Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.

26

General Discussion / Re: Is anyone playing Banished?

« on: July 08, 2014, 02:11:47 am »

I've run into absolutely no terrible things... but I also only have like 24 people...

What year are you in? Thankfully, disasters are pretty rare, but when they do come it can pretty much be Game Over.

That's what I've heard. I've played two games with disasters turned off, and I think I've seen everything else there is to see in the game. Once I got bored, I made my own disaster by taking in thirty nomads at once, just to see if my town would survive. (It didn't.)

27

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Gunpowder

« on: July 06, 2014, 06:58:29 pm »

So, anybody got card ideas on the back burner?
LF: any updates for the Enterprise thread?
I'm not sure how happy I'd be if the other threads all ground to a halt, just because there exists a crazy person on the internet. If he's really been acting like this for an entire decade over several websites, we could be talking about him for days.

28

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Card Idea: Auction

« on: July 03, 2014, 04:12:57 pm »

You don't want to buy Floodgate after you play Auction. You want to buy Floodgate while Auction is still in your hand so that the Floodgate, Auction, and any other dead cards in your hand all carry over to your next turn. Get +$1 for that Floodgate!

that's true, but that's something you can do regardless, it doesn't change the anti-synergy if you have auction in your hand and want to buy a floodgate. it's minor though, no doubt. if making a simple card even simpler is worth something to you, you probably want to keep it as it is.

I see Auction and Floodgate as having a very strong synergy, even if they're both slightly inflexible to use. I've played one game with Floodgate, but just about every time I had a spare $4, I had nothing else in my hand worth setting aside. It'd be nice to have a card that benefits from increased handsize, which might even tempt you to set aside Floodgates with Estates and Curses. There's plenty of room for more Secret Chamber variants, and this is original and mechanically clever.

Floodgate's a good card, but it needs to cost $3; I said this already, but in order for the combo to work, you need to plausibly be able to buy Floodgates without playing your Auction. From that perspective -- because that change looks more necessary -- buffing Auction and Floodgate simultaneously would be a bit much.

29

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Enterprise (Beta)

« on: June 30, 2014, 07:07:20 pm »

You could have it curse first, then discard down to 4.
"Each other player with more than 5 cards in hand discards down to 4, otherwise they gain a curse into their hand."

Neat idea. I'm really trying to avoid the Conscripts being too much like Torturer, but maybe this isn't that bad. Hmm…

Really not feeling it. That might be worth exploring if you wanted to create a new attack card whose gimmick was cheap, nonterminal cursing. But here you've already written the two cards, and they're called Recruiter and Barracks. Anything you put on Conscripts is really a part of those two cards, and reading Barracks/Conscripts or Recruiter/Conscripts should not be any longer or more difficult to parse than any other one card. Plain unadorned cursing is the best thing to put on the card, and it'd be a bad idea to add anything that isn't necessary.

In comparison, making it more like Torturer doesn't sound so bad. "Discard a card or gain a Curse" is really clean, and it would make Conscripts chains hurt less and less as you get more junked. I'm converted to straight curse-giving, but that version could be worth testing if it's currently too strong.

30

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Enterprise (Beta)

« on: June 24, 2014, 06:39:44 pm »

Weak on their own and more powerful in multiples would definitely be nice. Really what's holding me back is Dignitary. If I change Conscripts to discard down to 4 cards, then Curse, it means that using Dignitary's reaction against it is shooting yourself in the foot. I could drop Dignitary, but I like it and it plays well.

I don't want or need Conscripts to have the "do I play this or wait" decision that Spoils has. We already have that experience with Spoils! I do want the Barracks decision to be meaningful, which is why Conscripts had that want-more-at-one-time mechanic in the first place. It incentivized you to pull Conscripts into your hand. But the Barracks decision is meaningful anyway with the "new" Conscripts both because Curses can run out and just because it might be worth pulling Conscripts faster to cycle your deck and hand out Curses faster. It's really just a question of if people actually use it. Time and testing will tell.

Both very good points. I was thinking about other effects with an explicit "If this is the first time you have played a Conscripts . . ." but nothing seemed worth the extra text. I'm on board.

Also, if you can make printable sheets that have the current Craftsman and updated Recruiter/Conscripts, I'd be a happy man and I'd playtest them and report as soon as possible. If I can't get something going at home, I'll take my cards to a game night somewhere downtown. Since I'd be paying by the page, you could fill up the rest of the page with prototypes you want feedback on.

31

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Enterprise (Beta)

« on: June 24, 2014, 04:59:26 pm »

I think I'm going to test Axeman without the below-line portion. I was afraid that it would make the game suck when your opponent opened with it, but it's worth testing that way. I think the card will look less intimidating without those extra lines of text.

I sympathize with Committee scaring off more casual players with its complex wall of text. Except for possibly General, it's the most complex card in the set. But Committee is popular and I can't really make it any simpler.

Sorry, I guess I could've been more clear about the point I was trying to make. Trade Tokens are a simple concept: some cards give you them, some cards come with one. When a card gives you the opportunity to spend one, you can choose to do so for the bonus. Domain is also simple: the guy setting up the game already put it into your deck, and it's just a copper until you buy a Remodel or someone else plays a Barrister. Conscripts less so, but anyone who's played Dark Ages will understand it instantly. My point was that they seem a lot more complicated when the majority of your bandwidth is taken up by the wordiest cards. I didn't mean to suggest you should toss really good cards just because they're wordy.

Barrister
Types: Action – Attack
Cost: $3
+$2. Each other player reveals the top 2 cards of his deck, trashes a revealed Domain, and discards the rest. Gain a Domain from the trash.
Setup: Replace one of each players starting Coppers with a Domain.

Domain
Types: Treasure – Victory
Cost: $3
Worth $1.
Worth 2 VP for every Domain in your deck.

So Domains are worth twice as much VP, making you really care them even in 2-player games. Barrister's only function (other than giving +$2) is to steal Domains. It can only gain one Domain at a time from the trash.

OTOH, this I like a whole lot more. I actually had no intention of ever playing with the old Barrister, just because I have my starting decks separated from the Estates and Coppers, and I didn't feel like messing with that setup for a card that didn't really interest me. (Also, I've sleeved over Rebuild, Embargo, a couple of the harsher attacks, and all my blanks to get about half of Enterprise, and fourteen more cards is a lot to ask.) But with the mini-Rabble cut out, the concept works a lot better.

Conscripts
Types: Action – Attack
Cost: $0
+1 Action. +$2. Return this to the Conscripts pile. Each other player gains a Curse. (This is not in the Supply.)

I think I've tried this before, but I'm going to try it again. If there are no Attack cards in the Supply, Barracks will eventually lose utility, but whatever. That happens with all Curse-givers. I'm considering toning down Recruiter's Action portion, but I don't think I can really change the Reaction bit without killing the card entirely.

Recruiter
Types: Action – Reaction
Cost: $4
+$2. Gain a Conscripts from the Conscripts pile.
When another player plays an Attack card, you may discard this. If you do, gain a Conscripts from the Conscripts pile, putting it into your hand.

Considering how long it takes players to get used to Spoils, it might be wise to keep this guy as simple as possible. I would be okay with this version of Conscripts, but I liked the idea of making them weak on their own but more powerful in multiples. Discard a card to a minimum of four seems about the right power level, and it would give you a decision to make when only one comes up in your hand. Do I want to play it now for +$ and an attack that might not hurt that much, or do I save it and hope I can play both Conscripts on a future turn? With straight curse-giving, I feel like you'll automatically play them as soon as they come into your hand, whether or not you need the $2 -- Spoils requires more strategic thinking than that. (Also, General + 1 Conscripts would give out 1 Curse this way rather than 3 in two turns. I don't know if you see that as a good or a bad thing.)
The change to Recruiter seems fine, but it might not be necessary if you nerf Conscripts more.

I'm thinking of buffing Terrace by putting the [+1 Card; +1 Action] after the mulligan bit. I'm a bit afraid that makes you want to always use it immediately. I'm not so sold on this change. Just considering it.

Like, Ruined Village, decide whether to mulligan, then rest of village? Not a fan. Besides making the decision too easy, you could really confuse people by putting unconditional effects after conditional ones.

I may change Exchange to say "exactly $2 more" and then have you take a token when you gain it, rather than when you buy it. It's an alternate way to prevent Fortress shenanigans and makes it line up with the other Trade token cards.

Farmland and Noble Brigand don't match up with the other Hinterlands cards. Anyway, it wasn't Exchange/Fortress you were trying to fix, it was Exchange -> Exchange to hand -> repeat. I was about to say you shouldn't kneecap the card while also prohibiting novel cost reduction OR would-trash effects  . . . then I noticed 'Exchange/any $3 card' was a thing, and there are already a few official silver flooders. It's a very good card as it is, and the token needs to be on-Buy.

32

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Enterprise (Beta)

« on: June 23, 2014, 07:20:57 pm »

    Barracks
    Types: Action – Campaign
    Cost: $5
    +1 Action. Choose one: gain 2 Conscripts from the Conscripts pile; or reveal cards from your deck until you reveal an Attack card, put that Attack card into your hand, and discard the rest.

    Conscripts
    Types: Action – Attack
    Cost: $0*
    +1 Action. +$2. Return this to the Conscripts pile. Each other player may discard a Domain. If he doesn't, he gains a Curse. (This is not in the Supply.)

this adds a big luck factor into the game, and unlike moat or bane cards, you can't even manipulate it by buying several of them. you just have one domain and if you happen to draw it, you have a big lead. i don't like that at all.

I could be wrong, but I think you're really overrating the luck factor. Enough Conscripts fly around that you're likely to block a few Curses over the course of the game. Unlike a Moat or Bane, you can only block one per Domain per turn AND you lose $1 from your hand whenever you block a Curse. So it's actually less swingy than Moat in those two ways.

It's true that you can't buy more of them, but you can still often make your one Domain come up more often by trimming your deck.

FWIW, I really don't like the idea of having Domains defend against Conscripts, or making Domain into a shelter-type card.

It's hard enough to get casual players to play with a lot of Dark Ages and Hinterlands cards, and those are from official expansions. I think this is professional quality, but it's an uphill battle to convince someone else with "No, these were made up by some guy from the internet". (The reason it took me four months to get a game going, rather than a week, is that I showed people the printout of all the Enterprise cards before deciding which ones to use. What they saw was the text for Axeman, Barrister, and Committee and the references to "Trade Tokens", "Conscripts" and "Domains", and everyone decided that a seventh hour of Cards Against Humanity would be more fun.)

You're introducing three new pieces of intra-Kingdom card machinery, which compares favorably with Dark Ages (Ruins/Looters, Spoils, Shelters, upgradeable cards). For comparison, if you were introducing that expansion to someone who was familiar with the base game, it would be really stupid to set up their first game with Urchin|Hermit|Marauder|Death Cart|Rats|Procession|Graverobber|Rogue|Knights|Band of Misfits. Similarly, it would be nice to be able to introduce Barracks or Recruiter without messing with setup -- especially when the card you're adding has so much irrelevant info on it. The text on Domain is silly without Barrister, and would only exist to confuse new player in the majority of games.

(I guess you could argue that Shelters show up in games with no trashing, but that only affects one of them, and the other two function normally. I don't know the exact percentage of full-random games that have trashing, but I'm gonna guess it's far higher than the ones with a way to pull specific cards out of players' decks.)

Of course, that's just one guy's opinion. If you like Barrister/Domain then keep it, and if you want give it an 'Action-Campaign' subtype, there's definitely room to design a second card which also makes use of Domain. There are a lot of fun things you could build around the phrase "Each player passes a Domain from his hand to you", and I'd be curious to see what you come up with.

33

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Enterprise (Beta)

« on: June 23, 2014, 03:19:37 pm »

i'm almost entirely sure that the correct way to play this board is to go heavy on trashing, probably a double gambler opening, and get a market square thing going before switching into jubilee o. bandit camp / guide o. nobles. rogue and fund should probably both be ignored.

Rogue was definitely a mistake, and since nobody was serious about trashing, I can't quantify how much it would've helped. But I do think Guide is better for draw than Nobles, and Fund should be bought whenever you hit $5 and you have enough Bandit Camps.

Update: I think I'm going to change Conscripts again. It's just too brutal. When I first made it, my thought process was that the discard attack would hurt less once everybody had a bunch of Curses in their decks. This is sort of true, but always having a 3-card hand makes it really tough to trash those Curses and still do anything else with your turn. It's just too sloggy for it to be in every game with Barracks, let alone every game with Barracks OR Recruiter.

So I'm thinking of returning to a version that just straight-up hands out Curses. Perhaps I'll reverse the current card and make it do a milder attack once the Curses are gone. Maybe discard down to 4, maybe something else. I'm also considering returning from "+1 Action" to "you may play an Attack card from your hand".

Yeah, this needs to be toned down. I really want to playtest Barracks and Recruiter, but I know I won't be able to convince other people to play with Conscripts as it is. I think mechanically, the safest thing to do would be to reverse the cursing and the discard.

If you want to preserve the theme, my vote would be for discard down to 4, then to 3, then start cursing. "Every player with 4 or more cards in hand discards a card" is pretty concise, and it has a very fun combo with Wheelwright. (On the flip side, it would anti-synergize with Dignitary, but that's not the end of the world.) At that point you could playtest versions with +1 Action" and "you may play another Attack", to see which one has the appropriate power level.

34

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Enterprise (Beta)

« on: June 19, 2014, 03:03:53 am »

With no other ways to trash Estates, I'm surprised nobody bought Redistrict. EDIT: Oh, I guess there's Gambler, but that's hit and miss and only you bought one.

I only bought one Gambler, and I only played it once before I pulled up a good card. Rogue sent it into someone else's deck, but it just trashed one more Copper before the game ended. No one trashed any Estates, but thanks to Guide, we really didn't need to. The filtering isn't bad on its own, even outside of how powerful it makes the token. It does make me a little leery about Tokens/Guide/BM, thanks to the ability to draw exactly what you need for your megaturn. How much have you playtested a Guide/Guide opening? I have a hunch that it won't be half bad.

35

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Enterprise (Beta)

« on: June 18, 2014, 10:51:05 pm »

Coincidently, I got a four-player game going last night, and I finally had an excuse to break out the Enterprise cards. I printed them out 4-5 months ago, but the only difference between them and the updated versions is that Jubilee still trashes itself. They didn't run out in this game, so no big deal.

Jubilee, Redistrict, Market Square, Gambler, Guide, Floodgate, Fund, Rogue, Bandit Camp, Nobles

I ended up tied for second, 31-30-30-29. No one bought Redistrict, I bought the only Gambler, and the winning player bought the only Fund. Guide was far and away the most popular card, and we all grabbed Jubilees for the extra trade tokens. The winning player saved up four tokens, played a Guide as his first action of the turn, and spent all his tokens to draw eight (effectively twelve) more cards. He then played and trashed his Fund to get himself up to $17, 2 buys. I don't think the card's too powerful for $3, but it was a lot of fun.

Two of us bought Floodgates for the sole purpose of slipping a dead Guide into our next hand. It seemed worthwhile, but it might get more play at $3; the effect isn't that much more powerful than Tunnel.

36

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Victory/ Reaction card: Cursed Manor

« on: March 04, 2014, 08:18:26 pm »

How about capping the VP at 3 or 4, but buffing it by making the reaction gain cards to hand? Could be nice for those coppers or a few of those Ruins.

37

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Enterprise (Beta)

« on: February 04, 2014, 07:30:35 pm »

Sweet. Feel free to toss in some cards that you want tested. (If there's space left over, I wouldn't say no to Crystal Ball or Archivist, either.  )

38

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Enterprise (Beta)

« on: February 04, 2014, 06:16:42 pm »

LF, do you have printable sheets of these cards, or are there directions somewhere for putting together a template? I'll be spending the weekend up in the mountains, with a crowd that likes Dominion but wouldn't go for playing with proxied cards. I sleeved my entire collection a few months ago, so I can just slip some paper into the sleeves (for blanks, excess Ruins, Rebuild &c.). What I need is a .pdf of properly sized cards that I can just take to Kinko's, order ten copies, and cut them out myself.

39

Mini-Set Design Contest / Re: Treasure Chest Design Contest — Card #7: Alchemy

« on: January 30, 2014, 01:30:17 pm »

Well, I don't think anyone minded this time around. The contests were put together so we could look at new cards, and everyone in this subforum has been hanging out in the Enterprise threads for the past week or two. The time was certainly well spent.

40

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Windfall: One-shot Silver-gaining

« on: January 29, 2014, 09:53:54 pm »

Even if it's mechanically different, doesn't it serve the same purpose as Masterpiece, just swingier and requiring more hoops to jump through? Even if the average payoff is commensurate with the price, the variance is crazy enough to worry me. More specifically, I feel like the variance is supposed to be the appeal of the card, rather than a necessary evil from implementing a novel concept. That might be what's rubbing me the wrong way.
(Of course, I think there's still a place for a weak attack + Chancellor that gains Conscripts on reaction, so maybe I'm biased.)

41

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Enterprise (Beta)

« on: January 18, 2014, 07:33:14 pm »

Have you tried a card with a "You may trash this card" clause and an on-trash effect? That could work pretty well here.

Redistrict?

Could you be more specific? I'm not sure how Redistrict could fit this idea. In general, though, this mechanic is something I'm open to having in the set.

Oh, sorry. I thought he was asking for an example. If you're talking about an optional one-shot that also has a 'when you trash this' clause, I don't think there's anything interesting. It would be really tricky to make the one-shot worthwhile without making the card too powerful when paired with strong trashers. You could make a case for writing Feast this way, to remove the unintuitive interaction with Throne Room while making it more appealing on Chapel boards, but that's a topic for the other thread.

I think the Fund could use clearer wording.  It's hard to tell if you get still the $2 from the fund on the turn that you trash it in addition to the silver.

I agree that it would be nice if this were clearer. It does still give you the +$2. It's definitely something I would put in a FAQ, but I'm not sure how I would change the card wording itself. Suggestions are welcome, but I'd rather have a clean, concise wording than a messy one.

It's unambiguous, it's clear to anyone who's played with Counterfeit, and a whole lot less confusing than TR / any one-shot. If it turns out to be an issue, maybe "While this card is in play, you may trash it" makes the order more clear?
 

Gambler is one of my favorite fan cards ever.  I also like General a lot, I love throne room variants in general (no pun intended), and have always wanted a good $5 TR.  General not only fits very well into the set by comboing with one-shots, but it's also still a pretty reasonable $5 TR even on boards without one-shots.

Thanks! General is pretty new, so I hope it works out. Seems like an appropriate $5 cost, right? The main thing I worry about is its complicated interaction with one-shots that draw (Gambler and Vendor). Play General, play Vendor, draw two, trash Vendor, put Vendor on deck. Then play Vendor again, drawing that same Vendor and another card. Then you can play that same Vendor a third time, but this time the General has lost track of it, so you don't topdeck it when it leaves play. If it turns out to be too crazy, I can change General so that it only topdecks the card if you discard it from play, though obviously I want to keep the one-shot interaction if possible.

Yeah, that combo is bonkers. Getting three uses out of every Embargo you play could also be aggravating, and it might run out the tokens too quickly, but I can't think of any other cards you really have to worry about.

I don't like Floodgate, though I'm not quite sure why.  It makes sense that the way to do a "one-shot" victory card is to give it an on-gain effect, but for some reason I don't really like it.  If you leave everything else as is though, I feel like it should cost $3 and not $4.  The thing is, if I buy it with $4 to set stuff aside, and that stuff would have given me at least $1, why didn't I just buy Duchy?  So I'm sure you've playtested it and found that to not be an issue, but I'm at least interested to hear your comments on it.  It's at least nice for stopping terminal collision.

Generally, if other players don't buy a card, I change or scrap it. A few cards that are still in the OP died for that reason. Floodgate is probably the card my playtesters buy the least that I refuse to scrap. It's one of my favorite cards and I think it has a lot of value for advanced players, but that value is subtle. The cool thing about it is how many different tricks it can do, not all of which are obvious.

* You can save unspent coin for the next turn. Why would you do that instead of buying a Duchy? Maybe you'll afford a Province next turn. Especially nice if you have $7 to spend.
* You can salvage dead Action cards. Say you play a Smithy and draw a Village and a Smithy. Man, put those into your next hand.
* You can make Victory cards miss the reshuffle. Whenever you have fewer than 5 cards in your deck during your Buy phase (like when you've drawn your deck), you can leave Floodgate itself and up to 4 other cards out of your deck.

And that's not to mention any card-specific combos. Think about how it interacts with various gainers (Workshop, Mill Town) trash-for-benefit cards (Develop, Exchange), and discard-for-benefit cards (Cellar, Lodge).

I liked Floodgate okay when I looked at the cards yesterday, and I thought it was an unobjectionable filler card. Now I'm really warming up to it. If you have $4 to spend, you can get a mini-Tactician exactly when you need it most, with cards that you choose, but at the cost of some extra green in your deck. Very interesting.

Investment is really cool, and you probably don't need me to tell you this, but you should playtest it A LOT.  Of course it's fine if there are some boards where it's dead and others where it's nuts, but it potentially seems like the kind of card that would either be dead on way too many boards, or nuts on way too many boards.  If it turns out to be too weak I think just giving it +$x and +1 buy on play would help "make up" for having gone out of your way to get it.  If it turns out to be too strong it will be very hard to fix.

If I need to buff it, my top two ideas at this point are reducing its cost to $4 and/or making you play the Action card before setting it aside.

I like that second one much more. It saves you a lot of AP, and makes it viable on a lot more boards. Of course, if Investment turns out to be terribroken as is, that might not be a good thing. 

42

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Enterprise (Beta)

« on: January 17, 2014, 01:22:15 am »

I just updated the image post.

Removed: Tinker
Added: Lodge
Updated: Terrace

Now I just need three more cards and perhaps replacements for some of the off-theme cards.

Have you tried a card with a "You may trash this card" clause and an on-trash effect? That could work pretty well here.

Redistrict?

43

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Discussion: The Reaction That "Attacks Back"

« on: January 15, 2014, 07:44:50 pm »

I don't know if anyone brought it up in the other thread, but it seems like this would be the perfect spot for the Copper-junking attack. It's weak enough that it doesn't outshine the reaction, and you've guaranteed there'll be an attack on the board that you can react to. To beef it up, I feel like it needs something that's also really weak, but situational enough that you would be tempted to buy it for your economy (and perhaps set off an arms race in the process). I feel like a Chancellor with +2 Buys instead of +$2 would be on the right level, but I just thought of something even cooler.

Press Gang
Types: Action – Attack – Reaction
Cost: $3
Each other player reveals the top card of his deck. If it's not Copper, he gains a Copper, putting it on top of his deck.
Look through your discard pile. You may reveal a card costing $2 or less and place it on top of your deck.
When another player plays an attack card, you may discard this. If you do, gain a Conscripts from the Conscripts pile.

I have no good intuition about how much text is too much, but it feels like it could fit. Maybe there's also enough space for a vanilla bonus? There are two things I really like about it: the reaction combos with the action, so with enough of them it's almost like gaining to the middle of the deck rather than to the top or the discard. If two of them collide when you get attacked, you have the choice of gaining one in the deck versus two in the bush. Secondly, you're involuntarily slipping someone the King's coin, and next turn you have a soldier ready to be shipped off to the front. It doesn't get any more thematic than that.

44

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Revised versions of published cards

« on: January 08, 2014, 01:31:33 am »

Suggestion for another card:

Transmute
$1p - Action
Trash a card from your hand.  If it is an…  Action card, gain a victory card costing up to $5; Treasure card, gain a transmute; Victory card, gain a Gold. | If you trashed a treasure and have a second transmute in your hand, you may reveal it.  If you do, you may gain any action card costing up to $5 or $2p instead of another transmute.

Alternatively, I might use this without the potion cost as cost $3 or $4.

Also, revealing a card in response to an event to shouldn't be part of the action. You should phrase it like Trader.

Transmute
$1p - Action - Reaction

Trash a card from your hand.  If it is an… 
Action card, gain a victory card costing up to $5;
Treasure card, gain a Transmute;
Victory card, gain a Gold. When you would gain a Transmute, you may reveal this from your hand. If you do, instead, gain any action card costing up to $2p.

45

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Variant - Dominion with a board

« on: December 27, 2013, 09:29:43 pm »

I wouldn't say its the only viable strategy. Using the simulator, I turned the VP cards into the versions mentioned here. On guy just used big money (without buying up estates and duchies at the end) and another guy used "LittleMoney" i.e. just buy estates. BM won just 56/42. Now granted, once its 7 to 1 BM could just sit there for a while churning points. Also 56/42 is nothing to sneeze at. But I don't think its as completely dominating as you're suggesting. (let LittleMoney buy duchies when he gets a hand of five copper and he wins 52/48)

Still agree that it really just weakens the strategic depth without adding much new, but it doesn't remove all of it.

Okay, so Estates and Duchies are viable in comparison to Provinces, but what other cards would be worth buying? Nonterminal cards that make you cycle faster, and maybe a few Silvers early on to hit $5 more often? A Warehouse or two would be killer once you've bought your first Duchy. Lab and Stables would be great, but you can only buy them after Duchies run out. Minion becomes stronger than Rebuild ever was.

But really this change harms sifters a lot. Discarding VP cards with Warehouse and Embassy and stuff really starts to mess you up. On the other hand, having cards give you steps can make those sifters too strong. Perhaps the VP cards can give you half as many steps as they normally would when you discard them. I think that question is worth considering.

What? When you play Warehouse in this game, I think you discard anything that's not a Victory card. I agree that Embassy would no longer be viable. For the same reason, discard attacks become far stronger, because there's no longer any cards that you'd be happy discarding. Without some sort of bonus for discarding green cards, Militia will do way more damage than it did originally, and it would probably need its cost bumped up.

46

Mini-Set Design Contest / Re: Treasure Chest Design Contest — Card #6: Cornucopia

« on: December 26, 2013, 09:29:40 pm »

Bumping because Storyteller

Congrats to the winning card! I was on Team Scarecrow myself, but I really liked this card as well.

47

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Trying out some fan-made cards (Investment and Voyage) with tweaks

« on: December 20, 2013, 04:54:59 am »

While we're on the topic, I have been getting some playtesting in over the past month. Mainly Ascetic and Landlord, but I've also gotten in games with Mortuary, Prefecture, and Indulgence. I've been meaning to post about it for a while, but I haven't found the time. I'll start my own thread for it, but if you're interested in the tweaks, here goes.

Ascetic
Types: Action
Cost: $2
+2 Cards
Trash this and any number of Treasures from your hand. +1 VP for each Treasure trashed this way.

This guy definitely needs some draw to keep from whiffing, and this seems to be the sweet spot. It's a fun way to get rid of Coppers while getting a slight edge in points, but it's impossible to build a deck around it like you can with Bishop or Goons.
 

Landlord
Types: Action – Victory
Cost: $5
+2 Cards. You may discard a Victory card. If you do, +1 Action +1 Buy.
Worth 1 VP per empty Supply pile.

Landlord could use a +Buy somewhere in order to make good on its potential as a Victory card. It's quite fun as-is, and it's nice to buy a Lab guilt-free when you're supposed to be greening. But just like people predicted, the person with the most Landlords invariably lost, because there was no way to sneak a three-pile.

Mortuary
Types: Action
Cost: $5
+1 Action. Look through your discard pile. You may trash a card from your discard pile or hand.
While this is in play, when you trash a card costing $2 or more, +1 Card.

Playtesting this guy had a different lesson; it would be a bad idea to change anything. A non-terminal Hermit already neuters a lot of attacks, and if were any better you would be actively hoping to get junked. Maybe the bonus could proc on cards $1 or more, but one of the Shelters already has an on-trash benefit.

48

Mini-Set Design Contest / Re: Treasure Chest Design Contest — Card #7: Alchemy

« on: December 19, 2013, 07:32:50 pm »

Refinery
Types: Reaction
Cost: $4P
When you buy a card, you may reveal this from your hand. If you do, if the card you bought is an…
Action card, set it aside when you gain it, putting it into your hand at the start of your next turn.
Victory card, set it aside when you gain it, returning it to your deck at the end of the game.
Other card, each other player gains a copy of it instead of you.

My first thought on this card is maybe it should be a treasure card, maybe worth zero, and have all its effects be "when this is play" so that you have to choose to have it effect all the cards you buy or none of them. I still don't know if I like it but that might make it more interesting.

Also, it has two contradictory effects on purchased Action-Victory cards, both of which are proc'd as soon as you reveal the Refinery. It's going to need to be rewritten or given an awkward special-case clause specific to dual-type cards.

Also, unrestrained unfiltered Copper junking generally gets a card dismissed out of hand here, and I don't think adding 'unmoatable' to that list is a good idea. In a lot of Kingdoms it is possible to get to 6-8 buys if you build your deck around it; I played a Chapel/TR/Market game the other day.

49

Mini-Set Design Contest / Re: Treasure Chest Design Contest — Card #6: Cornucopia

« on: December 16, 2013, 03:29:55 am »

Yeah, there's no reason to believe it'll be any different than Intrigue. Presumably the second ballot will go up when the entries for Guilds and Alchemy get posted.

50

Mini-Set Design Contest / Re: Treasure Chest Design Contest — Card #A: Prize Card

« on: December 11, 2013, 04:51:48 pm »

Of course, if we just instruct people to print out their three favorite prizes of these five, we'd have space for another victory card without hurting anyone's feelings, and the redundancy would take care of itself.