Suggested uses for blank tiles

[Jabberwocky]

My group of friends recently acquired the expansion that includes the blank Carcassonne tiles. Here is my brainstorm list (so far) of what to draw on the blank tiles:

The Commons: An all green title with the word "COMMONS" written across it. When this tile is connected to a green, then anyone is allowed to add followers to that green even if it is already claimed, except for a player's very last follower. This would add the possibility of extreme rapid depletion of followers as everyone vies for control of a powerful green, and it increases interest in trying to close off a green.

The Catacombs: This tile has city on the north and south sides, and green on the east and west sides. The green connects. The two cities are shown with an underground cave that connects one city to the other. The catacombs would be very in keeping with the old France style of the game, and would give a tile that is capable of connecting both city and green.

Plague Quarantine: This is an all-city tile with big black plague rats pictured on it. When this tile is part of a city, the city scores as normal when it completes, but the followers on that city are not returned to the owners. They are quarantined and remain on the city until the end of the game.

Central Market: This piece looks like four roads converging at an intersection, except instead of a few small houses or trees that are usually drawn at such intersections, this tile has a marketplace (colored tents, wagons, etc). When the tile is played, all players, starting with the person who played the tile and continuing in play order, must claim either a road segment or a green on this tile. You are allowed to add a follower to a green or road that is already claimed only if there is no unclaimed green or road available. If a player has no followers to place, he/she does not have to place anything. We have been discussing whether the pig, builder and other special pieces are exempt from this "must place" rule.

Parthenon: As the cathedral is to the cloister, so the Parthenon is to the shrine [aka cult place]. Like a cathedral, the Parthenon adds one point per tile to the value of a city. But if both the Parthenon and a cathedral are in the same city, they cancel each other out. (If anyone has a better name for this tile, please suggest it. I stayed away from mosque and temple because neither of those were the pagan religion of the cult. The Parthenon isn't either, but it is from a religion more cult-ish by today's standards than the other two.)

Spatial Manifold: This option would use both of the blank tiles. Both tiles are the same: A city on one edge, green on the others. But instead of a normal curve, this city comes in to a point in the center of the tile where there is a Spatial Anomaly (drawn something like a Stargate or Guardian of Forever [Star Trek]). The two cities on the two tiles count as the same city. Variations on this theme include a road anomaly or a city on North edge and a road coming in from South edge with the anomaly in the center of the tile.

Dry Lake: This tile is green on three sides, city on one side. In the center of the green is a dry lake. The farm that includes this tile is suffering from a drought. Unable to grow as much food, the farm scores one less point per completed city at the end of the game (basically, this acts the same as the pig tile from the River II expansion except it subtracts a point instead of adding one).

Oxbow: This is a river tile. The main body of the river runs from one side of the tile across to the other, but it does so following a curve to the left. A much smaller bow cuts the other side of the tile leaving a diamond shape island in the middle. The diamond shaped island should have an alligator, and the oxbow water should look brackish. Any farm that touches that segment of island is unclaimable due to environmental protection of the alligators. Any followers already on those farms must be returned to their owners immediately, although the owners are compensated with one point per tile that makes up the farm.

The Void: This is a solid white tile. You place it over any existing tile that does not have a follower on it. That location is now missing. The next time anyone draws a tile that is capable of playing in the space where The Void is located, they must play there (because nature abhors a vacuum and won't tolerate it very long). At first I thought there might be a lot of rules complications arising from this tile, but after toying with the idea a bit, I think it works without any errata. [After playtesting, we've got some details about this tile. See rules errata below.]

Here There Be Dragons: This tile has green on one edge and fades to white for its other three sides. On the white portion is written "Here There Be Dragons." This is a warning that appears on the edges of many ancient maps when the map maker didn't know what came next. This tile may be connected on its green edge. No other tile may border its other three sides.

[Lardarse]

Spatial Manifold: This option would use both of the blank tiles. Both tiles are the same: A city on one edge, green on the others. But instead of a normal curve, this city comes in to a point in the center of the tile where there is a Spatial Anomaly (drawn something like a Stargate or Guardian of Forever [Star Trek]). The two cities on the two tiles count as the same city. Variations on this theme include a road anomaly or a city on North edge and a road coming in from South edge with the anomaly in the center of the tile.

I really like this idea. It could become very confusing if you have multiple designs, because then you would need to specify which portals connect to each other.

[Scott]

Here There Be Dragons: This tile has green on one edge and fades to white for its other three sides. On the white portion is written "Here There Be Dragons." This is a warning that appears on the edges of many ancient maps when the map maker didn't know what came next. This tile may be connected on its green edge. No other tile may border its other three sides.

This is definitely my favorite.

Penalizing farmers was good one too though.

[Jabberwocky]

So we have been trying out The Void as a house rule. Wow... we came up with a lot of errata. Here is our rules (so far) for The Void tile. I'll cover the basic rules first with rules for how The Void interacts with various Carcassonne expansions after that.

1. The Void tile is a solid white tile that is used to wipe out an existing tile on the board. The player placing The Void must cover a tile that is part of a city or road on which the player has a claim. If the player has no claimed roads or cities, then The Void may cover any tile on the board. For any feature on the board, The Void can result in
a) the feature being removed completely
b) the feature being decreased in size
c) the feature being broken into two or more separate features

1a. If The Void complete removes any feature -- city, road, farm, cloister, etc -- any followers on that feature are returned to their owners.

1b. If The Void simply decreases the size of a feature, all followers stay on the feature, even if that means there are more followers than tile spaces.

1c. If The Void breaks the feature into several features (ie. a single large city being broken into 2, 3 or 4 separate cities, depending upon which tile is voided), the players take turns, starting with the player who placed the void, moving their followers into the various parts. A player may distribute his or her followers among the parts any way he or she chooses, even if that means more followers are placed on a part than that part has tiles.

2. The tile that is covered by The Void is simply covered -- it isn't put back in the bag or moved to a new location or anything like that.

3. The person who plays The Void cannot add any followers to features affected by The Void.

4. Play continues as if The Void were an empty space on the board. If a player wishes to play there, the new tile just covers The Void tile and must otherwise be a legal tile to place in that space on the board.

5. If there is only one tile on the board (meaning The Void is drawn as the first draw), then The Void is unplayable -- follow the normal rules for handling any unplayable tile in Carcassonne.

The Expansions
6. You cannot void any river tile or any tile that makes up the Count's city. If the only cities or roads that you own are on tiles that are part of these features then you may play as if you had no cities or roads claimed. If the only tiles in the game are river or Count's city tiles, The Void is unplayable. For any future expansions that change which tiles are used as the starting tiles for the game, use this same rule.

7. Voiding a tile with a Barn on it returns the Barn to its owner.

8. The Void does not trigger the Builder.

[Novelty]

Oooh, what happens when you void the tile the dragon is on?

When you void a tower tile (with tower pieces) does the void tile go on top of the tower pieces?  That would be fun to watch!

Can we use the Void tile to void the Catapult expansion completely?  I'm sure there would be a large number of people who would gladly endorse this idea

Added The Void to the list of games in development

[Jabberwocky]

Ok. We have decided The Void is a bad idea. After many games over a couple weeks, and many attempts to revise the rules, we've decided that The Void tiles are either game imbalancing or so restrictive that you always regret drawing one. Essentially, The Void causes unplanned destruction anytime the drawing player is given free reign to play it anywhere, and when we tie it such that it has to affect one of the player's own structures, it almost inevitably hurts the drawing player rather than provide any sort of advantage. All other tiles at least are *sometimes* desirable. This one never was.

[HelenJames]

I think we all get a little bit distracted from the main topicstarter's theme