Seaside
| Seaside | |
|---|---|
 | |
 | |
| Info | |
| Type | Expansion |
| Icon |
 |
| Cards | 300 |
|
262 (1st) / 272 (2nd) (26/27 sets) | |
|
26 (1st) / 27 (2nd) | |
Blank Card(s) |
12 (1st) / 1 (2nd) |
| Additional Material(s) | |
| |
| |
| Theme(s) |
The next turn (Duration cards) |
| Release | October 2009 (1st) / June 2022 (2nd) |
| Cover artist | Franz Vohwinkel (1st) / Julien Delval (2nd) |
| Official Rulebook | |
Seaside is the second expansion to Dominion by Donald X. Vaccarino , released in 2009 by publisher Rio Grande Games. The box originally contained 26 sets of Kingdom cards, 3 types of player mats, a set of Coin tokens, and a set of Embargo tokens. The main gameplay theme of Seaside is cards whose abilities affect future turns—whether by being Duration cards, interacting with the top of the deck, or otherwise.
Seaside (Second Edition) was released in June 2022. 8 first-edition Kingdom card piles (and 11 blank cards) were replaced with 9 new ones. The new cards are also available in an update pack provided to allow existing Seaside sets to be updated to the second-edition form.
Contents
Kingdom cards, second edition
Cards with an asterisk (*) were added in the second edition.
: Haven, Lighthouse, Native Village
: Astrolabe*, Fishing Village, Lookout, Monkey*, Sea Chart*, Smugglers, Warehouse
: Blockade*, Caravan, Cutpurse, Island, Sailor*, Salvager, Tide Pools*, Treasure Map
: Bazaar, Corsair*, Merchant Ship, Outpost, Pirate*, Sea Witch*, Tactician, Treasury, Wharf
Removed first-edition Kingdom cards
These cards were included in the first edition, and removed from the second edition.
- : Embargo, Pearl Diver
- : Ambassador
- : Navigator, Pirate Ship, Sea Hag
- : Explorer, Ghost Ship
Additional materials
Mats
- 6 Island mats
- 6 Native Village mats
- 6 Pirate Ship mats (only in first edition)
Tokens
- 15 (later 10) Embargo tokens (only in first edition)
- 25 Coin tokens (only in first edition)
Additional first- and second-edition rules
Seaside introduces Duration cards.
- Duration cards are orange, and have abilities that affect future turns.
- Duration cards are not discarded in Clean-up if they have something left to do [on a future turn]; they stay in play until the Clean-up of the last turn that they do something.
- Additionally, if a Duration card is played extra times by a card such as [Throne Room, Scepter, Mastermind, Specialist, Flagship, or Daimyo], that card also stays in play until the Duration card is discarded, to track the fact that the Duration card was played extra times.
- Keep track of whether or not a Duration card was played on the current turn, such as by putting your cards into two lines[, or by tilting Duration cards when they do something at the start of a turn].
Examples:
- You play a Fishing Village, getting +2 Actions and +
. Since it also does something next turn, you do not discard it from play in Clean-up. At the start of your next turn, you get +1 Action and +. Fishing Village is now done, but stays in play through that turn, and is discarded in Clean-up. - At the start of your turn, you have a Wharf in play from last turn. You get +2 Cards and +1 Buy. Then this turn you play a second Wharf, getting +2 Cards and +1 Buy. In Clean-up you discard the Wharf from last turn, but not the Wharf from this turn.
- You play Throne Room on a Merchant Ship. You get + and another +, for + total. In Clean-up both the Throne Room and Merchant Ship stay in play. At the start of your next turn you get another +; in that turn's Clean-up you discard the Throne Room and Merchant Ship.
- You play Tactician with no cards left in your hand. Since Tactician only does something on the next turn if you had at least one card, Tactician has nothing left to do, so you discard it in Clean-up.
Flavor text
Mechanics
Cards gallery
Kingdom cards
Sort by Name
Removed cards
Sort by Name
Impact
Seaside is one of the most universally well-liked Dominion expansions, and a frequent answer to the "What should be the first expansion I buy?" question. This may be because Duration cards provide a noticeably different gameplay experience than anything that's available in the Base set or Intrigue, while still having effects that are relatively straightforward and easy to understand. When Donald X. decided to start reusing mechanics from past expansions in designing Adventures, Duration was the principal mechanic he chose to revisit; since then, each new expansion after Adventures has included at least two Duration cards.
Seaside was often perceived to be a "power creep" expansion; certainly it contains several cards that are very strong for their cost in comparison to the average card in Intrigue or base Dominion. Lighthouse provides some of the best protection from Attacks available in Dominion; and Fishing Village, Caravan, Tactician, and Wharf have very strong next-turn effects that can allow an engine to function with extremely high reliability. Fishing Village and Wharf are often described as the most powerful village card and the most powerful non-Attack card, respectively. The first edition of Seaside contained three strong Attacks—Ambassador, Sea Hag, and Ghost Ship—to the point that Donald X. removed them from the second edition of Seaside on the grounds that they made the game too miserable.
Seaside has no cards costing 
, and more cards costing than any other expansion. This is a deliberate move on Donald X.'s part to compensate for the range of costs in the Prosperity, which has no cards and many cards costing or more.
Theme
Game designer Donald X. offered some insight into some themes of the set here.
- 8 Duration: Haven, Lighthouse, Fishing Village, Caravan, Merchant Ship, Outpost, Tactician, Wharf
- 9 top of deck: Native Village, Pearl Diver, Lookout, Navigator, Pirate Ship, Sea Hag, Treasure Map, Ghost Ship, Treasury
- 3 other-turn: Embargo, Smugglers, Island
- 6 off-theme: Ambassador, Warehouse, Cutpurse, Salvager, Explorer, Bazaar
Alternative versions
-
First Polish version (by GFP) -
Polish Second Edition (by IUVI Games)
Trivia
Seaside 1E is unique among Dominion expansions in that every Kingdom card is an Action card; it has no Treasures and its only Victory cards are also Actions. It is also the first expansion to introduce a new card type and card color.
Official releases in other languages
- Chinese: 海國圖志 (pron. hǎi guó tú zhì, lit. Illustrated Treatise on the Maritime Kingdoms, a historical Chinese atlas of island nations)
- Czech: Pobřeží (lit. coast)
- Dutch: Hijs de Zeilen (lit. hoist the sails)
- Finnish: Kaukaiset rannat (lit. distant beaches)
- French: Rivages (lit. seashores)
- German: Seaside
- Italian: Seaside
- Japanese: 海辺 (pron. umibe, lit. seashore)
- Korean: 정복자의 바다 (pron. jeongbogjaui bada, lit. sea of the conqueror)
- Polish: Przystań (lit. haven)
- Russian: Побережье (pron. pobyeryezh'ye, lit. coast)
- Spanish: Terramar (lit. earthsea)
Secret History (1E)
Originally the 2nd expansion had two themes. Both themes had so much potential that I broke the set up into two sets, expanding the themes. Seaside got the "next turn" theme. It may be a couple years before you'll get to see the expansion I made out of the other theme.
For much of its pre-development life, the set was 20 cards. It briefly visited 16 cards, when I tried that out for everything, but mostly it was 20. But going into development it was of course 25; I knew that Intrigue had ended up 25, so naturally this set would be 25 too. My expectation was that cards would be used for the playmats and counters, which is how it worked during development. But at the end of development, it turned out we'd be using playmats and counters, and that left some empty space. So the set went up to 26 cards.
Now some of the cards that didn't make it.
- There were the cards for that other theme the set once had. Those cards are still hoping to come out in that set, so so much for them. A few more cards started here but migrated to later sets that they fit better. None of them want to be spoiled here today.
- There was the attack I mentioned for Sea Hag, the card that turned into Smugglers, and the card that Treasury replaced.
- Black Market was originally from this set. Valerie thought it was too wacky, what with having to set up a deck of cards to buy for it, so it left. Then we needed a promo and Dale suggested Black Market for it and of course I jumped on that. Black Market had been very popular in the set, so it was great that it survived. It's true that it's cumbersome having to build the Black Market Deck for it though. Black Market tied in to the next turn theme by actually getting you cards from next game. Those of you who don't know about the promo, it was given away with an issue of Spielbox, and now BGG sells it somewhere. Just madly click on things and eventually it will show up.
- There was a now-and-later Throne Room variant. Play an Action, play it again next turn. It was both confusing and weak. What if you use it on a duration card? How long does it stay on the table? It could have said "non-duration," but that's pretty sad in a set with 8 duration cards. And did I mention it was weak? It left before development started.
- There was a "discard x cards, +
" card that was in this set for a bit. I had a +1 buy version, then a now-and-later version. I ended up doing that on Secret Chamber in Intrigue, and dropped the versions that were here.
- The victory card that Island replaced was an Action-Victory with "Trash a card from the supply costing $6 or less / Worth 1 
per 3 cards in the trash." I always thought it seemed cool and interesting, but in practice it wasn't much fun. If you went for it, other people would get in on it. It would do nothing some games, then dominate others, but never in a fun way. No-one was sad to see it go. There could still be a card someday that trashes supply cards, but in practice it's mostly a waste of time, with players sitting there trying to work out which card to trash in cases where it really doesn't matter (and so it's hard to decide).
- The one-shot that Lookout replaced was "trash this and your hand, gain a card costing up to ." It had started stronger but I had to weaken it. That version just looked horrible but was still strong. It was great to finally get rid of it. There could still be a one-shot Chapel someday, but "trash your hand" is not the way to go. It limits the card to the early game, usually just one copy, and then either you draw it with your other early purchase, ugh, or you don't, yeeha.
- There was a now-and-later attack. It was you draw two, they discard one, this turn and next turn. I had still not quite learned that you can't do "each other player discards a card" - it will eventually get played in multiples and just massacre turns. I ended up replacing this with Ghost Ship.
- There was an attack like "look at the top card of each player's deck (including yours), you may trash it or discard it." This dates back to when I was doing "trash the top card of each other player's deck" stuff. Those kinds of attacks proved to have problems, which I've discussed in previous Secret Histories, and modern variants jump through lots of hoops to avoid them. This card just left automatically when I came to my senses there.
And that's the way it happened.Retrospective on 1E (2012)
. Cards like that tend to dominate games, since people buy them turns 1-2 and start playing them fast, so it's bad to have two of them in one set, even though when they're in the same game the one defends against the other. I just don't want heavy-Seaside games to always have one of those cards. So either Ambassador or Sea Hag should be a more powerful card for . Ambassador looks more innocent so probably I would change Sea Hag.
Lookout is the dud of the set. The problem is, some people are terrified of trashing a good card with it. At the same time trashing bad cards looks less exciting to some players. And as a trasher it's not exceptional. So the overall package is a card that a lot of players don't want, but that some experienced players realize is okay but not special. I could instead have some other card more people liked.
Originally the set did not have tokens. Embargo put itself on a pile; Pirate Ship kept one treasure per attack and counted them; Pirate Ship and Native Village did have mats, but they were card-sized (when that changed I got to add Haven back in). If I had known the set would have counters, I would have tried to get more use out of them, just as I made two more token cards to go with Monument.
Outpost could be simpler. Ideally it would have you discard 2 at the start of your next turn, rather than having the wonky Clean-up-modifying effect it has. There was not enough time between when I realized that and when the card had to be finalized.
Again some people complain about various other cards but I am having none of it. Pirate Ship is weak but I don't think it should be stronger. I like Treasure Map as is. Fishing Village and Wharf are strong engine-enablers and well we are talking good times there. Pearl Diver and Navigator are not prized, but they look reasonable to me, and as I have said many times, if I made all cards better by making them maximally complex, the game would have no players. Explorer is fine, why do people even complain about Explorer. They can't all be the best ever.
Second Edition comments (2016)
token cards to it). As I said, it was going to be a while before Jay was actually interested in not needing Embargo tokens. Then, two of the biggest duds to replace, I couldn't. In the end it got a tweaked rulebook and fixed wordings/layout (including Pirate Ship being clear about Guilds), but no new cards. And nothing else has new cards on the way either.Physical materials
But, there was a concern - again not on my part - that Seaside would look too expensive at the price it would have to cost. Cards are typically the most expensive component of games, but are valued less by players than other components, and the expansions are heavy on cards. Seaside was going to be 200 cards smaller than Intrigue - which at the time was a stand-alone - but would only be about $5 cheaper. So, they put in extra components. And I mean, it sucks to have e.g. a pile of Embargo tokens, pieces of metal, that you do nothing else with.
Hinterlands ended up getting to go out as a 300-card expansion with no components, for $5 less, and that went fine. So years later when I got the chance, I cut components from Seaside 2E, and now there are only the two mats, and no tokens.
Secret History (2E)
My interest in the project grew slowly. Finally, while working on Allies, I asked Jay if we could do it, and he said yes. A big problem previously had been, there were real people depicted on two cards I wanted to replace (Navigator and Pearl Diver), and he hadn't even wanted to ask if they could just be depicted on new cards. But years had passed, and Jay didn't even remember having said that, and had no issues this time (they aren't depicted in Seaside 2E; we'll get to them eventually okay).
There was then the task of picking out which cards exactly to replace; I got lots of opinions and looked at data. Then I wanted more cards than before, and asked Jay if that was okay, and he said yes again. So Seaside lost 9 cards and gained 9 new ones.
If you already have the physical set, well it's like a new mini-expansion for Seaside. You can keep the replaced cards if you want; no-one's coming into your house and making you throw them away. Or you can replace them, the choice is yours. Online, the cards remain available on dominion.games (you have to specify that you want them though), and I am not sure if TGG will keep selling them or merely keep supporting them, for their version. They are supported though.
I usually have a section going on about outtakes. Seaside 2E though was worked on at the same time as both Allies and the fall expansion (fall expansion?). Ideas went back and forth (Sentinel at one point was going to replace Lookout). So most of these outtakes aren't really looking to be talked about yet. I guess I can mention that there was "+ per 2 cards in your hand." A couple Reactions tried triggering on players playing Gold or gaining Treasures. And there were those Mariners - the one-card cantrip Ghost Ship, and multiple cards that tried some version of "next turn, +something per Duration you have in play."
Other Comments
The whole point to Seaside 2E is to make the product better for the people who have not bought Seaside. For the people who have, well we're not making you buy Seaside 2E just to get the 9 new cards, we're selling them separately too. But you know. The whole concept is aimed at people who do not yet have Seaside. I would like my product to be better for those people. This seems extremely reasonable. And friendly even! I don't see how I'm possibly letting down the people who have it already. You can just ignore this and play with Sea Hag all you want. Or you can think of it as a 9-card expansion to Seaside and get that if it appeals to you.
No-one is telling anyone that they enjoyed the wrong thing or any such nonsense. Enjoy what you enjoy.
There have continued to be expansions because there has continued to be a lot of demand for new expansions. Man, I try to delay them, to get work done on other projects. Time spent on Dominion is time not spent on anything else. This time around, the pandemic pushed me into working on Dominion again. It was what I could get playtested with no game nights.
The whole point to rules changes and rewordings is to make the game better for the opposite of a niche; for the broad audience of not-serious-gamers. Serious gamers can just learn exotic rules and weird loopholes. For most players, it's better if I get rid of those things. For people who already have the cards, this is errata, but you can just play by the words on the cards in front of you, no-one is making you look up the current wordings.
Does the game "need" Seaside 2E? Man. I don't want to argue about what "need" means, but to me, it sure didn't "need" it. It's great to have it though. For me, "need" wasn't a factor; it sounded like a fun project and I did it. For sure it would have been more lucrative to have put the 9 new cards into a new expansion and continued selling Sea Hag etc. Would the world "need" that new expansion? No, of course not. But for sure some people would have gotten joy from it. Which is what it's all about in the end.
And, a point I personally should harp on: I have no respect for people who can't let other people have the fun they want to have. I do not stand in the way of people having the fun they want to have with Dominion cards, whether it's playing with Sea Hag or having weird house rules. And no-one should stand in the way of other people getting to not play with Sea Hag, that's fun too. I mean really.
These previews cannot be all "This card is not fun to certain people in certain circumstances, endless words to clarify that no absolute statements can ever be true or acceptable." "This is not fun" is a shorthand, and being members of human societies, we know the endless implicit stuff that's been omitted there. Man. There is super obviously no "no fun" card that someone doesn't adore, and man I even have statistics there, can point at how many people put whatever super-no-fun card on their liked list on dominion.games. Nothing is so bad that no-one likes it, and some of the most hated cards are the most adored. But none of that means that the previews should be unreadable. So there.
Recommended sets of 10
See Recommended Kingdoms/Seaside