Note: There haven't been many responses on the question of whether we would do Set Expansion Contests for the new 2nd Editions or go back to the Fan Card Mechanics contests. I was team 2E, but since that doesn't seem to be happening I don't want to hold up the FCMC any longer. If there's a big outcry to go back to the Set Expansion contest, I'm fine to pause this one, but absent that, let's go.
For Week 42, I have chosen LastFootnote's
Activation cards. Activation cards are playable cards which, in addition to any on-play effect, have a second effect which can be activated later. Once an Activation card is put into play, it will stay in play until the player "activates" it. This is done by spending an Action during your Action phase (as if to play an Action card from your hand). An Activation card can only be activated once per time in play, even if the card itself is played multiple times (i.e. with a throne variant).
EDIT: LastFootnote has provided a more up-to-date explanation of the mechanic (I've moved the original description to the bottom of the post for reference):
When you play an Activation card, follow the instructions above the dividing line. The card then stays in play until Clean-up on the turn you trigger it. You might trigger it the same turn you play it, one or more turns later, or not at all. You can trigger an Activation card by spending an Action in your Action phase whenever you're not actively resolving another effect. In other words, in your Action phase you can either use an Action "point" to play an Action card from your hand or to trigger an untriggered Activation card you have in play. An Activation card may only be triggered once per time it's put into play, regardless of how many times you played it (with e.g. Throne Room). This means that a Throne Room or similar card that plays an Activation card multiple times never stays out with the Activation card; there's nothing for it to track.
Activation cards don't have to be Actions. They can be any card type, as long as it has the potential to get into play (so it can be activated). For your convenience I made templates in the fan card generator for
Action - Activation, as well as
Treasure - Activation, and
Night - Activation (but feel free to combine it with other types).
The assignment is simple.
Design at least one Activation card. Feel free to use any official or fan mechanics (including split piles, Traveller lines, etc.) and any kind and number of supporting cards or landscapes (although if you go overboard with either it will likely count against you in the simplicity category). The design should also be limited to a
single randomizer worth of card(s)/landscape(s).
My main judging criteria is whether I would be excited to see the design in a Kingdom. Important factors for me are:
- balance -- is the card useful, but not overpowering (both in general and in a variety of Kingdoms)
- playability -- the card is fun to play and works in more than one type of deck
- simplicity -- this doesn't always mean fewer words; a card with lots of text that, once you understand it, can be easily and intuitively be played is better than one with four lines of text that is hard to understand
- topicality -- the card (or cards) uses the mechanic in an interesting way
The deadline for submissions will be
14:00 UTC / 10:00 a.m. Eastern/Forum time 22:00 UTC / 6:00 p.m. Eastern/Forum time on Tuesday, August 23, 2022. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Here is LastFootnote's original description:
So I had an idea the other day for a new type of card: Activation. I even wrote a quick blurb:
These cards say Activation on the bottom line, i.e. "Action Activation. In addition to any effects these cards have when played or while in play, an Activation card has another effect that you can use by spending an Action. During your Action phase, instead of spending an Action to play an Action card from your hand, you may spend an Action to get the activation effect of an Activation card you already have in play.
Activation cards in play that have not yet been activated are not discarded during your Clean-up phase. They stay in play until activated and are discarded from play during the Clean-up phase of that turn.
Activation cards can only be activated once per time they are played. Once activated, they cannot be activated again until they have been removed from play and played again. Even if another card plays a single Activation card more than once, the activation effect can only be used once before the Activation card leaves play. Hence, if an Activation card is played twice by Throne Room, the Throne Room will be discarded from play normally during the Clean-up phase of that turn, whether or not the card it played has been activated.
In order to keep track of which Activation cards have been activated and which ones havent, when you play an Activation card from your hand, turn it 90° to the right. When you activate an Activation card, turn it right-side up. During your Clean-up phase, remember to only discard cards from play which are right-side up.
And here are some examples LastFootnote designed: