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Author Topic: Trefoils  (Read 848 times)

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infangthief

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Trefoils
« on: May 13, 2022, 06:51:46 am »
+2

A new fan mechanism idea: Trefoils - symbols of three interrelated things.

Trefoils are like Landmarks and they refer to Action cards from 3 Supply piles, randomly selected each game.

Setup: In games using a Trefoil, put trefoil tokens on 3 randomly selected Action Supply piles. (These piles should be selected after any extra piles such as Bane or Ruins have been added to the Supply.)
Do not use more than one Trefoil per game.

Terminology that may be useful for Trefoils to refer to:
  • "trefoil pile" - an Action Supply pile with a trefoil token on it.
  • "Trefoil card" - any card from a trefoil pile.
  • "complete set of Trefoil cards" - three Trefoil cards, one from each trefoil pile.
Note that if a trefoil pile is a split pile, all cards from that pile are Trefoil cards; we should not assume that all Trefoil cards are Action cards.

The colour scheme for Trefoils is pale yellow - R:2 G:1.6 B:1.1
Suggested naming for Trefoils is things that come in threes, or things with three components.

A couple of examples:


Quote
Musketeers
When you play a Trefoil card, first each other player with 5 or more cards in hand discards a Trefoil card (or reveals a hand without any).


Quote
Three-Legged Race
Trefoil
When you discard a complete set of Trefoil cards from play, take 2VP from here.
----
Setup: Put 6VP here per player.

I'll leave it at just those two examples for now, because I'm using this for Fan Mechanics contest week #37. After that is done, let's add more here. In the meantime, I'd welcome any comments or feedback on this mechanism.

EDIT 13th May: Changed Three-Legged Race (previously you discarded from your hand, which is like Arena but much worse, and I didn't have any limit on the number of times you could get +2VP that way).
« Last Edit: May 13, 2022, 11:28:38 am by infangthief »
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Joxeft

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Re: Trefoils
« Reply #1 on: May 13, 2022, 09:33:04 am »
0

This week's Fan Mechanics contest uses a new mechanism I've come up with called Trefoils, described here.

Your challenge is to design a Trefoil.

Things that I'll be thinking about in judging include:
  • Does it encourage you to make interesting decisions, or prioritise different things from normal?
  • How often would it either dominate games or have no impact?
  • Are there particular cards or situations which would make it completely broken?
  • Does it make sense referring to 3 piles, or might it just as well refer to only 1 pile?
  • Thematic flavour.

Contest will close next Friday. Good luck!

Any feedback, questions or comments on the mechanism itself are welcome, either here or in the Trefoils thread. And I reserve the right to tweak the mechanism in response to feedback, but I'll post something clearly if I do!
I recommend calling them somthing like aids, helps, resources, or sidekicks instead of Trefoils.
« Last Edit: May 14, 2022, 08:40:04 am by Joxeft »
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infangthief

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Re: Trefoils
« Reply #2 on: May 14, 2022, 06:07:39 am »
+1

I recommend calling them somthing like aids, helps, resources, or sidekicks instead of Trefoils.
Do you mean use a more catchy name for the cards in the Trefoil piles instead of "Trefoil cards". I had considered calling them "Triplets". But I thought better to not introduce extra terminology - "Trefoil card" seemed more self-explanatory. Trefoil, trefoil token, trefoil pile, trefoil card.

Also, informally you can call them whatever you like. It can be a "musketeer" (if the Trefoil is Musketeers) or a "leg" (if the Trefoil is Three-Legged Race) etc, different each game.

So I think I'd rather just stick with "Trefoil cards" for now.
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Joxeft

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Re: Trefoils
« Reply #3 on: May 14, 2022, 08:40:13 am »
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Yes its just that it is...

Trefoils
--------

Any of various plants of the pea family, chiefly of the genera Trisodium and Lotus, having compound trifoliate leaves.

An ornament, symbol, or architectural form having the appearance of a trifoliate leaf.

In anatomy, the triangular area which forms the front part of a molar tooth; the protocone, paracone, and metacone lying at the angles. Same as trigon, 6.
« Last Edit: May 15, 2022, 06:00:39 pm by Joxeft »
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LibraryAdventurer

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Re: Trefoils
« Reply #4 on: May 16, 2022, 12:09:09 am »
+1

Setup: In games using a Trefoil, put trefoil tokens on 3 randomly selected Action Supply piles. (These piles should be selected after any extra piles such as Bane or Ruins have been added to the Supply.)
Just noticed, according to this, Ruins can be a Trefoil pile.
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