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[Rubby]

There has always been a beautifully clear, practical logic to card types in Dominion, and to the assignment of colors to certain types. But I'm not sure I see it with Reserves.

Treasure: Color reminds you that it's played in a different phase of your turn.

Victory/Curse: Color reminds you that it's not played, and is very convenient when counting your points at the end.

Reaction: Color reminds you that you can use it at special times.

Duration: Color reminds you not to discard it on the turn you play it.

Ruins/Shelter: There is arguably no obvious, practical in-game reason for their coloring, but it is convenient for sorting purposes when cleaning up at the end.

Reserve: This is the only type where I really don't know why it wants a color - or a type, for that matter. Like Reactions you can do things with them at special times, but unlike Reactions they're not in your hand at those times; they're already clearly distinguished by being on your Tavern mat. And actually, you CAN'T do anything at special times with Distant Lands.

So why is Reserve a colored type?

[mith]

To remind you to put them on your mat?

[werothegreat]

The tan color reminds you that if a Reserve is actually in play, you're getting the "call" effect, and not the "play" effect.

[Rubby]

To remind you to put them on your mat?

To remind you to do what the first on-play instruction explicitly tells you to do?

Cards like Island/Madman/Feast/Spoils certainly don't need a special type and color to remind you to put them somewhere other than the play area.

The tan color reminds you that if a Reserve is actually in play, you're getting the "call" effect, and not the "play" effect.

That makes some sense, but then why do Distant Lands and Wine Merchant have this type?

[Mr Anderson]

They do something when they are on your tavern mat. Coppers might end up on your tavern mat, but you will never get them back into play somehow. Distant Land is only worth VP if it is on your tavern mat, Wine Merchant can be discarded from the tavern mat.

[LastFootnote]

During development, there were cards that allowed you to put any card on the Tavern mat. Even now, there can be Coppers on your mat due to Miser. The tan color reminds you that you can call/discard the Reserve cards at specific times.

As for why Distant Lands has the Reserve type, all I can tell you is that I complained about it at the time. Right now Reserve basically means "puts itself on the Tavern mat", which is a pretty useless qualifier. "Removes itself from the Tavern mat" is more useful. Luckily the two line up except for Distant Lands.

The tan color reminds you that if a Reserve is actually in play, you're getting the "call" effect, and not the "play" effect.

I don't think this makes sense. If it's in play for more than a moment, it's been called.

[Beyond Awesome]

Even with the cards on the mat, it can be easy to forget about the card. The coloring does help as a reminder. Also, coppers can end up on your mat. Personally, I think the coloring makes sense.

[scott_pilgrim]

colors and Reserves

I typed "colors and Reserves"

[crlundy]

Was there ever a thought to not having reserve be a card type? Unless I've missed something in one of the new cards, there's nothing that makes reference to the type, nor do they have any special rules associated with them. So they would function just fine without the type. Even the different color isn't necessarily much of a necessary reminder, because those cards are sitting there on your Tavern Mat anyway; they aren't mixed in with other cards like reactions are (except perhaps some Coppers from Miser).

No, I wanted them to have a different color, which meant having a new card type. It's nice to connect them that way too.

[Rubby]

Even with the cards on the mat, it can be easy to forget about the card. The coloring does help as a reminder. Also, coppers can end up on your mat. Personally, I think the coloring makes sense.

I guess it would make a lot more sense to me if Distant Lands didn't have the Reserve type.

[swedenman]

Reserves are like Durations: they wouldn't function any differently if they didn't have their own unique type, but they have their own unique type because they have something special about them that sets them aside from every other action card, and giving them a different color just helps us remember that it has that unique effect. Sure, the text says it all for us, too, but that's also true of Durations. There's no harm in having the unique color (the different color isn't likely to confuse anybody, I don't think), and it looks cool, so I don't see any problem.

As for why Distant Lands is a Reserve card, I agree that it probably didn't need to be, but that also would have made it the only card in the set that could go on your Tavern mat that wasn't a Reserve card. True, Coppers can also do that, but it obviously wan't realistic to go back and turn Coppers into Reserves for the sake of one kingdom card that's going to come up roughly once in every 23.6 games. Overall I just think there's less confusion if Distant Lands in a Reserve.

[Donald X.]

- It's good to have the cards on the mat be a different color, to further remind you that they stay out, do not clean those up.
- As LF notes at some points other cards could be on the mat.
- The color helps tie together the cards in your mind; you see one on the table and know it's one of those.
- People like having new card colors.

[eHalcyon]

- The color helps tie together the cards in your mind; you see one on the table and know it's one of those.
- People like having new card colors.

These seem like reasons that could have supported giving a new colour to cards with on-gain, on-buy or on-trash effects.  Did you ever consider using a new colour for them?  I suppose it would have also required a new card type, and that could have gotten a bit unwieldy.

[crlundy]

You can rationalize it as "cards that put themselves on your Tavern mat are tan". Accounts for the types/coloring of Distant Lands, Miser, and Copper.

Reaction, Duration, Reserve, and Traveller are all non-functional types, as far as I can tell. They're just reminders that they're special, and an extra reminder never hurt anyone (as far as I can tell).

[Donald X.]

- The color helps tie together the cards in your mind; you see one on the table and know it's one of those.
- People like having new card colors.

These seem like reasons that could have supported giving a new colour to cards with on-gain, on-buy or on-trash effects.  Did you ever consider using a new colour for them?  I suppose it would have also required a new card type, and that could have gotten a bit unwieldy.

When-gain could have been Reactions or a new type. A problem there is that when-gain and when-buy are similar but different. They don't want to eat two colors; they want to look the same but wait want to be clearly distinct. Ideally I would just have had one or the other. It was a topic of discussion during work on Hinterlands; a few cards just had to be when-buy so I couldn't make everything when-gain, and when-gain is more fun otherwise.

Another thing was that Mint came out ahead of the rest, because the mechanic had once been in the expansion ahead of Prosperity and then somehow Mint survived. It didn't end up spoiling the mechanic but did lock me in.

Anyway uh. I didn't consider a color for those things early on (duration cards also had no color or type originally), then Mint came out and it was too late. If I had it to do all over again and moved Mint, I don't know if I would give them a color/type but I would think about it. A big thing would be to try to get rid of having both when-gain and when-buy.

I didn't consider it for when-trashed. I couldn't make them reactions because it would have been weird what with when-gain/buy not being reactions. I didn't mind though. I like keeping reactions as things that function when the card wasn't involved, plus Tunnel.

[Donald X.]

Reaction, Duration, Reserve, and Traveller are all non-functional types, as far as I can tell. They're just reminders that they're special, and an extra reminder never hurt anyone (as far as I can tell).

Duration is functional, it has a rulebook rule involving clean-up, for those cards and for Thrones on them. Consider Possession, which does something in the future but is not a Duration card and so does not stay out.

Traveller is referred to by Warrior.

[GendoIkari]

The tan color reminds you that if a Reserve is actually in play, you're getting the "call" effect, and not the "play" effect.

Wow somehow I never saw this before. More than once I've argued for my opinion that Reserve shouldn't have been a new type. This is the best reason I've seen for it. I don't agree with LF's criticism of it; the new color makes it clear when counting up your money and buys in the buy phase that those cards in play should be ignored, because they're different.

I still maintain that Distant Lands and Wine Merchant shouldn't have been reserves, though.

[Marcory]

There are a number of Cards in Dominion that set themselves or other cards aside. Prince doesn't have a mat, but since it and the card it sets aside are (normally) in play every turn, they can just remain in the 'In Play' area every turn. Ditto Champion and Hireling, while other Duration cards can stay in play until they are cleaned up.

But Island and Native Village set aside cards out of play for more than one turn, and often (always with Island, of course) permanently; they need a mat. Ditto for the Reserve cards and Miser. Distant Lands and Miser could have had their own mats, but that would have increased production costs without adding much to the game. It's simpler for them to use the Tavern, like the other set-aside cards in Adventures.

At least that's my guess.

[Witherweaver]

The tan color reminds you that if a Reserve is actually in play, you're getting the "call" effect, and not the "play" effect.

Wow somehow I never saw this before. More than once I've argued for my opinion that Reserve shouldn't have been a new type. This is the best reason I've seen for it. I don't agree with LF's criticism of it; the new color makes it clear when counting up your money and buys in the buy phase that those cards in play should be ignored, because they're different.

I still maintain that Distant Lands and Wine Merchant shouldn't have been reserves, though.

You could conceivably have a card that says 'Play a Reserve card from your Tavern mat.'  In which case you could whiff it on Distant Lands (and most other Reserves I guess), which maybe you want to do for some edge case, and Wine Merchant would actually get you something (+1 Buy and +4 Coin).