Everquest/Warcraft/Diablo RPGs: Who are the buyers?

[Krug]

So who are the buyers for the pen and paper versions of popular Computer-based RPGs such as Everquest, Warcraft and Diablo? Are the hard core fans of the CRPGs interested, or the audience more those already playing D&D? When I posted a note about the Warcraft RPG on a popular WC forum, the response seemed pretty lukewarm...

Same for Babylon 5/Stargate. Are the TV fans who've never played an RPG before drawn to try out the game?

 

[Dark Jezter]

I plan on buying the Warcraft RPG once Amazon gets it in. I'm a long time fan of the games and the setting, so I'm really anxious to see the D&D campaign setting for it.

 

[Greatwyrm]

I was a gamer long before I picked up the Diablo stuff. I got it mainly because I liked the monsters and wanted to use them as a DM.

I looked through Everquest, but didn't really like it. Having not played the mmorpglakdurnslskdfn may have had something to do with it.

I haven't seen Warcraft yet. I never really played the rts, but the rpg sounds okay. Better supported than the Diablo stuff, too.

 

[Tear44]

I picked up the Everquest RPG. Mostly as a fanboy of the PC game. But after I read it, I got my group into trying it. Its great to beable to expand the adventures into more in depth Role Playing, than the typical railroading hack fest that EQ usually is.

One guy had never played D&D pnp before trying EQrpg. He enjoyed it so much he got the core books.

 

[Mr. Lobo]

I'm pretty much a straight D&D RPG PnP player. But I bought the Diablo RPG books (both) when they came out. I started playing the original Diablo CRPG about a month before the 3.0 core rules came out.

Yeah that's how out of date I am on computer games. Shoot, I still play Daggerfall.

I thought the Diablo books were fantastic for ideas, cool spells and dungeaon maps.

How far back does that cave go? Pull out Diablo.
I didn't want that to be a caved-in room in my pre-fab dungeon map and the module says "this area can be expanded on by the DM". Pull out Diablo.

Bam! Instant expansions.

Also in my campaigns I make sure that cults, individual scholars, and other groups are coming up with new spells and items all the time. That's where Diablo comes in. Just pull out items and spells.

Need an NPC? Bang! Pull one out of Diablo.

For these reasons I'm really anticipating getting my hands on the Warcraft PnP RPG. These books are real idea joggers for me.

I've seen reviews on the Diablo RPG that weren't too flattering because the role playing was all hack and slash. Man, if you buy a game accessory and run it only by the rules contained therein you are missing the POINT!

Anyway, my 2 cents.

 

[Darkness]

Let's see...

It's not a d20 thing, of course, but I own the Buffy RPG. Love the series. Angel, too...

I'll give Warcraft a look when it hits Austria (my dealer supposedly gets it next Wednesday-Thursday) but I'm not too likely to buy it. I played WC2 and its expansion but haven't found a chance to play WC3 yet.

And I don't care too much about playing in the B5 universe, even though I used to like the series. (It got worse near the end, at least in my opinion.) So... No B5 RPG for me.

I played Diablo I for hours on end - but I'm not too much interested in a Diablo RPG adaptation. Truth be told, D&D alone suffices for anything of that sort I might want to try; so I really don't need it.

I liked Starcraft but its Alternity conversion wasn't too good IMO. I might do Starcraft in HERO or BESM one day, though.

I haven't touched a superhero comic in ages (nor watched a superhero movie, though I do watch superhero comic tv series sometimes) but I picked up the new Marvel RPG. (Note: This one's not d20, either, of course.) It's way cool, BTW.


So... My interest in such adaptations really depends. Mostly, though, I'm more likely to just build it myself if it interests me enough to play it. (Buffy's an exception but the RPG just rocks that much.)

 

[Ruined]

I got the Diablo books cheap, and the extra monsters and magic items aren't bad to have around.

I'm hoping the EQ material does well, since a guy I've known for years has been a contributor to all of the books from that line. Too bad I was never an EQ junkie.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Never played Everquest but heard some good things about the system and the 100% compliant line made me think, "Hmmm... cool."

Diablo I enjoyed and was curious to see how it fit into the game. It's not terrible but outside of the monsters, it's not really used at my table.

Warcraft I'll buy one of these days just because I enjoy the world and setting and am curious to see how well it translates over to D&D and with this being an official D&D game, I'm sure its going to fit better than Everquest did.

 

[HellHound]

Never played EverQuest, yet I love the feel of the EQRPG. I'm running a "light" game of EQRPG.

I used to play a lot of Diablo II and thus bought the DII books. I then went through and re-wrote the Paladin, Amazon and Barbarian classes as core classes for my campaign setting.

I have never played WarCraft III, and have only played WCII a few times. But I'm buying WC RPG.

So, in my case, it sells to d20 RPG junkies, regardless of experience with the game it is licensed from.

 

[Zogg]

I have the latest version of Warcraft (collector's edition, no less) but have yet to play it as my PC is too slow.

I also play all the DnD games like Baldur's Gate 1 & 2, Icewind Dale, and even BGark Alliance on the PS2. I haven't gotten into Everquest though - not into MMORPGs.

I also enjoy strategy games not related to DnD, like HOMM 2 & 3 (4 sucks, so I've heard) and AoW 2 (waiting for the new version to come out soon!).