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6326

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion:Enlightenment

« on: January 27, 2013, 02:02:26 am »

OK, now I'm confused. My comments were predicated on the fact that Books is currently not a one-shot. Nowhere on Books does it say "trash this" or "return this to the Books pile". Is it supposed to be a one-shot?

Whoops, sorry about that. One of my earlier iterations of the card (in the file I was referencing with my notes) had it down as a slightly different effect that made it a one shot with the effect:

BooksA
Types: Action
Cost: $0*
+1 Action. Look at the top 3 cards of your deck. You may trash one then put the remaining revealed cards into your hand. If you don't trash a card in this way, trash Books.
(This is not in the supply.)

I later changed the text to lower card complexity...now I think BooksA might be more balanced. Any ideas?

BooksA seems even more powerful than Books. Now it's a Lab-Lookout that self-trashes when you no longer need it, and even gives a bonus as it does so! It doesn't really address my issues with the fact that you're probably only going to gain a Books once in most games. I was thinking that it should either always be a one-shot, or that rather than digging for a Books, Librarian could return/trash Books for a bonus. If you go for that second option, there's more strategy involved with how many Books you want to gain.

6327

Dominion General Discussion / Re: have you ever grow bored of dominion?

« on: January 27, 2013, 01:56:03 am »

I actually have never gotten bored of Dominion. Here's my graph of games over time from Council Room:

…

Aside from a week or so in September 2011 when I didn't have internet access, I've been playing pretty steadily for the last two years. I might be an edge case though.

Huh, didn't realize they had this graph. It's cool, but the derivative of this (games/unit of time) would be much easier to read.

6328

Dominion: Guilds Previews / Re: A small nugget of info

« on: January 27, 2013, 01:53:07 am »

Names or cardsets might be still in flux.

OR they added a 14th card.

Or it's not a Kingdom card. It could be like the Prizes, Madman, Spoils, Mercenary, etc.

6329

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion:Enlightenment

« on: January 26, 2013, 11:26:55 am »

Librarian
Types: Action
Cost: $4
Choose one: Gain a Books from the Books pile; or reveal cards from you deck until you reveal a Books, put it into your hand, and discard the other revealed cards.
You may play a Books.
You must have an Action card in play to buy this.
When you gain this, trash an Action card you have in play.

Books
Types: Action
Cost: $0*
+1 Action. Look at the top 3 cards of your deck. Trash one and put the rest into your hand.
(This is not in the supply.)

So, let's talk about Books. Librarian/Scholar/Books remind me of similar cards in my Enterprise expansion, Barracks and Conscripts. One of the key differences is that Books isn't a one-shot. Books is like a Super-Lookout in a lot of ways. You look at the top 3 cards of your deck and trash one, but instead of discarding one and putting one back, you draw them both. That's incredibly powerful, like a Laboratory-Lookout! But like Lookout, I'm guessing that you don't want many Books, because once you've trashed most of your junk, playing Books is a bad idea. In games without junking Attacks, you probably want one Books. With junking Attacks, two or maybe three.

So the interesting interactions that Books has with Librarian sort of go to waste if you're only gaining one Books per game. It might take the strategy out of it, because you probably know exactly how many Books you want, you'll get them ASAP, and then you'll never need any more.

You could have Librarian "re-shelve" the Books (return them to the Books pile) for a bonus. That could be cool and thematic.

As far as Librarian itself goes, I'm not sure it needs the buy restrictions. What's your logic there?

The buy restrictions were originally to prevent opening with Librarian (it costed $5), which would give you a significant leg up. I'm not sure they really need to remain, if it stays costed at $4. The question is, is Librarian a too powerful card at just $4?

As far as another ability goes, I think Librarian is already a very powerful card, because when you use books as a one shot, it is the equivalent of playing 2 Laboratories, plus it is almost all good cards because you didn't want to trash any. Even a card that gains a one-shot like that, and then searches for it and plays it, is pretty powerful.

OK, now I'm confused. My comments were predicated on the fact that Books is currently not a one-shot. Nowhere on Books does it say "trash this" or "return this to the Books pile". Is it supposed to be a one-shot?

6330

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion:Enlightenment

« on: January 25, 2013, 09:45:36 pm »

I've ordered and reworded your cards before critiquing them, but I don't believe I've changed any functionality.

Barricade
Types: Action – Duration
Cost: $2
+1 Buy. +$1. At the start of you next turn, +1 Card.
While this is in play, when another player plays an Attack card, you may gain a card costing up to $2. If you do, you are not affected by that Attack.

This is sort of an oddball card. Obviously it's going to be very popular in games with Attacks and $2 cards you want a lot of, like Fool's Gold, Native Village, etc. Unfortunately, t's probably powerful enough in those games to deter people from buying Attacks at all. In games without powerful $2 cards, it seems incredibly weak. I don't think I want a ton of Barricades in my deck most of the time, although I could be wrong about that.

I'd take off the bit about the Attack not affecting you and raise the limit of the gained card to $3. That makes it more useful in more games and should deter Attacks much less.

I do really like how it interacts with cost-decreasers that other players play. "Oh, you played 3 Highways and then a Militia? I'll just gain a Wharf."

Academy
Types: Action – Reaction
Cost: $3
+$2
When you play an Action card, you may discard this. If you do, +2 Cards.

I think this is probably undercosted and incentivizes Academy rushes too much. If I play an Academy, I can then discard an Academy from my hand to draw two cards. If one (or both) of those is an Academy, I can then discard that one for two more cards. There's no way to tell if I had it in my hand initially, after all. So as long as you buy no other Action cards, they're basically incredibly cheap Laboratories except the first one, which is worth $2. It might work at $4, but it might need tweaking before it can work at any cost.

Scholar
Types: Action – Reaction
Cost: $3
Look at the top 4 cards of your deck. Put one into your hand, then put the rest back in any order.
When you gain an Action card, you may discard this. If you do, gain a Books from the Books pile.

Seems solid enough. You'd have to playtest it to make sure the cost is right, but I don't think the concept is fundamentally flawed. The reaction portion seems a bit tacked on, though. Scholar doesn't really seem as built to work with Books as Librarian does.

Town Commons
Types: Action
Cost: $3
+2 Actions. +1 Buy.
When you buy or trash this card, gain a differently named Action card costing up to $4.

Interesting. It's sort of a reversed Border Village. Seems…powerful. It's a pretty weak card in your deck, but it does let you open $4/$4/Town Commons, which seems pretty darn good. I like the strategy space it opens, but I wouldn't be surprised if testing revealed it to be too powerful in a lot of games.

Cafe
Types: Action – Victory
Cost: $4
You may play an Action card from your hand. +1 Card.
Every Cafe in your deck after the first is worth 3 VP.

I'm not terribly fond of either half of this one. The interactions with Action cards that reorder the top of your deck are cute, but I don't think it's worth the potential confusion and tracking issues. When you start chaining and Throning them, it just gets more confusing.

As for the bottom half, it just doesn't really seem interesting to me. Maybe I'm judging it too quickly. Can you try to sell me on it?

Librarian
Types: Action
Cost: $4
Choose one: Gain a Books from the Books pile; or reveal cards from you deck until you reveal a Books, put it into your hand, and discard the other revealed cards.
You may play a Books.
You must have an Action card in play to buy this.
When you gain this, trash an Action card you have in play.

Books
Types: Action
Cost: $0*
+1 Action. Look at the top 3 cards of your deck. Trash one and put the rest into your hand.
(This is not in the supply.)

So, let's talk about Books. Librarian/Scholar/Books remind me of similar cards in my Enterprise expansion, Barracks and Conscripts. One of the key differences is that Books isn't a one-shot. Books is like a Super-Lookout in a lot of ways. You look at the top 3 cards of your deck and trash one, but instead of discarding one and putting one back, you draw them both. That's incredibly powerful, like a Laboratory-Lookout! But like Lookout, I'm guessing that you don't want many Books, because once you've trashed most of your junk, playing Books is a bad idea. In games without junking Attacks, you probably want one Books. With junking Attacks, two or maybe three.

So the interesting interactions that Books has with Librarian sort of go to waste if you're only gaining one Books per game. It might take the strategy out of it, because you probably know exactly how many Books you want, you'll get them ASAP, and then you'll never need any more.

You could have Librarian "re-shelve" the Books (return them to the Books pile) for a bonus. That could be cool and thematic.

As far as Librarian itself goes, I'm not sure it needs the buy restrictions. What's your logic there?

Rebel Village
Types: Action – Attack – Looter
Cost: $4
+2 Actions. Each other player with at least 5 cards in hand trashes a Copper from his hand or reveals a hand with no Copper and gains a Ruins.
When you gain this, gain 2 Coppers.

I generally don't like fan cards that require you to own a specific expansion, and this is no exception. That aside, I think this card has other issues. In a 2-player game, this is almost always going to help your opponent. However, in a multiplayer game where everybody opens with this, I worry that economies will just be destroyed before they can get off the ground, gained Coppers notwithstanding. Cutpurse is at least terminal. Once your opponents trash your Copper, you could have a hand (and deck!) that consists only of your Estates, a Silver, and two Rebel Villages. Then you destroy the other players' turns. It could easily be a vicious circle.

I don't really have any suggestions on fixing it. If my concerns turn out to be correct, I don't think there's a way to fix the card without fundamentally changing it.

Tavern
Types: Action
Cost: $4
Choose one: +2 cards and put a patron token onto your Tavern mat; or gain an Action card costing up to $3 per patron token on your Tavern mat, then remove all tokens from your Tavern mat.

Seems cool. Might need tweaking after playtesting, but I can't see anything wrong with it.

Headmistress
Types: Action
Cost: $5
Choose three: +1 Card; +1 Action; +1 Buy; +$1; trash a card from your hand; gain a Silver. (The choices must be different.)
If you have more than one Headmistress in play, discard a card.

I am not a fan of this one. I don't like that there are 20 different combinations to choose from, I don't like that each individual option is boring, and I don't like the heavy-handed way it limits itself. Sorry!

Poet
Types: Action
Cost: $5
+2 Cards. +1 Action. +$1. Put this card on your Poet mat.
You may buy cards from your Poet mat for $1 during your buy phase.

Cool idea. It could easily be balanced as-is, but of course playtesting could reveal otherwise. I wouldn't mind if the effect was a little snazzier than just three vanilla bonuses.

Private Funds
Types: Treasure
Cost: $5
When you play this, it's worth $1 for every Action card you have in play. If this is worth $5 or more, trash this.

Interesting. I wonder if it incentivizes not playing a fifth Action. Even if it does, I don't think it's a dealbreaker. It overlaps with one of my own fans cards a bit, in both name and effect, but that's the way the cookie crumbles. It also has obvoius parallels with Horn of Plenty, but time and testing will tell if plays differently enough to be interesting. I think it probably will.

Revolutionary
Types: Action – Attack
Cost: $5
Choose one: Each other player discards down to 3 cards in hand; or each other player gains a Curse.
Each other player may trash a Treasure from his hand.
If this is the first time you played a Revolutionary this turn, +$2.

I don't know quite what to make of this one, but my overall reaction is negative. For one thing, it might create politics in the same way that early versions of Goons did. If the player to your right just played a discard Attack, your discard attack will only hit that player and the effect you choose may be driven by how well that player is doing. On the other hand, given the choice between these two two attack effects, I think you're usually going to choose the cursing until the Curses run out, then choose the discarding. On the third hand, discarding Attacks tend to lose a lot of oomph in Curse-heavy games, so the discard option seems a little superfluous.

Looking at the rest of the card, I feel like it has too many moving parts and that most of the parts won't matter most of the time. As others have said, I don't think you'll be seeing many opponents trashing Treasures from their hands in a Curse-heavy game. I've already mentioned that the discard Attack probably won't end up mattering much. In a Curse-heavy game, you're unlikely to play more than one Revolutionary in a turn, so the self-limiting effect probably won't matter much, either.

Philosopher
Types: Action
Cost: $6
Choose one: Trash up to 4 cards from your hand. Gain a card costing up to $2 more than the number of cards you trashed; or trash this; if you do, gain a card costing up to $6.

Seems too swingy. If you get lucky, you get to trash more cards and get a better card in return. If you get unlucky, you don't get to trash many cards and you get a mediocre card in return. It's a double whammy. That's one more whammy than I can stand.

Thanks for posting your expansion. You have a lot of creative ideas, which I appreciate. Even if half of them don't work out, after several iterations you'll probably end up with an interesting, sold set of cards.

6331

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Price this Card #2

« on: January 25, 2013, 08:25:12 pm »

It would be pretty swingy...what if one game it was...like Hunting Parties, and one was Counting Houses.

I'm not sure 'swingy' is the best term. Usually that means it's luck-based in usage. I wouldn't call Young Witch swingy just because it's worse with a good bane.

6332

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Price this Card #2

« on: January 25, 2013, 05:06:02 pm »

I wonder how this would change if, instead of always being Laboratory, you gained a copy from a random $5 Kingdom plie not in the Supply (the same card throughout the game).

6333

Dominion General Discussion / Re: The Dominion Cards Lists 2013 Edition: $4 cards (Part 1/5)

« on: January 25, 2013, 04:54:32 pm »

Nomad Camp. Woodcutter is rated as the second-worst $3 card, yet somehow Nomad Camp, which is basically the same card is not in the bottom TEN $4 cards? I don't get it. You get the on-gain effect one time, which I guess is useful when you're trying to mass $2 cards asap (i.e. Fool's Gold), and can maybe do cute things with gain-then-draw. But a lot of the time I'd actually rather NOT have the on-buy effect, since when you add your +buy card to an engine, you don't want it in your starting 5 cards.

Yeah, actually, this is puzzling to me, too. Nomad Camp seems so shiny! But it's really just Woodcutter. Not sure why it appears that way to me.

I dunno what to tell you.  Woodcutter is not a bad card - there are just better cards.  And Nomad Camp allows for 4/4, 4/5 and 4/2/2 openings.  And Nomad Camp could be rather fantastic in Gardens games - once in the endgame, you know you're not going to be shuffling again, so getting that +Buy right on top of your deck is perfect.

I guess what I'm asking is: How many kingdoms are there where you should go for Nomad Camp, but you shouldn't go for Woodcutter if it was there instead? I'm betting it's not very many.

I'd say it's a fair amount of the time. Maybe not in an most engines, but in a decks where it takes you several turns to reach a reshuffle, yeah.

You can buy Nomad camp early on for use as a Woodcutter, and that's fine. But one of the things you can do with Nomad Camp that you can't do with Woodcutter is to buy it opportunistically. If you're in full-on greening mode and you're trying to delay reshuffles, Nomad Camp can be useful. If I've spent most of the shuffle buying Victory cards and I've got $4 this hand, I'm almost certainly going to want a Nomad Camp over an Estate.

There are also niche uses, of course. If I just used Develop to put a Silver and a Mystic on my deck (for example), buying a Nomad Camp gives me an even better shot at a Province next turn.

6334

Dominion General Discussion / Re: what's your least favorite card that other people don't seem to hate?

« on: January 25, 2013, 02:56:31 pm »

Rebuild!

Didn't we have a Rebuild game several months ago? That seems to ring a bell. Maybe I'm thinking of the Storeroom game.

On topic, I'd put Governor and Goons in this category, although I've learned to hate Governor a bit less.

That was Storeroom. I remember that game. It was on a Duke board.

With Hoard, right. You went Mine and I went Storeroom. That was an interesting game.

So, why don't you like Rebuild?

I don't like Rebuild because I am starting to think it is very luck dependant. I am now much better at playing it, but almost all games that I lose to low ranked players on Goko are Rebuild games. To be honest, I am starting to think it is better than Mountebank and Witch at $5. It is so fast!, and often, you can ignore the curser and win. I've had that happen to me before, twice! I went for the curser, my opponent goes for Rebuild, and Rebuild is so fast, and just skips over the curses! It doesn't matter how clogged your deck is. I think I ranked it fourth on Qvist's list, but if I went back, I would put it at number 1.

I'll agree that Rebuild is quite indifferent to most Attack cards, which in itself is quite powerful. I wonder how often it beats a good engine without Attacks, though. It can be quite fast, and if you reach a mega-turn with your engine, there won't be many Duchies left to buy. It's hard to say.

6335

Goko Dominion Online / Re: Possession in one-player games -- Important?

« on: January 25, 2013, 01:51:44 pm »

If a word can mean it's exact opposite, literally, then that word no longer has any value, literally.

A handy list of examples: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto-antonym

That's not the same thing.  The fact that "citation" happens to both mean a commendation and a court appearance is not even "opposites".  Those are terms that have multiple meanings, some of which are amusingly different.  The word "set" has a billion meanings and I'm sure some contradict each other.

Language misuse impairs communication by introducing ambiguity where there was none. 

When I say, "you just bought literally the best card in the game", do I mean it, or is it just a really good card?

When people use "chronic" to mean "acute" instead of "long-term", it makes the term "chronic pain" ambiguous.  When people call every headache that hurts a little bit more a "migraine", it diminishes the impact of what a real migraine is.

When I use the word "flaunt", are people like Jimmy Carter going to misread it as "flout"?

I can't use "disinterested" with its real meaning any more, because people will think I mean "uninterested".  I have to use another term, none of which captures the same meaning as "disinterested".  It doesn't really mean neutral, or even-handed.  It means "without a fish to fry".  What other word works? 

I just don't understand why people are so accepting of bad language usage.  Over time, trends change, and we can't help that.  But that doesn't mean that every particular bastardization of the English language is OK or should be encouraged.

I just looked up 'disinterested' on dicitonary.com, and apparently 'disinterested' and 'uninterested' used to have their meanings swapped. So at one point 'disinterested' meant 'not interested' and 'uninterested' meant 'impartial; nothing at stake'. So when you say you can't use 'disinterested' with its "real" meaning anymore, is that actually true?

6336

Goko Dominion Online / Re: Why aren't *you* playing on Goko?

« on: January 25, 2013, 11:37:58 am »

When I started this thread, I had no clue that this complaint would come up so many separate times.  I understand that people don't want to pay.  I mean, I understand that.  But expecting to play for free online just because you own all the cards at home is a bit ridiculous.  These are two separate products, and expecting to play with the cards you already have at home is the same as expecting Goko to make no money.

I love being misunderstood.  Especially when it happens more than once.

At no point did I say that I thought Goko should be free or that they should make no money. All I said was that I've already paid once, and do not want to pay again.  Which means for me, I will only be able to play basic set most of the time. Yes, they should make money. No, there is no way for them to know if I have the cards, or that it should even matter.

It's a matter of budgeting. Do I spend the money to pay for something I already bought so I can play against strangers around the world (which is not a bad thing), or spend the money so I can play with my friends every Saturday? For me, I'm gonna go with the physical copy.

The question was why am I not playing Goko? I don't want to pay again, with Iso doing more for me. And that's likely why Iso dominion will eventually go away, it makes them no money and steals players from them.

So what I'm hearing you say is that playing Dominion online is not valuable to you, or at least not worth as much to you as Goko is charging. That's fine.

You're being "misunderstood" because what you've said (repeatedly) is that you're not keen on paying for things twice. What we're trying to tell you is that you're not paying for anything twice because the physical product and the digital product are two different products. They're similar, but you're not paying "twice" for anything. Get it?

6337

Dominion General Discussion / Re: what's your least favorite card that other people don't seem to hate?

« on: January 24, 2013, 08:23:43 pm »

Rebuild!

Didn't we have a Rebuild game several months ago? That seems to ring a bell. Maybe I'm thinking of the Storeroom game.

On topic, I'd put Governor and Goons in this category, although I've learned to hate Governor a bit less.

That was Storeroom. I remember that game. It was on a Duke board.

With Hoard, right. You went Mine and I went Storeroom. That was an interesting game.

So, why don't you like Rebuild?

6338

Goko Dominion Online / Re: F.DS room on (public) Goko - Outpost?

« on: January 24, 2013, 06:25:57 pm »

It's perfectly plausible that there could just have been some random people in the Outpost room. There are often 1 or 2 people hanging out in the rooms that aren't Council Room or Counting House.

6339

Dominion General Discussion / Re: what's your least favorite card that other people don't seem to hate?

« on: January 24, 2013, 06:22:03 pm »

Rebuild!

Didn't we have a Rebuild game several months ago? That seems to ring a bell. Maybe I'm thinking of the Storeroom game.

On topic, I'd put Governor and Goons in this category, although I've learned to hate Governor a bit less.

6340

Dominion General Discussion / Re: The Dominion Cards Lists 2013 Edition: $4 cards (Part 1/5)

« on: January 24, 2013, 06:19:58 pm »

Is rats really that good? I wasn't sure if it was worse than scout, and I don't think it is, but... really?

When you have non-terminal trashing (Forager, Junk Dealer, Upgrade, etc.) and your deck is being junked, Rats is clutch. I'm not comfortable making claims about its general utility.

6341

Dominion General Discussion / Re: The Dominion Cards Lists 2013 Edition: $3 cards (Part 3/3)

« on: January 24, 2013, 06:16:03 pm »

I actually played a game where I bought Market Square solely for the +Buy. So, I would have to say it superior to Tunnel. I wouldn't buy a Tunnel solely for the VP unless it was mighty close to the end game.

Well, keep in mind that while you don't need the additional buys in every game, every game does have a period that's "mighty close to the end game".

6342

Dominion General Discussion / Re: The Dominion Cards Lists 2013 Edition: $4 cards (Part 1/5)

« on: January 24, 2013, 05:50:51 pm »

So, I'm not arguing that Talisman's in the wrong spot, but does anybody besides me ever use it to accumulate Silver? I mean, let's say you're not building an engine and you have two buys and $6 to spend. It's common wisdom that one Gold is usually better than two Silvers, but is it better than four Silvers?

If I planned on predominantly buying money, I wouldn't want Talisman, though, because I'm probably playing Big Money, and Talisman can't help me with Gold and Victory cards--which are two/thirds of the components I need to purchase (Silver being the other). I can't picture a board where money dominates, but there is no better $4 cost enabler than Talisman.

Hmm, perhaps. What about playing a Wharf/BM or Council Room/BM strategy? Might it not be worth buying a Talisman in order to turn an extra Buy and an extra $3 into two Silvers?

EDIT: There is of course the fact that opening with Talisman will slow down your first Wharf/Council Room purchase.

6343

Dominion General Discussion / Re: The Dominion Cards Lists 2013 Edition: $4 cards (Part 1/5)

« on: January 24, 2013, 05:39:02 pm »

So, I'm not arguing that Talisman's in the wrong spot, but does anybody besides me ever use it to accumulate Silver? I mean, let's say you're not building an engine and you have two buys and $6 to spend. It's common wisdom that one Gold is usually better than two Silvers, but is it better than four Silvers?

6344

Goko Dominion Online / Re: Why aren't *you* playing on Goko?

« on: January 24, 2013, 01:17:08 pm »

Online Dominion and physical cards Dominion are inherently different products. Goko doesn't make any money off of the actual cards, so they shouldn't be expected to let you use all of the expansions even if you've bought them IRL.

I understand that.  But it still would require me to pay twice over, and I'm not keen on doing that.
This is simply why "I" won't pay, not a reason for them to not do it at all.

You know it's only $40 for all the cards, right? I'd say that's a hell of a deal, personally. For the price of one physical set, you get 187 Kingdom cards online.

6345

Goko Dominion Online / Re: Alchemy on Goko

« on: January 24, 2013, 01:19:22 am »

I haven't been to Goko in months. Is it worth going back?

I'd say so. They've got everything but Alchemy, Black Market, and Stash implemented and the interface is good for the most part. Whenever I play online Dominion, that's where I go.

6346

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Fantasy, a fan made expantion by mail-mi

« on: January 23, 2013, 10:57:31 pm »

Dragon's Hoard

So, Dragon's Hoard should look more like this... (I know it promotes BM, but there are some cards that just do that.)
Dragon's Hoard
+$1
If this is your only card in play at the start of your buy phase, +1 Buy, +$2

You're right that there are some cards that are good for BM, but this one explicitly doesn't want you to play Actions. That's a little farther than any official card takes it. If you want to keep the "only card in play" bit, so be it, but I have one additional suggestion. Two other cards that can be very useful for BM, Council Room and Vault, give your opponents a bonus when played. I suggest you add a similar effect to Dragon's Hoard. That way if one player decides to go for the Dragon's Hoard strategy, the other players can try to build their decks to take advantage of the particular bonus that Dragon's Hoard gives them. It would make the card a little less vanilla as well.

Time Machine

So it should have a clause that says "...that is not named Time Machine..." And, I really don't know how to fix the BM thing (Suggestions, please?)

If I had suggestions, I'd give them to you. Gaining into hand is a tough ability to balance.

Cursed Treasury

Any suggestions on how to make it less vanilla?

I mean this in the nicest possible way, but if I had any cool card ideas along the lines of a 'gain a Curse' mechanic, I'd make them myself and put them in my own sets. Really, anything that isn't just vanilla bonuses would be an improvement. But bear in mind this bit from Donald X.:

I haven't actually done giving yourself a Curse in a published card, although Death Cart gets close. I tried multiple cards that gave yourself a Curse; everyone hated them. Death Cart dodges the problem by giving you a use for the Ruins.

Area 51

So... terminal and $4. Should I keep the clause that says that cards in the Mystery Pile cost 4 or more?

Yes, I think so.

Griffin

Yeah, I'm quite proud of this card. I think that keeping the middle part is best because it does make the card more confusing, but it has to compare to Duchy in end game. Get an extra coin and a buy if I buy a Victory card? Sweet!

I think you'll have a hard time fitting all three parts on a physical card, but more power to you.

Unicorn

I also had an idea of making Unicorn more of a hermit-like thing, example...(This is just an idea, nothing I've really thought over.)
Unicorn
+1 card
+1 action
Look through your deck. Trash a card from your deck or hand, then shuffle your deck.
--
At the start of your buy phase, if this is your last (or only) action card in play, you may trash this card. If you do, gain a Grazing Field, putting it on top of your deck.
Action
$5

Grazing Field
Worth 1 VP for every Grazing Field in your deck (counting this).
--
When you gain this, reveal your hand. If you have any Victory cards in your hand, return this to the Grazing Field pile (or trash this). This is not part of the Supply
0*
Victory

Just a thought.

Sounds like it's worth a shot!

Titan

Which option would you get rid of?

Honestly, I'd scrap both the first two options and just add a bonus to the Attack, which is interesting enough to stand on its own.

6347

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Fantasy, a fan made expantion by mail-mi

« on: January 23, 2013, 08:18:00 pm »

Sorcerer's Apprentice

What I was thinking is a little sort-of self-synergizing card, hey I revealed SP with SP and SP turns into a village and I have another action to play it with! The if you do clause is separate from the if it is on your turn clause. And the if it is on your turn, +1 Action clause is for if you reveal it with, say, Harvest, you have an extra action and an action to play.

Hmm, well that does sound pretty nice. I do like Harvest. I still think it's a bit inelegant, but I guess that's OK. I'll have to think if this actually creates rules issues with existing cards.

Basement

First, it was +2 cards per Victory card discarded, but you discard victories anyway. What about if I remove the +1 action, and make the +2 cards triggered on discarding actions?

I think that's much better. If it's too weak in testing, you might even want to make it +3 cards for discarding Actions.

Wealthy Village

But is it too weak for $5? Maybe village-with-a-bonus/silver at $5. Maybe since it's a wealthy village, it should give +1 card, +3 actions or a silver. Or, combine villager and wealthy village. Make the villager option for action, or a silver option for treasure.

How about this:

Wealthy Village
If played during the Action phase, +1 Card and +2 Actions.
If played during the Buy phase, this is worth $1 per Wealthy Village you have in play.
Action-Treasure
$4

You can play the first one or two during your Action phase as Villages and any you have left over after that become quite valuable! It's a little like Fool's Gold, but I think it's definitely different enough. It might be too powerful for $4, but I honestly have no idea. It would need playtesting.

Pegasus

So... mandatory discard, discard any card, and buff up Action bonus. What if the card gave +1 card and +$1 instead? Then, Treasure discard is +2 cards, +1 action, +$1, and action discard is +1 card, +1 buy, +$2? Would it have to cost 5?

Well, you have to remember that you're playing Pegasus and discarding a card, so you're down 2 cards in hand right there. The Treasure discard basically gives you a slightly better Peddler effect, since you'll end up with the same number of cards in hand, $1, and break even on actions. The Action discard is even worse than it was, giving +$2 and +1 Buy, but costing you an action (and an Action card!) and decreasing your handsize by 1. That's worse than Woodcutter. I repeat, make the Action discard give a much more substantial bonus: either much higher vanilla bonuses, or something a little flashier. I'd definitely go back to +1 Card/+1 Action, too. I think Pegasus is fine as a non-terminal.

Sorcerer

So, using your idea here, and your idea later, I've come up with this.

Sorcerer
Now and at the start of your next turn, +$1
--
While this is in play, if your opponent buys a victory card, you may discard a card. If you do, +1 card. If your opponent buys a Province, +$1.

So, not-so-much good in beginning or middle game, but on a round where all other players buy provinces, it gives a huge payoff. May convince your opponent to go duchy and estate rather than province.

I suggest a reversal. Make it a card you want to open with.

Sorcerer
Now and at the start of your next turn, +$1.
--
While this is in play, when another player buys a card that is not a Victory card, you may discard a card. If you do, +1 card.
Action-Duration
$4

The amount of coin the card gives you this turn and the next is pitiful, but that's good! It means the while-in-play effect can be more powerful, and that's really the star of the show.

I'll respond to the rest later tonight or early tomorrow.

6348

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Price this Card #2

« on: January 23, 2013, 05:54:11 pm »

I'm having trouble grasping the card's concept. I get that it's a delayed Laboratory (which is itself weird), but why the +2 VP?

6349

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Chamberlain

« on: January 23, 2013, 04:22:50 pm »

I would give it its own type: Auction.

Chamberlain
Auction - Victory
Cost: N/A (There's no coin symbol in the bottom-left corner.)
While you own this, at the start of your turn, +$2.
This is worth 1 VP per 2 tokens on its Auction mat (rounded down).

Then in the manual, you describe the rules for Auction cards (and use a Chamberlain Auction mat and the Pirate Ship/Trade Route tokens to note its most recent cost).

EDIT: Of course, you'd probably want to have several Auction cards to make this worthwhile.

6350

Variants and Fan Cards / Re: Dominion: Fantasy, a fan made expantion by mail-mi

« on: January 23, 2013, 02:38:15 pm »

Here are my criticisms of your cards. I apologize in advance if I'm too harsh. There are very few fan cards that I like.

Sorcerer's Apprentice
+1 Action
Reveal the top card of your deck. Choose 1:
Put it back, discard it, put it into your hand, trash it.
--
If you reveal this from the top of your deck, you may put this into your hand. If you do, if it is your turn, +1 Action; and continue to reveal cards as if you handn't revealed this card.
Action-reaction
$2

Two parts of this card rub me the wrong way: "If you do, if it is your turn, +1 Action" and "continue to reveal cards as if you handn't revealed this card." It would be nice if the entire benefit gained from revealing the card was available whether or not it was your turn. Why +1 Action anyway? Sorcerer's Apprentice is already non-terminal. Honestly, I think putting the card into your hand is enough of a bonus. That being said, there is bound to be some wackiness for an effect that triggers on being revealed from your deck. If I recall correctly, Donald tried it at one point and rejected it for being too confusing. I might be misremembering the specifics.

Also, it shouldn't be a Reaction card. You're already revealing it and the events trigger from that. Reactions are for when the card isn't already public knowledge and you get to reveal/discard/trash it at a time when you wouldn't normally be able to do so.

Satyr
Choose one: +2 cards; +2 actions; +$2; or +2 buys
Action
$2

I think this one might need to be buffed up, but who knows?

This card just isn't interesting to me. The card concept seems to be: a cheap card that gives you a choice between several weak effects. We've got plenty of that already (Pawn, Steward, Squire, etc.). If you're creating a new card for that concept, it has to be pretty interesting (like Squire).

However, the problem you run into there is that if you give four complex options, the card becomes a confusing, bloated mess. Case in point:

Sphinx
Choose one: +3 cards, put a card from your hand on top of your deck; +3 actions, all other action cards played this turn do not give you +actions; +$3, All treasure (except Copper, maybe?) are worth 1 less; or trash three cards from your hand, gain a card costing up to 4
Action
$3

I'd cut this down to 2 or 3 options. The first one I'd cut is the +3 Actions, since "all other Action cards played this turn do not give you +Actions" just seems kludgy and weird to me. Also, rinkworks is right: if you keep the "All Treasure cards produce $1 less this turn (but not less than $0)" bit, you can't exclude Copper without making Sphinx-BM the dominant strategy in every Sphinx game.

Basement
(+ 1 Action)
Reveal then discard any number of cards. +2 card per Treasure card discarded in this way, +1 card per other card discarded this way. You may trash this card.
--
When you trash this card, +1 card.
Action
$3

I'm very worried that this is also going to promote boring strategies by making you want only Treasures and Basements in your deck. I do like the fact that you can trash the card and it has an on-trash ability.

Wealthy Village
If played as an action;
+1 card, +2 actions
--
If played as a treasure;
$2
Action-Treasure
$4

In general, you can't charge $4 for a Silver+. There are lots of times where you'll happily buy a Silver for $4 and when Wealthy Villages are available you'll just buy them instead. It has to cost at least $5.

I'm against Action-Treasure cards in general. I don't think the novelty is worth the potential confusion. But that's just my opinion.

Villager
+1 card
+2 actions
Look at the top and bottom card of your deck. Discard one and put the other on top of your deck.
Action
$4

This card doesn't seem like a standout to me, but as deck lubricant goes it's solid. Two thumbs up.

Pegasus
+1 card
+1 action
You may reveal and discard an Action or Treasure card. If it is an Action card, +1 buy, +$1. If it is a Treasure card, +1 Card, +1 Action
Action
$4

First of all, if you're discarding a single card, you don't need to explicitly reveal it; the card is already public knowledge (e.g. Jester). It's only when you're discarding 2 or more cards at once when you need reveal them first (e.g. Tribute). Second, why limit the discard to an Action or Treasure? You don't get a bonus for discarding anything else anyway, so why not let it happen? Third, the bonus for discarding an Action card is way, way too weak. Pegasus gives you a +1 Action. You could have played that Action card! The bonus should be way stronger than +1 Buy and +$1. Finally, I think the card would be interesting if the discard was mandatory.

Sorcerer
+1 card
+1 action
At the start of your next turn, +$1
--
While this is in play, whenever someone buys a victory card, +$1 more on your next turn. This cannot cause you to get more than +$3 on your next turn.
Action-Duration
$4

The core idea of this card seems to be: get a bonus for things your opponents do during their turns. I think the idea is fine. It would be nice if the bonus were easier to track and didn't have a hard limit. Something like, "You may discard a card. If you do, +1 Card."

Centaur
+$2
Each other player gains a copy of the top card of the Centaur pile, then put the top card of the Centaur pile on the bottom.
--
Set up: Shuffle together the Copper, Curse, and Estate randomizer cards and place them face up on the board. This is the Centaur pile.
Action-Attack
$4

I think this is probably fine, if a bit swingy. It's probably no swingier than Swinder. I don't think that the newer copies of Dominion have randomizers for Copper, Estate, and Curse, but they could be easily proxied with blanks.

Before moving on with the individual card critiques, I'd like to step back and take a more holistic look at the set. I find that the set lacks exciting cards that really jump out at me. I think one reason is that a lot of the cards are just too vanilla. By that I mean that most of their effect is a combination of (or a choice between) very basic components (+Cards, +Actions, etc.).

I think the biggest problem, though, is that you seem to suffer from extreme Non-Terminalitis. (Don't worry, it's not terminal! ) Looking through the 14 Action cards in your set, Centaur is the only one that you're not at least considering giving +Actions to.

In general, most cool cards with flashy effects are balanced, at least in part, by being terminal Actions. +1 Action is a very powerful thing for a card to have, and if you have to balance the card around it, the rest of the card has to be less powerful. That may not be the best way to think about it, but it's something to keep in mind. Your set should have some non-terminal Actions, of course. Every set needs some deck lubricant cards, like Hamlet, Oasis, Vagrant, Ironmonger, Cellar, etc. But when most of your set is deck lubricant, something is wrong.

Luckily, it's not all that tough to determine which cards should be non-terminal. Some cards need to be non-terminal in order to fit their concept. Time Machine, for instance, makes sense as a non-terminal so that you're encouraged to gain a cool Action card into your hand rather than a basic Treasure card. Village cards are non-terminal by nature and every set should have some of those.

I'll pick on two other examples from your set. The whole point of Dragon's Hoard is that it's the only Action card you play that turn. Why in the world is it non-terminal? I mean, I think I can see your thought process. If a player draws it with another Action card you want them to still be able to use it as a pseudo-Copper. Resist! Oftentimes a card with some risk involved is better than a risk-free card. A less obvious example is Sorceror. All Sorceror really needs is an effect next turn and its whlie-in-play effect. It'll probably end up having a this-turn effect too, but there's no reason that it needs to include +1 Action.

Time Machine
+1 action
Gain a copy of an action card that the player to your right played of their last turn and put it into your hand.
Action
$5

I like the idea, but it's hard to implement well. The first problem that jumped out at me when I read the card is that if your right-hand opponent played a Time Machine, you can play your Time Machine to gain a Time Machine into your hand. Then you can play that Time Machine to gain a Time Machine into your hand, etc.

Furthermore, I think it'll lead to people playing Action-less strategies in order to deny their left-hand opponents the awesome benefits this card provides. Again, I like the idea, but I assume the gain-into-hand is an essential part of the card, and I'm not sure how you could make that work.

Dragon's Hoard
+$1, +1 action
During your Buy phase, if this is your only action card in play, +$2, +1 buy
Action
$5

This is another card that I think will promote boring Treasure-centric strategies.

Cursed Treasury
+1 Card
+1 Action
+1 Buy
You may gain a Curse card. If you do,
+1 Card
+$2
Action
$5

Too vanilla for my taste. Sorry.

Area 51
+1 card
+1 action
Trash this card. If you do, put the top card of the Mystery Pile on top of your deck.
--
Set-up: Create a mystery pile at the beginning of the game with one copy of ten random, different kingdom cards not in the supply (that cost $4 or more). The Mystery Pile is not part of the supply.
Action-Duration
$5

Area 51 FAQ: Cards from the mystery pile are not gained. Therefore, on-gain effects of cards taken from the mystery pile do not apply.

This doesn't need to be non-terminal. Also, I'd probably cost it at $4. After all, you have no control over what you get and it's a huge waste if you gain a card costing less than Area 51 itself. I have the same concerns about swinginess as the others here, but there's nothing intrinsically wrong with swingy cards, I guess, as long as they're fun.

Griffin
$0
Worth +$1 for every Victory card in your hand.
--
Once per turn, while this is in play, if you buy a Victory card, +1 buy, +$1.
--
When you discard this card from play, if you bought at least 2 Victory cards this turn, you may put this card on top of your deck.
Treasure
$5

I think this has too many moving parts. I'd keep the top and the bottom, scrap the middle, and move the +1 Buy to the top. Other than that, this seems pretty cool. Might need tweaking after playtesting, but I like the overall concept.

Goblin
(+1 Action)
Trash a card from your hand. Gain a card costing up to $4 more than it. Trash this card.
--
(When you gain this, gain a Copper.)
Action
$5

I'm not sure how this will work in practice. I think you should playtest it and see if people buy it and what they're usually trashing with it before tweaking it further.

Unicorn
Worth 1 VP for every Unicorn in your deck, including this one.
--
When you buy this card, reveal your hand. If you have any Victory or Curse card in your hand, trash this card.
Victory
$6

I worry that the VP gains from this might be a bit too explosive. I understand that the on-buy penalty is meant to counteract that, but I think it just makes it more luck-based. Do you happen to have a Victory card in your hand? Too bad. You get 3 Unicorns and your opponent gets 5, for a VP differential of 16. That's more than two Provinces!

Titan
(+1 action?)
Reveal the top 3 cards of your deck. Choose 1:
Trash all of them, draw up to 2 of them and discard the rest, or discard all of them and each other player discards down to 3 cards in hand and gains a Copper and a Curse, putting them into their hand.
Action-Attack
$6

Again, I might cut this down to 2 choices, just to simplify the card. The Attack is obviously quite brutal. I strongly advise against the +1 Action.

Conclusion: As you work on the set, I'd keep an eye on having a good balance of terminal and non-terminal Actions and be wary of cards that strongly promote boring Treasure-centric strategies.