Knee deep in Diablo II

[bloomann]

Hi, maybe I'm slow, but I've finally been bitten by the Diablo II bug, now I'm in the middle of act three, and well I can't help but wonder if anyone has done some conversion rules for Diablo. It seems to me very possible, just a question of finding powerlevels for each Act. For example Act one is probably around 75+50 starting points, maybe even less, and it goes up from there. Also in a champions adaptation there should be much less fighting, if the actual amount of monsters a character had to face equaled the amount thrown at a Diablo character you'd probably end up spending 5 nights gaming time just getting through the first quest from act 1.

just a thought.

[Toadmaster]

I don't know of anything specific to HERO but there are d20 Diablo books for sale which would probably be a good starting point for a conversion.

 

As far as the random monster violence of the game I agree you would need to tone it down, probably just a random encounter or two to give the feeling of an overwhelming parade of evil outside the few hold out human holdings and then the source of the quests (the Den of evil, rescue Caine etc) and then the final quest in each act. I like the background for Diablo & Diablo 2 but as an RPG it amounts to little more than an above average dungeon crawl. It would take some work to flesh out the plots but I think it could be very interesting (add something more than go to point X and kill something).

[simplygnome]

But the choices...??

 

Definately sounds like a valid game, although I wouldn't bother looking at the d20 supplement. Its my opinion that the supplement is crude, unbalanced, and not worth getting. It IS a good idea springboard, but I think that any competent HERO worshiper should beable to convert the game directly.

 

The main question I have is regarding the classes. Would you keep the current classes, or would you let the players create new ones that stick to the theme; or even create a whole new set of your own? Are you just using the world idea with Diablo, or the skill tree system as well? That would require you to catalouge each skill prior to the game starting. On the other hand, you could just let players buy different skills with XP, regardless of the DII theme, but less time consuming. Also, the idea of NON-combat skills come into play

 

All in all, the idea sounds fun, and THANK YOU VERY MUCH (note the playful sarcasm) for getting me thinking about a DII Hero game...my players read the post over my shoulder and are now clammering for me to start a game Good luck with your game!

[lemming]

I would think Diablo would make a decent setting, but the game as it is seems more like a dungeon crawl. (I mean it's graphical nethack, IMO)

 

Damn you, I'm thinking on how to convert as well. And here I resisted the 40K one so well. hmm, though that would work well into the mini-campaign that zornwil was suggesting... auuuggggggh!

[bloomann]

blood raven is sexy!

 

first off thanks for all comments,

 

It would probably work with just three quest per Act, with a smattering of roaming monsters in the wildernesses. The classes would definetely be the same, as well as the apptitude tree. Perhaps what would work best if the GM notes ex points for monsters killed BUT ALSO, if the players manage to just find treasure, or objects pertaining to the quest (like Charsi's Hammer in act I). We could say that characters wouldn't really need to kill every monster but just make it back to the havens with various objects with the idea that once certain artifacts are recovered the different humain communities will become self reliant again. Once the characters arrive in the camps the GM could give them ex points to increase stats and others to increase powers. I think the power levels go up really quickly in Diablo II, sometimes the characters are faced with hordes upon hordes of monsters, that of course would be toned down a bit, but it's true that the fun part of Diablo II is seeing hordes of monsters come your way and then after a few clicks you obliterate everything...So monsters seem to have a lot less Body points then Hero equivalents would probably give them.

Also there's the question of Mana...

mana to me = endurance, but to cast spells or talents each character would have an endurance reserve. This too could go up over time with experience points...That's also the fun of Diablo: managing your Mana and finding poitions to replinish the end reserve. In a hero game all "talents" would probably cost x2 end in the beginning.

Lets look at the stats now, in Diablo we have

 

Strength

Dexterity

Vitality

Energy.

 

Now normally in Diablo these stats go up pretty fast, but in a hero game if you have a Barbarian running around with strength 40 or 50 or 60 it would become pretty ridiculous. So we would have to determine character max for each class. The exp points given to character stats would be maybe 2 instead of 5 each time. Uugh, but this means that characters like the Amazon who rely on high Dex would be somewhat cheated. what to do?

This just gets more and more complicated...uuugh.

 

For resistance that seems to translate pretty evenly : poison, fire, cold, lightning...

would equal resistant ED, which is found through various magic items and gems.

What else, lets just talk about the Acts. I would put forth as the quest in act I:

 

1 Kill Blood Raven

2 Save Cain -(find the runic cairns and the scroll to teleport)

3 Find Charsi's Hammer in the monastary.

 

there. Thats at least 5 or 6 nights worth of gaming!

To get to the cimetary of Blood Raven the characters would have to travel through the wasted lands surrounding the rouges camp. They would have to fight Zombies, The little demon men (I play on a french version so they're called les dechu) those big big foot thangs...what esle? Finally they find Blood Raven's cimetary after three or four nights travel fro the Rouge camp. There they have to fight across a horde of famished Zombies (which blood Raven can revive - I supposes that's either an Aid to Zombies or summuning Zombies). Blood Raven has the highest dex for a monster, in act one.

 

What esle -stop me if I'm rambling...

 

in act 2 it all seems to be about getting the Cube and the staff of Horodrim. So they would have to:

 

1 Kill Revenant (in the cities sewers, where they find the Cube)

2 Go to the lair of the worm deep in the desert (here they find the upper part and lower part of the staff)

3 Go deep within the palace, discover the portal (which leads directly to the tombs of Al Ratha, or what ever his name was. There they finish the quest meeting the angel.)

 

Act 3, well I'm still in act three so I don't really know whats going to happen.

There, how's this for food for thought.

[Toadmaster]

It sounds like you intend to maintain the video game feel of Diablo. I think in that case I would award powers instead of experience after each "quest", you could award a few xp for random encounters so that people could buy up skills. I'd also use these xp for weapons skills instead of making the characters select weapon bonuses or a power after each quest.

 

Be careful about large groups of monsters, in general HERO rewards the side with lots of attackers, you will probably find you need to tone this down the numbers a bit unless you make the critters pretty weak.

 

Other than that it sounds pretty reasonable even if a little unorthodox.

[bloomann]

Originally posted by Toadmaster

It sounds like you intend to maintain the video game feel of Diablo. I think in that case I would award powers instead of experience after each "quest", you could award a few xp for random encounters so that people could buy up skills. I'd also use these xp for weapons skills instead of making the characters select weapon bonuses or a power after each quest.

 

 

 

This sounds good, after each quest the player would be granted a power or increase a talent on the apptitude tree. Other experience points would be noted for the player to use as he wishes. Good.

What else?

[bloomann]

I'm in hell

 

So I finished act three, which turned into a breeze, I have a very powerful druid. I think they made him too powerful, volcanos, magma balls, infernos, legion of wolves and a trusty mercenary picked up from act II that has died only a few times...

So my armor is 142 which I think is pretty high but if someone knows higher stats for armo, helmet, boots, exetera then please post that way we could have a high end translation. Also act three seems to be about finding Khalim's body parts, fusing them with a magic flail in order to break the orb that holds Mesphisto. so I vote that the quest in act three are:

 

1) find Khalim's eye and heart in the Scorcher's prison

2) find his brain and the flail in the city of Kurast

3) confront the conciel and break the orb (using the flail)

4) kill mesphisto

 

this is working my brain....

[Isaiah_26_4]

Chello!

 

lol...sounds like you're having fun.

 

I've been using D2 for weapon ideas for Hero...all those nifty-sounding named armor and wepons one finds. I've written down names and stats for them. One of these days I'll get around to statting them out...lol.

 

Tony

[bloomann]

Originally posted by Isaiah_26_4

Chello!

 

lol...sounds like you're having fun.

 

I've been using D2 for weapon ideas for Hero...all those nifty-sounding named armor and wepons one finds. I've written down names and stats for them. One of these days I'll get around to statting them out...lol.

 

Tony

 

any chance you could post the list here? please?

I had to stop playing diablo for the moment that thing most mortals call work and money has once again reared it's ugly head.