There's A Diablo TTRPG (and boardgame) Coming!

At BlizzCon 2023, Blizzard Entertainment announced a tabletop roleplaying game and a boardgame based on the Diablo series of video games. The TTRPG is slated for a 2024 crowdfunding campaign, and are being worked on in conjunction with the baordgame company Glass Cannon Unplugged and Genuine Entertainment, while the boardgame is set for fall 2025.

The TTRPG will share components and accessories with the boardgame. The system is an original system, and will use mechanics inspired by Diablo IV. It will explore the Sanctuary, with adventures in the overworld and underworld.

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This isn't the first Diablo TTRPG--back in 2000, WotC released the Dungeons & Dragons Adventure Game: Diablo II Edition for D&D 3E, written by Jeff Grubb and Bill Slavicsek. There were additional supplements, such as 2001's Diablo II: To Hell and Back (a dungeon crawl), and Diablerie (a world book).

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

From Dicebreaker, who are probably jumping the gun on a Blizzcon embargo:

While details in the announcement were sparse, it sounds like Diablo: The Board Game and Diablo: The Roleplaying Game will stay true to their namesake’s dungeon-crawling roots, while also delving into the wider lore and mythos of the world of Sanctuary, the various demons that lurk underneath it and the angels pitted against them in eternal conflict.

Players will take control of their own custom characters - known as ‘champions’ - who must venture through the setting of the game, helping those in need by exploring dungeons and tombs full of undead horrors. It’s not yet confirmed whether either game will feature elements of randomised or procedurally-generated dungeons - a hallmark of the video games - but an element of randomisation may be indicated by the announcement’s mention that stories will play out in the “ever-shifting world of Sanctuary”.

Characters will face multiple opponents in battle at the same time, with Glass Cannon Unplugged saying that the RPG’s system will provide “satisfying, fast-paced” combat. That system was confirmed to be a “unique” ruleset, rather than being based on an existing framework such as Dungeons & Dragons 5E - as with fellow video game adaptations including Dark Souls: The RPG.

The TRPG’s description says that characters will face an “inner struggle” in needing to strike a balance between the forces of Light and Darkness and face being pulled between sin and integrity, suggesting that a morality or karma system might be built into the gameplay - a notable addition that doesn’t appear in any of the Diablo video games to date. Dicebreaker has reached out to Glass Cannon for further gameplay details.

The Diablo tabletop RPG is due to release at next year’s BlizzCon, developer Blizzard’s annual celebration of its games. The event is typically held in early November or late October. Diablo: The Board Game will launch a crowdfunding campaign, with a launch and release date yet to be announced.

The next 12 months will be spent playtesting the games, with Glass Cannon opening a survey for community feedback that asks players what gameplay elements they feel are essential in a Diablo TRPG, which Diablo storylines or settings they’d like to see in a tabletop RPG, and their preferred level of play from one-shot adventures to long campaigns spanning multiple sessions.

Glass Cannon has experience adapting major video games for the tabletop, having turned brutal strategy game Frostpunk, zombie survival game Dying Light and battle royale shooter Apex Legends into board games. Diablo: The Roleplaying Game will be the studio’s first tabletop RPG.

I have fond memories of the messy but fun Diablo RPG games put out during the TSR/WotC transition years. I will be following this with interest.

And my kids and I love the Dungeon! board game and this might be a natural next step for a dungeon crawling board game, assuming it doesn't consume all our storage space the way that Frostpunk or HeroQuest would. (We found Talisman to be a bit too thin for our tastes, before someone suggests it.)

 

[Parmandur]

Very interesting.

 

[schneeland]

Hoping it will not be too fiddly. Because generally speaking that sounds like something I might like.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Hoping it will not be too fiddly. Because generally speaking that sounds like something I might like.

Yeah, Diablo has a real push and pull between "just go slaughter thousands of enemies" and "you should care about a 1% difference in DPS in one ability." I'm hoping this will just be about mowing down lots of enemies en masse (as opposed to Dungeon! where it's one monster at a time, even in multi-monster large rooms).

 

[The Soloist]

Consider me very interested in both products. For the board game, I hope it does not require the use of an App. That is a no-go for me.

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

Yeah, Diablo has a real push and pull between "just go slaughter thousands of enemies" and "you should care about a 1% difference in DPS in one ability." I'm hoping this will just be about mowing down lots of enemies en masse (as opposed to Dungeon! where it's one monster at a time, even in multi-monster large rooms).

I remember the old Diablo II books Wizards had put out and a lot of the fun from that came from rolling the random magic item abilities. Some, obviously, were super overpowered but some were just randomly cool like 'your character gets +3 levels worth of spells a day'

 

[Weiley31]

I really hope the Blood Knight is a class in this. Although this maybe based more on D4 so at least I'll have the Necromancer and Druid.

 

[Von Ether]

So I this is the third KS that I am aware of that has pulled off the boardgame/ttrpg combo so as to share assets between the two games. I think the other two are Batman: Gotham City Chronicles and Hellboy. Hellboy is out and uses 5e, but I don't think there is a review here on ENWorld for it yet. (Apologies if I am wrong.)

But seriously, this doesn't need a kickstarter. My personal opinion, when companies with real resources will use the same tools to avoid risks or avoid paying for talent is is the main reason we don't get to use tools like AI art even though they could greatly help small companies or one-person shops with no budget make better products.

 

[Dire Bare]

So I this is the third KS that I am aware of that has pulled off the boardgame/ttrpg combo so as to share assets between the two games. I think the other two are Batman: Gotham City Chronicles and Hellboy. Hellboy is out and uses 5e, but I don't think there is a review here on ENWorld for it yet. (Apologies if I am wrong.)

But seriously, this doesn't need a kickstarter. My personal opinion, when companies with real resources will use the same tools to avoid risks or avoid paying for talent is is the main reason we don't get to use tools like AI art even though they could greatly help small companies or one-person shops with no budget make better products.

Blizzard is pretty big . . . but Glass Cannon isn't. How does Glass Cannon using Kickstarter to launch a licensed game hurt smaller publishers?

It doesn't.

And what does this have to do with A.I.? Nothing. A small publisher using AI that scrapes existing art without the consent of the artist isn't any more legit than a large company doing so.

Kickstarter, and other crowdfunding platforms, are tools for publishers big and small. It was never intended just for the "little guys".