The Twilight World - A Design Board

[Thranduil]

So, as the title suggests, this is not a complete set by any means, it is a space for me to bounce ideas off you lovely people! So most of these cards do not have titles yet, because that's normally the last thing I do when designing a set.

I want to do a few things in this set (which is a follow-on from my set Light & Shadow which finished fairly recently), all of which are developing themes seen in the first set. For the moment, we're going to develop the resistance emphasis with a cycle loosely inspired by The Highest Quality. So just let me know if you think these cards are fun, complicated or any other adjective you feel appropriate!

So the most obvious way to do this would be something like this card:

CARDNAME
Event • Skirmish
Spell.
To play, spot a Wizard.
Exert any number of companions to discard a minion with strength less than the total resistance of those companions.
T R

But I could conceivably make cards more like this one:

•CARDNAME
Condition • Support Area
Tale.
To play, spot a companion.
While the total resistance of companions assigned to a skirmish is 18 or more, each of those companions cannot take wounds.
T R

Are these good? Which do you think is a cleaner/more fun approach? Do you think both approaches should coexist or not?

[Gil-Estel]

Both seem very strong, but that is in reference to cards I know from nowadays sets. So I can hardly judge them. Especially the last is huge I guess.

[Pepi]

The second one should have a cost in my opinion...Something like: "To play add a burden..."

[sickofpalantirs]

the second one takes 3 companions...perhaps 27? thats a nice number based on 9...
first one should probably give shadow a way to prevent.

[Thranduil]

I have a feeling the one will change to be some kind of event because I think continually counting, even only every skirmish phase, is a little bit too annoying.

I'll move onto another idea in a bit, but what do you think of these ones (obviously titles are placeholders)?

Defence of the White City
Event • Maneuver
Fortification.
To play, spot a companion.
Exert any number of companions with a total resistance of 12 or more to wound a minion once for each companion exerted in this way.
T R

Heroic Charge
Event • Maneuver
Tale.
To play, spot a companion.
Exert any number of companions with a total resistance of 12 or more to make each of those companions strength +3 and damage +1 until the regroup phase.
T R

[Gerontius]

These are extremely hard to judge. In some decks they're balanced, but in others they're a little nuts. I'm getting two boxes of Shadows soon, and if I get any copies of The Highest Quality it's going straight into my wraith deck, where it's much more effective than in some knight deck. Defence of the White City is probably fine, Heroic charge would be fun to play, but it might be a little to crazy. Maybe add some culture reinforcement, and take down the bonus.

[FM]

I think they're both fine. How often can you actually ABUSE them, instead of USE them? I can see players not packing quite so many copies of them into any deck, which usually is a good statement as to it being fair.

[Thranduil]

Well I'm going to move onto one of my other ideas. As you may or may not know, I've been trying to promote multiculture throughout Light & Shadow, both Shadow and FP, partly for the intention of being able to draft it. And so this is one of the ways I thought I could do it.

CARDNAME
Event • Fellowship
Toil 2.
Play a Free Peoples condition from your discard pile.
T U

CARDNAME
Event • Skirmish
Toil 2.
Reveal the top card of your draw deck. If it is a Free Peoples card, make a minion strength -3.
T U

CARDNAME
Event • Skirmish
Toil 4.
Make an unbound companion strength +4.
T U

So if you'll notice, none of the cards have any cultural enforcement, except quite subtly (which is why this cycle feels uncommon to me). Just to clarify my point, Toil X on a [Culture] card is defined as "For each of your [Culture] characters you exert when playing this, its twilight cost is -X". So these cards are completely splashable, but without characters of the right culture, they do not seem like a good deal. What do you guys think?

I'll get to some Shadow ones later.

Thranduil

[Anvar]

My inclination is to make some of these a bit worse, as with no cultural enforcement there are potential problems. I think the idea is clever and good for limited. I'd have to see if these cards could be broken in some way.

CARDNAME
Event • Skirmish
Toil 2.
Reveal the top card of your draw deck. Make a minion strength -X where X is the twilight cost of the revealed card.
T U
I'd go for a fixed reduction. Say -3 if that card is a Free Peoples card.

CARDNAME
Event • Skirmish
Toil 4.
Make a companion strength +5.
T U

I'd go for Strength +4. And possibly restrict it to unbound companions.

CARDNAME
Event • Fellowship
Toil 2.
Heal each companion.
T U
Should this only be unbound? This is a bit strange with toil as if you have three unwounded companions you could heal all companions for free.

[DáinIronfoot]

CARDNAME
Event • Fellowship
Toil 2.
Play a Free Peoples condition from your discard pile.
T U

I get what you're going for, but I'd still spot a Dwarf or at least another card to do this. Too much potential of tossing this in with no Dwarves in sight for the to matter in most cases.

CARDNAME
Event • Skirmish
Toil 2.
Reveal the top card of your draw deck. If it is a Free Peoples card, make a minion strength -3.
T U

More costly here, which helps keep it in check, but I'd still require spotting an card, methinks.

CARDNAME
Event • Skirmish
Toil 4.
Make an unbound companion strength +4.
T U

Here, the cost is enough that I don't think you need anything further. If anything, it's TOO costly. Perhaps make it ?

Like the overall idea.

[Thranduil]

I have not been having many ideas for this set for a while, my mind being completely preoccupied by other projects at the moment. Nevertheless I'm curious to hear what you think about these miscellaneous cards. Basically, the and cultures only appear in this block as splashes, as "multicultural glue", if you like. They're designed to be generic and useful all across the board. So what do we think of these guys (obviously, some of the titles are bad and unimaginative and traitor is unloaded)?

Spy of Saruman
Minion • Man
Str: 6
Vit: 3
Sit: 3
Traitor.
While this minion is assigned to a skirmish, each Free Peoples event is twilight cost +1.
T C

Agent of Saruman
Minion • Man
Str: 6
Vit: 2
Sit: 3
Traitor.
To play, spot an card or traitor.
Each Shadow condition is twilight cost -1.
T U

•Gríma, Treacherous Servant
Minion • Man
Str: 4
Vit: 3
Sit: 3
Traitor.
Shadow: Exert Gríma to foresee 1. If it is a Shadow condition, you may reveal it and take it into hand. (To foresee 1, look at the top card of your draw deck. You may replace it or put it on the bottom of your draw deck).
Regroup: Exert Gríma to play a Shadow condition from your discard pile.
T C

Spy of Sauron
Minion • Man
Str: 6
Vit: 2
Sit: 2
Traitor.
Response: If the Ring-bearer puts on The One Ring, exert this minion to reveal the top 5 cards of your draw deck. Exert a companion for each Shadow card revealed. Place those cards at the bottom of your draw deck in any order.
T C

Agent of Sauron
Minion • Man
Str: 6
Vit: 4
Sit: 2
Traitor.
To play, spot a card or traitor.
Response: If you play a card with toil X, exert this minion to make that card's twilight cost -X.
T C

•The Mouth of Sauron, Ambassador of Mordor
Minion • Man
Str: 8
Vit: 3
Sit: 5
Traitor.
When you play The Mouth of Sauron, spot a Shadow culture. The Mouth of Sauron gains that culture until the end of the turn.
Assignment: Assign The Mouth of Sauron to a corrupted companion (companions with resistance 0 are corrupted).
T R

[DáinIronfoot]

Spy of Saruman
Minion • Man
Str: 6
Vit: 3
Sit: 3
Traitor.
While this minion is assigned to a skirmish, each Free Peoples event is twilight cost +2.
T C

Since he's non-unique, I'd make it +1; +2 seems WAY harsh. I'd also require spotting a Man or another minion...then he's still very splashable with cultures that make sense (, , ), but not ones that make little sense at all. Or perhaps spot another Man or traitor and make traitor a keyword that can really tie cultures together, like your aggressor does.

Agent of Saruman
Minion • Man
Str: 6
Vit: 2
Sit: 3
Traitor.
Each Shadow condition is twilight cost -1.
T U

Ditto here on the spotting, either to play or to use the ability...your choice, but I'd recommend the latter. This is a VERY powerful ability, so I'd either raise this guy's stats and cost a hair or make him unique.

•Gríma, Treacherous Servant
Minion • Man
Str: 4
Vit: 3
Sit: 3
Traitor.
Shadow: Exert Gríma to foresee 1. If it is a Shadow condition, you may reveal it and take it into hand. (To foresee 1, look at the top card of your draw deck. You may replace it or put it on the bottom of your draw deck).
Regroup: Exert Gríma to play a Shadow condition from your discard pile.
T C

I'd make the regroup ability exert him twice. He might be okay otherwise.

Spy of Sauron
Minion • Man
Str: 6
Vit: 2
Sit: 2
Traitor.
Response: If the Ring-bearer puts on The One Ring, exert this minion to reveal the top 5 cards of your draw deck. Exert a companion for each Shadow card revealed. Replace the revealed cards in any order.
T C

Move those cards to the bottom of the deck and I'll be happier, or make him spot another traitor to play.

Agent of Sauron
Minion • Man
Str: 6
Vit: 4
Sit: 2
Traitor.
Response: If you play a card with toil X, exert this minion to make that card's twilight cost -X.
T C

Hmmm. I'd like a spotting requirement here, too.

•The Mouth of Sauron, Ambassador of Mordor
Minion • Man
Str: 8
Vit: 3
Sit: 5
Traitor.
When you play The Mouth of Sauron, spot a culture. The Mouth of Sauron gains that culture until the end of the turn.
Assignment: Assign The Mouth of Sauron to a corrupted companion (companions with resistance 0 are corrupted).
T R

I'd spot a Shadow culture, just to avoid funny business. Other than that, cool beans!

[Thranduil]

I just have some other miscellaneous cards up for review, also from the and cultures. What do we think?

•The Palantír of Orthanc, Dangerous Tool
Artifact • Support Area
When you play The Palantír of Orthanc, each player may foresee 4. (To foresee 4, look at the top 4 cards of your draw deck; place any number of those cards on top of or beneath your draw deck in any order).
At the start of the maneuver phase, you may spot Saruman to look at the top 2 cards of each draw deck.
"‘We do not know who else may be watching.'"
T R

This card originally had the second line "foresee 2 from each player's draw deck" but thought that might be a confusing wording.

•Mustering for War
Condition • Support Area
Engine. Spell.
While you can spot a minion, each non-minion Shadow card gains toil 1.
You may remove burdens instead of twilight tokens to play a card with in its cost.
T R

If you remember my ideas in another thread for costing Shadow cards where you could choose how much twilight you wanted to remove when you played the card.

[DáinIronfoot]

•The Palantír of Orthanc, Dangerous Tool
Artifact • Support Area
When you play The Palantír of Orthanc, each player may foresee 4. (To foresee 4, look at the top 4 cards of your draw deck; place any number of those cards on top of or beneath your draw deck in any order).
At the start of the maneuver phase, you may spot Saruman to look at the top 2 cards of each draw deck.
"‘We do not know who else may be watching.'"
T R

I think "examine" is a more proper substitute for "look at", but other than that, I like it a lot. Very palantír-esque.

•Mustering for War
Condition • Support Area
Engine. Spell.
While you can spot a minion, each non-minion Shadow card gains toil 1.
You may remove burdens instead of twilight tokens to play a card with in its cost.
T R

Love the "rainbow Shadow" this encourages! I don't think I'd use the second line much, but I suppose it could have its uses with burden-heavy cultures like and . Perhaps require spotting another card to play this in the first place, as that second line makes this completely splashable. Not necessarily a bad thing in this case, but....