Tuesday 31 July 2012

Diablo Day: A Ground Breaking D&D Release... That You've Probably Never Heard Of

Fast-Play Goodness
Diablo II is arguably one of the greatest PC titles ever to be coded and, Dungeons and Dragons the best know roleplaying game ever to be written. So what do you get when you cross these two leviathans of their respective fields and give it away for free?

Yet another gem doomed to relative obscurity it would seem.

This is probably in no small part due to the sheer volume of roleplaying products now available freely on the Internet. It's very easy for such a small release, even of such a major brand, to get lost in the crowd and, Wizards did very little to prevent this.

It's a shame really as this is not only a nice little standalone product but, also a bit of a Pandora's Box...

Despite being clearly advertised as a "Dungeons and Dragons Adventure Game" product on the front cover, there's not a funny shaped dice in sight. Now a Dungeons and Dragons product running purely on D6 is nothing short of an oddity in itself (especially in this D20 day and age) but, a little further investigation uncovers something that can only be described as epic!

When compared to the other Diablo / Dungeons and Dragons crossover products available, it becomes clear quite quickly that the fast play rules have been cut from the same pattern as the small Diablo II boxed set, which in turn was based upon AD&D 2nd edition.

So what you have here is more than just a freebie. It's a completely new take on the D&D system from Wizards themselves! In my opinion this is nothing short of ground breaking and, certainly deserving of more attention than it has received, Diablo or no Diablo.

What makes this discovery so important however has to be the timing.

This whole system uses AD&D 2nd edition as a foundation and, AD&D has just been re-released! In real terms this means that there is likely to be a massive nostalgic surge in the number of AD&D players out there. One that Wizards is unlikely to miss cashing in on.

So we should certainly expect more products in the range and, probable re-releases of many of the classics. All of which can be easily converted for play with the "Dungeons and Dragons Adventure Game"... Which really needs re-branding, renaming  and, knocking into production.

Stay tuned into Diablo Day as we continue our exploration of this forgotten system and I answer what seems to be the most popular forum request surrounding it.

More monsters!

Links

Download your free copy of the Diablo II Fast Play RPG

2 comments:

  1. Interesting find. It would be funny if people started playing with this system now, after it spent thirteen years gathering dust.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh I really hope so!

    Diablo has instructed me to try and tempt folks to at any rate. ;0).

    More monsters anyone? How about level progression, new skills, bells and, whistles.. Cookies? XD

    ReplyDelete