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[nohik]

Is there a rule against playing with platinum and without colonies? It may be OP, pointless etc but is there a rule against it?

We had a game where we had platinum and no colonies in play. After 7-8 rounds, a friend got 11 coins and suddenly decided that he will put colonies on the table because he wanted to buy one. We all said no because non of us had built our decks with a plan on buying it. What is the correct way to act in this situation?

[Dsell]

I believe the official rule is that platinum and colony come into play together. Either they both are in the game, or neither.

That said, ultimately the goal of Dominion (and any game) is to have fun, so play the game however you find it most fun! Platinum with no colonies? Sure. 12 Kingdom cards? Sounds good to me.

But if you're going to do something that's not in the rules, everyone should agree to it ahead of time. Make your own variants on the game, but decide as a group. Trying to bring out colonies in the middle of the game is poor sportsmanship, in my opinion. I can understand why that player would wish they were on the board, but it's not at all fair to the other players. If I were playing, I would suggest continuing to play without colonies for this game, and then decide on the rules as a group before the next game. Dominion is a pretty quick game, so it's not so bad.

[silverspawn]

We had a game where we had platinum and no colonies in play. After 7-8 rounds, a friend got 11 coins and suddenly decided that he will put colonies on the table because he wanted to buy one. We all said no because non of us had built our decks with a plan on buying it. What is the correct way to act in this situation?

the correct way is to say no, as you did. and what dsell said. it doesn't matter what the rules say, if you started the game without colonies then they aren't there, so unless all players agree to include them recursively, play without them.

[Polk5440]

These threads would be even more fun to read if they were required to read like a Dear Abby column.

Dear Donald,

<Conundrum goes here>

--  Gamer Guy in Glendale

And in true Dear Abby fashion, someone other than Donald answers.

[nohik]

Thanks for the answer. Dsell, can you quote the "colonies and platinum must be played at the same time" rule? We have Intrigue and Original Dominion and couldn't find the rule there. Did we overlook something?

[Awaclus]

Thanks for the answer. Dsell, can you quote the "colonies and platinum must be played at the same time" rule? We have Intrigue and Original Dominion and couldn't find the rule there. Did we overlook something?

Here's the rule:

"If only Kingdom cards from Prosperity are being used this game, then the Platinum and Colony piles
are added to the Basic cards in the Supply for the game. If a mix of Kingdom cards from Prosperity
and other sets are being used, then the inclusion of Platinum and Colony in the Supply should be
determined randomly, based on the proportion of Prosperity and non-Prosperity cards in use. For
example, choose a random Kingdom card being used - such as the first card dealt out from the
Randomizer deck - and if it is from Prosperity, add Platinum and Colony to the Supply. Platinum
and Colony are not Kingdom cards; when those are included, there are 10 Kingdom cards, plus
Copper, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Estate, Duchy, Province, Colony, and Curse, in the Supply. Use 8
Colonies for a 2-player game, or 12 Colonies for a game with 3 or more players."

From the Prosperity rulebook.

[pacovf]

I don't necessarily agree that the default answer should be to leave colonies out, but platinum in. Imagine the same happened with curses, and witch was in the kingdom. Turn 5, player A plays witch, and says that they should put the curse pile on the table so that the witch actually does the attack part. Then every other player says no, because if curses were on the table, they would have planned their strategy around it (i.e., buy witch, or a trasher, whatever). To me, both cases are equivalent.

[qmech]

There's something to that.  I had been imagining (rather uncharitably) that the decision had been made that playing with Platinum but not Colonies would be a bit of a lark, and that someone changed their mind when they hit $11.  If everybody was expecting Colonies to be with the Platinum then I agree that it's equivalent to Witch and Curses, and would not object at all to the Colonies coming out.

[Beyond Awesome]

The thing about having Witch in the kingdom is that it should be obvious that curses are out even if they are not available to start with. Everyone sees Witch on the board and understand what it does. Witch=Curses But, Platinum does not = Colonies. After all, I have played plenty of games with Bank and no colonies and both are produce a similar amount of coin. In some cases, the Banks produce even more.

[yed]

The thing about having Witch in the kingdom is that it should be obvious that curses are out even if they are not available to start with. Everyone sees Witch on the board and understand what it does. Witch=Curses But, Platinum does not = Colonies. After all, I have played plenty of games with Bank and no colonies and both are produce a similar amount of coin. In some cases, the Banks produce even more.

For me Platinum=Colonies.

[GendoIkari]

The thing about having Witch in the kingdom is that it should be obvious that curses are out even if they are not available to start with. Everyone sees Witch on the board and understand what it does. Witch=Curses But, Platinum does not = Colonies. After all, I have played plenty of games with Bank and no colonies and both are produce a similar amount of coin. In some cases, the Banks produce even more.

For me Platinum=Colonies.

Well in the rules, Platinum=Colonies. But you can't tell that from just reading the cards. If I saw Witch on the table without Curses, I wouldn't even think that maybe they are playing with a house rule where Witch doesn't give out Curses. But if I saw Platinum without Colonies, I would think that they were playing a house rule where you can have Platinum but not Colonies.

[Beyond Awesome]

The thing about having Witch in the kingdom is that it should be obvious that curses are out even if they are not available to start with. Everyone sees Witch on the board and understand what it does. Witch=Curses But, Platinum does not = Colonies. After all, I have played plenty of games with Bank and no colonies and both are produce a similar amount of coin. In some cases, the Banks produce even more.

For me Platinum=Colonies.

Well, same for me, but people do have house rules.

[eHalcyon]

I don't necessarily agree that the default answer should be to leave colonies out, but platinum in. Imagine the same happened with curses, and witch was in the kingdom. Turn 5, player A plays witch, and says that they should put the curse pile on the table so that the witch actually does the attack part. Then every other player says no, because if curses were on the table, they would have planned their strategy around it (i.e., buy witch, or a trasher, whatever). To me, both cases are equivalent.

Curses are always part of the supply, so I'm not sure I understand the comparison.  If they intentionally and explicitly omitted Curses as a variant, then sure -- suddenly adding in the Curse pile would not be fair. 

From the explanation of the situation, they started the game with Platinum but without Colonies, and with the expectation that Colonies would not be part of that game.  If that's the case, then one player should not be allowed to suddenly add Colonies halfway through the game.  That would be like suddenly adding Fairgrounds or Vineyard.  If the various players had different assumptions at the start (e.g. one player thought that Colonies were in, even though they hadn't been taken out of the box) then they should have clarified it.  They can resolve it with a vote or something, or even scrap the game if they can't come to a friendly solution, and then make sure to be unambiguous for future games.

[pacovf]

If the various players had different assumptions at the start (e.g. one player thought that Colonies were in, even though they hadn't been taken out of the box) then they should have clarified it.

I assumed this was the case, otherwise obviously whatever had been decided at the beginning of the game should stand.

A lot of people (me included) don't pull out the curses every game, because the odds of any one player getting one if there aren't any curses (EDIT: cursers) is rather slim, and it's a hassle to count how many curses you need. If you play this way for long enough, you might forget that curses are always part of the supply. The comparison is a bit stretched, yes. I was just pointing out that it's not as clear cut as some people thought, from the limited information we have.

[heron]

because the odds of any one player getting one if there aren't any curses is rather slim

Well yea, but the only reason there aren't any curses is because you took them out!