Troubadours

[Ailurus]

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How about a city with music, with troubadours?

In the 11th century the troubadours rose in southern France, and played their music in the cities. I was thinking of an expansion consisting of 12 tiles, each with a different medieval musical instrument on it:

Dulcimer
Vielle
Tambourine
Drum
Harp
Hurdy Gurdy
Bagpipes
Portative Organ
Psaltery
Lute
Shawm
Cornett

A tile would look something like this (Lute Tile):



I'm not sure yet whether the tiles with musical instruments just increase the value of a finished city. Another idea is to deploy a follower on the instrument-circle as Troubadour, and let him travel to adjacent cities with an unoccupied instrument circle.

[CKorfmann]

This idea sounds really interesting.  Have you seen The Jester and the Minstrel expansion?  It doesn't have any tiles like you've described, but the Minstrel has a positive effect on the followers around it while that Jester has a negative effect.  They are designed by Joff and Scott as an alternate use with the Catapult tiles. 

[Ailurus]

I just looked it up, it's a nice expansion and indeed a bit similar to my idea.

I had another idea about moving the troubadour; when you pick one of the tiles with an instrument on it you may deploy a follower, now called a troubadour, on it. When the city containing the troubadour is finished, the troubadour may remain on that tile for a maximum of 3 turns + the number of turns it takes for the owner of the troubadour to be his turn (the citizens get bored of the artist ).
He then may move his troubadour to another city (but not one where he's already been) with a non-occupied music-tile in it (doesn't matter whether it's already finished or not), and deploy it there.

The troubadour gets 1 point per turn that it's in an unfinished city, 2 points if the city is finished.

The problem with this is that you would have to remember quite a few things, I don't feel entirely right about it.

[CKorfmann]

Yeah, I can see where you might run into a problem with trying to remember all that stuff.  It's hard enough for me to remember to give myself a point for the fairy every time! 

[Gwommy]

If you were to use the tile to increase the points of a finished city, I'd say to make it similar to the way the mayors and pennants work.  If there's one instrument in the city, then that's 1 extra point.  If there's two, then both instruments are worth 2 points for a total of 4 extra points, 3 instruments would give an extra 9 points, etc.  So the bigger the band you make, the more extra points you get.  Perhaps have some instruments on the roads as traveling musicians as well. 

[CKorfmann]

That's an interesting idea.  I kind of like that.  I think the total instrument tiles should be limited though so they don't all end up in one city.

[Gwommy]

Exactly.   So if he's planning on making 12 tiles and then have 6 instruments in the cities and 6 on the roads, then the max would be 36pts.  But then again, what's the probability of 1 player getting all 6 for either one?

[CKorfmann]

I was thinking of an expansion consisting of 12 tiles, each with a different medieval musical instrument on it: Dulcimer, Vielle, Tambourine, Drum, Harp, Hurdy Gurdy, Bagpipes, Portative Organ, Psaltery, Lute, Shawm, Cornett

I've looked up some other instruments that might be good possibilities.  Some of them might also be easier to draw! 
Rebec
Cittern
Sackbut
Viol
Lyre

[Gwommy]

A zurna is fun!  It's small, loud and annoying!

[Ailurus]

Nice the idea got picked up Nice instruments Chris, and neat idea Gwommy about the scoring. I am certainly not blissed with drawing skills, so if somebody could try to draw some tiny instruments and add them to tiles?

I thought about this expansion again, maybe this is a good use of the troubadour tiles (entirely revisited, no need to read my previous ideas):

When placing a troubadour tile (i.e. a city with a instrument icon on it), a player can either deploy a follower as a normal "knight" (somewhere on the city but NOT on the instrument icon), or as a "troubadour" (Yep, on the icon). A troubadour has special properties:

He cannot stay longer than 3 turns in the same city, because the citizens get bored if the same troubadour stays for too long. The player can decide to move the troubadour to another, unoccupied troubadour-tile (in an OTHER city). This provides a new way of getting a majority in a city. He can also decide to move the troubadour back to his stock - it becomes a normal follower again.
He has this choice EVERY turn, but after 3 turns the troubadour MUST move.
When a city with one or more troubadours in it is finished, it results in an extra points (Gwommy's system) for the player who finishes the city. Instead of taking the troubadour(s) back into your stock, they MAY be moved to unoccupied troubadour tiles.

A normal follower, big follower and Mayor can be deployed as a troubadour.

Finally, a system is needed to keep track of the number of turns the troubadour is in a city. I thought of simple round tokens (the size of the instrument icons) with a note on it. Every turn the troubadour stays in the city, a token is placed under the troubadour. This means that the troubadour MUST move when it has two tokens under it when you begin your turn.

Unlike my first proposal, it is possible for a troubadour to visit (incomplete) cities where he has already been.

Example:
Turn 1 of player A: He places a "big follower" Troubadour in city X.
Turn 2 of player A: The Troubadour stays in city X, he places a "Note token" under the Troubadour.
Turn 3 of player A: He decides (not yet obligatory) to move his Troubadour to city Y that has an unoccupied instrument icon in it. Currently he doesn't have any knights in this city, but after he moves the Troubadour, there is a tie with player B who has two followers in the city. When he moves the Troubadour to city Y, he removes the "Note token" that lay under the Troubadour in city X (think of it as a "reset").
Turn * of player B: She finishes city Y with the troubadour in it. Player A and B both get points, but B gets the Troubadour bonus points. Player A may now decide whether the Troubadour returns to his stock, or travels to an other city with an unoccupied instrument icon. He decides to move his Troubadour back to city X.
Turn 4 of player A: Troubadour stays, he adds a "Note token" under the Troubadour.
Turn 5 of player A: Troubadour stays, he adds a "Note token" under the Troubadour.
Turn 6 of player A: There are two "Note tokens" under the Troubadour, so it MUST move. It could travel to another city, but say there isn't one with an unoccupied icon at the moment, the Troubadour has to return to his stock.

[Edit]
Oh, I completely overlooked Gwommy's suggestion for Troubadours on the road. This is an excellent addition, same rules apply. "Road Troubadours" are allowed to visit cities and vice versa.

[Edit 2]
Haha, I just keep editing. Another idea, when the Troubadour is in a city and wants to move, he should go to a Road. When he is on a road, he should go to a city. Not sure whether this is a good idea, let me know

[Ailurus]

A zurna is fun!  It's small, loud and annoying!

Sounds like a mediaeval Vuvuzela

...Anyway, this week I'll work somewhat on this expansion and post the results.

[loganmann1]

Ailurus are you still around?  Is something in the works for rule sheets or graphics for this.  This is one of my favorite ideas in the making right now.

[Gwommy]

I haven't done anything with this since the site was down for that extended period of time. And now that I'm going to back to school, I'm not sure if how well I'm going to be able to pick up momentum to start working on Carcassonne projects again. It still seems pretty quiet here even though the forums have been back up for a while now.

[loganmann1]

EDIT: Removed an idea that really changes this from where it was going and might become something separate on its own.

[CKorfmann]

Nudge...