Dark Souls as a ttRPG

>inb4 kys, some other bs
no, it's time Veeky Forums did something other than cyoa and circlejerk in the modern mtg thread. We all know that Dark Souls is worthy of a ttRPG: I suggest maintaining the grimdark setting while developing a fairly realistic combat system.

So the ideas I have for a not!Souls rpg:
1) 2 D10 system where success on any test is on an 11+. Additional degrees of success are on 12-20. Instead of degrees of success providing more of something, tests require a specific degree of success to succeed.
2) Attributes do not “level-up”, instead the characteristics change at the GM’s discretion through context (e.g. spending time in jail would prompt the GM to lower attributes, whereas a character training would prompt the GM to increase the character’s strength). Attributes assist a character in succeeding at a test, providing a -x requirement on a test where x is their relevant attribute bonus (attribute/10, rounded down to the nearest integer)
3) Combat is more realistic than in most other RPG’s. Combat actions are specific and are often aimed. Pain is a factor in combat, which is increased for each wound taken and removes dice from a combatants dice pool. This includes both melee and projectile-based fighting.
4) Magic based on slots equal to Intelligence (or other attribute bonus), with varying casting times and focus required.
5) Characters may have an amount of traits depending on the background of the character. These traits may have a positive or negative effect (or both) regarding success on a test.
6) Functioning somewhat similarly to the fate points system, in that a character has a finite resource that replenishes at the beginning of a game session, each character is allowed to not!hollow 3+(willpower bonus) times each game session before being fully not!hollowed.

Some ideas are based off of the Blade of the Iron Throne RPG, and another user suggested something from Ragnarok: Fate of the Norns which I will look into.
make Veeky Forums /getsshitdone/ again

I've always thought of RuneQuest to be a good basis for a Dark Souls RPG with some tweaking but you'd have to figure out how to speed up combat to make it now slow as god damn dirt, unless you don't mind your sessions taking a big longer.

GURPS has a Pyramid issue built around this kind of game in mind (repeated deaths as a mechanic, stuff on souls, etc.) and a setting similar in theme and tone to accompany it, somewhat explicitly inspired by dark souls/demon souls I believe. Obviously the "realistic" GURPS combat goes fairly hand in hand with it.

I can't for the life of me remember which issue it is though, any GURPSfags reading this please provide a reference because I, the dummy, cannot. (Could be helpful even if you don't want to use GURPS)

What campaigns could you run in a DS RPG besides "go immolate yourself", though?

I think RPG's that take too long for things to get rolled or done are a bit too slow. They should be able to be played with drinks and pizza. That said, Dark Souls is fairly gritty and would be played more seriously than your average ttRPG.
I think an issue is wanting to be as close to Dark Souls as possible, without trying to evolve it by any amount. Instead, a campaign could focus on the PC's striving towards their goal in order to keep hope alive. The difficulty is evolving the concept further, while not straying too far into just being a gritty RPG.

bump

The article is "Havens and Hells," and it's from issue #3/89 Alternate Dungeons II.

The short version is that the two forces -- Civilization and Chaos -- are trying to wipe each other out, but the universe is stuck in a stalemate. Humans, the race of Civilization, must venture forth from the cosmically-protected havens into the wilds of Hell for resources. Hell isn't another dimension, and it isn't fire and brimstone (unless you're in a volcanic area); it's the world outside of the havens, similar to standard fantasy lands but 100 times more ominous, sinister, and lethal. Humans that die in Hell "respawn" at the nearest haven with no gear and 10% of their point total missing. Monsters of Chaos don't really die either; they either get better, come back undead, are reborn anew, etc., and Hell is strengthened the more times a human is killed in their area.

By default, point totals have nothing to do with souls, but it's very easy to refluff that, with lost points meaning losing a fragment of your soul and the character points you gain at the end of the session being soulstuff you've absorbed from the monsters of Hell. However, there's also the "Dungeon Fantasy Video Gaming" article from Pyramid #3/72. In it is a small section meant to simulate monster drops a'la Legend of Zelda -- restoring health or fatigue and even occasionally providing a boost in power -- but can easily be refuluffed as picking up monster souls. Hell, the section is even called "Eating Souls for Fun and Profit."

IMO, it's closer to Demon's Souls than Dark Souls, with the power of an area being equivalent to DeS's White/Black Tendency. The big thing, though, is that GMs are more free to swing for the fences, as a TPK is an inconvenience, not the end of an adventure. If you're using GURPS, I recommend using The Last Gasp to simulate the Souls series' stamina mechanic and just because it's great for gritty/lethal games in general.

Difference between "Havens and Hells" and the Souls series is that in the Souls series existence sortof is Hell. PC's have to keep trudging forward to keep themselves from hollowing. An example of someone who has failed is the Crestfallen Warrior, as he sits there and never moves.
But thinking of killing mobs and currenct brought up by the second paragraph, how would a Souls system handle currency? Would it be separate or just be souls? It could be fluffed that merchants stay still to exchange wares for a bit of sanity (souls) so that the PC's get to keep moving forward.
Last paragraph reminds me of a question someone asked about how the lack of death leads to death being meaningless. The answer I thought of was that time moves on forward, and means that characters can fail in their goal (e.g. BBEG fucks everything up, and characters hollow b/c they failed)

Good Job user, we at the /fvgt/ wish you the best of luck.

Though I still say making a hack of the Blade of the Iron Throne RPG is probably the best place to start.

I've actually worked on a bloodsouls splice up that is suppose to be a middle ground between the two while it explores it's on setting. Me and my friend worked on it for the equivelent to half a week. We did an "alpha test" and the combat was a too slow. We did change that and adjusted it appropriately but the changes didn't save so we got annoyed and threw it in the shed. I still have the mess of notes before the alpha testing if anyone is curious.