to combo with itself, but relying on Offerings alone to win probably is not the best strategy. Not sure if I like it, but this is what I got for now. Feedback/criticisms would be appreciated.

Edit: Changes have been made. It is now a terminal Silver with a universal discard to draw effect. It no longer gives VP when trashed, only when discarded and then trashed. However, it does give +1 Action when you get the VP. There is a corner case issue in regards to Exile and discarding from it. This has the potential of being busted, but seeing as this is for Empire I am not sure it would be valid to use Exile in the card text.

OLD VERSION

Offerings - $4
+$3
Discard 2 cards.
-
When you discard this other than during Clean-up, you may trash this.
When you trash this, +2VP.

324

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest Thread

« on: December 14, 2020, 12:32:45 pm »

Way of the Vermin
Way
Trash this.
If there wasn't a copy of this in the Trash, gain a Spoils.
Each other player gains a Ruins.

A Way for Dark Ages. It is a self trashing conditional Spoils gainer that hands out Ruins, like a one-shot Marauder. I am not sure how good of an idea this is as it definitely can snow-ball, but seeing as it is a counter to itself it won't devolve into a slog straight away. Villages will be highly sought after as using the Way will eat up Actions. I think of this as more of a tactical Way as you want to be the first to trash a particular card to get the Spoils reward, but handing a Ruins to other players means they will get the Spoils from that card and send Ruins back your way. I would want to play test it to see if it is actually fun, but I like the idea. Feedback is more than welcome!

I love Ways and I think this is a nice idea.  It could allow for some interesting tactical decisions.  However, I think the part I would personally enjoy less is the extra layer of randomness that arises from it.  If you're unlucky, when someone plays this Way, you could gain a Ruins that is already in the trash whereas someone else could gain one that isn't.  Or you could be lucky and be the first to draw a Ruins that isn't in the trash.  The benefit isn't huge, but if it happens often enough in a game, that could have a significant impact on the outcome.

I agree completely, and this randomness has been a consistent issue when I have used Ruins in card designs. I really like Ruins, but I do understand their randomness is unwanted by some players. I am gonna stick with this design for now, but the critique that it has randomness is valid and appreciated. I welcome additional criticisms and appreciate the responses!

To mitigate the randomness, maybe add "if there is a copy of this in the trash, +1 action" so its a non terminal self trasher.

I have updated my submission and it can be seen here.

Way of the Vermin
Way
Trash this.
Each other player gains a Ruins.
If this is the first Action card played this turn, gain a Spoils.

As I posted in the Edit, the new version no longer has the issue of missing out and randomness in regards to the Spoils gain. This version may push Big Money more than the other, but you still need Actions to take advantage of the Way, so I think it breaks even. Additional feed back is more than Welcome!

325

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Equipment, Cabinet and Moral

« on: December 14, 2020, 09:57:53 am »

I am a big fan of Standby. Set aside is used in multiple cards already and is usually a temporary thing. This would be a good change and would do away all of my suggestions for a mat.

I am indifferent to Obtain, but only because I had no issue with Take. Taking a card in Standby could be ruled to go to the discard by default in the rules for Standby. However, if it makes more sense to have a keyword like Obtain to have it make sense, Obtain is a good one.