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Traveler Game Mode

I always want to see more social interaction in Hearthstone and find new ways to use the existing system. This led me to design the Traveler game mode. Traveler is about drafting cards with other players and then battling in a bracket system. Traveler has two drafting formats known as Crowd and Auction. Crowd has each player open packs of cards and pass it around after selecting 1 card to take for their deck. Auction has all players engage in a round-based card Auction where players spend Tavern Gold to bid on cards in hope of taking it for their deck. Both formats follow the same bracket system and player count where the amount of players can range from 2, 4, or 8. I designed and play tested over 100+ variations of Traveler and I'm excited seeing how far it has come and where it can go.

Notice

All card art used is AI generated and Hearthcards.net was utilized to help mock up designs. The following designs are mine alone. I acknowledge some designs might need some tweaking and balance testing depending on the game state Hearthstone is in. I did my best to test out a majority of my cards with paper print outs and Innkeeper battles. Due to the sheer amount of cards designed, only a few will be displayed or documented in charts here. If there is interest in seeing more of my work on this study, feel free to reach out and contact me.

Why Traveler?

I had the idea for Traveler after graduating college. At college my friends and I would always draft Magic the Gathering cards at LAN events or before breaks. However, after graduation this proved difficult to do online with various card games. I tested drafting Hearthstone decks with friends through Hearthstone's Arena game mode, but it didn't deliver the same social interaction, deck building, and feeling I was looking for. Due to this I set out to design something that would work with the existing game and possibly be implementable as a future game mode.

Half Drafting/Half Bracket

Both the Crowd and Auction Formats draft with 4 players. Once the drafting stage is complete the Bracket stage begins where 8 players use their drafted decks to progress through a 3 stage winner or loser bracket. Players do not enter the bracket stage with the players they drafted with unless its a friendly game hosted by a single player.

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Crowd Format

Concept

The Crowd Draft Format in Traveler is similar to opening physical card packs and passing them around. However, in Hearthstone Crowds enter the Tavern and players choose from who and what is in the crowd to draft.

Crowd Format

Mechanics
 

There are 3 different Crowd Types that can be drafted from similar to drafting from different card packs. Due to how classes work in Hearthstone, all players draft the same class from Class Crowds.

-Class Crowds contain Class cards.
-Neutral Crowds contain Neutral cards.
-Mixed Crowds
contain both Class cards of the same class for all players and Neutral cards.


Each Crowd type has a Standard and Wild variant. 

The Crowd Drafting Format has 3 Crowd Options for how to draft. Crowd sizes, Crowd types, and the number of Crowds in a draft depend on the Option chosen.

Large Crowds:
-1 Round of a Class Crowd of 15 Cards.
-1 Round of a Neutral Crowd of 15 Cards.
-1 Round of a Mixed Crowd of 10 Cards.

Small Crowds:
-3 Rounds of a Class Crowd of 5 Cards.
-3 Rounds of a Neutral Crowds of 5 Cards.
-2 Round of a Mixed Crowd of 5 Cards.

Mixed Crowds:
-4 Rounds of a Mixed Crowd of 10 Cards.

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Crowd Format

Design Direction

When I was designing the Crowd Format I really wanted to lean into the social drafting aspect as players actively take cards from a pool you see again unlike Arena. For this reason I decided to not weigh card rarity in Crowds. Half of the fun is seeing what you have to work with and strategizing to either weaken an opponent's deck or strengthen your own.

Draft time and Play time were very big design pillars for me in development. At the start I played around with the idea of players being able to draft from multiple Crowds at once in game. This allowed for a faster draft time, but it came with the issues of multitasking, individual Crowd strategy, and missing possible synergies due to not knowing how 1 Crowd played out before another one began. From the data collected in testing I decided to step away from the multiple Crowd concept.

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Crowd Format

Playtesting

I tested the Crowd Format multiple time using Standard and Wild versions. Regular testing allowed me to hone in on what Crowd Options worked the best. I tried various Crowd Sizes and amounts of Crowds in drafts, eventually landing on the 3 being Large Crowds, Small Crowds, and Mixed Crowds. These ratios of Crowd sizes to drafting rounds consistently led to fair card pools and opportunities for 2-6 players.

I knew from the start I wanted to find the best options for larger Crowds with fewer rounds and vise versa. I created Mixed Crowds to add more decision making in the drafting process by combining what would be separate rounds into one. I limited the amount of class cards and neutral cards to 5 each in order to give each a balanced appearance rate. By combining Class and Neutrals it made for more tough decision and a deeper strategy.

At first I tested early on pie in the sky with various methods to make Crowds such as Expansion Crowds or with every Class which I coined "Anarchy Crowds." These early tests however presented clear and informative issues. Expansion limited Crowds were too constant which took away from the draft feeling. Anarchy Crowds were extremely fun and made for a lot of strategy, but they took extremely long to draft due to not all cards being able to be put into 1 deck. I could see Anarchy Crowds being a viable Crowd Type in the future similar Mixed Crowds if Hearthstone ever made Traveler and allowed for any class card to be put into a deck.

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Mini-Set Maelstrom Madness

The captains gather in the center of the massive Maelstrom fighting each other for loot and glory. Each class gets 2 dual class cards.

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Auction Format

Concept

The Auction Draft Format in Traveler is similar to bidding at a real Auction. In Hearthstone, Auction has all players engage in a round-based card Auction where players spend Tavern Gold to bid on cards in hope of drafting them for their deck. 

Auction Format

Mechanics

There are 4 Auction Options when drafting. The lowest Bidding amount is 20 Tavern Gold. Along side the Auction Options that change each round, there is a changing Mystery Option which starts at 40 Tavern Gold and is revealed after all Auction Options are Sold. Each player starts with 3000 Tavern Gold and if they run out, they can no longer bid and instead receive the last option each round until the Auction ends. The Auction Ends after 40 Rounds where at that point all players would have drafted 40 cards.

The way Bidding works is that once a Bid is placed on an Option, all other Options cannot be Bid on until that Option is Sold. Players can only Buy one Option per round and cannot Bid once they have Bought something. The last player to put in a Bid on an Option without a counter offer Buys the Option.

Each Auction begins and ends with a Legendary Auction, but Legendary cards can appear at anytime during an Auction. 


 

 



 

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Auction Format

Design Direction

When I was designing the Auction Format I wanted to make the drafting process very skill testing and fun socially. This led to a Mystery Option allowing for comeback potential and fun moments where players can miss out on great options or over pay for weak cards.

The Tavern Gold system worked very well in testing and allowed for a very immersive and social drafting process. If Auction were ever to be added in Hearthstone I would look into making a unique UI menu to allow for clear Bid amount setting on platforms like Mobile.

Auction Format

Playtesting

Auction playtests yielded very valuable data. I hosted numerous tests with varying Player Counts, Tavern Gold Amounts, Minimum and Maximum Bids, and Bidding Order Systems in both Standard and Wild versions. A lot of the data I collected led to the current iteration of the Auction Format. Legendary Drafts for example started as a test I put in place during a few playtests to level out playing fields and set the pacing of Bidding by having two very important Bidding rounds at the Start and End of the Auction. This was one of the most well received changes and it added a lot of strategy to the format.

A lot of testing was focused on the Bidding process and how players can bounce around Auction Options. At first players were able to bid on any option at the same time which led a lot of chaos and strange occurrences. From this I eventually landed on a 1 Option Bidding cycle where players would choose the first thing to Bid on and then move through the options as they saw fit. This allowed the players to determine the big ticket items and have all players engaged as they search for what card they want to Bid on.

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Mini-Set
Terror at Orgrimmar

Y'Shaarj's attacks on the Vale lead him and the classes to the city of Orgrimmar as he tries to reclaim his heart which is corrupting the city.

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Traveler

Bracket System

Once each player drafts 40 cards they may build their 30 card deck and sideboard 10 cards. Then they enter bracket matches where they have to win a best of 3 games against 3 different players to win it all. Losing players compete in a loser bracket. After each game at a bracket stage players are given 1 minute to modify their deck using their sideboard.

Players do not enter the bracket stage with the players they drafted with unless its a friendly game hosted by a single player. This allows players the freedom to come and go without long game times or commitment. Players can hop on to draft, come home from work and play a bracket match or two, or play through a whole Traveler game from draft to final bracket stage in one sitting.

Placing higher in brackets grants more rewards track progress and winning the winner or loser bracket rewards gold. Each player who drafts has the option to retire their deck at anytime and they can add the drafted cards to their collection by paying for them in gold or Runestones. This promotes players to draft well and helps newer or returning players make a deck they can test themselves before deciding to spend money.

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 Traveler

Heroic Mode

Heroic Traveler games cost Gold to enter and has each player draft for 3 different classes instead of 1.

Each player is still a best of 3 in the bracket, but any of the 3 decks that each player drafted can be used. After a player wins with a deck, it cannot be used again against that player in that bracket stage.

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Traveler

Social Aspect

Traveler has the option for a single player to host a private game with friends where they can tweak or choose game settings. Crowd or Auction drafting, Options related to each drafting method, and more. For example, there is a togglable option to allow players to utilize all Neutral cards drafted in their 3 decks. Another togglable option would be to disable having more copies of cards than the standard allowed amount.
 

Traveler would be a great addition as a game mode to push Guild like systems in Hearthstone. It can be modular and easily updatable similar to Arena which can keep it fun and interesting each expansion and onward. It can help foster communities and allow content creators as well as average players to play with friends in new ways.

Traveler

Optional Rules

Due to the way some cards work currently in Hearthstone I made some rules related to them.

If You Draft Renathal: You may include all 40 drafted cards in your deck.

If You Draft E.T.C Band Manager:
You may include 3 cards from your 40 drafted cards in your Band.

If You Draft A Tourist: You may draft from that Tourist's card pool 5 times instead of the other draft option.

If you draft an Old God's C'Thun related card: You may add 1 C'Thun to your deck.

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Traveler

Bracket Playtesting

Heroic Traveler games cost Gold to enter and has each player draft for 3 different classes instead of 1.Each player is still a best of 3 in the bracket, but any of the 3 decks that each player drafted can be used. After a player wins with a deck, it cannot be used again against that player in that bracket stage.

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Mini-Set
Awakened Abyss

About N'Zoth reaching into the oceans of Azeroth from the Emerald Dream and corrupting the Sunken City.

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