Drought and Pestilence

[Novelty]

Original idea by Jabberwocky:

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.

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).

This expansion will have the 2 tiles listed above, and 3 more dry lakes and one plague + dry lake.  Total tiles in set = 6.

The dry lake will be replaced by a cattle skull and a patch of brown dried up mud.

Here's the rat plague tile:

[CKorfmann]

I really like your ideas and this tile looks pretty good.  I'm wondering if maybe the colors on the rat tiles could maybe be a little paler so they could be more easily differentiated.  It would probably be fine as is though. 

I'm also curious if 6 tiles might be a little too many.  In the games I've played, I don't know if there have been more than four farms large enough to fight over, so this could be pretty costly.  I would think a good guage would be the number of pig farms in play.  My thought is that four tiles (two of each) might be plenty.  But again, six wouldn't be a bad thing and you could always leave a few out if you wanted.

[metoth]

Well, I guess the tower and dragon could counter the pestilence, and the pig farms could counter the dry lake, so it doesn't matter so much how many of each tile there are.  However, I don't think it has to be that way.

I don't think I'd want to capture a knight whose under quarantine with a tower.  He'll get the other prisoners sick.  And dragons probably smell illness and stay away.  He's probably going to get a sick tummy from eating plague-ridden knights.

Also, if the dry lakes affect how much food is grown, the pigs aren't going to be as healthy either, so that should devalue the pig farm in my mind.

Marie

[Novelty]

I'm wondering if maybe the colors on the rat tiles could maybe be a little paler so they could be more easily differentiated.

I was thinking of adding a skull and crossbones on a bottle (poison!) icon to the tile to differentiate it, but that would mean I'll have to draw it.  Urgh. 

I'm also curious if 6 tiles might be a little too many.

It probably is.  Those who only want 2 tiles can just make 2 tiles from the sheet.  Those who want all 6 can make all 6.  Just think of the other 4 as "extras".

However, I don't think it has to be that way.

The thing about german games is that it doesn't reward the current leader.  On the contrary, it punishes the leader and allows those who are behind to catch up.  Hence nerfs like these tiles need some way of "get out of jail" or it will severely unbalance the game somewhat and rewards the leader greatly with no chance for those lagging behind to catch up.

Carcassonne is a game about luck in tile-drawing and strategy in tile-laying and meeple-deployment.  A good "get out of jail" would be to use all of those elements to remain true to the game.  Hence, using the tower or dragon (existing game features) to free ones knight from a besieged city seems like a good idea to me game-wise, but again, those actions are up to the players - do they want to free their plague-infested knight with a tower piece or do they want to do something else?  It opens up avenues and strategies where before there were none.  Also, keeping the dragon and tower rules intact without any exceptions makes it easy to remember and easy to play with and keeps things simple - and simplicity is another hallmark of a german game.

Likewise, with the pig farm.  Ensuring the rules for it stays the same with no exceptions makes things simple.

Of course, different players should be free to play with their own version of the house-rules if they wish, but some of the principles behind the expansions that we are striving for here at CarcCentral are to:
1. keep things in theme
2. keep it simple
3. keep it balanced
4. increase the strategy available
5. increase the fun level of the game

[CKorfmann]

I was thinking of adding a skull and crossbones on a bottle (poison!) icon to the tile to differentiate it, but that would mean I'll have to draw it.  Urgh.

But you're so good at it!    The icon is a good idea, but would a watermark make it any easier?

Of course, different players should be free to play with their own version of the house-rules if they wish, but some of the principles behind the expansions that we are striving for here at CarcCentral are to:
1. keep things in theme
2. keep it simple
3. keep it balanced
4. increase the strategy available
5. increase the fun level of the game

Here, here!  (or is is hear hear!)

[Novelty]

I was thinking of adding a skull and crossbones on a bottle (poison!) icon to the tile to differentiate it, but that would mean I'll have to draw it.  Urgh.

But you're so good at it!    The icon is a good idea, but would a watermark make it any easier?

Would a watermark of a skull and crossbones be better?  I'm not sure.  The other alternative would be to use the black and white tower pieces from the castle (or is that the city?) to mark the city that is plagued (as a variant).  I think that would be a better idea instead of icons or watermarks.

Although a skull and crossbones watermark would be good to add.  I'll add that when I draw a suitable skull and crossbones

Edit: Here's the icon and watermark.  Wasn't too difficult since all I have to do was steal the image from An Apple A Day.

[CKorfmann]

That's perfect.  Looks good to me.

[Novelty]

How's this for the drought tile and the icon?

[CKorfmann]

Well, it's not bad, but I think it's a little too yellow.  My first impression was of one of the original wheatfield tiles.  And, it looks like it belongs to the X-men...   

How about if you make it a little browner in color?  I really liked the cow skull idea, but that's easy for me to say since I'm not the one drawing it.

[Scott]

I think the blue circle with red x is not self-explanatory enough.

[Novelty]

I think the blue circle with red x is not self-explanatory enough.

It's not a blue circle, it's a picture of water with waves.  It's a pity that it's lost at that size and resolution.

I really liked the cow skull idea, but that's easy for me to say since I'm not the one drawing it.

If you squint really hard, you can just about make out the cow skull in the image there.  Thanks to the scale of the carc tiles, the cow skull is really small...

Anyways, here's a second try, with it browner, and the water changed to a drop of water.

[CKorfmann]

I think that's better.  I definitely couldn't tell it was water before.  Browner is better too.  I wonder if you could isolate the cow skull and make it bigger.  I don't think scale is too important in this instance, but that's just me.  Perhaps you could use a larger skull instead of the water icon. 

[meepleater]

I don't suppose a cactus would work well... maybe make the cross on the drop thicker (I liked the dragon hunter icon- maybe make it a bit like that? The current icon doesn't seem carcassonne-ish...)

[CKorfmann]

I don't suppose a cactus would work well... maybe make the cross on the drop thicker (I liked the dragon hunter icon- maybe make it a bit like that? The current icon doesn't seem carcassonne-ish...)

Now that you mention it, I see what you mean.  The icon could probably be done away with altogether if it had a cactus and a bigger cow skull. 

[Novelty]

I don't suppose a cactus would work well...

Please do remember that this is France and not Mexico.  I don't think there are deserts in France, and a cactus will be out of place.  Also, it's a drought, not a desert, so there really shouldn't be a cactus.

I wonder if you could isolate the cow skull and make it bigger.

The thing about carcassonne features is that they are scaled correctly.  Make it bigger and someone might get ideas of putting meeples on it!  Also, with the icon there, the skull is a bit superfluous.

maybe make the cross on the drop thicker

I'm concerned that making the cross thicker will obstruct the water drop so much that you can't tell it's a water drop.  Also, Dragon Hunter is fan-made, so I'm not sure how that can be Carcassonne-ish

Anyways here are the tiles.  I think they are good enough.