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« on: May 20, 2024, 06:50:56 am »
Nice effort! Cards that differ per game always intrigued me, even though it is usually ill-advised to design a card this way. So I'm going through the cards that use Ways as a means of making them Druid variations.
Woodland Sages: This is far away the best Ally that uses this concept, and I can see this being interesting with most of the Ways. The fact that it has 3 ways increases the chance that there is an interesting Way in there, and the limitation to one per turn prevents the chance of it being overbearing. It is still kinda weird to design an Ally this way, as you need to go through 2 layers of randomness to get this Ally in the first place.
Oxen: I see this being even worse than Farming village in that its enhanced part will matter extremely infrequently. It is not going to make getting Duchies more appealing any time soon, as turning dead cards into weak terminals is generally not worth it. It also doesn't help that several Ways, like Way of the Chameleon or Way of the Frog, are completely pointless for this. Playing Duchies is a messy concept; the payoff has to be worth it.
Farmhand: As Tiago said, the "Choose one: +1 Action" part is completely pointless, and if you let the abilities completely depend on the used ways, this card is going to be dreadful far too often. The concept has potential, just replace the "+1 Action" part with something meaningful. The easiest option is to go for "Trash 2 cards", making it a variation on Steward. You can also go for "+1 Card, +2 Actions" making it similar to Town.
Estate Manager: You want to get rid of Estates, not turn them into very weak cards that take up your precious terminal space (at the expense of 2 hard earned Favors, mind you). This will certainly be able to pull its weight on Import games, in which the opening turns become far better than usual. But with any other Liaison, this is very likely going to be ignored, even without Estate trashing. (And it also makes the FAQ of Inheritance even longer than it already is).
Beast masters: This and Woodland Sages look like drafts for the same cards; something I see more often in your expansion. I far prefer Woodland Sages though, as this can got out of hand very easily with Underling, as you can trigger the Way after two Underling plays. With Way of the Otter, Underling becomes a superlab every two plays! Enabling an effect to trigger after any Action card is also rather uninteresting; it's far more interesting to go for a Fellowship of Scribes-esque approach.
Animalistic: It is kinda cool, but there is a reason why there are no Traits like this in Plunder: discarding outside of Clean-up is not that common! And even then, it's probably more interesting to just play the card itself normally than as a fixed Way. (or maybe not use it as a Trait but apply it to an actual Kingdom card)
