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Author Topic: Extend a supply pile  (Read 3131 times)

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market squire

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Extend a supply pile
« on: December 15, 2014, 02:49:36 pm »
+6

Hello,

I wondered if there could be a card helps you not to be as worried about winning a pile split. Here it is:


Actor (?) $3*
When the first supply pile is empty, set aside its Randomizer card.
This is that card until the end of the game.
If it is a Victory card, this is worth half of its points (rounded up).



First, it is an Actor without card type and a cost of $3.
When the first pile is empty, it gets the name, card type, cost (also on buy!), and all effects of that card (including Reactions, while-in-play, on-trash etc).
The emptied pile is then still considered empty for the end condition.
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jaketheyak

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Re: Extend a supply pile
« Reply #1 on: December 15, 2014, 05:36:27 pm »
+2

It's a nice idea, but I feel like the $3 cost makes it a bit too easy to game the pile.
I mean, if the purpose of this card is to mitigate the problems of losing an important split, this will often just make the problem worse.
Especially given that you aren't going to want to buy it for $3 except when a pile is just about to empty, because who the hell wants a dead card for $3?

Basically, I'm about to buy the last of whatever card we're competing for and win the split, but if I've got an extra $3 and a +buy I can buy an Actor as my first buy and then buy the last whatever.
Now instead of being ahead of the split 6-4, I'm ahead 7-4 and, assuming this key card costs at least $4, I got this hefty advantage at a bargain price.

Why not just have the price be $? so that the card is effectively ungainable until the first pile is empty.
That also means that if the first pile to empty is Province, the player emptying it needs $16 and a +buy to steal the win on an even split, rather than just $11.
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jaketheyak

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Re: Extend a supply pile
« Reply #2 on: December 15, 2014, 05:39:09 pm »
+1

I just reread that last sentence and facepalmed hard.
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Drab Emordnilap

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Re: Extend a supply pile
« Reply #3 on: December 15, 2014, 06:13:21 pm »
0

Might be cleaner to limit it to "non-victory card", or even "action card".
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market squire

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Re: Extend a supply pile
« Reply #4 on: December 16, 2014, 08:30:46 am »
0

It's a nice idea, but I feel like the $3 cost makes it a bit too easy to game the pile.
I mean, if the purpose of this card is to mitigate the problems of losing an important split, this will often just make the problem worse.
Especially given that you aren't going to want to buy it for $3 except when a pile is just about to empty, because who the hell wants a dead card for $3?

Basically, I'm about to buy the last of whatever card we're competing for and win the split, but if I've got an extra $3 and a +buy I can buy an Actor as my first buy and then buy the last whatever.
Now instead of being ahead of the split 6-4, I'm ahead 7-4 and, assuming this key card costs at least $4, I got this hefty advantage at a bargain price.

Why not just have the price be $? so that the card is effectively ungainable until the first pile is empty.
That also means that if the first pile to empty is Province, the player emptying it needs $16 and a +buy to steal the win on an even split, rather than just $11.

It is intended that you can go gambling by buying dead $3 Actors. This can be quite a good investment if it will turn into a Grand Market or a Hunting Party or a half-Province. It can be a bummer if Curses run out first though.
If you happen to get a cheap [whatever] right before you get the last real [whatever], I don't think this is bad. Maybe it can even create a sort of "penultimate Grand Market rule". Why not?

Might be cleaner to limit it to "non-victory card", or even "action card".
Sure, this would be much cleaner. I thought about this as well, but I generally prefer the crazy versions because that sounds more fun.
In my mind, this card had had Band of Misfits' wording originally:

If an Action pile in the supply is empty, play this as it were a card from that pile. This is that card until it leaves play.
Otherwise, +$2 (or something).


Then I thought, why not copy Victory piles? Wait, 6 VP for $3 is a bit too much in Province games. So half the score it is.
Maybe Colonies are an issue. But again, players can balance that out because they will likely buy out another pile first if a player goes heavy into Actors.
Also, i wanted the gambling. :)

Rules clarifiation: If a mixed pile gets empty first (Ruins or Knights), there is no specific card to imitate for Actor, so it fails to imitate anything.
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Showdown35

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Re: Extend a supply pile
« Reply #5 on: December 16, 2014, 12:20:45 pm »
+1

If the Actor pile is the first to empty, then you have an infinite loop of an Actor trying to figure out which character he is!!

"I'm a dude playing a dude disguised as another dude."
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enfynet

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Re: Extend a supply pile
« Reply #6 on: December 16, 2014, 12:50:15 pm »
+1

If the Actor pile is the first to empty, then you have an infinite loop of an Actor trying to figure out which character he is!!

"I'm a dude playing a dude disguised as another dude."
Which was funny because it was Robert Downey Jr playing Kirk Lazarus disguised as Sgt Lincoln Osiris.
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market squire

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Re: Extend a supply pile
« Reply #7 on: December 16, 2014, 04:50:20 pm »
0

It could say "the first supply pile other than Actor", but I'd say it is not really an issue.
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jaketheyak

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Re: Extend a supply pile
« Reply #8 on: December 17, 2014, 05:06:45 pm »
+1

If the Actor pile is the first to empty, then you have an infinite loop of an Actor trying to figure out which character he is!!

It's funny, but it doesn't make any practical difference to what the card does if you buy it before a pile empties (i.e. it's just a dead card).
Confusion cards, essentially, as per Donald X's original concept of a dead card that simply does nothing.

It could say "the first supply pile other than Actor", but I'd say it is not really an issue.

If you think it's not an issue because having an extra pile of dead cards is not necessarily a bad thing, I am inclined to agree.
If you think it's not an issue because there's no way the Actor pile would empty first, I respectfully disagree.
It may happen because someone deliberately buys the last one (good plan if you're behind on the split), but the more obvious case is something like Ambassador or Swindler.
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Showdown35

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Re: Extend a supply pile
« Reply #9 on: December 18, 2014, 12:28:07 pm »
0

If the Actor pile is the first to empty, then you have an infinite loop of an Actor trying to figure out which character he is!!

"I'm a dude playing a dude disguised as another dude."
Which was funny because it was Robert Downey Jr playing Kirk Lazarus disguised as Sgt Lincoln Osiris.

Well... Technically, Kirk Lazarus was "playing" Osiris in the movie they were filming within the movie, he wasn't "disguised" as him. My take on the line is that it is Kirk Lazarus saying he is playing Osiris, who is disguised as a Vietnamese farmer (albeit a lead farmer, mutha f#$&er).

So Downey Jr. is a dude playing a dude playing another dude disguised as another dude.

Sorry for the semantics, but Tropic Thunder is one of my all time favs.
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