For the first time ever, the two greatest fantasy games of all time—Diablo® II and the Dungeons & Dragons® game—are coming together this month. In this interview, Mike Selinker, Wizards of the Coast’s creative director for licensed roleplaying games and an author of the Diablo II/D&D crossovers, talks to Diablo-megafan KingArthur of diablohaven.com, a major fan site for Diablo II players.

KingArthur: There are currently three products announced by Wizards of the Coast. When will these products be released?

Mike Selinker: You can get what we’ve taken to calling "Dungeons & Diablo" right now. As of May 5, you should get yourself to the store to pick up our first two blood-soaked Diablo II/D&D crossovers.

Fans who know how to play D&D will want to get Diablo II: The Awakening, a supermodule/sourcebook for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. It’s for all character levels, and is about the crunchiest book we’ve produced in a long, long time.

Fans who’ve never played D&D should check out their computer game stores to find the Dungeons & Dragons Adventure Game: Diablo II Edition. That’s a powerful introduction to tabletop roleplaying, Diablo-style.

There are more products planned for December and beyond, but I’ve gotta bite my tongue on those. Trust me, we’ll let you know.

KingArthur: Will Diablo II: The Awakening use the 2nd or 3rd edition AD&D rules and have other special features? Will there be any changes or additions to it?

Mike Selinker: The Awakening is straight-up 2nd Edition AD&D. But it contains 5 new classes, over 100 spells and skills, a similar number of monsters, and—as promised—over 1,000,000 new magic items. Everything in the product should be a good springboard for 3rd Edition games as well, once that comes out in August.

KingArthur: Diablo II by Blizzard Entertainment has 5 playable characters: Amazon, Barbarian, Necromancer, Paladin, and Sorceress. However, it does not offer any choices in race. Does Diablo II: The Awakening have the same characters and no choices for race?

Mike Selinker: It has the same five character classes, and all of them are human. That’s because there aren’t any elves or dwarves or half-orcs in Khanduras, where Diablo takes place.

You, of course, are free to make your player characters any race you want. But in our official version, they’re all human.

KingArthur: Will the weapons and armors in Diablo II: The Awakening picked from Diablo II (Blizzard), other AD&D games, or a new set?

Mike Selinker: Pretty much everything you can find in Diablo II is in The Awakening. It’s just in AD&D terms. So the amazon could find a pilum or a brandistock, where in AD&D she might just find a spear or javelin. That’s what you get when you have 100+ weapons to work with.

KingArthur: Many weapons such as the Bastard Sword has the option of being one-handed or two-handed, while dealing different damage. Will Diablo II: The Awakening have the same sort of attributes and uniqueness to each weapon?

Mike Selinker: Every weapon has something cool about it. The two-handed sword is the same as it is in AD&D. The great sword, however, is like a two-handed sword, except it does 1d12/2d8, and requires an 18 Strength to wield. (If you’re not an AD&D fan yet, trust me, that’s huge.)

KingArthur: How will magic work in Diablo II: The Awakening? Will it be class-specific or from a massive AD&D spell list?

Mike Selinker: Mechanically it works like it does in AD&D. But almost all the spells are brand new, and some do things you’ve never imagined you’d see in AD&D. For example, the Corpse Explosion spell detonates a monster’s body like a grenade. I think that’s pretty cool.

KingArthur: Diablo II: The Awakening is said to introduce 1 million new magic items. How is this going to work?

Mike Selinker: Through the magic of combinatorials. As you probably know, Diablo uses a very cool system of prefixes, roots, and suffixes to create most of their magic items. And we just translated that into the coolest AD&D magic item table ever.

So the prefix "prismatic" means "+3 on all saving throws." The root "claymore" means "a one-handed sword that does 1d8+1/1d12+1 base damage." And the suffix "of carnage" means "+4 damage." Thus, a "prismatic claymore of carnage" is a one-handed sword that does 1d8+5/1d12+5 damage and gives +3 on all saves.

And wouldn’t you rather have a prismatic claymore of carnage than a +2 longsword?

KingArthur: Monsters play a significant role in all AD&D games. How many monsters will be in Diablo II: The Awakening and will they be imported from Diablo II (Blizzard)?

Mike Selinker: There are over 100 monsters in The Awakening, all picked up from Diablo and Diablo II. We give multiple versions of each base monster type, so, for example, there are nine types of goat demon, all with their own powers. It’s a whole bunch of monsters in one place.

KingArthur: Many AD&D fans tend to enjoy games with no experience cap. Will Diablo II: The Awakening have experience caps?

Mike Selinker: No. The Awakening is an adventure for characters of all levels. And I’m willing to bet you can get more experience in this product than in any other dungeon we’ve ever published.

KingArthur: Will there be any Diablo or Blizzard-related products in the future?

Mike Selinker: Oh, heck yes. In July, we release the StarCraft Edition of the Alternity Adventure Game. In that, you get to get up close and personal with Zerg, Protoss, and the other hazards of space. My players discovered quickly that you don’t go through ultralisks, you go around them.

And I expect you’ll see more beyond that point. Wizards and Blizzard have a lot more in common than similar-sounding names, and we hope to work together till they ship us off to the Old Game Designers Home.