Dominion: Prosperity Report
_"Dominion: Prosperity", designed by Donald X. Vaccarino.
Developed by Dale Yu and Valerie Putman.
Published by Rio Grande Games.
_
Photo by James Nathan Spencer.
I've played several games of Dominion Prosperity, with and without other expansions. I love it already. I stood in line at GenCon when they announced it was about to be released. There had been some question as to whether the shipping company would be able to get it there, and I didn't want it to sell out before I got a copy.
There are friendly interaction cards like the original Council Room. They give you a huge benefit but give a little benefit to everyone else.
Bishop -- Action -- Cost 4
+$1
+1VP [ed. note: This is not a green Victory card. "+VP" is a new term in Prosperity. It means you put a token on your Victory Points placemat.]
Trash a card from your hand. +VP equal to half its cost in coins, rounded down.
Each other player may trash a card from his hand.
Vault -- Action -- Cost 5
+2 Cards
Discard any number of cards. +$1 per card discarded. Each other player may discard two cards. If he does, he draws a card.
Downsides of some Prosperity cards balance the massive gains, in many other forms as well:
Mint -- Action -- Cost 5
You may reveal a Treasure card from your hand. Gain a copy of it.
When you buy Mint, trash all Treasure cards you have in play.
Contraband -- Treasure -- Cost 5
Worth $3 when you play it.
+1 Buy
When you play this, the player to your left names a card. You can't buy that card this turn.
Grand Market -- Action -- Cost 6
+1 Card
+1 Action
+1 Buy
+$2
You can't buy this if you have any Coppers in play.
Grand Market is just one of several cards that are souped-up versions of previous cards. For instance, King's Court is like Throne Room, but lets you play a card thrice instead of twice. Expand substitutes for both Remodel and Mine, in that you may trash a card and gain another card worth up to $3 more. The game is now bigger in almost every way:
1. I can no longer shuffle all the randomizers together in one stack to deal out the random ten to play with.
2. I now require an inconveniently large building in which to transport my Dominion collection. ;) I am going to use the tools at i3Detroit to modify two old briefcases.
3. With the new Platinum and Colony cards used with Prosperity, it takes up more table space.
4. It has cards that require much higher accumulations of Treasure cards to purchase.
5. Players earn massive Treasure and high scores. Naturally, some players are already saying some of these cards are broken. This is jumping to conclusions.
They cried "broken" on Chapel. They cried "broken" on Saboteur. They cried "broken" on Pirate Ship. They coughed up a lung at Possession! In all cases, it eventually turned out they didn't know how to play against those cards yet. As soon as you lose several times with that card, you realize they are not at all invincible.
When Seaside first came out, I cried "broken" on Treasure Map. My definition of "broken" was that the only strategy that could possibly win in a game with that card was to buy only that card and focus on it exclusively. But I've tried that in many games with Treasure Map, and lost. I learned my lesson.
I talked to a guy at GenCon this weekend who's been mad ever since the Intrigue expansion, because the Saboteur makes it "not Dominion". Why? Because you most often beat it by getting +Buys and buying a lot of small cards to shield yourself. Then you buy more Estates than anyone else. Then I told him how I tried that in the championship game against Eric S. Raymond, and Eric won with Duchies.
Calling a card "disruptive" simply means it's a completely different game. Dominion is frequently not Dominion. That's the genius of it. If you keep playing the game you thought you knew, you will lose. Usually, the point of the game is "get the most Provinces, but figure out when to get a Duchy or two". In some sets, it's "get the most Provinces". In some, it's "get the most Duchies". In some, it's "get the most Estates". In some, it's "get the fewest Curses and least negative score". With Prosperity, now it is sometimes "get the most Colonies".
When we say it's constantly a different game, we really mean it. But that means the winner is probably going to be the first one to figure out which game it is this time. When you have that Aha Moment, it feels really good.
On a final note, I am happy that this time the rule booklet was proofread and the proofreading didn't accidentally get thrown out in the process somewhere. While working as a Print Producer, I learned how important it is to see a printer proof before it runs. You never know when someone along the line will substitute an old obsolete version of the file and undo your work. This rule booklet seems to be free of obvious typos or image errors, and uses background colors that allow for legibility. Unfortunately it still has one card with an illustration by Matheis Catrein, the art director who committed the font crime of the Dominion logo. I always try as hard as I can to be charitable to a hard-working fellow artist on this topic, and I wish him well even though his acrylic style is not to my taste; but as a graphic designer and illustrator, the illegibility and typos bother me a lot in my favorite game.
Comments
none
Leave a Comment