Welcome, one and all, to Quest Givers Anonymous, a Hearthpwn Custom Adventure Competition! This is the Discussion Thread, where you can bounce ideas off of each other. As usual, try to offer advice alongside asking for some. It will go a long way, especially in a contest of this size! If you were looking for the Submission Thread, head on over here.
You may also find it useful to ask a question or two on the Hearthpwn Discord. The mods are there and can try to answer any concerns you may have.
For those who have been playing Hearthstone for a bit longer, you may remember "Adventures", the singleplayer experience that preceded the Dungeon Run-based content we have now. Newer players may also recall the singleplayer content released alongside Knights of the Frozen Throne; that is an Adventure.
Quest Givers Anonymous gives you the opportunity to show off your card creation skills on a much larger scale. Over the next few months, contestants will:
Follow an outline based on the Blackrock Mountain adventure. Create two boss decks and a final boss deck for each wing. Each wing will take up a phase and each phase lasts 2 weeks. The fourth and fifth wings have 3 bosses and a final boss, instead.
A boss deck entails a mixture of cards found in-game, some custom-made cards, and, most importantly, the Boss' Hero Power.
Furthermore, Adventures have rewards! As such, for each boss, there will be card rewards for a player who defeats a boss.
Hopefully, this quick overview gives you an idea of what to expect going forward. Other more technical questions will be addressed in the FAQ section below.
As the kobold so eloquently puts it, this competition gives you an almost complete free reign, design space-wise. The only stipulation is:
Your entire adventure must be based around a quest or a journey of some sort.
This does not mean a boss has to use an actual quest card, though you can certainly do that, nor does it mean a card reward is a quest.
Essentially, imagine your entire adventure is one big quest. Or, perhaps, each wing is a single quest.
This is an opportunity to tell a story. You can use the little prompt Questing Adventurer and her new kobold friend here have laid out, or you can make your own. It is entirely up to you!
Frequently Asked Questions
What exactly am I making?
You will be making an entire Adventure singleplayer expansion.
The number of bosses and card rewards are the same as Blackrock Mountain.
In Blackrock Mountain, there are:
For the Neutrals: 6 commons, 2 rares, no epics, and 5 legendaries. For class cards: one common and one rare for each class.
I have to follow the reward structure of Blackrock Mountain, but do I have to follow the exact order too? For example, Wing One has a neutral, a Rogue common, a Priest rare, etc. etc.
No. You can reward players with your cards in any order you want, so long as the class-neutral and rarity ratios stay the same, and you follow how each boss rewards one card per victory.
How do I present my creation?
You entire submission goes in the Submission Thread.
The Boss' portrait and Hero Power go in a spoiler. Boss decklists must be listed under the same spoiler. Use a separate spoiler for each deck. If your boss deck has any custom cards, they must also go in the same spoiler.
For each wing, you may present up to three cards outside of a spoiler. (Each wing will usually have either five or six cards.)
Furthermore, you are allowed a short paragraph introducing your Adventure, or continuing where you left off in future weeks.
In the past, due to a large number of entries, we'd have a public poll and a percentage of that phase would move on, while the rest were eliminated.
The public poll takes place in a separate voting thread, just like in a weekly competition.
Depending on the number of entries, we can continue to do that, or, if people prefer and there are fewer entries, votes will instead be accumulated throughout phases and no one is eliminated.
Am I allowed to work on future wings before a Phase starts?
Yes, but, there may be a challenge or an extra requirement thrown your way which might force you to redo some parts.
Am I allowed to work with someone else?
Yes. You may work with one other person provided they have a Hearthpwn account. You will need to inform the moderators before you team up.
Do I have to make heroic versions of each boss' Hero Power and deck?
No, but if you do, they need to be under a spoiler.
Some bosses have special mechanics, like starting with a card. How do I denote this?
Simply state that the boss does in its decklist spoiler.
Do I have to state which boss has a class challenge?
Yes.
Do I need to introduce a keyword?
No.
Do boss decks require at least one custom card?
No, you can have a boss deck with no custom cards at all.
Am I allowed to have additional fancy graphics in my submission?
You are allowed a single, simple banner. In the past, several talented individuals were able to dazzle voters with their artistic and photo manipulation skills. While the moderator teams wants everyone to compete to the best of their abilities, it was decided by the previous moderator team to not allow too many additional graphics. We will honour that decision. Whether a banner is allowed or not is up to the discretion of the moderator team. An example of an acceptable banner can be found here.
The exception to this rule are the dialogue boxes that pop up during Adventures and other singleplayer content. You may have a reasonable number of them, if you choose to add them in.
I have some ideas for extra things! How do I implement them?
"Bonus" or "secret" battles, sort of like the cow king: You can have bonus battles, but you may not break from the number of bosses you are supposed to do for that wing. For example, Wing One in Blackrock Mountain has 3 bosses. You may do two bosses and then one bonus battle, but not 3 bosses and an additional battle.
New heroes (like Arthas), card backs, etc.: You can add as many additional non-card rewards as you want. For the most part, these do not affect any technical aspects of this competition. These must be place under a spoiler, however, as having many of these would fall under having too many fancy graphics.
What are the real-life rewards?
You will earn the special silver card creator border and, as per tradition, you may accept an interview from the mod team that gets posted on the front page. Lastly, a small bundle of packs will be in order.
Competition Process
The Competition Process, as stated above, is slated to be one wing per two weeks with a voting period of 3 days, leaving a total of 11 days for card creation. Five wings will take a total of 10 weeks. This is a tentative estimate and the moderators will be continually monitoring the flow of the competition.
Phase One, Wing One: January 4th — January 16th Voting period: January 16th — January 18th
Phase Two, Wing Two: January 18th — January 30th Voting period: January 30th — February 1st
Phase Three, Wing Three: February 1st — February 13th Voting period: February 13th — February 15th
Phase Four, Wing Four: February 15th — February 27th Voting period: February 27th — February 29th
Phase Five, Wing Five: February 29th — March 12th Voting period: February 12th — March 14th
Discussion Topic Rules
As usual, we have a few basic rules. They're the same as the rules in a Weekly Competition, so most of you should have no problem here.
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 entry? Do you need help finding art that will fit your card? 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 week, so make sure that you've settled on your card for sure beforehand.
Discussion! Do you have thoughts on other people's entries? 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 card design and balance? This is where you want to be!
All of that said, please refrain from the following:
Posting TONS of Ideas. Discussion topics become an absolute mess if everybody is posting a dozen different ideas. Please post not more than 3 distinct ideas at a time. Any more than that and we'll have to delete your post.
Advertising Your Entry. As a rule of thumb, please don't pop in here just to advertise your entry only to never be heard from again. This includes only asking short, generic questions like "Thoughts?" or "Do you think this is interesting?". Yes, getting feedback on your entry 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.
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.
Questing Explorer and her new Kobold partner return home to stock up on supplies for their journey. However, when Questing Explorer returns home, she discovers that a corrupt nobleman has taken over! She finds a peasant outside of the town walls who begs her to save the city.
How could she possibly turn down such an exciting quest?
One Night in Karazan and League of Explorers have 4 wings. Naxx and Black Rock have 5. If it's one wing per phase, doesn't that mean some players will have 1 more phase to compete in than others?
One Night in Karazan and League of Explorers have 4 wings. Naxx and Black Rock have 5. If it's one wing per phase, doesn't that mean some players will have 1 more phase to compete in than others?
Yes the mod team was aware of that. But, for now, we can work on the first few wings since how we deal with this depends on how many people enter, and, therefore, which voting scheme we will use.
This might sound dumb, but what are phases? I understand everything else but I’ve never heard the term phase used with a linear adventure.
They are just sections this competition is split into. Each are 2 weeks long, and each phase is typically one wing. Therefore, people get 2 weeks to complete making a wing.
Hey ! So excited about this new competition, I've been looking forward to this. Before discussing my first ideas, I'd like to ask if rewards beyond cards can be added. I'm thinking specifically of hero portraits but card backs or golden cards could also be a possibility.
I have two ideas for this contest that I'd like to discuss here. Regardless of the one I choose, I want to introduce the following new keyword. The current name could change for better flavor.
Common, Rare and Epic cards with this keyword can be included in 3 copies, Legendary cards in 2 copies. Regardless, the number of cards in a deck would still be 30. Cards with the keyword would be given it the maximum number of copies (2 for legendary, 3 otherwise). Here are a few exemple cards with the keyword :
So my first idea is to follow the tribulations of a young orc from the Frostwolf clan. Each wing would be devoted to a new step towards adulthood. One would be about befriending a frost wolf, one about hunting, one about ancestral spirits, etc... Bosses would include wild animals from the Frostfire Ridges, Orcs of dreanor, ascenstral spirits and maybe a few trolls.
My second idea is to have an adventure about forest spirits, dryads, fierie dragons and such. It would be a tale of untamed nature and protecting the wild as it gets slowly corrupted. Each wing would be about a different season and the troubles it brings, with the last one confronting directly the source of the corruption. Bosses would include Fey creatures, emerald flight dragons and nightmarish monsters from the corrupted wilds.
Do my adventure has to take place in real WoW places? I'm not much into lore.
Edit: Also, if I have to make four bosses per wing, how does that affect card rewards? I mean, for example in most of Naxxramass wings there was less than four bosses, so that would mean that if i add more not for each player would get rewards
Okay, sorry for the double post, but I have come up with an idea.
What if, instead of Orcs invading Azeroth, Humans invaded Draenor? In this scenario, you'd have to help Anduin Lothar to fight several races living in Draenor in order to conquer this planet.
However, I'm not sure which of the following approaches I should follow:
The Humans are the ones corrupted by the Demons (and not the Orcs).
Neither the Orcs or Humans are corrupted by Demons. Maybe Demons could be the last wing, but they're still a minor force in Draenor, which is still a healthy world.
Demons have already corrupted Orcs (or at least a faction of them) and Draenor is alredy the desolated wasteland we all know and love.
I find the first scenario very interesting, but it means several iconic races (such as the Broken Ones) won't make any sense at all. Plus, a non-desolated Draenor doesn't look like Draenor.
A reverse invasion of Dreanor sounds interesting but you might want to consider a few points :
Orcs are mostly framed as "bad guys", brutals and corrupted, during their invasion of Azeroth while Humans are shown as "good guys", noble and peacefull, defending their home. If you flip the rolls around but keep humans as protagonists and orcs as antagonists, you're saying something very different about wars and invasions.
It sounds to me like your main goal is to showcase Dreanor and the races that inhabit it. If I'm right, you might want to consider other story types that would archive the same goal. Maybe a trip to Draenor, maybe some kind of feast that would unite everyone, idk... Basically make sure a war is really the story you want to tell.
If you really want to make an alternate version of warcraft's lore, you should think about which characters you want to use and in which ways they would be different.
Including demons in the mix might be too much. This competition will have you make a total of 12 to 15 bosses and a maximum of 45 cards which you will have to divide wisely between all the themes of your adventure. Maybe it's best if you focus on you main ideas.
I've got a keyboard idea (not sure if I worded it correctly though), but I don't know how to fit it in WoW lore... Maybe something with elementals or even pirates? I've heard there's an ability used by some pirates called burst in WoW.
Examples of cards would be:
If I decide to use pirates:
And if I go with elementals instead:
Also, I would like to make burst affected by summoning sickness, but I'm not sure how to word that on the mechanic specs.
Also, are secret battles allowed? I mean, can I make that if you defeat a boss under certain requirements(defeat him with a certain minion on board, letting him go fatigue, etc.) you unlock a secret battle. That way I could make 3 battles per wing plus a secret one.
Ok, I had hoped to allow some freedom regarding which expansion you guys could base yours off of. The plan was for Adventures with 4 wings, their 4th wing would get cut in half, as they had more cards than Naxx and BRM anyways.
To compromise between busy people or newcomers who might not want to make so many cards, and enthusiasts who do, all entries will now follow Blackrock Mountain. It has slightly more cards than Naxx, but significantly less than ONiK and LoE.
Secret, bonus, etc. are allowed so long as you clearly state how to unlock them. They must also not add any extra battles in a wing. For example, wing one is BRM has three bosses. You can't do 3 bosses + 1 secret boss, it would have to be 2 bosses + 1 secret boss.
the darkness - after being convoked by hagatha for "unfinished business", discovers that the league of E V I L destroyed and conquered the city of mages (and those pesky missile arcane users) decided to cooperate with the league of EVIL to envelop the whole world in darkness for it's ultimate revenge for being sealed in it's prison that were the kobold's catacombs. with the league of exporers buisy against the league of EVIL, now it's the time for the junior explorers to save the day
in this adventure you take control of the 4 explorer treasure cards as heroes, each one with a different hero power, special abilities and more to stop the darkness, now ready to cover the world in darkness
during the battle, all cards that are not the 4 rightmost card will be covered in darkness, while in darkness, the card itself cannot be seen, only the mana cost, and any battlecry that a minion might have cannot be applied, so it's always better to bring a lit torch with you to dispell the darkness, allowing you to see your entire hand, but a torch cannot be lit forever, so be ready when the darkness comes.
the darkness - after being convoked by hagatha for "unfinished business", discovers that the league of E V I L destroyed and conquered the city of mages (and those pesky missile arcane users) decided to cooperate with the league of EVIL to envelop the whole world in darkness for it's ultimate revenge for being sealed in it's prison that were the kobold's catacombs. with the league of exporers buisy against the league of EVIL, now it's the time for the junior explorers to save the day
in this adventure you take control of the 4 explorer treasure cards as heroes, each one with a different hero power, special abilities and more to stop the darkness, now ready to cover the world in darkness
during the battle, all cards that are not the 4 rightmost card will be covered in darkness, while in darkness, the card itself cannot be seen, only the mana cost, and any battlecry that a minion might have cannot be applied, so it's always better to bring a lit torch with you to dispell the darkness, allowing you to see your entire hand, but a torch cannot be lit forever, so be ready when the darkness comes.
That's not how an adventure works. You're still thinking of newer singleplayer content. In the original adventurers, the player has to make a deck from their own collection and choose from one of the 9 classes. They don't get any special abilities or hero powers.
Can we add Dialogues to bosses? Adventures are full of Dialogues and even emote interactions.
I specifically did not mention dialogues since the dialogue maker on hearthcards was broken the last time I tried to use it so I thought it wouldn't matter.
If the maker does start work again, that would be an exception to the fancy images rules.
Frequently Asked Questions
Competition Process
The Competition Process, as stated above, is slated to be one wing per two weeks with a voting period of 3 days, leaving a total of 11 days for card creation. Five wings will take a total of 10 weeks. This is a tentative estimate and the moderators will be continually monitoring the flow of the competition.
Voting period: January 16th — January 18th
Voting period: January 30th — February 1st
Voting period: February 13th — February 15th
Voting period: February 27th — February 29th
Voting period: February 12th — March 14th
Discussion Topic Rules
As usual, we have a few basic rules. They're the same as the rules in a Weekly Competition, so most of you should have no problem here.
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:
Example Post
Showcase Cards
Baroness Eliza's tokens:
Boss One: The Sinister Sentry
Decklist
Minions (19):
Spells (11):
Rewards (Class Challenge: Rogue)
Here is the code you can mess around with. It will automatically give you the above Sinister Sentry boss template: https://pastebin.com/3qp1n4jh
Copy that, then find the source code button in the editor. It looks like this: </>. Paste it there and you're in business.
One Night in Karazan and League of Explorers have 4 wings. Naxx and Black Rock have 5. If it's one wing per phase, doesn't that mean some players will have 1 more phase to compete in than others?
Yes the mod team was aware of that. But, for now, we can work on the first few wings since how we deal with this depends on how many people enter, and, therefore, which voting scheme we will use.
This might sound dumb, but what are phases? I understand everything else but I’ve never heard the term phase used with a linear adventure.
They are just sections this competition is split into. Each are 2 weeks long, and each phase is typically one wing. Therefore, people get 2 weeks to complete making a wing.
Hey ! So excited about this new competition, I've been looking forward to this. Before discussing my first ideas, I'd like to ask if rewards beyond cards can be added. I'm thinking specifically of hero portraits but card backs or golden cards could also be a possibility.
I have two ideas for this contest that I'd like to discuss here. Regardless of the one I choose, I want to introduce the following new keyword. The current name could change for better flavor.
Common, Rare and Epic cards with this keyword can be included in 3 copies, Legendary cards in 2 copies. Regardless, the number of cards in a deck would still be 30. Cards with the keyword would be given it the maximum number of copies (2 for legendary, 3 otherwise). Here are a few exemple cards with the keyword :
So my first idea is to follow the tribulations of a young orc from the Frostwolf clan. Each wing would be devoted to a new step towards adulthood. One would be about befriending a frost wolf, one about hunting, one about ancestral spirits, etc... Bosses would include wild animals from the Frostfire Ridges, Orcs of dreanor, ascenstral spirits and maybe a few trolls.
My second idea is to have an adventure about forest spirits, dryads, fierie dragons and such. It would be a tale of untamed nature and protecting the wild as it gets slowly corrupted. Each wing would be about a different season and the troubles it brings, with the last one confronting directly the source of the corruption. Bosses would include Fey creatures, emerald flight dragons and nightmarish monsters from the corrupted wilds.
Tell me what you think !
Do my adventure has to take place in real WoW places? I'm not much into lore.
Edit: Also, if I have to make four bosses per wing, how does that affect card rewards? I mean, for example in most of Naxxramass wings there was less than four bosses, so that would mean that if i add more not for each player would get rewards
I'll participate, for sure. I still don't know what to do, however.
I find this point a bit weird, though. If I recall correctly, Adventure wings used to have three bosses, not four.
Okay, sorry for the double post, but I have come up with an idea.
What if, instead of Orcs invading Azeroth, Humans invaded Draenor? In this scenario, you'd have to help Anduin Lothar to fight several races living in Draenor in order to conquer this planet.
However, I'm not sure which of the following approaches I should follow:
I find the first scenario very interesting, but it means several iconic races (such as the Broken Ones) won't make any sense at all. Plus, a non-desolated Draenor doesn't look like Draenor.
A reverse invasion of Dreanor sounds interesting but you might want to consider a few points :
I've got a keyboard idea (not sure if I worded it correctly though), but I don't know how to fit it in WoW lore... Maybe something with elementals or even pirates? I've heard there's an ability used by some pirates called burst in WoW.
Examples of cards would be:
If I decide to use pirates:
And if I go with elementals instead:
Also, I would like to make burst affected by summoning sickness, but I'm not sure how to word that on the mechanic specs.
Also, are secret battles allowed? I mean, can I make that if you defeat a boss under certain requirements(defeat him with a certain minion on board, letting him go fatigue, etc.) you unlock a secret battle. That way I could make 3 battles per wing plus a secret one.
Click here to see my custom pirate adventure, The Treasures of VanCleef! https://www.hearthpwn.com/forums/hearthstone-general/fan-creations/240766-expansion-competition-the-treasures-of-vancleef
im in charge now
Ok, I had hoped to allow some freedom regarding which expansion you guys could base yours off of. The plan was for Adventures with 4 wings, their 4th wing would get cut in half, as they had more cards than Naxx and BRM anyways.
To compromise between busy people or newcomers who might not want to make so many cards, and enthusiasts who do, all entries will now follow Blackrock Mountain. It has slightly more cards than Naxx, but significantly less than ONiK and LoE.
Really nice ideas, both keyword and story.
No, it doesn't have to be in a real place.
See above announcement.
Some Naxxramas wings had 4, but that is now a moot point. See above announcement.
Secret, bonus, etc. are allowed so long as you clearly state how to unlock them. They must also not add any extra battles in a wing. For example, wing one is BRM has three bosses. You can't do 3 bosses + 1 secret boss, it would have to be 2 bosses + 1 secret boss.
the darkness - after being convoked by hagatha for "unfinished business", discovers that the league of E V I L destroyed and conquered the city of mages (and those pesky missile arcane users) decided to cooperate with the league of EVIL to envelop the whole world in darkness for it's ultimate revenge for being sealed in it's prison that were the kobold's catacombs.
with the league of exporers buisy against the league of EVIL, now it's the time for the junior explorers to save the day
in this adventure you take control of the 4 explorer treasure cards as heroes, each one with a different hero power, special abilities and more to stop the darkness, now ready to cover the world in darkness
during the battle, all cards that are not the 4 rightmost card will be covered in darkness, while in darkness, the card itself cannot be seen, only the mana cost, and any battlecry that a minion might have cannot be applied, so it's always better to bring a lit torch with you to dispell the darkness, allowing you to see your entire hand, but a torch cannot be lit forever, so be ready when the darkness comes.
That's not how an adventure works. You're still thinking of newer singleplayer content. In the original adventurers, the player has to make a deck from their own collection and choose from one of the 9 classes. They don't get any special abilities or hero powers.
Is there any frog race in WoW? (not murlocs)
Can we add Dialogues to bosses? Adventures are full of Dialogues and even emote interactions.
Click here to see my custom pirate adventure, The Treasures of VanCleef! https://www.hearthpwn.com/forums/hearthstone-general/fan-creations/240766-expansion-competition-the-treasures-of-vancleef
I specifically did not mention dialogues since the dialogue maker on hearthcards was broken the last time I tried to use it so I thought it wouldn't matter.
If the maker does start work again, that would be an exception to the fancy images rules.
@mrburger Closest you’ll get are the Scholazar Basin oracles, who are essentially just smarter murlocs.