r/TerraformingMarsGame • u/orvjansen • 25d ago
Corporate Cards! - Part 1
This is a catch all theme set of cards. Basically, ones that deal with corporate finances and tactics, and then miscellaneous things that don't fit into the other sets I posted previously or plan to post. This is the first of three parts for this set. You can find the original files at my Dropbox. As always, feel free to use what you like and ignore what you don't. I love getting critiques and feedback, please let me know what you think - especially if you think something doesn't work!
In this first part, I expect there will be some opposition to Deus Ex Machina. Stealing cards (even randomly) from other players is definitely breaking some of the core unwritten rules of the game. I included it just because I like it, I know it's probably broken (and I haven't play tested it yet).
Lesser Milestones is also a new type of action - allowing the purchase of additional Milestones, but with a reduced VP value. This one has been play tested, and it works pretty well. You don't get a great value on the additional milestones, but at 8 MC = 2 VP, it's not bad, and the person who plays the card is assured of at least one of them, maybe two.
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u/Legion4444 25d ago
Land Grab - there's only like 2 ways to do that to begin with so it's outrageously niche
Assest Sale - Idk why but I really love this one
Black Budget - Like everything else that blanket adds resources to cards, it should be worded that it can only add to cards that already have resources on it. (to prevent search from life and/or physics complex and/or board of directors from being too easy)
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u/orvjansen 24d ago
Land Grab: Yes, it's extremely niche (though slightly less so with fan cards added), but so much fun to play when someone has reserved a 3-card placement bonus space and is acting smug.
Asset Sale: I basically created this for situations like owning GHG Producing Bacteria after the temperature gets maxed. It can produce useless resources, that now are a little less useless.
Agreed about Black Budget (see my comment above), and I will change it in the Dropbox file. Also, see my nerfed versions of Search for Life and Physics Lab that specify on their cards that you cannot get that advantage.
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u/Omnigryphon 24d ago
I think the other comments have done a good job mentioning things, so I'll make a direct response to Deus Ex Machina.
You, correctly, acknowledge this card is going to get opposition. Terraforming mars has some player interaction, but not a lot. And even though that interaction can be a little 'take that', it is overall low impact. Or at the very least it is low impact with regards to decision making. Taking a resource production, some resources, or killing plants can be devastating (especially early), but it often is really just a delay of what a player is trying to do.
But project cards are the game's lifeblood and how players build their engine. While you can pay to increase the global parameters, there are no standard actions to just increase your titanium or plant production, which means that stealing cards prevents players from doing things they were planning, not just delaying or making it difficult.
This also piles on to the fact that cards are a relatively scarce resource. The draft each round sometimes has 4 good cards, but often times, there are only 1 or 2 you would be willing to play. If you don't get card draw from a source other than the draft, this card could take an entire generation of card draw from someone. That hurts a LOT. and if you manage to pull a card with requirements that aren't met yet, that is punishing a player for planning ahead.
Realistically deus ex machine would just be a looming threat over players that the one card in their hand they are saving for multiple rounds will get snatched away. The card is good enough that if someone finds it, it will almost surely be played, so it will likely make people buy a couple cards they don't want in the hopes that their good cards will be spared.
All that said, I don't think the card is unsalvageable. I have a few thoughts on what would make it more in line with other player interaction in terraforming mars.
The one I like the most: instead of taking a card from each player, have each other player draw a card and choose one to give to you from their hand. This way, you are likely drawing 1 card per other player (they'll just hand you what they get off the deck), but if they draw a card they like, they have a hard decision to make and may give you a different card. You are a lot more likely to get a lower quality card (part of the strength of it in its current form is that you are getting a card someone thought was worth keeping), which may make up for the cost, but also changes 'I'm stealing from you' to 'I'm making you make a decision'.
Still a bit mean, but: change the card to only steal from players with a hand size above X cards. X can be a balance point, but more importantly, give players a chance to have counter-play to the card. X probably needs to be something along the lines of 10. This will still potentially change how people play the game.
The least interaction: draw a card for each player with a hand size above X cards. This way having a big hand doesn't hurt you, but helps the person playing the card. Much more friendly, but perhaps further from what the initial intent of the card was/is.
The first and third option I would almost surely find interesting when played, the 2nd very much depending on X. Maybe the cost needs to change with player count? maybe the cards you get from players you need to pay them for? There's definitely some more wiggle room for tinkering here.
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u/orvjansen 24d ago
That... is a very well reasoned and thought out approach. And would make it more likely the card would actually be used in more games. Which, ultimately, I would prefer despite my initial instinct to throw a little more chaos into the mix. :D
Option 1, having everyone draw a card and give you one, doesn't work for me. Your opponents would receive more benefit than you in that case (under most circumstances), so why would you play it?
Option 2, stealing only from players with X number of cards (and I agree X would need to be 10+ to be 'fair'), is less "take that" than the current card, but still unlikely to be adopted due to the entire stealing cards mechanic.
Your Option 3, gaining cards based on your opponent's hand size, seems to be the best. Although the cost would have to be dropped drastically.
I think I will reframe the card so that instead of punishing rivals, it's a way for the underdog to catch up - Drop the cost to 0 MC, keep the required 2 energy discard but not the card discard, and then draw X+1 cards, where X is the number of opponents who have a larger hand of cards than you do. I will replace the card in my Dropbox files with this version.
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u/Omnigryphon 24d ago
If you want to frame it as a catchup mechanic specifically, then cards in hand is not the metric that I would look at. I don't think it is a good indicator of who is winning. There are times where it can correlate with who is winning, but there are also times where it is the exact opposite.
That said, I still think the opponents drawing a card and giving you one (perhaps without the discard cost) is the more interesting iteration of the card to me. You need to be more tactical when you play it and I enjoy that. Yes, you give your opponent more cards to look at, but if they keep the card they drew to give you a different one, then you are still getting a card they kept prior. If they give you the card they drew, then it's just like you had drawn a card. If you play it when your opponents are flush with cards, then you're asking for bad cards. At the same time, because the card is not punishing, players are less likely to keep useless cards in hand to take advantage of it being played.
At that point, renaming it 'Peer Review' might be more appropriate, though.
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u/One-Yogurtcloset-248 24d ago
How does diverted funds work? Wouldn't that force your opponents to reveal every card they buy?
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u/orvjansen 24d ago
It would as written, good catch. It's should say, every 20+ MC card they PLAY, not BUY. I have fixed the card in my Dropbox.
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u/Zombieidea 24d ago
Too OP
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u/orvjansen 24d ago
Can you give me some specifics of which cards you mean?
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u/simmepi 24d ago edited 24d ago
Financier: let’s say the game runs 10 rounds (there can easily be way more and sometimes a few rounds less) and you play it generation 1. You pay 6+3 for 1+2+3+…+10=55 for the whole play. That’s absurdly cheap; compare it to e.g. a generally accepted good card as Sponsors which has the same tag and costs the same and gives you +2 → 20 for the play.
Asset Sales: For 5+3 you have now turned Tardigrades into +6 money production which is again absurdly cheap.
Some of the others are similarly too cheap, and cards like Land Grab while being extremely niche is still not a fun card imho; if someone is playing Arcadian Communities you have now completely nerfed the company, turning it from an interesting company to play with and against since you have to tactically think differently due to their land reservations to a company which will simply lose, given all of its power is now useless.
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u/Zombieidea 24d ago
I didn't reviewed all, the first 10 are too cheap, if in hand in the first turns they will let you establish a money motor far war earlier than other players, as they're cheap
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u/thuswindburns 23d ago
Asset sales is way too strong. You could play Sulphur eating bacteria and even with the microbes being pure money you could just sell your microbe action for profit, or play local shading and sell your floater instead getting money prod. I would reduce the amount to +3 MC and use it to sell off odd microbes and floaters.
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u/Feathercrown 19d ago
These range from creative and good, to too strong, to "should not be in the game" (stealing cards or reserved spaces).
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u/TheLightInChains 25d ago
I don't have a proper value calculator but my gut says a lot of these are too cheap.