ADMINION - Dominion Spin-Off

[ch3cooh]

Halloo, I've been working on a Dominon set for ESP (MIT student group that runs programs where college-students+ teach classes for 7th-12th graders.)  I want the set to be at basically the same power level as normal dominion (aka, if I introduced a card from this into normal dominion, it wouldn't be very over or under powered.)  And I think I want this following list of cards to be the base set.  So, it should have a good balance of costs, card draw, buys, money, actions. Before I spend a bunch of time printing and cutting, etc.  I'd love to get feedback - anything from typos to massive play glitches in the new cards would be very good to know!  Suggestions for other cards, also cool. :)
 
Flavor: "You are the chair of ESP.  In an 'almost' ideal world.  Thus, you do nothing yourself but recruit admin, order resources, and Delegate to the admin you have recruited.  Resource cards (treasure) can be used to attain other resources or recruit admin (action-cards) or get students, teachers, and programs (victory-cards).  By default, your hand size is 5 cards and you can delegate (play an admin) once per turn and buy one card per turn given the resources you have accumulated."

Aka: Actions are Admins, and +1 action (the ability to play an extra admin) is instead +1 Delegate
Attack Actions are Admin-CRISIS

Renamed Base Cards:
Copper ->  Candy, Silver -> Juice, Gold -> Food Delivery
Curse -> Parent, Estate -> Student, Duchy -> Teacher, Province -> Program

Ordered by Cost, These are the cards I plan to include in the first set:
2-costs
Chapel
Pawn
Fire Extinguisher (Admin-Response) - +2Delegate & Moat-response
3-costs
Fishing Village
Watchtower
Chair (Resource) - worth 1$, While this card is in play, all chairs (about half of the action cards) cost 2 less but not less than 0
The Whale Is Mshaw (Admin) - +3Delegate, +2Buy
Sketchy Websites (Admin-Crisis) - +2$, Each plater either discards down to three cards in hand or gains a parent card.
4-costs
Remodel
Thrown Room
Smithy
Coppersmith
Caravan
Stanchions (Resource-Response) - Worth 2, When another player plays a Crisis, you may reveal this card from your hand.  If you do, you may choose to redirect any cards you would gain to that player's discard pile.
5-costs
Tactician
Lab
Council Room
All-Nighter (Admin-Duration) - +5 Cards, +1 Delegate, at the start of your next turn, discard 5 cards.  If you play an all-nighter while you have an all-nighter in play, discard 5 cards at the start of all subsequent turns
Big Mess (Admin-Crisis) - +2 cards, each other player discards down to three cards in hand
Fire Hazard (Admin-Crisis) - +2$, Other players each discard an admin or gain a parent and a student into their hand.
6-costs
Punt/Tool (Admin) - Choose one of Punt:+3$, or Tool:+2cards,+1Delegate,+1Buy
Teach! (Admin-Victory) - You may trash an Admin from your hand. If you do so, gain a Teacher.  Worth 1 for every teacher in your deck.
Morph Attack (Admin-Crisis) - Each player (including you) reveals the top card of his deck and either discards it or, if it is an admin, returns it to the supply and gains an admin of your choice within $1 of its cost.
Classroom (Resource-Victory) - worth $2 and 1vp - when this card comes into play you may set it aside with any other victory cards from your hand.  Return them to your deck at the end of the game.

For fun, here are a few of the prettier cards:



 
THANKS!

Comments

[ultrawaffle.livejournal.com]

Some comments:
Fire Extinguisher is definitely better than Moat, but I think that's fine, because Moat is pretty sucky anyways.

Chair needs to be very carefully balanced--it matters a lot which actions cards are chairs, because otherwise having a 3-cost Quarry could be way overpowered. It also would be unfortunate if it is reasonably common to not have any chairs in a game.

The Whale is Mshaw seems pretty lame--there's a reason no card in Dominion (yet) gives either +3 Actions or +2 Buys. It's just not very useful to have that much, and the actions that give you the most cards (eg Council Room) tend to bring buys with them anyways).

Stanchions seems really good for $4, but it can't cost $5 given how common attackless games are.

Big Mess should NOT cost 5. For a terminal action, +2 cards is much worse than +2$. You can compare to Torturer, which gives 3 cards and has an attack which is significantly more powerful than discarding down to 3 (because it stacks with itself). Big Mess would be either a poor 4-cost or a strong 3-cost.

Fire Hazard is an interesting variant on Mountebank. Discarding an action instead of a curse makes it easier (but more painful) to defend against, but there's a huge difference between a copper and an estate (copper is much much better, until the end of the game). My gut feeling is that it's overpowered, but I could believe that I'm wrong. Another thing to keep in mind is that Fire Hazards might make two piles run out quickly, which has a huge effect on the game (though it is easy enough to block that probably curses wouldn't run out).

Teach! seems really good, especially in a set without Embargoes.

Morph Attack is a powerful attack, but I feel like it's not worth it for $6 if it gives you nothing. I would make it cost $5 or add +2$ (for a 6-cost, a terminal action that gives +2$ isn't much--compare to how powerful Goons is).

Classroom: to clarify, the setting aside effect happens in the Cleanup phase when you play it as a treasure? It sounds reasonable, but I could totally believe that it's too weak for $6

[ultrawaffle.livejournal.com]

By the way, I should add: I absolutely love the flavor.

Wow

[yalu wu (from livejournal.com)]

Oh my gosh... this is SO cool!!

Does mshaw know about this?

Also, you're going to have to update this if ESP gets new stuff! For example, (back in the old days when I was in ESP) we didn't have stanchions and we used masking tape for everything!! Ah, technology.. (kidding!)

[chessbot.livejournal.com]

This is hilarious and awesome. (And therefore, so are you. :-) ).

There are a couple of random typos on the cards you might want to check before printing (I don't mind copyediting if you want to send them over when they're reasonably final); I don't have the Dominion experience to comment on the actual content. The cards look really pretty, though :-).

[oxeador.livejournal.com]

If I may make a suggestion, print this cards cheaply (or even just handwrite staff on pieces of paper) and playtest it. That is the best way to see how it works, whether something is overpriced or underpriced, et cetera. After all, you are going to have no shortage of volunteers to playtest.

Отличный блог!

[vladijotom.livejournal.com]

Познавательно, но не убедительно. Чего-то не хватает, а чего не пойму. Но, скажу прямо: – светлые и доброжелательные мысли. (http://zimnyayaobuv.ru/) (http://zimnyaya-obuv.ru/)

Re:

[audracab.livejournal.com]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6M_6qOz-yw