Artifact
Artifacts, introduced in Renaissance, are effects that apply to one player, that are not tracked by normal cards or Events. They function similarly to States, from Nocturne.
Artifacts are not "cards"; any text referring to a "card" does not apply to Artifacts. However, for reference, the Artifact effects are printed on cards in a landscape orientation with light brown frames.
There is only one copy of each Artifact; when a player takes an Artifact, the Artifact card is placed in front of them until another player takes it.
Lost in the Woods
, from Nocturne, functions like an Artifact (and, according to Donald X., was the inspiration for them), though it is not technically labeled an Artifact itself.
List of Artifacts
Cards associated with Artifacts
Official Rules
- Artifact cards are abilities that players may acquire somehow due to a particular kingdom card.
- When taking an Artifact, if another player has it, you take it from them; only one player will have a given Artifact at once.
- If no other player has it, you just take it.
- While you have the Artifact, you have its ability, and you lose that ability when someone else takes the Artifact.
- For example when playing Treasurer, you can choose to take the Key, which will give you +
at the start of each of your turns until someone else takes it.
Card gallery
Cards associated with Artifacts
Trivia
In other languages
| Language | Name | Text | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dutch | Artefact |  |
Artefacts |
| German | Artefakt | ||
| Spanish | Objeto |  |
Objeto |
Preview
Artifacts are abilities only one player can have. When you take the Flag, you take it from whoever had it, if someone had it. So, they go back and forth. They're like Lost in the Woods (from Nocturne); hey could I do more with that kind of thing, I thought, and I could. There are five Artifacts total, and here are three of them and their parent cards.
(from Nocturne); hey could I do more with that kind of thing, I thought, and I could. There are five Artifacts total, and here are three of them and their parent cards.Why aren't Artifacts just States?
Artifact was a better term, and I didn't feel like I had to stick to a poor precedent. Artifact helps convey that it's a thing only one player will have.
Retrospective
For Renaissance, the Artifacts did not work out so great. Maybe the best move there is to save them for the next set and see if I improve them. Border Guard and Treasurer were great with no Artifacts. They got more complex for no good reason. I like Flag Bearer and Swashbuckler; so, two cards, not really enough, save Artifacts for when I have more. Instead I crammed Artifacts onto helpless innocent cards. They have extra text and "read more cards" just to get more Artifacts into the set. It's not that they are Vampire; it's that they were great cards already.
