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[czzzz]

So normally I just come up with cards (using existing mechanics) rather than my own new mechanics. But today I finally had some ideas, lol.
I don't think these are great or anything. But maybe I can get some feedback, and hopefully it can inspire other people's ideas if nothing else. I get inspired by all of your great ideas, hehe 

Disclaimer: the cards are silly; and in addition, none of these mechanics are tested at all. The hope is to get an idea of what's worth testing, if that makes sense. But feel free to borrow any ideas and change whatever, I don't mind.

I'll start with what I think are the "safer", smaller mechanics.

Free type - Actions with this type ("Action - Free") simply do not cost an Action to play. Everything else about them is the same as other Action cards. It's a narrow design space. You can draw it terminally and still play it in the Action phase, that's its niche.
So Campfire is just Village, but you can play it even if you're out of Actions. I think Free Actions can just be a slightly darker gray than regular Actions.


Spell tokens - You can spend a Spell token at any time to gain a Coffers, Villager, or Favor. Or one of another major token (e.g. NOT on a card-specific mat like Sinister Plot), if they add Trade tokens or whatever else in the future. I think not VP tokens though, so Spells feel kind of "active". Pretty boring idea though, it's just a do-anything token.
On another note, most goals with tokens can be accomplished by making a new Ally, rather than a new token. Like Spell tokens could just be an Ally that says "Spend a Favor to gain a Coffers or Villager". So I think we need lots more Liaisons and Allies.


Curse type - OK so here's my take on Curse vs. Curse type: "Curse" always refers to the card name. Curse type and color is to help with counting VP at the end, so it goes on any cards that have negative VP on it. "Curse card" refers to all cards with the Curse type. With that out of the way, now we can make Curse type cards that would go in the kingdom. Here's some silly Night - Curse cards


Myths - This is the one I think has the most potential. So this is like a cross between a Way and a Project: you buy it once and put your cube on it, benefitting the rest of the game. Once per turn, when you play a card, you can trigger it. It's supposed to enhance or interact with the played card in some way. It shouldn't enhance in a totally flat way, like just "+2 Cards", it should have a different effect depending on what card you played. Myths work on any playable card, including Treasures and Night cards.


Barter type - Alright so I like Catan, sue me. The core idea is willing players can take Barter type cards they have in play, and trade them with each other.
Beyond that, I'm not so fixed on the mechanics of it. Originally I wanted them to never go in your hand; they're just always out there in front of you, and usually give some small turn start bonus. It's kinda weird to have a pile of cards that you buy but never gain, though.
So now when you trade them, the traded cards go to the new players' discard piles.
Bartering benefits from having a variety of bonuses, so people will want to trade more and get what they're looking for at the moment. So I think it should just be a pile of different Barter cards, maybe even totally random and shuffled. "Rotate" means move cards from the top to the bottom of the pile, until a differently named card is revealed -- that way it fits the Allies' "rotate", but could fit another pile setup as well.

[czzzz]

Well, here's some more. I'd still love feedback if you have the time -- you guys are able to find flaws that I just can't see from this close.

Runed type - This is just Artifacts that go to your deck, essentially. When they are trashed, Exiled, or discarded from play, they go back to their spot outside of the Supply: ready to be gained again by their corresponding card.
I think it's kinda like Singletons, now that I think about it. Oh well. I don't love that the Runed gainer can't do anything special while someone has ahold of the Runed card, so this isn't my favorite. I suppose you could design them so they do something else if they can't grab it, though.


Music landscape - Has a bonus that triggers mid-turn as soon as you meet its condition. If you use Music, you put in two of them: only one is active at a time, and it switches between them each round.
I made Arpeggio second, I like the wording on it better.


Weather type - Weather stays in play indefinitely, unless that player plays another Weather. (Each player may only have one active Weather at a time; whatever Weather has been played last stays in play and the others are discarded at Clean-up). It is not a Duration card. Its effects only last while it is in play, and Throning it doesn't Throne the Weather part (but it will Throne the on-play effects).


Fury type - Fury cards may be played in any phase. They do not cost an Action to play in the Action phase, rather each Fury card has its own play cost ("To play, ...")

[czzzz]

A few more

Decrease by X - Discard and/or put that many cards onto your deck. You could also do "decrease down to X cards in hand". The idea is to give another option when you're designing a card (this being a softer penalty than just discarding), so you can fine-tune its power.

Mighty type - You can't play a Mighty card if you have one in play. You can still play more through alternate means, like cards that put other cards into play, or Command cards (Although you could put under-the-line text that restricts that too, somehow). But yeah it lets you restrict a card, enabling some things we might normally avoid, like non-terminal Attacks.

Holy type - Well if there's adding extra phases like Night, what about adding alternate phases? Instead of entering your normal Buy phase and playing Treasures, you can choose to enter your Prayer phase and play Holy cards. Of course maybe someday there would be Holy cards that play Treasures or vice-versa, but barring that they're totally separate. Holy cards should probably be mostly alt-VP or gainers, to give them a little different feel from Treasure. You can still spend $ and Buys from your Action phase like normal in your Prayer phase. When it ends, it's Night phase if you have Night cards, otherwise Clean-up like normal.

[czzzz]

Fame type - Fame is short-lived. Appropriately, Fame cards have effects that only last while they are the top card of your discard pile. It's pretty silly. Maybe if you come up with a really cool effect, it could work? I don't know.


Cave - It probably doesn't need a type. Anyways, the idea is they put stuff in the Copper pile that you can dig around for or try to avoid.
Gem and Arrow Trap resolve and trash themselves as soon as you reveal them in the Supply, whether that is from a card effect or from buying/getting rid of the card above it. If it's your turn when it happens, you get the effect (good or bad). This keeps them from screwing up the Copper pile -- e.g. if you give everyone a Copper from your attack, and Gem gets revealed in the middle of distributing Coppers, you get your Gold and continue distributing Coppers.

If for some reason you gained one of them from the trash, it won't do anything when you reveal it because it says "from the Supply".
If you "return it to its pile", it has an empty, phantom, non-Supply pile waiting for it.
When you shuffle them into the deck, reshuffle if the top card is not Copper.

It's probably not worth the extra rules and everything, admittedly. Oh well


Speaking of "not worth the extra rules", introducing:
Beyond type - When someone ends the game, everyone makes a small "deck" of only Beyond type cards from their deck and Exile mat. Then they get a final turn with their Beyond deck.

May as well have posted this to Bad Card Ideas but whatever


Mirror mat - OK this one's not too bad. The Mirror mat is sort of like Exile, but it lets you throne stuff you play rather than gain copies of stuff you gain. Also, Mirrored stuff doesn't count as in your deck at the end of the game, if you were wondering. Mirror is used as a keyword the same way trash/Exile is used; i.e. "Mirror a card from X" = put a card from X on the Mirror mat.
I like this better than, say, a token that lets you throne (+1 Throne). To me it feels like a good companion to Exile.


edit: I forgot about the Mirror event, ugh. I guess pretend this is called the Shadow mat or something, idk

[segura]

The Cave stuff is thematically pretty sweet and I want it to work but fear that it might be too swingy.

I like Mirror. Using cards also makes it slightly more difficult (relative to using tokens) to pull off a megaturn with Bridge etc.
I don’t think that Illusion needs the non-Duration restriction as Tiara or King’s Cache work on Durations. Sure, there is nothing to track but you can use a token or whatever.

[czzzz]

The Cave stuff is thematically pretty sweet and I want it to work but fear that it might be too swingy.

I'm glad you like the concept! There's probably ways to make it work better: for Gem maybe you have to discard a card of some cost to get the Gold, otherwise it goes to the bottom; for Arrow Trap maybe it does Torturer instead of Witch.
But yeah I think it's inherently going to be at least somewhat swingy... and it's pretty random since they're just shuffled in 
In any case I really appreciate the feedback!

I like Mirror. Using cards also makes it slightly more difficult (relative to using tokens) to pull off a megaturn with Bridge etc.

Exactly, it makes it harder to stack it all on one card, so hopefully it's more fun and less game-breaking. 

I don’t think that Illusion needs the non-Duration restriction as Tiara or King’s Cache work on Durations. Sure, there is nothing to track but you can use a token or whatever.

Yeah, it probably doesn't need it; it's fun to throne Durations, hehe.