The newly announced Diablo 5 is a significant departure from series convention in a number of ways. Chiefly, the game won't feature any towns or safe zones and will instead offer adventurers the lesser but still cozy comforts of a team of followers that form a caravan around the player, acting as something of a moving barrier between the myriad monsters creeping and crawling around Sanctuary. This idea comes directly from the influence of Diablo 5's narrative director, Jennifer Hepler, a BioWare veteran and key writer on Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, and Dragon Age: Inquisition.
Hepler joined game director Joe Shely and executive producer Matt Zitterman at a panel during BlizzCon 2026, attended by GamesRadar+, and she explained how her eight years of writing experience with BioWare helped bring traditional RPG roots to Diablo's well-worn ARPG formula. Specifically, she says it's that caravan system that adds just a little bit of Baldur's Gate and Dragon Age DNA to Diablo 5.
"The caravan brings some of the best elements of traditional RPGs into Diablo's ARPG format by giving you that sort of Baldur's Gate or Dragon Age campsite where you can interact with your followers," says Hepler. "They're not going to be Dragon Age followers where you level up their skills and give them clothing and stuff, but they will be followers with personalities... so I think that my experience with traditional RPGs has definitely been a strength in building that out."
The Diablo and Path of Exile-style ARPG is a distinctly different, even diametrically opposed, experience compared to conventional RPGs like Dragon Age and Baldur's Gate, so it's interesting to hear how Hepler's lead role on the narrative team is influencing more fundamental design decisions like the caravan system. I'm curious to see which other elements of Diablo 5 are changing due to her involvement.
