How does Templar ever come off your reserve mat? If you intend for it to be a one-shot, wouldn't it be easier just to have it trash itself?
When your shuffle your deck. So not a one-shot. It only gets played once every other shuffle. But of course, an opponent with Templar ramps up the frequency of shuffling.
Your Clergy line really ought to go something along the lines of Deacon-Priest-Monsignor-Bishop-Archbishop. You don't want to have up to 5 Popes floating around, and Cardinal is a different kind of status than Bishop. (Not all Cardinals are Archbishops or even Bishops, and in the Middle Ages, some of them were even laymen.) (Plus, not all Europeans in the Dominion era were Catholic; some were Orthodox and had neither Cardinals nor a Pope).
The existence of Bishop hinders any attempt to make a stepwise or complete hierarchy of church offices. You'll note as well I've got "village priest" as such mostly as a reflection of the village-like nature of its turn two. I don't really care that there might be multiple popes floating around simultaneously (nor is it historically unprecedented). So in all, point taken, but not implemented.
Novice seems like an expensive version of Sage. It might be worth $3; definitely not $5, even given the arbitrariness of Traveller pricing.
Well, the arbitrariness of Traveller pricing makes it a moot point, more or less. But it's better compared to Golem than Sage. It is not concerned with price of cards, and only hits Actions.
Nun can probably just set aside the Victory cards, like Island; it would make the card less wordy. Also, I think your 'Non-kingdom' wording is trying to account for variable-VP cards like Silk Road; setting them aside would avoid this problem, and also the problem of 'Non-Kingdom', which is not a Dominion term.
This wording was suggested in the other thread on this Traveller line. Yes, setting aside a card could handle the other types of VP and it was suggested. I'll consider it further.
Sinner is missing some wording in the posted image. What is it supposed to say?
It's all there, actually. Changing the name to Blasphemer caused too much squeeze on the bottom line, so I needed to move the in to before the ellipses instead on before hand and play respectively. If you have a Confession in play, you may exchange Sinner for Novice; if you have Confession in hand, you may exchange Sinner for Blasphemer. If you have one in play and one in hand, you may choose which way to exchange (but still only one way or the other, as indicated by "exchange").
Cloister seems overpriced; it's similar to Distant Lands but more expensive and less versatile, unless you plan to use a TFB on it.
You might have misread this. Unlike Distant lands, this is not a risky investment. It's the opposite. You get the points when you buy it, and they're (mostly) untouchable. Cloister itself is fairly easy to get rid of thereafter, especially incentivizing buying more cloisters. Cloister is strictly better than Duchy, and not overpriced.
The idea of Excommunication, an untrashable curse, is OK, but the name is odd, thematically. Excommunications can be and frequently are lifted, and are not the result of blackmail. Also, thematically, you ought to get an Excommunication for playing a Heretic or Blasphemer.
Sure, but theme's not everything. I mean, Giant and Torturer are both cursers connected to a witch-themed card. I mostly just wanted another card using Excommunication connected to Heretic. But I would certainly consider changing Excommunication's name. It started elsewhere from where it went in development, the name largely a vestige.
I don't really like the idea of a curse that's completely untrashable (Excommunication). I'd rather just make it harder to trash. Maybe "When you trash this, gain a curse" so you'd basically have to trash it twice.
I really like your idea.
I like this as well, except that I fear the effect would just render this a simple curse in games with another curser, once the Curse pile is depleted. It might warrant this change nonetheless if I bumped the VP penalty to -2 on this card.
Crusade looks really weak; a Scout without the +1 Action. I'd usually rather just have a Duchy.
Yeah, you did misread that. It's a Smithy that sometimes gives you VP. And I think I will remove the on-buy effect of this.
Holy See looks worth testing, at least (though probably something Diocese would be a better name, as there is only one Holy See); you'll want to see how often people buy this over Duchy.
From the few tests I've played with it, it served especially as a counterpoint to Templar and as a good buy later in the game near the shuffle point to push for major greening to the finish.
Labyrinth is interesting; my instinct is to compare it with Tunnel and Island, other Alt-VP cards that are too weak to be strategies on their own, but are sometimes worth buying for their abilities. However, I'm not sure I'd buy a Labyrinth for its ability, if it will trigger someone else's Labyrinth. Maybe have it trigger on gaining Provinces, or on gaining Treasures?
Good point. I think I could just use the wording "Victory card other than Labyrinth."
Iconoclast seems way too powerful; it's a combination of a slightly-weaker Monument and a slightly-weaker Sea Hag.
It seemed to pass muster after revision when it was posted some time ago. Cursing with it turned out in reality to be quite difficult to effect, unless a player was willfully ignoring the +VP token gainers on the table in favor of a different strategy.
Cursed Idol seems pretty weak; in order to use it, I have to buy what is effectively a Copper, costing myself a VP in the process, and then buy junk cards in order to curse other people.
Yeah, I've been trying and trying to retool this card in a way that toned down its ridiculous ability to dole out curses en masse in previous iterations. I'm not sure it's worth retooling again. I can track down the link for the other thread if you want to review the discussion.
Collection Plate is similar to Explorer; how often do you buy one of those?
Depends on your deck composition. Explorer can't get you alt-Treasures either. Nor does it have the deck-cycling effect. It's also cheaper.
Collection Plate seems weak, especially since a single Charity isn't really bad.
I welcome suggestions on weakening Charity.
Penance is similar to Distant Lands, which costs $5; is it too cheap?
You nerfed Penance a little too much from it's previous version. Now it's just a Moat that gives you 2VP when you trash it instead of moat's reaction.
Two very different views on Penance pricing. I think it's in some ways a riskier investment than Distant Lands, since it gives you negative points if you fail. You essentially go into debt first. You also can't get rid of it if there's a Curse or Hex in hand, which, given the terminal draw of this card, is another potential impediment to the reward after the early game. I think LibraryAdventurer is right that if anything, I nerfed it too much. But +3 cards might be too strong. I welcome suggestions.
Templar is going to be a big pain to resolve with the "Look through each others players' discard piles" part. It'd be simpler to say, "Each other player reveals their discard pile and shuffles up to five victory cards from it into their deck." Even that is going to cause too much reshuffling, and I don't think the attack needs to be up to five. I would do something like this: "Each other player reveals their discard pile and puts two (or 3) non-action victory cards from it on top of their deck."
I'll think about it. Top-decking definitely speeds things up a bit, but it's a much harsher attack. Then again, Templar is player only once every other turn....
I use a card almost the same as Synod, except it says "reveal the top 2" instead of 3, and it's still plenty strong for a $4 cost. So I think Synod might be too strong for $4 & too weak for $5 as is.
I originally priced it at $5, but with +3 Actions. But as posted here, I think it is comparable to Wandering Minstrel and is not necessarily strictly stronger or weaker than it. WM draws you a card no matter what, while Synod sometimes fails. WM sets up subsequent draws to grab Actions, but Synod discards all but the one you choose to put in hand.
Does Holy Vestment count itself when counting holy vestments on the tavern mat? hard to tell.
No, you first call HV and then your count the VMs on the mat. So you need at least two to make the card useful.
I think Pardon is too similar to Shanty Town to be worth using. Also, I think Missal is too similar to Expedition.
Similar. But I think they are sufficiently distinct to make their existence worthwhile. Shanty Town and Pardon play differently; and Missal is a bit more versatile than Expedition.