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[Tables]

Yes, I know Potions are already a second currency, but the problem there is they come into games so rarely, as there are 10 potion cost cards in just under 200 cards. Well, 'problem', since it's not, but I was wondering how to make a more 'universal' second currency that could actually be interesting. The idea is pretty much a 'I had this thought' type thing, so it's very rough and probably has a number of holes in places.

For now I'm calling it wood. Wood is available from two cards, Lumber, a treasure card costing 2w and producing 2w, and Timber, a treasure card costing 5w and producing 3w.

Coin is a 'superior' resource to wood, and in short, anything mentioning wood can be done equivalently in coin, even in part (but not the other way around). So a card costing 5w could be bought with 3 coin, 2 wood, but a card costing 5 coin can't be bought with 4 coin and 20 wood. In particular, you can buy lumber for $2, and Timber for $5.

In games using wood, deal an effect card to each kingdom supply pile. This will change all cards from that pile for the duration of the game in one of the following ways (possibly multiple):
No change (probably the most common effect)
The card now costs wood instead of coin
References to coin on the card are now instead references to wood.
References to silver and gold on the card are now instead references to timber and lumber respectively.
Some amount of the cards cost is now in wood (2w instead of 2c, maybe all but 2c is w etc.)

This kind of thing might be better to do online because of all the changing stuff with otherwise fixed cards, I dunno.

The basic treasures and victory cards have half their cost in wood, rounded up. So Provinces are 4w4c, Duchies are 3w2c. Note you can still buy them with nothing but coin because of the coin into wood rule etc.

Yeah, that's basically the idea. I imagine it would require some careful planning in terms of maximising the effect; You could ignore wood for very little downside, but I suspect that's not usually going to be optimal. I hope it wouldn't just encourage a BM variant, but, maybe that could still be interesting, because with $5, do you take another Timber, or just a Silver?

Inb4 wood innuendos

[LastFootnote]

Hm, interesting idea. I'd think that this would make the game faster, since the basic Victory cards are "cheaper". I worry about a few issues, though.

First, it's going to play havoc with the utility of some cards, like Upgrade.

Second, it's going to be hard to remember the ways in which all the cards are modified, as you mentioned.

Third, even when players do remember, I would think it'd be pretty confusing sorting it all out. You'd have to think a lot harder about what you wanted to buy/what you could buy on any given turn. That's not necessarily a deal breaker, but it's something I worry about for less hardcore players.

[Tables]

Well, cards like Upgrade did concern me, but a careful wording of the 'coins into wood' rule should mean they aren't weakened too much (for example, I could still turn Silver into any card costing a total of 4 of anything, or a card costing 2c, 2w into one costing exactly 5, as long as at least 2 of that cost was in coin e.g. Duchy).

I'm sure this would be bad for less hardcore players. I would probably say it would only work online, because you can edit the cards directly there, but that's of course not really a possibility.