Dominion Strategy Forum
Dominion => Variants and Fan Cards => Topic started by: mail-mi on September 08, 2016, 04:23:27 pm
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Had this idea (in the RBCI, actually):
Hex - Action - $5
Each other player gains a curse. Put this on the Hex mat.
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If this is on the Hex mat at the end of the game, curses are worth 1 VP less.
The hex mat is universal, and hexes don't return to your deck at the end of the game.
The card is just there to show the concept. What do you think?
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Seems interesting albeit quite expensive for a one-shot that does nothing for you. It is obviously most interesting in games with no trashing at all and in games with other junkers where Hex is more of a support card than a primary junker.
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Seems interesting albeit quite expensive for a one-shot that does nothing for you. It is obviously most interesting in games with no trashing at all and in games with other junkers where Hex is more of a support card than a primary junker.
The card itself definitely isn't the best it could be.
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Since the card is just to show the concept, I'll talk about the concept itself.
I think Curses are already quite bad and I'd only want them to be worse in a very small number of games. I'm more interested in cards that make Curses worse in some other way than making them worth less VP. In other words, making Curses different is more interesting than making them worse. Ruins do a pretty good job here.
The game does already have one card-shaped thing that makes Curses worse: Wall. In almost any deck that has Curses, each Curse in a game with Wall is worth -2 VP.
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What kind of thing would you suggest then?
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I am with LFN that Curses are already pretty bad but let's follow through with your idea of making them worse.
I think that something like Hex has an impact whenever the game is junking-intense, probably due to Looters and might end with a 3 pile ending and a low number of VPs. The other instance a "make Curses worse" card is gonna achieve something is when the Curses are split and (nearly) out in the endgame, you remember the count and, when it is in your favour, decide to hurt the other player. In a 2P game that is either gonna be a VP differential of 2 in the case of a 4-6 split or 8 in the case of a 3-7 split (ignoring trashing for the sake of simplicity).
In the first instance Hex is like Island that doesn't set aside anything but itself and in the second case Hex is like Distand Lands.
So I think that one issue of such a card is that it is only about VPs and not about junking. That's not per se bad but it is only about VPs in a limited set of Kingdoms., quite often something like Hex might not be bought.
Perhaps you might wanna try something like handing out two Curses for additioanl junking or implementing it as an Event for immediacy.
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Hmmm...
Something opposite of that could be interesting:
Hex - Event - $5
Each other player gains a curse. Remove a Curse token from Hex.
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Set up: Place 10 Curse tokens here. Curses are worth 1 (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/thumb/9/92/VP.png/16px-VP.png) less per curse token on here at the end of the game.
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What kind of thing would you suggest then?
Man I have no clue. I was just giving my opinion on the concept of "worse Curses". There's probably quite a few ways to go with "different Curses". I don't think there's one best way.
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Some time ago Multitalented (http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=15315.0) took a shot at two Curse variants, one being a cantrip Curse (http://i.imgur.com/7shX7nX.jpg) and the other being an out-of-deck -2VP Curse (http://i.imgur.com/wpJOoaa.jpg).
I have no idea about balance and fun but I like that they lead to some extra, seemingly (at least I couldn't tell easily whether choosing the alt-Curse or the normal Curse is better in a particular situation) non-trivial decisions to make during the game. And isn't that why we play tableau- and deckbuilders: lot of decisions to make in a relatively small amount of time (compared to other games)?
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If you want to make Curses worse, changing their value isn't the best way I think. In games without trashing, Curses are bad enough, and in games with trashing, you don't really care whether they're -1VP or -5 VP.
Some other variants that I can think of off the top of my head:
Hex - Action $5
Put this on your Hex mat. Each other player gains a Curse.
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While this is on your Hex mat, when any other player trashes a Curse, they put it into their hand.
Or, slightly less bad:
Hex - Action $5
Put this on your Hex mat. Each other player gains a Curse.
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While this is on your Hex mat, when any other player trashes a Curse, they gain a Copper.
Or maybe you want to make the VP penalty stick, how about something like this:
Hex - Action/Duration $5
Each other player gains a Curse. At the start of your next turn, gain a card costing up to $4.
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While this is in play, when another player trashes a Curse, +1VP.
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The thread title is confusing. I thought you meant nerfing curses, not buffing them.
How about 'making Curse stronger?'
When it comes to Hex itself, the first one is 'worth' 2VP, I guess. Then 4VP, then eight I guess? But then you get burned too. It's certainly interesting. I'd compare it to Pillage.
At a $5 one shot, I'd like some type of vanilla benefit though
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Here's a variant on faust's idea, which makes the no-trash not permanent:
Hex - Action-Attack-Duration $5
Until your next turn, when any other player trashes a Curse, they put it into their hand.
At the start of your next turn, +$2 and each other player gains a Curse.
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I agree with LFN&others that increasing the vp loss from curses is not the best way to change them. This is for several reasons, but the main one I have is that it waters down vps from other sources, making those other sources (say Duchies) less relevant and making the Curse split even more relevant.
A thing that could make curses stronger beside making them cost more vp is to have players topdeck them.
Something like (as a proof of concept, and maybe not different enough from existing stuff):
Hexing Hag
5c - Action Attack
+2 Cards. (or some other bonus, I quite like "draw up to 6" here)
Each other player with more than 3 cards in hand reveals a Curse from their hand and puts it on top of their deck;
or they reveal a hand with no Curses and gain a Curse.