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1

Rules Questions / Re: Non-supply pile(s)

« on: November 07, 2024, 02:06:26 pm »

But this has me intrigued! Is harsh winter treating them as separate or non-separate piles?

In digital versions, separate. IRL, whichever way you set them up.

2

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Interview with Donald X.

« on: November 06, 2024, 12:13:43 pm »

Looking back at Adventures, do you still like the way the tokens were used or do you think they are too fiddily now?
Does it kill you internally that you couldn't use the journey token for Journey?

Personally I liked them all but wish some of the lesser used ones could have had more use.

If I were making Adventures today, there would be fewer tokens and more cards would use them. Maybe Adventures itself would just do the +'s, and maybe not all four of them, and then some later set would do the Journey token. I haven't put in the work but you know, I like to get more out of any extra stuff I make you get out.

I don't mind that Journey doesn't use the Journey token. If you don't want to stick fantasy place names on everything, the namespace is limited.

3

Rules Questions / Re: Non-supply pile(s)

« on: November 05, 2024, 01:48:06 pm »

When the game is played IRL, you may have lots of table space and you may not. It's nice to have the option of spreading out when there's room and compacting when there isn't. When it's played online, the decision has been made for you.

So, it doesn't seem so odd to me. It's true that we can make this matter. That's not actually unique; the size of the Copper pile varies based on a player decision IRL, and that can matter too.

4

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Information about reprints

« on: November 03, 2024, 11:59:48 am »

Crossposted from reddit!

I don't have dates on most recent printings. I do however know the dates of files I've proofread, which is something. The most recent proofreading files are as follows.

Adventures - Mar 2022
Alchemy - Feb 2021
Allies - Nov 2023
Base Cards - Feb 2018
Big Box - Jan 2021
Cornucopia - Jan 2011
Cornucopia & Guilds - Nov 2023
Dark Ages - Feb 2020
Dominion - Jul 2021
Empires - Dec 2020
Guilds - Feb 2013
Hinterlands - Feb 2022
Intrigue - Mar 2022
Menagerie - Jan 2020
Nocturne - Feb 2021
Plunder - Sep 2022
Prosperity - Feb 2022
Renaissance - Aug 2021
Rising Sun - Jun 2024
Seaside - Feb 2022

The version of the Empires rulebook that I have has 2021 at the bottom of the cards.

5

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Interview with Donald X.

« on: November 02, 2024, 02:45:18 pm »

Why did you make Credit gain Actions or Treasures instead of non-Victory cards?

It can go either way; mainly, I like letting you get e.g. Nobles when there isn't a reason to not let you, and that looms larger than letting you get Night cards. This didn't get tested another way; there was that moment when I was typing up the first version to test, and apparently I thought, let's try letting you get the Nobles, and it was fine so that was that.

6

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Interview with Donald X.

« on: October 30, 2024, 02:17:43 pm »

How would you rank the following games in terms of depth (replayability, advantage for seasoned players, difficulty to build a competitive AI for, whatever you like)?
7 Wonders, Chess, Dominion (incl. all expansions), Go, Moon Colony Bloodbath, Puerto Rico, Texas Hold'em Poker

I haven't played 7 Wonders or Hold'em.

Depth is easy. I will just mention. If you're pursuing variety, depth will just come with it.

Depth isn't the same as replayability; you can just enjoy say the anagramming in Boggle, even though it's always the same experience, even if you never get better at it. But even if we just look at replayability as seeing different things, well depth is about how long you can keep getting better at a game, which is just so different.

Chess and Go only have replayability in that you can enjoy thoroughly exploring their particular spaces. You haven't just seen everything immediately, because the situations are complex webs of interactions. For me this is not what I'm looking for; for me they have the replayability of say Boggle, but I like Boggle more. They have depth, sure; depth is easy. It's so easy even Go has it. But I mean. It requires you to endlessly play this game that is not really showing you new things. You can get this depth from just so many games, if you're willing to endlessly play those games. It's not like something to be praised. What Chess and Go have is that people actually played them that much.

Dominion has its plenty of depth that it got automatically. The replayability is on the table, it's not such a complex web. It's a simple web, but you know, sharply varying. It has way more replayability for me; I haven't exhausted it in 18 years. Though that's cheating because I keep adding new stuff. In terms of, how long can you keep getting better at it, man I don't know. Long enough, for sure.

Puerto Rico - which I like - is very low on replayability. You play once and you've had the experience. There will be some buildings you didn't get, and the skill level of the player ahead of you will vary, but. I don't know how much better you can get at it; it isn't worth finding out, for me. I enjoy playing it once every few years. It's hard to judge depth because I wouldn't want to play it enough to find out how much better I could get.

Poker has a psychological element, which gives it really endless replayability and also depth. This isn't praise for Poker specifically; iterative Rock-paper-scissors also has endless replayability and depth. You're not exploring configurations of game elements, you're exploring how people think. And when you switch opponents, there's new space to explore. I'm a big fan of psychological games.

Moon Colony Bloodbath has tons of variety; I made it, what were the odds. You get variety from drawing different cards and pursuing different strategies, and also having different setups. It will take a ton of plays to feel like you've seen everything. We didn't reach that point; I just had to get playtesting done on other projects. We got better at it all through playtesting; it has all that free depth that my games get.

What percentage of games did you aim for getting Prophecies triggered? And on which turn?

It wasn't like that. It was, "let's play some games, and see what happens, and see how we like it, and change it to make it more how we like it." Prophecies wanted to typically happen, so as not to be sad, but there was never "here is my percentage." Turn, I paid no attention to that. Again it's not like it wasn't part of it - if the Prophecy always happened the turn the game ended, I wouldn't have liked that. It was a factor but there was zero "what turn is it, how happy am I with that number." I never knew the number.

7

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Interview with Donald X.

« on: October 21, 2024, 10:58:03 am »

You've mentioned that a couple cards (like Margrave) are a little strong and if you could, you'd make them more balanced by removing the +Buy or something. Are there any 2E cards like that, where if you could wave a wand to slightly nerf it, you would?

Yes, I'd make Sentry only trash one card.

8

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Interview with Donald X.

« on: October 19, 2024, 01:24:29 pm »

Although I recognize the first couple of Second Editions made sense in creating a more "fluid" game, didn't it go too far afterwards?
Seems to me like it deflated the value of many expansions significantly and a lot of interesting cards, which added exactly the flavour, which is/was the charm of this game, got lost. And of course as a big fan and collector it was difficult to keep track of both new expansions and second editions of the old ones. Personally, I gave up collecting Second Edition supplement packs and settled for having the news cards in the online version, while playing with the first edition expansions when playing offline.

For me the point to the second editions was to have better products. Anyone buying e.g. Prosperity gets a better expansion than they would have. And that's true, mission accomplished. People who already had it could buy just the new cards if they wanted, and didn't have to, hooray.

In terms of making money, it would have been smarter to just update packs into a new expansion. But the goal was improving those products.

No regrets!

9

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Interview with Donald X.

« on: October 18, 2024, 03:46:44 pm »

Interested in doing another answer-with-music-references challenge?

Dressy Bessy - Just Once More

Do you listen to any songs that are sung in a language that isn't English?

70 Girls 70 obc - Yes
New Pornographers - Sing Me Spanish Techno

Divine Comedy - I Like
Guided by Voices - Two or Three Songs
Howling Wolf Orchestra - Is It Mostly (It Is Mostly)
Destroyer - English Music

How come all anyone has ever done, is shoot me with a gun, while claiming that it's all in good fun?

Robyn Hitchcock - You're So Repulsive
Weird Al Yankovic - You're Pitiful
(Future Bible Heroes - But You're So Beautiful)

Can I hear some words of wisdom? Tell me I don't need anything but my brain.

Brian Dewan - Words of Wisdom
Paul McCartney - Get It

Jonathon Coulton - Re: Your Brains
Game Theory - All You Need Is White

How do I properly show respect to others without letting it turn into sarcasm?

Lady Gaga - Just Dance
Noah and the Whale - Do What You Do
Angie Hart - Feel What You Don't
Big Moon - Don't Think
Peter Blegvad - Too Much

Is "love" just a game? They all say it, but do they mean it?

David Bowie - It's No Game

Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog - So They Say
Kirsty MacColl - They Don't Know
Jason Webley - They Just Want
Beatles - Something

Rather than in the bigger box, happiness seems to be stored in the smaller one. What should I do?

Ray Noble / Al Bowlly - Make Yourself a Happiness Pie

A lot of these questions are secretly just music references; did you catch any of them?

Leonard Cohen - Everybody Knows

Phil Ochs - No More Songs
Sparks - A More Constructive Use of Leisure Time
Apples in Stereo - Please

10

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Interview with Donald X.

« on: October 17, 2024, 02:29:31 pm »

Can you think of any cards where, on initial design they didn't seem super interesting, but players really liked them when they got to playtesting?

I'm always trying cards that look interesting to me, so from my perspective, no, not so much. From the perspective of other players, sure; most recently, the on-play debt cards must not look super interesting to some people.

11

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Interview with Donald X.

« on: October 17, 2024, 02:28:13 pm »

Can you answer these questions using only song titles/lyrics?

Extra Glenns - Sure

4am thoughts?

Harry Reser's Syncopators - I Wonder How I Look When I'm Asleep

If you could become fluent in any language, what would you pick?

Ian Anderson - The Secret Language of Birds

Honestly, tell me can you see me through the screen?

They Might Be Giants - I Don't Understand You

"Autumn" or "fall"?

Sugarplastic - Autumn All the Time

Tips for smiling for the camera without looking awkward?

Book of Mormon obc - Man Up

Rutles - Things I Could Have Said

Beatles - Act Naturally
Fred Astaire - Let Yourself Go
Gothic Archies - Smile! No One Cares How You Feel
Guided by Voices - Be Impeccable
Joni Mitchell - Be Cool
Donner Party - Try to Imagine a Terrible World

How do you feel about the hyphen being in the wrong place on Riverboat?

Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - Honey Child What Can I Do

Was it easy picking songs, or was it more of a chore?

Cocksure Lads - Easy Peasy

12

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Interview with Donald X.

« on: October 12, 2024, 01:42:10 pm »

Are you thinking about doing Dark Ages 2E? Cards like Scavenger, Mystic, Pillage and especially Rebuild feel like they could be replaced. I feel like Looters in general could use a bit of a do-over.

Sadly this question cannot be answered.

13

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Interview with Donald X.

« on: October 01, 2024, 01:36:09 pm »

Was there any concern around junking Attacks in games with Progress (especially in multiplayer) and players getting big stacks of junk on their deck? I know e.g. Sea Hag got the discard the top card part to mitigate this.

It was a thing to make sure I could live with, and I did. You get a window to build up before Progress becomes active. It makes a big difference.

14

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Interview with Donald X.

« on: September 30, 2024, 01:30:47 pm »

Would you ever consider doing a promo that breaks the fourth wall, or just doesn't match the setting at all? Something like Magic's un-set Gamers and Richard Garfield card, or a card named a modern day thing like uh Telephone or Airplane.

I don't need to rule it out, but there's no special draw there either.

15

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Interview with Donald X.

« on: September 26, 2024, 11:24:41 am »

I just got my Rising Sun in today, looking forward to trying it out. I'm now curious how the colors of the box sides got decided though--this one has a blue hue almost identical to Seaside, when initially I expected it to be a bold red (which we don't really have yet), similar to the Japanese flag.

Jay (Rio Grande Games) picks the colors, and then there they are. I don't know his system.

16

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Interview with Donald X.

« on: September 23, 2024, 01:24:36 pm »

What's your favorite token type?

The art for Werewolf is cool but not very werewolf-y. How come?

The moon isn't out! Half the time, that's what a werewolf looks like. Don't blame it on the artist; the artist notes I wrote up said to show the human form.

Villagers? Villagers are fun.

17

Rules Questions / Re: Outpost on someone else's turn

« on: September 20, 2024, 01:38:38 pm »

"You only draw 3 cards for your next hand. Take an extra turn after this one (but not a 3rd turn in a row)."

There's no limit on that first sentence; it applies to the next "draw your hand" thing that happens.

18

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Interview with Donald X.

« on: September 17, 2024, 01:28:04 pm »

I know you never played Slay the Spire, but did any playtesters mention that Biding Time is similar to Runic Pyramid?

I don't think so, and that's enough of that. Why haven't I played this acclaimed game? It's to keep that nonsense away from me.

19

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Interview with Donald X.

« on: September 16, 2024, 01:36:35 pm »

Have you ever released a card without any playtesting, relying instead on your experience of previous cards?

No. A few times an outtake went out as a promo, with no additional testing then, but they'd gotten testing earlier.

Which card do you think had the least playtesting prior to release?

It would be something new to a set, that was towards the end of the set, for an early set. There's always something that makes it in late; and early sets got less testing. Well less when they were the focus; some of the cards had been there since before Dominion was published. But you know. So in Prosperity, it would have been Bishop; that's last in the file. I'm not checking every set, and it's pointless anyway, as I won't know just how long each late card was playtested.

Do you ever design and start playtesting a card knowing full well that it is not in its final form (functionally)?

Yes; a big thing here is just, knowing that the wording isn't good enough, and not wanting to put time into that if the card actually isn't surviving. For example there were playtest cards with "Once during this turn, when nothing is happening..."

Have you ever tried a crazy-sounding idea and then been surprised to find that it actually works?

Sure; in general if it looks crazy now, it also looked crazy then. And yet I tried it. If you don't try that stuff, you never get crazy-looking stuff.

20

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Rising Sun Physical Copy?

« on: September 06, 2024, 02:05:17 pm »

Yeah, I'd preordered around a month ago but there's still not a solid physical date. As an American game, why doesn't it hit the US before other regions?

It's printed in Germany. Normally we delay copies from being released in Europe until they show up here (by boat); this time we didn't.

21

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Rising Sun Physical Copy?

« on: September 05, 2024, 05:42:12 pm »

I'd been excited to see Rising Sun in physical form around now.  Is there a delay?  All of the sites with preorders on them still say preorder and I haven't seen anything shipping yet. 

It's in the US in the warehouse, but I haven't received my copies yet. So a few days to get to distributors and then a few days to get to customers.

22

Rules Questions / Re: Complete Dominion rules document

« on: September 05, 2024, 01:58:33 pm »

In my collection, I have 14 starting hands prepared, as it’s ready to pick up for two 4-player games without shelters, or a 6-player with. As such, I only have 22 coppers, compared to the 32 ”intended”.

If I remeber correctly, I found several statements by DXV thru the years, where my setup is ok - as the gist was ”no matter the number of players, use all you have” as the treasures, while countable and can run out…

I mean, even 11 coppers (2 4-playergames) is plenty in most games.

I mean, The dutch budget edition even elimiates copper.

IRL you can do whatever you like; I won't stop you or feel bad about it. For sure the game will tend to work without a Copper pile, hence that special version without one. There are some cards it matters for, but you could leave those out.

As to exactly what the rules say to do, man, I'm not checking, but in terms of intentions, the only way it diverges from "no really, play with all the Coppers that aren't in decks" is "damn what if they have the old standalone version of Intrigue and so have more Coppers, or they have Base Cards, do we tell them to count the Coppers, man we do not possibly, just play with all of them, it will be fine."

23

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Interview with Donald X.

« on: September 05, 2024, 01:54:28 pm »

Do you play with the alchemy cards that aren't apprentice?

Yes, some. I don't have them blocked in the digital version.

24

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Interview with Donald X.

« on: September 04, 2024, 01:24:23 pm »

Are there any second-edition-removed cards you still play with?

Not a one.

Are there any second-edition-kept/added cards you never play with?

I play with all of the new cards. There are a few not-removed cards that I don't play with as much IRL, just due to, I'm playtesting, these will warp the game so much around them. But I still play with them in computer games. For example, if we're playtesting a trasher, well we probably don't want to pit it against Chapel. Or, Stonemason empties piles so quickly that it makes it hard to learn as much from the game (the games IRL are multiplayer). But either of those might make it into a game IRL anyway sometimes.

25

Dominion General Discussion / Re: Interview with Donald X.

« on: September 03, 2024, 01:58:01 pm »

When you were designing Dark Ages, how differently designed were the 2 attacking Looters trying to be compared to regular Curser cards? In your mind, could they have fit well enough into a set that didn't contain ruins and just given curses instead?

It looks like Ruinses became a thing in April 2010. Of course Dominion at the start had Confusion, a blank card you could give out instead of Curses; that's 2006. It's 2024 now. It's going to be hard to remember what was going through my head when making those cards.

The first card was Marauder: Gain a Silver, each other player gains a Rubble. On the next page they were Ruinses instead of Rubbles. And there's a second card: Barbarian. It's called Barbarian, but it's also the card that eventually came out with that name, except it doesn't have the +$2 and it costs $4 and also it uses Ruinses instead of Curses.

So sure, you could do these cards with Curses - and Barbarian is just such a card.

My guess is, I was happy with "it gives out Ruinses instead of Curses" being different enough from cards that give out Curses, and wasn't doing any specific other things to distinguish them from Curse-givers. They gave out Ruinses, those aren't as bad as Curses but are still pretty bad, and you go from there.

The idea to Ruinses is, that an awful card that does something is more interesting than an awful card that doesn't. Curse has the benefit of simplicity, for a game that after all may not get any expansions if it's too complex; Ruinses have more interactions, and it's fun when well you play the Ruins and it does a little something for you. It's a different experience from "this card just does nothing." This premise didn't require anything more of the cards generating the Ruinses though. Since Curses are worse, I couldn't just make it e.g. "+2 Cards, hand out Ruinses" at $5 because it would look stupid next to Witch. They had to carve out their own shapes and so they did.