Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Morgrim7]

I really enjoyed them. Would anyone be willing to host one?

[LastFootnote]

I would definitely host one. Although I'd like us to take a shot at making our own Treasure Chest expansion, which means that we should wait until Guilds is released.

[ahyangyi]

I would definitely host one. Although I'd like us to take a shot at making our own Treasure Chest expansion, which means that we should wait until Guilds is released.

Well, we can start that right now by designing cards one by one.

[Davio]

I would definitely host one. Although I'd like us to take a shot at making our own Treasure Chest expansion, which means that we should wait until Guilds is released.

What does Treasure Chest expansion mean, exactly? This term has seemed to pass me by.

I would like for a new mini-set to have a predetermined theme and structure (number of cards of different types).
So for instance "Seasons" could be a theme. This might help to make it more coherent.

[LastFootnote]

I would definitely host one. Although I'd like us to take a shot at making our own Treasure Chest expansion, which means that we should wait until Guilds is released.

What does Treasure Chest expansion mean, exactly? This term has seemed to pass me by.

The "Treasure Chest" expansion is a theoretical set containing an extra card or two per existing expansion. Specifically, 2 cards for each "large" expansion (Intrigue, Seaside, Prosperity, Hinterlands, Dark Ages), and 1 card for each "small" expansion (Alchemy, Cornucopia, Guilds), for a total of 13 cards. It's looking unlikely that an official Treasure Chest expansion will be released, so it seems like prime material for a fan expansion. Especially because:

• People love to make Duration cards, Potion-cost cards, etc.
• The cards wouldn't necessarily have to form a cohesive set; each card would just have to slot cleanly into its own expansion.

[Davio]

Okay, I like that idea as well.

[gman314]

• People love to make Duration cards, Potion-cost cards, etc.

Half my card ideas are basically cards that would fit fairly well into some sort of existing expansion.

[LastFootnote]

I would definitely host one. Although I'd like us to take a shot at making our own Treasure Chest expansion, which means that we should wait until Guilds is released.

Well, we can start that right now by designing cards one by one.

I suppose this is true. I'll start working on the framework. However, I still think there's some merit to waiting a few months after Guilds because (A) it'll take a while to get a handle on the Guilds mechanics and (B) because that's when people will actually be hurting for another expansion.

[ednever]

Might be neat to have a vote on a "mechanic theme" for the mini-set.

Something like:
Cards that discard and care about the discard pile
Cards designed for "Tournament" Dominion and cards that affect the "next game"
Cards that have persistent effects, remove cards from play and/or change the rules of the game
Cards that change the length of the game and [something else]
Cards which specifically combo with earlier under-powered cards

I like the last one.
We could make a list of the worst cards in the game, and then each round the challenge is to make a good stand-alone card that combos with a specific under-powered card. Bonus points if it also combos with a different under-powered card...

First stab:

Thief combo-card, $3
+2 cards, +2 actions
All other players gain a gold on top of their deck

Adventurer combo, $4
+1 card, +2 actions
While this is in play you may reveal any cards you draw. for every two treasures you reveal, +1 card


Ed

[ChocophileBenj]

I also thought of funnier contests :
->design a card that refers to victory cards in general (Tresaury, Rebuild, Trade Route, Silk Road, Jester, Haggler and so on) but not to specific victory cards (Tournament, Baron) to other type of cards along with "victory cards in general" (Fortune Teller/Vagrant that mention curses along with victory cards, and Ironworks/Tr-ansm/ib-ute)
->design a card that gains you gold mentioned explicitely (Governor, Transmute, but not Mine) that may happen on reaction (Marquet square/Tunnel/Fool's gold) but not on gain or trash (Sir Vander)
->design an action non-terminal trasher (lookout/spice merchant/upgrade)
->design a VP-chip gainer (and a good one)
->design a card that costs $5 and that may give you $3 easily without having to trash anything (contraband, harvest, cache, mandarin/count, but not tribute because it isn't that easy (okay, to discuss with harvest) nor explorer because it doesn't give you $3 directly, neither do beggar, and not merchant ship because I want $3 this turn, not the next one)

[LastFootnote]

I also thought of funnier contests :
->design a card that refers to victory cards in general (Tresaury, Rebuild, Trade Route, Silk Road, Jester, Haggler and so on) but not to specific victory cards (Tournament, Baron) to other type of cards along with "victory cards in general" (Fortune Teller/Vagrant that mention curses along with victory cards, and Ironworks/Tr-ansm/ib-ute)
->design a card that gains you gold mentioned explicitely (Governor, Transmute, but not Mine) that may happen on reaction (Marquet square/Tunnel/Fool's gold) but not on gain or trash (Sir Vander)
->design an action non-terminal trasher (lookout/spice merchant/upgrade)
->design a VP-chip gainer (and a good one)
->design a card that costs $5 and that may give you $3 easily without having to trash anything (contraband, harvest, cache, mandarin/count, but not tribute because it isn't that easy (okay, to discuss with harvest) nor explorer because it doesn't give you $3 directly, neither do beggar, and not merchant ship because I want $3 this turn, not the next one)

Heh, interesting ideas, but if I run a contest to make a Treasure Chest expansion, I'm going to have the challenges be less restrictive instead of more. It'll be something like:

Design a Prosperity card. Ideally the card will incorporate one or more of the following:

• Is a Treasure card
• Interacts with Treasure cards (possibly a specific Treasure card e.g. Copper)
• Costs $6 or more
• Uses VP chips

These are just guidelines, though. Submit whatever card you want and the voters will judge the card both based on how good it is and how well it fits the guidelines.

Then, if the card picked were, say, a Treasure card that referred to other Treasure cards, the other Prosperity challenge would favor a card that was expensive and/or used VP chips.

[Asper]

I also thought of funnier contests :
->design a card that refers to victory cards in general (Tresaury, Rebuild, Trade Route, Silk Road, Jester, Haggler and so on) but not to specific victory cards (Tournament, Baron) to other type of cards along with "victory cards in general" (Fortune Teller/Vagrant that mention curses along with victory cards, and Ironworks/Tr-ansm/ib-ute)
->design a card that gains you gold mentioned explicitely (Governor, Transmute, but not Mine) that may happen on reaction (Marquet square/Tunnel/Fool's gold) but not on gain or trash (Sir Vander)
->design an action non-terminal trasher (lookout/spice merchant/upgrade)
->design a VP-chip gainer (and a good one)
->design a card that costs $5 and that may give you $3 easily without having to trash anything (contraband, harvest, cache, mandarin/count, but not tribute because it isn't that easy (okay, to discuss with harvest) nor explorer because it doesn't give you $3 directly, neither do beggar, and not merchant ship because I want $3 this turn, not the next one)

Heh, interesting ideas, but if I run a contest to make a Treasure Chest expansion, I'm going to have the challenges be less restrictive instead of more. It'll be something like:

Design a Prosperity card. Ideally the card will incorporate one or more of the following:

• Is a Treasure card
• Interacts with Treasure cards (possibly a specific Treasure card e.g. Copper)
• Costs $6 or more
• Uses VP chips

These are just guidelines, though. Submit whatever card you want and the voters will judge the card both based on how good it is and how well it fits the guidelines.

Then, if the card picked were, say, a Treasure card that referred to other Treasure cards, the other Prosperity challenge would favor a card that was expensive and/or used VP chips.

Taxes
Treasure, 6$
1$
+1 Buy
While this is in play, when you gain a Victory Card: +1VP

[KingZog3]

I also thought of funnier contests :
->design a card that refers to victory cards in general (Tresaury, Rebuild, Trade Route, Silk Road, Jester, Haggler and so on) but not to specific victory cards (Tournament, Baron) to other type of cards along with "victory cards in general" (Fortune Teller/Vagrant that mention curses along with victory cards, and Ironworks/Tr-ansm/ib-ute)
->design a card that gains you gold mentioned explicitely (Governor, Transmute, but not Mine) that may happen on reaction (Marquet square/Tunnel/Fool's gold) but not on gain or trash (Sir Vander)
->design an action non-terminal trasher (lookout/spice merchant/upgrade)
->design a VP-chip gainer (and a good one)
->design a card that costs $5 and that may give you $3 easily without having to trash anything (contraband, harvest, cache, mandarin/count, but not tribute because it isn't that easy (okay, to discuss with harvest) nor explorer because it doesn't give you $3 directly, neither do beggar, and not merchant ship because I want $3 this turn, not the next one)

Heh, interesting ideas, but if I run a contest to make a Treasure Chest expansion, I'm going to have the challenges be less restrictive instead of more. It'll be something like:

Design a Prosperity card. Ideally the card will incorporate one or more of the following:

• Is a Treasure card
• Interacts with Treasure cards (possibly a specific Treasure card e.g. Copper)
• Costs $6 or more
• Uses VP chips

These are just guidelines, though. Submit whatever card you want and the voters will judge the card both based on how good it is and how well it fits the guidelines.

Then, if the card picked were, say, a Treasure card that referred to other Treasure cards, the other Prosperity challenge would favor a card that was expensive and/or used VP chips.

Taxes
Treasure, 6$
1$
+1 Buy
While this is in play, when you gain a Victory Card: +1VP

Treasure - $5
0$
Trash this. Gain 2 VP chips per treasure you have in play.

[sudgy]

There should be a whole contest that uses VP chip cards.

[Fuu]

A variant on a treasure chest expansion that might be interesting is to design cards that each reflect two sets, e.g., duration/potion-cost, or looter/variety. Since a treasure chest assumes that you have all the expansions already, why limit each card to reflect one expansion only?

[Asper]

A variant on a treasure chest expansion that might be interesting is to design cards that each reflect two sets, e.g., duration/potion-cost, or looter/variety. Since a treasure chest assumes that you have all the expansions already, why limit each card to reflect one expansion only?

Why not?
Actually kinda did some of them allready, but not as a real theme for a box. Here's a new idea:

Fleet
4$, Action Duration
+ 1 Action
At this and next turns buy phase, if you have no duplicate Action cards in play: +2$

[ConMan]

A variant on a treasure chest expansion that might be interesting is to design cards that each reflect two sets, e.g., duration/potion-cost, or looter/variety. Since a treasure chest assumes that you have all the expansions already, why limit each card to reflect one expansion only?

This is something that I can't agree with strongly enough, and it's what I'd want a "Treasure Chest" expansion to do. Sure it would be nice to have another card that fits in with each expansion, but much more I'd like some cards that borrow from multiple expansions.

Some thoughts on how you could run it - make a list of some of the defining characteristics of each expansion, and have a competition for each one but where it has to reflect at least one other one (e.g. the "Potion-cost" competition would accept cards with a Potion cost, obviously, but they also have to be Duration/care about variety/have an on-buy effect etc). Then allow cards to be entered in more than one contest, or only one contest based on their "defining" characteristic (however you judge that). Probably tricky, but I'd love to see the results.

[StrongRhino]

A variant on a treasure chest expansion that might be interesting is to design cards that each reflect two sets, e.g., duration/potion-cost, or looter/variety. Since a treasure chest assumes that you have all the expansions already, why limit each card to reflect one expansion only?

Or three or four or five!
How about that potion cost duration card that gives you VP tokens as an on-buy effect if there are no more than 2 of a card in the trash!

[Fuu]

A variant on a treasure chest expansion that might be interesting is to design cards that each reflect two sets, e.g., duration/potion-cost, or looter/variety. Since a treasure chest assumes that you have all the expansions already, why limit each card to reflect one expansion only?

This is something that I can't agree with strongly enough, and it's what I'd want a "Treasure Chest" expansion to do. Sure it would be nice to have another card that fits in with each expansion, but much more I'd like some cards that borrow from multiple expansions.

Yes my thoughts exactly. I think it has the potential to be more interesting as a design concept/challenge than just adding what is essentially a single new card to each set.

Some thoughts on how you could run it - make a list of some of the defining characteristics of each expansion, and have a competition for each one but where it has to reflect at least one other one (e.g. the "Potion-cost" competition would accept cards with a Potion cost, obviously, but they also have to be Duration/care about variety/have an on-buy effect etc). Then allow cards to be entered in more than one contest, or only one contest based on their "defining" characteristic (however you judge that). Probably tricky, but I'd love to see the results.

I haven't given much thought to how you'd run a design contest like that. You'd probably want to avoid suggesting the expansion combinations as part of the design criteria. Maybe each round can specify a single set (e.g. Alchemy) or characteristic, and the winning card's other set or characteristic (e.g. Intrigue if it is Alchemy/Intrigue) is then eliminated from having its own competition. Maybe the larger sets can be chosen twice, I guess that is the 'conventional wisdom'. But note that you need this list of 'defining characteristics' of each set even if your treasure chest cards reflect only a single set each!

A variant on a treasure chest expansion that might be interesting is to design cards that each reflect two sets, e.g., duration/potion-cost, or looter/variety. Since a treasure chest assumes that you have all the expansions already, why limit each card to reflect one expansion only?

Or three or four or five!
How about that potion cost duration card that gives you VP tokens as an on-buy effect if there are no more than 2 of a card in the trash!

Now you're opening a Pandora's box ... hmm that could work as the title.

[Asper]

A variant on a treasure chest expansion that might be interesting is to design cards that each reflect two sets, e.g., duration/potion-cost, or looter/variety. Since a treasure chest assumes that you have all the expansions already, why limit each card to reflect one expansion only?

Or three or four or five!
How about that potion cost duration card that gives you VP tokens as an on-buy effect if there are no more than 2 of a card in the trash!

Challenge accepted

Edit: I give up. You can't actually make a good card with those restrictions... Here's what i got, it's awful.

Drinking Game
P, Treasure-Duration
0$
Reveal your hand. +1$ per Potion revealed.
This stays in play until trashed.
While this is in play, when you buy a card: If there are no more than 2 Potions in the trash, + 1 VP and trash a Potion from the supply. Otherwise, you may gain a Potion from the trash.

Edit 2: at least i can't. Maybe somebody else can do it better.

[Polk5440]

I like the Treasure Set expansion idea for after Guilds comes out.

[StrongRhino]

I like the Treasure Set expansion idea for after Guilds comes out.

This. We will use ALL the game mechanics.

[hsiale]

I like the Treasure Set expansion idea for after Guilds comes out.

This. We will use ALL the game mechanics.

on a single card

[StrongRhino]

I like the Treasure Set expansion idea for after Guilds comes out.

This. We will use ALL the game mechanics.

on a single card

Yes. So much yes.
And we will create an entire 500 card set like Dark Ages comprising of only cards that have all the mechanics.

[KingZog3]

I like the Treasure Set expansion idea for after Guilds comes out.

This. We will use ALL the game mechanics.

on a single card

Yes. So much yes.
And we will create an entire 500 card set like Dark Ages comprising of only cards that have all the mechanics.

And they will probably all be $5 or more cards

[liopoil]

we could make some of them negative. Like, "at the start of your next turn, discard down to 4 cards"

[Nic]

Bumping because Guilds. I like LastFootnote's plan, and I think two contests for each expansion would be good: one free-for-all to produce a card with loose guidelines, with a follow-up specifically for the mechanics that were underrepresented. Cards that use multiple mechanics in a major way could be submitted into any applicable contest, and judges would be encouraged to vote for what they think best: the contests themselves would ensure the right mix of cards. That said, multiple 'second chances' challenges would probably be a good idea.

Dark Ages is something we might have to make exceptions for; the upgradeable cards and nonstandard supply piles could probably use a dedicated contest each.

[Wrclass]

I'd love to host another design contest.

[Tables]

I don't mean any offence by this, but if someone else were to host something like this, I'd like it to be someone established and well respected in the community already. That, I feel, gives some degree of assurance of quality in the design topics, in schedule being followed and handling potentially tricky situations.

[Nic]

On the other hand, it would be nice if anybody got the ball rolling on this. I don't think anyone would mind if you started a thread to poll people on the contest categories and how things should be set up. When we get a response from Rinkworks or LastFootnote or whoever, you can hand the reins over to them with the most stressful part of the job already taken care of.

My guess is the reason no one's stepped up to the plate is because no one has any idea what this contest would look like. We want the cards to be thematic, and we want them to have the same mechanics and represent every expansion equally, but at the same time favor cards that mix and match and combine these things in new ways, and we have no concrete plan to achieve this. It doesn't help everyone has been looking forward to this since the old contest, and some people have high expectations.

Having a thread where we can reach consensus on all these issues will make the project a lot less daunting. Once somebody gets this out of the way, I'm sure the upstanding members of our community will be happy to volunteer for this gig. Not to mention, announcing the contest structure and categories well in advance of judging might boost the number of submissions.

[mail-mi]

/in

[Polk5440]

announcing the contest structure and categories well in advance of judging might boost the number of submissions.

As if 8 pages of submissions per week wasn't enough to analyze last time around! 

Good idea on getting the ball rolling by starting a suggestion thread, though.

I think the voting mechanism worked great last time, and that should just be ported into the next competition.

[Wrclass]

On the other hand, it would be nice if anybody got the ball rolling on this. I don't think anyone would mind if you started a thread to poll people on the contest categories and how things should be set up. When we get a response from Rinkworks or LastFootnote or whoever, you can hand the reins over to them with the most stressful part of the job already taken care of.

My guess is the reason no one's stepped up to the plate is because no one has any idea what this contest would look like. We want the cards to be thematic, and we want them to have the same mechanics and represent every expansion equally, but at the same time favor cards that mix and match and combine these things in new ways, and we have no concrete plan to achieve this. It doesn't help everyone has been looking forward to this since the old contest, and some people have high expectations.

Having a thread where we can reach consensus on all these issues will make the project a lot less daunting. Once somebody gets this out of the way, I'm sure the upstanding members of our community will be happy to volunteer for this gig. Not to mention, announcing the contest structure and categories well in advance of judging might boost the number of submissions.

I did what you suggested.

[yuma]

Figured this might be the spot to type this up instead of within one of the mini-set design contest threads.

I am going to try and bring this up tactfully and respectfully as I don't want to step on toes. The first thing to say is thanks to LastFootnote for all the work he has done thus far. Very appreciative of the time and energy he has put into this thus far. The second thing to say is that if he wants to continue running this contest, he should absolutely be able to do so.

However, from the appearance of this contest completely stalling out over the last few weeks I am wondering if he might either some to help or someone to take over. Lastfootnote hasn't posted anywhere on the forums since he posted the cards for Intrigue. As a result we are left wondering what the next steps are and when they are going to happen. My hope is that Lastfootnote is okay and just taking an extended break and will be back shortly. If not, however, I don't think we should just let the contest disappear and with his permission perhaps find someone to help in the process or take over the process.

I don't have a specific candidate in mind. Unfortunately I can't volunteer myself. That is a discussion to be had after LF and the rest of us determine if he is coming back and if we want to continue it if he isn't.

Again, thanks to LF for all the work thus far. I hope you are doing well and hope to see you back on the forums if at all possible.

[Nic]

Figured this might be the spot to type this up instead of within one of the mini-set design contest threads.

I am going to try and bring this up tactfully and respectfully as I don't want to step on toes. The first thing to say is thanks to LastFootnote for all the work he has done thus far. Very appreciative of the time and energy he has put into this thus far. The second thing to say is that if he wants to continue running this contest, he should absolutely be able to do so.

However, from the appearance of this contest completely stalling out over the last few weeks I am wondering if he might either some to help or someone to take over. Lastfootnote hasn't posted anywhere on the forums since he posted the cards for Intrigue. As a result we are left wondering what the next steps are and when they are going to happen. My hope is that Lastfootnote is okay and just taking an extended break and will be back shortly. If not, however, I don't think we should just let the contest disappear and with his permission perhaps find someone to help in the process or take over the process.

I don't have a specific candidate in mind. Unfortunately I can't volunteer myself. That is a discussion to be had after LF and the rest of us determine if he is coming back and if we want to continue it if he isn't.

Again, thanks to LF for all the work thus far. I hope you are doing well and hope to see you back on the forums if at all possible.

If he's super busy or actually burnt out, he's probably not going to be browsing the forum to see this. Send him a PM, so he gets an email notification, and just say you're willing to cover the next few contests. Alternately, ask him to make a burner account and give it moderator privileges, and then PM the password to an appointee of his choosing.

[HeavyD]

Lastfootnote hasn't posted anywhere on the forums since he posted the cards for Intrigue. As a result we are left wondering what the next steps are and when they are going to happen.

I'm pretty sure the next step would be a poll of voting for the top tier intrigue cards. Anybody could create a poll separate from the intrigue thread. Then again, I don't know how many submissions LFN was gonna include in the final intrigue vote.

[Robz888]

Blanket disappearances really rub me the wrong way. It is so easy to post a brief message saying, "I'm alive but so swamped I can't do this anymore!"

[Schneau]

It's sad that people who do cool projects for this community seem to get burnt out quickly. Lastfootnote is following in the tracks of rinkworks, Qvist and even theory, and ragingduckd has been MIA since mid-October! I smell a conspiracy to take down the Dominion community! <_<  >_>

[Robz888]

It's sad that people who do cool projects for this community seem to get burnt out quickly. Lastfootnote is following in the tracks of rinkworks, Qvist and even theory, and ragingduckd has been MIA since mid-October! I smell a conspiracy to take down the Dominion community! <_<  >_>

It's totally fine that people get busy with other stuff, lose interest, whatever. And of course no one has any obligation to see projects to their conclusion here, it's all just a hobby. But I really and truly don't understand when people disappear without explanation. Just tell us so we can make appropriate contingency plans.

[Qvist]

I don't like this either, but guys, it happened to me also. Sorry for that and I hope LastFootnote is feeling well.

[ta56636]

I do also think that there is more of a focus on theory crafting (which is understandable, as that's arguably the more interesting part), rather than actually finishing and testing cards.

It then seems to be the case that cards are generated at a very rapid pace, then announced as the winner, and it's not even sure that anyone (including the maker) has ever played with them.

Therefore it becomes a bit of a hypothetical exercise.  I had the idea of the community card compendium (http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=9604.0) but that doesn't seem to have generated much interest.

I originally came here to talk about my own ideas, but found myself very interested in other peoples ideas, but it's quite hard to separate the wheat from the chaff even in these more organised forms.

Just my 2c.

[yuma]

I should jump in and say this. Lastfootnote has been online:

Last active November 06, 2013, 12:35:55 pm (MDT)

and hasn't responded to this or to a PM.

Like I said before I dont' have the time or necessarily the credentials to continue this project. But as he hasn't appeared to be interested in responding I think we need to consider finding someone else, not me, to continue this project if there is anyone that would be willing.

Volunteers? Nominations? Obviously if LF comes back and wants to continue it, I guess he should be able to do so (although I would suggest it would be in conjunction with whomever we find to step in), but just letting this die I think is the worst option we have.

[Archetype]

If one person doesn't want to do it all themselves, there could be a "Card Design Contest" Account and then just have a couple of people (like 2 or 3) co-run it.

[LastFootnote]

Guys, I'd just like to say that I'm sorry and that I'm back. But words are cheap. I'm going to put up two new contest threads, then I'll come back here and talk a little more about what happened.

[LastFootnote]

OK, guys, the new contests are up. Soon I will deal with the Intrigue contest. Now I want to give some info about what happened to me for those of you who care. I don't have any really good excuses or anything, but I figure I owe inquiring minds an explanation.

So, Pokémon X and Y coming out was the catalyst for my long absence, but it sort of spiraled from there. The biggest problem is that I haven't played much Dominion myself lately. Up until about a month ago I could play it at work sometimes, but my current seating arrangement makes that tough. I have almost no free time at home any more because I have a 3-month-old son and my wife really does not look fondly on me doing stuff by myself after work. Most of my free gaming time is on the train during my commute to and from work. Hopefully Goko will get their act together and release a smartphone version of Dominion soon. Anyway, even though I can totally use these forums during work, the lack of actual Dominion in my life has meant that my brain hasn't really been in the Dominion Zone, as it were.

Anyhow, I'm going to try to somehow work in more time to play Dominion in order to keep myself in a Dominion mindset. After about a month off, I'm remembering why I abandoned Pokémon for Dominion in the first place, years ago. Dominion has most of the things I like about Pokémon (immense variety, skill-based play with some luck thrown in) with none of the bad things (huge upfront cost in time, everybody using the same things, which means the potential variety isn't really used). Also, the fDS community is worlds better than the competitive Pokémon community. It's like night and day.

Yuma, my update status seemed current because I sometimes clicked on the bookmark for the forum accidentally. I didn't see your PM/email until today. This is another facet of the issue. Since I updated to iOS 7 on my phone, I no longer get big ol' alerts when I get an email. I need to change that. Seeing contest submissions as they arrive should help to keep me engaged.

In conclusion, I apologize for flaking out like that. If it turns out that I can't handle the time necessary to keep these contests going, I promise I will hand them off to another person or persons before vanishing off the face of the Earth.

EDIT: I found the setting on my phone that alerts me to new emails even when it's locked. That should help.

[Robz888]

LFN, I hope you know we are all grateful for the work you are doing--this is so much fun for us. And you are under no obligation to continue if it's straining you!

[Nic]

Honestly, given the initial response on the Seaside and Intrigue ballots, I'm guessing other people were getting bored or burned out as well. Going on hiatus for a week or so each month might be best, especially since all the cards are going to have two rounds of voting.

[yuma]

Yuma, my update status seemed current because I sometimes clicked on the bookmark for the forum accidentally. I didn't see your PM/email until today. This is another facet of the issue. Since I updated to iOS 7 on my phone, I no longer get big ol' alerts when I get an email. I need to change that. Seeing contest submissions as they arrive should help to keep me engaged.

No worries. I wondered if it was something like that. My main concern was for the contest to continue. Now I am just glad you are back with nothing more serious than a bad case of Pokemonitis...