Elbowing cove detours

We’ve been playing Corner Lot quite a bit lately. It is popular and playing more quickly than I’d expected. Our games have been averaging under 45 minutes when I’d predicted a game length of around 75-90 based on decision complexity. I am…surprised.

So far we’ve played with 3 and 4 players with both working well. I think 4 players is marginally more interesting than 3, but it is a tough call. The common consensus is that 5 players is right out due to multi-player chaos effects. I’d like to soften that 5 player edge somewhat and have been working through a number of ideas around extending the suits, adding suits and adding some form of wildcard property card to the mix. The suit extension concepts ran afoul of the game’s basic arithmetic and sank there; however the wildcard concepts are being more interesting. The current idea:

• 5 wildcards (one in each suit) that are set out beside the markets during setup
• $20(?) cost and no stated revenue ($?) on the wildcards
• Players may buy a wildcard from the display as their turn
• The card must be assigned a value when it is taken – this is marked by putting that much cash (from the bank) on the card.
• At the end of each round:
• Each player has to pay $2 to the bank for each suit in which they have properties cards whose wildcard has not yet been taken
• Each player that has taken a wildcard has to pay $5 to the bank for the card
• The bank pays the card’s revenue to the card
  • The revenues accumulate on the card and are not available to the owning player
• During the bonus phase:
• The player retrieves the accumulated revenues on their wildcards
• Melds score as normally, counting the wildcard as if it were the claimed card
• If the wildcard duplicates a card that the player also has, then it counts as being of a different suit for the N-of-a-type bonus.

Thematically wildcards are empty lots that detract from the business and thus revenues of the other properties in the area. On purchase they empty lot is (slowly) developed and thus begins to accumulate revenues.