Here's a silly idea I had after
spiralstaircase posted Fairytale cards which begot Story Points. I hadn't fully designed or even really tested the idea, but here's how it goes:
Introducing
Story cards (Stories). There are 12 cards in each Story pile, just like Victory cards. They grant to their owner Story points (SP). The player with the fewest Story Points loses the game, regardless of their Victory Point total, and then the remaining player with the most VP wins. Ties are friendly, so if multiple players each have the fewest Story Points, none of them are eliminated.
Dominion: Fantasy, Setup
In games using any cards or Landmarks from Dominion: Fantasy, each player begins by secretly building their 10 card deck out of the normal starting cards and up to 6 History cards (4 with 5 or more players). Remove the other cards from the game without looking at them.
At the end of the game, the player with the fewest SP loses the game regardless of VP. If this is a tie, no one loses.
History: 24
Types: Story
Cost: $2
4SP
Players begin games with Dominion: Fantasy cards by building their own deck out of the usual cards and History cards. It is secret, so you won't necessarily know how many History cards a player has (though their opening plays will give you a hint). There are 24 History cards total. History cards are not added to the Supply: You can only get them at setup. You are allowed to replace Shelters and Heirlooms from your starting deck with History cards. Your deck must be comprised of exactly 10 cards. Players shuffle and draw their starting hands after building their decks.
Dominion: Fantasy as a set has 24 History cards, 20 Kingdom card piles (each of which is a Story card), and 16 Landmarks that provide SP.
Find below some sample cards:
Interpreter
Types: Victory, Story
Cost: $3
Worth 1VP for every 2 History cards in your deck (round down).
Worth 1SP for each differently named Victory card in your deck.
Keep 4 History cards for a cheap 2VP+SP card. Keep 2 History cards and this is at least an Estate+SP. Maybe don't keep 6 History cards, but I won't tell you how to live your life.
Superstitious Village
Types: Action, Story
Cost: $4
+1 Card, +3 Actions. Discard a card.
2SP
A sifting double-
Village with a fixed SP counterpoint. Too many of these and you'll be discarding your whole hand.
Magic Beans
Types: Treasure, Story
Cost: $5
$2. When you play this, trash a card from your hand and if it isn't a Treasure, gain a Treasure costing up to $3 more than it.
Worth 1SP per differently named Treasure in your deck.
A mandatory trashing Treasure that
Mines non-Treasures into Treasures if you want. Too many of these and you won't have anything to trash.
Faerie Circle
Types: Landmark
When scoring, 3SP per differently named card you have after the first 5.
Like
Museum, but with a threshold. It matches
Museum at 15 differently named cards for 30SP to a typical maximum of 18 names for 39SP.
Shangri-La
Types: Landmark
When scoring, 3SP per copy you have of the least common Victory card among your cards (if it’s a tie, count either).
Similar to
Triumphal Arch, but makes you need to have an equal number of each Victory card you put into your deck. Maybe the 1 Duchy you'd buy will cost you the Story Points that allowed you to compete?
Even scaling cards have largely fixed SP caps to make it easier to track other players' SP potential. If I know you have 2 Magic Beans cards, then I know you can have 2*(Unique Treasures)+4*History Story Points, but I can't necessarily be completely sure of how many History cards you have (from 0 to 6).
Strategically, you want to have 1SP more than the player who has the fewest SP, but any SP over that is useless.
HISTORY
Superstitious Village originally gave 1SP per 2 differently named Actions in your deck, and is now worth 2SP so that tracking players' SP is easier.
Magic Beans originally optionally Remodeled anything to Treasures, and now trashes Treasures or Mines non-Treasures so you can't trash anything to Copper on your last turn for Magic Beans' SP value.