Hello everybody! This topic is for discussion of the "Asylum's Gauntlet" Class Creation Competition. One of the awesome things about our Fan Creation Forum Competition is that it gets us all talking about what makes a card or a class balanced, fun, realistic, interesting, unique, innovative, exciting, and more. However, to make sure that everything runs smoothly, we need to reserve the Submission Topic for submissions only. Everything else goes here. What is everything else, you might ask?
Rules or Process. Do you have a question about the competition's process? Do you need clarification about one of the entry requirements? Are you not sure whether your entry adhered to the rules? Ask here!
Feedback or Ideas. Do you have some ideas you'd like to run by others before settling on one? Do you need help balancing or wording your idea? Do you need help finding art that will fit your cards? Or do you just want feedback from the community on your entry? You're in the right place! Remember, although you are allowed to make minor tweaks to your entry after you've submitted it, you're only allowed one submission per competition, so make sure that you've settled on your idea for sure beforehand.
Discussion! Do you have thoughts on other people's ideas? Are there directions you don't like that you're seeing too many people take? Or directions you'd like to see more people take? Would you like to help others and contribute to a greater community understanding of Hearthstone design and balance? This is where you want to be!
All of that said, please refrain from the following:
Posting TONS of Ideas. We understand that some of you might have a ton of potential ideas you'd like to share. However, this thread is going to become an absolute mess if everybody is posting a dozen different ideas. Please post not more than 3 distinct ideas at a time, to keep the thread generally orderly and legible.
Advertising Your Entry. Please don't pop in here just to advertise your entry only to never be heard from again. This includes only asking short, generic, or insincere questions like "Thoughts?" or "Do you think this is balanced?". Yes, getting feedback on your idea is one of the purposes of this topic, but we're not just here for other people to help you. We're here for you all to help each other. 12 hours after this competition begins, there should be plenty of other posts here for you to give specific feedback or for you to comment on a trend. If you post your ideas for feedback after this time and do not also offer some form of substantial commentary, critique, or praise of others' work, you may find your post deleted.
Plagiarism. Many people post their ideas here before finalizing them in the submission topic. Directly plagiarizing those ideas to post in the submission topic yourself is absolutely not acceptable.
So, without further ado, have fun and get creating!
I'm going to start off discussion myself by going over my thoughts for one of the challenges. The first and third challenges are, I believe, fairly straightforward and self-explanatory, but the second one might cause some roadblocks considering how limited Hero Power design space is. Or rather, how it might seem to be if you just look at all of the existing Hero Powers. This restriction may not actually be as limiting as you think!
Let's start off with the basics. Hero Powers generally produce effects equivalent in power to that of a 0-cost card. Easy examples are the Mage's Fireblast versus Moonfire, the Paladin's Reinforce and Shaman's Searing Totem versus Wisp, and the Shaman's Stoneclaw Totem versus Target Dummy. That being the case, having your Hero Power summon a 0-cost-equivalent minion or equip a 0-cost-equivalent weapon is an easy direction to take. The Bard, the winner of our second CCC and whose Hero Power is shown as an example in the Submission Topic, serves as an example of this.
But that's not all! Another easy direction to take is having your Hero Power put a balanced 1-cost card into your hand. Simply drawing a card is pretty powerful, which is why the Warlock's Life Tap hero power comes with a drawback, but adding a weak card to your hand is less powerful than drawing a card, which is why Dark Peddler gets to be a 2/2 while Novice Engineer is only a 1/1. The Agent, one of the finalists from the second CCC and whose Hero Power is shown as an example in the Submission Topic, serves as an example of this.
It's also important to consider that producing your token doesn't need to be the only thing that your Hero Power does. The Lich, one of the finalists from the first CCC and whose Hero Power is shown as an example in the Submission Topic, serves as an example of this; it had a Hero Power that produced another Hero Power it would swap back and forth between, but the initial Hero Power also let it "Scheme" (that class's unique mechanic). Alternatively, maybe the Hero Power has a different effect depending on the situation. Take a look at the Rogue's old Hero Power from back in beta for a great example; if the Rogue already had a weapon equipped, it had a complete different effect:
If you're still having trouble coming up with something, consider that adding a downside to your Hero Power opens up design space a ton. The Warlock's Life Tap gets to be a little more powerful because it deals damage to your hero, but there are tons of other possible downsides that could result in your having more room to work with a more powerful effect.
Love the restrictions on the challenges! Not too restrictive, yet reuires you to think about how to go along implementing it!
Reading the restrictions takes me back to my personal entry in the previous class design competition. Although it didn't make it through Phase 1, but I think it could give some ideas as to how it can work. :D (entry here!)
The Hero Power can also affect the token card in hand to cost (0) this turn, so that it doesn't get into Auctioneer hijinks! :S
Pretty excited for it! I've been into Twillight Hammer/Old Gods lore lately, so I would love to do something on those lines. :3 Might have to change it considering that there has been a class based on it before, but we'll see!
Just one thing though, and I am not sure if I'm being neurotic about this – I am thinking about working on a "King" class, but your first challenge indicates that the character should reasonably fit into the lore, and I'm afraid of having to 1) completely BSing and shoehorning the guy in as some "secret heir" to some "secret dynasty" that "secretly broke off" of an existing kingdom or 2) doing hours of extensive lore research so I can cleverly sneak this guy into the ancient annals of Azeroth. Got any tips for a homeboi?
Just one thing though, and I am not sure if I'm being neurotic about this – I am thinking about working on a "King" class, but your first challenge indicates that the character should reasonably fit into the lore, and I'm afraid of having to 1) completely BSing and shoehorning the guy in as some "secret heir" to some "secret dynasty" that "secretly broke off" of an existing kingdom or 2) doing hours of extensive lore research so I can cleverly sneak this guy into the ancient annals of Azeroth. Got any tips for a homeboi?
A couple of thoughts...
1) Does it have to be a King exactly or will any form of nobility do? A new lord or duke or count is fairly easy to work in.
2) Does it have to be human(oid) king? The king of a subterranean race of rat-people or of a deep-sea race of merfolk or of a sky-borne kingdom of air elementals could easily find a place alongside what already exists.
3) You can just invent a whole new existing kingdom if you want. I know that I don't mind. It may seem like every corner of the World of Warcraft is already populated and already has a set history, but I don't think the introduction of a new city or kingdom or mountain or island or whatever is too outlandish. The setting needs more room to grow than just through other dimensions and stuff anyway.
Just one thing though, and I am not sure if I'm being neurotic about this – I am thinking about working on a "King" class, but your first challenge indicates that the character should reasonably fit into the lore, and I'm afraid of having to 1) completely BSing and shoehorning the guy in as some "secret heir" to some "secret dynasty" that "secretly broke off" of an existing kingdom or 2) doing hours of extensive lore research so I can cleverly sneak this guy into the ancient annals of Azeroth. Got any tips for a homeboi?
I can only give suggestions based on what I would do, given that I myself am quite unfamiliar with Warcraft lore. My first instinct would be to check out what groups in Warcraft have or could reasonably have a "Royal Family" of sorts - if there's some that are known to have one but not much is known about it, you have a great starting point!
Alternatively, you could go for a "long-dead" King - Kun the Forgotten King could serve as a basis for characters like this existing, and the further back you're willing to go the more liberty you can take with their identity. They wouldn't even have to be dead if you didn't want, since Hearthstone takes place in a sort of timeless world only loosely based on Warcraft.
Just one thing though, and I am not sure if I'm being neurotic about this – I am thinking about working on a "King" class, but your first challenge indicates that the character should reasonably fit into the lore, and I'm afraid of having to 1) completely BSing and shoehorning the guy in as some "secret heir" to some "secret dynasty" that "secretly broke off" of an existing kingdom or 2) doing hours of extensive lore research so I can cleverly sneak this guy into the ancient annals of Azeroth. Got any tips for a homeboi?
Are you forgetting that Blizzard has basically done this? They pulled Pandaria out of thin air (OK, I guess it was mist), basically, so you can do the same.
The 2nd rule ruined my entire design :P didn't expect that. Have to figure out something new
Yeah, the token power thing also put a twist into my concept. I could certainly rework it as a 0 cost spell that is added to the hand... but that feels a bit silly. It also opens up Gadgetzan Auctioneer stuff... which I had intended already for my class but I'm not sure I want even more fuel.
I think the challenges are good though! I'm glad they're going to make us think outside the box, come up with new ideas.
Just one thing though, and I am not sure if I'm being neurotic about this – I am thinking about working on a "King" class, but your first challenge indicates that the character should reasonably fit into the lore, and I'm afraid of having to 1) completely BSing and shoehorning the guy in as some "secret heir" to some "secret dynasty" that "secretly broke off" of an existing kingdom or 2) doing hours of extensive lore research so I can cleverly sneak this guy into the ancient annals of Azeroth. Got any tips for a homeboi?
In addition to the other suggestions, you could make up an ancestor to a known city. A previous king or queen of Alterac, or Gilneas, or Ironforge, etc.
I like these challenges. I've got a few ideas that I'm trying to decide between and balance to make them fit before I present them. Also a question: so the 3rd challenge, the keyword has to be able to be printed on any type of card (minion, spell, weapon) and make sense, even if it didn't involve that card type? So Freeze, Discover, and Jade Golem would work, but not Battlecry or Deathrattle?
so the 3rd challenge, the keyword has to be able to be printed on any type of card (minion, spell, weapon) and make sense, even if it didn't involve that card type? So Freeze, Discover, and Jade Golem would work, but not Battlecry or Deathrattle?
Just one thing though, and I am not sure if I'm being neurotic about this – I am thinking about working on a "King" class, but your first challenge indicates that the character should reasonably fit into the lore, and I'm afraid of having to 1) completely BSing and shoehorning the guy in as some "secret heir" to some "secret dynasty" that "secretly broke off" of an existing kingdom or 2) doing hours of extensive lore research so I can cleverly sneak this guy into the ancient annals of Azeroth. Got any tips for a homeboi?
Does that qualify for the "original character" challenge though? I think a Swashburglar class would be totally neato. Over in the "make a card" thread, I almost made a Grand Swashburglar for the Rogue Replacement Hero prompt.
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This is the Discussion Topic. The Submission Topic is here.
(Please Read the Submission Topic first.)
Hello everybody! This topic is for discussion of the "Asylum's Gauntlet" Class Creation Competition. One of the awesome things about our Fan Creation Forum Competition is that it gets us all talking about what makes a card or a class balanced, fun, realistic, interesting, unique, innovative, exciting, and more. However, to make sure that everything runs smoothly, we need to reserve the Submission Topic for submissions only. Everything else goes here. What is everything else, you might ask?
All of that said, please refrain from the following:
So, without further ado, have fun and get creating!
I'm going to start off discussion myself by going over my thoughts for one of the challenges. The first and third challenges are, I believe, fairly straightforward and self-explanatory, but the second one might cause some roadblocks considering how limited Hero Power design space is. Or rather, how it might seem to be if you just look at all of the existing Hero Powers. This restriction may not actually be as limiting as you think!
Let's start off with the basics. Hero Powers generally produce effects equivalent in power to that of a 0-cost card. Easy examples are the Mage's Fireblast versus Moonfire, the Paladin's Reinforce and Shaman's Searing Totem versus Wisp, and the Shaman's Stoneclaw Totem versus Target Dummy. That being the case, having your Hero Power summon a 0-cost-equivalent minion or equip a 0-cost-equivalent weapon is an easy direction to take. The Bard, the winner of our second CCC and whose Hero Power is shown as an example in the Submission Topic, serves as an example of this.
But that's not all! Another easy direction to take is having your Hero Power put a balanced 1-cost card into your hand. Simply drawing a card is pretty powerful, which is why the Warlock's Life Tap hero power comes with a drawback, but adding a weak card to your hand is less powerful than drawing a card, which is why Dark Peddler gets to be a 2/2 while Novice Engineer is only a 1/1. The Agent, one of the finalists from the second CCC and whose Hero Power is shown as an example in the Submission Topic, serves as an example of this.
It's also important to consider that producing your token doesn't need to be the only thing that your Hero Power does. The Lich, one of the finalists from the first CCC and whose Hero Power is shown as an example in the Submission Topic, serves as an example of this; it had a Hero Power that produced another Hero Power it would swap back and forth between, but the initial Hero Power also let it "Scheme" (that class's unique mechanic). Alternatively, maybe the Hero Power has a different effect depending on the situation. Take a look at the Rogue's old Hero Power from back in beta for a great example; if the Rogue already had a weapon equipped, it had a complete different effect:
If you're still having trouble coming up with something, consider that adding a downside to your Hero Power opens up design space a ton. The Warlock's Life Tap gets to be a little more powerful because it deals damage to your hero, but there are tons of other possible downsides that could result in your having more room to work with a more powerful effect.
Let the game begin.
Love the restrictions on the challenges! Not too restrictive, yet reuires you to think about how to go along implementing it!
Reading the restrictions takes me back to my personal entry in the previous class design competition. Although it didn't make it through Phase 1, but I think it could give some ideas as to how it can work. :D (entry here!)
The Hero Power can also affect the token card in hand to cost (0) this turn, so that it doesn't get into Auctioneer hijinks! :S
Pretty excited for it! I've been into Twillight Hammer/Old Gods lore lately, so I would love to do something on those lines. :3 Might have to change it considering that there has been a class based on it before, but we'll see!
Just one thing though, and I am not sure if I'm being neurotic about this – I am thinking about working on a "King" class, but your first challenge indicates that the character should reasonably fit into the lore, and I'm afraid of having to 1) completely BSing and shoehorning the guy in as some "secret heir" to some "secret dynasty" that "secretly broke off" of an existing kingdom or 2) doing hours of extensive lore research so I can cleverly sneak this guy into the ancient annals of Azeroth. Got any tips for a homeboi?
You can find me here! Good luck everyone!
I just got rekt by the "Skeleton Key" challenge. much sigh
Come Play Make the Keyword!!!
Check out my Worgen Class in the Class Competition
The 2nd rule ruined my entire design :P didn't expect that. Have to figure out something new
I think the challenges are good though! I'm glad they're going to make us think outside the box, come up with new ideas.
Man, Asylum told you guys not to get too attached to an idea! That's why I didn't even start until I heard the challenges.
Come Play Make the Keyword!!!
Check out my Worgen Class in the Class Competition
Currently working on the Tinker! K&C and WW / JUG and KotFT / Classic / Basic / Introduction
My Previous Classes: Apothecary (unfinished) / Chronomancer / Death Knight (old)
My Previous Expansions: Hallow's End
So a keyword like this would be fine? The effect only affects minions, but any type of card could use this keyword.
Click to see my Hearthstone projects:
I'll be making this class, no stealerino my idea please.
Make the Card: The biggest thread on the site!
My mandibles which are capable of pressing down and tearing, my talons which are known to intercept and hold.
Does that qualify for the "original character" challenge though? I think a Swashburglar class would be totally neato. Over in the "make a card" thread, I almost made a Grand Swashburglar for the Rogue Replacement Hero prompt.