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[roriconfan]

Just an insight to what the users of this forum prefer most in the cursing debate. You can choose up to 4 out of 5.

[Thisisnotasmile]

Since there is only 1 type of Curse, I voted for it.

[guided]

Please explain the options in more detail and provide some context for what we're supposed to be voting about.

Else TINAS pretty much has the right of it: There's only one type of Curse card that I'm aware of!

[rinkworks]

"There is only one type of Curse" is a strange assertion in a Variants forum.

But yeah, some context/explanation would have been clearer.  I assume this is about these threads.

Still, I'm not sure it makes sense to package this kind of theoretical talk in a popularity poll.  Each of these ideas is either viable or broken (and I think those two threads mostly answer those questions).  If viable, then desirability/popularity is going to have more to do with how they are used.

It's like asking if you prefer +Cards or +Actions.  Depends on what the card does as a whole, and even then it depends on what the rest of the kingdom looks like.

[Thisisnotasmile]

Okay well, I'm not really a huge fan of fan-made cards and varians and stuff like that, so I voted for Normal Curse.

[roriconfan]

What is there to explain?
Normal curse cards are the ones we already know of.
Curse tokens are the reverse of victory tokens and unlike normal curses, they are unlimited in number and don't fill your deck. At the same time they can't be trashed. They sound a lot better to me since trashing has become a bit easy and after the curse pile is over, the cursing attacks are useless.
Variant curses are proposed different types of curses. That is, not just -1 VP but something other than that. The question is "do you want other types or not?"
Self-cursing is basically "do you like cards/tokens that curse you for a benefit?"

[guided]

What is there to explain?

... Uh, the exact stuff you proceeded to explain? Voting now. Though I'm only expressing the opinions I already expressed (with reasoned explanations) in other threads.

[ftl]

I like standard curses.

The reason I like them isn't because they give -1 vp, or because they clog up your deck permanently. Nothing wrong with being able to trash them all.

It's that they slow the game down long enough for engines to be viable. In a standard province game, Big Money variants are *fast*. Curses make everyone be stuck at the 4-6 range for a lot longer, giving more of an opportunity to build up an engine that will kick in to gear by the time the curses get trashed, and rewarding engines that can find the trashers/curses faster over standard BM decks.

The other options don't really have much to do with this. They all introduce an extra mechanic for cards to use - a penalty in exchange for, presumably, more card power. Whether this is interesting or not depends on the balance of these hypothetical cards. These might be interesting, or might not be.

[Davio]

The problem with the current Curse system is that all of the Cursers (Mountebank, Witch, Familiar) are sort of must Buys, especially in 2p.
In 2p, having 10 Curses (thus -10VP and 10 crap cards which clutter your deck) is totally unworkable and it's basically a race to the Curse cards, a race down the Curse pile and then the real game starts.

Anything that makes the current Cursers more of an option than an unescapable truth gets my vote. Sure, Ambassadors help and so do trashers, but with 2p. the Curser + Trasher still has the upper hand over the Cursee + Trasher, since the Trashers aren't always drawn with the Curses in hand.

I like the mixed Curse/Action or Curse/Treasure cards which players may choose to get instead. They may be willing to get extra -VP as long as the Curses aren't entirely useless. For this to work, I think 10 cards from the normal Curse pile (which means everything in a 2p game) have to be mixed with normal Curse cards (or just do half-and-half) to keep the normal 3-pile ending condition intact.

Otherwise, Curses may start flying and players have double the amount of Curses and there's only 1 pile left, which doesn't make for a fun family game.

Something simple like:
Tainted Water - Cost 0, Curse/Action, +1 Card, at the end of the game -3VP for every 2 Curses.
Cursed Coin - Cost 0, Curse/Treasure. $1, -1VP


I know cards like these are likely to spur some debate, but we have to look beyond what the game already offers to be able to judge a new mechanic objectively. If it were the other way around and there would be Curses like this from the start of the game, we might be saying: "Why don't we have plain Curses? We have plain Victory cards, those simple Curses would be sufficient to weigh your opponents down, now they hardly feel a sting."

Besides that, everything can be tweaked. Like with Prosperity cards (and choosing whether to include Plat/Col), you could draw a number of cards or just throw a die and only include the special Curses if you throw a 6.

I like to keep an open mind when it comes to new cards and mechanics and as long as it doesn't break the game entirely, I'm all for it.
Adding 1 other custom Card to the regular kingdom cards hardly adds even 1% to the total number of possible setups.