kenjib said:
Speaking as one of those disenfranchised former EQ players, the thought of going back into that world, in any medium, is not at all enticing. I suspect that this will not be a successful target market and that current players will be more receptive, but I could, of course, be entirely wrong.
Here is where I have to disagree with you - but it DOES, of course, depend on the focus and direction of the game rules.
I cannot speak for WotC (though I would kill a Celestial just to have Ryan drop into this thread to tell us this information), but my impression was that the Diablo II 3E conversions did not sell well as a product. You JUST CAN'T convert the experience of a Computer game to an RPG "verbatim" and have it be popular. The true "gamists" who liked the game are going to ask why go to the slower experience of Pen and Paper to accomplish the same thing as what is being played with friends over a LAN connection. Furthermore, the sheer volume of hack and slash in such a paper product is going to alienate most RPG'ers.
By the same token, you have Everquest. As silly as it sounds, Everquest just isn't the same experience to the die-hard gamers without the SoW beggars, the little bazaars going on for cash right outside the cities, the camping of favorite monster spots, and the mass battles. Some of this (the Player bazaars outside the city in particular) would be really cool to implement in a Paper RPG, but most of it is either too unwieldy or cannot be duplicated expediently in a non-computer environment. I bought one Diablo II product from WotC, thumbed through the rest at a gaming store, and had NO interest in playing it. Why not just have a LAN party, which costs about $20 per machine with those little $100 starting kits, and everyone gets to be a PC?
Kenjib, I, too, am one of those former EQ players, having quit as an 11th level character, with enough fights under my belt to be an 18th level D&D character, and just got tired of hugging cities, fighting a hideously power creature, and then returning with my load of rusty daggers I won to get better equipment.
Everquest had the promise of an amazing backstory - I certainly would love to play in Norrath. Just the fact of having half the world dominated by evil races, and being able to play each one, and the interaction between races, is a great hook to base a compaign on, as well as some of the real enigmas present in the game.
The ultimate Pen and Paper EQ game would involve enough stuff to establish a full campaign, but also have a quick-play section with simplified rules for fast, mass combats. I myself would enjoy the game, both for setting, and for new skills anf feats and classes to strip-mine for info.
