Apprentice meeple

[Jabberwocky]

A new type of meeple called an Apprentice. Each player has one and only one of his/her color. At the start of the game, each player passes his/her apprentice to the player to the left. I'll refer to the player whose color is the same as the apprentice as "the apprentice's parent" and the player to the left as "the apprentice's master".

The concept is simple: The master cannot put any of his/her own meeple into play until he/she has placed the apprentice on behalf of the parent. As long as the apprentice is out, the master is free to place his/her own meeple as normal. Apprentices can claim any feature except farms, following all the same claim rules as regular meeple. When a feature claimed by an apprentice is finished, the apprentice counts ownership on behalf of the parent just like a regular meeple, but the apprentice is returned to the master to be placed again. The master must now find a new claim for the apprentice before he/she can place any other meeple.

[CKorfmann]

That's an interesting concept.  Do you have any idea which meeple you'd like to use?  I know a lot of people want to use travel meeples for this type of thing, but I might suggest the Castle meeple. 

[Jabberwocky]

I think any of the smaller ones would work fine for this. I'm less interested in that part and more in whether the rule is interesting and fun to play with. The choice of which meeple doesn't really affect the game play.

[CKorfmann]

Yeah, sorry, I've got esthetics on the brain lately.  It's an interesting idea.  I can see it as something to try out a couple of times and probably a few people will love it and use it all the time.  But, that could be said of just about all the expansions here, so I'm not helping much.  Strategy-wise, I think it would definitely cause the players to think more about their first move than just try to get as many followers on the board as they can right away.  I think it's viable and simple enough to employ without a lot of effort.

[Joff]

That is a nice idea, and similar to the passenger placement of my spin-off P.O.B. I like the idea that the apprentice is returned to the apprentice's master instead of the apprentice's parent when he has scored for his feature, and the fact that on return the whole cycle starts again!

[Vulch]

You would need something like this:

(hoping attachment worked?)

Not sure how you would make it though?