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[GendoIkari]

So I think it would be cool if Dominion had more keywords. Kind of like Magic. Sure it would be a little extra effort for a new player to pick up, but even so. Some possible options.

Topdeck - Topdeck {x} means put {x} on top of your deck. Default from hand unless otherwise specified.
Example - Courtyard
+3 cards
Topdeck 1 card

Dig - Dig for {x} means reveal cards from your deck until you reveal {x}. Put {x} in your hand and discard the other revealed cards.
Example - Adventurer
Dig for 2 treasure cards

Scry - Scry {x} means look at the top {x} cards of your deck. Discard any number of them. Put the rest back on top in any order.
Example - Cartographer
+1 card
+1 action
Scry 4

Reload - Reload means to put your deck into your discard pile. Works for 3 real cards currently; no idea if more cards, including fan cards, would use the mechanic. Could have a better word too; that's just what I can think of at the moment.
Example - Chancellor
+
You may Reload

Dictate - Dictate {x} means you may choose an action card from your hand. Play it {x} times. Works for 4 real cards.
Example - King's Court
Dictate 3

Refill - Refill {x} means draw up to {x} cards in hand.
Example - Watchtower
Refill 6
_________________
{Reaction stuff}

{Not sure} - {Not sure} means each other player gains a curse. I don't know what to call this one. Also, I don't quite know if it will work, because most of the examples of "gain a curse" that currently exist are in a context other than flat-out "each other player gains a curse". In fact, is Witch the only card that simply states that without other condition or option or something that does something with the gained curse?

What others can you think of?

[LastFootnote]

"Topdeck" would be great.

I think "Dig" would definitely be good to have, although I don't think it should include putting the cards into your hand.

Golem: Dig for 2 Action cards other than Golems; play them in either order.
Adventurer: Dig for 2 Treasure cards, putting them into your hand.

This still doesn't cover Scrying Pool, but oh well.

I think the rest are too niche to need keywords.

[popsofctown]

I like the idea of more keywords.  Reload, probably not though, you don't want it to appear so many times that you have to shuffle constantly, and if it doesn't appear many times it shouldn't be keyworded.  For an online only game Reload would be a good recurring theme.

[GendoIkari]

"Topdeck" would be great.

I think "Dig" would definitely be good to have, although I don't think it should include putting the cards into your hand.

Golem: Dig for 2 Action cards other than Golems; play them in either order.
Adventurer: Dig for 2 Treasure cards, putting them into your hand.

This still doesn't cover Scrying Pool, but oh well.

I think the rest are too niche to need keywords.

Good ideas. As for being too niche, indeed, I'm kind of thinking here of a world where Dominion becomes more like magic, and thousands of new cards are printed over the years.

[popsofctown]

"Topdeck" would be great.

I think "Dig" would definitely be good to have, although I don't think it should include putting the cards into your hand.

Golem: Dig for 2 Action cards other than Golems; play them in either order.
Adventurer: Dig for 2 Treasure cards, putting them into your hand.

This still doesn't cover Scrying Pool, but oh well.

I think the rest are too niche to need keywords.

Good ideas. As for being too niche, indeed, I'm kind of thinking here of a world where Dominion becomes more like magic, and thousands of new cards are printed over the years.

Hm, with that in mind there could eventually be enough Chancellors, I guess.  And it would be nice if you came up with a card that has a wordy, complex effect that synergizes with the Chancellor effect, and you could just keyword it.

[Drab Emordnilap]

So, keywords (in game design) have two components -- a benefit, and a cost.

The benefit: by collapsing a phrase into a single word, you free up both text space (on the cards) and mind space (once I know what "Dig" means, I know all instances of Digging work the same way).

The cost: Keyword cards don't do what, in English, they say they do. Now, there's plenty of examples of needing more knowledge than just the English language to understand what a card does, already existing. But every keyword you add creates more of those, and too many means that players won't past the steeper learning curve.


Magic uses reminder text to get the best of both worlds. The keyword is there for people who know it, and the full(ish) text is there for people who don't. Reminder text also serves the purpose of converting the second group into the first.


End result, you have to be careful with keywords -- too many, and your game becomes incomprehensible. Too few, and your game becomes too verbose (imagine if every card said "move a card from your hand to the trash pile" instead of "trash a card from your hand".)

[eHalcyon]

"Topdeck" would be great.

I think "Dig" would definitely be good to have, although I don't think it should include putting the cards into your hand.

Golem: Dig for 2 Action cards other than Golems; play them in either order.
Adventurer: Dig for 2 Treasure cards, putting them into your hand.

This still doesn't cover Scrying Pool, but oh well.

I think the rest are too niche to need keywords.

"Dig for x" = "Reveal cards from the top of your deck until you reveal x".

Golem: Dig for 2 Action cards other than Golem cards.  Discard the other revealed cards, then play the Action cards in either order.
Adventurer: Dig for 2 Treasure cards, putting them into your hand.  Discard the other revealed cards.

Scrying Pool: Each player scries 1 (your choice).  Dig for a card that is not an action card.  Put all revealed cards into your hand.


The scry keyword is awkward here.

[LastFootnote]

"Topdeck" would be great.

I think "Dig" would definitely be good to have, although I don't think it should include putting the cards into your hand.

Golem: Dig for 2 Action cards other than Golems; play them in either order.
Adventurer: Dig for 2 Treasure cards, putting them into your hand.

This still doesn't cover Scrying Pool, but oh well.

I think the rest are too niche to need keywords.

"Dig for x" = "Reveal cards from the top of your deck until you reveal x".

Golem: Dig for 2 Action cards other than Golem cards.  Discard the other revealed cards, then play the Action cards in either order.
Adventurer: Dig for 2 Treasure cards, putting them into your hand.  Discard the other revealed cards.

Scrying Pool: Each player scries 1 (your choice).  Dig for a card that is not an action card.  Put all revealed cards into your hand.

I think it's much better to make the discarding part of "dig" and just have Scrying Pool spell it out. Not only does it save you a lot of words overall, but it makes wording effects way easier. In basically every case, you want the discarding of the other cards to come before whatever you do with the found cards; you don't want cards in set-aside limbo while you're doing whatever you're going to do with the cards you were digging for. But this can make wordings problematic. Example: Saboteur.



You'll notice that with Saboteur, the trashing and gaining comes before the discarding. That sucks because those other cards are hanging out in no man's land while any on-trash and on-gain effects resolve. Want to draw 3 cards for trashing your Cultist? Too bad, they're all set aside. So why is it worded this way? Because any wording that makes you discard first is awful, thanks to pronouns. The best I can come up with is this:

Each other player reveals cards from his deck until revealing one costing $3 or more. He discards the other revealed cards, then trashes that card and may gain a card costing at most $2 less than it.

"That card" is arguably slightly ambiguous, especially when you only reveal one other card.

Anyway, I guess what I'm trying to say is that this is awesome:

Each other player digs for a card costing up to $3, trashes it, and may gain a card costing at most $2 less than it.

[GendoIkari]

So, keywords (in game design) have two components -- a benefit, and a cost.

The benefit: by collapsing a phrase into a single word, you free up both text space (on the cards) and mind space (once I know what "Dig" means, I know all instances of Digging work the same way).

The cost: Keyword cards don't do what, in English, they say they do. Now, there's plenty of examples of needing more knowledge than just the English language to understand what a card does, already existing. But every keyword you add creates more of those, and too many means that players won't past the steeper learning curve.


Magic uses reminder text to get the best of both worlds. The keyword is there for people who know it, and the full(ish) text is there for people who don't. Reminder text also serves the purpose of converting the second group into the first.


End result, you have to be careful with keywords -- too many, and your game becomes incomprehensible. Too few, and your game becomes too verbose (imagine if every card said "move a card from your hand to the trash pile" instead of "trash a card from your hand".)

There's a second benefit you're missing, which is theme. That matters for some things more than others, but words like "Flying" and "Deathtouch" in magic convey something about the world that the game takes place in.

[thespaceinvader]

This still doesn't cover Scrying Pool, but oh well.

Scry 1, dig for a card which is not an action card.  Discard that card, and put the revealed cards in your hand take the revealed cards.

For that matter:

Take: put into your hand.

So, Torturer: Discard two cards or gain and take a curse.

[Grujah]

"Topdeck" would be great.

I think "Dig" would definitely be good to have, although I don't think it should include putting the cards into your hand.

Golem: Dig for 2 Action cards other than Golems; play them in either order.
Adventurer: Dig for 2 Treasure cards, putting them into your hand.

This still doesn't cover Scrying Pool, but oh well.

I think the rest are too niche to need keywords.

"Dig for x" = "Reveal cards from the top of your deck until you reveal x".

Golem: Dig for 2 Action cards other than Golem cards.  Discard the other revealed cards, then play the Action cards in either order.
Adventurer: Dig for 2 Treasure cards, putting them into your hand.  Discard the other revealed cards.

Scrying Pool: Each player scries 1 (your choice).  Dig for a card that is not an action card.  Put all revealed cards into your hand.


The scry keyword is awkward here.

Scrying pool mechanic is called Fateseal