Is the intent that there will be other Jewelry cards in a fan set? Or do the Gemstones exists purely for this traveller line? If the latter; that's a lot of cards (in terms both amount of things to read/learn and components to use) for just 1 Kingdom card. If the former, then it seems like games with only a single Jewelry card will play very differently than games with multiple. Moreso than single potion-cost cards vs multiple potion-cost cards, etc. It might be difficult to balance the strength of any card when other cards could have so much influence over how good Gemstones in general are.
Not set on that yet. Ideally, other cards could use the Gemstone deck, too. However, I only have the Traveler set designed to use it that way. I could definitely see accessing it through a Split pile with a similar idea in mind, but approached differently. I share your view that it is a bit out of whack to have that many cards associated with just one kingdom card.
I think there are definitely other ways to use the Gemstones. A challenging part of implementing the Gemstone mechanic in one or two cards is that the thing that happens less frequently (getting a Gemstone) is also the thing that absolutely has to happen first. This makes mechanics like Reactions less useful. These are some ways you might do it. (Note: I slapped these together pretty quickly, and did not spend a lot of time thinking about balance/names/wording/interactions).
One obvious solution is to use an on-buy effect. It might look something like this:
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Diamond District - $6 Action - Jewelry +1 Card +1 Action +1[> ---- When you buy this, look at the top 3 Gemstones on their pile. Take one. Put one on the bottom of the pile. Put the other one on top of the pile.
| Gem Collection - $4+ Treasure - Jewelry 2[> ---- When you buy this, you may overpay for it. For each $1 you overpaid, look at one Gemstone from the top of their pile. Take one of them and put the rest on the bottom of the pile.
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This is pretty straightforward. You get the Gemstone along with the card that needs it. This might be too easy, and take away some of the strategic element. On the other hand, if you don't get a Gemstone that is usable when you buy the first card, the card is basically useless until you can buy another one.
A second option would be to have a card that does both as part of its action. Either by the player's choice...
Gem Mine - $4
Action - Victory - Jewelry
Reveal the top Gemstone on its pile. Choose one: take the revealed Gemstone; or put the revealed Gemstone on the bottom of the pile and +1[>.
----
Worth 1VP for each Gemstone you have with at least 2[> on it.
...or based on some condition.
Jewel Smugglers - $5
Action - Night - Jewelry
If it's your Night phase, look at the top 2 Gemstones on their pile; take one and put the other one on the bottom of the pile. Otherwise, +2[>
Gem Hunter - $3
Action - Jewelry
Turn your Journey token over (it starts face up). Then if it's face down, reveal the top Gemstone on its pile, and either take the revealed Gemstone or put the revealed Gemstone on the bottom of the pile. If your Journey token is face up, +1[>.
As DunnoItAll pointed it out, another method could be to use a split pile. A challenge in implementing that is that you really don't need or want 3-4 copies of a card that involves getting Gemstones, so in a 2 player game, after each player buys one, there is a strong incentive not to buy the rest of them, and the second card of the split never becomes available. A solution I came up with was to use the Reserve mechanic (in a card inspired by Wine Merchant) to put away the Gemstone cards, and to make the second card of the split more powerful the more copies of the first card you have:
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Gem Merchant - $4 Action - Reserve - Jewelry Look at the top 4 Gemstones on their pile. Take one. Put the others on the bottom of the pile. Put this on your Tavern mat. ---- At the end of your Buy phase, if you have at least 2[> on a Gemstone, you may discard this from your Tavern mat.
| Gem Market - $5 Action - Jewelry +2[> If your Tavern mat has at least... 1 Gem Merchant, +1 Buy 2 Gem Merchants, +1 Action 3 Gem Merchants, +1 Card 4 Gem Merchants, +$1 5 Gem Merchants, +3[>
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