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[Kirian]

Let's talk about the reality of debt (from an economics only standpoint, no politics today).

If you're in debt, you can still buy things.  In fact, you can (quite easily) go into more debt, especially if you have collateral.  Obviously it'll bite you in the assignment eventually, but hey, if you ever gathered enough stuff when the debt comes due, maybe it's not a big deal.

So here are two variants that try to mirror reality a bit better.

Variant 1:  Bubble Economy.

While you have debt tokens, you may accrue more debt, and you may buy cards.  You cannot win the game if you have debt tokens when the game ends.

In this variant, you should probably get rid of your debt before you buy victory cards.

Variant 2: Gordon Gecko.

While you have debt tokens, you may accrue more debt, and you may buy cards.  At the end of the game, debt tokens are worth -1 VP each.

Bonus variant: Interest.  At the start of your turn, gain 1 debt token for every 8 debt tokens you have.  Only usable with the above variants.

[junkers]

Bubble: on initially reading this, I viewed it as a way for players to rush towards closure, only to be denied on a "technicality". That didn't sound very fun. Well, it might be worth a chuckle when it blows up in their face. But then I thought that if they're genuinely going after this play-style, they really have to work hard to burn that debt before the final province/pile is snapped up and avoid such a fate. And that could be interesting.

GG: this is actually what I expected debt to be (except priced at -2VP) and it's something that I really want to try out. Any reason you settled on "8" as the interest threshold?

[Elestan]

Cutthroat capitalism variant:  The player with the most debt at the start of their turn may not take more debt.  That player's interest payments, if any, must be paid in coin each turn.  Failure to make an interest payment eliminates the player from the game.  Best in multiplayer games.

Foreclosure variant: As above, but if the player cannot make an interest payment, instead of losing, at the end of their Cleanup phase, they put their entire deck in their discard, remove Trash their highest-cost Victory card, Gain a Curse, and apply the cost of the card toward their interest (first) and debt (second).

[junkers]

Foreclosure variant: As above, but if the player cannot make an interest payment, instead of losing, at the end of their Cleanup phase, they put their entire deck in their discard, remove their highest-cost Victory card, replace it with a Curse, and apply the cost of the card toward their interest (first) and debt (second).

Looks a little messy at first glance, but I like the idea of having to pay back debt with their highest VP card. By remove, you did mean "trash", yes?

[Halvard]

How would a debt card look like, text wise?

Would this work?

Debt
+5 coins
At the start of your turn, -1 coin
ACTION - DURATION
Cost: 2

It would be really bad early in the game, but stronger and stronger towards the end.

[Kirian]

Bubble: on initially reading this, I viewed it as a way for players to rush towards closure, only to be denied on a "technicality". That didn't sound very fun. Well, it might be worth a chuckle when it blows up in their face. But then I thought that if they're genuinely going after this play-style, they really have to work hard to burn that debt before the final province/pile is snapped up and avoid such a fate. And that could be interesting.

It gives some interesting opportunities for things like pile-outs as well.  If someone goes Big Debt and starts gathering VP quickly, you can counter by avoiding debt and trying to three-pile.  But then the person going for debt should see it coming and pay off their debt earlier, etc.

GG: this is actually what I expected debt to be (except priced at -2VP) and it's something that I really want to try out. Any reason you settled on "8" as the interest threshold?

No particular reason for the 8, it would obviously need playtesting.  But this was just a quick variant thought.

[junkers]

It gives some interesting opportunities for things like pile-outs as well.  If someone goes Big Debt and starts gathering VP quickly, you can counter by avoiding debt and trying to three-pile.  But then the person going for debt should see it coming and pay off their debt earlier, etc.

That's something that probably should've hit me upside the head when I first read it, but didn't. Noticing when your opponent is in debt and gambling on trying to change your strategy to lock them into it is pretty big.

No particular reason for the 8, it would obviously need playtesting.

Well, as soon as I get my hands on some debt cards, I think I'm going to throw the vanilla rules out the window and get onto that!