Coven
Types: Event
Cost: $6
Move your Cursing token to an Action Supply pile with no other Cursing token on it. (When any player plays a card from that pile, they first gain a Curse.)
The immediate and obvious problem of Coven is how often it will push big-money strategies to the forefront, because one can always avoid Coven completely by having no Action cards. You could possibly have it move the Cursing token to a Supply pile costing at least $2 (to exclude Coppers).
Heretic
Types: Action, Attack, Victory
Cost: $5
While this card is in play, Curses gain the type "Treasure" and have the ability +$2. Choose one or both: Gain a Curse to your hand; or each other player gains a Curse.
At the end of the game, if you have the most Curses, 2VP
If I play multiple Heretics, is it intended that Curses will continue to stack types (even if it is more Treasure types)? Do you intend the Curse to only ever produce $2, even if you play multiple Heretics? I'm not even sure how it would work. Are ties friendly (as in, multiple players each with the most Curses each get 2VP from their Heretics)? I'd assume so since
Keep is friendly, but it has a clause for that.
I'm not sure I would like this very much due to the way the VP will play out so differently in multiplayer games. If giving Curses out is ideal then they split normally, but if its ability is ever relevant (though I'm not sure if it will ever be good enough to take Curses yourself), then the Curse split turns weird.
Potemkin Village
Types: Action, Attack, Victory
Cost: $4
+1 Card. Discard 1 card. If it’s a Victory card: +1 Card and each other player gains a Curse, otherwise: +2 Actions.
1VP
When you gain this, gain an Estate.
Atop anything else, the two dividing lines make this card look very ugly and read strangely. It will probably be fine. I might worry that if a player begins to fall behind in Cursing they will be put even further behind by the Curses which do not cause Potemkin Village to give out Curses.
Raven
Types: Action, Reserve
Cost: $4
+1 Card, +1 Action. you may gain a Raven. If you didn't, put this on your Tavern mat.
When you gain a Province, you may discard this from your Tavern mat. If you do, each other player gains a Curse.
I'm not a big fan of the "cantrip that auto-piles itself." I think
Port and
Magpie are already pretty bad and they don't even pile themselves as quickly as Raven will. This will split strangely in multiplayer games versus 2-player games. In 2-player games it would not be all too strange to give a player 4 or even 5 Curses with your first Province. In 3-player games you will be the lucky one to give 4 Curses. I think losing the Raven split would be an immediate death sentence in most 2-player games: Receiving 6+ Curses in response to another player gaining 1 Province will probably prevent you from doing anything else the rest of the game.
Undead Witch
Types: Action, Attack
Cost: $5
Choose one: Each other player gains a Curse; or each other player gains a Curse from the trash; or trash up to 2 Curses from your hand.
In multiplayer games, I worry that the Cursing from the trash will give an uneven number of Curses when it doesn't want to. I'd just have Undead Witch's on-play put all the Curses in the trash back into the Supply and then dole them out normally. Regardless, this looks pretty weak at a cost of $5 without any benefit attached to it except for the unending Cursing. I might want some small value attached to it. Even +$1.
Warlock
Types: Action, Attack, Reaction
Cost: $5
Trash 2 cards from your hand. Each other player gains a Curse.
When a player trashes a card, you may reveal this from your hand to return the trashed card to the Supply. Then you may discard this, to gain a copy of the trashed card to your hand.
The wording of the Reaction is confusing, so I hope you don't mind that I expanded it above. I think the ability to duplicate Provinces for yourself with multiple Warlocks is something to be wary of.
Living Statue
Types: Treasure, Attack
Cost: $4
$1, +1 Villager. When you play this, if you have 3 or more Villagers, each other player gains a Curse.
This one is pretty clever. Around other Villager producing cards you could get the Curses coming out faster (especially the inter-set combo with
Sculptor). Most of the existing cards make Villagers difficult to access though, so I would worry that Living Statue is too strong as a splitter compared to other Villager-producing cards, and then suddenly there are a bunch of Curses in the game.
Rent Seeker
Types: Action, Attack
Cost: $3
+1 Card, +1 Coffers. If you have at least 3 Coffers tokens, each other player gains a Curse. If they did, they get +1 Coffers
You need an image to apply for the contest.
Either way, a terminal +1 Card is super awkward. I wouldn't recommend it.
Child
Types: Action, Traveller
Cost: $2
Trash a card from your hand.
When you discard this from play, you may exchange it for a Trainee.
Trainee
Types: Action, Traveller
Cost: $3*
Gain a non-Traveller card costing up to $3. You may put it on top of your deck.
When you discard this from play, you may exchange it for a Sorcerer’s Apprentice.
(This is not in the Supply)
Sorcerer’s Apprentice
Types: Action, Traveller
Cost: $4*
Put a non-Reserve card from your hand onto your Tavern mat. If it is a... ...Action card, gain a card costing up to $5. ...Treasure card, +$2, +1 Buy. ...Victory or Curse card, +1 Card, +1 Action
When you discard this from play, you may exchange it for a Sorcerer.
(This is not in the Supply)
Sorcerer
Types: Action, Traveller
Cost: $5*
Each other player puts their -1 Card token on top of their deck. Reveal the top 4 cards of your deck. You may trash one. Put the revealed Treasures into your hand, put the revealed Actions back in any order, and discard the rest.
When you discard this from play, you may exchange it for a Master.
(This is not in the Supply)
Master
Types: Action
Cost: $6*
+$1
You may put your +1 Card, +1 Action, +$1, or +1 Buy token on the Master pile. (When you play a Master, you first get that bonus). Each other player gains 2 Curses. For each Curse they didn’t gain, they gain a Copper instead.
(This is not in the Supply)
I think raw "trash a card" is also too good on the first level of a Traveller: It speeds up your deck and makes it easier to continue the Traveller line. If you want Master, I see little reason you wouldn't open with 4 (or more) Child cards considering it gives so much tempo towards what your deck is trying to do.
Also Sorcerer's Apprentice's ability to tuck Victory cards away forever is trying to slip under the radar here. That effect is pretty ridiculous. I think it should not be able to put Victory cards away, let alone giving a benefit for doing so.
Why doesn't [Sorcerer's Apprentice] just trash the card? Is it just so that it can interact with the Tavern Mat? There's no way to get it back right? The only way I can see this being different from trashing is with Miser.
A Victory or Curse card on your Tavern mat is still a part of your deck and will influence your score. Actions and Treasures typically won't matter, but the wording would become more complex if you treated them differently. Maybe the semantic complexity (players wondering what cards sitting on their Tavern mat are doing) would be worth alleviating with word complexity.
Greedy Witch
Types: Action, Attack
Cost: $2+
+$2. Use a coin token so that each other player gains a Curse.
When you buy this, you may overpay for it. For each $1 you overpaid, take a Coin token.
You need an image to apply for the contest.
Overpaying for Coffers is an issue fraught with huge problems. You can functionally set aside coins to buy Provinces very, very fast. I'd steer clear of the concept of overpaying for Coffers.
Sorceress
Types: Action, Attack
Cost: $3
+$1. Name a card. Each player (including you) may reveal a copy of the named card from their hand. Each player who does gets +1 Coffers. Each player who doesn't gains a Curse, putting it into their hand.
This seems a bit swingy. If I name a card and my opponent doesn't have it (something that will be reliant on luck) he gets a curse (which is -1 point and clogs his deck); if he does have it, not only does he not get a curse, but he gets a coffer. Considering that people consider Hexes swingy because some effects (all of which are pretty much negative) are not as powerful as others at certain times, a positive/negative effect would qualify as swingy too.
I think this is a fair characterization, but is somewhat sidestepping the inherently swingy nature of Curse-centered games. If you have Curses, you have more stop cards, which means the random order of your deck becomes more important.
The original version had no "name a card", always triggering off of Curses (which makes it less Guildsy) and the Cursing was unconditional. Do you suppose making the Cursing unconditional to other players (and therefore increasing the cost to $4) be a major improvement? To do that, I'd probably need to change the "name a card" thing to ensure that it still involves opportunity for other players to get Coffers, but that can be approximated.