[DF Idea] Diabolization

[Humabout]

I think making a fun and effective GURPS: Diablo boils down to the same fundamentals as any conversion: convert the spirit of the game.

I'd pick a very cinematic rule set and ignore a lot of record keeping. I'd make liberal use of swarms and hordes with invidual monsters being the powerful badies. PCs would probably use a mix of Powers and Imbuements and largely be approached as supers rather than DF characters.

Frex, a Fallen horde would have a bunch of HP to represent a rediculous number of fallen, damage equal to a typical fallen's attack with a 1-handed weapon (you could roll 1d to determine damage type, if you wanted; 1-2: cr, 3-4: cut, 5-6: imp), and it'd need Regeneration (Fast+) to represent the shaman ressing all of the minions. You might make the shaman seperately and have it heal the horde instead, that way you can target the shaman directly from the outstart of the battle.

Alternatively, steal the setting and make a cinematic fantasy game in it, and let the feel fall wherever it may.

That's my $0.02.

[Rasputin]

Something that strikes me as being in the spirit of Diablo is having a random dungeon generator supplement, but I'd put that well down the list of Dungeon Fantasy supplements. I'd want more monsters (especially the classics; not having an entry for a dragon would bug me) and more traps first so there's a reference for those in the dungeon generator and a common base for altering them. It would be a cross between the one in Dragon Magazine #1 (which was in the 1st Edition AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide) and the Mythic GM Emulator: making a dungeon on-the-fly for a GM with no prep or players with no GM.

[Bruno]

Seriously guys, spending the thread trash-talking the setting the OP is asking about is not only non-helpful, but downright rude.

I thought we were better than that here.

I know not everyone's been rude, but I think the folks who have been know who you are.

[sir_pudding]

GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Monsters 1 has a section that's a deliberate nod to Diablo about reusing the same monsters with an added lens.

[Kuroshima]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Monsters 1 has a section that's a deliberate nod to Diablo about reusing the same monsters with an added lens.

And the horde pigmies are definitively drop in Fetish replacements (How I hated those guys).

Mind you, the lore of Sanctuary (the world the Diablo franchise happens in) is definitively interesting, and it would make a decent DF setting.

[Dwarf99]

Ok, well I figured I was probably gonna have to do it myself if I wanted any actual conversion work, I was mainly just checking to see if anyone had made some attempt to do so...

one thing I will do is convert to Powers because
1) I don't like standard magic.
2) You don't ever see any character doing "Fiddly Bit" magic using any of the prerequisites for various combat magic.
3) Even if you wanted it you could handle it with one or more perks anyway.

But yeah I'm pretty much aware that the Barbarian from 2 or 3 could use the base barbarian and the Warrior from 1 could use Knight, the Monk from Hellfire could use Martial Artist (idk maybe the assassin too I'd have to look 'er over) and all I'd really need to do is cook up some abilities that aren't on the default Power Ups lists for the appropriate class and slam bang I'd kind of have a game. I'd use the Triggered Recharge option for sure on some stuff.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by vierasmarius

I think more interesting than trying to match the play style of Diablo (ie, mindless mook-mashing while mining magic mmm-equipment) would be to draw inspiration from the character and enemy archetypes and their various powers. The Paladin, for example, is clearly a Holy Warrior with a variety of abilities, from martial techniques to Auras of Power. The Assassin primarily uses Imbuements, powered by a "Combo" Energy Reserve that's refilled by hitting stuff (not sure of how precisely to build that; Limited ER Regen? Follow-Up Leech? Vampiric Weapon?)

Diablo is basically a roguelike, with Diablo II adding weapon and monster prefixes and suffices. Roguelike means random dungeon and monster generation, which is not an RPG system issue. Prefixes and suffices alter or add or subtract properties and traits, and so can be handled easily in GURPS 4E with Lenses. Doing the same for magic items takes a bit of work but is quite doable.

There's no point in trying to import or emulate the classes from Diablo, or from Diablo II or III, unless you think they or part of them are actually good.

[Bruno]

There's actually quite a bit of support for the necromancer archetype kicking around, due to Kromm liking Diablo II and liking the undead in general. From the necromantic build for the Wizard to the Necromancer summoner (I played one of those, it was fun) to the horrible arm grafts and rods and staves with skulls on the end from Pyramid, it's pretty well traveled territory.

Since Diablo necromancers create generic undead rather than upgraded undead versions of whatever corpse they pull the skeleton out of, you avoid a lot of complications too if you want an advantages based build. You'll have a hard limit in the number of allies you can have at any given time, but that's actually pretty consistent with the game so :)

A Sorcerer(ess) seems an Elementalist, or a wizard built along those lines, depending if you want to focus on summons or do things more yourself. And it sounds like WhsWhs chinese elemental magic book (which I would NOT expect before next year, so don't nag him) will let you put a spin on your sorcerer/ess that Diablo wouldn't ;)

Non-"caster" characters in a Diablo-verse have lots of excuses to pick up borderline-supernatural or outright supernatural powers, and even spells although they're not as good at them. So a Powers based approach and a fairly lenient attitude towards Power Ups would be a good core approach.

I'd go with generally asking players to ID what Diablo class/concept they're inspired by; presumably if the idea is to have a Diablo game players are onboard for this and will have one they like. This will help give ideas for powerups and the templates and lenses you want to mix and match.

Amazon seems to be basically a lightly armored Mystic Knight focusing on ranged weapons (bows or thrown weapons). Rogue could be a Scout-Theif or Swashbuckler-Theif or possibly Theif-Wizard or Wizard-Theif.

And etc etc.

I suspect any class could justify lensing into Mystic Knight.

[Humabout]

If I had to pick DF templates for diablo classes, I'd have a tough time chosing between Assassin or Ninja for the Assassin. Demon Hunter could be a Demonologist or Demonologist lensed into Scout and D3 Monks look like Holy Warriors with some Martial Arttist or vice versa. Witch Doctors seem like Shaman straight up. D3 Wizards look more like DF Wizards to me, than Elementalists, but D1/D2 ones are pretty elementalish. Guess it could go either way. The rest seem pretty straight forward.

I'd still advocate a mix of powers and imbuements for capturing the feel of diablo, personally. That would require scrapping or redesigning a lot of the DF templates, but it'd be worth it in the end.

[Dwarf99]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

There's no point in trying to import or emulate the classes from Diablo, or from Diablo II or III, unless you think they or part of them are actually good.

funny you should specify that reason because Zealdin aside I started this topic because I was interested in the endeavor and was wondering if anyone had starting points

Originally Posted by Humabout

Assassin or Ninja for the Assassin.
Demon Hunter could be a Demonologist or Demonologist lensed into Scout D3 Monks look like Holy Warriors with some Martial Arttist or vice versa.
Witch Doctors seem like Shaman straight up...

...I'd still advocate a mix of powers and imbuements for capturing the feel of diablo, personally. That would require scrapping or redesigning a lot of the DF templates, but it'd be worth it in the end.

This is a big help, though I wll probably end up having to get a strategy guide for abilities that I don't see fitting the way I want them to... I wonder if I can make imbuements cheaper for having small "class" categories... Now that I think of it several bow and jav abilities for the amazon can be imbuements...