The Jester and the Minstrel

[Scott]

The ideas just keep flowing. This time around it's a new meeple instead of new tiles. The minstrel is a single new meeple of neutral color who travels around the county of Carcassonne bringing entertainment to the people. I'm not sure how movement will work, but I'm thinking the minstrel gives a scoring bonus when he is located on a feature that has been completed.

1. Is the minstrel restricted to travelling on the road like a wagon, or does he walk freely?

2. How far can the minstrel travel in a single movement?

3. Does the minstrel move as part of the "Move the Wood" phase, thus preventing the player from moving any other wood?

4. What is the scoring bonus? Double points? Or should the minstrel have a different effect?

[Joff]

This is a similar idea to 'The Court Jester', that I was thinking about, so I will discard my idea, and let you run with 'The Minstrel'.

I wonder if 'The Minstrel' can be combined with the Fair tiles from Catapult?

[Scott]

Could do a dragon-style six-tile movement triggered by a fair tile.

[Scott]

The more I look at the fair picture, the more I'm convinced it should be connected with some sort of jester. A minstrel is a totally different concept; they usually travel solo. I think you should develop the Court Jester idea and my Minstrel idea will be something different.

Or we could develop it as a combined variant. Maybe they have opposite effects? One gives scoring bonus, the other a scoring penalty?

Here's your jester meeple:

[Novelty]

What are those lumps on his head?  candy?

Well, a jester only serves in a court of some sort and perhaps a circus or a fair.  A minstrel sings nearly everywhere!  Perhaps you could come up with 2 different meeple ideas...

[Joff]

Or we could develop it as a combined variant. Maybe they have opposite effects? One gives scoring bonus, the other a scoring penalty?

A combined variant might be interseting. The Minstrel as a bonus, the Jester as a penalty? hmmmm. I do like that

[Scott]

What are those lumps on his head?  candy?

LOL, supposed to be a jester hat. There are no jester-shaped meeples, so I had to cheat in my graphics program. There is no real physical jester meeple.

[Joff]

If you get hold of meeples from 'Carcassonne - The Discovery', they look like they are wearing hats. Could well be a jesters hat.



These might make for a meeple addition per player.

Edit: Perhaps a Jester is deployed to a city, a Minstrel deployed to a road. Minstrels were travelling singers/musicians. Jester's served in the king's court (or perhaps in Carc's case, the Mayor's court)

These would both (Jester and Minstrel) be logically coupled with the Fair tiles. Pity we don't have a scan as yet

[Novelty]

I think you can use the fairs icon from the rules document available at RGG.  And there isn't a grey version of those meeples

[Scott]

With Archery Tournament nearing completion, it's time to get going on this.

As usual, I did some reading on Wikipedia about minstrels and jesters. Turns out they are more closely related than I would have guessed. When the minstrels' guild was formed, those who refused to join were forced to stop being minstrels, and many became court jesters.

Joff's idea of restricting the jester to cities and the minstrel to roads was interesting, but from what I've read, minstrels not only spent time in courts, but often were retained by the noble for a while. They basically went where the money was. I didn't read anything like this for jesters, so I want to keep at least half the idea.

Placement of the fair tile will trigger movement of both the minstrel and the jester. The minstrel moves (freely) 6 tiles, similar to the dragon and with the same movement rules (must move to a new tile each time). The jester moves to the incomplete city nearest the fair tile. (You'll want to put that fair tile near an opponent's city.)

If the minstrel occupies a feature that is being completed and scored, he gives a +5 bonus.

If the jester occupies a city that is being completed and scored, he gives a -5 penalty. If the city is worth less than 5 points, the city is worth zero and the player does not lose any points already accumulated.

Any objections? I didn't get much feedback on my initial questions, so we have to start somewhere.

[Scott]

Minstrel Meeple:


Jester Meeple:


Is it a bad idea to go for something unachievable like this?

[Novelty]

I'm not sure I like the jester meeple... it just looks weird.

Edit: How about just a differently coloured meeple for the jester and the minstrel?  You could use pink or purple or orange or unpainted.  Or perhaps you could repaint the count or princess meeple instead?

[Joff]

Placement of the fair tile will trigger movement of both the minstrel and the jester. The minstrel moves (freely) 6 tiles, similar to the dragon and with the same movement rules (must move to a new tile each time). The jester moves to the incomplete city nearest the fair tile. (You'll want to put that fair tile near an opponent's city.)

I love the idea of meeple movement. I was looking at an idea that would use the fair tile to induce meeple movement. That is a good start.

I would echo Novelty. I think that it would be better to use two different types of meeples. Either differing colours (that are readily available) or perhaps one from Carc: The Discovery and another from Carc: The City.

[Scott]

I'm thinking the best would be to not include any illustrations of the meeples and just tell people to get two meeples that are different. Because in the end, each person will solve the "need new meeples" problem in their own way.

[Joff]

1. Is the minstrel restricted to travelling on the road like a wagon, or does he walk freely?

2. How far can the minstrel travel in a single movement?

3. Does the minstrel move as part of the "Move the Wood" phase, thus preventing the player from moving any other wood?

4. What is the scoring bonus? Double points? Or should the minstrel have a different effect?

How about a mechanic that allows a minstrel or jester to travel from one Fair to another Fair as a single movement? This fits the theme of a minstrel/jester travelling around entertaining people. They might also spend time within a city, entertaining the nobel.
Not sure how this would work in principle, but this was similar to how I arrived at Black Tower, believe it or not!
A jester (or minstrel) can be placed directly on a Fair, instead of 'moving the wood'. The presence of a minstrel of jester in the farm/road/city has some sort of effect on occupiers? It is similar to the Fairy movement (or the pig movement proposed in Hog Roast).
Maybe each player can have a Minstrel of their own colour?
I’m just throwing some ideas around.
I'm not sure about scoring... I can't see a reasonable way of 'scoring' the actual Fairs themselves, but I can see a Fair as the locations for Minstrel/Jester movement, but how to make them affect the game? Hmmmm.