King and Robber Baron varient

[Scott]

...I like it!

It fulfills the wish that the robber baron have some sort of connection to P&D just like the king is connected to the princess. The mechanic of kidnapping the fairy makes sense for the robber baron. Some playtesting might be good to see if the 2 point penalty is good.

dwhitworth's expansion-independant bonus points for feature completion can still be played as a separate variant/house rule.

My vote goes to Boris' latest idea for the winner of the robber baron portion of this variant in progress.

[Deatheux]

really not bad!! not bad at all!!!

[skipboris]

Cool....now to playtest.  I suspect that stealing the fairy won't happen very often.  It just doesn't happen that often that you want to place and move the fairy.  Anyways, we'll see.

[Joff]

That gives a reasonably logical function to the robber baron, just like the king. This has great potential

[dwhitworth]

Count me in as well, I like it and will play test it . . . . as soon as we get back home to the carc box . . . in the meantime the Castle is keeping us challenged while on the road.

[canada steve]

Ok gents once you have all play tested it and ironed out the bugs dont forget to add it to the variant registry please.

[Gantry]

there isn't a public input form yet, i wanted 2 of us at least to be familiar with how it works before we let it loose on the public.  have you had a chance to sign up for an account on zoho yet?

[Deatheux]

we playtest the Baron/King variant, the fairy rules LOOKS to be really too powerful if we can take it over "anytime". but when we play to play a meeple & buy back the fairy, it does not paypack often...

the king who gives the protection of a princess kickass(only once in 2 games)!!!

maybe we can give a little push to the king, the princess + som'thin'!?!?

[skipboris]

On the robber variant: It was intended that the fairy could me moved only during the "move the wood" phase, not anytime.  The intention of this entire varient was to give value to king/robber during play, not at the end.  Since the king/princess variant isn't all that powerful (because it doesn't happen that much), the robber variant also shouldn't be that powerful.  The intended effect is simply to add a bit of flavor and use for king/robber.  If robber is still too powerful you can make the thief fee 3 VP.

[Deatheux]

it should help, for sure!

we'll try this, but the 2nd game was only on OUR turn, not "anytime' and it was DEVASTATING... look, we close a castle/road, 3/4/5 points whatever... we claim the feature with a meeple, pau 2 VP to steal the fairy... the fairy gives +1 as that, plus teh bonus of the feature closed!! it IS good, but a little too gooooood!!!

[skipboris]

Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought you get the fairy VP only if you have her at the start of your turn, before move the wood.  If you moved her normally, or stole her using the robber, the opportunity for the VP is gone. Since you can only steal her on your own turn, as a bonus move the wood, the "1vp for fairy rule" shouldn't affect this mechanic.

[Deatheux]

It's a work in progress.

One more idea for robber Baron; Owner of this tile can "steal the fairy."  Player simply pays 2 victory points and steals the fairy.  This action is in addition to the regular "move the wood."

Example:  you draw a cloister and want to put a meeple on it.  BUT, your largest city is threatened by the dragon.  You could claim the cloister with a meeple, AND pay 2 VP to move the fairy. 

This variant along with the well liked king idea would only effect KS and PD, as requested.

thoughts?

@skipboris: here we can pay 2 VP to steal the fairy, so i can draw a cloister in a hole(so the Cloister can be scored on the spot), deploy a meeple AND pay 2 VP to steal the fairy. then i complete the Cloister, WITH the fairy on, the Cloister gives me 9 points + 3 points for the fairy. In this case the fairy has been stolen in the move the wood part.

this is THAT point that may be too powerful for that variant.

So, May i suggest that the "steal fairy" thing can be only used at the very end of the turn before another player draw another tile...  then all features will be scored, the dragon will have aleready move(if the case is...) the princess already kick an poor ass out of a city, the tower may capture a scapegoat, and every "goods" are now picked up.  THIS is reducing power from the variant.

any thought??

[skipboris]

It's a work in progress.

One more idea for robber Baron; Owner of this tile can "steal the fairy."  Player simply pays 2 victory points and steals the fairy.  This action is in addition to the regular "move the wood."

Example:  you draw a cloister and want to put a meeple on it.  BUT, your largest city is threatened by the dragon.  You could claim the cloister with a meeple, AND pay 2 VP to move the fairy. 

This variant along with the well liked king idea would only effect KS and PD, as requested.

thoughts?

@skipboris: here we can pay 2 VP to steal the fairy, so i can draw a cloister in a hole(so the Cloister can be scored on the spot), deploy a meeple AND pay 2 VP to steal the fairy. then i complete the Cloister, WITH the fairy on, the Cloister gives me 9 points + 3 points for the fairy. In this case the fairy has been stolen in the move the wood part.

this is THAT point that may be too powerful for that variant.

So, May i suggest that the "steal fairy" thing can be only used at the very end of the turn before another player draw another tile...  then all features will be scored, the dragon will have aleready move(if the case is...) the princess already kick an poor ass out of a city, the tower may capture a scapegoat, and every "goods" are now picked up.  THIS is reducing power from the variant.

any thought??

The reason you score a cloister immediately when filling a hole is because cloisters are scored when fully surrounded.  You still have to pay the meeple price to claim the cloister and 9 points.  Technically, you are playing a meeple to collect the cloister, and immediately pick it up.  If you were out of meeples, and placed a hole-filling-cloister, you would get zero points because you could not claim it.  In other words, it is illegal to do what you just said.  You would be placing 2 meeples and moving the fairy.  Does that make sense?  Please corect me if I'm wrong.

[Deatheux]

in fact, i just deploy ONE meeple and pay 2 VP to steal the fairy... to payback 12 on the cloister...

the cloister like ALL OTHERS features are scored a the end of the turn... not anyother time.

[skipboris]

OK I see what you are saying.  To fix, one could simply add the following stipulation: If you steal the fairy you will not get the feature completion bonus, or, as you said, if you want to steal the fairy you may only do so at the end of your turn, or, it costs 3 vp to steal...The steal the fairy ability was only intended to give you an extra option for protecting yourself against the dragon.  It is not intended to be used as a scoring gimmick.  Which of those 3 options seems the best to you?