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351

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Fan Mechanics Week #34: Equipment

« on: April 14, 2022, 11:57:49 am »

My Submission:

Confidence Artist • $4 • Action - Attack +$2 Choose one: each other player discards a card or gains a Copper to their hand (their choice); or trash this for +$1 and to trash your hand. Equipment: Shell Game	Shell Game • $0 • Action - Equipment +1 Action Discard 2 cards. If you discarded at least one, +3 Cards. After you play an Action card, if you have no cards in hand, Equip this.

Here's my submission. For some reason I found designing this cards to be unusually challenging (I've also been very busy at work, so somewhat distracted). My submission is Confidence Artist and Shell Game. Confidence Artist is a terminal silver with a weakened version of the Torturer attack (requiring only 1 card discarded and junking with Copper instead of Curses) with an alternative option to trash it and your hand (and get $1 more, so players can at least be assured of hitting $3 and having access to Silver). The attack is relatively weak and the trashing is dangerously imprecise, but together they probably make it worth buying in a fair number of games.

Shell Game is a relatively weak cantrip sifter. It is considerably weaker than Forum, as you have to discard first (except in the rare case when you have SG and exactly 1 other card, which leaves you with 3 cards as opposed to the 2 you would have with Forum). Using CA's trashing ability will Equip it, and depending on the board there may be some other ways to do that as well.

352

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Fan Card Mechanics Contest -- current contest, index, and hall of fame

« on: April 06, 2022, 06:17:14 pm »

Week 33: Trial By Fire

Winner: Second Chance by fika monster.	Runner Up: Witch Trials by LibraryAdventurer.

353

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #148: Expand The Kingdom

« on: April 06, 2022, 11:41:49 am »

My Submission:

Spellcaster's Guild • Ally After playing a Liaison, you may spend 3 Favors to play one of the set aside cards, leaving it there. Setup: Set aside 2 unused Actions costing $4.

I've still got Allies on my mind. This is an Ally version of Way of the Mouse. It uses stronger cards, and uses 2 of them. To avoid goofy openings with Importer, I made it trigger on-play-Liaison, which I actually think makes it more interesting.

354

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Innovation

« on: April 04, 2022, 04:13:25 pm »

Robber appears too harsh if there's no limit on it. You overbuild your engine so that you have $13 to spend but only 1 buy, so now you just have to skip your entire next turn?

Remember, though, that you don't have to play all of your Treasure cards. So unless more than $8 of the $13 comes from peddler variants that you need to play to cycle though your deck, you can just leave the payload in your hand (unless you are also being hit with Haunted Woods). If anything, Robber's attack is a bit on the weak side, as it will usually only impact you to the extent your least productive Treasure gives you more $ than you need (e.g. if you have $1 from your Actions and nothing but Gold and you only need $8, you will end up penalized 2 cards). And will frequently be rendered useless with +Buy.

355

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

« on: April 04, 2022, 12:51:25 pm »

It is a strong handsize Attack, stronger than Legionary ... but do you really want to blow up your terminal draw for it?

I think it could also use a thematic improvement. Is there a reason an assassin draws cards? Gives you a buy? (Other cards with this theme, thief, saboteur, cutpurse, etc., do none of these things). An assassin presumably kills for money, and so the card's benefit should be in nabbing treasure, or something along those lines. Perhaps be less concerned about filling design space, and more on coming up with a thematically tight and innovative card.

Highwayman gives +Cards on a subsequent turn (as does Warlord and Haunted Woods).

356

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Innovation

« on: April 04, 2022, 12:46:26 pm »

a) The mock-ups for your Treasure cards should have a "Preview" showing the amount of $ they will produce in their top corners. For example:
https://shardofhonor.github.io/dominion-card-generator/index.html?title=Reserves&description=%242%0A-%0AWhen%20you%20discard%20this%20other%20than%20from%20play%2C%20%2B1%20Coffers.&type=Treasure%20-%20Reaction&credit=&creator=&price=%244&preview=%242&type2=&color2split=1&boldkeys=&picture-x=0&picture-y=0&picture-zoom=1&picture=&expansion=&custom-icon=&color0=3&color1=2&size=0

b) I'm not sure Steampunk Village should cost $4. While not strictly worse than Village, it's not strictly better either, and you need to play 4 of them before you get more +Actions than you would from the same number of copies of a regular Village. In most games, that's going to happen a lot less often than getting just 1 of them, in which case SPV is substantially worse than Village. In a well running engine, you may well play 4 villages every turn; but even then, SPV doesn't provide the extra Action to start playing your terminal draw cards until you get a 2nd one.

357

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

« on: March 30, 2022, 11:57:39 am »

My Submission:

Slush Fund • $5 • Action - Duration At the start of each of your turns, if you have 2 Buys or fewer, +1 Buy. : +$4 (This stays in play.)

...
EDIT: It occurred to me that a player will keep getting the +1 Buy even after they trash their Slush Fund (and don't replace it). I'm probably going to change the card so that doesn't work, but I haven't decided that for sure.

This would need an "if this is in play" clause, otherwise would be like an invisible Fair everyone has to remember they bought.

Thanks. I updated my submission (see above for full-size):



I went with "Until you use this card's " instead of while-in-play, as I think putting the latter on a Duration creates an unnecessary rules issue.

358

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

« on: March 29, 2022, 12:49:38 pm »

My Submission:

Slush Fund • $5 • Action - Duration Until you use this card's , at the start of each of your turns, if you have 2 Buys or fewer, +1 Buy. : +$4 (This stays in play.)

I really like this idea for a mechanic. There is a ton of possibilities and I can definitely see myself designing several cards. I have come up with one to submit, but I might replace it later.

For my submission I decided to take the whole Duration extends the time you can use it thing a step further, by making a Hireling style stays in play card. When played, Slush Fund is terminal and gives no immediate benefit. Thereafter, it provide a non-cumulative +1 Buy as long as you have one in play at the start of your turn until you use the burn ability. More importantly, it's burn effect will refund you most of its original cost, letting you hit much higher price point (but only once per copy).

You can burn Slush Fund the turn you use it, and may want to. But if you do, you don't get the +1 Buy that comes with it. The reason I wanted to make the +1 Buy non-cumulative is so a player can't (without some other source of +Buys) just put a bunch of these in play then rush Provinces all at once.

I kind of think of Slush Fund like a reverse Capital. Instead of a big payload one turn and a deficit later, this makes you pay first and get the benefit later. While that is (conceptually) worse, the burn ability means you can get Slush Fund's payout at any time, and don't need to rely on it coming out of your deck at the right time. Similarly, while it seemingly a 1-shot Wine Merchant for the same cost, this flexibility is a huge advantage over WM (which only pays out the turn you get it).

Originally I had it cost $4 and burn for $3, but I thought that was too good for a $4 card. At $5 you are (generally) foregoing some pretty strong Actions (that can be played ore than once). Plus, at $4 players could get it with gainers.

EDIT: It occurred to me that a player will keep getting the +1 Buy even after they trash their Slush Fund (and don't replace it). I'm probably going to change the card so that doesn't work, but I haven't decided that for sure.

EDIT 2: I changed it so it doesn't keep giving the +Buy after it is burned. I didn't make the condition that it be in play, because I think there is sort of a (rules lawyer-y) issue with a Duration card that's later turn abilities are conditional on it being in play (in that, the rule for Durations says they stay in play if they are going to do something; so at Clean up you'd ask "should this stay in play?" and answer "if it's going to do something" then ask "is it going to do something" and answer "if it stays in play", creating a sort of closed loop). If someone wants to trash it with Bonfire and keep getting the +1 Buy, that's Donald's problem.


Old version:

Slush Fund • $5 • Action - Duration At the start of each of your turns, if you have 2 Buys or fewer, +1 Buy.[/font][/size] : +$4 (This stays in play.)

359

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #147: Target Demographic

« on: March 28, 2022, 11:04:37 pm »

My Submission:

Veteran Trainers • Ally
When you play an Action card, you may spend 1 Favor per $1 or 1D it costs. If that's its entire cost, replay it and gain a copy of it.

An Ally version of Disciple, because it is such a strong effect, the cost is similarly high, and scales with the cost of the card you want to throne/gain. The start of the second sentence prevents it from being used with Potion cards or fan cards that have unique costs (like Card Costs).

The FAQ would clarify that you can't spend 0 Favors, so if a card is discounted to being free Veteran Trainers can't be used on it.

360

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Fan Card Mechanics Contest -- current contest, index, and hall of fame

« on: March 28, 2022, 10:46:07 pm »

Week 32: Season 3 Finale

Winner: Corvidologist + Raven by Aquila.

Runner Up: Maturity + Buttons + Parcel by arowdok.

361

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: J Reggie's expansion

« on: March 28, 2022, 01:09:18 pm »

The next set of 4 is a whole new card type which I came up with some time ago: Support cards.  These cards are played along with a host card, which can be any other card that you play.  That means you can play a Support card with an Action, a Treasure, or even another Support card.  They each alter or interact with the host card in different ways.

So, I really like the concept of Support cards, but I have some questions about how the mechanic works. First, what is the timing? Do you resolve the Support card or the host card first?

Chambermaid
Support
When you play this, trash a card from your hand. When you discard this from play, trash the host card.

Inscription
Support
Add 1 to all numbers on the host card.

From Inscription I would guess that you would have to resolve the Support card first (after all, once the host card is resolved you can't go back and add 1 to the numbers). But does that mean that if you played Chambermaid on a Ruined Library you first trash a card then resolve RL (drawing a card)? That seems counterintuitive.

They will be attached to the host card until it goes back into your discard pile, so if you trash the host card or set it aside, the Support card gets trashed or set aside as well.

What if the card goes back onto your deck (e.g. with Herbalist or Scheme). Does the Support follow it? If so, is the Support card still "attached" to the card? What if you draw one of those cards but not the other (if you put 4 more cards onto the deck after)?

How would this work with Fortress? If you trash it from play (with Improve or Bonfire) does the Support stay in the trash or follow Fortress back to your hand? And, again, is it still "attached" to Fortress, or can it be played on a Night card? What if you trash a different Action card from play, then gain that Action back using Lurker. Is the Support still attached? What if you gain the Support using Graverobber or Rogue? Does the card it's attached to come with it?

What about when cards return to their piles? If you play a Support on a Horse, does the Support card do back to it's own pile or to the Horse pile (or neither)?

362

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

« on: March 23, 2022, 07:26:43 pm »

My Submission:

Dragon Tamers • Ally At the start of your turn, you may spend 3 Favors to play one of the face up Dragons, leaving it there, then flip it over.

I am using Week 25's Singular "Duration" Attacks. I'm also using the 2-sided cards from Carline's Dominion: Venus  expansion. The 2-sided Dragon attack cards are (the card on top starts face-up):

Red Dragon / Green Dragon:		Plague Dragon / Gold Dragon:		Ice Dragon / Storm Dragon:
Red Dragon • $5 • Action - Attack - Dragon Each other player discards down to 3 cards in hand.		Plague Dragon • $5 • Action - Attack - Dragon Discard a card. Each other player may gain a Curse to their hand. Then, each other player may reveal their hand. If they didn't reveal a Curse, they get +2§.		Ice Dragon • $5 • Action - Attack - Dragon Each other player reveals the top 2 cards of their deck. They Freeze one of those cards you choose three times, then discards the other.
Green Dragon • $5 • Action - Attack - Dragon Choose one: +2 Cards; or gain a card costing up to $4 onto your deck; or each other player with 5 or more cards in hand puts cards from their hand onto their deck until they have 4 cards in hand.		Gold Dragon • $5 • Action - Attack - Dragon +$3 Each other player gains a Copper normally (into their discard pile), to their hand, or onto their deck, their choice.		Storm Dragon • $5 • Action - Attack - Dragon +2 Cards Discard 2 cards, revealing them. Each other player with 4 or more cards in hand discards a copy of one of those cards (or reveals they can't).

My submission is an Ally, Dragon Tamers. It allows you to play one of six attack cards. The Attack cards are 2-sided, so only 3 are available at any time. The attacks themselves use Week 25's mechanic. One of the attacks, Plague Dragon, uses Week 21's Curse Tokens. I put the cost at 3 Favors to be equivalent to Circle of Witches (although this is a bit easier as you don't have to play a Liaison to trigger it).

Red Dragon is a very simple handsize attack, Militia without the payload. Green Dragon is a weaker topdecking attack (only getting player's down to 4), but also provides the option of getting a bonus instead (useful if your opponent has good defense). Plague Dragon deals out either Curses or Curse Tokens, but like Mountebank can be blocked if a player already has a Curse. Gold Dragon provides the best bonus (+$3), but gives possibly the weakest attack, giving the other players a Copper in their hand (unless they want it somewhere else). Ice Dragon is a temporary trashing-style attack, using Week 9's Freeze mechanic to take one of a player's 2 cards out of circulation for 3 turns. And, finally, Storm Dragon both sifts 2 cards, and provides a weak discard attack, making your opponents discard one of the cards you didn't want.

There are some interesting interactions with the Liaison cards. If Importer is the only one, each player will get to Attack once, but have the opportunity to do so on their first turn. While this could potentially make for a nasty opening, there are some potential drawbacks. None of the Attacks that start face-up give bonuses, so players will have to weigh the possible reward of taking the first shot with the risk of giving their opponent's such a bonus. And while a Red Dragon before your first turn could be devastating if you opened $5/$2, it does nothing if you opened $3/$4 (and even if you opened $4/$3, you can still go Silver-Silver).

363

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: J Reggie's expansion

« on: March 23, 2022, 12:39:36 pm »

Marionette
Reserve/Puppet - $3
Put this on your Tavern mat.
At the end of your turn, you may call this to return to your buy phase and +1 buy.

I'm almost certain that "the end of your turn" would be after your clean-up phase, meaning you would have already discarded your hand and all the cards you had in play and drawn a new hand. This kind of gives you another turn that starts in your Buy phase.

Was that your intention? If it was, there are some issues around tracking, as (1) all your payload (Treasures/Actions that give +$) are gone, so it might be hard to remember how much $ you had; and (2) cards that have an effect for the rest of the turn (Bridge, Livery, Galleria, Guildmaster) will all be gone, but still have their effect.

364

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

« on: March 22, 2022, 06:35:02 pm »

The Acting Troupe of favors, kinda. Sometimes lots of favors at once wont be too great.  Sometimes this could be pretty awesome. $3 might be too cheap?

If this is the only card on Kingdom with a different type from the standard ones (Victory, Action, Treasure, Curse), you wouldn't be able to activate it if you trash your 3 starting Estates, are not beeing cursed and still don't start greening. Is it a intended downside?

Edit: supposing that Kingdom also don't have Alt-VP.

It's a Liaison. It guarantees a non-standard type on the board.

Right. But if it's the only one, then there's only Action, Treasure, Liaison, Victory, and Curse. If you trash the starting Estates, and don't gain any cards with the Victory or Curse type, the only types in your deck would be Action, Liaison, and Treasure. Thus, you could never trigger Schmooze (until you got a Victory card).

Plus, even if you leave the Estates in there, the only way to trigger it would be to collide 2 of them, meaning you would have to have a basically useless card in your deck (the last copy of Schmooze).

365

Dominion General Discussion / Re: merchant camp

« on: March 22, 2022, 03:17:04 pm »

I wonder if there are situations where it really shines.

With Way of the Owl. Two copies gives you +1 Card (more if you discarded), +$1 each turn, and each copy after that gives you +$1, +1 Action each turn.

Way of the Chameleon can turn them into discount, stackable Barracks.

366

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

« on: March 21, 2022, 05:55:41 pm »

My Submission (updated):

Neutral Ground • $4 • Action - Victory - Liaison
+1 Action
+$1
+1 Favor
Worth 2% if you have at least 5 Favors (otherwise worth 0%).

Made a new version. I originally wanted it to be a dead Victory card as a strong contrast to all of the existing Liaisons, but it subsequently occurred to me that that would render Circle of Witches and League of Shopkeepers useless (in the absence of another Liaison); and, since (without the Favors) the card is a $4 Estate, it would (mostly) render Neutral Ground useless. While a 2/23 chance of the card being unusable is probably not prohibitively bad (I would posit that there are several official cards that are mostly unbuyable in a larger portion of Kingdoms), I feel like it isn't in the spirit of the mechanic to have it just not work with some Allies.

Thus, I came up with a new version, an Action - Victory - Liaison. I like this new version better anyway. It's a disappearing Copper that also gives a Favor (or a disappearing Bauble with only 2 of the choices), and if you save 5 Favors it's also worth 2VP. There are some fun synergies with Fellowship of Scribes (which makes it into a [conditional] Peddler, but if you want the VP you'll have to forego 4 draws) and League of Shopkeepers (which, after 4 plays turns it into a much more valuable disappearing Silver that is worth VP).

How is this a disappearing Copper/Bauble? It doesn't exile or trash itself after play.

To me the card seems rather weak - the Action part is essentially a Bauble where you're forced to choose the options +1 $ and +1 Favor. And it takes some work and "sacrificing" 5 Favors to get the 2 VP (except with League of Shopkeepers or Bankers, where you have to save your Favors anyway).

The term disappearing money refers to non-terminal Action cards that gives +Coins but don't give +Cards. These cards "disappear" from your hand, reducing your handsize (and generally giving you a better value than peddler variants [that give both +Coins and +Cards]). They go well with things like draw-to-X or cards that discard your hand (like Tactician).

I like the design because (on it's own) it is on the weaker side, but there is a ton of potential for synergies/combos (which is what I like about Dominion).

367

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Fan Card Mechanics Contest -- current contest, index, and hall of fame

« on: March 18, 2022, 01:33:47 pm »

Week 31: Putting The Cart Before...

Winner: Salt Merchant by spineflu.	Runners Up: Advocatus by emtzalex,	Garbage Day by lompeluiten,	Way of the Workhorse by Joxeft.

368

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

« on: March 18, 2022, 12:46:24 am »

My Submission (updated):

Neutral Ground • $4 • Action - Victory - Liaison
+1 Action
+$1
+1 Favor
Worth 2% if you have at least 5 Favors (otherwise worth 0%).

Made a new version. I originally wanted it to be a dead Victory card as a strong contrast to all of the existing Liaisons, but it subsequently occurred to me that that would render Circle of Witches and League of Shopkeepers useless (in the absence of another Liaison); and, since (without the Favors) the card is a $4 Estate, it would (mostly) render Neutral Ground useless. While a 2/23 chance of the card being unusable is probably not prohibitively bad (I would posit that there are several official cards that are mostly unbuyable in a larger portion of Kingdoms), I feel like it isn't in the spirit of the mechanic to have it just not work with some Allies.

Thus, I came up with a new version, an Action - Victory - Liaison. I like this new version better anyway. It's a disappearing Copper that also gives a Favor (or a disappearing Bauble with only 2 of the choices), and if you save 5 Favors it's also worth 2VP. There are some fun synergies with Fellowship of Scribes (which makes it into a [conditional] Peddler, but if you want the VP you'll have to forego 4 draws) and League of Shopkeepers (which, after 4 plays turns it into a much more valuable disappearing Silver that is worth VP).

(I also forgot to give my first version the Liaison type. Oops.)




Old version:

Neutral Ground • $4 • Victory
1VP
When you gain this, +1 Favor per Neutral Ground in the Supply.

369

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Really bad card ideas

« on: March 17, 2022, 04:27:50 pm »

Mage $5
Action
+1 Action
Name a card reval cards from your deck until you reval a card with that name put it in to your hand then discard any number of the revaled cards then put the rest back in any order.
I dont now how good this is.

This is super-busted. Even a card that got you the exact card you wanted without the deck-control of the other revealed cards (e.g. one that shuffled those cards into your deck) would be extremely strong. The discard + order makes it way stronger.

You can also name a card you know you don't have, which lets you reveal your entire discard pile/deck, discard any of the junk/bad cards, then order all of your good cards, effectively setting up all your turns until the next shuffle. In addition to being insanely powerful, in a lot of games it would end up taking a huge amount of time. (I'm reminded of the original version of the Aldrich Ames card from Twilight Struggle, which had to be "remixed" because it could easily take an hour to resolve [I am told; I've only played with the new version]). This is before triggering Patron or on-discard abilities, or considering guessers (Wishing Well/Mystic/Sorceress).

370

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Allies is online

« on: March 14, 2022, 07:49:36 pm »

If you play a card on someone else's turn, you discard it in that turn's Clean-up, unless it is a Duration card with things left to do.

(Menagerie rule book p. 4).

As far as I'm aware, nothing anywhere in the rules suggests that you would discard cards during another player's clean-up, until this rule.

The rule is also in the Adventures rulebook, for Duplicate.
The rule was originally introduced online by Donald regarding Outpost v.1.

This is kind of funny (to me). Back in 2009, people on BGG were discussing what happens when you play two Outposts in your turn. This was Outpost v.1, where you draw 3 cards in Clean-up and set up an extra turn no matter what, but when you come to resolving that extra turn, you don't get it if you already had two turns in a row. To support the argument that both Outposts should stay in play, this guy theorized a Lich (a "skip your next turn" card), saying that playing two Outposts would actually make a difference then. I think he was right! Play Outpost and Lich, you don't get an extra turn (but still draw 3 cards). Play Outpost, Outpost and Lich, you do get an extra turn!

That was for Outpost v.1. Current Outpost is weaker with Lich; it doesn't give you an extra turn even if you play two. (But at least it doesn't make you draw 3 cards then.)

These are very good points, and I didn't think of Duplicate (and wasn't aware of the ruling on Outpost). But my specific point might have distracted from my broader (and possibly not that well made) point. All of these things--the general rule about playing Action cards during your Action phase and needing to spend an Action to do so; the "Notes" for Vassal and Throne Room saying playing another card with them doesn't use an Action; the Note on Duplicate about when it is discarded; Donald's ruling on the old version of Outpost--all of them are "rules" in the sense that they govern how the game is played. And so is the fact that those rules also apply Reactions that play themselves.

Just because there is rule that says (roughly):

When Card A says "You may play a card from your hand..." and Card A is used to play Card B, playing Card B doesn't use a Action.

...it doesn't self-evidently follow that...

When Card C says "When...you may play this from your hand" doing so doesn't use an Action.

It is entirely reasonable to think that a card playing itself at an unusual time is different than one card playing another, and might follow different rules (i.e. might require you to spend an Action, or at least might cost you an Action if you have one). The ruling that they don't, whether in general rules section, in individual card notes, or in a ruling online by Donald are all "rules." And the fact that some of these "rules" apply to Reactions generally make them rules about Reactions.

Yeah, I still believe that the only types with intrinsic rules are Action, Treasure, Night and maybe Duration. All other types either exist to recolor the card, or as a referent. And obviously, types also have an intuitive characterization, and it'd be bad design to violate that characterization without extremely strong justification. (I honestly also dislike that Masquerade isn't an Attack, although I can definitely see why they went for that route). Don't forget, however, that on-gain and on-trash effects are also unusually timed effects that don't warrant the Reaction typing.

Right, and there are rules about on-gain abilities and on-trash abilities. If all the cards with an on-trash ability had a certain type, then the rules about cards with an on-trash ability would be a rule about that type.

I'm not sure that that's really an intrinsic rule for Looter though. Nothing would be lost if Looter weren't a type. They're just cards that give Ruins, but other cards that give out certain cards don't have a special type. You don't need, for example, a special type for "cards that give Spoils" to know that you need to have Spoils in the kingdom when you have those cards

But they are called Looters, so the rule that when there are Looters you add a Ruins pile is a rule about Looters. (Incidentally, there are some important differences between Looters and other cards that give non-Kingdom cards: (a) Ruins are Supply cards; and (b) you don't just automatically put out the whole pile).

371

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Allies is online

« on: March 14, 2022, 03:05:00 pm »

The difference is that all the rules dealing with reactions are not actually limited to reactions. If a card were printed with all the exact same wordings as Black Cat, but without the reaction type, then you would still be able to play it from your hand when an opponent gains a victory card. This is different than Treasure, because if a card were printed that had all the same words as Horn of Plenty, but without the Treasure type, then you would not be allowed to play it during your buy phase.

In other words, no matter how much the rulebook describes the way in which reactions work, adding reaction as a type to a card doesn’t actually change its functionality. It is no different than adding the Attack type to a card.

These are just rule clarifications that apply to "Reactions that can play themselves". The reason they went for this route is because they didn't want to state this four times, and it would also ease things up when a future expansion has more of these kinds of Reactions.

Rules determine how the game is played, and then there are other things in the rule book that help you understand or remember what the rules are and what they do in various situations, like explanations, clarifications, example situations, etc. The part about Reactions is the latter whereas the part about Treasures is the former.

I see what you are getting at, but I think there isn't as clear a distinction as you suggest. If you go back to the base set rules, nothing specifically says that "if a card instructs you to play an Action card, it does not use an Action," but that is explained in the "Notes" for Throne Room and Vassal. Thus, those "notes" effectively are part of the rules. By Nocturn there is no such clarification for Conclave or Imp. 
 
It may, in theory, be the case that if a Reaction wasn't called a Reaction that it would still work the same, but the fact is that cards that do things at unusual times are Reactions. Whether that's a rule that governs players or a rule that governs how the game is design, it's still, by any reasonable description, a rule.

Also, at least one of the Menagerie rules is in no way suggested by the existing rules of the game:

If you play a card on someone else's turn, you discard it in that turn's Clean-up, unless it is a Duration card with things left to do.

(Menagerie rule book p. 4).

As far as I'm aware, nothing anywhere in the rules suggests that you would discard cards during another player's clean-up, until this rule.

372

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: ReAlly?

« on: March 14, 2022, 01:56:43 pm »

Well, Actually
Spend 1 Favor to explain to another player how you've been playing Dominion much longer than she has and how she don't really understand the game.

373

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Fan Card Mechanics Week 31: Putting The Cart Before...

« on: March 11, 2022, 05:51:30 pm »

Is it intended for you to gain a Cart anyway? So, why put it conditionally?

Oh yeah, good point.  You always get a Cart. It should just say "Gain a cart." I'll fix it later

Technically, there is a way to not gain a Cart.

1. Get exactly cost reduction.
2. Gain a card that costs (after cost reduction).
3. Play Farrier and gain a Wayfarer (which currently costs ).
4. Use Architects' Guild to gain a Skulk off of gaining the Wayfarer.
5. Gain Gold from Skulk's on-gain.
^ All of this occurs as part of resolving Farrier's "gain a card costing up to " instruction.
6. Wayfarer now costs , so Farrier does not gain a Cart.

Along these lines, you could also react with a Sheepdog, play it using Way of the Mouse, and play a set aside Leprechaun (then take a Hex that doesn't cause you to gain something cheaper); Smugglers (so long as your opponent gained a sufficiently expensive card on their previous turn); Black Market; Fool/Druid/Tracker (if you get the Sky's Gift and discard), Develop; Herb Gatherer (playing Sunken Treasure or Horn of Plenty); Vassal (which then plays something that gains you a $5+ card), Workshop (gaining a Skulk); Swindler; or any trasher (Chapel, Forager, Scrap) (trashing Lich and gaining a $5 card from it.

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Dominion General Discussion / Re: Allies is online

« on: March 11, 2022, 05:11:46 pm »

Reactions have different rules about when/how they are played. No cards directly refer to "Reserve" or "Night" cards either, but they are also subject to their own rules about when/how they are played/used.

I don't think there are any rules for Reactions in general, are there? I mean, the Adventures rule book describes how Reserve cards work ("Reserve cards are tan, and have an ability that puts them on the Tavern mat") and the Nocturne rule book describes how Night cards work ("In your Night phase, you can play any number of Night cards"), but is there any Dominion rule book that describes rules for Reactions, as a type?

The rule book for the base set describes rules for Reactions:

Reaction: These are cards that can be used in some way at an unusual time. Any such use is spelled out on the Reaction card; for example Moat says it can be revealed when another player plays an Attack card. Reactions are used one at a time (which matters for expansion Reactions).

(p. 6).

The Menagerie rule book has an entire section on Reactions:

Menagerie has five Reaction cards. Four of them can be played at an unusual time: Black Cat, Falconer, Sheepdog, and Village Green.

• Playing one of these Reactions using its ability (the text below the dividing line) puts it into play, like playing it normally, but does not use up an Action.
• If you play a card on someone else's turn, you discard it in that turn's Clean-up, unless it is a Duration card with things left to do.
• If playing one of these Reactions draws you another Reaction that can be used at the same time, you can use it, and so on. For example, you might have one Black Cat in hand when an opponent gains a Province, play it, draw another, play it, draw another, play it.
• When playing one of these Reactions, you can choose to use a Way if there is one.
• If multiple players want to do things at the same time - such as play Reactions - the player first in turn order (starting from the player whose turn it is) goes first. This may change who wants to do what; after each thing, start again from the first player and see who has things to do.
• Sometimes a condition occurs that allows a Reaction to be played, and that Reaction creates a second condition that allows Reactions to be played. Resolve all Reactions for the new condition and then go back to resolving ones for the first one. For example one player gains a Province, and another plays Black Cat. Gaining a Curse from Black Cat allows players to play Sheepdogs; after resolving those you would go back to see if players had more Black Cats to play.

(p. 4).

That doesn't add the rule to the game though, the rule exists independently of Reactions and works the same way for all triggers. It's more of an explanation of how things work than a rule.

What is the difference between "an explanation of how things work" in a rule book and a rule? That Treasure cards can be played during your Buy phase (but not after you have bought something) is "an explanation of how things work" but it is also a rule about Treasures.

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Dominion General Discussion / Re: Allies is online

« on: March 11, 2022, 01:35:03 am »

Rotating the Castles sounds like fun. And I can imagine someone rotating the Ruins, searching desperately for a +Buy.

Is Clash now the first card type that nothing actually refers to or depends on?

Gathering? Reaction?

Gathering is referred to by the Landmark, Defiled Shrine.

I think he's right about Reactions though!

Reactions have different rules about when/how they are played. No cards directly refer to "Reserve" or "Night" cards either, but they are also subject to their own rules about when/how they are played/used.