A while back I was looking through the
Dominion Card Image Generator discussion and came across this post responding to some asking when to use Violet CLM's double-sided template.
Basically that template is a solution in search of a problem. It's an expression of confidence that someday someone will have the perfect idea that can best (or only) be expressed by a double-sided card.
That sounds like as good a challenge as any, but I couldn't think of anything when I first saw it. I thought about it for a while, and what I ultimately came up with is a new card type called Janus cards.
Janus cards are divided in half, with an image in the middle and two titles, text boxes, costs and types, each on one side of the image. This is hard to describe in words, so I'll show an example:
Fame | Fortune -- $4
Fame
Treasure - Janus
+1 Coffers
Fortune
Treasure - Janus
$3
Fame|Fortune is a Treasure-Janus card. All Janus cards have at least one other type. As they are currently designed, the other type (or at least one of the other types) must be a playable card type (e.g. Action, Treasure, Night, etc.). Both sides do not necessarily need to have the same type. So far all Janus cards are Kingdom cards, although there's no reason they couldn't be non-Supply cards as well. They are gained like any other card, and their cost is listed on both sides (it is always the same).
By now you are asking, okay, but how do these work? I'm glad you asked. When a player plays a Janus card, they choose which way they want to play it. The side facing that player (i.e. appearing face up from that player's perspective) is the side that that player has played, and the effect is resolved normally by that player as if they had just played that card. However, the other side is resolved
as if it had been played by each other player.
An example, Fame|Fortune is a Treasure card, so it would (normally) be played during a player's Buy phase. If Fortune is played, it is worth $3 for the player playing it, while each other player gets +1 Coffers. On the other hand, if Fame is played, the player playing it gets +1 Coffers, and the other players get $3, but cannot use it (with the caveat below). Thus, the strategic choice is whether to get the better effect ($3) but give something to your opponent, or take the weaker effect and give nothing to your opponents.
Just as they are at the end of any players turn, any Actions, Buys, or $ gained on another players turn are lost to a player when that turn ends. That means to the extent the opposite side of the card gives these to a player whose turn it is not, they will almost never have any effect. An official example of this is Caravan Guard, which gives +1 Action and can sometimes be played on other player's turns using its Reaction. That card contains a parenthetical stating that the +1 Action has no effect if its not your turn. Because of the tightness of the text boxes for these cards, they do not reminder players of this like Caravan Guard does.
(Also, it might, in theory, not be the case that getting these things has no effect. If at some point there is a Janus card that has a variant of Throne Room or Imp/Conclave and another player used that to play a Storyteller not on their turn, the $ they had previously received from other Janus cards might matter; that being said, I have not thought through the other implications of such a card [including stacking Janus cards], so those may not be able to reasonably exist).
On the other hand, +Cards while always be useful, as will getting tokens (Coffers, Villagers, VP tokens) or gaining/trashing cards. With that background, here are the first few cards I have come up with.
Some Action cards:
| | |
Fire | Water -- $4
Fire -- Action - Janus +1 Action You may trash a card from your hand for +1 Card per $1 it costs.
Water -- Action - Janus +1 Action You may trash any number of Curses from your hand.
| Supplier | Distributor -- $5
Supplier -- Action - Janus +1 Action You may gain a card from the Supply pile with the Distribution token on it to your hand.
Distributor -- Action - Janus If you have more cards in your hand than any other player, you may move the Distribution token to any non-Victory Supply pile.
| Spring Village | Cherry Blossom -- $4
Spring Village -- Action - Janus +1 Card +2 Actions
Cherry Blossom -- Action - Janus +1 Action +$3
|
| |
Dark Bargain | Dark Trade -- $4
Dark Bargain -- Action - Janus You may gain a Curse for +2VP; if there are no Curses in the Supply, you may trash an Action card from the Supply for +1VP.
Dark Trade -- Action - Janus You may trash a card from your hand to gain a card costing up to $2 more to your hand.
| Hearth | Home -- $4
Hearth -- Action - Janus +1 Card +2 Actions
Home -- Action - Janus +4 Actions
| |
I also designed a Night Janus card, as well as one that is half-Night, half-Action:
| |
Dark | Stormy -- $2
Dark -- Night - Janus You may trash any number of cards from your hand.
Stormy -- Night - Janus You may trash up to three non-Duration cards you have in play.
| Daydream | Nightmare -- $5
Daydream -- Action - Janus +1 Action For each card you have in play, you may discard a card from your hand. Then, draw until you have 6 cards in hand.
Nightmare -- Night - Janus Trash a card from your hand or up to two you have in play.
|
One area that I think has a lot of really interesting potential is with Duration cards. I haven't been able to actual come up with that much yet, though. Here is what I have thought of.
Sloop | Junk -- $4
Sloop -- Action - Duration - Janus
At the start of your next turn: +2 Card, +1 Buy
Junk -- Action - Duration - Janus
+1 Action
+$2
At the start of your next turn: +$1.
These are just my initial ideas, I have not spent a lot of time thinking about stuff like balance, design, or flavor.
I do think the Janus mechanic is only interesting (and using it and the unusual card design is only justified) for cards where players are reasonably likely to play either side of the card. It is not interesting to have one side be negative, making the card into an attack:
or even when one effect is clearly better, and would always be the player using the card's choice:
As the above cards (hopefully) illustrate, either of those things can be easily done with existing cards/mechanics, and are not worth using the Janus format.
As for the name, Janus was the ancient Roman god of (among other things) transitions, duality, beginnings and endings, etc. He was often portrayed as having two faces (facing out in opposite directions from a single head), and my awareness of him definitely does not just come from that one episode of Buffy. I actually don't love this as the name for these cards, but I really don't like "Dual" or "Double" cards, and haven't come up with anything else.
What do you think? Do you like these? Hate them? Does this make sense? What questions do you have? What do I need to explain, decide, or clarify? Do you like the name Janus? Do you have other suggestions?