Diablo RPG Kickstarter signup is live

[Jahydin]

@SteveC
Exactly why I wont back until I get to see the rules.

Hopefully they'll release a quick-look with a one-shot adventure when they go live.

 

[Weiley31]

I would LOVE if the Blood Knight from Diablo Immortal was a class to play as in this. But, Druid and Necromancer are still my go-to. (Assassin was my main in D2). Now Spiritborn? That would be SPOILING ME if that's in as well.

As for the D6 dice pool system, I wouldn't low-key mind if it ended up like a Soulbound-like. Especially since everybody starts off seasoned from session 0. YMMV on that.

 

[Aldarc]

My go-to classes were always the Paladin/Crusader and the Necromancer. The lack of a Paladin-type class in D4 has been something of a persistent sticking point for a lot of fans.

 

[GrimCo]

I'm not kickstarter fan, but as a Diablo fan, if hardcovers ever hit regular sale, i will buy it, if for no other reason, than as cool art and lore books to enjoy.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Wow. That’s a stacked design team if ever I saw one.

I mean it's kind of a mix of impressive and off-putting for my money.

I’m kinda sad they don’t even mention loot in the description. A Diablo rpg, at least for me, needs an amazing random loot and equipment generation system as a pillar.

Definitely an odd omission, but perhaps just an oversight?

I'm especially curious to see the mechanics for handling this!

Yup. Whether those are good and fun or not is going to be the key determinant of whether people actually play this much or whether it just gathers dust on shelves as a collectible like Joe LeFavi's previous game, Blade Runner.

MORAL CONFLICT
The Eternal Conflict seizes every chance to tempt and test you with a push-your- luck mechanic after your very soul.

This seems a bit weird to mention and not loot, because like, that's not "a thing" in Diablo. PCs don't turn to the dark side and indeed generally characters mostly don't except by sheer force of magic/proximity to Evil Magic Gems (more often it's revealed that someone was Evil All Along). This ain't Star Wars mate.

Also Diablo takes the firm (and very 1990s) position that the Angels and Demons are equally awful, so what would even happen?

 

[Weiley31]

I mean it's kind of a mix of impressive and off-putting for my money.


Definitely an odd omission, but perhaps just an oversight?


Yup. Whether those are good and fun or not is going to be the key determinant of whether people actually play this much or whether it just gathers dust on shelves as a collectible like Joe LeFavi's previous game, Blade Runner.


This seems a bit weird to mention and not loot, because like, that's not "a thing" in Diablo. PCs don't turn to the dark side and indeed generally characters mostly don't except by sheer force of magic/proximity to Evil Magic Gems (more often it's revealed that someone was Evil All Along). This ain't Star Wars mate.

Also Diablo takes the firm (and very 1990s) position that the Angels and Demons are equally awful, so what would even happen?

Diablo 2 shows examples of this. The VERY first early story boss in Act 1 is Blood Raven, who is the corrupted version of the Thief character you can play as in Diablo 1. The one Sorcerer boss you fight early in Act 2 is the Sorcerer character from, well, Diablo 1 again. And finally, Diablo 's host body, as The Dark Wanderer that your chasing all throughout Acts 1-4 is the very same Warrior character who tried to imprison Diablo in his own body(D1).

All three originally previous playable characters from the previous game who were corrupted/killed.

Also,in Act 3 of Diablo 2, before fighting Mephisto, you come across the corrupted versions of the High Council members of the Zakarim Faith/Church that The D2 Paladin is a member of. They literally serve as mini boss obstacles as you make your way to Mephisto, the one who corrupted them.

In Act 5 of D2:Lord of Destruction, the one member of the Barbarian village, that serves as your hub, is betrayed by a member of that community and is a, by The Rathma faith, a corrupted Necromancer.

And that's not counting the books with moments too.

So, while not a main focus of the loot/grind aspect of the game, lore wise IT'S THERE and still a big part.

 

[JConstantine]

As for the D6 dice pool system, I wouldn't low-key mind if it ended up like a Soulbound-like. Especially since everybody starts off seasoned from session 0. YMMV on that.

Yeah. When I think of Diablo (and alikes), I think blasting through scores of enemies, and Soulbound does just that.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Diablo 2 shows examples of this. The VERY first early story boss in Act 1 is Blood Raven, who is the corrupted version of the Thief character you can play as in Diablo 1. The one Sorcerer boss you fight early in Act 2 is the Sorcerer character from, well, Diablo 1 again. And finally, Diablo 's host body, as The Dark Wanderer that your chasing all throughout Acts 1-4 is the very same Warrior character who tried to imprison Diablo in his own body(D1).

I don't think that's the same thing as what's being described though.

There's no evidence they were "tempted into evil" as seems to be being described, and that doesn't really make sense with D2's cosmology, rather explicitly they "brought back an evil presence", which is what I referred to re:

by sheer force of magic

And Aidan, the Warrior it's clearly a case of:

proximity to Evil Magic Gems

What it's not is "Oh I decided to be evil for gain!" or similar.

Also,in Act 3 of Diablo 2, before fighting Mephisto, you come across the corrupted versions of the High Council members of the Zakarim Faith/Church that The D2 Paladin is a member of. They literally serve as mini boss obstacles as you make your way to Mephisto, the one who corrupted them.

No evidence whatsoever that they just decided to "turn evil" though. On the contrary it looks like Mephisto's power overwhelmed them.

This also matches up with how corruption is depicted in Diablo 3 and Diablo 4 - people don't just decide to be evil or w/e, they get overwhelmed.

In Act 5 of D2:Lord of Destruction, the one member of the Barbarian village, that serves as your hub, is betrayed by a member of that community and is a, by The Rathma faith, a corrupted Necromancer.

You mean Nihlathak from Harrogath? That's certainly the closest example, far closer than the rest, because he makes an actual conscious deal with Baal. He is 100% NOT a "corrupted Necromancer" though. Necromancers in Diablo lore are a specific sect from a specific place. He has Necromancer-style powers (but also a non-Necromancer ability), and is some kind of "raiser of undead", but Necromancers are holy warriors with a holy mission and a holy duty and we can't go around call random barbarian council members who know magic to raise the dead "Necromancers". He's also not really "corrupted" in the same sense at all, he's just evil. He shows no signs of having demonic powers, mutations, or influence, unlike the rest.

So corruption is a thing, but it's an external pressure usually directly from an extremely powerful supernatural being or a soulgem they're in or similar, or very rarely, some kind of formal betrayal deal (I think there's one in the D4 expansion also). People don't just like flip to the darkside because they had a bad time or got mad or w/e.

The other issue is that again, both sides in The Eternal Conflict are bad, but being excessively Angel-following doesn't seem to have the same effects. That said, there are plenty of fanatics in D4 who might provide some kind of model for that.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The other issue is that again, both sides in The Eternal Conflict are bad, but being excessively Angel-following doesn't seem to have the same effects. That said, there are plenty of fanatics in D4 who might provide some kind of model for that.

It does feel like someone on the writing team would really like to more fully engage with these ideas, but either they left after writing the core game or the game leads told them that the feedback is overwhelmingly "wait, there's a story in Diablo?" Which is a shame, since the really terrible "good guys" in D4 are one of my favorite parts of the franchise.

While I don't think anyone wants to bring back nephilim as the focus of the franchise again, explicitly working against both Heaven and Hell is compelling, and I was disappointed that while Lilith started off talking a good game in D4, that never ended up going anywhere.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

While I don't think anyone wants to bring back nephilim as the focus of the franchise again, explicitly working against both Heaven and Hell is compelling, and I was disappointed that while Lilith started off talking a good game in D4, that never ended up going anywhere.

Right? I really thought Lilith had something to say but then it all sort of just trailed off into Mephisto nonsense (which they've now dragged out for an entire expansion without resolving much).