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AJD

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Favorite thematic cards
« on: November 03, 2011, 09:26:08 pm »
+5

So there are several cards in Dominion where the relationship between the name of the card and what it does in the game (or its relationship to other cards) is obscure at best: What does a throne room have to do with doing something twice? Are all the nomads employed as woodcutters? And so on. And on the other hand, there are plenty of cards where the relationship between the name of the card and its effect are pretty transparent: of course you can buy things at a Market; of course a Thief steals your money; of course a Moat protects you from attack; and so on. This post is not about those cards.

What follows are some of my favorite cards in terms of the relationship between name and effect. They're all a bit more subtle than Market and Thief, but really elegant when you stop for a minute to think about it.

Apprentice. What happens in The Sorcerer's Apprentice? When the broom gets out of control, Mickey Mouse chops it into many pieces—and then each piece comes back to life as a full-sized broom. In other words, the apprentice trashes one broom, and gets back many more brooms for his trouble. The same thing happens with Dominion cards.

Caravan. It's harder to see the thematicity of this one on Isotropic. But playing with real cards, when you lay out a whole chain of one after another on one turn, it's easy to visualize your long train of camels and wagons traveling across the desert and back, returning with valuable goods just in time for your next turn.

City. Every city starts out as a village, of course. But over time, it might grow to be the major economic engine of the kingdom.

Conspirator. Obviously someone acting alone is no conspirator. It's only a conspiracy when you have three or more people, all engaging in actions toward the same goal.

Herbalist. What do you call someone whose occupation is to go out into the forest and harvest wild plants and bring them back to sell? Well, if the plants are trees, they're a woodcutter; but if the plants are smaller (and less profitable), they're an herbalist.

Highway. The modern highway will get you where you're going a lot faster than that rickety old bridge! On the other hand, it's a freeway and doesn't bring in any money from tolls.

Noble Brigand. Okay, it's a little obvious; but the implementation of "steal from the rich and give to the poor" as a Dominion card is just so slick.

Torturer. Torture isn't just about inflicting harm—it's about breaking the victim's spirit. One way to do this is to make the victim feel responsible for their own ill-treatment, like by offering them a sadistic choice about how they're going to be punished. (When the job gets too much for him, and he can't handle it anymore, the torturer retires and becomes a blacksmith.)

What are other people's favorite examples of card thematicity?
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rinkworks

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Re: Favorite thematic cards
« Reply #1 on: November 03, 2011, 10:00:45 pm »
+2

This post rules the world.

You named a lot of my favorites (Conspirator, City) and opened my eyes to some new ones (Apprentice!), but here are a few others I like:

Adventurer - Journey through an unknown landscape of villages, cities, farmland, and estates, populated by thieves, smugglers, and witches in search of treasure.

Bureaucrat - Pocket some money, while inflicting red tape on everyone else.

Tournament - Win a contest against your peers, and you may reap the rewards of riches, admirers, a prize horse, or the hand of your beloved.

Tribute - Someone pays you tribute with gifts, an act of generosity belied by the fact that it probably came about by the demand of societal convention.  But while you might arrange a situation where someone would have to pay you tribute, you can't determine what they'll gift you with.
« Last Edit: November 03, 2011, 10:04:55 pm by rinkworks »
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Tombolo

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Re: Favorite thematic cards
« Reply #2 on: November 03, 2011, 10:11:34 pm »
+1

Just this morning I was thinking about Crossroads.  It gets you places really fast, but if there aren't any Provinces or whatnot to GO to, it doesn't do you much good.
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Jimmmmm

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Re: Favorite thematic cards
« Reply #3 on: November 03, 2011, 10:17:18 pm »
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These are my two favourite cards thematically:

Torturer - I know this has already been mentioned, but I think there's even more. So the Torturers are working together to discover a way to Curse your kingdom, but you resist them, causing damage to yourself. If you resist them for long enough, they end up killing you (you discard your whole hand). Of course, if the first Torturer doesn't work, he's softened you up for the next one.

Mountebank - A mountebank is a salesman who sells something that he makes seem really good (ooh look - Copper!) but ends up being really bad. Perhaps the +$2 should be dependent on if you give something out, but anyway. Of course, if his victims have seen his trick before, they're not likely to fall for it again.
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AJD

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Re: Favorite thematic cards
« Reply #4 on: November 03, 2011, 10:28:43 pm »
0

Just this morning I was thinking about Crossroads.  It gets you places really fast, but if there aren't any Provinces or whatnot to GO to, it doesn't do you much good.

And when you come to a crossroads, of course, there are three ways you can go!
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Jack Rudd

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Re: Favorite thematic cards
« Reply #5 on: November 03, 2011, 11:12:38 pm »
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Council Room: Having the advice of a whole council gives you plenty of ideas about what to work on - but they don't actually do anything themselves, so you need to have got some workers from the village lined up first. Also, with so many people passing out advice, some is bound to leak out to the neighbouring kingdoms.
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AJD

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Re: Favorite thematic cards
« Reply #6 on: November 03, 2011, 11:28:28 pm »
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Oh, I almost forgot Governor: He's up for reelection soon, so he needs to ensure broadly shared benefit for all his constituents... but his policies are most helpful, of course, to his biggest campaign contributor.
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michaeljb

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Re: Favorite thematic cards
« Reply #7 on: November 03, 2011, 11:30:59 pm »
+1

Silk Road - those mere paths connecting the three Estates you inherited from your parents are nothing special, but that massive network of roads connecting the Provinces and Colonies all across your kingdom can eventually impress the other monarchs as much as the Provinces and Colonies themselves.

edit: And it's even better with other Kingdom Victory cards... "Wow, these gardens and vineyards all along the road are beautiful!" "You say that even the dukes and the rest of the nobility walk upon this very road? Fantastic!" "It even goes through a tunnel to the islands!"

Border Village - those other monarchs laughed when you went out of your way and spent twice as much to build that village at the limits of your lands, but immediately upon arrival your new villagers turned up something incredibly useful--a harbor that would be perfect for a new wharf, or a witch from the wilderness that may become your ally, or even an unclaimed Duchy.

Farming Village - don't worry about caring for that land, the Farmers here are great at dealing with that kind of thing.

Council Room, Envoy, and Embassy all seem somewhat thematically similar--very good at drawing a lot of cards (overseeing many aspects of your kingdom), but the cooperation that comes with the diplomacy has some drawback.
« Last Edit: November 03, 2011, 11:39:58 pm by michaeljb »
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Jimmmmm

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Re: Favorite thematic cards
« Reply #8 on: November 03, 2011, 11:40:51 pm »
+1

Border Village - those other monarchs laughed when you went out of your way and spent twice as much to build that village at the limits of your lands, but immediately upon arrival your new villagers turned up something incredibly useful--a harbor that would be perfect for a new wharf, or a witch from the wilderness that may become your ally, or even an unclaimed Duchy.

Or you could look at it the other way: You've invested all these extra resources heading into the wilderness to find that witch, you may as well set up a village while you're there.
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michaeljb

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Re: Favorite thematic cards
« Reply #9 on: November 03, 2011, 11:51:33 pm »
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Or you could look at it the other way: You've invested all these extra resources heading into the wilderness to find that witch, you may as well set up a village while you're there.

That's actually better than my way; it's more like how Border Village actually plays :)
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chwhite

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Re: Favorite thematic cards
« Reply #10 on: November 04, 2011, 12:05:22 am »
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I'll third, fourth, whatever, the love for Torturer as the most perfectly-themed card in Dominion.  Noble Brigand and Tournament are other obvious choices.

Some less-obvious favorites that haven't been mentioned:

Mining Village- Okay, it's a Village, so it gives you people.  But it's a Mining Village, so it can dig precious resources out the ground for you to buy things with!  But once you're done digging: the vein has run dry, the land is ravaged by slag heaps and no longer able to support the people to give you actions.  They scatter, leaving a ghost town wreck that is deposited straight into the Trash.

Pearl Diver- Go to the bottom of the ocean (deck), you might find something useful!  Okay, maybe this one is semi-obvious.

Minion- Get an army of minions to do your bidding, and you will run roughshod, grabbing money from all over the place, scrounging up more of your resources, and knocking in some heads (your opponents)!  But just one minion can only do one of those things, he can't do that much bidding by himself.

Harem- Actually, uh, never mind.
« Last Edit: November 04, 2011, 12:22:12 am by chwhite »
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Jack Rudd

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Re: Favorite thematic cards
« Reply #11 on: November 04, 2011, 12:22:41 am »
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Vineyard: Producing wine doesn't do much for you in itself. But get yourself a nice productive kingdom full of people in gainful employment, and suddenly your vineyards are a lot more valuable.
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dondon151

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Re: Favorite thematic cards
« Reply #12 on: November 04, 2011, 12:41:19 am »
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Fairgrounds and Hunting Party are two of my favorites from Cornucopia.
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Willvon

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Re: Favorite thematic cards
« Reply #13 on: November 04, 2011, 01:46:24 am »
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Menagerie- I was looking for some diversity here in my kingdom, not just the same old, same old.  And I will reward you for that diversity with extra helpers and financial support.
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PettyThiefLout

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Re: Favorite thematic cards
« Reply #14 on: November 04, 2011, 07:44:01 am »
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Treasure Map gets my vote: sometimes it'll lead you to glory and riches, but often enough it's just a wild goose chase.

Embargo is pretty awesome as well for this. It's basically exactly what you expect a card named embargo to do!

Harem is pretty much the OPPOSITE of that: You'd expect a captive group of women to cost you money, not make it.
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theory

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Re: Favorite thematic cards
« Reply #15 on: November 04, 2011, 07:51:49 am »
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Harem is pretty much the OPPOSITE of that: You'd expect a captive group of women to cost you money, not make it.
Your mind is clearly not dirty enough.
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def

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Re: Favorite thematic cards
« Reply #16 on: November 04, 2011, 07:57:45 am »
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Native Village - Give all these small gifts to the native people, one by one, making them happy. But since you are the big, bad colonialist, one day you'll come back and leave them with nothing (- sometimes not even with their lives).

Cellar - Let's face it, everybody's cellar is quite a mess, stuffed to the ceiling with useless things. When you want to put new, useless things in your cellar, you need to remove an equal amount of things to have room for them.

Ghost Ship - Some of your companions are so afraid that they won't return until the start of your next turn, only three brave remain.

Ambassador is obvious, but it's nice to think of "Here, take this curse as a present".

Forge is "Kunstschmiede" in german. A "Kunstschmied" is no ordinary blacksmith, he is an ornamental blacksmith: Put different things together to craft a fine piece of art - but make a little mistake during this process and you are left with nothing. Who didn't miscount at least once while playing forge - especially with cards like Bridge in play.

Treasure Map is different in my opinion. It's ripped in two pieces - only both combined lead to riches.
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Donald X.

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Re: Favorite thematic cards
« Reply #17 on: November 04, 2011, 09:23:30 am »
+1

So there are several cards in Dominion where the relationship between the name of the card and what it does in the game (or its relationship to other cards) is obscure at best: What does a throne room have to do with doing something twice?
The idea behind Throne Room is, that when the king gives you an order directly, man, you hop to it.
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AJD

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Re: Favorite thematic cards
« Reply #18 on: November 04, 2011, 09:46:25 am »
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Menagerie- I was looking for some diversity here in my kingdom, not just the same old, same old.  And I will reward you for that diversity with extra helpers and financial support.

And the way the title ties in with the card is, well, a menagerie is a zoo. No one's going to want to come to see a zoo that only has one or two different kinds of animal!
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Octo

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Re: Favorite thematic cards
« Reply #19 on: November 04, 2011, 09:46:45 am »
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Scheme - Conspirator : great inter-card theme (store up two schemes indefinitely to activate your conspirators every time)

Bridge - allows you access to land (greens) that were otherwise difficult to get to.

Masquerade - the action mimics the masquerade balls nicely, the type that go round in circles and people exchange partners etc.

Trade Route - this pretty thematic as well - the more land people have, the more trading occurs, the trashed card is the traded goods, the +1 buy is the thing your trading them for. Kinda. :)
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AJD

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Re: Favorite thematic cards
« Reply #20 on: November 04, 2011, 09:47:13 am »
0

So there are several cards in Dominion where the relationship between the name of the card and what it does in the game (or its relationship to other cards) is obscure at best: What does a throne room have to do with doing something twice?
The idea behind Throne Room is, that when the king gives you an order directly, man, you hop to it.

Twice, apparently!
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Jimmmmm

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Re: Favorite thematic cards
« Reply #21 on: November 04, 2011, 09:50:11 am »
+4

So there are several cards in Dominion where the relationship between the name of the card and what it does in the game (or its relationship to other cards) is obscure at best: What does a throne room have to do with doing something twice?
The idea behind Throne Room is, that when the king gives you an order directly, man, you hop to it.

"I tell you to jump, you say 'How high?' I tell you to make me 2 coins, you make me 4. I tell you to tell someone to do something twice, you tell two people to do something twice. Do you understand?"
"Yes Sire. Yes Sire."
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popsofctown

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Re: Favorite thematic cards
« Reply #22 on: November 04, 2011, 12:20:03 pm »
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Festival It has everything!  Want to play game?  Two booths over there!  Do you want to buy something?  There's lots of things to buy here!  Hey if you do well at those games maybe you'll win some coins!

Secret Chamber When the kingdom is under attack, the most important people need to hide in the Secret Chamber.

Swindler A swindler often gets you to buy something that looks a lot like something else..

Nobles I like the way it matches up with medieval history.  Nobles were often considered important people, but they barely produced any goods or services, and weaseled out of wars and sent a proxy whenever possible.  Nobles doesn't seem to work exactly as advertised, in spite of the 2 VP value the era has put on them.  How come even the villagers can do these things just as well even if the nobility is blessed by God and prejudicially superior? hmmm....

Haven Obvious though

Philosopher's Stone  "Lord I swear I can make this rock shine like Gold, just give me time!"

Jack of all Trades Well, I used too.  Until I started realizing that he plays more like Jack the One Trade Treasurer

Those are my faves. (that haven't been mentioned)
To be brutally honest this game has weaker flavor than most other games I play.  I find managing a kingdom to feel kind of impersonal.  I do appreciate the cards that are mechanically similar to what they do though, they're neat.
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Taco Lobster

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Re: Favorite thematic cards
« Reply #23 on: November 04, 2011, 01:19:27 pm »
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Somewhat off point, but I always like to think of Haven as a time machine/suspended animation device.  When playing with physical cards, I almost always mumble to myself that I'm sending a card forward into the future when playing Haven.
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ChaosRed

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Re: Favorite thematic cards
« Reply #24 on: November 04, 2011, 01:28:42 pm »
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Chapel - Purges you of sin, helps purify the soul and is accessible to everyone, poor and rich alike. It can even lighten your load of money, but in return you are somehow more free to pursue more noble tasks.

Lookout - Simple really, the card does precisely what the name entails. It looks forward and provides information and allows you to avoid pitfalls by removing them, while enhancing your navigation.
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AJD

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Re: Favorite thematic cards
« Reply #25 on: November 04, 2011, 02:18:07 pm »
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On the flip side, I also quite enjoy it when the card theming totally breaks down. I mean, of course a Moat can protect you from Militias and Witches (witches can't cross fresh water), but something about "Haha, your Pirate Ship cannot attack me! I have a Moat!" always strikes me as very humorous.
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Dauntless

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Re: Favorite thematic cards
« Reply #26 on: November 04, 2011, 03:53:52 pm »
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Chapel was the first time I noticed any theme. The chapel is the place where you get rid of your curses.

My favorite thematic use for the moat is to keep the Bureaucrats out.
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dondon151

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Re: Favorite thematic cards
« Reply #27 on: November 04, 2011, 06:26:02 pm »
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On the flip side, I also quite enjoy it when the card theming totally breaks down. I mean, of course a Moat can protect you from Militias and Witches (witches can't cross fresh water), but something about "Haha, your Pirate Ship cannot attack me! I have a Moat!" always strikes me as very humorous.

Well, the Pirate Ship needs to get into the Moat in the first place...
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