Carcassonne Central

Cocoa Traders
Contains:
5 Cocoa Trade Good Tokens
(http://i585.photobucket.com/albums/ss294/meepleater/cocoatradegoods2-1.jpg)
Requires:
Base Game
Traders and Builders

Cocoa beans have had a surge in popularity lately, and several merchants have started to set up trading businesses in an attempt to make massive amounts of money from the business...

Rules:
This expansion puts the trade back into 'trade goods'.

At any point of the game, in the 'move the wood' stage (instead of placing a follower etc.), a player may trade; 1 cloth, 1 wheat and 2 wine trade goods for a cocoa trade good. The used wine, wheat and cloth trade goods get removed from the game.

At the end of the game, the player with the most cocoa trade goods gets 2 points for each trade good inside a completed city (the city must be completed!), as well as 5 points for each pig of another player's colour remaining in a field at the end of the game. In case of a tie, all players involved in the tie get the full points.

Interactions with other official expansions:
Abbey and Mayor At the end of the game, the player with the majority of cocoa trade goods also gains 5 points for each wagon of another player's colour remaining in play.

Interactions with unofficial expansions:
Apothecaries and Tithes 1 herb token must also be exchanged along with 1 cloth, 1 wheat and 2 wine in order to gain a cocoa trade good. At the end of the game, the player with the most amount of herb tokens also gains 1 point for each apothecary in a completed city. If using either Fountain of Youth or Health and Holiness or both, then 2 herb tokens must be used along with 1 cloth, 1 wheat and 2 wine.
Fruit Trader A pineapple trade good may be used instead of a wheat token. The player with the most cocoa tokens at the end of the game does NOT gain any addition points from pineapple farms.
Kettle of fish Has no impact.
Timber! Has no impact
Lavender fields Has no impact
An apple a day Any apple trade good may be used instead of one of the wine tokens, but a maximum of 1 apple token per trade is in place, so 1 wine MUST be used.
Gold mines A gold trade good may be used instead of a wine OR a wheat token, but a maximum of one gold trade good per cocoa token. If using with Apple a day, only ONE of either apple OR gold can be used per cocoa trade good. At the end of the game the player with the majority of trade goods also gains 2 points per completed gold mine.

Hey, I recognise those leaves!  Good use recycling the leaves from apothecaries!  However, I'm not sure about your cocoa pods.  Those things look more like Brazil nuts than cocoa pods.  Also cocoa pods is more orangy brown than dark chocolate brown, and the "fruit"/bean is actually white in colour and almond shaped.  You might want to change the colour or shape to resemble something more appropriate.

I like the trading expansion idea and I think this is cool.  I have no idea why you want to make it more difficult to play with Apothecaries and Tithes.  Perhaps the herb token may be used instead of cloth?  With regards to the end game scoring, perhaps it might be better that pigs and wagons score 5 points if they remain in play at the end of the game, but only those that belongs to other players?  That way, whoever is in the lead cannot just save up their pig and wagon and place those near the end of the game to score 10 points (= to player with the most of 1 trade good, or 9 points by your current rules).

Well I wanted to 'force' people to use cloth, as there are only 5, so Cocoa is kept rare and cloth is even more sought after. If I added 8 more herbs (potential cloths) that would be 13 cocoa max compared to 5.

 I just noticed, if there are only 9 wine, then there is 1 wine short of being five cocoa tokens. Oh well, it seems now that in order to get  all 5 cocoa 'apple a day' is needed too...

I'll edit the image later... I was wondering if you'd recognise the leaves...

OK.  That's good.  Maybe you should add another trade good for herb tokens.  How about 2 herb (since you'll get more with the 2 new expansions), 1 gold and 1 something else for for this new trade goods?  The new trade goods can be used together cocoa or something...

Hmm... okay, 2 herb... I'll edit that on my first post... i'd completely forgotten about gold trade goods... there's one in treasure hunt, how many in the original?

hang on, I'll add fountain of youth and health and holiness into the list of unofficial expansions in the rules...

12 gold trade goods in the original expansion.  There's also the honey trade goods from lavender fields.

I already decided not to mix with lavender fields, I only want to interact with a few other expansions...

here is the new cocoa trade good:

(http://i585.photobucket.com/albums/ss294/meepleater/cocoatradegoods2.jpg)

Compared to:

(http://i585.photobucket.com/albums/ss294/meepleater/cocoatradegoods.jpg)

EDIT: Added Gold Mines to list of rules

Wow, those new tokens look great!  Get the rules finished and you're ready to go!

I'll probably do the rules tomorrow... for now, I'll leave this open for comments...

I agree, those tokens are nice.  Good work.  This is an interesting twist on the trade goods.  I think it could be exciting.  I'd be interested to hear about a play test.

Could someone else attempt a play test with some of the other expansions such as gold mines/ fruit traders? I don't have all of those. I will, however, have a go with T&B, as well as a go with A&M and T&B.

Maybe you should make no changes with the gold tokens for this expansion.  Maybe we could jointly develop one as a future expansion.

It's so small a change we might as well keep it... Gold Mines are optional for this, by no means neccesary...

OK, I think it would add to the strategy of whether you want to keep the gold mines for extra points or to steal the cocoa for more points.

That's what I intended... any comments, anyone, before I type the rules up?

Here is first version of Rules

http://www.mediafire.com/file/mwyjhnjnezn/Cocoa Traders.01.dot.pdf

Any comments? I'll put the link up for the trade goods up when I'm sure that they print out the right size...

EDIT: I think these tokens are the right size, let me know if they aren't:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/muz5tnzg2zm/cocoatradegoods2.jpg.pdf

Proofreading:

Deploying a follower - commas required before and after the "etc." in the sentence.
"All traded resources return to the side and are not used again in the game." - That would include the cocoa trade good.  I think you mean "All resources traded for the cocoa trade good..." instead.

Other than that, everything looks fine.  However, you might want to have a footnote in final scoring that trade goods icons inside a city only includes cloth, wine and grain; or if future trade goods are acceptable.

Also, I would change "unofficial" to "fan-made" just to be more clear.

I'm not sure if the completed gold mines should be counted at the end of the game for cocoa traders.  I think it should be uncompleted gold mines instead which would make it interesting.

Anyways, great work on the rules, and I hope the computer is friendly to you this time!

I'm using the laptop... the computer is still dead...

EDIT:

Okay, here we are, latest version, v0.2

http://www.mediafire.com/file/myizkmcccyz/Cocoa Traders.02.dot.pdf

Invalid file.  It won't let me download the file.  Is the link correct?

Seems to work for me... just go to the old one and search through the files to find the latest version...

Looks good to me.  I'll look forward to the rev 1.  Let me konw when it can be uploaded to public downloads.

Just had first play test: it was worth 43 points with T&B and I&C, I'll tell you one thing; there's no need for scaled trade good scoring with this expansion, it keeps Trade Goods VERY valuable...

I think it's ready to be on public downloads...

Cool, let me know when the rev 1.0 is ready.

Here are v1.0 of the rules plus the tokens as a .zip file:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/wdzmnjnzunz/Cocoa traders v1.0.zip

Novelty, seeing as I wrote the rules and did the tokens (everything except the rules template), may I upload it on BGG?

A, the tokens are too small on 100%.  You might have to adjust it.

The idea of not posting the files on BGG isn't to deny people there of it, but to encourage them to come over here to participate.  It would be preferable if you posted on BGG and said "Hey, I created this expansion on CarcCentral.  Here's a preview.  To get the full version, head over to CarcCentral!" and then provide a link here.  That may encourage people to come over here.  It's up to you though, I can't stop you from posting the files anywhere, but I'd rather that this site get more traffic and more publicity and more buzz though.

okay... and I'll try to fix up the tokens as well...

EDIT:
Final version:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/wjz4nr3u04v/Cocoa Traders v1.1.zip

Now available at Public Downloads.  Good job, A.  Merit point for you!

Wow, thanks for the acknowledgement.  I'm flattered.   ;D

Well, you did comment about it, and you gave reminded me to organise a play test... (it was an interesting twist on T&B), and I felt I should acknowledge everyone who helped...

Public Downloads updated.

Ok, my revision for this expansion is finished: I've added in salt traders (from apothecaries and tithes) although the cocoa trade goods can be used pretty much independently, given cocoa trade goods a much-needed facelift and altered a few minor rules (including the removal of all interactions with fan-made expansions):

These are the new tiles and tokens:
(http://i585.photobucket.com/albums/ss294/meepleater/tilestokens.jpg)

Rules and tile pdfs can be found here: http://www.mediafire.com/?0u3z2xvinvnyrzu

I deleted the old Cocoa Traders expansion from the downloads area and uploaded this new one:
http://carcassonnecentral.com/forum/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=172 (http://carcassonnecentral.com/forum/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=172)