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).

 

[Voadam]

double post.

 

[SteveC]

Another really interesting post. If this were happening in the past, I think I'd be excited about it. Now? I can't imagine this being a think that could reflect the game in a tabletop format. Diablo just moves so fast and has so many combats, I just don't see a way you could reflect it in tabletop RPG terms. I think it would be tough to do as a boardgame. You just move too fast, battle too many creatures over too much space to reflect things in another medium.

I suppose I will follow it a bit to see what they're doing but I can't imagine you'll get anything close to the experience of the computer game in another format. Unless you went extremely meta and used a narrative mechanic to express the combat in abstract terms. And I think that would be something that would be immensely unpopular too.

I'm intrigued but I just don't see how this will work.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I suspect typical Diablo combats could be modelled with mook/minion rules, and then switching to "normal" combat for named characters and bosses.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Glad that’s it’s going to be an original system, I don’t think D&D would have worked well.

 

[Vincent55]

they did this back in 3rd edition with the game ( Diablo II: Diablerie, softback supplement for D&D 3rd/3.5th edition)

 

[Aldarc]

And while many people DID criticize Diablo 3 for being too WoW in look/appearance, I will admit that I did enjoy its story and the idea/concept of the Nephalem. Also, its Necromancer class too, but that's a whole different bucket of apples.

I hated the part in bold. IMHO, it created (1) a tonal shift from the gothic horror towards the superheroic, and (2) an unintentional power curve problem as the nephalem (and the player characters) were more threatening and powerful than either angels or demons.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Hasbro should hurry to get the licence of Warcraft to be published by WotC. They will regret if other does it before them.

I played Diablo II but after killing the final boss, not only the game but the genre lost all interest for me. That setting is "heroes against the infernal hordes". Very grimm, but only an antagonist faction, the plot so simple like a children cartoon, even when some angels aren't so purehearted.

 

[Reynard]

Something I think about a lot is exactly how much a licensed RPG should emulate the feel of the original, especially for RPGs licensed from other game types.

Let's use World of War Warcraft as an example. If it is a "WoW TTRPG" you would expect it to try and translate WoW's mechanics into something manageable at the table. But, if it is a broader "Warcraft" RPG it might be different. After all, WoW is a MMORPG adaptation of an RTS, and there is a card game and a MOBA in the world as well. From this perspective, a Warcraft World TTRPG could have a very different design, and as long as the spirit of the universe is honored it would be just as valid.

So a Diablo TTRPG wouldn't necessarily have to play like Diablo plays but on the table, if the world of Sanctuary, lore of the series, and overall feel are honored in the design.

 

[Hurin70]

You'll just have to buy the core rulebook, then pay an additional $19.99 per quarter for a season's pass, then you can also unlock the Paladin via microtransaction for $19.99 as well.

 

[Reynard]

You'll just have to buy the core rulebook, then pay an additional $19.99 per quarter for a season's pass, then you can also unlock the Paladin via microtransaction for $19.99 as well.

So, the same as any other ttrpg?