Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Dominion Expansion: Good Will Part 1


In college, after being introduced to Dominion (and subsequently Intrigue, Seaside, and Prosperity), I decided to try my hand at designing my own expansion.

I always enjoyed the card Council Room from vanilla Dominion, which helps you out a lot, but also helps out other players a little.  I thought that that theme of players helping each other would make an intriguing expansion, so I devised my own expansion of 24 cards called Good Will.  Not all of the cards help other players, but quite a few of them do; there are also attacks and other ways to interact with players.

So for the rest of the month, each post I'll be showing 3 to 4 cards from Good Will, along with any errata and a suggested set using the cards I posted that day (combined with an official Dominion expansion set of cards).

I've loosely categorized the cards into mini-themes, with today's being Chances.  With these cards, you take big risks when you play them, because you don't know exactly how well you'll do.

Click to enlarge and read.
With Borrow, you don't know what card you are taking from the other player's hand; it could be a Gold, or a useless Estate.  If the card you borrow is trashed during your turn, instead of being trashed, it is given back to the original player (the player whose card it is cannot lose the card in any fashion).

With Gamble, if no other player reveals the same Treasure as you, the Treasure you bet with is worth zero money, because (your card's value) * 0 = 0.  Note that you multiply the amount on your card, so if you and two other players reveal Golds, your Gold (worth 3) * other players with the same (2) = 6, so that particular Gold is worth 6 (other Golds in your hand are only worth the normal 3).  I like the possibilities for this card a lot, since players who have the option to pick from different treasures in their hand may try to outsmart the player who played Gamble.

With Powerplay, if we assume you start with a five card hand and Powerplay is the first action you play, then you've only got 2 cards left in your hand (Powerplay is on the table, plus you discarded two cards), and since Powerplay gives you three actions, hopefully at least one of the other cards in your hand allows you to draw more cards, and hopefully those cards that you draw are actions.  If you are unsure what comes next in your deck, there is a risk that you won't be able to use all the actions from Powerplay.

Here is a suggested set with Dominion: Intrigue called "The Payoff":

Intrigue: Courtyard, Harem, Masquerade, Scout, Swindler, Tribute, Wishing Well
Good Will: Borrow, Gamble, Powerplay

(At the end of this Monthathon, I'll post a PDF of all the cards so you can easily print them out.)

No comments:

Post a Comment