Dominion Strategy Forum

Dominion => Variants and Fan Cards => Topic started by: Aquila on January 06, 2020, 05:37:32 am

Title: Up to Date Guide to Fan Card Creation
Post by: Aquila on January 06, 2020, 05:37:32 am
The stickied guide by rinkworks (http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=699.0) highlights common pitfalls to avoid, costing your cards, and how you can make and print your ideas. It is completely right in its introduction:
Quote from: rinkworks on September 21, 2011, 10:17:06 am
The first rule about creating custom fan cards for Dominion is that you can ignore every single rule about it if you want to. Dominion is a game. Its purpose is fun. If you've got a card idea that sounds fun, do it. Playtest it. If it remains fun after scrutiny, keep playing with it.
This is kind of an update and fork from that guide. It covers all the present mechanics, and describes the whole design process for those new to fan card creation.
If you just want the mechanics know-how, go straight to the Research (http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=20045.msg820519#msg820519) section.

Spineflu wrote a fusion of these two guides, with some extra details, here on the wiki (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Fan_Card_Creation_Guide).


Dominion is a very simple, highly flexible game model, and it's very easy to add to. With that flexibility, though, is the potential to land upon uninteresting ideas. While they may not break the game and be imbalanced, your ideas could get to be disappointing in some way after playing with them for a while. Particularly disappointing if you went through the trouble of getting them printed out.
If a house is going to be safe to live in and stand a long time, it has to meet high building standards. Some may meet those standards, but also be a bit boring or offer poor quality of living. Similarly, Dominion cards may be safe but not give a great play experience.
This guide offers suggestions for making your good ideas into great ones for the long term before the final send-off to print, big reveal to your friends, etc.; it goes through the design process, identifying where people can take a bad turn, aiming to help refine your card ideas to be just what you want them to be.
I talk a bit about expansion design. You might consider making one as an extra level of interest that involves more depth than making individual cards. Parts referring to expansion design will be in this font.
 
TL;DR

A note from the author
This guide may look like a rather serious look into the field of Dominion design, but I'm well aware this isn't the most important thing in life! I just settled into playing and learning the game, the idea of making custom cards came up some day, and I fell in love with the thought instantly. I like designing, and Dominion is a simple yet diverse game that is amazingly expandable, yet with traps to avoid. It's been such an interesting process!
It feels exactly the same as playing with Lego to me. The different mechanics of Dominion are like the different pieces in the Lego set, and the cards and expansions I've made are the models.
This guide is the product of several years of casual exploration, written through personal interest and seeing how the forum is continually active. I haven't playtested any of my designs with others or printed any out.

A frank note: have a balanced view of your designs and projects. If you obsess over them, you will never feel satisfied. With all my enthusiasm I have become quite materialistic about my designs at times, chasing after perfection and loving the ideas I considered already perfect too much. This could get very distracting when it was time for important things. The perfect game is less about what the game is, and more about when it is played; provided the content is clean and decent. It is just for recreation, and recreation is supposed to satisfy. Trying to make the perfect Dominion will lead to frustration.
On the positive, the design skills and principles fan card creation can develop can be very practical for important work. If this guide helps you pick some up then I'm happy!

Glossary
Replayability refers to how well a design maintains its interest when played with in lots of different games.
Flavour and theme are used interchangeably to refer to a card's name and its story, and how the other properties of the card connect to it. Mechanics and functions/functionality refers to everything the card can do. A card's properties are its name, abilities, types and cost.
A play theme is a way of building a deck. A thin deck that plays itself every turn (an engine) or a thicker deck with lots of Treasures (called big money) are two example play themes.
Direct payload refers to anything that can directly help getting ahead on VP, so (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/thumb/6/6d/Coin.png/16px-Coin.png), +Buys, (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/thumb/9/92/VP.png/16px-VP.png) tokens, gaining Victory cards and sometimes cursing Attacks. Drawing cards, gaining non-Victory cards, other Attacks, and trashing junk would all be indirect payload.
All random games are those where all 10 kingdom cards and landscape cards are randomly selected.
VP is short for Victory Points. Alt VP cards are those that can provide alternative victory point options to the usual Provinces and Duchies, e.g Gardens (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Gardens).
Terminal Action effects are those that use up an Action, to potentially terminate your Action phase. Any that give +1 or more Actions, or that are on Treasure or Night cards, are described as non-terminal.
Cantrips are non-terminal cards that also draw.
Deck cycle time refers to the game time taken for a card to be drawn into hand. A card gained onto deck takes much less deck cycle time to get to hand than one gained to the discard pile.

Contents
Situation (http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=20045.msg820517#msg820517) (your audience, aim, motive)
Design Brief (http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=20045.msg820518#msg820518) (the project's aim)
Research (http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=20045.msg820519#msg820519) (Lots of really useful stuff to know all in one place)
Specification (http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=20045.msg820520#msg820520) (checklist for your project)
Design Ideas (http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=20045.msg820521#msg820521) (putting card designs together)
Testing (http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=20045.msg820522#msg820522) (proving your cards balanced, fun, simple)
Final Outcome (http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=20045.msg820522#msg820523) (ways to publish)

Now let's follow the order of the design process and apply it to Dominion. No matter how you make your ideas, with paper notes or mental ones, casually or organised, you're going through the same process to get to your final outcome. Even if you have ideas down already, it may be beneficial to step back and look at the basics, to identify where design flaws actually are.

Important points are highlighted in bold.
Title: Re: Up to Date Guide to Fan Card Creation
Post by: Aquila on January 06, 2020, 05:38:15 am
Situation - What is your aim? Who is your target audience? Why are you wanting to make card(s)?

You want to make your cards for somebody, for some reason, and you want to make sure they like them. Focusing on this gives direction for later. Are you in a games group who want to expand their Dominion their own way? Do you just love creativity and want to make ideas that work? Will you want to share your ideas with the general public so they could play them?
After determining who your audience is, what do they like most about Dominion, and what are their favourite cards and play styles?

Note down your target audience and their likes before anything else, as honestly as you can. You now know right away what kind of ideas will bring the most fun, and what purpose they have. No point thinking about the meanest Attack card if your games group is mostly softies; unless you're aiming to open their minds. Generally speaking, the wider your audience is or the less you know about them, the more simplicity is favoured so more people can understand your cards; unless your preferred audience is those who like complexity. Similarly a strategy focus is better for Joe Bloggs, as that's how the official Dominion cards are set; unless your audience is those who want to water the serious strategy side of Dominion down.

Next, note down your primary motive for making cards. It may seem daft, but this will help you stick to the main excitement you have for Dominion and avoid deviating away from it too far when you make new ideas. It may also identify trends in how you will design, and pitfalls you could fall into.


Some motives and their tendencies:

Finally, think of the practicalities; the time you'll put into your design project and the schedule you'll follow, the money and resources needed to print out physical copies if that's your desire, or how and when to post ideas online. These can prepare you for the process ahead and affect how you design.
Regarding time, here's a reality to know in advance: you're going to want occasional breaks from your projects if they're big. Your mind will want to stop the processes of studying the game, and you'll get creativity blocks. It's natural; don't try to battle through those times, as your ideas will be poor, rather factor them in to your schedule.
Title: Re: Up to Date Guide to Fan Card Creation
Post by: Aquila on January 06, 2020, 05:38:54 am
Design Brief - the purpose of your design project(s)

You know your audience, you know what they like, so you know your objective. Now your card designs have a design brief to meet. This is a sentence stating the bare essentials that your design(s) must be if it's to be considered successful. Try not to add lots to the brief, just the basic essentials; you get to add every desirable trait later in its Specification. Avoid generic terms though; you might want to say 'make exciting cards', but what do you mean by exciting? Or 'different', but how exactly? Or 'that my friend or play group likes', but what's involved there? When you come back from a break, you need to be able to get right back in and keep clear focus. Friends sharing in your project need to understand clearly too.

If you're designing an expansion, it will have an overall brief that most of the cards in it need to fit. It should include playstyle themes (e.g. Hinterlands's playstyle themes are when-gain abilities, sifting and Reactions), so that the cards in it have definite interactions with one another. Try to make these themes connected somehow (Hinterlands's are connected by constructing thick decks).

If you're making just a batch of cards that aren't necessarily to play together, they probably still have an overall brief of your preferences.


From here, individual cards will each have their own brief. If you have exciting ideas already noted down, their main concept can be made into such briefs. They should each specify something relating to one or more card properties, which may just include abstract concepts of what the card's abilities are to be, such as 'simple draw' or 'high skill trasher'. Should you need to tweak your ideas later as you develop them, your brief lets you know what you need to try and keep the same.

To start off an expansion, you might put a few individual card briefs you have high hopes in together. They might have a common playstyle theme among them, or they may help you identify one that would fit well. Alternatively, you can begin by thinking of the themes first.

Once you have your briefs, they should ideally be set for good. They're a solid foundation on which you can build a sound final outcome. Some briefs might be asking the impossible though, two or more things that cannot all be met or something that cannot make for a fair, balanced or interesting card. You might come to identifying this later in the process, in which case you will have to adjust the brief.


The more knowledge you have of the makeup of Dominion, be it by play experience or by research, the more likely you are to avoid a flawed brief and land upon great concepts first time. So, that's the logical next step.
Title: Re: Up to Date Guide to Fan Card Creation
Post by: Aquila on January 06, 2020, 05:40:14 am
Research - knowledge of design dos and don'ts

Research may sound boring, but in this case it's nice to do: simply play Dominion! Of course, it'd take lots of games and several expansions for yourself to know enough to make failsafe, quality cards. You can and probably will read up what others have learned by their playing it, like here on this forum, the wiki (link at the top of every forum page) or on Discord. The collective opinion of others gets a better general consensus. Sure you might sit down and read everything at once, but probably you'll look up whatever's necessary for each of your card ideas, each brief, as you develop them. You might even find inspiration for new ideas in the process.
With that said, the rest of this section is some generally useful stuff pooled together into one place for convenience (the other guide has more):

What makes an official Dominion card interesting?

People's different fun factors:

People's bad points about Dominion:

Player interaction:

High skill Vs low skill:
You might want to make challenging cards hard to use well even for experienced players, or easy ones good for a more relaxing game. How do you make them?

Simplicity Vs complexity:
Elegance:
If a card has effects that work very nicely together, that can be pleasing and easy to remember. (Someone might like how Tactician (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Tactician) sacrifices one turn to move its starting cards, Action and Buy onto next turn.) Even when such a card is bad in a kingdom, players still enjoy it.
There was a deep discussion on elegance here (http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=20647.0.).

Strength:
A strong card shapes the game it's in, heavily influencing the winning strategy. Competitive players rank the strength of the official cards. Level of fun isn't considered, which of course is the objective of fan cards.
Every game is different, and every card can be amazing one game, terrible the next. That's how things should be. Every card should have some powerful combos with other cards or be strong when certain effects are absent; if it doesn't, it's too weak to meaningfully exist. Some cards are always useful (like Market (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Market)), but not necessarily influential. There are cards that are useful less often but crazy when they are (think Counting House (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Counting_House)); you or your audience might call them strong, but competitively these are considered weak.

In terms of fun, a strong card can add excitement to the game, players feeling a meaningful strategy come together as it hits the table. If it's overly strong, though, each game it's in will get to feel mundane and scripted with time. (The outtakes Ambassador (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Ambassador), Ghost Ship (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Ghost_Ship) and Mountebank (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Mountebank) were all strong but they could create unpleasant experiences.) If a strong card is beatable, identifying how can be very satisfying.
The mild supporter cards like Market (most are cantrips) have their place in making games enjoyable, letting the main strategy be told by the other cards; it's a welcome presence that doesn't add too much noise. There has to actually be strong cards there, of course.

To prove a card strong, play experience with it is the real indicator. The Qvist ranking lists (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/List_of_Cards_by_Qvist_Rankings) give the average consensus of competitive players for the official cards, to help get an idea of strength. Not many people vote and affect the rankings there, so it isn't reliable evidence, but still good. If you're looking to make strong cards, try to figure out why they're so ranked for yourself, and identify trends.

The ThunderDominion rankings (http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=19871.0) give consensus of cards' strength within sets rather than cost brackets.

Costing cards:
Lots in the other guide (http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=699.msg9669#msg9669) (parts III and IV). This is a big way in which learning the official cards well will help; you can develop a sense for what an appropriate price for your ideas would be by comparing it with them. Most of the time how powerful a card is determines its price, but sometimes there are cases for making a card cost artificially cheap or expensive to help its functions (Chapel (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Chapel) is cheap to be easily accessible, and Hunting Grounds (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Hunting_Grounds) is (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/thumb/6/6f/Coin6.png/16px-Coin6.png) so it can be remodelled into a Province).
Focusing on cost first before the rest of its abilities can make you quite cramped for flexibility, so it's usually better to leave it until last and fit it around everything else; in some cases finalising the cost part way through is fine (e.g. you may be designing a fairly powerful card, decide that it would be a fun opener and so determine the cost should be (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/thumb/2/2a/Coin4.png/16px-Coin4.png), adding this to the design's spec). There are often variables you can adjust, like the amount of each +bonus, to better fit a certain cost for balance, so keep open to this.
With expansions, you may sometimes have cost as a priority, especially as you come near to completing it. It's likely important for you to get a good balance of costs to ensure a nice mix in random games with just your expansion.


-- HOW TO USE EXISTING MECHANICS EFFECTIVELY --

Starting with portrait cards, in chronological order:

TYPES -
Action
Treasure
VictoryAttack - lots in the other guide (http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=699.msg9668#msg9668) (part II).
Reaction - lots in the other guide (http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=699.msg9668#msg9668) (part II).
Curse
Duration
Potion

Non-Supply pile

Rewards

The Bane pile/adding an extra Kingdom pile
By contrast, Ferryman (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Ferryman) adds an extra pile as a non-Supply pile. This creates a varying purpose for it in the game. It also means that if the Ferryman pile empties and the extra one with it, only one of the empty piles counts for the 3 toward game end. If the kingdom pile gains cards from the added pile, bear in mind the impact it can have on game speed; Ferryman is a cantrip, so it's very easy to gain multiples of it, but maybe your kingdom pile isn't.

Shelters

Ruins/Looter

Command

Spoils

Reserve/Tavern mat

Travellers

Split | piles
(Here I cover the basic principle of a pile with different cards in it. Empires and Allies split piles are considered together)

Gathering/Supply piles accumulating tokens
(See also (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/thumb/9/92/VP.png/16px-VP.png) tokens)

Heirlooms

Night

Fate and Doom/Boons and Hexes

Spirits

Wishes

Horses
(see also Non-Supply piles above)

Liaison/Favors/Allies

Loot

LANDSCAPES - for effects outside the deck that affect the player's turn, deck or the whole game.

Events

Landmarks

States

Projects

Artifacts

Ways
Traits

MATS AND TOKENS
The trash
Island/Native Village mat

Coffers

Villagers

(http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/thumb/9/92/VP.png/16px-VP.png) tokens

+1 Card/Action/Buy/(http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/thumb/f/f7/Coin1.png/16px-Coin1.png) tokens

-1 Card token - an easy Attack or self setback tool that seems quite reusable.

- $1 token - similarly seems reusable. Vs (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/thumb/4/43/Debt1.png/18px-Debt1.png): this token isn't stackable, so it may make a more balanced Attack, and it can be paid off in the Action phase with +(http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/thumb/6/6d/Coin.png/16px-Coin.png).

-(http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/thumb/3/3d/Coin2.png/16px-Coin2.png) cost token - strong when you can take a card below (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/thumb/7/7d/Coin5.png/16px-Coin5.png) cost with it. And wildly strong if you let it go on Victory piles.

Trashing token - all you can really do is apply it with a different method than paying (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/thumb/3/32/Coin3.png/16px-Coin3.png) and a buy.

Inheritance token - hard to reuse, you can't really add further abilities to cards that already do something, and Estates are at a good cheap price and you start with some.

Journey token - a way to have a card switch between two modes each play. The number of copies you have and/or timing become factors for playing the card well. Always force flipping the token, otherwise it's a “choose one” card.

Debt

Exile

FUNCTION CATEGORIES

Drawing

Draw to X cards in hand
Sifting/cycling (discarding weak or useless cards in the deck, termed junk, to get to good ones)
Village

Throne

Non-terminal
+(http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/images/thumb/6/6d/Coin.png/16px-Coin.png) on non-Treasures 

+Buy
Cost reduction
Gainer
Trash-for-benefit - these seem to feel generally more fun on average. They add extra functionality to the other cards in the kingdom by involving their cost.

Trasher
"Choose one"

Common pitfalls:

Cards (everywhere) cost $X more - it's not fun making cards everywhere less accessible than usual, and you'd break some official ones such as Livery (infinite Horses). Either narrow what costs are increased to things you know will be safe, or simulate it with debt or the - $1 token.

Cards that discard themselves or return to your deck or hand during your Action phase - the problem here is potentially redrawing them to play them multiple times, and in some cases infinite times. This can happen in several ways:
- Reactions with 'you may discard this for +1 Card' could be cycled indefinitely.
- Action kingdom cards that move themselves to discard, deck or hand can similarly play infinitely with Adventures tokens. Either make cards like this come from non-Supply piles or split piles where the top card isn't an Action (the type of the pile will then not be Action so couldn't have tokens on it). In any case, if they return to hand, infinite plays with Champion might be an issue.
- Mandarin can move played Treasures to the top of the deck during your Action phase if gained. Crown and Capitalism can expand this to include Actions.

'When you trash this, gain a card from the trash' - with Watchtower and Tomb, that makes infinite VP. You'll need a fair bit of limiting to prevent this happening.

Attacks that trash other players' cards - always limit the range of things that can be trashed so one player can't fall behind entirely by chance in losing their Province.

[/list][/list][/list][/list]
Title: Re: Up to Date Guide to Fan Card Creation
Post by: Aquila on January 06, 2020, 05:40:58 am
Specification - the criteria your project(s) must meet

After research, you should know the points you need to bear in mind for each brief that you have. Now you can make the specification for each of these briefs, starting with the one for the overall expansion if you're doing one of those. This is a list of the criteria your idea must meet; your brief broken down into individual points, what your research identified with regards avoiding bad or flawed design, your audience's preferences, and expansion themes. Include every other desirable point you can think of, even if not essential, in case they can influence any tweaking later or make one variant of an idea favourite over another. When all the more important criteria are met in your spec, your idea is good to go; you can declare your project complete.

There are 3 points that should be in every specification. Of course, no one is forcing you to add these, but they are fundamentally what makes a great fan card.


In notes, the spec can be drawn up into a table, with columns being criteria (it's a good idea to put them in order of importance, so less important ones could get away with being unfulfilled if needs be), reason for criteria, how to test and test results. This will prepare you for playtesting, and identify some things you can test out by yourself to make the experience better for friends if they want to playtest too. (More in the playtesting section.)

Writing down the reason for each criterion can help confirm how suitable and important it is, in case you should see the need to re-evaluate later; this may happen if you identify you have 2 or more points that can't possibly all be met, and you need to work out which to ditch. It will also help you to see how well justified you are in taking designs down certain directions, which can be either a confidence boost or a guide in a better direction, both needed.

You'll fill in the how to test column later, once the spec becomes a design idea.

Recommendations for further criteria:

For expansions, you could also specify the number of cards there are to be in the set, the number at each price point, how many should use a certain mechanic, or definite card flavours that have to be there to reflect the expansion theme.
Title: Re: Up to Date Guide to Fan Card Creation
Post by: Aquila on January 06, 2020, 05:41:47 am
Design Ideas - translate your specs into effective designs

At last, time to unleash your creative flair! You've set your restrictions, you've got an idea of where your cards are going, now you can set them off on their design journey. You could still take bad turns despite all of that work beforehand, so go carefully.

Start by putting together the card properties you mentioned in your brief. Then stop. Imagine the card like this in your mind; get the nature of the card, asking these questions:
After the first imagining, see if you can add another property; think what will fit well and be interesting. After adding another property, stop again and go over the same imagination process, identifying the differences. Keep doing this until you have all the necessary properties and every above question is positively answered.

This imagining is one of the big keys to being a good designer. With time, you'll be able to do it quicker and develop an innate sense for fan card design, creating good ideas from scratch. That said, newer designers can come across fantastic designs first time, so don't think there must by default be an improvement to make if you imagine everything's good!

You may come across several things that could work from the base idea. In such case, write down the different variants and try working out which is best. Carry them all through to Testing if they seem equal.

Translating concepts into Dominion mechanics can be a challenge. Writing the instructions clearly and succinctly is another. Here you'll want to look up official cards that do similar things and learn their wording. If you have a new mechanic, you may have to use a verb not covered by official wording and (hypothetically) explain it in your card's rulebook.

But at what point do you stop adding things? How much functionality do you add? You should be able to sum up everything your card does in one quick sentence (without mentioning any of the unconditional +bonuses when you play it). You can do this with each of the official cards; Noble Brigand and Pirate Ship look wordy, but they're simply 'steal their money if they're rich, give them a little if they're poor' (notice how the Robin Hood flavour helps here) and 'steal their money to become better payload' respectively. This proves them as easy to learn and remember, and it gives them a pleasing elegance. That's probably two big points in your spec covered.

As you keep thinking about your idea, as the direction it's going in becomes clear, you might decide to make this sentence its brief, if it more accurately conveys what you want from it. You can then feel free to change those first card properties if needs be.

Expansions: it can be helpful to brainstorm here. Have the expansion name in the middle, with the playstyle themes branching off it. Off of these write different related concepts; you should be able to identify a concept linking each theme, so put a line from each of them to it. Then note on how to imply each concept with Dominion mechanics, and if any of these are linked to other concepts somehow draw that on. Then, if you have any ideas for cards or your own mechanics, connect these onto the map. Keep thinking of links from one part of the map to the other and you will find coming to briefs for individual cards easier: this map represents the interactions and the very heart of the expansion, so very useful (just don't let your friends see it!). Keep in mind it's good for some cards to not interact well, so you define different strategies.
Title: Re: Up to Date Guide to Fan Card Creation
Post by: Aquila on January 06, 2020, 05:42:54 am
Testing - proving the quality of your ideas

A test has been defined as measuring a subject against a standard. Your design ideas are the subject, and the standard is the plethora of official cards that exist and the average game that those cards make. The impact on your target audience and how well it fits into the average game (its balance) is the test.

This is not going to be an easy section to write, as every possible design is going to need a different test. You're going to have to do some thinking yourself. Here's where the how to test column on the spec of each idea comes in.
For balance, think about how you can use it to make a powerful winning deck, noting down what other (kinds of) cards would be needed (don't forget any synergy with itself!).
For positive experience, note down how you imagine the card to be interesting, in what situations.
For playing differently from official cards, write down all the ones that share similar functions, if there are any.
For easy to learn, beyond the one-quick-sentence rule there's only one thing you can do: playtest with your play group.
Text size is simple, as explained just below.
Any other points you have will either already be met in previous stages or be tested at the same time as the big three. If not, you can probably work out what to write.


Preliminary testing you can do yourself

OK, you might not do anything by yourself if you've had friends all the way through your project, and that's of course fine, testing everything together can be fun. But if you're doing the project by yourself, there are some tests you can do first before showing the cards to your friends, to make the experience better for them.

You want to make prototypes of each of your ideas and simulate games to yourself. They're only prototypes - you don't need to go fancy with them! Writing them out on pencil and (card-sized) paper lets you make any needed changes. Then, you can set up a game as normal, adding whatever your design requires, and use any kingdom pile or pile of blanks and put the paper over the pile. You have to remember that any kingdom pile you use like this isn't doing what it normally does, which can be tough at first but you get used to it. An easier but costlier alternative if you sleeve your Dominion cards is slip paper prototypes in all the cards of the substitute piles.
You will also need a counter or somewhere to keep a tally, to count turns.

The tests in the order you do them in:

The text size test, if that's in your card's spec. Open up the card generator stickied on this forum (http://forum.dominionstrategy.com/index.php?topic=16622.msg659885#msg659885) (new fork), and type in your card's instructions in the Description box. How easy is it to read on the generated mock-up? Simple; you don't need to do anything else here.

The feel test. You don't need to count the turns for this. Take your idea and put it in a kingdom with cards you know will combo well with it. How does it behave? Actually playing with the card can reveal things your imagining it couldn't see, which may make it stronger or weaker than you thought. How exciting does it feel when it's in its element? It may not necessarily excite you, but can you imagine it exciting your audience? Can you identify ways it could safely be more fun? Also, how easily are you playing it out? If it's complicated or slow, how can you speed it up or simplify it without deviating from the brief? Next, check how exciting it is in a couple of random games: is it nice to analyse at the start of each one? Ignore the novelty of it being your own idea, that's not the excitement you're identifying. If it isn't an interesting process, that suggests your idea is either too open or too narrow in functionality, missing the sweet middle ground, or it's niche but too weak or dull when it's good.
Expansions: once you have 10 or more individual card ideas for your expansion, put them all together in a game and get the feel of the interactions going on. This will be better if you tested them all individually first. Try to have a fresh mind for it, and play them as best you can; now sure, it's giving you an advantage over your friends, so by all means save this for when you're with them if you wish. But the point is, see if you're thinking along the lines of the playstyle themes of your expansion. You could easily come across some strong combos in the process; note these for the later speed test.

The comparison test. Only do this if your idea is similar to official ones; if it's utterly unique, you can't compare it to anything. You're aiming to check for balance by putting it against the official cards you know are balanced, and how different it is to play.
Take it and those that share similar functions and put them against each other in similar deck strategies. Simulate a 2-player game where one uses your idea. Unless a card in the game needs the deck to be as normal, you can take the shuffle randomness away from both sides by flipping each deck over, and when you draw a card pick any from the deck. See if you're satisfied with how different the feel of playing each deck is. Which one is winning out, and why? If you don't see any reason within the mechanical differences of your idea, play the game through again in case your execution could've been better for either side or if turn order was a factor. If it's only a slight win, see if reintroducing shuffle randomness makes any unexpected distinct difference. If one is definitely winning more, really keep trying to pinpoint any reason why; sometimes it can be a very deep matter.

The speed test. How quickly can your idea make a deck that gets to a win condition? Too fast and it's imbalanced. Take the same combo cards you had for the feel test, take your method of counting turns, and flip the deck over to avoid shuffle randomness if you can. Think which game end method is best for your combo's strategy, and simulate an opponent if player interaction is needed. Run the game with the best possible card drawing, adding 1 to the count after every round of turns is finished. If you're going for Provinces, the turn threshold that indicates balance will vary depending on how many different cards are in the combo, not including the base cards. If you have 2 cards, getting 4 Provinces after turn 12 is safe; if 3, 4 provinces after turn 10. You might justify quicker rates as balanced if the cards in the combo are very niche and weak overall (an example is Beggar with Guildhall), since it will rarely come up and very few different cards could replicate it. If you can find a combo that gets them faster using 4 or more cards, that's fine; it shows the potential your idea has, and the chances of all those cards appearing in the same game is slim. If you start the game with a $5/$2 split of money on the first 2 turns, that has about 11% chance normally; you might justify a stronger combo because of this, or disqualify it if you want to avoid that narrow chance deciding games.

If, though, your idea aims to get VP in its own way to win, make a kingdom that helps make it strong enough, and run it against a deck gaining just Provinces. Can it win? In how many different kingdoms could it win? You need it to win only some of the time, and you're aiming to figure out how often and get to a satisfactory rate. And if you need to test out a 3-pile ending, do this with others, as that's the only way to truly simulate it; get the actual mentality of different people rather than trying to imagine them, as you could easily end up biasing their decisions to the outcome you want.


So, your solo testing may reveal some needed improvements. Try to first think about tweaks, the smallest changes you can make, so you don't interfere with the thoughts behind the previous stages of the process too much. Test these out, and if there are still issues think about bigger variants, perhaps at different costs and power levels. All this testing may seem arduous at first, but with time you can add to your design sense as described at imagining your ideas, so you may be able to lessen this part of the process.


Using this Variants forum

Here you can call upon the help of other experienced Dominion players and designers at any stage of the design process. Outside perspective can be extremely valuable. What's generally appreciated is that you start your own thread for everything to do with all your ideas, or one separate one for each of your expansions. You'll probably also get more response if you post design ideas up rather than just your situation or brief, even if you feel the ideas are bad (admit it if so); ultimately design work is yours to do, and ready-made ideas are a more interesting read. That's why I've put this section under Testing.

People may upvote your ideas. That's great of course, but just be clear on what that means: a lot of upvotes shows your idea gives a good first impression, not necessarily a good overall design. It has the exciting factor, but there could be deep underlying problems that people don't see at first. Conversely, a few upvotes or none at all doesn't necessarily mean your idea is bad, imbalanced or boring; its interest could be subtle and more apparent when actually played with.

You may get feedback replies. Again, this outside perspective can be just what you need, and things can be picked out that you missed. Be grateful and be open to what they say. To improve the quality and relevance of feedback, you might mention your situation, the idea's brief and extra points besides the big three in its spec (they're generally assumed; so is being playable in any kingdom, so if you're making an expansion to be played by itself say so), so people get on your wavelength.

Mocking up your ideas with the stickied card image generator makes for an easier read (link images to your thread using an image hosting site like Imgur), but it's optional.


Playtesting with your group

In pure testing terms, the principal advantage here is the outside perspective of your ideas in gameplay, and the reality of different players. Though of course, having fun is the bottom line of board game sessions, and you have to respect that. Set up a game as normal for the group (whatever you do when making an all-official kingdom, don't deliberately select the combo cards like you do with solo tests), making things seem as natural and relaxed as possible. You could either watch them play and observe critically your idea in action or join in and try to treat it like an all-official game, whatever the group's comfortable with. There are testing advantages both ways; the former is like an enhanced feel test, whilst the latter helps you to see the card as if it were official and if it fits in amongst them.

But before anyone jumps in thinking out their strategy, they need to know what the new cards are doing. Here's the test for how simple they are: get them to explain what your ideas do! If they can, your ideas cleanly pass. If you need to chip in with some explanations or rules errata for specific interactions, ask if it makes sense and hope for a unanimous yes, then play through the game and see if anyone asks about those rules again during it. If they don't, your idea may count as a pass, and seeing if they remember when you play it during a later games session will be the indicator. The outcome of this test may or may not identify changes to make depending on how important simplicity is to you, just as long as every game doesn't become an academic exercise.

For the first game or two you're looking for similar things to the solo feel test. Get feedback on how they feel about analysing it for strategy, and any other first impressions they get. As the game goes on and your idea has had a couple of uses, how are they feeling about playing with it? Extra things could be picked out besides your own testing, and more crucially your audience itself is speaking.

Later on, ideally in later games with the idea, you want to check for balance issues:


On the one hand, you want to be absolutely confident about your designs before you publish them somehow, especially if printing. On the other hand, you might not want to go so serious for so long when this is just a game. This balance is yours to call.
Title: Re: Up to Date Guide to Fan Card Creation
Post by: Aquila on January 06, 2020, 05:45:51 am
Final Outcome

Once all the stages of the process have passed, the spec is as ticked off as it can be and your audience like the card or expansion and can see it just like an official one, it is done, ready to be enjoyed for however many games to come. How are you going to materialise it?

You could keep things as paper prototypes to save on money if your play group agree, or make things more glamorous and print them out nice on paper to sleeve, or even order real cards from a printing company. I'm no expert here, but I can say that the Dominion card size is European Skat size, 59x91mm. The other guides have more.

Online, you can present finished ideas on this forum so others can see and play with them. As yet, the only real way to play fan cards virtually is with Tabletop Simulator, which doesn't seem ideal (again I'm no expert, I don't have it). You have to buy it, then organise meetings with players from around the world since there's no AI opponent option. We're almost certainly not going to see fan card implementation on Dominion Online. Someone could make an app, but to make it shareable with others you couldn't have the official cards on it as that would need Dominion Online's and Donald X's consent.

In any case, if you're using internet images for your card illustrations, always check the image is free for non-commercial, Creative Commons use; if it's from an art-sharing website like Deviantart or Artstation or from anywhere else where you know the artist is still alive, you should first ask for consent to use his or her work. Even though you can't make money from your fan cards, and even though the search engine you use may let you freely copy the image, you would still be using the image for entertainment purposes; so you could run into legal issues with what constitutes fair use of the art.
To put it another way, if you want to be entertained by another person's artwork, should you not pay them for their service?


Concluding comments

Well, this ended up being way longer than I expected! I hope this guide helps introduce the design field effectively and provides a convenient place where people can turn to for anything related to their card projects. If you know I'm wrong about something (some of the testing section might be very off) or you have suggestions as to improvements or additions, feel free to reply in this thread. Or if you have anything you're stuck with in your project you can post it in this thread so others can read it too. I'll try to keep the guide up to date, but anyone can feel free to answer questions; just remember that everyone's Situation will be different, so put yourself in their position before answering, and make this a considerate and constructive space.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy your Dominion!
Title: Re: Up to Date Guide to Fan Card Creation
Post by: segura on January 06, 2020, 06:00:06 am
Quote from: Aquila on January 06, 2020, 05:40:14 am
Duration - the card stays in play for however many turns as long as it's tracking something, be that effects for your following turns and/or during each other player's turns. Remember start of turn effects are effectively the same as playing a normal Action with +1 Card +1 Action then the effect, so just +1 Card like Caravan is actually the same as playing Laboratory; so typically the later effects are stronger than the immediate, and the immediate needs to be weak to balance it. The total amount given across the turns is a lot for the card's cost, but in balance staying out of deck for some turns means multiple copies are needed to keep an effect constantly in play, and they can miss shuffles by staying in play at Clean-up. This type is a diverse and useful way to implement a lot of different mechanics, so be open to using it, just as all the newest expansions from Adventures on have done.
I think that this is not specific enough. Terminal card draw is the only thing that is arguably better delayed (Lab vs. Caravan shows that this ain't the case with nonterminal draw), with Actions it is tricky to evaluate (from Fishing and Ghost Town I'd say slightly better delayed but only slightly) whereas Buys and most definitely Coins are the vanilla bonuses that you nearly always want immediately.

For example I once played a Kingdom with no terminals and Fishing Village. Fishing Village wasn't bought at all because Silver was better.


Quote from: Aquila on January 06, 2020, 05:40:14 am
Combining draw with +$ is very strong, as illustrated by how hard Mercenary and Trusty Steed are to get.
How often do you play Trust Steed for +2 Cards and +2 Coins? I definitely do it less than 5% of all times. So we have a rough benchmark: +2 Cards and +2 Coins is weaker than Lost City which is a $6 or a $7. I am pretty sure that such a vanilla card, ignoring that it would be too boring without anything else on it, would be a $5.
Title: Re: Up to Date Guide to Fan Card Creation
Post by: LastFootnote on January 06, 2020, 01:51:36 pm
Quote from: segura on January 06, 2020, 06:00:06 am
How often do you play Trust Steed for +2 Cards and +2 Coins? I definitely do it less than 5% of all times. So we have a rough benchmark: +2 Cards and +2 Coins is weaker than Lost City which is a $6 or a $7. I am pretty sure that such a vanilla card, ignoring that it would be too boring without anything else on it, would be a $5.

I haven't yet read the guide, but will respond to this. I use Trusty Steed as +2 Cards and +$2 as often as I can get away with doing it. If Trusty Steed is my only village then obviously I mostly use it for +2 Cards and +2 Actions. But I try to budget +Actions with the aim of playing Trusty Steed as a powerful terminal.
Title: Re: Up to Date Guide to Fan Card Creation
Post by: spineflu on January 06, 2020, 10:14:48 pm
really great work though Aquila. Knocked out the park.
Title: Re: Up to Date Guide to Fan Card Creation
Post by: AJD on January 07, 2020, 05:22:40 pm
Quote from: segura on January 06, 2020, 06:00:06 am
Quote from: Aquila on January 06, 2020, 05:40:14 am
Duration - the card stays in play for however many turns as long as it's tracking something, be that effects for your following turns and/or during each other player's turns. Remember start of turn effects are effectively the same as playing a normal Action with +1 Card +1 Action then the effect, so just +1 Card like Caravan is actually the same as playing Laboratory; so typically the later effects are stronger than the immediate, and the immediate needs to be weak to balance it. The total amount given across the turns is a lot for the card's cost, but in balance staying out of deck for some turns means multiple copies are needed to keep an effect constantly in play, and they can miss shuffles by staying in play at Clean-up. This type is a diverse and useful way to implement a lot of different mechanics, so be open to using it, just as all the newest expansions from Adventures on have done.
I think that this is not specific enough. Terminal card draw is the only thing that is arguably better delayed (Lab vs. Caravan shows that this ain't the case with nonterminal draw), with Actions it is tricky to evaluate (from Fishing and Ghost Town I'd say slightly better delayed but only slightly) whereas Buys and most definitely Coins are the vanilla bonuses that you nearly always want immediately.
I think you misunderstand what Aquila's saying here. It's not 'it's better to have the effects later than immediately'; it's 'the effect that a Duration card has on the next turn is better than the effect it has now'. Thus Caravan is do-nothing cantrip now, Lab next turn; Caravan Guard is do-nothing cantrip now, Peddler next turn; Wharf is Silk Merchant now, 2 Labs and a buy next turn; etc. The future effect of a Duration card is better than the effect you get on the turn when you play it.
Title: Re: Up to Date Guide to Fan Card Creation
Post by: Gazbag on January 07, 2020, 06:58:05 pm
I've only skimmed through this so far but it seems like a good write up! The only thing that really stuck out to me was this statement:

Quote from: Aquila on January 06, 2020, 05:40:14 am
  • Compare the Empires expansion (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Empires) with the base set (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Dominion_(Base_Set)) or Renaissance (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Renaissance), as Donald designed these to be high skill and low skill respectively.

LastFootnote should be able to correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think Empires was particularly designed to be high skill, it might have ended up that way but I haven't seen Donald say anywhere that it was particularly a goal of the expansion. And I'm pretty sure the goal with Renaissance was to make the mechanics of the cards less complex, not making the strategy less complex/lower skill. (Plus if Donald was trying to make things less skill intensive then he failed miserably there!)


Title: Re: Up to Date Guide to Fan Card Creation
Post by: Aquila on January 08, 2020, 04:24:51 am
OK, I'm done with tidying it all up, and I added a bit on "choose one" in Research.

Quote from: spineflu on January 06, 2020, 10:14:48 pm
I typed up a merged version of this and rinkwork's guide on my wiki user page and added a couple things that weren't addressed that I've run into with my forays into design. Really, really great work though Aquila. Knocked out the park.

Feel free to copyedit/edit/critique; i'll merge it maybe... idk, wednesday? later this week.
link (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/User:Spineflu)

revisions I added:
  • removed things that specifically only mattered to first edition
  • Cost comparison and "Otherwise" vs handling each case
  • broke out the printing subsection of rinkwork's guide to be Copy Editing, Layout, and Printing subsections - they're all different things with different considerations
  • sorted the common pitfalls section into groups - reactions, attacks, gameshaping, and specialized cards; the latter two have significant overlap and their arrangement may require refactoring

things I'd still like to add/tweak:
  • ways of doing vanishing cards
  • the printer herw used when he got correctly sized dominion cards printed back on like, page 4 of WDC thread
  • how do i make level 6 headers not smaller than normal text
Thanks for the credit. This merging of the guides must have been some undertaking itself! It might well be useful for someone, just...I don't imagine people would turn to the Dominion Strategy wiki for fan card stuff? I might link this in the introduction though.
I'm also sure there are loads of specific design lessons that could go in yet; my intention was to slowly add them to Research, or if people wanted to reply with them I'd link it or copy it. Expanding on card wording might be another thing.

Quote from: AJD on January 07, 2020, 05:22:40 pm
Quote from: segura on January 06, 2020, 06:00:06 am
Quote from: Aquila on January 06, 2020, 05:40:14 am
...
...
I think you misunderstand what Aquila's saying here. It's not 'it's better to have the effects later than immediately'; it's 'the effect that a Duration card has on the next turn is better than the effect it has now'. Thus Caravan is do-nothing cantrip now, Lab next turn; Caravan Guard is do-nothing cantrip now, Peddler next turn; Wharf if Silk Merchant now, 2 Labs and a buy next turn; etc. The future effect of a Duration card is better than the effect you get on the turn when you play it.
This is correct, talking about the design trait rather than what's powerful.

Quote from: Gazbag on January 07, 2020, 06:58:05 pm
I've only skimmed through this so far but it seems like a good write up! The only thing that really stuck out to me was this statement:

Quote from: Aquila on January 06, 2020, 05:40:14 am
  • Compare the Empires expansion (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Empires) with the base set (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Dominion_(Base_Set)) or Renaissance (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Renaissance), as Donald designed these to be high skill and low skill respectively.
LastFootnote should be able to correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think Empires was particularly designed to be high skill, it might have ended up that way but I haven't seen Donald say anywhere that it was particularly a goal of the expansion. And I'm pretty sure the goal with Renaissance was to make the mechanics of the cards less complex, not making the strategy less complex/lower skill. (Plus if Donald was trying to make things less skill intensive then he failed miserably there!)
Sure, now I think about it there are a fair few high skill cards in Renaissance (Priest engines, Swashbuckler, Piazza). Goes to show simple can be high skill. Where I was coming from here I suppose was the intended contrast between Empires and Nocturne, and I thought Renaissance would be a better example because it's simpler to understand. This is from the wiki:
Quote
Donald X.'s goal in designing Nocturne was to aim to satisfy the "typical" Dominion player, rather than the expert, so Nocturne cards lend themselves less to subtle and complex strategic decks than do cards from the previous expansion, Empires.
I'll edit it to reference Nocturne.
Title: Re: Up to Date Guide to Fan Card Creation
Post by: spineflu on January 08, 2020, 10:12:39 am
Quote from: Aquila on January 08, 2020, 04:24:51 am
OK, I'm done with tidying it all up, and I added a bit on "choose one" in Research.

Quote from: spineflu on January 06, 2020, 10:14:48 pm
I typed up a merged version of this and rinkwork's guide on my wiki user page and added a couple things that weren't addressed that I've run into with my forays into design. Really, really great work though Aquila. Knocked out the park.

Feel free to copyedit/edit/critique; i'll merge it maybe... idk, wednesday? later this week.
link (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/User:Spineflu)

revisions I added:
  • removed things that specifically only mattered to first edition
  • Cost comparison and "Otherwise" vs handling each case
  • broke out the printing subsection of rinkwork's guide to be Copy Editing, Layout, and Printing subsections - they're all different things with different considerations
  • sorted the common pitfalls section into groups - reactions, attacks, gameshaping, and specialized cards; the latter two have significant overlap and their arrangement may require refactoring

things I'd still like to add/tweak:
  • ways of doing vanishing cards
  • the printer herw used when he got correctly sized dominion cards printed back on like, page 4 of WDC thread
  • how do i make level 6 headers not smaller than normal text
Thanks for the credit. This merging of the guides must have been some undertaking itself! It might well be useful for someone, just...I don't imagine people would turn to the Dominion Strategy wiki for fan card stuff? I might link this in the introduction though.
I'm also sure there are loads of specific design lessons that could go in yet; my intention was to slowly add them to Research, or if people wanted to reply with them I'd link it or copy it. Expanding on card wording might be another thing.

I mean, I read the wiki for a good ... idk six to eight months-ish before even lurking the forum. The forum is more intimidating, whereas the wiki, you can kind of work on things at your own pace without anyone stopping you. The difference between a book and a class, I suppose.
Title: Re: Up to Date Guide to Fan Card Creation
Post by: [TP] Inferno on January 08, 2020, 07:06:48 pm
Quote from: spineflu on January 08, 2020, 10:12:39 am
I mean, I read the wiki for a good ... idk six to eight months-ish before even lurking the forum. The forum is more intimidating, whereas the wiki, you can kind of work on things at your own pace without anyone stopping you. The difference between a book and a class, I suppose.
Same here, actually. Also, amazing work Aquila. Great job.
Title: Re: Up to Date Guide to Fan Card Creation
Post by: spineflu on January 11, 2020, 12:15:29 am
that took a while to get all the formatting and i still dont think i'm done but here we are (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Fan_Card_Creation_Guide)
i also checked with werothegreat that this'd be ok to include provided it stayed on one page, in the community section.
now it should be easier to peruse for folks who aren't 100% on the canon dominion cards.
Title: Re: Up to Date Guide to Fan Card Creation
Post by: herw on January 11, 2020, 01:09:31 am
Quote from: Aquila on January 06, 2020, 05:45:51 am
Final Outcome
[...] I'm no expert here, but I can say that the Dominion card size is European, 59x90mm, not bridge or poker size. The other guide has more (link).
[...]
The European Card size for DOMINION is SKAT-size, which is 59x91mm.
Title: Re: Up to Date Guide to Fan Card Creation
Post by: Aquila on January 11, 2020, 04:06:33 am
Quote from: [TP] Inferno on January 08, 2020, 07:06:48 pm
Quote from: spineflu on January 08, 2020, 10:12:39 am
I mean, I read the wiki for a good ... idk six to eight months-ish before even lurking the forum. The forum is more intimidating, whereas the wiki, you can kind of work on things at your own pace without anyone stopping you. The difference between a book and a class, I suppose.
Same here, actually. Also, amazing work Aquila. Great job.
Quote from: spineflu on January 11, 2020, 12:15:29 am
that took a while to get all the formatting and i still dont think i'm done but here we are (http://wiki.dominionstrategy.com/index.php/Fan_Card_Creation_Guide)
i also checked with werothegreat that this'd be ok to include provided it stayed on one page, in the community section.
now it should be easier to peruse for folks who aren't 100% on the canon dominion cards.
Oh yeah, I forgot about the community section on the wiki. Well in that case you're guide's a good job well done, spineflu! Your bit on player interaction should be quite inspiring for new ideas.
Title: Menagerie Update
Post by: Aquila on March 05, 2020, 11:14:10 am
Added these points to Research with Menagerie's release:

People's different fun factors:
...

People's bad points about Dominion:
...


TYPE
... Use a new type only...if it indicates something extra to do at setup like Looter (having to set aside the right number of Ruins and then shuffle them. You don't have these unspecified rules with Horses, just putting them out, so no type needed).

Horses - you may think 'there's +1 Action tokens and + $1 tokens, what about +1 Card?'. That's what Horses are. They're better than tokens because they can only grant extra cards at the Action phase like almost every other draw in the game, and they still need the deck built well to support them. They're less flexible than tokens, but in this more balanced. Avoid making ideas merely simulate +Cards using Horses, i.e an Action that gains Horses to hand; chances are if you can use a Horse immediately you will.

Ways - adds to the start of every Action, 'choose one: this Way; or the following instructions'. They can either be consistency aids that work around shuffle randomness, or they can provide windows of opportunity that you can easily access when the time is right. Cheap, situational or temporarily functional Actions like trashers are made more useful. They should all be weak effects around $1 to $2 in strength, so they're never overpowering what the Actions do. The extra choices given throughout the game can also make analysis paralysis much more likely.

Exile - if you need to set aside cards just to keep them out of the deck whilst not trashing them, use Exile. Generally this will be stronger than trashing, since it avoids giving things to opposing trash gainers, it keeps cards counting for Gardens or Fountain and you can reclaim them easily. For Curses or Wall, trashing is superior. You could also involve the gain-copy-to-discard feature to affect how cards enter the deck. In any case, always consider how your idea interacts with the official Exile users.

Cost reduction - reduction by $1 can mean: whenever you buy a card, first get + $1; or when you refer to a card costing up to or less than any amount of $, add 1 to it. Stack up the +buys and gainers, or attacks like Villain, and cost reduction becomes phenomenally powerful. Quarry is a Treasure that is especially good at buying Actions thanks to cost reduction.

And I added a new section:

Looks like you can do these, but you can't:

Cards cost $X more - it's not fun making cards everywhere less accessible than usual, and you'd break some official ones such as Livery (infinite Horses). Either narrow what costs are increased to things you know will be safe, or simulate it with debt or the - $1 token.


Does it all make sense? And is there a way I could make this guide more readable?
Title: Re: Up to Date Guide to Fan Card Creation
Post by: spineflu on March 05, 2020, 03:41:39 pm
i mean there's still ways to make cards cost more - Tax, or have it be just cards in the supply cost more. I'll get this added to the wiki in the next couple days after midterms season is done.
Title: Re: Up to Date Guide to Fan Card Creation
Post by: spineflu on April 21, 2020, 01:05:51 pm
finally added all this to the wiki

I want to re-write the rinkworks section on reactions with what we've learned through menagerie with reactions, like playing cards out of turn, etc.

feel like maybe there should be a section about common pitfall card interactions? Mandarin, Adventures tokens interactions, Capitalism, Way of the Chameleon, Way of the Mouse, there's probably others that i'm forgetting - Fortress maybe?

Also should there be a section on cards like Snowy Village that short-circuit other cards abilities?
Title: Re: Up to Date Guide to Fan Card Creation
Post by: Aquila on December 19, 2022, 05:28:31 pm
I overhauled this guide. The wording in each part I've tried to simplify. I rearranged the Research section into bullet points, used GendoIkari's extension to link example cards for each point, and I believe covered all the official mechanics up to Plunder. I don't feel this guide is concise just yet, and refinements could be made, but it's there for now.