Hello everyone, I'm back with another concept that allows us to have more ways to play Hearthstone. My last concept was Explorer, a format that bans cards on a monthly basis until it resets at the beginning of the new Hearthstone Year. Today I bring you Tables, a new way to play Hearthstone with your friends with your own rules. Such as hand size, starting health, deck size, and more with a little imagination. There's also some bonus stuff that I'm throwing in here as well that can apply. Again, if you see any flaws, have any questions, or just want to point something out that I didn't cover, please let me know. My designs are not perfect but we as a community can get Team 5's attention and tell them that we want something new.
Here we go.
Hearthstone is set in Harth's tavern somewhere in Azeroth.
The players are sat down at a table, in front of the Box and begin playing.
But what if we..... got up? And walked to a different table?
This is where Tables came from, the idea that other people are in this tavern, playing Hearthstone, by their own rules.
It's a pretty easy concept and pretty simple to implement.
Everyone is familiar with with the Modes button by now, and I felt that Tables fits right into that menu.
Choosing a tankard was appropriate because chances are if you're playing custom games, you're playing with friends.
Just click it and you'll be taken to the next menu.
Okay, I know I just gave you ALOT to look at and process, but these are the tables.
Before we talk about making your own rules and rule sets, I'm going to showcase some other ways to play.
Before we get started we have to address that with the implementation of Tables, comes also the Deck Box system.
It's simple, you click the button, and select the corresponding rule set or mode you want it to be made for, and get to building.
Toki, Time-Tinker is moving to Wild in April and when she does, her Battlecry won't make much sense.
She didn't see serious play when she was in Standard and definitely won't in Wild, so why not give her a Table to herself?
Toki's Tables of Time allows players to visit old, end of year metas of the past.
Just select the mode and what year, and get to playing!
Two Headed Ogre is pretty straight forward.
Hearthstone Mathematics made a video showcasing what a 2V2 mode would look like.
Iksar even commented on the mode but this was right before Battlegrounds was announced, so maybe people have forgotten about it?
Tournaments Grounds is essentially Tournament Mode but now it has a home in Table.
It makes sense really.
What if a bunch of players got together, established rules, card bans, and the like and started a Tournament?
What if other players like their rule set and wanted to mimic it?
We'll get to that soon. ;)
Endless Adventure is basically an endless Dungeon Run, but with rewards.
It uses all of them, intertwined if you'd like.
Dungeon Run, Monster Hunt, Rumble Run, Dalaran Heist, and Tombs of Terror.
A free version of it will be available to all players to play whenever they want.
New Treasures and ways to modify/remove cards from your deck should be implemented.
Rewards should be given when beating boss number "x" and so on.
A paid version, with either gold or your local currency, is available to those who think they can get really far.
Rewards will be increased as well.
For Tournament Grounds and Endless Adventure, I went and I had to brainstorm for rewards that are worthy of players' time.
I came up with two new rewards called Pack Tokens and Pack Sleeves.
Pack Tokens are exactly what they sound like.
They are equivalent to 100 Gold and buy you a pack.
The difference is that you can use these to buy whatever pack you want instead of the game choosing for you.
Pack Sleeves are a tool players can use to guarantee that they'll open a Legendary or Epic card.
Any pack can be used with these, and most importantly, you don't have to use them right away.
That means you can save them, and when an expansion comes out, if you want to use them all at once, go for it.
Now of course these aren't going to be easy to obtain, but hey, they're still neat.
The way these work internally is that once the pack is slid in, it chooses a Common rarity card and changes it before you open the pack.
Now enough waiting around, let's talk about making your own rules.
You select "Your Table" and are presented with a menu that allows you to browse individual rules and build them into a rule set.
You give it a name and description and start diving into individual rules that apply within.
Focus on the left side first.
The game needs to know what set restrictions you'd like to have.
Current Standard set?
How about all of Wild?
Do you want to modify what was allowed in Year of the Mammoth?
Let's pick Standard for Simplicity.
Now we have to list sets that are in use, this will default to whatever was allowed within the time you chose.
If you want to ban a particular set, now you can.
What would it look like if only (all of) Witchwood, Rastakhan's Rumble, and Descent of Dragons were allowed?
No Classic or Basic sets either.
Now that we have that out of the way, let's ban some cards, and maybe even some classes.
We'll get rid of every Galakrond card plus what ever cards synergize with him.
We'll also ban Embiggen and Necrium Apothecary.
You know what? Since Genn Greymane and Baku the Mooneater are here I'm gonna ban Paladin and Shaman as well, these are MY rules after all.
On the right you can see other rules that are not active until you click "Add Custom Rules".
Then you can peruse you own ideas or other players ideas and throw them into the rule set.
At the bottom of the extra rules slider will be an option to actually make other rules, I just couldn't find an appealing UI design.
Rule sets and Rules are shareable similarly to how we share deck codes.
Here's a mock up of a completed Rule Set
"Play" is where you would go if you wanted to play against random players against other players' rule sets, or maybe even a rule set made by a Blizzard employee.
Think of it as a game browser.
Issues, Solutions, and Outcomes.
Issues
Probably the biggest one that will be called out is that it dilutes the player base which is understandable.
Players claim that the wait times for Wild are long enough as it is and more formats or game modes would make it even longer.
Does Tables of Time have longevity?
What if rules conflict with each other?
How will Tavern Brawl be affected?
Replayability
Taverns of Time could be the largest victim of this. I'm not sure how many long time players will dive into old, figured out metas.
But the option is still there for people who would like to dive in.
Solutions
Rules should be made to where if two rules conflict they can't exist in the same rule set. This should be a fail safe that's implemented by Team 5.
As for dilution of the player base, Team 5 should create more incentives to encourage players to branch out into different formats and modes with quests.
They've done it in the past, they just need to do it more often.
To me, Tavern Brawl is more of a stepping stone if anything.
It's existed for several years now and I think it's time to retire it and/or move it into Tables.
It's honestly a perfect fit as well.
Outcomes
I think in general most players will like the idea that they can make their own rules and share them with the Hearthstone community.
Dilution of the player base is a possibility but I firmly believe in having a split player base is better than a non-existent one.
I made this Mode because people were telling me how awesome it would be to have the ability to make their own rules.
So I made a concept that Team 5 should look at and consider.
Once again, if I overlooked anything, didn't explain something entirely, or if you are confused about something just ask.
As always, thank you for reading,
-Grif
