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[Udzu]

Dominion: Monet

Dominion: Monet is a WIP fan expansion consisting only of landscapes (geddit?). It exists partly because I haven't bumped into that many fan landscape cards elsewhere (notable exceptions include Asper's Legacy and Carline's Venus expansions), but also because it's much easier to incorporate custom landscape cards into a physical game than custom Supply cards!

This is all brand new, so feel free to question everything. In particular, I'd love to know which of the suggested cards are likely broken (or not fun), and which should be priced (or named) differently. I'm holding off creating images for the cards until I've had a chance to played with them, so as not to get too attached to anything.

Current composition (21 cards)
- 4 Events
- 4 Landmarks
- 4 Projects
- 1 Artifact (and 1 accompanying Event)
- 4 Ways
- 4 Edicts (landscapes that introduce general rule changes, invented by Asper)

EVENTS

Piggy Bank ($1 Event)
Once per turn: +1 Buy, +1 Coffers.

IOU ($1 Event)
Once per turn: +1 Buy, +1 Villager

Grand Duchy ($8 Event)
Gain a Duchy and 3 VP tokens.

Sabbatical (8 Debt Event)
Once per game: nobody (including you) can buy any card until the start of your next turn.

Comments: Grand Duchy allows you to extend the game. Sabbatical does too, though note that it doesn't prevent your opponents from buying Sabbatical itself (since it's not a card).

LANDMARKS

Metropole (Landmark)
When scoring, every Victory card is worth 1VP more.

Penal Colony (Landmark)
When scoring, every Victory card is worth 1VP less (but not less than 0).

Hospital (Landmark)
When you gain a card in one of your turns whose cost in $ is $0, take 2VP from here.
Setup: Put 6VP here per player.

Capitol (Landmark)
When scoring, 2VP per set you have of Action-Treasure-Victory cards. (Cards with multiple types can fulfill more than one role in a set.)

Comments: Metropole encourages rush strategies. Hospital synergises with Debt-only cards and $0* cost non-Supply cards.

PROJECTS

Merchant Bank ($4 Project)
Your Coppers now produce +1 Coffers instead of $1.

College ($4 Project)
At the start of your clean-up phase, you may put your deck in your discard pile.

Ekklesia ($4 Project)
At the start of your turn, choose one: Exile a card from your hand; or discard a card you have in Exile.

Extension ($6 & 6 Debt Project)
When you draw a new hand during clean-up, draw an extra card.

Comments: Extension is significantly stronger than Hireling as it takes effect immediately and doesn't require playing a terminal. Drawing an extra
card during clean-up, rather than at the start of your turn, makes you more vulnerable to hand size attacks though.

ARTIFACTS

Letters Patent ($1 Event)
+1 Buy. Take the Tax Collector.

Tax Collector (Artifact)
At the start of your turn, +1 Coffers.

Comments: No idea how this one will play out in practice.

WAYS

Way of the Ram (Way)
+$1 for every $2 this card costs, rounded up.

Way of the Mongrel (Way)
Play a non-Command Action card from the Supply that costs less than this, leaving it there.

Way of the Bloodhound (Way)
You may discard a non-Victory card from your hand. If you do, play the set aside Attack, leaving it there.
Setup: Set aside an unused Attack card costing $3 or $4.

Way of the Gecko (Way)
+1 Action
Return this to its pile to gain a card costing the same as it.

Comments: Way of the Mongrel is a bit crazy, but I'd like to see how it plays.

EDICTS

Five-Four (Edict)
Replace two of your starting Estates with Coppers.

Run on the Bank (Edict)
Remove the Gold pile from the game. (It doesn't count as an empty pile.)

What's the Rush (Edict)
During clean-up, players must keep one card in their hand. If they did, they draw one fewer card for their next hand.

All Your Base (Edict)
Start the game with just 10 cards in the Curse, Copper, Silver and Gold piles.

Comments:

[Timinou]

Interesting set of cards....I just have a few off-the-cuff comments based on initial impressions (playtesting might yield different results):

Penal Colony
I'm not sure making Estates worthless really adds much to the game other than providing a slight disincentive for rushes.  I think Metropole adds a bit more depth than this.

Grand Duchy
Interesting idea but I'm not sure it will play out as intended.  It's almost like going from 8 Provinces to 16 in a 2-player game, except it takes Duchy-dancing to a different level.
I think you would take this over Enclave if they are on the same board, which could be problematic depending on your point of view. 

Sabbatical
I'd be curious to see how this plays out.  It sounds useful if you know your opponent has a good turn coming up and is threatening to win, but given that they could buy Sabbatical on their turn, I'm wondering if this would just end up delaying the inevitable in most cases. 

Hospital
It could make for some interesting interactions even if there are no debt-cost cards.  Buying Death Cart, Ritual, or Vineyards, or emptying out the Curse pile become a lot more attractive.

Ekklesia
This is overpowered.  Even if all it did were Exile, it's already much better than Cathedral.  The option to gain a card to hand from your Exile mat makes it even better.

College
This is useful but it seems overpriced relative to other $5-cost projects.  If you can get to the point where you are drawing your whole deck anyway, it's much less helpful.

Extension
I'm curious as to why you prefer to make it vulnerable to hand size attacks rather than draw at the start of your turn. 

Letters Patent / Tax Collector
I'm also curious how this would play out.  You can't really afford to let your opponent keep Tax Collector for several turns, but since it only triggers at the start of their turn you could probably afford to let them have it for one turn.  If it ends up going back and forth between players throughout the game, then it's effectively like players had their -1 Coin token each turn.  I'm not sure it would make the game more fun or interesting.
I imagine it would be less enticing in multiplayer games. 

Way of the Mongrel
This is definitely more powerful than the official Ways.  You essentially have the choice between playing your $5+ cost cards normally or as a Band of Misfits.  It does encourage having higher cost Action cards in your deck, whereas with other Ways it's often good to spam cheap Actions.  What is the reason for the "non-Duration" limitation?

All your Base
Seems like games with this and Mountebank (or even other cursers) would be pretty fast.  One potential concern could be games with Pirate Ship and no other Action-based economy, where there could be scenarios where you wreck your opponents' economy and there aren't enough Treasures in the Supply.  I don't think it's likely to occur in a 2-player game, but could happen in multiplayer games.
How would this work with Run on the Bank?

Run on the Bank
Seems like an interesting idea, but my main criticism would be that it makes several existing cards and some Events useless (e.g. Bandit, Soothsayer, Explorer, Enclave, Reap, etc)
Does Gold count as an empty pile?  I think a rule clarification would be needed.

[mxdata]

Hospital would interact nicely with cost reduction, too, since that would make it easy to get actually useful cards at $0.  And since it's on gain and not on buy, it would make most junking attacks rather less useful, as you'd also be handing out VP tokens until they're gone with every play

Penal colony would make Duchies less appealing as well, as Provinces are now worth 2.5 Duchies instead of just 2 Duchies

Extension seems overpriced to me, especially since there's no stacking as with Hireling.  It's essentially equivalent to holding the Flag, except, of course, that you can't lose it.  But that still doesn't seem to me to be worth paying that much

Way of the Ram would make cost-reduction weird.  I do wonder how it would interact with things like Highway.  Highway normally costs $5, but once it's in play it costs $4.  So, does the while-in-play happen before the Way, or after?  That is, does Highway become +$3 (assuming no other cost-reduction in play) from its original price of $5, or $2 from its new price of $4?

[Holger]

Great expansion name and many interesting ideas.

I don't think Sabbatical needs the "(including you)" - you can always buy it after all the cards you want to buy, so it doesn't hurt you either way.

Way of the Mongrel sounds very nasty with e.g. Sea Hag set aside and Necropolis or Ruins in the game.

Way of the Gecko is strictly better than Way of the Pig (as you can always choose to gain the returned card itself). It also seems very strong compared to Butterfly, and turns Peddlers into one-shot cantrip Province gainers. I think I'd drop one of the two vanilla bonuses...

[Udzu]

Hospital would interact nicely with cost reduction, too, since that would make it easy to get actually useful cards at $0.  And since it's on gain and not on buy, it would make most junking attacks rather less useful, as you'd also be handing out VP tokens until they're gone with every play

Hospital only triggers for cards gained on your turn so shouldn’t affect junking attacks.

Extension seems overpriced to me, especially since there's no stacking as with Hireling.  It's essentially equivalent to holding the Flag, except, of course, that you can't lose it.  But that still doesn't seem to me to be worth paying that much

You might be right, but it’s worth remembering that you get the benefit many turns earlier compared to Hireling, and don’t waste a terminal action to play it. I’ll try it out and see.

Way of the Ram would make cost-reduction weird.  I do wonder how it would interact with things like Highway.  Highway normally costs $5, but once it's in play it costs $4.  So, does the while-in-play happen before the Way, or after?  That is, does Highway become +$3 (assuming no other cost-reduction in play) from its original price of $5, or $2 from its new price of $4?

Since you put the card in play before you carry out its instructions (or the Way instructions) I’d expect it to cost $4 and give +$2.

[Udzu]

Way of the Gecko is strictly better than Way of the Pig (as you can always choose to gain the returned card itself). It also seems very strong compared to Butterfly, and turns Peddlers into one-shot cantrip Province gainers. I think I'd drop one of the two vanilla bonuses...

Good points. I’ll remove the +1 Card. (Though arguably since the recommendation is not to use more than one Way in a game, strictly better is less important than for Kingdom cards.)

[Udzu]

Interesting set of cards....I just have a few off-the-cuff comments based on initial impressions (playtesting might yield different results):

Loots of good comments, thanks!

Penal Colony
I'm not sure making Estates worthless really adds much to the game other than providing a slight disincentive for rushes.  I think Metropole adds a bit more depth than this.

I think you're probably right. Might remove Penal Colony.

Ekklesia
This is overpowered.  Even if all it did were Exile, it's already much better than Cathedral.  The option to gain a card to hand from your Exile mat makes it even better.

Again, you're right. Do you think I should up the price, weaken the effect, or both?

College
This is useful but it seems overpriced relative to other $5-cost projects.  If you can get to the point where you are drawing your whole deck anyway, it's much less helpful.

I wasn't sure how useful this would be early on in terms of letting you avoid the shuffle for new cards, but you're probably right. I might playtest it at $4 and see what happens.

Extension
I'm curious as to why you prefer to make it vulnerable to hand size attacks rather than draw at the start of your turn. 

Partly to make it stand out, partly because I was worried it would be too powerful otherwise. Though if the effect is just that people never buy it when there's a hand size attack in the kingdom then I should probably change it.

Letters Patent / Tax Collector
I'm also curious how this would play out.  You can't really afford to let your opponent keep Tax Collector for several turns, but since it only triggers at the start of their turn you could probably afford to let them have it for one turn.  If it ends up going back and forth between players throughout the game, then it's effectively like players had their -1 Coin token each turn.  I'm not sure it would make the game more fun or interesting.
I imagine it would be less enticing in multiplayer games. 

That was my reasoning too. Though a back and forth of attrition can still be fun: after all, people still like playing Dark Ages.

Way of the Mongrel
This is definitely more powerful than the official Ways.  You essentially have the choice between playing your $5+ cost cards normally or as a Band of Misfits.  It does encourage having higher cost Action cards in your deck, whereas with other Ways it's often good to spam cheap Actions.  What is the reason for the "non-Duration" limitation?

Agree this is a powerful one, but might present some interesting plays. You're right regarding the non-Duration limitation: it's not necessary, since the card itself stays out.

All your Base
Seems like games with this and Mountebank (or even other cursers) would be pretty fast.  One potential concern could be games with Pirate Ship and no other Action-based economy, where there could be scenarios where you wreck your opponents' economy and there aren't enough Treasures in the Supply.  I don't think it's likely to occur in a 2-player game, but could happen in multiplayer games.
How would this work with Run on the Bank?

Run on the Bank
Seems like an interesting idea, but my main criticism would be that it makes several existing cards and some Events useless (e.g. Bandit, Soothsayer, Explorer, Enclave, Reap, etc)
Does Gold count as an empty pile?  I think a rule clarification would be needed.

Gold isn't intended to count as a pile in Run on the Bank (I agree that should be clarified). And yes it does break some cards. Interesting question regarding how this interacts with All Your Base. I'll have a think.

[mxdata]

Hospital would interact nicely with cost reduction, too, since that would make it easy to get actually useful cards at $0.  And since it's on gain and not on buy, it would make most junking attacks rather less useful, as you'd also be handing out VP tokens until they're gone with every play

Hospital only triggers for cards gained on your turn so shouldn’t affect junking attacks.

Oh, I missed the "on your turns" part.  That makes a big difference.  Black Cat would still be one attack that could trigger it, but that's the only one I can think of, and that's just one card which is already fairly situational

[Timinou]

Ekklesia
This is overpowered.  Even if all it did were Exile, it's already much better than Cathedral.  The option to gain a card to hand from your Exile mat makes it even better.

Again, you're right. Do you think I should up the price, weaken the effect, or both?

Either could work although at a higher price point, I think it makes sense to have an option other than thinning because players will probably opt for more affordable way to thin early in the game, if available.

I think it may be a bit overpowered with Camel Train, so I would consider making it gain normally from the Exile mat rather than to hand.