This will sound weird but I've played Diablo 1 and have no desire of playing games with similar gameplay. That means Moria, Angband, etc. where you begin in a village and descend and return back with loot, etc. Are there worthy titles that break out of this mold?

Can anyone lay down a short summary of his books? I remember reading a kettlebell training thread a while ago here and iirc his training regimen could be distilled to 2 exercises or something.