04-23-2007, 07:22 PM
Well, your distrustful character is kind of a variation on the T-Totaller by Milespur Hour. The T-Totaller only drinks water, which means that potions, elixers, and fountains cannot be slurped down. Obviously your style will be a little different but the primary restriction is the same and will result in both characters relying on items that leech life or mana.
I'm not really sure how to say this, but I'll give it a try anyway. A "variant", along with providing restrictions to make the game more challenging, is something that provides a group identity to the character outside of the 3 original Diablo classes. If you hear someone say he is playing an Viking, or a Ranger, or a Hamster, you get a good visualization of how that character might act without even knowing the rules. There is a roleplaying element to it that people could attach to. Whether it was Woody's funny stories about his raggedy mage, a new poster playing a Barbarian for the first time getting the chance to say "Me kill small ugly, get much glittery," or someone writing pages and pages of elegant backstories about his Amazon, the variants inspired them to break out of their shell just a little bit, set aside the endless easter egg hunt for better items, and actually get into character for a while.
We can all make a set of rules to suit our own style of play and fine tune the challenge of the game, and that is a good thing. But, that alone does not really capture what was happening in Woody's community of variants. I think he called it the Asylum not just because the of the difficult restrictions that the players forced on themselves, but because of the outlandish personalities of their characters.
I'm not really sure how to say this, but I'll give it a try anyway. A "variant", along with providing restrictions to make the game more challenging, is something that provides a group identity to the character outside of the 3 original Diablo classes. If you hear someone say he is playing an Viking, or a Ranger, or a Hamster, you get a good visualization of how that character might act without even knowing the rules. There is a roleplaying element to it that people could attach to. Whether it was Woody's funny stories about his raggedy mage, a new poster playing a Barbarian for the first time getting the chance to say "Me kill small ugly, get much glittery," or someone writing pages and pages of elegant backstories about his Amazon, the variants inspired them to break out of their shell just a little bit, set aside the endless easter egg hunt for better items, and actually get into character for a while.
We can all make a set of rules to suit our own style of play and fine tune the challenge of the game, and that is a good thing. But, that alone does not really capture what was happening in Woody's community of variants. I think he called it the Asylum not just because the of the difficult restrictions that the players forced on themselves, but because of the outlandish personalities of their characters.