Logged off D2R and restarted my PC, came back into the game and my Offline toon was gone. Tried to make a new one with the same name and the name is taken. Also tried to make a new character with a new name and was able to do so, but every time I try to play I get the message “Failed to Join Game” Tried a restart, and a scan/repair and multiple new toons, still unable to play a offline game.
the “.d2s” file for your original character has probably been corrupted, as has happened to many people. to play your other characters, try some of the workarounds from the thread bellow. And try backing up your characters save files regularly.
You should backup your save folder every time you exist diablo application.
C:\Users\Username\Saved Games** for both the Diablo II and Diablo II Resurrected folders.
The problem is probably a shared stash that is corrupted so if you delete it in the save folder it probably will fix the problem.