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[Timinou]

New submission

Please let me know if this doesn't qualify, spineflu.  The only "novelty" here is that you can only overpay for Carnival if you have at least one other copy in play.

yeah, putting a barrier to entry like "you can only overpay when this is in play" or "overpay by exactly the amount of these in play" (side note: is that what this is saying? If I have, say, three in play, can I overpay by $1 to only snag one vp?) qualifies

Thanks for confirming!  The intention is that you are not obligated to overpay an amount based on the number of Carnivals in play.  So yes, if you have three in play, you can overpay by $1 to only snag one VP.

[Freddy10]

An "online only" card (I think this also does not qualify, but just for fun):



Inspired by Sage, and strictly better unless cost reduction.

[emtzalex]

An "online only" card (I think this also does not qualify, but just for fun):



Inspired by Sage, and strictly better unless cost reduction.

I think the overpay function should say:

When you buy this, you may overpay for it. This copy costs the amount you overpaid.

Otherwise, every copy of the card in the game changes (since they all have that language), like Wayfarer.

Regarding this being strictly better than Sage, while that might be true on-buy (in that if you spend $3 on it, it is strictly better in that it will grab all of the cards Sage will, as well as potion and debt cost cards), if you get one of the cards using a gainer, Sage is better. But even in the absence of gainers, I don't think it is strictly better in the way that is usually a cause for concern in card design.

If a new card is strictly better (or strictly worse) than a card that cost the same as it, then in a hypothetical kingdom that includes both of them, the strictly worse card will never be bought. This effectively turns a 10-card Kingdom into a 9-card Kingdom. But here, it is not hard to imagine that players might opt for a Sage instead of a $3 Guru not only when using gainers, but also where they might want to leave Gurus to buy at different price points (especially in multi-player games). Thus, I don't think the usual strictly-better issue exists (at least not to the same degree).

[4est]

Here's my entry this week. This was definitely one of the tougher contests.. Seller (lol hopefully that's not confusing at all) is either a Woodcutter or a Peddler depending on if you have the Deed or not. The Deed is an Artifact worth 5VP at the end of the game and you take it by overpaying more than the last person, making a nice little minigame. It should hopefully change hands both in the early game to upgrade your Sellers (while downgrading your opponent's) and in the late game for the point swing.

[The Alchemist]

I don't really get this prompt.

[spineflu]

I don't really get this prompt.

like in terms of mechanics, or in terms of why you'd want to impose the restrictions?

[Freddy10]

I think the overpay function should say:

When you buy this, you may overpay for it. This copy costs the amount you overpaid.

Otherwise, every copy of the card in the game changes (since they all have that language), like Wayfarer.

It's true that all have the "this costs [...]", but they aren't triggered since the "when" condition only applies to the one you are buying. (Like the when trash abilities of Fortress or Hunting Grounds)

[spineflu]

24 hour warning

[scolapasta]

Here's an updated version of a card I had posted once before:

Endowment - Treasure - $2+
If you have at least 1 Coffers on your Coffers mat, +$2.
-
You may overpay for this. For each $1 you overpaid, trash a Copper from your hand. For each Copper you trashed, +1 Coffers.

Feedback always welcome (and encouraged!).

[The Alchemist]

I don't really get this prompt.

like in terms of mechanics, or in terms of why you'd want to impose the restrictions?

Like, I'm not understanding the logic behind what's considered novel and what's not. There are several here that are still "for each $1 you overpaid" and I just don't get it.

[spineflu]

I don't really get this prompt.

like in terms of mechanics, or in terms of why you'd want to impose the restrictions?

Like, I'm not understanding the logic behind what's considered novel and what's not. There are several here that are still "for each $1 you overpaid" and I just don't get it.

so some, like Endowment, give two things - copper trashing, and coffers - so that's a $1:2 ratio
some, like ritual attendant, give one thing max (with better selections for overpaying more, but still only one thing)
and some do a $1:1 ratio but include novelty some other way, like adding overpay to other cards, or limiting its availability in a "when you have this in play and you buy one, you may overpay" way.

what's verboten is the $1:1 thing ratio on a card itself, with no frills, no complications. Like if you changed Bibliothecary to be "When you buy this you may overpay. For each $2 you overpay (round down), +2 Villagers.", it would qualify, since now it has a complication.

does that clarify the prompt?

[spineflu]

closing the contest now;
will have judging done soon

[spineflu]

The Winner is scolapasta's Endowment
The Runners Up are X-tra's Logs, LibraryAdventurer's Suspension Bridge, and NoMoreFun's Token
Honorable Mention are lompeluiten's Developing Village, Xen3k's Ritual Attendant, faust's Séance, and anordinaryman's Town Square

Here's the individual judging/feedback. Sorry this took so long; I took some minor (mostly) grammatical liberties - dividing lines, linebreaks between vanilla stuff, etc - with some of your cards to make them more Dominionesque in their grammar, hopefully changing the effect as little as possible.

Isolated Village • $4+ • Action • author: JW
+1 Card
+2 Actions
You may spend a Villager to trash a card from your hand.
-
When you buy this, +1 Villager and you may overpay for it. If you do, for each $1 you overpaid, +1 Villager, to a maximum of 4. If you don't, each other player gets +1 Villager.

A village that comes with extra actions and can turn the villagers into worshippers for $4 is pretty strong, although I guess if you're buying it at $4 it does come with a drawback. I think there's probably a more graceful way to do the limit - "you may overpay up to $4 more than the price" or something.
Themewise I think there's some dissonance from the name to the effect - after all, with more actions things are more seen as Bustling, right? - but maybe if it were to explicitly convert villagers into worshippers that'd be better.

Scoundrel • $5+ • Action • author: emtzalex
+3 Cards
You may play from your hand an Action card from the pile with your Cur token on it.
-
When you buy this, you may overpay for it. If you did, gain an Action card costing the amount you overpaid and move your Cur token to its pile.

$10 to turn Scoundrels into Smithy-Cultists. Or $7 to turn them into collision-dependent superlabs if there's a $2 cantrip on the board. Cultists are quality in the slogs they themselves cause - I can't imagine how this'd wreck shop in a game with no junk, maybe a little +Buy action.
Themewise, I'm not seeing the connection to scoundrel-y-ness? I'd expect it to be something like a petty attack - oracle-esque or maybe cutpurse, which, at $5 is not great.

Developing Village • $2+ • Action(? - inferred/not specified) • author: lompeluiten
+2 Actions
-
When you buy this, you may overpay for it. If you did, return to your Action phase and +1 Action. For each $1 you overpaid, draw a card.

I love this. It should probably also give a +1 Buy when you overpay for it (lest you return to your action phase and have to skip your buy phase because there's no plus buy on the board.) I really like how it turns into junk/junk-adjacent afterwards. Fantastic job.

Totem • $4 • Action • author: xyz123
+1 Card
+1 Action
-
While this is in play, when you buy a non-Victory card, you may overpay $1 for every $2 it costs (round up). If you do, gain a copy of it.

A card that unlocks overpay on other stuff (but doesn't do much on its own) is very cool. I'm not sure this needs the non-Victory restriction, if you could find a way to lock out provinces + colonies (or just live with the strength). I really like this, and I think you did a fine job pricing it. A design like this might be a better way of doing Potion-cost cards - "While this is in play, you may buy potion-cost cards". Certainly gets in the way less than a Potion.

Uproar • $4+ • Action • author: AJL828
+1 Card
+1 Action
You may discard 2 cards for +2 Cards
-
When you buy this, you may overpay for it. If you overpaid at least $1, each other player Exiles a Curse. If you overpaid at least $2, each other player with 5 or more cards in hand puts a card from their hand onto their deck.

That on-play is weaker than forum, but not much. I wish the overpay-attack was a little better integrated into the card. This might be a good candidate for mixing with Annie's Curse Tokens/ Themewise I'm not sure what Coven-y cursing and a minor haunting have to do with an uproar.

Town Square • $1+ • Victory • author: anordinaryman
Worth 1% if you have no Duchies.
-
When you buy this, you may overpay for it. If you do, +1 Card per $2 you overpaid (rounded down) and set aside any number of Action cards from your hand that cost equal or less than the amount you overpaid. Return to your Action phase and play the set aside cards in any order.

I really like this card also. Similar vibes to lompeluiten's Developing Village, it's mostly-junk, and it has the fun side effect of wrecking the "exactly $1 more" flavor of remodel as de-junkers. Like with lompeluiten's, if this is backtracking, it should really give +1 Buy.
Themewise, I'm not sure 'Town Square' really fits - that brings to mind Market Square or a village - but that's just theme *shrug*

Token • $2+ • Action • author: NoMoreFun
+$3
+1 Buy
Return this to the supply.
-
When you buy this you may overpay. Either way, gain a card costing less than the total amount you paid for this card.

I like the idea of a pile with overpay not really emptying (or, at least, refilling), keeping the overpay in play as a strategy for the duration of the game, rather than running out like Stonemasons tend to. I also really like the subtlety of the penalty here when you don't overpay.
From a theme perspective, this might need a different name - too similar to Coin Tokens, Adventure Tokens, etc.

Ritual Attendant • $3+ • Action - Attack - Fate - Doom • author: Xen3k
Receive a Boon. Each other player receives the next Hex.
----
When you buy this, you may overpay for it. For each $1 you overpaid, discard the top Boon and Hex. You may remove 1 Hex and/or 1 Boon discarded this way from their pile.

I really like the idea of thinning the boons/hexes. You could actually thin out the entire Boons pile if this is in a game with Druid, but maybe that's a feature rather than a bug. I'm not sure I like how this can remove both a Boon and a Hex - I think it should force specialization, something like "For each $1 you overpaid, reveal the top Boon or Hex. Trash one of the revealed Boons or Hexes and discard the rest." Basically my qualm is with the "and/or" - commit to the or, imo. Having it trash it, which unconventional, prevents the question of "oh it's removed from the game, like, for the rest of the game?" and there's nothing really that touches a Boon/Hex in the trash, so it's safe to do.
At $3+, this is kind of expensive for what it does. Remember that if this is contested, it's probably not going to be Locusts or War or one of the "Heavy Hitter" hexes that stays in, it'll tend towards a middle-power level one.
That's all to say, that this is good and i like it, but with revisions.

Séance • ^+ • Night - Duration • author: faust
You may reveal a hand without Treasures. If you did, and you have exactly $0, +3 Cards at the start of your next turn.
-
When you buy this, you may overpay for it.

Now this is a novel way to overpay. I'm not sure the potion cost works for it - kinda hard to make this proc when you don't have a potion - but this is a really neat take on Den of Sin. Not a ton to say about it. It was kinda funny, ShardOfHonor's response to "hey potion symbols and overpay plusses don't work well together on the generator" - "yeah don't do that."

Logs • $4+ • Action • author: X-tra
+1 Buy
+$2
This turn, you can't buy Logs.
-
When you buy this, you may overpay for it. For each $1 you overpaid, play this.

This was sorta borderline, ruleswise, but I allowed it given that playing it turns off the ability to Buy (or overpay) for it. If a card that enabled overpay qualified, a card that disabled it also qualified.
That said, DAMN, this is its own ridiculous Tfair-style combo. I hope you playtest/develop this concept further, this is a card that had a similar "wow" effect to Populate or wot Chameleon for me, having to woman_doing_math.jpg out the possibilities

Suspension Bridge • $4+ • Action • author: LibraryAdventurer
+2 Cards.
This turn, all cards other than Suspension Bridge cost $1 less.
-
You may overpay for this. For each $1 you overpaid, +1 Buy. If you overpay at least $3, gain a Suspension Bridge, set it aside, and play it at the start of your next turn.

This is a really slick card with a Tfair overpay. I hope, when I play with it, I remember to buy enough village support for the Suspension Bridges to not clog my deck with them.

Theatre • $4 • Action • author: Gardoomalion
+$2
This turn, when you buy a card, you may overpay for it. If you did, put on its pile as many of your Actor tokens as you overpaid in $

Actor tokens
When you have Actor tokens on a pile, when you play a card with the same types as that pile, you may remove an Actor token to play a non-Duration card from that pile instead, leaving it there.

So Actor tokens as a concept might need some re-tooling - specifically, you might want to have them only target Action cards/piles, and maybe even strictly non-Duration ones at that. I don't know if this is the best use for them, but it certainly is a way to get them onto piles.

Forbidden Text • $3+ • Action • author: Aquila
+1 Action
Draw until you have 7 cards in hand. Return this to its pile.
-
When you buy this, you may pay $4 more to gain a Madman.

Not exactly the standard overpay text but I think, given the fixed overpay amount, that it's a pretty good way of doing it. Succinct.
I also think a one-shot library that returns to pile (letting you get access to Madmen, who also return to pile) throughout the game is kind of too much? Like if it self-trashed instead, you'd have to be more judicious about when you used it - there's a max 10 madmen uses in non-hermit + this games, so you'd create more risk, yeah?

Thematically, this has fantastic cohesion. Great work.

Carnival • $3+ • Action - Gathering • author: Timinou
+1 Card
+1 Action
If there are no % on the Carnival Supply pile, +1 Buy and +$1. Add +1% to the Supply pile.
-
When you buy this, you may overpay. For each $1 you overpay, up to the number of Carnivals you have in play, take 1% from this Supply pile.

I rephrased the bottom portion a little, let me know what you think.
I think this should drop the "if there are no % on the Carnival Supply pile" portion. That's only going to trigger a fraction of the times it's played, tend towards not proccing, and if the pile is emptied, not matter, since no one can overpay to take the VPs away - it's adding a whole lot of length on a card that doesn't need it, and swapping from a conditional statement to an unconditional one means casual players are going to screw it up.
That said, conceptually, this is a cool card. Maybe refine it a bit more.

Guru • $0+ • Action • author: Freddy10
+1 Action
Reveal cards from your deck until you reveal one that does not cost less than this. Put that card into your hand and discard the rest.
-
When you buy this, you may overpay for it. On your turns, this costs the total amount you've overpaid for Gurus.

I know you entered this just for fun, but I tweaked the wording a little to make it work in paper - you track the total amount you've overpaid with like, player-colored d20 trackers (such as those used in mtg) or even coin tokens. I think that's a better suggestion than having individual cards with different prices, sort of a general rule of dominion card design that cards with the same name are identical (and the impetus for the 2019 errata around Inheritance). I think it's going to suffer from the same problem as Sage - once you start greening, it hits green.

Seller • $4+ • Action • author: 4est
If you have the Deed, +1 Card, +1 Action, and +$1; Otherwise, +1 Buy and +$2.
-
When you buy this, you may overpay for it. If you overpaid (in $) more than the number of Coin tokens on the Deed, take the Deed.

Deed • Artifact
When scoring, +5%
-
When you take this, add Coin tokens on this to match the amount (in $) you overpaid.

I like the concept on this. I don't love the soft terminality - the times when this is a contested pile and one person ends up with a deck full of wood cutters while the other ends up with a deck full of peddlers? That's gonna be a feels bad moment.
Also I think having this at $4+ is real rough, since you're going to be overpaying for them at least once - $5 woodcutter is gonna feel Real Bad, and letting the winner of that particular tug of war get a free 5vp is rough. It might be more balanced if having the Deed counted against your score, although maybe that just means everyone avoids the pile.

Endowment • $2+ • Treasure • author: scolapasta
If you have at least 1 Coffers on your Coffers mat, +$2.
-
You may overpay for this. For each $1 you overpaid, trash a Copper from your hand. For each Copper you trashed, +1 Coffers.

This is a really clever alt-Silver. I think, had this been released in a pre-Delve / pre-Stockpile world, there'd be some balking at the price. I was thinking this imbalanced the opening too hard, but it's actually just really good and clever and subtle. This might be too much in Swashbuckler games, but maybe that's fine.

Thanks for playing, I'm sorry the prompt was a hard/weird one, with questions going right up til the buzzer. I'll try to pick something where everyone can enter next time.

[emtzalex]

Scoundrel • $5+ • Action • author: emtzalex
+3 Cards
You may play from your hand an Action card from the pile with your Cur token on it.
-
When you buy this, you may overpay for it. If you did, gain an Action card costing the amount you overpaid and move your Cur token to its pile.

$10 to turn Scoundrels into Smithy-Cultists. Or $7 to turn them into collision-dependent superlabs if there's a $2 cantrip on the board. Cultists are quality in the slogs they themselves cause - I can't imagine how this'd wreck shop in a game with no junk, maybe a little +Buy action.
Themewise, I'm not seeing the connection to scoundrel-y-ness? I'd expect it to be something like a petty attack - oracle-esque or maybe cutpurse, which, at $5 is not great.

Thanks for the feedback/judging. In terms of the theme, when I made it I thought I vaguely remembered some olde timey quotation that was something like "you can tell a scoundrel from the company he keeps" or not to trust someone who keeps the company of a scoundrel. Having now searched the interwebs, this does not seem to actually exist.

In terms of substance, I am wondering whether I wonder if the price point is too high (it's probably no accident that all of the official Overpay cards cost $2-$4). Absent a $2 cantrip or discounting (there is some potential for this to be quite wicked with Highway), you can only trigger this when you hit $8. While there could be some analogy there to Pathfinding, I tend to think of that as a somewhat niche landscape that is unplayable in a non-negligible portion of games. And while that might be acceptable with landscapes (see Tomb), I do feel like it is less so for one of the 10 Kingdom cards. I am now thinking it maybe should have had a $3+ cost and given +2 Cards (and maybe prohibited putting the token on itself).

[spineflu]

Scoundrel • $5+ • Action • author: emtzalex
+3 Cards
You may play from your hand an Action card from the pile with your Cur token on it.
-
When you buy this, you may overpay for it. If you did, gain an Action card costing the amount you overpaid and move your Cur token to its pile.

$10 to turn Scoundrels into Smithy-Cultists. Or $7 to turn them into collision-dependent superlabs if there's a $2 cantrip on the board. Cultists are quality in the slogs they themselves cause - I can't imagine how this'd wreck shop in a game with no junk, maybe a little +Buy action.
Themewise, I'm not seeing the connection to scoundrel-y-ness? I'd expect it to be something like a petty attack - oracle-esque or maybe cutpurse, which, at $5 is not great.

Thanks for the feedback/judging. In terms of the theme, when I made it I thought I vaguely remembered some olde timey quotation that was something like "you can tell a scoundrel from the company he keeps" or not to trust someone who keeps the company of a scoundrel. Having now searched the interwebs, this does not seem to actually exist.

In terms of substance, I am wondering whether I wonder if the price point is too high (it's probably no accident that all of the official Overpay cards cost $2-$4). Absent a $2 cantrip or discounting (there is some potential for this to be quite wicked with Highway), you can only trigger this when you hit $8. While there could be some analogy there to Pathfinding, I tend to think of that as a somewhat niche landscape that is unplayable in a non-negligible portion of games. And while that might be acceptable with landscapes (see Tomb), I do feel like it is less so for one of the 10 Kingdom cards. I am now thinking it maybe should have had a $3+ cost and given +2 Cards (and maybe prohibited putting the token on itself).

yeah that would've been better received; while the pathfinding-on-a-lab comparison kinda works, that requires both being in the kingdom to pull off (and doesn't give you a copy of the card the turn you enable it)- this, as long as there was some sort of village/cantrip at $3 or less, always had it at $8, and at $10 could always chain on itself.

[scolapasta]

The Winner is scolapasta's Endowment

Endowment • $2+ • Treasure • author: scolapasta
If you have at least 1 Coffers on your Coffers mat, +$2.
-
You may overpay for this. For each $1 you overpaid, trash a Copper from your hand. For each Copper you trashed, +1 Coffers.

This is a really clever alt-Silver. I think, had this been released in a pre-Delve / pre-Stockpile world, there'd be some balking at the price. I was thinking this imbalanced the opening too hard, but it's actually just really good and clever and subtle. This might be too much in Swashbuckler games, but maybe that's fine.

Oh wow! This was pretty unexpected. But awesome! I do think there's some fun with this one, balancing out your desire to spend your Coffers, while needing to keep at least one behind.

Anyway, I'll work on coming up with an idea and post the next contest some time today or tomorrow.

[emtzalex]

I am now thinking it maybe should have had a $3+ cost and given +2 Cards (and maybe prohibited putting the token on itself).

yeah that would've been better received; while the pathfinding-on-a-lab comparison kinda works, that requires both being in the kingdom to pull off (and doesn't give you a copy of the card the turn you enable it)- this, as long as there was some sort of village/cantrip at $3 or less, always had it at $8, and at $10 could always chain on itself.

Here is how I ultimately decided to implement this. The +2 Cards makes it more like Imp, while making the price points for setting the tokens ($5-$9) more reasonable:

TUTOR ACTION Cost: $3+ +2 Cards You may play from your hand an Action card from the pile with your Pupil token on it. When you buy this, you may overpay for it. If you did, gain a non-Tutor Action card costing the amount you overpaid and move your Pupil token to its pile.

I had a few other ideas for novel means of overpaying. The first is somewhat similar to Tutor/Scoundrel, but instead of playing one card from your hand, it is a command card that plays the gained action card from a mat.

VOLKHV ACTION - COMMAND Cost: $3+ Play a card from your Volkhv mat, leaving it there. When you buy this, you may overpay for it. If you do, gain a non-Command Action card costing the amount you overpaid onto your Volkhv mat.

The next idea was to do a riff on Wine Merchant's Reserve function, with the amount needed to discard them going up with each copy of the card you have on the Tavern mat.

GLASS MERCHANT ACTION - RESERVE Cost: $5+ Put this on your Tavern mat. If you did, +4 Cards, +1 Action. When you buy this, you may overpay for it. If you overpaid at least $1 per Glass Merchant on your Tavern Mat, discard all of them.

I wanted to make the vanilla bonuses conditional (unlike with Wine Merchant, Encampment, Horse, etc.), mainly because it would be too powerful with Overlord/Necromancer/etc. It has the added bonus of making the text less compact. 


Like AJL828, I had the idea for an overpay Attack. This is what I came up with (it's important to remember for this one that, according to the official rules, you cannot overpay $0, so you can't just buy this at $5 and kick the other players' Coppers):

COUNCIL OF THIEVES ACTION Cost: $5+ +2 Actions +$2 When you buy this, you may overpay for it. If you do, each other player reveals their hand and discards each card costing the amount you overpaid.