Unlike previous sets, it seems like some of the cards/projects that weren't previewed in Renaissance seem more insane than the ones that were. Capitalism comes to mind, but also Scepter, Border Guard, Fleet.
What was the main rationale/process behind which cards get previewed?
It's always nice to save stuff so that the full set isn't disappointing (lots of set highlights weren't previewed in the past - I'll give the Peasant line as an example), but the previews are sure trying to show off cool stuff. But they're hemmed in some too. With half the kingdom cards off-theme this time, there aren't many cards for each theme.
The natural days were off-theme, villagers, coffers, artifacts, projects. You could do it other ways - e.g., every day a Project - but that way looked good.
- There were a lot of options for off-theme. I decided to rule out the Duration cards and Scepter as they stray from the "simplicity" message. I wanted cards that would be fun to see over and over during previews week, which ruled out Witch with its Curses and Inventor with its mega-turns. Hideout was on the list for a while, but I decided Mountain Village would be more fun for previews week. And Improve, well, they couldn't all make it.
- Villagers came ahead of Coffers and so didn't want cards with both; the three I picked were shoe-ins.
- Coffers was hemmed in; I didn't want to show multiple cards with both Coffers and Villagers, and didn't want to show both Ducat and Spices. Silk Merchant was a set stand-out for playtesters, so it made it over Patron. It overlaps some with Lackeys and Spices so I shouldn't show those on their days. And Swashbuckler had an Artifact.
- For Artifacts I just didn't do the card with two Artifacts, that was easy.
- I wanted 3 simple Projects and 3 wackier ones. For preview week considerations I took Fair over Barracks; those are the two simplest. Silos is pretty simple. Citadel gets in something with a big effect that we still all immediately understand. The three wackier ones are all personal favorites. Fleet wouldn't have added as much for previews week. There were playtesters who adored Capitalism, but also ones who didn't like that Capitalism and Patron single out an unusual subset of cards. That doesn't seem to have bothered you people at large, so look at that, playtesters.