Nocturne

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Nocturne
Info
Type Extra-large Expansion
Icon
Cards 500
332 (33 sets)
33
Other Card(s)
  • 42 Heirlooms (6 of each: Cursed Gold, Haunted Mirror, Pasture, Lucky Coin, Goat, Magic Lamp, Pouch)
  • 10 Bats
  • 12 Wishes
  • 3 Zombies
  • 12 Will-o'-Wisps
  • 13 Imps
  • 6 Ghosts
  • 12 Boons
  • 12 Hexes
  • 1 Lost in the Woods
  • 6 Deluded/Envious
  • 6 Miserable/Twice Miserable
Theme(s)
Release November 16, 2017
Cover artist Garret DeChellis
Official Rulebook PDF

Nocturne is the eleventh expansion to Dominion, released in November 2017. The box contains 33 sets of Kingdom cards. It introduces Night cards, which are played after your Buy phase; Heirlooms, which replace your starting Coppers; and Fate and Doom cards, which give out Boons and Hexes, respectively.

Contents

Kingdom cards

Heirlooms

6 copies of each:

Non-Supply and other cards

Boons

12 cards, 1 of each:    

Hexes

12 cards, 1 of each:    

States

Additional rules

  • Nocturne adds Night cards and the Night phase. In games using Night cards, the Night phase happens after the Buy phase - it goes, Action, Buy, Night, Clean-up. In your Night phase, you can play any number of Night cards.

  • Nocturne has cards with a yellow banner saying "Heirloom" and naming a card. In games using a card with that banner, each player replaces a starting Copper with the named card. See Preparation.

  • Nocturne has Fate cards and Boons. Fate cards can somehow give players Boons; all the Fate type means is that the Boons are shuffled at the start of the game. Boons are a face-down deck of cards that are revealed as needed. The phrase "receive a Boon" means, turn over the top Boon, and follow the instructions on it. If the Boons deck is empty, first shuffle the discarded Boons to reform the deck; you may also do this any time all Boons are in their discard pile. Received Boons normally go to the Boons discard pile, but three (The Field's Gift, The Forest's Gift, and The River's Gift) go in front of a player until that turn's Clean-up.

  • Nocturne also has Doom cards and Hexes. Doom cards can somehow give players Hexes; all the Doom type means is that the Hexes are shuffled at the start of the game. Hexes are a face-down deck of cards that are revealed as needed. The phrase "receive a Hex" means, turn over the top Hex, and follow the instructions on it. "Each other player receives the next Hex" means, turn over just one Hex, and the other players all follow the instructions on that same Hex. If all Hexes have been used, shuffle the discards to reform the deck; do this whenever the deck is empty. Received Hexes always go to the Hexes discard pile.

  • Three Hexes and one Kingdom card give players a State; this is a card that goes in front of a player and applies a rule. Deluded and Envious affect a single turn, and then are returned; Miserable and Twice Miserable affect scoring at the end of the game; Lost in the Woods affects one player's turns until another player takes it. Deluded and Envious are on the same card; have the relevant side face-up. Similarly Miserable and Twice Miserable are on the same card. A State only applies while a player has it.

  • Boons, Hexes, and States are never in a player's deck; like Events and Landmarks (from Adventures and Empires), they are physically cards but are not "cards" in game terms. They are thus never "cards in play," receiving Boons and Hexes or taking a State is not "gaining a card," and so on.

  • Nocturne has Duration cards, which were introduced in Dominion: Seaside.
  • 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 or Flagship], 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 (older cards and this turn's cards).

  • Nocturne has three cards that tell a player to "exchange" a card for another card. The card being exchanged is returned to its Supply pile, or non-Supply pile, and the card being exchanged for is taken and put into the player's discard pile. This does not count as gaining a card. The exchange only happens if both cards can be exchanged; if the pile is empty, the cards are not exchanged.

Preparation

  • If any Kingdom cards being used have a yellow banner indicating an Heirloom, players start the game with that Heirloom replacing what would normally be a Copper. For example in a game with Pixie and Tracker, players start with 3 Estates, 5 Coppers, a Goat, and a Pouch. The unused Coppers go in the Copper pile.

  • If any Kingdom cards being used have the Fate type, shuffle the Boons and put them near the Supply, and put the Will-o'-Wisp pile near the Supply also. If any have the Doom type, shuffle the Hexes and put them near the Supply, and put Deluded/Envious and Miserable/Twice Miserable near the Supply also.

  • If Druid is being used, deal three Boon cards face up for use with it. If Necromancer is being used, put the three Zombies into the trash. If Fool is being used, get Lost in the Woods and have it handy. If Vampire is being used, put the Bat pile near the Supply. If Leprechaun or Secret Cave is being used, put the Wish pile near the Supply. If Devil's Workshop or Tormentor are being used, put the Imp pile near the Supply; if Cemetery is being used, put the Ghost pile near the Supply; and if Exorcist is being used, put all three Spirit piles - Will-o'-Wisp, Imp, and Ghost - near the Supply.

Flavor text

You've always been a night person; lately you've even considered becoming a vampire. There are a lot of advantages: you don't age; you don't have to see yourself in mirrors anymore; if someone asks you to do something, you can just turn into a bat, and then say, sorry, I'm a bat. There are probably some downsides though. You always think of the statue in the town square, that came to life, and now works as the tavern barmaid. The pedestal came to life too, so she has to hop around. The village blacksmith turns into a wolf whenever there's a full moon; when there's a crescent moon, he turns into a chihuahua. That's how this stuff goes sometimes. Still, when you breathe in the night air, you feel ready for anything.
—Donald X. Vaccarino, Rio Grande Games

Cards gallery

Kingdom cards

Sort by Name


Heirlooms

Sort by Name


Non-Supply and other cards

Sort by Name


Boons

Sort by Name


Hexes

Sort by Name


States

Sort by Name


Impact

Like Adventures and Empires before it, Nocturne introduced more unique card-shaped things than any previous set. It is the first set to introduce a new basic Kingdom card type (Night), the first to introduce a new turn phase, and the second to add cards that replace cards in your starting deck, after Dark Ages' Shelters. Because so many of the cards rely on non-Supply cards or other additional elements (several of which require their own additional elements, such as the Boons requiring the Will-o'-Wisp pile), the set was perceived by some to be more fiddly than previous sets; this is more pronounced in the physical version (as opposed to online), where all the extra piles mean longer setup times and more space taken up on the table. Despite this, the actual gameplay of the set was still well-received, though some players criticized the high degree of randomness introduced by the Boons and Hexes.

Nocturne also added card effects and properties heretofore unseen: cards that are always gained to your hand, cards that start the game in the trash, a Duration that stays out for an arbitrary amount of turns (but not permanently), a full Kingdom pile of a card with four types, "attacks" that affect other players' Buy phases, and an "attack" that lowers a player's score without using Curses. It is also the set with the highest proportion of non-Action Kingdom cards, and introduced a number of new types, and thus a number of new type combinations (but none with only previously seen types).

Donald X.'s goal in designing Nocturne was to aim to satisfy the "typical" Dominion player, rather than the expert, so Nocturne cards lend themselves less to subtle and complex strategic decks than do cards from the previous expansion, Empires. Several of the cards were designed so as to have amusing thematic abilities, like the Vampire that turns into a Bat or the Leprechaun that gives you a Wish if you can catch him at the end of the rainbow. However, many Nocturne cards ended up having complex mechanics or depended on other cards to be understood; therefore for the next expansion, Renaissance, Donald aimed for more straightforward cards.

Night

The addition of the Night phase (and Night cards) adds a new level of strategy to the game. It provides more ways to get around the "1 Action per turn" rule, as Night cards are, by their nature, non-terminal, and several Night cards require players to put more thought into their Buy phase, and what cards they want to have in play when their Night phase rolls around. It also alters the power level of several cards that call out specific types, as none of them were created with the eventual addition of Night cards in mind.

Heirlooms

While Shelters generally have a relatively minor impact, Heirlooms can make a game wildly different. Players must think carefully about playing a Lucky Coin or Cursed Gold, and Pouch and Goat greatly improve starting decks. Haunted Mirror and Magic Lamp also give the player a little side quest to complete, the reward for which can be quite significant.

Boons and Hexes

The random nature of the Boon and Hex piles means that Fate and Doom cards can often swing from being laughably weak to being quite powerful. While your Bard might give you a crucial Flame's Gift, your opponent might get The Moon's Gift when they have an empty discard pile. And while Famine can be easy enough to shrug off, getting hit by Delusion or Envy can cost you the game. This can make Fate and Doom cards frustrating to play with sometimes, though the randomness can be tempered somewhat by simply getting lots of them. When you're playing five Werewolves a turn, the fact that the Hexes have a varying power level starts to not matter as much, as you're almost guaranteed to hand out at least one strong Hex.

Engines

Nocturne has a few engine-friendly cards:

A couple Boons are nice with engines:

Big Money

Nocturne also has big money enablers:

Theme

Nocturne is, rather obliquely, a spiritual sequel to Dark Ages, with extra non-Supply cards (including ones to replace starting cards), lots of Attack cards (including a new way to Attack), and even a card that cares about the trash.

Alternative versions

Trivia

Official box art.

Nocturne is the first set with a non-plural name since Cornucopia. It is also the set that introduces the most new card types. It is also the only set to have a coloured icon.

In other languages

  • Dutch: Nocturne
  • German: Nocturne
  • Japanese: 夜想曲 (pron.yasōkyoku)
  • Polish: Pieśń nocy
  • Russian: Ноктюрн (pron. noktyurn)

Flavor text work

In 2022 Donald X. revealed some outtakes from Nocturne's flavor text paragraph:

- While walking in the woods you meet a little man, clothed all in green-o. It's a new shade of green that's come into fashion lately. He offers you three wishes if you can guess how many wishes he'll give you. "Are you some kind of mischief-making fairy?" you ask. "Your face is some kind of mischief-making fairy," he says, "and yes, also me." You guess three. He tells you it's zero. "Damn, that was my next guess." As punishment, he decides to turn you into a frog. "And the frog will be turned into me?" you ask. "No, it's a new frog, not an existing one. Man this is why I work my mischief." "Ribbit," you say. You aren't a frog yet, you're just practicing. Then he turns you into a frog. Unfortunately for him, you're a poisonous frog.

- your wife says the baby is a changeling. it seems okay to you though; it doesn't cry much, and last night it repaired your shoes

- At the masquerade, you were dancing with a mysterious woman, when she bit you. You're not sure if she was a vampire or a leprechaun; to be safe, you avoid the sunlight and drink plenty of beer. So far no-one has noticed.

- After the sun sets, it's a different world. A world devoid of color, because black technically isn't a color. It's a smart-alecky world.

- The night. The spookiest time of the day. When all the sundials stop working, and you need to use an hourglass instead, and if you forget to turn it then you just have no idea what time it is.
—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Secret History of Dominion: Allies

Teaser

A Sporcle quiz was posted by LastFootnote as a teaser the Friday before previews for Nocturne were posted. The quiz had all 33 Kingdom cards from the set for players to try to guess.

Secret History

While working on Empires, I tried out Boons. They were in the set for a while, but there was only so much space in the set, and something had to go. Boons were a nice chunk to remove and out they went. In July 2015, I put them in a file for some hypothetical future expansion, referred to as Boonies. A couple other cards went with them.

In August 2015 I invited Bryan L. Doughty to help playtest Dominion: Empires and the 2nd editions. That all worked out.

In August 2016, Bryan had some time on his hands, and decided to get in some games with the cards in the Boons file. And he posted a report on those games and what he thought of the cards.

Well if someone was going to be playing them, maybe I could work on them a little, make sure the testing was accomplishing something. And I worked on them a little. I tweaked the Boons and the cards that used them. I thought about what else I could do and tried some of that out. Bryan showed up a week later and was surprised at how much had happened. And then he was gone; people sometimes find other things to do with their time besides playtest my stuff. His name is not even in the credits, and the prominent names in the rest of our story are Matt Engel and Billy Martin. But Bryan got the ball rolling and then the damage had been done; I was working on a Dominion expansion. It accumulated mechanics and cards and before I knew it I was writing a Secret History for it.

Dave Goldthorpe is another name not in the credits, so let's give him his moment. He did not playtest. He did suggest names for things though, including a few cards plus the name Nocturne. He will also show up in the story for Fool.

Gradually the set acquired two themes: "spooky" and Celtic mythology. It seemed okay to go for both at once; they overlap a little. Mechanically the set tries to be more for typical Dominion players, rather than experts; the previous set, Empires, is heavily aimed at experts, and well I like the sets to be different.

  • The Five Main Mechanics *

The set has five main mechanics, let's check 'em out.

Boons: The first thing in the set, leftover from Empires. It was an old idea waiting for its day, and then it got its day and then I cut it. The Boons required 24 extra cards at the time, and Empires as published only managed to fit in 24 kingdom cards, what with having Landmarks and Events. It would have been 22. And Empires wanted to do plenty of things with its other mechanics too. Something had to go, and the Boons felt the least like the rest of the set, and required extra space.

The idea was to have 12 different ones, and there were always 12. At first there were two copies of each, in the end there's one. Some Boons went the distance while others were tweaked or replaced; I'll get to that. What you can do with a mechanic varies with the rest of the set; in Empires one Boon gave +1 VP, and here one gives you a Will-o'-Wisp.

Originally the top Boon was revealed; you'd know what was coming up. One day Matt Engel suggested having a choice of 3, and initially I liked that, and for a while it worked like that. One day I tried a card that gave you a random one, and I liked it a lot better, and in the end I switched it back to random only you don't even get to know what's coming. It's much faster; there's no first player advantage; it takes less table space.

A big issue with Boons was making sure they didn't make the game too slow. There were cards that gave +Cards and gave you a Boon; they did not work out. The cantrip that gave you a Boon is gone. Even the Treasure only gives you a Boon half the time (in multiples).

Night: The second mechanic in the set. It was an old idea to try adding a phase. I put it after the Buy phase because that sounded more interesting than the other options. I let you play any number of Night cards because I couldn't really have Night villages; you'd need the Night village to show up with the other Night card. It endlessly would not. It could still have been that you could just play one Night card, but letting you play multiples meant you could load up on those cards if you wanted, and played into part of what's special about them, that you don't draw them dead.

At first it wasn't clear what I'd get out of Night, and the first couple cards didn't do anything fancy with the idea. Then I hit on having them care about what happened in the turn. This lets you do really novel things that would otherwise be a lot more complicated; Horn of Plenty is an example among older cards. Later on Billy Martin suggested doing Night cards that went straight to your hand when you gained them; you could immediately play them. This was similar to a few cards already in the set, but sleeker and more worth doing more of. And then a bunch of Night cards ended up being Duration cards; that wasn't intended as a theme, but you are limited as to what's useful to get in the Night phase, and Night-Duration cards get around that.

For a while Night cards all said "(Night is after the Buy phase)" on them. You were going to have to look in the rulebook anyway to figure out Night cards, so in the end I dropped it.

Extra Cards: The intention was always to do a set with no tokens; a 500-card set with non-supply cards, like Dark Ages. It gradually got more and more of these, and the set was squeezed down to 33 kingdom cards to make room for them.

Heirlooms: Matt suggested having a card that caused a starting Copper to be replaced by some non-supply card (that's my memory anyway; Matt thinks I just saw it in his homemade cards). He had tried it where the two cards interacted in some way. It sounded good. I thought I would try one, maybe have two or three if it worked out, possibly interacting or possibly not. In the end there are the full seven. There were times when I only had six good ones, but how do you just do six. And while only a couple of the cards directly interact with the heirlooms they are paired with, some of them interact in a more subtle way.

Originally they had the setup spelled out, then they had "Heirloom: Lucky Coin," then Billy suggested having it on its own banner. The yellow banner helps you spot these cards in time to do the setup before people are playing.

Hexes: I did not just leap to having a negative version of Boons. It was an obvious thing to try but in no way felt essential. I finally tried it many months into work on the set, after a particular card kind of wanted them. We enjoyed the craziness of them and there they are. They were tweaked a bunch but over a much shorter time span than the Boons. There is a lot of variance to a typical normal attack like Militia (maybe I have two Estates in hand while someone else goes from $8 to $6); there is more variance when the attack itself is random. They try to limit the amount of variance somewhat, but of course some hurt more than others.

Speed was still an issue here, but also oppression, just how much the attacks could hurt you. So the cards use various tricks to try to limit the damage.

Boons: The goal was always to have 12 Boons that were reasonably close in power level. Obv. they vary with the circumstance. They also wanted to be simple, you do not want to spend a while poring over them. Because of Idol, it seemed bad if any were just dead in the Buy phase. It would have been nice to have them all work for the other players for Sacred Grove, but that was too much to ask. Too much I say.

Empires had had +1 VP; this set got a Will-o'-Wisp. I tried different versions of the basic +'s, trying to get the best mix and then to also keep Idol happy.

There was a Remodel, it was too good. There was discard X cards, gain a card for X+$2, also strong. There was "each other player gains a Copper"; it wasn't great to have an Attack in there. I tried out a Bridge and a twist on Bridge. I tried "+$2, put a card from your hand on your deck" and a Haven. I tried "draw up to 6." In Empires some tried gaining a copy of a card.

At one point when you could choose your Boon from 3, it started to seem bad that Boons people didn't want would pile up. A few Boons tried to fix that, refresh Boons somehow. One replaced the Boons and then gave you a random one.

Hexes: I was trying for a variety of effects, while keeping power level as close as I could given that. Which is not so close but you know. Sometimes a Hex missed a lot and I tried to fix those; sometimes a Hex was devastating and there's less of that. And some Hexes tried to be novel, by handing out cards that track effects, or tracking an effect via a revealed hand. One tried revealing your top card to track the effect, but various takes on that did not work out.

There were multiple versions of the discard attacks, with Poverty leaving and then coming back. One tried to have you discard a copy of your top card, which missed too much. At one point I tried "discard an Action" and "discard a Treasure," at Billy's suggestion. They take way way more words than that and were not great. Billy suggested putting Minion in but I didn't enjoy it and so in the end there's Fear, also Billy's suggestion.

One trashing attack dug for a Treasure other than Copper and trashed it. In place of Misery there was Confused, which made you discard a card after each Action card you played. And Confused and Envious both stuck around until you met a condition, they could last turn after turn. For the biggest hunk of that you could get rid of them by gaining a Treasure; sometimes you would spend your turn buying a Copper to end the madness. The Contraband Deluded was tracked by having your hand revealed; in the end Deluded and Envious are on the same card, so as to use a card.


* More Outtakes *

Dismantle was here for a while, moving over from Empires with the Boons. Now it is a promo. Adam Horton suggested it. I tried one of Matt's cards that was a Throne Room that also Schemed the card. I liked it on paper but it couldn't compete with other $5's. Destry suggested a card that didn't work out but which I may try to fix up someday, so it will remain a mystery, as will a few of my own outtakes.

One of the original Fate cards had other players either discard down to 3 or put a card from their hand on their deck, their choice. I'd tried that in Adventures and it hadn't made the cut, and it didn't here either. It was around for a while though, and got paired with "receive a Boon twice" so that it was constantly played. Another trashed a card and gave you the same Boon once per $1 the card cost; that one died in Empires.

A bunch of cards tried to be a good Night Remodel. I tried ones that cared about other cards gained or trashed that turn - e.g., trash a card from your hand, then for each card you trashed this turn, gain a card costing up to $2 more than it. If your guess is that Billy would gain 6 Provinces in one turn with that, you'd be right. Then I tried one that cared about the number of cards in your hand, and some more that just had you discard cards. For a long time the set had "trash a card from your hand, discard X cards, gain a card costing up to $X more than the trashed card." It looked innocent at $3, people liked it and it didn't make waves. Then it was $5, now it is gone. I also tried one that could Remodel cards in your discard pile.

The first Night trasher just trashed a card from your hand and a card from play, with a Scheme clause to handle Durations. There were more interesting things to do, so it did not last.

An old old card had you discard a card to draw a card per $1 it cost. Apprentice without the trashing. It continued to not work out here. Another old card, from Cornucopia, drew the uniques from your top 5. That also did not magically turn out to have been fine all along. Another old idea was a card that gave you card selection based on how many cards you had in play.

One of the combo cards for Boons was +1 Card +1 Action, receive a Boon, name a type, reveal the top card of your deck, get it if it matches. It's poor to put the naming after the Boon; you forget about it, the Boon is too exciting. What killed it though was just being a cantrip that gave out Boons; even at $6, it slowed down games too much. I switched the type-naming to just hitting Treasure and Night cards, no choice, but that wasn't enough.

I tried a Night card that let you buy a card for half price. It looks pretty but is dull. I tried a few variations on it, including a Treasure that gave you half as much $ as you had - half a Fortune. That looked pretty too.

An early Night attack gained you a copy of a card/Action you had in play, and discarded Actions from their top 3 cards. It was interesting as a card you didn't want right away. Once I had Changeling they felt like they were in competition. Changeling was sleek and perfect, so it won. Then I grafted another ability onto Changeling to make it more exciting and less sleek and perfect.

There was a card worth 2 VP that was also +1 Card +1 Action +$1 if you had no cards in play other than copies of it. There were a few variations; it stopped being an anti-combo with Duration cards, it gave you a little something instead of nothing. Player interest varied but it was not a star and also ate up 2 extra cards due to being a Victory card. I needed the space, something had to go. The concept is vaguely preserved on Tormentor.

I tried a terminal that got another copy of itself from your discard pile to your hand. But wait, you say. Yes well. It had no value without a village, and with a village you still didn't just get the combo all the time. It seemed cute for a bit. Then there was a version that gave you something for getting a copy back, so it was a combo without a village.

There was an attack that tried to cash in on the joy of Chariot Race. If their card cost more than yours, they discarded it and gained a Curse. Then it just cared about their card to speed it up, and then I had better attacks.

In an interactive slot, I tried a card that cared about the number of empty piles, like City, but that just changed instead of getting better. It didn't change often enough and just wasn't very interesting. You didn't have incentive to empty the piles for it. Then it was a Workshop too to get those piles empty, and then it died.

There was a Night card that had you look at the top 6 cards, discard one per card you had in play, and set the rest aside for next turn. It's a relative of Tactician. It always seemed different enough from Tactician to me, and like an interesting option. But it's a narrow card, and they face a harder journey to making it into a set. There were people who thought it was a dud, and eventually I took it out. Billy kept trying to get me to bring it back, and well here it is in the outtakes section.

For a long time there was a Night attack that Cursed the other players if you had exactly 3 of anything in play. Early on it would probably be 3 Coppers, but it could be something else. There were different resources on it, but the longest running version was an Armory - gain a card onto your deck costing up to $4. It seemed cool and for a while seemed reasonable. After some game where it seemed strong, I realized that we were endlessly seeing it in games with Heirlooms, and thus not 7 Coppers. We played some more games with no Heirlooms and it seemed obviously too strong. I tried a bunch of variations on it quickly and then killed it.

A couple cards tried to draw cards at Night. It's fun if there's another Night card, not too exciting if there isn't. I don't have the market research to tell me, but suspect that for a lot of players there would be a lot of games with no other Night card (due to mixing expansions together rather than playing them alone or in pairs).

Before Changeling, some other cards tried out for that name. One was a choose-one that could turn into a cheaper card in your hand; one revealed your top card and could turn into it and be played. It was never quite there, and the tangentially related Night version was way better.

The card that left for Cursed Village was draw up to 7, may discard 2 for +2 Actions. It was fine? Cursed Village was just similar and better.

After I had Hexes I thought, can I make a card that combos with them. I made a village that had other players put gains/discards on their decks - it turned Witches into Sea Hags, Militias into Ghost Ships. It didn't actually attack by itself though. It wasn't actually much of a combo with the hexes, and in regular games seemed to just so rarely mean anything.

There was a Workshop that could gain a copy of a card in the trash costing up to $6, and put a card costing up to $4 into the trash when you gained it. So at first it would be a Workshop for just that one thing, but if you got another copy, or someone else did, or something got trashed somehow, then it would upgrade. We had some fun with it. Maybe there is more to this concept; I can think about it again if and when. What happened was, it was strong, then I put Cobbler's ability onto it to spice it up (while cutting +$2), then cut the rest to simplify it.

Relatively late, I had room for a village, and tried a bunch of villages. Most of them scaled in some way. You drew a card when you trashed a card; you drew a card for next turn when you gained a card. There were some fun games seeing those cards go nuts. One village didn't fit this mold; it was trying to be good with Night cards, and gave +$1 per treasure in your next two plays, then just +$1 if either was a treasure. So, essentially if you didn't get village value from it, it gave you $ instead. It just wasn't very interesting.

There are only two Heirloom outtakes of note. Bribe could be given to another player to stop an attack. We had fun doing it, but I can't have both an attack with a choice and a Moat with a cost, or you will have the situation where the choice gets made while someone's shuffling and now it informs their decision about the cost. Or to avoid that you do things in slow-mo which is no good either. Attacks with a choice already exist - e.g. Minion - so I can't do a Moat with a cost. So Bribe did not survive.

The other one turned into Faithful Hound. At first if you discarded it you set it aside for next turn, and this even worked if you discarded it in clean-up. I didn't like that most players wouldn't get that from reading the card. Then there were versions that didn't work in clean-up, and then I had Haunted Mirror competing for that slot. And the ability ended up on Faithful Hound instead.
—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Secret History of Dominion: Nocturne

Retrospective on Nocturne's complexity

The most complex single element is the Hexes. I put some work into having a simple set of Boons, to make sure they didn't bog the game down, and then that all went out the window with the Hexes. They were attacks, they couldn't be simple. Instead of "oh so I shouldn't do them," there they are. We had lots of fun playtesting them; then at the release event I saw casual players interacting with them and it's just, every Hex shuts down the game while people come to terms with it.

As I have pointed out many times now, to fully understand what Vampire does, you have to read 18 cards. That's ludicrous, that can't be right. Vampire, Bat. Twelve hexes. Envious, Deluded, Miserable, Twice Miserable. Even Tournament, which is record-setting complex, with a 2x2 grid of results to understand, still has only 5 more cards to read.

The set has too much going on in it; today I would do it as two expansions. One would be called Nocturne and would have Night, Boons, and Spirits; the other would have Heirlooms and some other new thing to go with them. Probably only 5 cards would make Boons, dodging less-fun situations e.g. "Idol could get you a Boon that actually hurts you." And well those attacks would need to do something other than hand out Hexes.

The Spirits and other extra cards aren't a problem by themselves; I do think it's better if an extra card is either used by one card or by several. If it's one card you can just put it away with that card, e.g. Madman with Hermit, and get them both out at once. If it's a bunch of cards, like the Tavern mat, you can get that out and then have it the whole evening. When it's just used by Cemetery and Exorcist, you have to get it out special for that game.

Adding e.g. Landmarks doesn't compare to that stuff. You can just not put out a Landmark if you want, if this game has a new player or you're new to the set or whatever; bam, a simpler game. The basic concept is simple and most of the cards are straightforward. I'm not aware of any issues people had with Landmarks. The tokens aren't tricky either; they're fiddly, you have to go dig out the tokens. I am not thrilled with the variety of tokens in Adventures, because you know, oh this game we need Plan tokens, and you have to search through the pile of tokens for them. Fewer tokens, more use out of each, would have been better. But Coffers and Villagers and VP tokens do just that, the sets get lots of use out of them, you just put them on the table for the evening.

Nocturne was great to playtest; for a sufficiently experienced player, it's full of great stuff. But for sure it's too complex.
—Donald X. Vaccarino, Interview with Donald X.

Donald X.'s tier list

Ignoring the fact that I shouldn't have done Hexes:

S: Blessed Village, Cemetery, Devil's Workshop, Exorcist, Ghost Town, Secret Cave

A: Cobbler, Conclave, Crypt, Cursed Village, Den of Sin, Leprechaun, Monastery, Pixie, Pooka, Skulk, Shepherd, Tragic Hero, Vampire, Werewolf

B: Bard, Faithful Hound, Druid, Guardian, Necromancer, Night Watchman, Tormentor, Tracker

C: Changeling, Idol, Raider, Sacred Grove

D: Fool

Except again for the Hexes issue, B is fine stuff, it's just lower. Except Necromancer, that's an A that I docked points for needing errata. In C, Changeling is overly complex though otherwise cool, Idol and Sacred Grove are poor fits for Boons, and Raider is weak and fails to be interesting for what it's got. And in D, Fool is Fool, man and not helped out by Lucky Coin.
—Donald X. Vaccarino, Dominion Discord, 2023


Recommended sets of 10

Nocturne only

Dusk [images]
Blessed Village Cobbler Den of Sin Faithful Hound Fool
Monastery Night Watchman Shepherd Tormentor Tragic Hero
Landscapes and Additional Cards
Boons Hexes
Midnight [images]
Conclave Crypt Cursed Village Devil's Workshop Druid
Exorcist Leprechaun Pooka Raider Secret Cave
Landscapes and Additional Cards
Boons Hexes
Boons for Druid
The Flame's Gift The Swamp's Gift The Wind's Gift

Nocturne & Dominion

Night Shift [images]
Druid Exorcist Ghost Town Idol Night Watchman
Bandit Gardens Mine Poacher Smithy
Landscapes and Additional Cards
Boons
Boons for Druid
The Earth's Gift The Flame's Gift The Forest's Gift
Idle Hands [images]
Bard Conclave Cursed Village Devil's Workshop Tragic Hero
Cellar Harbinger Market Merchant Moneylender
Landscapes and Additional Cards
Boons Hexes

Nocturne & Intrigue

Shadowy Figures [images]
Cobbler Conclave Faithful Hound Shepherd Tragic Hero
Bridge Conspirator Mill Nobles Secret Passage
Impending Doom [images]
Leprechaun Monastery Necromancer Tormentor Werewolf
Courtier Lurker Mining Village Swindler Upgrade
Landscapes and Additional Cards
Hexes

Nocturne & Seaside

The New Black [images]
Cobbler Den of Sin Ghost Town Raider Secret Cave
Caravan Corsair Merchant Ship Sailor Tactician
Forbidden Isle [images]
Blessed Village Cemetery Idol Tracker Tragic Hero
Bazaar Monkey Pirate Salvager Tide Pools
Landscapes and Additional Cards
Boons

Nocturne & Alchemy

Nightmare Fuel [images]
Bard Blessed Village Cemetery Sacred Grove Skulk
Tracker Alchemist Apprentice Transmute Vineyard
Landscapes and Additional Cards
Potion Boons Hexes

Nocturne & Prosperity

Treasures of the Night [images]
Crypt Guardian Night Watchman Raider Vampire
Charlatan Crystal Ball Investment Tiara War Chest
Landscapes and Additional Cards
Platinum Colony Hexes
Day at the Races [images]
Blessed Village Cemetery Druid Tormentor Tragic Hero
Anvil Bishop Clerk Peddler Watchtower
Landscapes and Additional Cards
Platinum Colony Boons Hexes
Boons for Druid
The Forest's Gift The River's Gift The Swamp's Gift

Nocturne & Cornucopia & Guilds

The Endless Fair [images]
Devil's Workshop Exorcist Monastery Pixie Shepherd
Baker Carnival Fairgrounds Farmhands Merchant Guild
Landscapes and Additional Cards
Boons
Happy Chaos [images]
Blessed Village Changeling Faithful Hound Sacred Grove Secret Cave
Carnival Infirmary Jester Shop Young Witch
Landscapes and Additional Cards
Bane pile:
Leprechaun		 Boons Hexes

Nocturne & Hinterlands

Search Party [images]
Cobbler Conclave Druid Faithful Hound Werewolf
Cartographer Inn Oasis Scheme Souk
Landscapes and Additional Cards
Boons Hexes
Boons for Druid
The Mountain's Gift The Sky's Gift The Sun's Gift
Counting Sheep [images]
Crypt Leprechaun Pooka Secret Cave Shepherd
Crossroads Farmland Oasis Tunnel Weaver
Landscapes and Additional Cards
Hexes

Nocturne & Dark Ages

Grave Matters [images]
Cemetery Cursed Village Necromancer Skulk Tormentor
Armory Forager Graverobber Market Square Squire
Landscapes and Additional Cards
Shelters Hexes
Rats and Bats [images]
Changeling Devil's Workshop Sacred Grove Tracker Vampire
Catacombs Count Fortress Hermit Rats
Landscapes and Additional Cards
Shelters Boons Hexes

Nocturne & Adventures

Monster Mash [images]
Conclave Guardian Pixie Vampire Werewolf
Bridge Troll Giant Messenger Ratcatcher Storyteller
Landscapes and Additional Cards
Boons Hexes Quest
Lost in the Woods [images]
Blessed Village Druid Fool Sacred Grove Tracker
Caravan Guard Guide Haunted Woods Hireling Ranger
Landscapes and Additional Cards
Boons Pilgrimage
Boons for Druid
The Field's Gift The Sea's Gift The Sky's Gift

Nocturne & Empires

Luftschloss [images]
Cemetery Changeling Exorcist Fool Shepherd
Archive Castles Catapult/Rocks Engineer Temple
Landscapes and Additional Cards
Boons Tomb
Pooka Pranks [images]
Faithful Hound Ghost Town Pixie Pooka Skulk
Chariot Race Forum Groundskeeper Sacrifice Settlers/Bustling Village
Landscapes and Additional Cards
Boons Hexes Banquet

Nocturne & Renaissance

Becoming a Monster [images]
Devil's Workshop Monastery Shepherd Skulk Tragic Hero
Experiment Mountain Village Old Witch Research Spices
Landscapes and Additional Cards
Hexes Exploration
True Believers [images]
Blessed Village Crypt Faithful Hound Sacred Grove Secret Cave
Border Guard Cargo Ship Scholar Sculptor Villain
Landscapes and Additional Cards
Boons Cathedral Piazza

Nocturne & Menagerie

Seize the Night [images]
Cobbler Devil's Workshop Exorcist Monastery Skulk
Barge Falconer Hostelry Sheepdog Supplies
Landscapes and Additional Cards
Hexes Seize the Day Way of the Sheep
Animal Crackers [images]
Faithful Hound Pixie Pooka Sacred Grove Shepherd
Black Cat Goatherd Groom Hunting Lodge Kiln
Landscapes and Additional Cards
Boons Enhance Way of the Chameleon

Nocturne & Allies

Love and Death [images]
Conclave Den of Sin Faithful Hound Idol Necromancer
Augurs Bauble Carpenter Hunter Sycophant
Landscapes and Additional Cards
Boons Peaceful Cult
Play it Again Sam [images]
Blessed Village Leprechaun Skulk Tormentor Tracker
Courier Hunter Royal Galley Swap Wizards
Landscapes and Additional Cards
Boons Hexes Woodworkers' Guild

Nocturne & Plunder

Night of the Loot [images]
Blessed Village Crypt Faithful Hound Tragic Hero Werewolf
Cabin Boy Figurine Pendant Sack of Loot Taskmaster
Landscapes and Additional Cards
Trait for Taskmaster
Pious		 Boons Hexes
Skeleton Isle [images]
Devil's Workshop Ghost Town Idol Skulk Tracker
Cutthroat King's Cache Longship Pilgrim Secluded Shrine
Landscapes and Additional Cards
Trait for Idol
Hasty		 Boons Hexes Foray

Nocturne & Rising Sun

Priceless Rice [images]
Blessed Village Cursed Village Devil's Workshop Faithful Hound Shepherd
Alley Daimyo Rice Samurai Tea House
Landscapes and Additional Cards
Boons Hexes Growth
Dark Corners [images]
Changeling Conclave Sacred Grove Skulk Werewolf
Artist Gold Mine Litter River Shrine Tanuki
Landscapes and Additional Cards
Boons Hexes Amass Sickness


First Edition Kingdoms


v . t . e
Cards $0* Will-o'-Wisp • Wish $2 Druid • Faithful Hound • Guardian • Monastery • Pixie (Goat) • Tracker (Pouch) $2* Imp $3 Changeling • Fool (Lost in the Woods • Lucky Coin) • Ghost Town • Leprechaun • Night Watchman • Secret Cave (Magic Lamp) $4 Bard • Blessed Village • Cemetery (Haunted Mirror) • Conclave • Devil's Workshop • Exorcist • Necromancer (Zombies: Apprentice • Mason • Spy) • Shepherd (Pasture) • Skulk $4* Ghost $5 Cobbler • Crypt • Cursed Village • Den of Sin • Idol • Pooka (Cursed Gold) • Sacred Grove • Tormentor • Tragic Hero • Vampire (Bat) • Werewolf $6 Raider
Boons Earth • Field • Flame • Forest • Moon • Mountain • River • Sea • Sky • Sun • Swamp • Wind
Hexes Bad Omens • Delusion (Deluded) • Envy (Envious) • Famine • Fear • Greed • Haunting • Locusts • Misery (Miserable/Twice Miserable) • Plague • Poverty • War
Other concepts Night • Heirloom • Fate • Doom • Spirit • State
v . t . e
Dominion Products
Sets Dominion • Intrigue • Seaside • Alchemy • Prosperity • Cornucopia & Guilds • Hinterlands • Dark Ages • Adventures • Empires • Nocturne • Renaissance • Menagerie • Allies • Plunder • Rising Sun • Promo
Collections Big Box • Special Edition (German) • Alchemy & Cornucopia (Japanese, German, Dutch)
Accessories Base Cards • Update Packs • Play Mat • Base Cards Mat • Collectors Case • Dominion Chest
Retired Products Cornucopia • Guilds
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