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[zahlman]

I suspect the reason Tunnel costs $3 instead of $4 is to make it worthwhile on boards where you can't make use of its discarding ability.  Even so, this is one of the more confusing pricings for me.  And since I don't understand it, I'm nervous about a fan card blindly following suit, as we may not understand exactly what it is that makes Tunnel different.  Why?  Because for some reason Island costs $4, and you certainly can't gain a "whole ton of Golds" with Island.  It seems like a lot weaker of a bonus effect to me, but it still costs more.

I think it simply boils down to Island's effect being much easier to use.

[rinkworks]

I have guesses as to why Tunnel is the way it is, reprinted here for your convenience:

You generally buy Tunnel for one of two things. First, you can buy it in the endgame when you have $3 or $4. At that point, it might as well just be a Victory card worth 2 VP. Even if you happen to use the reaction portion before the game ends, you probably won't be cycling back around to the Gold. Will I pay $3 just for a vanilla Victory card worth 2VP? Of course. It beats buying an Estate.

Second, you can buy it at the start of the game and try to use its reaction as much as possible. That's a fairly big risk. You're buying a card that's going to hurt your economy if you can't get it to fire, when you could have bought a Silver. You get 2 VP to compensate, but you don't see that benefit for a long time and it's rather paltry compared to your potential loss of momentum. So, would I pay $3 for a pure Reaction card that gained me Gold on discard? Given the right helper cards, I definitely would.

It seems like a card that combines these two $3 effects should be worth more than $3. But the fact that you use one portion of the card during the beginning and mid-game and the other only at the end means that the total can cost less than the sum of its parts.

I'm not convinced that Harlot works even at $3. The fact is that I won't buy a Treasure that produces $1 in the early or mid-game, and the strategy of when to buy it in the endgame is as uninteresting as Tunnel on a board with nothing to activate its Reaction.

I'll add my agreement here.  My earlier post was talking only about how it should be costed to be balanced.  I think both $3 and $4 will work, with $3 probably being my recommendation.  But I also agree with LastFootnote that it's probably not worth having as a card in the first place, because I think it will ultimately never be bought until the very end, when you won't get a chance to use it as Treasure.

Well, of course there are times.  When you're chasing alt-VP instead of Provinces or Colonies, a Copper equivalent won't be so bad and may indeed be preferable to Silver.  But in the lion's share of Province games, you might as well not have the Treasure part at all.  In which case, why have the card?

[Auto-Destruct Sequence]

Thanks for the replies.

Let's put harlot on the back burner for now. Whether it costs $3, $4, or the card gets gives silver and 1 vp, or gets replaced by another card altogether cuz it's rather dull, I think all would agree it won't break the game. Perhaps well settle it with a poll in the upcoming days.

What about Utopian Revolution? Here's what I'm looking to get from the card.
- On par with mountebank.
-Gives Treasure and Victory cards to players in hand. (I like how to the I'll informed it might seem like a good thing but in reality it only slows him down)
-Gives you +VP
-Forces you to discard your hand.
-Is a duration.

I realize it's a rather rigid set of conditions but what can I say? Thematics are important to me.

Edit:  I think the +$1 on UP v1.1 bogs down the card too much and is rarely useful anyways once your discarding your hand anyways. Perhaps your first turn bonus simply be +2VP. Not certain though. Don't want the ideal strategy to be KC KC UP UP UP. there are multiple ways around this. I'm just interested in hearing your thoughts.

[One Armed Man]

I think you might mean UR. Thematics may be important to you, but simplicity is best. Also, cut what you love.

[Auto-Destruct Sequence]

I think you might mean UR.

Correct I mean UR. Autocorrect as UP. Didn't catch it.

[Powerman]

Maybe Harlot would be more interesting if it gained silver when it was played, instead of the VP Boost? As in:

Harlot
$4 Treasure / Victory
$1
Worth 1 VP
When you play this, you may gain a Silver.

[Graystripe77]

Maybe Harlot would be more interesting if it gained silver when it was played, instead of the VP Boost? As in:

Harlot
$4 Treasure / Victory
$1
Worth 1 VP
When you play this, you may gain a Silver.

You just gave me an idea:
Harlot
$ Treasure / Victory
$0
Worth 1 VP
When you play this, choose one: Gain a Gold, OR a Silver in hand.

Not really a Harlot now, though, is it?

[orson]

Refund-I actually had my art before Strife showed up last week but hadn't released my set yet. A bit unfortunate actually. Eventually the art on that card will be replaced for that reason.

Sorry about that art collision. I certainly can't lay any claim to the image. I believe it's from a computer game. I'm sure we did the same google image search. It would be confusing playing both fan sets together, but otherwise, no harm done. I plan to replace that image eventually, as well.

[Auto-Destruct Sequence]

Personally I wouldn't mind changing my art either. I like the picture but it's not quite right. In any case my expansion is not complete and still has some bugs to work out.

[FishingVillage]

Hmm... based on what you have in mind, what is the best board for Utopian Revolution? The worst? If my starting hands are 5/2 and UR is on the board without knowing what else is there, would you recommend that I spend $5 on it? Are there any kind of timing choices to make with UR? Is UR fine if played on its own?

Tactician is a $5 card which also has a heavy drawback on use, but the next turn bonus it gives is totally worth it. As a starting card, instead of spending multiple turns buying Silvers that eventually slown down your deck anyway, you are very likely to zip up to Gold, or maybe pick up two important cards at once instead of having enough on one turn and perhaps not enough on the next (Potion cards in particular...). UR though, eliminates my hand for $1 and 1VP, which doesn't give me much purchasing options. UR junks up the other players' decks in return, but they get a normal turn to buy something (that extra Copper might even help them buy a Gold). On my next turn, my reward for losing a normal turn is gaining a Duchy. Okay, so a common thing for Swindlers to do is to change whatever $5 cards they hit into Duchies. A card that's worth 3 points but is dead in hand is probably not worth whatever utility a good $5 card could've provided through the rest of the game. When you "win" with UR, you are putting junk in your deck.

On the other hand, if you can play URs consistently, I guess you could run down Duchies and Estates quickly, but doing so means you sacrifice a lot of normal turns to buy stuff like Silver. What's the 3rd pile that you would want to run down? Maybe you don't want to, perhaps generating VP and filling the other players' decks with Coppers to slow them down might be the most optimal use of UR, but that doesn't seem very entertaining.

Harlot, if it's going to provide 2VP and $1, could probably be fine at $3. I don't think it's better than Silver at that point but okay, I've been wrong before. At $3, I could buy two Harlots instead of two Silvers with a 4/3 start, but that is probably a very bad idea in most games. Mid to late game, I'm pretty much buying Harlots because they're a better return on VP compared to Estates (like Tunnels), but as they only provide as much money as Copper, I hope my deck's money'd up enough to take on a little dilution.