2016 Errata and Formatting Changes

Revision as of 06:52, 6 January 2024

The 2016 Errata made several adjustments to both card functions and card text layouts to all pre-Empires sets.

This was the first Errata and coincided with the Second Editions of Base and Intrigue.

Errata

Shuffling rule

Previously, when you wanted to draw a card (or otherwise do something with your deck), and your deck was empty, you shuffled, then continued drawing. So if you played Smithy with 2 cards left in your deck, you would have drawn those 2, then shuffled, and drawn 1 more. With the new rule, when your deck is running low, you first check to see if there's enough left to do something with, and if there's not, you shuffle your discard pile, and put that under what's left of your deck. So in the aforementioned situation, with 2 cards left in your deck when you play Smithy, you'd shuffle your discard pile, slide it under those 2 cards, and then draw your 3 cards. Donald X. has cited the ruling as making it easier for situations other than drawing with a near-empty deck.

Except when Stash is used, this change has no functional effect.

Coffers

The name Coffers was introduced to refer to the Coin tokens from Guilds and all references to "take X Coin tokens" were changed to "+X Coffers". This has no effect on any actual gameplay, but does let the text on the relevant cards take up a little less space, and highlights the taking of Coffers by making it a vanilla bonus.

Functional card changes

• Mine, Moneylender, and Throne Room received a "you may" wording for accountability purposes.
• Masquerade was changed so players with no cards in hand are skipped.
• Embargo was changed so each Curse gained per token on a pile is a separate event, rather than gaining all of them at once.
• Outpost was changed to function in a similar way to Mission.
• Possession was changed so the Possessing player also receives all tokens (from Empires) gained.
• Trade Route was changed to trash before gaining , which matters if trashing a card that can gain Victory cards when trashed (such as Hunting Grounds).
• Scheme no longer allows you to discard Actions that are not discarded that turn, such as Durations.
• Oracle was rephrased to "draw 2 cards" instead of "+2 Cards". (This was later reverted by the 2020 Errata.)

Other card changes

A few cards did not receive functional changes, but instead had their wording changed to match their intended function, where previously it was ambiguous:

• Nomad Camp was changed to make it clear it doesn't visit, as previously its wording matched Villa's, which does visit.
• Coin of the Realm, Royal Carriage now refer to finishing "playing" an Action, as opposed to "resolving", which had never been referenced on any other card.
• Black Market now explicitly says the player may play Treasures before buying a Black Market card.
• Envoy now says "put in hand" rather than "draw", matching its intended function to ignore the -1 Card token.
• Stash lets you look at what remains of your deck when you shuffle, in order to retain its function despite the new rule.

Formatting changes

• The font size was increased when the amount of text is small enough to allow it.
• +X Cards, +X Buys, etc. in the body text were changed to bold.
• References to players were changed from masculine pronouns ("he", "his") to the gender-neutral pronouns ("them", "their").
• Card texts became better centered.

Card Gallery

Examples of cards where the formatting changes are notable:

Trivia

Reasoning