MMORGs and role playing discussion.

I didn't write the whole book - I just contributed two pieces for it (if I had written it all, I'd have claimed a bit more than an author credit !). I'd class it as an "anthology" work, with several other
authors all contributing their pieces.The book was Champions of the Red Moon from Issaries - and I suppose that most people here haven't even heard of the company :-(

I enjoy the LoD!! Although I'm not very good at it Perhaps I should rephrase to say... I don't spend too much time on it My high-point is back in v1.10 where I had a multi-shot 'Zon with a Buriza. Now I started getting into ladder, but my trials with an MFing Sorc in Hell are hit and miss. My teleporting skillz are kinda lame My favourite character has always been the Paladin. But I hate the magic hammers kind. And I've never had an Enigma or any other high-rune equipment so my Paladins are generally weaker fanatic-zeal blends. But they're fun to play! (I don't put enough time in to reap any decent benefits from trading).Never been a big fan of the Barbarian, Druid or Assassin. Never played any of them (significantly). I've had great fun with the Paladins, Amazons, Sorceresses and Necromancers.I'm currently trying to wait for v1.13 to come out before I try another ladder character. (I want to try a strafe-amazon).And, with somehow even more gusto, I'm trying to wait for D3... but that may take a few years Go Diablo!!

Never played RuneQuest.I got sucked into black hole that is D&D. I guess I missed out on Traveller, too.Does RuneQuest play well?

What's the deal with Diablo? Never played it, myself.

I thought that RuneQuest 2 was preferable to AD&D (1e - the last edition I played). RQ3 had some clunky bits, and the current (Mongoose) incarnation is probably between 2nd and 3rd editions on that score. RuneQuest doesn't have the same sort of powerr progression as D&D had, though.(Mongoose RQ has been OGL'ed so there are SRDs available off this page) And if you've played any of the BRP games, like Call of Cthulhu RuneQuest should be fairly familiar (BRP started as a simplified RuneQuest).Of course, D&D has had two huge revamps, while RuneQuest is still largely the same game as it was when it was first published in 1978.

It's just a computer game. Best classified as an ARPG (Action Role Playing Game). It has been argued, and if population of gamers actively playing the game is any indication it's also substantiated, that Diablo II (and it's expansion.. Lord of Darkness) is the best ARPG game available. It was made something like 10 years ago, is 2D isometric, has graphics from 10 years ago, has a top-resolution of 800x600, and the online servers (BNet from Blizzard, who made the game) are still as full as ever. Many other companies have tried to duplicate it's success, but no one (as of yet) has made a dent in the player base still going strong with Diablo 2.It all started with D1, where you could choose a Rogue (arrow-shooter) a Mage (wizard) or a Fighter (sword-and-shield) character. Then you go down "levels" of a cave under a cathedral to eventually fight Diablo and win the game. It was the first (I think?) game to incorporate randomly generated level design every time you re-load the game. Therefore, you can "gain experience" without getting board of or knowing the layout of the playable monster-killing space.D2 expanded on the concepts.You now have Paladin, Amazon, Barbarian, Sorceress and Necromancer. Each with their own skill set of monster-slaying abilities. Levels are much larger (split into 4 Acts, each with 8 or so different zones themselves) with many different caves and quests and such. Each area and dungeon is still generated randomly every time the character enters.
The expansion (LoD - Lord of Destruction) introduced two new playable characters, the Druid and Assassin. It also added Act 5.What keeps Diablo II interesting?1. Level Randomization
You can't get bored of monsters always attacking from the same area if they're always randomly generated areas and monsters!2. Character Build Variety
Each character has anywhere from 4 to up to 20 or so different "builds" you can focus on in order to create a "different playing feel" in your monster killings.3. Item and Equipment Randomization
This is the most alluring part to me. I see it almost as a "fishing" type of attraction. Good items are extremely rare, sometimes too rare to the point of basically-a-miracle-if-you-find-one type levels. Leaving you with a sense of "if I kill one more monster... maybe he'll drop what I'm looking for" sense of anticipation.The rarity of items and equipment provides an on-going challenge to "get all the cool stuff" long after you've beaten the game multiple times. Who doesn't want to kill monsters faster and better? 4. Monster difficulty
The game itself has 3 difficulty levels: Normal, Nightmare and Hell. But each character can only get to Hell mode if they beat the game on Normal and Nightmare first. Obviously the best items drops are in Hell mode (where the hardest monsters are). The game isn't about "defeating Diablo", that can be done on Normal with a character with basic gear. The game is more about finding elite items that let you breeze through Hell mode (difficult unless you have decent gear) and impress others with your monster slaying prowess.5. Storyline
The classic good-vs.-bad that is Heaven-vs.-Hell with Diablo himself involved. What's better? Well the Heaven vs. Hell isn't as generally viewed. It's more like Heaven and Hell are constantly battling and "Sanctuary" (read "Earth") and it's inhabitants are caught in the middle.Oh... the game can be played single-player on your own computer, but most of the fun is online on BNet where up to 8 players can join a game and slay monsters together. Monsters, item drops and experience gain all go up as the number of players goes up. Oh yeah, and BNet is free, no monthly subscription or anything, just the 1-time fee of buying the game. I think you can get a "Battle Chest" with Diablo 1, 2 and LoD all for about $60 or so.There's also a Player vs. Player aspect, but I don't really do that.There's also a "Hardcore Mode" where if you die even once, the server will automatically delete your character and all items you have as-of-yet aquired. I don't play this mode either, but it's quite alluring in itself.Feel free to ask for any further clarification. I'm pretty much obsessed with the game, although my playing-time wouldn't really reflect that When I retire, I don't plan on going on trips, I plan on playing lots and lots of computer games

Pshaw, Diablo is nothing but a fancy GUI for Rogue .TTFN,WK

Thanks for making the thread, Larni.Really the only RPGing I'm doing now is MMOs.I played Everquest way back and then I got into FFXI on the PS2. I tried WoW for a bit but I thought it was too cartoony and, comming off of FFXI (which was ridiculously difficult), I found it to be too easy and thus unrewarding. I was just going through the motions and, as Mod pointed out in Message 8, it wasn't roleplaying, it was stat increasing.Then Age of Conan came out and our group all wanted to try it so I joined in. I loved the setting and the combat but the game was just too buggy and clunky. They released too early and FunCom became FailCom.We, the group, decided to go back to Everquest 2, which is really well-made. All the wrinkles were ironed out of the first one and there's a lot of high-tech functions built right into the game. Its pretty easy but all the variety makes it fun and the world is fairly huge. Actaully though, its really been about us all having a game to play together as friends.The EQ2 setting is a little too ghey for me, with all the pastel colors and fairies n'stuff (I much preferred the bloody dirty setting of Conan, and as one friend said: "You're not going to beat boobs and decapitation") ever watch the Age of Conan vs WoW videos on Youtube?There's 4 of us that play regularly, a tank, a healer, and two DD's (a mage and a wizard). We pretty much own any mobs that cross our path. It'd be nice to have a ranger for tracking though.

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I've really only played 4th ed D&D one time, but I've read though the system. I really like it.It does seem more like an MMO, but I think its an improvement and its well balanced.Pre-4th ed, it seems like guys would be like: "Look how awesome my guy is and all the things the I can do".With 4th ed it seems to have changed to: "Look how awesome my guy makes us and all the things we can do."Rrhain kinda has a point with it being made like a videogame, but you're right that its kinda always been like that. I mean, look at Knights of the Old Republic... they basically took the 3rd ed D&D rules right out of the book!

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I LARPed a couple time in highchool with Vampire: the Masquerade. It was okay but as much as your saying the combat in 4th ed is fluid, LARP combat is that pathetic. We mostly just hung out and talked Vampire and didn't ever get a lot done in the game.

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You mentioned Fallout 3. I borrowed a friends PS3 and played that game for about 5 straight hours. I loved it. When I do finally get a PS3, I can't wait to start that game up again. Any advice? Since I knew I was only going to play shortly, I just min/maxed a guy to be a small guns expert. it worked fairly well but when a few mobs grouped up I was fucked. In hind-sight, it might work out well to go all steath and just sneak around the whole time. Would that hamper the XP too much? Whadaya think?

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rbp mentioned Magic: The Gathering. I found all my old cards recently in a move and went into the local gaming shop to check it out. It turned out they were having a tournament that night so I got in on it. I got 3rd place which I was proud of for it being on a whim (although one guy helped me (re)build a deck).Version 10 just came out and from what I saw it looks pretty good.

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Diablo....Holy shit I put some time into Diablo 2. What a great game. I can't wait for Diablo 3 to come out and I already know of about 6 people that are going to jump on it. Too bad Blizzard is soooo slow. Although, I wouldn't want them to fuck it up like FunCom did with Conan.

Thanks for the link, I'll have a gander at it!

The best thing to do is to max out small guns and repair at low levels. You need repair to keep your stuff in tip top form.I never used much of stealth or sneaking around. If you do you can get a crit if you hit from hiding, though.I started with a high agility and strength to have many action points and be able to carry more as I like killing things and taking their stuff Don't go unarmed, use melee instead.Look ahead at the perks as some are useful for boosting skills and mean you can pick up late game skills like Big Guns and Energy Weapons quickly.Until you have a house find a storage space to keep the your stuff.Download Brotherhood of Steel as it raises the level cap to 30; very useful.Don't fly through the MQ because the game ends when you complete it (unless you have BoS).Hope that helps!

I might give it a go, sounds like something you can play in short bursts?

Its possible to play in short bursts but it ain't gonna happen because the game is too good!Diablo 2 is great, you're gonna love it.Make a Barbarian first, they're the easiest, and just run threw and hack n slash everything to get a feel for the game and how it works.Then go back and make whatever you want.You'll get skill points to spend for new abilities. Save them! you don't have to spend them right away and you can just stack them up for later use when you figure out what build you want to go for. Once they're spent you can't unspend them.

Certainly. There are "way-points" and such to warp you close to wherever you are in the story-line, or wherever you want to go next. Each little chunk can be done in less than 15-20 min. or so. Or if you're just looking for gear or leveling, it will automatically save as you exit the game, so you don't have to "make it back to a save point" or anything like that.I recommend playing only on BNet. You cannot transfer characters from single-player on your computer to online on BNet, you'd have to make a new character. However, on BNet you can restrict your games so that no one else enters and you play alone. It's also easier to exit the game and re-load another instance online (to reset the level randomization and monster spawning).It has it's problems though:
-difficult to transfer items from character to character
-trading system is archaic and sometimes frustrating (if you get this into it, I recommend using an external webpage that deals with such things).
-there are some bugs and old features and such, like other players (if you allow them into your game) can "go hostile" and kill you without your consent. However, there are certain restrictions on that too.But the good parts far outweigh all of the downsides. Hence it's still one of the top-rated games after 10 years.

A good tip. Can also be done with the Paladin (sword+shield) or Amazon (bow/crossbow) if those appeal to you more. All three have basic easy-to-start-with type builds. It's easiest to search online for what type of builds are available per character and what each do. That's one downside to Diablo 2, you can screw up your character so that it's basically useless in Hell if you don't plan out your skill points wisely. Good for those who like to perfectly research and tweak their characters, bad for casual gamers.I always end up creating a character I really want to play because I like their abilities, then finding an elite item for (almost always...) some other character type... then I make a character so that I can make the best use of that cool item. Then I find another item for another character, and the circle continues!! Actually, they're going to change this in the upcoming (next few weeks or month or so, perhaps?) v1.13.
Yes, it's 10 years after the game came out and Blizzard is still making patches for this game. They're pretty cool, those Blizzard guys.Upcoming features I'm really looking forward to in Diablo 3:
-some sort of easy method to exchange items between different characters on the same account
-some sort of auction-house type trading system to make trading easier and more effective
-upgraded storyline, graphics and playing system, it's going full 3D!!

I started playing MMOs with Horizons.That game should never have seen the light of day. It was the very definition of "good ideas with incompetent, half-assed, rushed implementation."Then I tried City of Heroes, and I was much happier...but I sucked, badly. Eventually I got bored with the game's limited options for character development, the cookie0cutter feel to everything in teh game other than costume creation, and the fact that I was just doing it wrong and my fail overcame my desire to pay $15/month.Next was WoW...and I'm still playing. It's cartooney, but it fits with the premise. The most important part is that the game is fun. The fact that my girlfriend plays too might be a large component of that.I've also played EVE Online (meh), Conan (More good ideas plagued by incompetence and rushing), and Champions Online (released Sept. 1st, having fewer launch issues than most and pretty fun so far with some VERY good ideas and changes from the typical WoW-clone mold).