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[gambit05]

DOMINION - WAR AND PEACE (gambit05’s fan expansion)

Here now (most) of my remaining fan cards with some comments. Cards were only play tested in a limited number of games, if at all. The idea of this fan expansion is to provide my family (3-5 players) with some new cards and concepts, but mainly based on existing ideas. We have played together all the expansions, but having little experience with The Guilds. Unfortunately, since my only playing group (with rare exceptions) is my family, I do not have a good opportunity to extensively play test my cards (without showing them to them, which would take the surprise). If any of you thinks the one or other card sounds interesting, please feel free to test it and/or to provide some feedback. That would really help.

Basically, this fan expansion combines different aspect of various existing expansions, mainly concepts from Dark Ages (Ruins), The Guilds (Coin tokens), Seaside (Duration), and Alchemy (Potion cost cards). Several cards are, on purpose, crossovers; a thing a fan expansion can do much easier than an official expansion. I am aware that many of my cards need to be balanced, or may be even not suitable at all. However, even if I end up with only a small number of cards, but relatively balanced, would be fine.

The first four cards I have introduced in separate threads:

Lab Assistant

Plague

Mountain Village

Penny Pincher


Here are the other cards:

Code: [Select]

Monastery (Action-Duration)---(4) P
+1 Card
Gain a card costing up to (5).
At the start of your next turn, +1 Card
You may trash a Treasure card from your hand.
If you do, gain a card costing up to (5).
A duration card that allows you to gain a strong card or even two, if you are willing to trash a treasure card in your second duration turn. This is in most cases a no-brainer, especially when the card to be trashed is a Copper. Thus, despite of the card gaining ability, Monastery also allows you to get rid of your cheap treasure cards. Since this card appears to be quite powerful, its buy requires a potion.

Code: [Select]

Mintage (Action)---(5)
+3 Cards
+1 Action
Each other player takes a Coin token.
Mine, Mint? Why not trying Mintage? A strong card for a reasonable cost, which is helpful in engine-based decks. The drawback is that the other players get a benefit as well. Mintage has some similarity to Council Room, with the notable exception that the Coin tokens are not vulnerable to discard attacks.

Code: [Select]

Pandora (Action)---(5)
If there are any cards in the trash costing
from (3) to (6), gain one of them.
Otherwise, play any card from the Pandora’s Box pile
and trash it. +(3), if that card costs up to (4),
or +(1), if that card cost more than (4).
Setup: Each player chooses 3 Action cards (same or different)
with a cost of (3) to (6) that are not in the supply.
Those cards form the Pandora’s box pile.
Sort of Mini-Black Market for one-shots combined with Rogue’s ability to dig cards from the trash. Unlike Black Market, the players have an influence on which cards are in the Pandora’s box pile, and importantly, they can choose which card out of this pile they want to play. If it is a cheaper card, they are rewarded with more virtual coins.

Code: [Select]

Interest (Treasure)---(5)
(1)
When you play this, take a Coin token
for 3 Treasure cards that you reveal from your hand,
and take a Coin token for each 3 Coin tokens that you have.
After the Clean-up phase: Put any Coin tokens that
exceed 10 in your own supply back to the general supply.
A Treasure card that makes money, well, out of money. The more money you have, the more you get. Just like in real life. To prevent too much craziness, a limit of Coin tokens that you can keep has been introduced.

Code: [Select]

Dragon Egg (Action)---(5)
+2 Actions
Trash this card. If you do, gain a Young Dragon.
We all know this concept from Dark Ages’ Hermit and Urchin, which, under the right circumstances, can transform to Madman and Mercenary, respectively. Strong cards in many Kingdoms. Here, I extended the concept to a chain of 3 cards: Dragon Egg – Young Dragon – Dragon. Well, a Dragon Egg itself is relatively unspectacular. However, it easily allows hatching out a Young Dragon, which is a hand attacker. Play one more Action card, and there it is, a fiercely Dragon. The Dragon is quite brutal, allowing the choice of 3 different attacks with some benefit for the attacker as well.

Code: [Select]

Young Dragon (Action – Attack)---(0*)
+2 Cards
Each other player with 5 or more cards discards two cards.
If you play an Action card, put this card back to the supply.
If you do, gain a Dragon.
(This card is not in the Supply.)

Code: [Select]

Dragon (Action – Attack – Looter)---(0*)
Choose one:
Each other player gains a Ruins. Take a Coin token.
Or
Each other player gains a Curse. Take a Silver.
Or
Each other player discards cards down to 3 cards.
Take a Spoils from the Spoils pile.
(This card is not in the Supply.)
Cruel, just cruel. A never ending story of pain. But, is the Dragon fast enough?

----------------------------------

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Silo (Action – Duration)---(5)
Set aside up to 5 cards from your hand.
At the beginning of your next turns,
put any one of those cards into your hand.
Some sort of tactical Haven. Forget about this turn and profit from that in your coming turns with the flexibility for having the choice, which of the set aside cards you put into your hand.

Code: [Select]

Ruin Sentinel (Action – Attack – Looter)---(6)
Each other player gains a Ruins and reveals his hand.
+(1) for each revealed Ruins.
Setup: Each player replaces a starting
Estate or Hovel with a Ruins# card.
The choice of the Ruins# begins with the player
right to the starting player and
continues counter-clockwise.
An attacking card, which profits from the number of Ruins in the other player’s hands. In addition, 8 unique Ruins# have been introduced, each with their own pros and cons. Each player starts with one of those Ruins#. The player being last in the game has the first choice, which Ruins# he wants. This gives some compensation, which might be especially important with a larger number of players. Since some Ruins# seems to favour a too quick progress early in the game, they are restricted to games with 4 or more players. I am sure that some of you dislike some of the Ruins#, but I hope that the general concept is reasonable.


Ruins#:

Code: [Select]

Abandoned Tunnel (Reaction-Ruins#)---(0)
When you discard this other than during a Clean-up phase,
you may reveal it. If you do, gain a Copper.
You may trash this card.

Code: [Select]

Damned Plaza (Action-Ruins#)---(0)
You may discard a Treasure card. If you do,
gain a Coin token, putting it on your discard pile.
When you reshuffle your deck, take the Coin token
to your own Coin token supply.
You may spend it in any Buy phase.

Code: [Select]

Ruined Vineyard (Victory-Ruins#)---(0)
Worth 1 VP for every 3 Ruins in your deck (rounded down)

Code: [Select]

Poisoned Potion (Action-Ruins#)---(P)
Gain a Potion and a Curse.
You may trash up to 3 cards from your hand.

Code: [Select]

Rat’s Hole (Action-Ruins#)---(0)
Gain a Rats from the Rats pile.
When you trash this card, put it on any supply pile.
When a player gains a card from that pile,
he also gains the Rat’s Hole.
Setup: Add the Rats as an extra Kingdom card pile.

Code: [Select]

Abandoned Haven (Action-Duration-Ruins#)---(0)
Set aside a card from your hand face down.
At the start of your next turn, put it into your hand.
(Only available with 4-6 players)

Code: [Select]

Damned Mountain Village (Action-Ruins#)---(0)
You may reveal three Treasure cards from your hand.
If you do, +1 Card.
(Only available with 4-6 players)

Code: [Select]

Ruined Monument (Action-Ruins#)---(0)
Discard a card from your hand. If you do, +1 VP
(Only available with 4-6 players)

Code: [Select]

Cardinal (Action-Victory)---(6)
+6 Cards
+2 Actions
+(2)
Return this card to the Supply.
-------------------------
Worth 1 VP for every Cardinal in your deck.
This card causes a dilemma. Do you want the massive benefit by playing it? If yes, then it is a one-shot. Or do you want to use the Cardinal for alternate Victory points? Then it is a dead card in your deck.
In the original version, the card abilities were less strong, but when played, the card was passed to the player to your left.

Code: [Select]

Merchant (Action)---(6)
+1 Action
Discard up to 3 cards from your hand.
Choose one:
Draw cards until you have 6 cards in your hand
or
trash up to 3 cards from your hand.
+1 Card for each card trashed.
Take a Coin token.
A mix of discarding, trashing, and drawing, spiced up by the possibility to get a precious Coin token.

Code: [Select]

Dragon Slayer (Action-Reaction)---(4)
+2 Cards
+(1)
-------------------------
When an Attack card is played, you may return
this card from your hand to the Supply.
If you do, gain 2 cards, each costing up to (4).
A Reaction card that doesn’t prevent the Attack, but enables gaining cards. Notably, this card can react to your own attacks.

Code: [Select]

Market Woman (Action)---(3+)
Take a Coin token.
You may return up to 5 Coin tokens to the Supply.
For each Coin token returned, you can choose one:
+1 Card, or +1 Action, or +1 Buy, or gain a Silver.
-------------------------
When you buy this, you may overpay for it.
For each (1) you overpaid, take a Coin token.
Inspired by Guilds (of course) this card has an overpay option. However, Market Woman allows an additional usage of the Coin tokens, i.e. they can be spent to increase Market Woman’s abilities.

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Wizard (Action)---(4) P
Reveal the top 4 cards of your deck.
Choose one: Play 2 revealed Action cards in either order
or
Play one revealed Action card twice.
Discard the other revealed cards.
Somehow a mixture of Golem and Throne Room, providing on one hand more flexibility, but being on the other hand more restrictive. 

Code: [Select]

Traveller (Action-Reaction-Looter)---(3)
+1 Card
+1 Action
Gain a Ruins from the Supply and play it.
The player to your right puts it into his hand.
----------------------------
When you gain a Card outside the Buy phase,
you may reveal this from your hand. If you do,
put any 2 cards from your discard pile into your hand.
The player to your left gains this card.
All other players (not you) draw a card.
This might look like a weird card for most of you (I hope it isn’t). The player specifically penalises the player to the right, and when used as a reaction, gives an advantage to the player to your left (both are considered as a “no-go area” in the Dominion world). However, despite this Ping-Pong effect, there is more to the Traveller. It is a Looter, and it allows you to put cards of your discard pile into your hand. Crazy? Maybe.

Code: [Select]

War (Action-Attack-Looter)---(4)
+2 Cards
Each other player gains a Ruins
When at least one player gained a Ruins:
+1 VP

Code: [Select]

Peace (Action-Reaction-Looter)---(3)
Each other player reveals his hand.
Players revealing one War card take a Coin token.
Players revealing more than one War card
gain a Ruins. If at least one player reveals a Peace card,
they and you take a Coin token.
----------------------------
When another player plays a War,
you may discard this from your hand.
You are unaffected by the Attack. +1 Card.
Another dual card concept, but here, both cards are in supply piles (Peace being an additional supply pile) of the Kingdom and can be gained independently from each other.


My next 3 cards were originally Duration cards. When I presented them in the German Dominion Forum, people suggested to transform them to Activation cards, a new and nice concept introduced by LastFootnote (see Activation). And here they are:

Code: [Select]

Fish Market (Action-Activation)---(4)
+2 Cards
+1 Action
+1 Buy
----------------------------
When you activate this, discard it and
discard a card from your hand costing (3) or more.
The original Duration card was:

Code: [Select]

Fish Market (Action-Duration)---(4)
+2 Cards
+1 Action
+1 Buy
----------------------------
At the start of your next turn, when you have 4
or more cards in your hand, discard 2.

Code: [Select]

Patrol (Action-Activation)---(5)
While this is in play, and another player plays
an Attack card, you may discard it.
If you do, you are unaffected by that Attack.
----------------------------
When you activate this, +1 Card, +2 Actions.
Discard this card.
The original card:

Code: [Select]

Patrol (Action-Duration)---(3)
Take a coin token.
At the start of your next turn, choose one:
Keep this card in play. When another player
plays an attack card, you may discard this card.
If you do, you are unaffected by that attack.
Or
+1 Card
+1 Action

Code: [Select]

Weapon Dealer (Action-Attack-Looter-Activation)---(6)
+1 Action
You may return a card, costing (0)
from your hand to the Supply.
If it is a Ruins, +1 Card.
----------------------------
At the start of your next turn,
while this is in play, take a Coin token.
----------------------------
When you activate this, each other player
gains 2 Ruins. Discard this card.
The original card:

Code: [Select]

Weapon Dealer (Action-Duration-Attack-Looter)---(7)
Take a coin token
----------------------------
At the start of your next turn:
Choose one:
Take a coin token and
keep this card in play.
Or
Each other player gains 2 Ruins.
As you can see, there are also some changes in costs and abilities between the original Duration versions and the current Activation versions. In contrast to the Duration cards from Seaside, Patrol and Weapon Dealer (as Duration cards) have the option to keep the card in play for more than a second turn.
I didn’t have a close look to LastFootnote’s Activation cards, but I have read the general ideas behind them. So, I guess my cards might be quite similar to some of his cards. To be honest, I would prefer to have my cards as Duration cards (with the abilities of the Activation versions); just to avoid introducing in my expansion a new concept that isn’t even my own idea. If however, people think that the Activation cards fit better, then I go for it.

[LastFootnote]

In general, I'm fine if people want to make Activation cards, as long as there are no hard feelings if I steal some of those ideas for my own Activation cards.

Fish Market is probably fine as a Duration, if I understand it correctly. For Patrol and Weapon Dealer, you want to be able to keep those cards in play for any number of turns. For that reason, Activation is a convenient type.

Activation effects do not need to say "Discard this card" at the end. Those cards get discarded on the Clean-up after they are activated. Patrol discarding itself from play as a response to being attacked is fine.

As for the cards themselves, here are my suggested rewordings, followed by some comments.

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Fish Market (Action-Duration)---(4)
+2 Cards
+1 Action
+1 Buy
At the start of your next turn,
if you have at least 4 cards in
your hand, discard 2 cards.
I'm not sure this is strong enough to justify the penalty of discarding 2 cards. Especially because you're tempted to load up on Fish Markets. I might suggest this change:

Code: [Select]

Fish Market (Action-Duration)---(4)
+2 Cards
+1 Action
+1 Buy
At the start of your next turn,
discard a card.
There's less opportunity for rules confusion without the threshold. Tough to tell how it'll play. Probably different enough from Caravan to be interesting.

Code: [Select]

Patrol (Action-Activation)---(5)
While this is in play, when another
player plays an Attack card, you
may discard this. If you do, you
are unaffected by that Attack.
----------------------------
When you activate this,
+1 Card, +2 Actions.
As an Activation effect, +1 Card/+2 Actions is really powerful. Remember that you're not losing a card from hand when you activate, so +1 Card is actually increasing your handsize by 1. It's so powerful that I don't think I'd often use the defense option instead. Spending an Action and a card from your hand to put this into play only to avoid a single Attack is a bad deal. It's way weaker than Moat, and Moat is already a weak card.

I think there's potentially promise in an Activation card that you can discard to protect yourself, but it probably has to do something when you play it to be worthwhile. So…

Code: [Select]

Patrol (Action-Activation)---(5)
When you play or activate this,
+2 Cards.
----------------------------
While this is in play, when another
player plays an Attack card, you
may discard this. If you do, you
are unaffected by that Attack.
That might still have the issue that you'd rather keep it in play, but it's less likely.

Code: [Select]

Weapon Dealer (Action-Attack-Looter-Activation)---(6)
+1 Action
You may return a card costing (0)
from your hand to the Supply.
If it is a Ruins, +1 Card.
----------------------------
While this is in play, at the start
of your turn, take a Coin token.
----------------------------
When you activate this, each other
player gains 2 Ruins.
There is a rules/tracking issue with Duration/Attack and Activation/Attack cards that attack at any time other than when you play them. You can't reveal a Reaction like Moat when a card activates because Moat only reacts to an Attack card being played. Say someone plays a Weapon Dealer. I reveal a Moat. Now I have to remember that I'm protected from that Weapon Dealer, even if it doesn't attack me for 5 more turns. Ugh.

I don't have a really good suggested fix here without completely altering the card. For one thing, I'm not a fan of any card that needs more than one dividing line. Here's my version, but it's a very different card.

Code: [Select]

Weapon Dealer (Action-Attack-Looter-Activation)---(6)
Each other player gains a Ruins.
----------------------------
While this is in play, at the start
of your turn, take a Coin token.

I really don't love how Weapon Dealer is a mishmash of mechanics from so many sets, but that's just my personal taste. If it were me, I'd start with this:

Code: [Select]

Moneychanger (Action-Activation)---(6)
While this is in play, at the start
of your turn, take a Coin token.
----------------------------
When you activate this, take a Coin token.


I'll try to critique the other cards in the set some other time.

[gambit05]

As for the cards themselves, here are my suggested rewordings, followed by some comments.

Code: [Select]

Fish Market (Action-Duration)---(4)
+2 Cards
+1 Action
+1 Buy
At the start of your next turn,
discard a card.
There's less opportunity for rules confusion without the threshold. Tough to tell how it'll play. Probably different enough from Caravan to be interesting.

It seems a bit weaker than my version, but I think it looks fine.

As an Activation effect, +1 Card/+2 Actions is really powerful. Remember that you're not losing a card from hand when you activate, so +1 Card is actually increasing your handsize by 1. It's so powerful that I don't think I'd often use the defense option instead. Spending an Action and a card from your hand to put this into play only to avoid a single Attack is a bad deal. It's way weaker than Moat, and Moat is already a weak card.

I see your points.

I think there's potentially promise in an Activation card that you can discard to protect yourself, but it probably has to do something when you play it to be worthwhile. So…

Code: [Select]

Patrol (Action-Activation)---(5)
When you play or activate this,
+2 Cards.
----------------------------
While this is in play, when another
player plays an Attack card, you
may discard this. If you do, you
are unaffected by that Attack.
That might still have the issue that you'd rather keep it in play, but it's less likely.

I will think about it, but at a first glance it looks nice.

There is a rules/tracking issue with Duration/Attack and Activation/Attack cards that attack at any time other than when you play them. You can't reveal a Reaction like Moat when a card activates because Moat only reacts to an Attack card being played. Say someone plays a Weapon Dealer. I reveal a Moat. Now I have to remember that I'm protected from that Weapon Dealer, even if it doesn't attack me for 5 more turns. Ugh.

I understand the problem. Is it possible to have the same card, but without "Attack", like Masquerade?

I don't have a really good suggested fix here without completely altering the card. For one thing, I'm not a fan of any card that needs more than one dividing line. Here's my version, but it's a very different card.

Code: [Select]

Weapon Dealer (Action-Attack-Looter-Activation)---(6)
Each other player gains a Ruins.
----------------------------
While this is in play, at the start
of your turn, take a Coin token.

I really don't love how Weapon Dealer is a mishmash of mechanics from so many sets, but that's just my personal taste. If it were me, I'd start with this:

Code: [Select]

Moneychanger (Action-Activation)---(6)
While this is in play, at the start
of your turn, take a Coin token.
----------------------------
When you activate this, take a Coin token.


The Moneychanger is a completely different card. But your version of the Looter seems to be okay.

I'll try to critique the other cards in the set some other time.

Many thanks. That is already very helpfull.