DiabloFans

Hey guys,


I'm looking for something fun to help bide time until D3, as well as something to sink some time into, especially with school letting out for the summer in about a month.

So, what I want to do is see what level of interest there might be in playing a forum-based (obviously), text-only, turn-based RPG based in the Diablo world, at about the time of / just prior to the events of D3.

My thinking is to basically take the canonical Diablo world as we know it and using what's been revealed about D3 (as well as in the novels, etc.) as inspiration to spawn off something unique. Obviously I'm not privy to what's going to canonically happen in D3 any more than anyone else here, so the idea is we'll use those things as inspiration and basically engage in a sort of alternate Diablo RPG that goes, well, wherever it ends up going.

I know that's a little abstract, but I think you'll know what I'm getting at.

Available classes would basically be what you'd expect: Barbarian, Wizard, Witch Doctor, Monk, + our best guess at the 5th class, which I'll probably title 'Rogue' and make it some kind of ranged class with elements of agility / deception / whatever. Amazon meets Assassin, you get the idea.

Skills will take cues from what we know of D3, as well as the inclusion of some kind of 'skill rune' mechanic, etc.

Items will be what we're all familiar, Norm-Mag-Rare-Unique, possibly Set

Anyway, I haven't sat down and really gotten into the gritty of mechanics yet until I know there are people interested in playing.

I'd like to hear in this thread if you think you'd be interested, how often you'd be able to check in to play (I'd like to keep it moving at a decent pace).

The big difference between this and the other RPGs I see going on here is that as stated above, this will be entirely text-based; think of it as a turn-based MUD.

I'd also like to hear if those interested would be interested in something more or less RP heavy. Either way, I'm going to keep it as free-form as possible: describe out a scene / area, and as the party decides where to go / what to do, I'll take the players' lead and DM it out from there. We could even have players going off a bit on their own, for instance 1 player going to talk to an innkeeper while another goes to a shop; we could utilize the PM feature of the forums to allow me to DM that player's situation privately (to keep it a bit more 'real')--just another idea I'm tossing out there.

Also, as long as people would be trusting of me as the DM, I'd like to run things a bit heavy on the back-end, which is to say not posting every single roll result. I prefer to textually lay out the events of combat / other actions rather than plastering numbers everywhere. I do the (genuinely random, of course) rolls on my end, and DM out the results. If people are cool with this that's what I'd prefer.

So let me know what you think and we'll go from there.

Thanks guys.

I could take a part on this =]
I hope more people are interested.

Sounds cool. I just don't know about the turn-based idea.

How else would we run a forum RPG? Heh.

Either way, I'm in. Turn-base can just delay things and slowen the pace. But as said, I'm good for anything.

I'm still stumped as to what the alternative is to turn-based?

We could do individual turns, where I just DM separately for each player as they post / act, as opposed to treating all the players in one turn, you mean?

With text only, turns are not really needed. It is not as if there is an advantage for doing more than others. But do as you wish, it will be your RP and I will be glad to participate.

Yeah, good point. It'd be an interesting problem to balance things with more active posters doing more / getting separated from the group, but hopefully that wouldn't be an issue. It'd be nicer, though, with those that are active to keep things moving so they aren't sitting around waiting for everyone else.

I just thought with the people around the boards who clearly dig these RPGs and obviously love Diablo, it'd be a no-brainer and a really fun way to kill some time this summer to have a D3 RPG going.

Well, I'm still interested.

This game will ever gonna happen =[ ?

Whew, alright guys.

Very sorry for dropping this for such a long time, got very busy and carried away with some RL things that were unfortunate but needed taking care of.

Over the next couple of days I'll work on hammering out some concrete mechanics (classes, the opening 'campaign', etc.)

My initial thought is that I want to set something up that has the potential to carry on long-term (as long as people are interested and having fun, I will promise my full attention and support in GMing things).

With that thought in mind, I'd like for those interested in playing to give me their input on the premise of starting things out very low-level; that is to say all characters literally at Level 1, but more abstractly I mean starting things slow and not throwing people in right off the bat as ultra-powerful world-savers. This would allow for a longer maturation and growth both of our story but the characters themselves, so that as more and more power comes and things in Sanctuary also get crazier, it all feels as heavy as it should (read: more fun and interesting, IMHO).

So, everyone check in if they're interested in playing and I'll get up another post ASAP with some character creation choices and the opening scenes / starting point.

Just to reiterate because it's a little ambiguous and confusing: the idea is a forum-based Diablo3 RPG, using what we know (or can speculate) as being in D3, from classes and spells to equipment and item types and so forth; once we get going things may deviate from actual D3ness as Blizzard changes things up, but I don't want to be constantly upgrading our RPG to try and accurately reflect the new D3 info that comes out, but I'll be using the larger set pieces we're aware of as inspiration points for -this- RPG. I hope that makes sense. Please post any questions, and I'm looking forward to gaming with you all!

Just an update, haven't really heard from anyone about wanting to do this if I ran, so I think I'll postpone it for not and maybe try again when things are more active.

Wow, this entire forum has been so dead!

Now that traffic has picked up a bit due to beta / release 'date' news, I thought maybe it'd be a decent time to try and see again if there might be any more support for this idea?

To reiterate: an RPG set roughly between D2/D3, using the D3 classes / skills as inspiration but not as complete canon, as we don't really know anything lore-wise yet so as the DM I'd more or less make it up, drawing from D3 for inspiration towards story and using what we know of its systems as concepts for systems in the forum RPG, simplified as needed for being on a forum, etc. I haven't thought out every detail yet because I don't want to invest the time if no one was to stick to it.

I'm really thinking of trying to make it as RP intensive as people are comfortable with; I'd probably attach a basic dice-roll system (a tiny bit of DnD mixed because it works well for forum RPGs), I'd use an online generator and handle all rolls and let you guys just focus on story and the decisions for your chars. Obviously lots of killing & loot too, that's why we're all here right?

I'm still Interested.

Yeah, count me in. I'm quite busy right now but in a week or so I should be able to focus on this.

Thanks for the posts guys. If we see even a couple more I'll start thinking more thoroughly about how to run the game. Ostensibly I'll really do a classic (to me) DM style of handling rolls and narrating out the scenes, combat, loot drops, etc. You guys do whatever you want to do, buy/sell/explore/craft/etc., I'll use as much D3-inspired stuff as possible (you'll build up your caravan of artisans over time, etc.)

I'd be down for this - I haven't ran/played an RP in years.

For the layman and any other lurkers, thinking about trying this out - can you give us an explanation as to how this will work out? I literally mean the mechanics of it - how we do turns, how many times do we have to check in daily, certain check in times, etc. I've played pen and paper games before, but never online in a forum.

Thanks!

BONER!
I'm down.

Wow, lot of interest then!

Alright, I was just trying to gauge things, so I'll spend a few days and really try to hammer out some core mechanics to play by. I'd love to hear what you guys think would be fun, i.e. things you'd like to see / hate to see.

Honestly I don't even really have a rudimentary grasp of design / art, so even a basic visual mockup for battles / etc. is a bit beyond me, I'd prefer to lean towards something more text-driven, but I'm completely open to ideas.

To reiterate, I'll basically take the classes/skills/monsters/runes/followers/etc. that we know about in D3 as inspiration, but since so much of it is under development or unknown to us a lot of it will be my / your imagination, drawing monsters out of concept art and running with them, etc. Obviously whatever we do will look a lot different than D3 when it actually shows up.

I just thought it'd be a fun way to mess around with the fun new D3 stuff as we all kill time for the actual game. And I'm a sucker for forum RPGs...

So everyone start thinking now about what class you'd want to play and I'll get another post up soon to clarify on mechanics / initial setting / etc. once I've heard a little more from you guys & have thought more about it myself, then we'll start, well, getting started!

Meh, forget it. Would love to run this and I'm sure people would enjoy it but I'm sick of the nonsense from too many members on these forums. I think I'm just going to mosey away again for a while and see if the mood around here shifts to something more reasonable. Sorry for those disappointed about the RPG.