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[eHalcyon]

There's recently been some more discussion on "in games using this" effects, where a card's very presence in the game adds a global effect (e.g. Duchess).

There has also been a similar idea for Environment cards that go into play immediately when gained (replacing the previous Environment) and add a "while in play" effect for all players.

A similar idea that I like a lot (and almost certainly isn't new) is just to have cards with global effects outside of the supply... sort of like the goal cards that are chosen at the start of numerous board games, except these may just be minor rule changes rather than just bonus VP.

Basic Mode: as part of game setup, randomly select one Location.  This card belongs to nobody but affects all players.  It's just a setup thing that changes some aspect of the game.  As a design goal, the changes should have some impact on strategy, but not so wild as to completely destroy the balance of the official cards.

Asymmetric Mode: as part of game setup, reveal one Location card plus one more for each player.  Each player simultaneously bids any number of VP which will be counted against them.  In bid order from highest to lowest, each player takes one Location that only counts for themselves.

Note: asymmetric mode is supposed to allow for variable player powers without having crazy balance issues (the power of each one depends on the kingdom).  There are probably better ways to implement an auction mechanic for the selection of individual Location cards.

So here is a Treasure Chest implementation of such cards.  None have been playtested.  More could certainly be made.  This would also be a very easy concept to do as print-and-play because there are very few cards (only need one of each) and they don't go into the deck so they don't have to be proxied in sleeves or anything special.  Also, of the ones below, only the Guilds card requires tokens (coin tokens).  The rest can be used no matter what sets you own.

Tell me what you think!  Are any of these broken as they are?  Would any of these be un-fun?  I think the most dangerous cards for balance are Circus (potentially big VP swing), Monastery (heavy game acceleration especially with more than 2 players, and also could make Rogue and Graverobber too amazing) and Soup Kitchen (makes opening hands far more variable).


Countryside (Base)
At the end of the game, you get +3VP.
Clarification: In basic mode, this effectively does nothing.  This is so that there is always a chance of playing the regular game with no special rules when randomly choosing a Location.

Tavern (Intrigue)
When you empty a Supply pile, you choose whether the game ends or continues if at least 3 Supply piles are empty.
When the game ends due to 3 or more Supply piles being empty at the end of your turn, you choose whether the game ends or continues.
Clarification: if the game ends due to the Province or Colony pile being empty, you cannot continue the game.

Harbor (Seaside)
At the start of your clean-up phase, you may put one card from your hand on top of your deck.

Archives (Alchemy)
At the start of your turn, you may put a card on the bottom of your deck.  If you do, +1 Action.
Note: This bottom-decks instead of discards to keep Tunnel in check.

Emporium (Prosperity)
At the start of your Buy phase, +1 Buy.  The second card you buy each turn costs $1 less (but not less than $0).

Circus (Cornucopia)
At the end of the game, +5VP if you have the most differently named cards in your deck.
Clarification: if there is a tie in basic mode, they all get the VP.

Frontier (Hinterlands)
When you gain a Victory card, +1 Card.
Clarification: you can't play cards that you draw due to buying a victory card.  You can play a Treasure card that is drawn by gaining a victory card from Horn of Plenty though.  This bonus is not always a good thing as it may trigger unwanted reshuffles or draw cards dead.

Monastery (Dark Ages)
At the end of your turn, choose a Supply Kingdom card pile with more than 3 cards.  Trash a copy of that card from the Supply.  Move a copy of that card from the Supply into the Trash.
Clarification: moving the card does not count as trashing it, so you do not reap any on-trash benefits.

Soup Kitchen (Guilds)
At the end of your turn, take a Coin token if you do not have any. did not buy any cards this turn.

[eHalcyon]

So no thoughts?  No criticisms or other ideas?

[scott_pilgrim]

I had a similar idea a while back, and I think I posted it somewhere at some point.  Bidding VP for special bonuses is definitely the best way to introduce asymmetry into Dominion in my opinion (though I don't think a silent auction is the best bidding mechanic for that purpose).  I think my similar idea was such that each player would get one bonus that was like "At the start of each turn, do X", and then the X would be like the standard vanilla bonuses, or trash a card, or +2 cards, discard 2 cards, etc.  Your ideas are interesting because some of them actually change fundamental rules of the game, like whether three-piling counts as an ending (which could be problematic, as an extreme case, imagine that all piles non-Province piles are empty and no one's deck is such that it's possible to get a Province, but I'm behind so I never want to end it).  But I think Donald has also said that kingdom cards are already ways of changing the rules of Dominion.  Normally I can't draw cards from my deck whenever I want, but I play this Smithy, so I draw 3 cards.  And I think the basic rules of the game that aren't already broken by cards exist because they're necessary, like three-pile endings.  Actually I just looked back at your cards now and Tavern is the only one that does anything like that, but whatever.  I guess my point is just be careful with breaking rules that haven't been broken before.

I also don't like Monastery, it's either just complete chaos (let's just take turns getting free Fortresses, or cards costing less than Catacombs, etc.), or it just speeds up the game.  I guess I've never been a fan of "trash a card from the supply" in general, and I don't think making it an every turn thing helps.

[markusin]

Overall, I like the idea and the sample cards you have here. I'd experiment with a Tavern that allows you to end the game after 2 piles are empty. As is, I think it makes the game end too abrupt to make the interesting ways it can change the game be felt very much. It also heavily nerfs any strategy that seeks to trash the starting estates. Maybe that's a good thing?

Monastery can use a clarification as to what happens to cards with on-trash effects.

In particular, I really like Harbor and Archives.

[scott_pilgrim]

Overall, I like the idea and the sample cards you have here. I'd experiment with a Tavern that allows you to end the game after 2 piles are empty. As is, I think it makes the game end too abrupt to make the interesting ways it can change the game be felt very much. It also heavily nerfs any strategy that seeks to trash the starting estates. Maybe that's a good thing?

Tavern only does it's thing if at least 3 supply piles are empty, so it can only ever make the game longer.

Also, I just noticed that you can extend the game with Tavern even if the Province pile is the pile that you emptied, as long as 3 or more supply piles are emptied, I don't know if that was intentional.

[eHalcyon]

Didn't think Tavern would be potentially problematic at first, but I see what you guys are getting at.  Not sure how best to fix it.  Maybe have it definitely end on the fourth pile?  Scrap it altogether?  I thought about starting the choices from the second pile, but was worried that it boosted rush strategies too much.  Generally speaking, I wanted something that involves a choice, which is tough to do with this kind of concept.  If it's an every-turn effect, it could get pretty obnoxious.

I have reworded Monastery so that on-trash effects aren't triggered.  I only considered on-trash effects briefly and thought that it would be OK because cards in the supply don't belong to you... but on-trash effects just say "when you trash..." so it would still happen.  Well, no more.   Monastery definitely accelerates the game, but it doesn't end it.  I specifically added the minimum pile size limit to prevent that.  It will make 3-piles more likely, but you'll still need to buy those last 3 cards in each pile to end it.  It puts kind of a clock on the match, and it could maybe make non-mirrors a bit more interesting by allowing you to contest a pile without actually buying those cards.

Just realized that it could be abused by trashing Provinces though.  Changing it to "Kingdom card pile" instead of "Supply pile" for now, though it could alternatively just restrict VP cards like Haggler.

PPE: the Province thing with Tavern was unintentional.  Hmmmmm.

[markusin]

Overall, I like the idea and the sample cards you have here. I'd experiment with a Tavern that allows you to end the game after 2 piles are empty. As is, I think it makes the game end too abrupt to make the interesting ways it can change the game be felt very much. It also heavily nerfs any strategy that seeks to trash the starting estates. Maybe that's a good thing?

Tavern only does it's thing if at least 3 supply piles are empty, so it can only ever make the game longer.

Also, I just noticed that you can extend the game with Tavern even if the Province pile is the pile that you emptied, as long as 3 or more supply piles are emptied, I don't know if that was intentional.

Huh? I interpreted it differently. I saw it as "when you empty a supply pile, either [end game immediately] or [ends if at least 3 piles are empty]. The wording could be made clearer it seems.

[eHalcyon]

Overall, I like the idea and the sample cards you have here. I'd experiment with a Tavern that allows you to end the game after 2 piles are empty. As is, I think it makes the game end too abrupt to make the interesting ways it can change the game be felt very much. It also heavily nerfs any strategy that seeks to trash the starting estates. Maybe that's a good thing?

Tavern only does it's thing if at least 3 supply piles are empty, so it can only ever make the game longer.

Also, I just noticed that you can extend the game with Tavern even if the Province pile is the pile that you emptied, as long as 3 or more supply piles are emptied, I don't know if that was intentional.

Huh? I interpreted it differently. I saw it as "when you empty a supply pile, either [end game immediately] or [ends if at least 3 piles are empty]. The wording could be made clearer it seems.

The intended meaning was that, if you empty the third pile, you can keep the game going if you want.  Hopefully the new wording makes it clearer?

Still might be a bad idea, of course.

[markusin]

I couldn't help but think of an idea of my own for this. Not sure how good it is, or if it's better than Soup Kitchen.

Miner's Guild (Guilds)
Once per turn, when you play a treasure costing $3 or more, you may trash it. If you do, take a coin token.

Alternatively, this can just give $1 instead of a coin token.

The idea is that it can speed up the game in a meaningful way for both big money decks and engine decks that rely on a few good treasures for an economy boost. At the same time, it cannot trash Coppers for you nor does it add possibilities for the opening buys. Kinda makes feast a sad puppy, but that's not a big concern for me.

[eHalcyon]

Interesting.  Might even be OK without limiting it to once per turn, because the minimum cost is already a bit of a gate.  Giving +$1 would play fairly differently than giving a coin token, and both might be worth having.  +$1 boosts your current turn a bit more whereas the coin token gives you a bit of extra economy for future turns.  both can make early game engine building more interesting, as you noted, but they could also make late game fun in the same way as Mining Village.

FWIW, they don't have to be related to a specific set.  I just did that to give myself some focus in coming up with examples.

[markusin]

I noticed that Miner's Guild makes Masterpiece and Soothsayer a lot more appealing. It might be okay without a once-per-turn limit, though that would make Silver-flooding strategies very potent. Spend and trash 4 Silvers, buying a Province now and maybe another I need next turn. I do like the idea of giving BM some love, and the benefits extend to a good number of engines as well.

Soup kitchen is basically a free coin every turn in the absence of other coin token cards.

[eHalcyon]

I noticed that Miner's Guild makes Masterpiece and Soothsayer a lot more appealing. It might be okay without a once-per-turn limit, though that would make Silver-flooding strategies very potent. Spend and trash 4 Silvers, buying a Province now and maybe another I need next turn. I do like the idea of giving BM some love, and the benefits extend to a good number of engines as well.

Soup kitchen is basically a free coin every turn in the absence of other coin token cards.

Hm, that's a good point about how it plays without coin token cards.  My original concept was that it would change games with coin token cards by disincentivizing coin token hoarding.  But without those cards, it really is just an extra coin token every turn.  That's probably no good.

Edit: changed the condition to "if you did not buy any cards this turn".  Pretty different, and still has a bit of an issue in opening hands in that it favours opening 3/4 or 2/5.

[LastFootnote]

Countryside (Base)
At the end of the game, you get +3VP.
Clarification: In basic mode, this effectively does nothing.  This is so that there is always a chance of playing the regular game with no special rules when randomly choosing a Location.

I like Basic Mode better than Asymmetric Mode, so this one doesn't do much for me. I'd rather have a smaller chance to use these cards than 1/X where X is the number of them.

Tavern (Intrigue)
When you empty a Supply pile, you choose whether the game ends or continues if at least 3 Supply piles are empty.
When the game ends due to 3 or more Supply piles being empty at the end of your turn, you choose whether the game ends or continues.
Clarification: if the game ends due to the Province or Colony pile being empty, you cannot continue the game.

By this wording, I think you're just giving your opponents extra turns by doing this. I empty a third pile and invoke this rule. Then the player to my left buys a Province (but not the last one) and ends his turn, choosing not to invoke this rule. 3 piles are still empty, so the game ends.

Harbor (Seaside)
At the start of your clean-up phase, you may put one card from your hand on top of your deck.

Nice. I like it.

Archives (Alchemy)
At the start of your turn, you may put a card on the bottom of your deck.  If you do, +1 Action.
Note: This bottom-decks instead of discards to keep Tunnel in check.

Yeah, this seems fine too.

Emporium (Prosperity)
At the start of your Buy phase, +1 Buy.  The second card you buy each turn costs $1 less (but not less than $0).

Whoa, seems pretty powerful. Could be fine, I guess. Those $2 cards are going to go fast.

Circus (Cornucopia)
At the end of the game, +5VP if you have the most differently named cards in your deck.
Clarification: if there is a tie in basic mode, they all get the VP.

I think this overlaps with Fairgrounds a bit much. Instead, perhaps some small bonus if you start your turn with no duplicates in hand? +$1?

Frontier (Hinterlands)
When you gain a Victory card, +1 Card.
Clarification: you can't play cards that you draw due to buying a victory card.  You can play a Treasure card that is drawn by gaining a victory card from Horn of Plenty though.  This bonus is not always a good thing as it may trigger unwanted reshuffles or draw cards dead.

I think this is bound to create more rules confusion than anything. Hinterlands lacks a good way to gain Victory cards during your Action phase. Most players may not realize that they cannot play drawn Treasure cards once they've bought a Victory card.

Monastery (Dark Ages)
At the end of your turn, choose a Supply Kingdom card pile with more than 3 cards.  Trash a copy of that card from the Supply.  Move a copy of that card from the Supply into the Trash.
Clarification: moving the card does not count as trashing it, so you do not reap any on-trash benefits.

The problem with trashing Supply cards is that it creates too much AP. Like Donald said, it's a situation where the less the decision matters, the longer it takes.

Soup Kitchen (Guilds)
At the end of your turn, take a Coin token if you do not have any. did not buy any cards this turn.

How about "if you did not use all of your buys"?

Overall it seems like it could be cool. For more inspiration, check out this Variant: Player Abilities thread. I think it's my favorite so far in terms of global power ideas for Dominion.

[eHalcyon]

Countryside (Base)
At the end of the game, you get +3VP.
Clarification: In basic mode, this effectively does nothing.  This is so that there is always a chance of playing the regular game with no special rules when randomly choosing a Location.

I like Basic Mode better than Asymmetric Mode, so this one doesn't do much for me. I'd rather have a smaller chance to use these cards than 1/X where X is the number of them.

Fair enough.  I thought of something similar that would have extra impacts on the game:

Countryside (version 2)
On your turn, Estates cost $4.  At the end of the game, Estates are worth an additional 1VP each.
Clarification: Cost reduction will still reduce the cost, starting from $4 instead of $2.

This also works out to +3VP at the start of the game but has additional impact on TfB (you start with three $4 cards!), trashing in general (you may hesitate a bit more to clear out your Estates) and end game purchases (you may start buying Estates earlier).  It might be better to make them cost $3, but $4 keeps Duchies far more efficient.  This is a bigger concern for the asymmetric game.

This changes enough things around that there should be some other way to determine whether or not to play with Location effects.  Maybe just personal choice.

Tavern (Intrigue)
When you empty a Supply pile, you choose whether the game ends or continues if at least 3 Supply piles are empty.
When the game ends due to 3 or more Supply piles being empty at the end of your turn, you choose whether the game ends or continues.
Clarification: if the game ends due to the Province or Colony pile being empty, you cannot continue the game.

By this wording, I think you're just giving your opponents extra turns by doing this. I empty a third pile and invoke this rule. Then the player to my left buys a Province (but not the last one) and ends his turn, choosing not to invoke this rule. 3 piles are still empty, so the game ends.

Hmm, that was not my intent.  Any suggestions on rewording or clarifying it?  Or is the idea worth saving?  How about:

"When you empty a Supply pile, you may choose to increase or decrease the number of empty piles required to end the game by 1."

If necessary, a maximum could be added.  A minimum wouldn't be needed because it would only ever be 2 in practice (edge case: Ambassador).  This adds an interesting dynamic to rush strategies, especially in non-mirror matches.  The rushing player will have a chance to speed up their rush by making the game end at 2 piles instead of 3.  However, the non-rushing player could empty the pile herself and increase the number needed.

In practice, it might end up too swingy and/or frustrating.  But I think it's a fascinating concept.

Emporium (Prosperity)
At the start of your Buy phase, +1 Buy.  The second card you buy each turn costs $1 less (but not less than $0).

Whoa, seems pretty powerful. Could be fine, I guess. Those $2 cards are going to go fast.

Yeah, it's powerful, but hopefully not too powerful for how often it would come up.

Circus (Cornucopia)
At the end of the game, +5VP if you have the most differently named cards in your deck.
Clarification: if there is a tie in basic mode, they all get the VP.

I think this overlaps with Fairgrounds a bit much. Instead, perhaps some small bonus if you start your turn with no duplicates in hand? +$1?

I think that was one of my alternative ideas, but I wanted to include a "Bonus VP" card somewhere here.

Frontier (Hinterlands)
When you gain a Victory card, +1 Card.
Clarification: you can't play cards that you draw due to buying a victory card.  You can play a Treasure card that is drawn by gaining a victory card from Horn of Plenty though.  This bonus is not always a good thing as it may trigger unwanted reshuffles or draw cards dead.

I think this is bound to create more rules confusion than anything. Hinterlands lacks a good way to gain Victory cards during your Action phase. Most players may not realize that they cannot play drawn Treasure cards once they've bought a Victory card.

I think you are right.  Maybe a different bonus... "you may trash a card from your hand"?  Might make hybrid VP too good though.

Or maybe

Monastery (Dark Ages)
At the end of your turn, choose a Supply Kingdom card pile with more than 3 cards.  Trash a copy of that card from the Supply.  Move a copy of that card from the Supply into the Trash.
Clarification: moving the card does not count as trashing it, so you do not reap any on-trash benefits.

The problem with trashing Supply cards is that it creates too much AP. Like Donald said, it's a situation where the less the decision matters, the longer it takes.

Hmm, that's a good thing to consider.  One of my alternative takes on this was to have it trash a specific card, e.g. "trash a copy of the least expensive Kingdom card from the Supply".  That still puts a clock on the game while avoiding the AP issue and also not giving a major buff to Graverobber and Rogue.

Another thought I just had is to trash Gold specifically.  This is thematic for Dark Ages and puts a slightly less impactful clock on the game.  The standard game has 30 Gold (I think?) so this would guarantee one empty pile after max 15 turns in 2p, 10 turns in 3p, 7-8 turns in 4p.  In practice, it would be sooner since some Gold will probably be purchased.  Graverobber and Rogue would become Gold gainers, which isn't too terribly overpowered considering Soothsayer.  Hmm, I'm liking this idea the most right now.  One potential issue is that it scales a bit strangely with different number of players, but since it's only one pile it's not a deal breaker for me.  Another potential issue is that this is purposefully emptying a pile that isn't really intended to empty, and which may not even have a consistent size (since it's OK to combine the Golds from both Base and Intrigue if you want to).

Another similar alternative would be to specifically trash Duchy (or Estate).  The clock would be 4 turns for 2-3p and 3 turns for 4p, which is close enough and also early enough that it's basically saying, "this game only really needs 2 empty piles to end, and also you can't rely on Duchies to save you if you fall behind on the bigger VP cards".  Unless you have Graverobber or Rogue, that is.

Hmmmmm.  Hmmm.

Soup Kitchen (Guilds)
At the end of your turn, take a Coin token if you do not have any. did not buy any cards this turn.

How about "if you did not use all of your buys"?

Maybe.  That would be a little less thematic for a Soup Kitchen, though I suppose theme doesn't account for much when it comes to Dominion.  This change would make +Buy slightly more powerful.  Is there any other effect?

Overall it seems like it could be cool. For more inspiration, check out this Variant: Player Abilities thread. I think it's my favorite so far in terms of global power ideas for Dominion.

I'd forgotten about that thread!  Definitely some good ideas over there.

[scott_pilgrim]

Monastery (Dark Ages)
At the end of your turn, choose a Supply Kingdom card pile with more than 3 cards.  Trash a copy of that card from the Supply.  Move a copy of that card from the Supply into the Trash.
Clarification: moving the card does not count as trashing it, so you do not reap any on-trash benefits.

The problem with trashing Supply cards is that it creates too much AP. Like Donald said, it's a situation where the less the decision matters, the longer it takes.

Hmm, that's a good thing to consider.  One of my alternative takes on this was to have it trash a specific card, e.g. "trash a copy of the least expensive Kingdom card from the Supply".  That still puts a clock on the game while avoiding the AP issue and also not giving a major buff to Graverobber and Rogue.

Another thought I just had is to trash Gold specifically.  This is thematic for Dark Ages and puts a slightly less impactful clock on the game.  The standard game has 30 Gold (I think?) so this would guarantee one empty pile after max 15 turns in 2p, 10 turns in 3p, 7-8 turns in 4p.  In practice, it would be sooner since some Gold will probably be purchased.  Graverobber and Rogue would become Gold gainers, which isn't too terribly overpowered considering Soothsayer.  Hmm, I'm liking this idea the most right now.  One potential issue is that it scales a bit strangely with different number of players, but since it's only one pile it's not a deal breaker for me.  Another potential issue is that this is purposefully emptying a pile that isn't really intended to empty, and which may not even have a consistent size (since it's OK to combine the Golds from both Base and Intrigue if you want to).

Another similar alternative would be to specifically trash Duchy (or Estate).  The clock would be 4 turns for 2-3p and 3 turns for 4p, which is close enough and also early enough that it's basically saying, "this game only really needs 2 empty piles to end, and also you can't rely on Duchies to save you if you fall behind on the bigger VP cards".  Unless you have Graverobber or Rogue, that is.

Hmmmmm.  Hmmm.

I think Donald intended for the treasure piles to be basically unlimited.  In practice they're not, but making a card that intentionally limits them seems weird (of course just because he wanted them to be unlimited doesn't mean you have to like it that way).  But I think in the cases where the effect would do anything, it would mostly just lead to sloggier or more lop-sided or frustrating situations.  Like I'm getting hit by Ghost Ship every turn and now I can never get to $8 because I can't make $8 with a three-card hand and no Gold.  I also don't like that it's neutral in asymmetric mode.

I don't know if someone already brought it up but I think something simple like "When you trash a card, +1 card" would be fine for Dark Ages.  Or if you're concerned about Chapel/heavy trashers going nuts maybe "When you trash cards, +1 card" (that works because trashing is atomic right?).  Trashing doesn't need a buff but it's fun, and it's kind of Dark Ages's thing, and it makes Rats and probably other DA cards go crazy.

[eHalcyon]

Monastery (Dark Ages)
At the end of your turn, choose a Supply Kingdom card pile with more than 3 cards.  Trash a copy of that card from the Supply.  Move a copy of that card from the Supply into the Trash.
Clarification: moving the card does not count as trashing it, so you do not reap any on-trash benefits.

The problem with trashing Supply cards is that it creates too much AP. Like Donald said, it's a situation where the less the decision matters, the longer it takes.

Hmm, that's a good thing to consider.  One of my alternative takes on this was to have it trash a specific card, e.g. "trash a copy of the least expensive Kingdom card from the Supply".  That still puts a clock on the game while avoiding the AP issue and also not giving a major buff to Graverobber and Rogue.

Another thought I just had is to trash Gold specifically.  This is thematic for Dark Ages and puts a slightly less impactful clock on the game.  The standard game has 30 Gold (I think?) so this would guarantee one empty pile after max 15 turns in 2p, 10 turns in 3p, 7-8 turns in 4p.  In practice, it would be sooner since some Gold will probably be purchased.  Graverobber and Rogue would become Gold gainers, which isn't too terribly overpowered considering Soothsayer.  Hmm, I'm liking this idea the most right now.  One potential issue is that it scales a bit strangely with different number of players, but since it's only one pile it's not a deal breaker for me.  Another potential issue is that this is purposefully emptying a pile that isn't really intended to empty, and which may not even have a consistent size (since it's OK to combine the Golds from both Base and Intrigue if you want to).

Another similar alternative would be to specifically trash Duchy (or Estate).  The clock would be 4 turns for 2-3p and 3 turns for 4p, which is close enough and also early enough that it's basically saying, "this game only really needs 2 empty piles to end, and also you can't rely on Duchies to save you if you fall behind on the bigger VP cards".  Unless you have Graverobber or Rogue, that is.

Hmmmmm.  Hmmm.

I think Donald intended for the treasure piles to be basically unlimited.  In practice they're not, but making a card that intentionally limits them seems weird (of course just because he wanted them to be unlimited doesn't mean you have to like it that way).  But I think in the cases where the effect would do anything, it would mostly just lead to sloggier or more lop-sided or frustrating situations.  Like I'm getting hit by Ghost Ship every turn and now I can never get to $8 because I can't make $8 with a three-card hand and no Gold.  I also don't like that it's neutral in asymmetric mode.

I don't know if someone already brought it up but I think something simple like "When you trash a card, +1 card" would be fine for Dark Ages.  Or if you're concerned about Chapel/heavy trashers going nuts maybe "When you trash cards, +1 card" (that works because trashing is atomic right?).  Trashing doesn't need a buff but it's fun, and it's kind of Dark Ages's thing, and it makes Rats and probably other DA cards go crazy.

Yeah, I mentioned in that blurb that one potential issue is that Gold isn't intended to run out.  You're right that slogs are problematic.  That makes the Duchy trashing more interesting... but then you are again correct that it's neutral in asymmetric mode.  Totally overlooked that!

So a possible fix is to bring in another DA idea I had:

Battlefield (Dark Ages)
In your Buy phase, you may buy cards from the Trash.  At the end of your turn, trash a Duchy from the Supply.

Still might be problematic.




The on-trash benefit doesn't work so well because it does nothing if there isn't a trasher available.