IImagine if every game of Dominion started with each player holding twenty victory point chips. Each play of a Silver and Gold costs a victory point chip. A player who has no VP chips may only play a Silver or Gold by gaining a Curse, if there remain any.
Holy crap, when I first read this I thought it said you lost a chip when you
bought a Silver or Gold. I was about to explain why that was a bad idea when I realized it said "when you
play a Silver or Gold"! So you're basically turning any game where you can't play very many Action cards into a horrible slog as players…
1) Opt to buy nothing for a bunch of their turns.
2) Buy way too many terminal Actions and can't play them.
3) Lose 20 points and eventually fill their deck with Curses.
None of these are fun! The first two lead to your deck going nowhere fast. The third one lets you actually build a deck, but then it collapses in on itself.
In most games with this variant, players ain't getting to Provinces. The best strategy is probably to fill up on terminal Silvers (Militia, etc.) and 3-pile with Estates and maybe Duchies. Does that sound fun to you? What made you think this was a good idea?