With the addition of Renaissance, we now have a cornucopia of simple, interesting Dominion cards. So I’ve tried to update how I introduce beginners to the game by creating my own versions of Base, Intrigue, and Seaside that take advantage of cards from across the Dominion sets. For total beginners, I’d probably play a game or two with just “Base” set cards, and then start to add cards from one of the other “sets.” After a few games, I’d plan to randomize among all three “sets.”
I am trying to make the sets simpler without decreasing how interesting they are. For example, 1e Base is simpler than 2e Base, but for the wrong reason: it’s less interesting. This is related to a few things, including less trashing, the higher number of terminal actions, and having weak cards that skilled players almost never buy.
A high-level overview of my changes: All three sets could use more +Actions, particularly Intrigue. Seaside could use more +Buy and more draw. Intrigue and Seaside have some overly punishing or slow to resolve attacks that should get replaced. Overly punishing attacks extend the game, which tends to be a negative for beginners. Some cards have simpler equivalents and can be replaced by them. There are also a few weak or uninteresting cards to replace.
Base set (2e):
Remove: Bureaucrat, Library, Sentry, Cellar, Harbinger
Add: Hoard, Scholar, Junk Dealer, Warehouse
Intrigue (2e):
Remove: Mining Village, Pawn, Wishing Well, Torturer, Swindler, Harem
Add: Farming Village, Crossroads, Market Square, Old Witch, Jester, City
Seaside:
Remove: Warehouse, Treasury, Merchant Ship, Sea Hag, Pirate Ship, Ambassador, Explorer, Navigator, Pearl Diver
Add: Dungeon, Hireling, Cargo Ship, Soothsayer, Distant Lands, Remake, Enchantress, Worker’s Village, Research
Detailed explanations of changes follow.
Base:
Bureaucrat: replaced by Hoard which is a better (and non-terminal) treasure gainer, and doesn't have Bureaucrat's attack which slows down play.
Cellar: replaced by Warehouse (getting to draw before discarding makes Warehouse simpler to decide on how to play).
Sentry: replaced by simpler Junk Dealer.
Library: replaced by simpler (to resolve) Scholar.
Harbinger: a relatively weak card that takes a long time to look through the discard pile and resolve. Cut without replacement.
Intrigue:
Pawn: replaced by Crossroads to add more +Actions. Crossroads is a natural fit in Intrigue and Pawn is complex to play and track because of the six different options.
Wishing Well: For beginners, it can be frustrating/time-consuming trying to remember what cards they’ve seen this shuffle for Wishing Well. Replaced by Market Square to add another +Buy now that Pawn has been removed. It also adds another gold gainer, which is a popular effect.
Mining Village: replaced by simpler Farming Village. Farming Village also has a useful combo in the set with Courtyard.
Harem: weak card, plus I dislike the flavor and I wouldn't want anyone to dislike Dominion because they feel similarly. Replaced by City to add more +Actions and provide a counterpart to Poacher from Base.
Torturer: replaced by Old Witch, which is less oppressive and requires fewer decisions.
Swindler: replaced by Jester, which hurts opponents less and helps you more. Jester can be overpowered in 4-player games, but it doesn’t seem worse than 4-player games with Swindler ending in very few turns on three-piles.
Seaside:
Warehouse: with Warehouse moving to Base, Dungeon is a natural replacement.
Treasury: replaced by Hireling, which has an easier to remember duration effect, and adds more draw.
Pirate Ship: replaced by Distant Lands which is a simpler card utilizing a mat. Distant Lands mentions the Tavern mat, but stays on it and doesn’t do anything, so it has the same mechanics as Island but with an extra (and, frankly, unnecessary) keyword. Seaside still has three attacks even without Pirate Ship.
Merchant Ship: replaced by more interesting Cargo Ship.
Sea Hag: replaced by Soothsayer which helps you and hurts your opponents less, which leads to shorter games.
Explorer: Soothsayer added a gold-gainer, so Explorer is cut without replacement.
Ambassador: slows games down too much; replaced by Remake, a strong trasher. Also add Enchantress to add an interesting attack (in place of Ambassador) and add more draw.
Navigator: not interesting enough or strong enough, needing to order 5 cards can also be too much when you have actions remaining in your turn. Replaced by Worker’s Village which adds more +Actions and more +Buy.
Pearl Diver: doesn't impact the game enough. Replaced by Research, which is an interesting duration card, and adds trashing and draw. Seaside has five $2s, so having one fewer isn’t a problem.
A few concluding thoughts: Even people who have played several games of Dominion before but play infrequently may benefit from reducing the number of mechanics. I own all of the sets but Alchemy and Nocturne, and the variety of mechanics can be overwhelming. That's true not just in a single game, but over time as well (playing only cards from two sets at a time avoids having, say, travelers, VP tokens, Ruins, and coffers in the same game, but can be an overwhelming amount to learn on an ongoing basis).
Once various randomizer websites/apps get updated for Renaissance, it will be straightforward to create a customized randomizer option for these “sets.” In the meantime, it’s few enough cards that I can shuffle all of the randomizers together and do it that way. Thoughts?