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1

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #211: Not Your Ordinary Village

« on: February 15, 2024, 10:45:14 am »

Yea, I priced this similar to a Border Village but with a Throne Room instead of village, since the Night part of this isn't going to matter most of the time. I'm not sure if it's a fair price or if what I have is too powerful right now.

My entry: Ballroom

A simple Throne Room variant. Nevertheless, I think this is sufficiently different from Crown, Throne Room, etc to be interesting for this contest. I tried to make something that would play well even when there are no other Night cards in the Kingdom. I think the extra gain plus the fact that you can play this at Night if you want to makes up for the high cost and makes it still play well even with no other Night cards, while still being different enough from Throne Room.



Ballroom
$6 Night - Action
You may play a Night or Action card from your hand twice.
---
When you gain this, gain a cheaper Night or Action card.

There are too few Nights to make the NightThrone thingy matter much in total random, although it is of course situationally (most Action do nothing useful at Night) nice to be able to play a non-terminal Throne with an Action if both have been drawn dead. So basically this is just Border Village but with TR+ instead of Village and thus likely a bit better than Border Village.

2

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #211: Not Your Ordinary Village

« on: February 14, 2024, 11:54:36 am »

My entry: Ballroom

A simple Throne Room variant. Nevertheless, I think this is sufficiently different from Crown, Throne Room, etc to be interesting for this contest. I tried to make something that would play well even when there are no other Night cards in the Kingdom. I think the extra gain plus the fact that you can play this at Night if you want to makes up for the high cost and makes it still play well even with no other Night cards, while still being different enough from Throne Room.



Ballroom
$6 Night - Action
You may play a Night or Action card from your hand twice.
---
When you gain this, gain a cheaper Night or Action card.

3

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #208: Back to the Dark Ages

« on: January 05, 2024, 04:04:12 pm »

My entry:

Ruined Duchy
$4 Victory - Looter
3 VP
---
When you gain this, gain a Ruins.

4

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #171: Gains Upon Gains

« on: December 09, 2022, 06:57:11 pm »

5

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #170: 2/7 Offsuit

« on: December 01, 2022, 10:33:58 pm »

My entry is the Burglar

It's a simple Exile attack, similar to the Cardinal, but it's non-terminal, and it always hits. Also unlike the Cardinal, it doesn't hit itself. I imagine this is going to do quite a lot of damage to everyone's decks in games using this.

Gaining a bunch of Gold and Silver is probably the best way to defend against this (that I can think of).

I went for raw power here, to make it cost $7, rather than adding a non-Attack effect onto it.



EDIT: Slightly changed formatting on card.

6

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #161: You Spin Me Right Round

« on: August 20, 2022, 08:50:35 pm »

Do the costs need to be strictly increasing? For example, if a pile contains some Potion or Debt costs and some coin costs, is that OK?

7

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #160: Two Base Cards

« on: August 17, 2022, 11:15:05 am »

Moray


Worth 1 VP per 2 coppers
Heirloom: Silver
$7 Victory

Like Feodum and Counting house, this card will alternate between a powerhouse, and useless. But unlike those cards this Moray will always had a large impact on the start of each game by replacing one of the starting coppers with a silver.

I'm not sure if you're allowed to use a non-Heirloom card as an Heirloom. At the very least, it's inconsistent with the rest of the Heirloom cards. Although I understand why it's done for this contest.

I do think it's a little weak for $7 and could probably cost $5 or $6. In almost all games this is going to feel under-powered. Compare with Feodum which counts (3) Silvers, and consider the fact that you count (2) Coppers instead, which are much weaker than Silver. In games with Beggar or something similar, this is going to be busted no matter what you cost it at, so I'd focus more on giving this a reasonable cost for the vast majority of games where there is no good combo with Copper gainers.

I fear this will only be a powerhouse with Beggar (and possibly Banquet), and be useless at least 95% of the time.
In the absence of Beggar, I'd try this at $4, so it would at least be a cheaper Duchy (with the potential to get extra VPs from late-game copper buys) in games where you can't trash coppers. You already need to buy three Morays to get the same 15 VP with 10 coppers that Fountain gives you for free.

Replacing a starting Copper by Silver is problematic because a 5/3 opening is usually much stronger than a 4/4 opening. And Moray would be stronger without an Heirloom attached...

Stuff like "Baker" or "Cursed Gold" already changes the opening like this does, and neither of them have broken the game...

The difference with Baker/Cursed Gold over a Silver is that they both allow you to guarantee a $5 hand on one of your opening turns (and even then Cursed Gold is still kind of annoying). But with a Silver one player could gain a big starting lead by lining up the Silver with enough Coppers and having their opponent miss the same opportunity due to pure chance. This does happen normally with 5/2 vs 4/3 but 5/3 vs 4/4 is worse in that regard.

Fair point, I missed that when thinking about the opening.

8

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #160: Two Base Cards

« on: August 17, 2022, 10:57:40 am »

Moray


Worth 1 VP per 2 coppers
Heirloom: Silver
$7 Victory

Like Feodum and Counting house, this card will alternate between a powerhouse, and useless. But unlike those cards this Moray will always had a large impact on the start of each game by replacing one of the starting coppers with a silver.

I'm not sure if you're allowed to use a non-Heirloom card as an Heirloom. At the very least, it's inconsistent with the rest of the Heirloom cards. Although I understand why it's done for this contest.

I do think it's a little weak for $7 and could probably cost $5 or $6. In almost all games this is going to feel under-powered. Compare with Feodum which counts (3) Silvers, and consider the fact that you count (2) Coppers instead, which are much weaker than Silver. In games with Beggar or something similar, this is going to be busted no matter what you cost it at, so I'd focus more on giving this a reasonable cost for the vast majority of games where there is no good combo with Copper gainers.

I fear this will only be a powerhouse with Beggar (and possibly Banquet), and be useless at least 95% of the time.
In the absence of Beggar, I'd try this at $4, so it would at least be a cheaper Duchy (with the potential to get extra VPs from late-game copper buys) in games where you can't trash coppers. You already need to buy three Morays to get the same 15 VP with 10 coppers that Fountain gives you for free.

Replacing a starting Copper by Silver is problematic because a 5/3 opening is usually much stronger than a 4/4 opening. And Moray would be stronger without an Heirloom attached...

Stuff like "Baker" or "Cursed Gold" already changes the opening like this does, and neither of them have broken the game...

9

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #160: Two Base Cards

« on: August 14, 2022, 02:41:23 pm »

Coin Press $4
Action
Choose one: Gain a Silver to your hand; or trash 2 Treasures from your hand to gain a Silver; or trash 2 Silvers from your hand to gain a Gold to your hand.

A Silver gainer that either nets $2 that turn or trashes 2 copper from hand. It can also trash 2 Silver later on to gain a Gold to hand. I want this to cost $4, but I am not sure if it should or not. Feedback is appreciated.

Maybe something like this is better? I think the original is quite strong. Compare your version to stuff like Moneylender or Taxman for $4, which need to have Treasures in hand to use. Moneylender is useless later on, whereas your version can permanently gain you a Silver to hand every turn if you want, as well as trashing Treasures for you.

Coin Press $4
Action
Choose one: Trash 2 Coppers from your hand to gain a Silver to your hand; or trash 2 Silvers from your hand to gain a Gold to your hand.

Maybe this isn't the right power-level anymore, but I think for $4 you should require a Treasure in hand in order to use the card.

10

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #160: Two Base Cards

« on: August 14, 2022, 09:48:37 am »

A Nocturne-inspired card. Based on Werewolf, but I tried to capture the "weakness to Silver" feeling that a Werewolf normally has. Maybe a bit too wordy.

I think the early Silver for opponents, plus the fact that it's conditional make it balanced, although it being non-terminal for $4 might be a bit too much. Let me know what you all think.

This does need the Attack type. Otherwise nice concept.

Thanks, good catch, fixed in my post.

11

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #160: Two Base Cards

« on: August 14, 2022, 12:06:31 am »

A Nocturne-inspired card. Based on Werewolf, but I tried to capture the "weakness to Silver" feeling that a Werewolf normally has. Maybe a bit too wordy.

I think the early Silver for opponents, plus the fact that it's conditional make it balanced, although it being non-terminal Curser for $4 might be a bit too much. Let me know what you all think.

EDIT: Added "Attack" type.

12

Weekly Design Contest / Re: Weekly Design Contest #159: Some Nights

« on: July 28, 2022, 02:00:47 pm »

Set: Alchemy



Not a super good use of the Night Mechanic, besides the flavor.  I tried to capture the "Jekyll gets stuck as Hyde unless he consumes Potions" and "Eventually he'll run out and get stuck as Hyde forever" theme from the original book. And of course, I tried to make it tie into the Potion theme from Alchemy.

Maybe I need to come up with a new entry that actually uses Night "well", since this same idea could work pretty easily as a Action too...

13

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Set Expansion Contest

« on: July 08, 2022, 11:41:19 pm »

Salesman
Action/Liason - $5
+1 Action
+1 Buy
+1 Favor
+$1
This turn, cards cost $1 less.
-
Set-up: Each player gets +1 Favor.

One potentially tricky thing about designing a Liaison is that (in a way) it's 23 different cards, as each one functions differently depending on the Ally it is with. This is crazy strong with Fellowship of Scribes. As long as you have 5 or fewer cards in hand before playing it, you can use the favor you get to draw another card, effectively making it a market/discounter. Imo, that's way too good a card at $5 (even if it's only like that 1/23 of the time).

You're right, I totally forgot a couple of the Allies that this combos with.

14

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Set Expansion Contest

« on: July 08, 2022, 01:02:33 am »

Salesman
Action/Liason - $5
+1 Action
+1 Buy
+1 Favor
+$1
This turn, cards cost $1 less.
-
Set-up: Each player gets +1 Favor.

15

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Alchemy II Fan Expansion

« on: June 23, 2022, 08:36:19 pm »

At first glance, the only card that pops out to me as concerning is Gnome. While it does have a limited gainer effect, it is a non-terminal Curser, and it costs $4 to boot. Compared to the existing non-terminal Cursers, I think it is likely over powered.

Over all, however, I really like the idea of expanding Alchemy with simpler cards.

Which fix do you think is more reasonable for the Gnome?
- Make the gain effect one-time (trash it to gain for example).
- Remove the gain effect entirely.
- Make Gnome an Action card, so he's terminal.
- Make Gnome more expensive ($5 or $2P for example).

I like the gain effect as is actually. Bumping up the cost may work, but the main issue with it being non-terminal is that they can be spammed. Idol solves this by only Cursing every other play of an Idol. Making it Terminal would make it comparable to Sea Hag, which is not as enticing and interesting as it being a Night card. You could make it Curse if you gain a Copper from it, but I know self-junking is not very appealing, so perhaps another way to have the Cursing be conditional?

Maybe "If this is the first time you played a Gnome this turn, each other player gains a Curse"? That way you can gain as much as you want, but you can't spam curses.

16

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Alchemy II Fan Expansion

« on: June 23, 2022, 07:50:59 pm »

At first glance, the only card that pops out to me as concerning is Gnome. While it does have a limited gainer effect, it is a non-terminal Curser, and it costs $4 to boot. Compared to the existing non-terminal Cursers, I think it is likely over powered.

Over all, however, I really like the idea of expanding Alchemy with simpler cards.

Which fix do you think is more reasonable for the Gnome?
- Make the gain effect one-time (trash it to gain for example).
- Remove the gain effect entirely.
- Make Gnome an Action card, so he's terminal.
- Make Gnome more expensive ($5 or $2P for example).

17

Variants and Fan Cards / Alchemy II Fan Expansion

« on: June 23, 2022, 01:55:01 pm »

Hey all, Alchemy was my favourite set, so I've decided to make my own fan expansion, as a kind of follow-up to it. I'm looking for some feedback for some of the cards I'm working on here.

Mechanics I used not found in the Base game are Potions, Coffers, and Night cards. A lot of these cards are meant to be fairly simple Potion costing cards, doing pretty vanilla stuff, which I felt was missing from Alchemy.

I don't have artwork yet for these, since it's still a work in progress and I may cut/change lots of them.

First up is the Endowment. It can be added to the Kingdom (not the Supply) if Potion is being used that game. (Compare with Platinum/Colony.) This card is based on another fan card I saw somewhere, but I can't remember the name/cost/vp it gave. (If you have know, please give me a link so I can credit.)



Next up, we have a new Treasure:



Lead gets "transmuted" into Gold. I really like the "flavor" I got here, although it may be a bit off in terms of balance.

And a new Victory card:



At worst, Grove is a expensive Estate, but if you can go for pileout, it can be worth 2 or 3 VP.

Next, we have some simple Action cards:



These 5 are fairly self-explanatory I think. Just simple effects on Potion cards.

A couple more complicated Actions:



I've also dipped into some Night cards for this expansion:



Doppelganger and Tabernacle are just simple variants of Changeling and Chapel, respectively. Midnight Market is a nice way to help you topdeck a Treasure (maybe a Potion), which building up some money. Maybe it's too powerful to both gain it to your hand and let you topdeck a Treasure...

Gnome is a simple attack card, gaining a Silver (or Potion or something else) while junking your oppenents.

Any thoughts on these? Cards that look over- or under-powered?