Carcassonne Central

(I thought I saw a thread about this expansion, but I can not find it...)

La folia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folia) is mostly considered to be a musical theme - well, it is...

But - it is significantly joined to the carnival http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnival (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnival)

In the past - during some of these carnivals (spain in the 1400's etc), la folia (dance of the fools) took place, which meant that during that day (and that day only) the high and low swapped places. Peasant became noble, and the nobles became peasants. It was a feast!

Anyway - When a fair-tale tile is drawn, for the next turn, if you are scoring something - the owner of what is scored will get negative points (or everyone else positive if it is early in the game). The rich and lucky ones will get naught, and the poor sods who are lagging behind will get rich - for one turn. If another fair tile is drawn the turn is prolonged.

No - I have not been thinking this one through - that is your job :)

I like the basic idea.  How about when you play the fair tile, you give one of your tokens to a player.  The next time that player scores something, he/she doesn't get anything but the player with the least points get the points instead?

I like the idea of trying to root this in real history, but I'm not sure about rooting it in Spanish history.

Carnivals are not exclusivly spanish - that was an example since I actually know it took place there. But it also took place in Italy, Portugal and southern France. So ... :)

If I were to draw a fair tile, I would make sure I would not place it wherein my opponent would score anything. Thus wouldn't it be simply like throwing away your next scoring opportunity?

It is up to you what you do with any tile you draw. A fair would mean that during the next round (turn) something else then the usual happens. You place the tile (whereever possible) and the turn starts with that. Obviously, you might not be able to place it anywhere where you can get a benefit (or rather: screw someone else up), but that is no different from any other tile - is it? :)

I like the history behind this variation.  As far as playing it goes, I'd like to suggest that when a fair tile is played, that the points for the next completed feature goes to the player with the lowest current score instead of the player that has majority.  If there is a tie for lowest score, then both players get the points.  If a second fair tile is played before a feature gets scored, then the player(s) with the lowest score get scored the points twice for the same feature(or one scoring per fair tile).