Fires Far Away - a Dark Souls RPG

A couple weeks ago, someone on Veeky Forums asked to see a Dark Souls homebrew I mentioned I was working on. It wasn't ready then, but its more or less ready now.

This is that homebrew.

Its obviously incomplete. It needs more weapons, more enemies, and rules for things like covenants. But there is enough here to run a couple low level sessions with, and so far its worked out pretty well. So think of this like a proof of concept.

We often see people saying they want to run something like Dark Souls around here, but there really isn't any good system for it. I hope this will be that system for anyone that cares about that sort of thing. You obviously can't do a 1:1 experience for how the video game works around a table, so Fires Far Away doesn't try to. Instead it takes the ideas that I felt the mechanics of the video game tried to capitalize on, and found either similar concepts or replacements that use the strengths of a PnP game in their place.

I hope the user from before finds this thread, or someone else here finds this useful.

Otherwise, dark souls thread. Those are always cool.

Other urls found in this thread:

docs.google.com/document/d/1juul-cbnRARqapadebf09TLwjkQrhbWXZb9aihRk46M/edit
docs.google.com/document/d/11LVUq7qwzqqV-BxJJ2YYxE5HxZgWdrx5LKHv2Y37veA/edit
twitter.com/SFWRedditImages

And the shitty character sheet we used for it.

Mite b cool. I'll give it a look.

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Seems pretty cool user. I don't know about calling DR "Absorption" when you could call it Damage Reduction, especially since exactly what it does and is described as. I'm not sure about running actual combat in it, but it seems worth a shot. I really like what you've done with the storytelling and putting the worldbuilding/creative onus on the players. That's cool. Same with the mapping out and more easily clearing stuff after you beat it. Nice.

Reading more about the enemy combat, instead of "enemies roll a number of AI dice equal to their interrupts" just have it so they have Xd6 to determine their actions that turn in the formula. On the Asylum demon, 1d6 AI dice but rolling 2d6 is a bit confusing. All in all though, please keep working on it, it seems fun.

Thanks! I know the current system is likely nothing perfect, but I hope there is enough good here that people want to see more of it. And its Dark Souls, its not like it needs to be perfectly balanced fights anyway. Whats the worst that can happen, you accidently TPK your players?

Glad you like the bonfire stuff.

> just have it so they have Xd6 to determine their actions that turn in the formula.

I'm not sure I understand. Can you give an example?

So how would covenants work in a game like this? Are they just organizations, so its like belonging to a guild? Maybe give you special objectives which if you pull them off you get covenant specific rewards for?

Seems like the sort of thing where it might be best to describe what the covenants are lorewise, their goals, and what kinds of stuff they might have to hand out as rewards but to not lock them into anything specific and leave it up to GMs to fill them in to their own campaign as they see fit.

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I always wanted to run a Dark Souls themed game, from what I read it seems pretty fun; it only uses D6 right?
Anyway, I'd be glad to read more of it and to see progress made on it, do you have a blog or a platform other than tg to check for progress?

> I always wanted to run a Dark Souls themed game, from what I read it seems pretty fun; it only uses D6 right?

Yes, right now it only uses d6. I guess you could have Bosses that need bigger dice for their AI table, but we haven't hit that point yet. You do however need a bunch of d6, since everyone needs enough for their Stamina bar and the GM needs a couple too.

> do you have a blog or a platform other than tg to check for progress?

Nope. Just Veeky Forums. At this point I'm pretty sure the bulk of what needs to be done is adding in new weapons and enemies, probably new licenses too. The sort of thing individual GMs can probably do themselves anyway. If people share notes on the content they make for their own games, things should flesh themselves out pretty quick for everyone.

Is there anything you specifically want to see in the game, as far as options go?

This is pretty fucking nito, but the organization of the pdf is a bit odd.
Also, balance wise, it might be a good idea to either change some of the flaws or limit the amount you can take. If a character isn't planning on using any form of magic, they can get talentless, pyrophobia, godless, unfocused, dimwitted, and hopeless for a ton of Licenses.

> the organization of the pdf is a bit odd.

Yeah, probably. How would you organize it instead?

> If a character isn't planning on using any form of magic, they can get talentless, pyrophobia, godless, unfocused, dimwitted, and hopeless for a ton of Licenses.

Remember you can't buy a License if you already have more licenses than you have Attunement slots. An the starting professions that have higher Attunment are, surprise surprise, casters.

Anyone who did what you suggest would still only be able to afford 2 Licenses tops, because they are paying full price for it instead of cost reducing with a Story. And depending on their chosen Profession, at game start they wouldn't actually be allowed to buy the second one because they have no Attunement slots, so they can buy the first one and the second is illegal.

And in return they lock themselves out of ever changing their mind about any form of magic in the future, and might have trouble qualifying to magical weapons too going forward.

The big would be an index at the start, but it might be a bit more relevant to people if you put combat before exploration. If you have a bunch of time, a glossary at the back would be nice to look up specific wordings.

Hmmmm. I know you can add bookmarks to a PDF. Would I still need a TOC if I have a bookmarks tab?

As for glossary, sure. But I am pretty sure the first chapter kind of already is that? I'm not sure what else the glossary would contain.

Sure thing. The asylum demon rolls 2d6 because it has +2 interrupts (should probably just be 2 interrupts, IMO. What are you adding it to?). Instead of that, just say it has 2d6 AI dice. Maybe I'm missing something.

Either way keep up the good work, I really dig it and would love to play it sometime.

Ah I see.

> should probably just be 2 interrupts, IMO. What are you adding it to?

In theory, nothing prevents you from having multiple bosses out at once, or it having smaller dudes with it. Like Duke's Dear Freya, the multiple Gargoyals, or the Cursed Greatwood.

Gotcha, gotcha. I would still remove the + personally, but at least I know what it means.

Keep it up!

The Japanese official DS RPG is apparently doing really well and they just recently released a second book for it, give it time and I’m sure it’ll get an official translation, or at least a fan translation.

The Discord group I'm a part of has put together a rough draft of a Dark Souls One-Roll Engine game called "Once Rekindled Embers." The details are here:

>docs.google.com/document/d/1juul-cbnRARqapadebf09TLwjkQrhbWXZb9aihRk46M/edit

There's been one playtest so far and the people involved were_very_ hyped about how good it felt compared with the actual console game. Here's the log:

>docs.google.com/document/d/11LVUq7qwzqqV-BxJJ2YYxE5HxZgWdrx5LKHv2Y37veA/edit

Development is currently on hold since focus has been channeled towards a different Project (specifically hacking Monsters and Other Childish Things into a mecha game, by way of both Gundam and Evangelion).

Oh hey. I didn't know this was a thing.

Yeah, if there is an english version of an official DS rpg that's actually, you know, good? I'm cool with that.

>Cracked Red Eye Orb:
Can be crushed to gain 1 Dreg in addition to any other Loot when looting
a fallen enemy. Or, instead, you
may crush it over the body of a defeated PC to destroy one of
their memories and gain 1 Humanity for doing so.
> A Cracked Red Eye Orb can also be consumed in conjunction with a soul Item, such as a Fading
Soul, Soul of a Hero, or even a Boss Soul. Doing so
increased the amount of souls gained from it
by 50%, but you are the only one to benefit from doing so. No other party member gains
anything.

Wow. So its an item that just lets you be a dick.

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OP, do you have anywhere you post updates to this?

Your combat system with the stamina bar and boss AI logic is interesting. I'm not sure what it would be like in play, but it feels fresh and I'm excited about it. Can you write up a combat example with dice rolls so we can see what it's like?

>Wow. So its an item that just lets you be a dick.
That's the point of the item in the games, to fuck over other people.

>Is there anything you specifically want to see in the game, as far as options go?
From what I read, I don't think I need anything more, you did good works user

noice

Sweeeeeet

I do not. Is 1d4chan still a thing? That might not be a terrible place to post this stuff, because that way other people can just add on their own content too.

Like, if some GM writes up a bunch of enemies for their own Darkroot Gardens or whatever, they can post it there and then we fill out the enemy list but by bit. Same with weapons. We'll probably end up getting a lot of stuff that isn't in the games too, stuff for people's own campaigns, but I doubt anyone would be unhappy with having that available if its cool.

I'll try and write one up later today

OP here. I won't be able to post during the day because for some reason Veeky Forums is still blocking the IP range of my phone, but I will be able to read.

Some discussion to keep the thread bumped int he meantime: an idea I was toying with was adding a profession to character creation that gives you the option of playing as a Firekeeper. High faith, very squishy and weak stats, but with a unique License that can't be gained by other means that lets you spend Humanity to create a new Bonfire.

Thoughts?

I can only imagine the shifty eyes that will happen any time the party finds this item in game.

> be undead
> travelling with a group of other accursed. You've been through a lot together. Victories and deaths. Things are going well.
> everyone gathers around as you open the latest chest
> 6 cracked red eye orbs
> [laughter stops]

...

How does this compare to RuneQuest?

Dunno. I kinda doubt anyone has played this yet beyond maybe OP and his group.

It looks worth trying though. As first drafts go this has potential.

I can see it. The ability to make new bonfires wherever you want seems pretty strong, but if it has a cost like Humanity that seems reasonable.

Lorewise, I wonder. Can Firekeepers be undead? Or rather, can you be Undead and still be a Firekeeper?

It's pretty much outright said that firekeepers are undead, or at least heavily tied to the undead curse by the Firelink firekeeper.

Okay. I know Firekeeper souls are special, and apparently you can bring one back to life if you can bring the Firekeeper's soul back to their body. So thats... a thing.

It would probably be a terrible idea for the game, but it would be kind of funny if the Firekeeper was like the team pet. Very useful and has all sorts of special abilities like lighting bonfires, but if they die they stay dead until the other players track down her soul and bring it back. So everyone else is semi immortal, with the Firekeeper being someone everyone in the group is trying to keep alive.

God that video is great

OP here. Back now, will post the combat example in a bit.

This will take a while, so lets get started. There are three types of 'combat' that can happen, so lets do examples of all three. Those types are Encounters, Ambushes, and Bosses.

Combat Examples

You want to play some Fires Far Away, but you don’t know how? That’s sad. But thankfully, you can learn through observation.
Meet a sample character, Videy O’Gamesman. Videy is a Warrior, and because he has a stupid face he has no friends so he is forced to fight alone. He has 440 Health at level 1, 6 Stamina Die, and a bunch of other stats too probably. Lets watch him try and do stuff and probably die doing it.

ENCOUNTER

Videy is walking around in a forgotten city looking for the next bonfire. Because Videy is very stupid, he is not drawing a map as he goes and gets turned around a lot. As he walks, he stumbles into a room with 2 Forsaken Hollows and a Hollow Warrior carrying Firebombs. Combat triggers, and all three enemies are 20 ft away because this is an example.

Videy rolls his Stamina, and gets [1,4,3,1,5,1]. Not great, Videy.

Videy, as the only player, has the highest Stamina and thus goes first. This is bad for Videy, because it means not only is he the only target for his enemies, but they are all probably going to go at once. Videy decides to hide like a bitch behind his shield and slowly advance. He spends 1d to move 10 ft up, and chooses a low roll of 1 to not waste Stamina. He then does the same thing to activate his Block.

Videy now has [4,3,5,1] left in his Stamina bar. He nervously ends his turn, hoping he can use his remaining Stamina to dodge anything too scary to block.

The GM has 2 Interrupts to use. The first one goes to Forsaken Hollow A, who moves up to be in Videy’s face and performs a basic attack for 108 Slash damage.

Videy is still wearing plain as Warrior armor, granting 21 Slash Defense. Because he is blocking with a Kite Shield, he adds 100 to that for 121 Slash Defense against this attack because it is coming from the direction he is blocking. Half of 121 turns into 60, because round that shit down, and 108 – 60 = 48.

Videy takes 48 damage through the Block, putting him at 392/440 health.

Forsaken Hollow B runs up and positions himself at Videy’s side, meaning Videy will not benefit from his Block against that attack. As you might remember, Videy’s armor isn’t that great. Videy decides to Dodge.

Between his weapon, shield, and armor the total weight of Videy’s gear is 23.8. His Equip Load is 52, because he has 12 END. That means he is below half his equip load still, and can use whatever die he wants. So he blows his last 1 value Stamina die to dodge and move 5 ft away from his attacker. He is no longer Blocking, because he dodged.

The attack does no damage, and Videy has [4,3,5] left.

All players have had their turn and all interrupts have been used. The Hollow Warrior (Firebomb) triggers, automatically letting fly a firebomb at Videy. He dodges again, spending his 3 value die, and the attack misses.

Before the round ends, Videy uses his last 2 stamina die as Reactions to step 5 ft twice, moving closer to the Hollow Warrior. Those firebombs pack a mean punch at 180 Fire damage. This scares Videy.

The next round starts, and Videy rolls Stamina again. This time, he gets [5,4,2,3,1,4].

Videy has positioned himself to already be in the face of his Firebomb wielding foe, and lets him have it. He spends a die worth 5 Stamina to make an attack with his Longsword.

His Longsword has a base damage of 80. His Scaled damage for C rank STR and DEX is +6. 80 + 6 is 86, so that’s how much damage he deals. Slashing or Thrusting doesn’t matter this time.

The Hollow Warrior has a Damage Absorption of 20, and 75 hp. So it only takes 66 damage, leaving it with a frustratingly low 9 HP left.

Videy has [4,2,3,1,4] left. He wants the Hollow to be actually dead, so he makes another attack. 5 Stamina again, this time formed by combining a 4 die and his 1 die to make a total value of 5. The attack from before repeats, killing the Hollow Warrior with damage to spare. He gains 60 Souls for his trouble.

Videy still has [2,3,4] left. He spends his 2 die to move 10 ft and change his facing so he is looking at the two Forsaken Hollows, and his 3 die to begin to Block. He holds his remaining [4] to Dodge.

Forsaken Hollow B goes first this time and moves to flank Videy again. Videy decides to burn his last die to Dodge now since Block clearly isn’t helping him and negates the attack while moving 5 ft away. After all, this way he only takes 1 attack when Forsaken Hollow A gets to him, right?

Wrong.

The GM selects Forsaken Hollow B AGAIN to use the second Interrupt of the round, closing the distance and activating Chain (Mad Slash) because the same enemy has acted twice in a row with no one else acting in between. That’s 4 attacks at 98 Slash damage.
Videy has no dice left to dodge. Videy dropped his Block to dodge before.

Videy is in for a world of pain. 21 Slash Defense, so 10 damage absorbed by his armor. Each attack therefore deals ‘only’ 88 damage, x4 is a total of 352.

Videy drops from 392/440 to a terrifying 40/440.

The next round starts. Videy rolls [5,6,6,6,5,1] for his new Stamina bar. Finally, good news!

The GM goes on the offense, using an Interrupt before Videy can take his turn this round. Dick move, GM. But legal.

Forsaken Hollow A runs up and swings. Videy NOPES out of there with a Dodge, spending his only 1 die. He has [5,6,6,6,5] left.

Videy gets his turn and immediately spends 2 die to drink Estus from his Cracked Estus Flask. He sacrifices both 5’s and recovers 130 HP, because damn that was close. He then notices he has a lot of Stamina left over and goes on the attack. [6,6,6] is left.

He spends a 6 die to get 5 Stamina and attacks a Forsaken Hollow. 88 Damage proves to be more than enough to overcome 10 Absorption and wipe out the hollow’s 67 HP, killing it dead in one shot. 20 souls gained.

That worked, so Videy does it again. Another 20 souls gained.

The fights is over, a near death experience and only 100 souls to show for it. He gets 1 Dreg automatically from the Drop of the Hollow Warrior, and decides to Loot the enemies. He starts with the Forsaken Hollows: 4 and 5. The 4 grants nothing, but the 5 gives him a Dreg. He rolls a 3 when looting the Hollow Warrior, and thus finds no Firebombs. Shitty.

Now that he is out of combat, Videy drinks his Estus again so he doesn’t die.

AMBUSH

As he is leaving the room that was the site of his battle, Videy isn’t paying attention and gets Ambushed by another Forsaken Hollow. Videy is forced to make a Reaction Roll.

He rolls 2d6, and the result is 5 + 4 = 9. His Longsword costs less Stamina to use than that, so he gets his attack in first. Because it is an Ambush, the Forsaken Hollow only has 1 HP, and thus easily dies doing nothing more than giving Videy a scare.

Videy only gains half the normal soul amount from defeating an Ambush, so that’s another 10 souls. He Loots the Ambush but rolls a 2 and finds nothing. Feh.

BOSS BATTLE

Later, Videy finds that bonfire, rests, and walks through the ominously foggy door to see if there is anything good behind it.
No, Videy. No. There is a boss behind it, Videy. Of course there is.

Videy finds himself 60 ft away from an Asylum Demon, rested up but alone. He rolls his Stamina bar and gets [3,4,3,6,1,5]. Videy doesn’t know this, dear reader, but I’ll let you in on a secret: the Asylum Demon rolls a 3 and a 1 for its AI dice this turn.

The Asylum demon uses an Interrupt and moves 25 ft forward with the 1 result, and is now 35 ft away. An intimidating opening move!

Videy wants to know what he is in for, so he expends his 1 die to Read Enemy. The GM informs him that the highest unused AI die is a 3.

Videy has [3,4,3,6,5] left, but no ranged attacks. He could charge in and start swinging, but it would take most of his Stamina to get there so he decides to let the Asylum Demon come to him first. He blocks with a 3 die and bides his time.

The Asylum Demon moves another 25 ft and ends the round. EXCITING!

Videy rolls [3,2,6,1,1,5]. Not the best offensive dice set in the world, but he can dodge with that.
The Demon waits and forces Videy to go first. Fug.

Videy spends a 1 to move the 10 ft up, and spends a 5 to swing. 88 Damage, -10 for Absorption, to 78.

The demon drops to 747/825 health.

Videy, emboldened, swings again with his 6. 669/825.

Videy has [3,2,1] left. He spends the 1 to fall back 10 ft, hoping to force the demon to waste an Interrupt coming to him. He holds onto 2 die to dodge with, feeling safe that should be enough.

The Asylum Demon can now go. It rolled a 4 and a 5 for its AI dice. If Videy had used a Read Enemy this turn, he might be worried.

The Asylum Demon starts off with a Long Range Hammer, dealing 211 damage to a single point with a secondary area effect dealing Stagger to nearby spaces. Videy wisely spends a die to dodge and moves 5 ft out of the way.

This means that when the attack resolves, Videy is in an adjacent space. He does not take any damage, but he does gain 60 Stagger. This exceeds his Resistance of 24, so he is Staggered.

Because he is Staggered, Videy loses half his unspent Stamina die. He only has one left, so that means no choice at all. He is left with 0 Stamina.

The Asylum Demon goes again and uses another Long Range Hammer, knocking Videy from 440 to 237 health, because Videy’s Bash defense is slightly worse than his Slash defense.

The next round starts and Videy gets up. He has [3,5,1,6,1,5] for the round. Secretly, the Asylum Demon has a 1 and a 5.

Fighting Defensively clearly isn’t working, and spending dice to hit and run is leaving him exposed. He drinks Estus (spending [1,1]) bringing himself back up to 367, and he spends [3] to move up into melee range and starts swinging for the fences.

Longsword attack with a [5]! 591/825

Longsword attack with a [6]! 513/825

He decides to hold onto his last die to dodge, but stays in melee range of the enemy.

The Asylum Demon uses the 1 to perform a Basic Attack, which Videy hems and haws about dodging but since 188 is less than 211, he guesses the second attack will be worse. He takes it, and after armor takes 180 damage, putting him down to 187.

The Asylum demon uses Hit and Run to do another Basic Attack (which Videy dodges this time) and jumping backward 10 ft.

A new round. Videy rolls [2,4,2,2,5,5]. The Asylum demon rolls 6 and 4.

The Asylum Demon choses to go first, using the 4 to Long Range Hammer Videy again. Videy dodges, knowing what comes next, and gets staggered losing half his Stamina dice. After all is said and done, he only has a [4, 5] left.

Videy, given the choice between drinking his last Estus and attacking, chooses attacking. He has lost hope and figures he is going to get creamed by whatever comes next anyway. He spends the 4 to move up and the 5 to get in one last futile blow in the hopes that the Demon is at low health, dropping the Demon down to 435/825.

The Asylum Demon gleefully crushes Videy with a Hammer Drive, technically Staggering his corpse.

Videy dies, losing a Humanity and his hard won 110 souls are hoovered up by the Asylum Demon. Whoever eventually defeats that Demon will have an additional 55 souls in the pot from Videy’s tragedy.

Videy’s first thought, waking up back at the Bonfire, is that he needs to find some friends and go kill that asshole.

i've got BOSS W E A P O N S

Did you say BOSS WEAPONS?

OP, have you posted this on 1d4chan yet? I don't want to lose this once the thread 404s.

I have not!

I actually want to make some changes to the PDF first. I noticed I, uh, forgot to actually SAY you start with an Estus Flask. Stuff like that.

And I can include this guys art and stuff.

Was the combat example useful, BTW?

Good effort. Looks like it's really coming along.

If you're mainly just looking to expand inventories and enemies, maybe reference some material from King's Field. They're spiritually related, although I believe Dark Souls was handled by a different director. There's nonetheless tons of King's Field lore and references to be found in the Dark Souls games.

Oh my god that's a thing? INTERNET, TRANSLATE THIS IMMEDIATELY. Somebody get the weebs in on this.

Those combat examples were fucking great. Thanks for posting them! It was exciting to read about, which means it would probably be exciting to play with the right group. With three digit values that are constantly shifting though, calculators need to be present but that's not really a problem. The game would probably also benefit from some good minis for atmosphere and tactical positioning.

I might suggest polishing and consolidating the equipment tables a bit. For instance
>Broadsword (2 words)
>Long sword
>Bastard sword
In real-world terms, these refer to the same weapon, even though video games often treat them as distinctively different weapons. I usually call it a broad sword.

>Short bow
>Longbow (2 words)

Inventories don't have to be 1:1 parallel to the terminology used in the game, much less the game's curious existence of duplicate items like many varieties of long sword.

And while I'm making suggestions, I don't know if I would use numerical figures that are proportionate to the game. Weapons appear to have static damage values like 72 points. High values like these make for fairly complicated calculations. Smaller numbers like you see in D&D are a lot easier to manage. Maybe you can try to convert these formulas to something that scales more along the same lines as D&D.

BOSS W E A P O N S
>just down the road

I can't say I know anything about Kings Field.

That said, I was originally going to call the homebrew Soulsborne. I don't think it would be that difficult to have Bloodborne content be in the game (For example, Runes take up Attunement slots but give you a constant passive benefit instead of requiring active use) where all of the weird shit going down in Yarnham gets blamed on people messing with elder stuff that lives in the Abyss. The split was going to be that Undead can die a lot and come back mostly fine, and Hunters are nigh unkillable so long as they stay hopped up on monster blood but the more monster blood they use they more beastlike they become.

So Undead get punished if they loose too often. But a Hunter that WINS too much will become unplayable too.

Seemed too complex to try and shove into the game before I have all of the DS stuff I care about working, though.

> I might suggest polishing and consolidating the equipment tables a bit.

Maybe. But I think that having a strong variety of swords with different stat requirements and playstyles can only benefit the game, even if there is strong thematic overlap.

Like, the Balder Side Sword. I'm pretty sure its just a longsword, but it has its own stats so why not?

This also reminds me: one of the things I tried to do in the game was to make 'movesets' work via combat actions based on weapon types. So a curved sword can do at least a couple things that a spear cant and vice versa. Any ideas for combat actions and whatnot that will help round that out conceptually are appreciated.

In a similar headspace: Weapon Arts. I'm not going to make them anywhere near as common as DS3 made them, but there are some weapons (Dragonslayer Spear, Moonlight Greatsword, etc) where it honestly just seems the easiest way to implement that weapon. Should a Weapon Art just be a property of the weapon anyone can use? A special ability you have to 'attune' like a spell? Or a License you have to buy associated with a weapon that represents learning to unlock the weapons potential?

> Smaller numbers like you see in D&D are a lot easier to manage. Maybe you can try to convert these formulas to something that scales more along the same lines as D&D.

I could do that, but then I have to actually come up with values myself. I am not a mathematician.

By sticking to game stats, its pretty mindless to translate stuff. Makes it easy for other people to translate stuff too.

Ill say this: if you are willing to come up with weapons stats and HP amounts for everything? I'll use them! Thats just the kind of generous guy I am.

>if you are willing to come up with weapons stats and HP amounts for everything?

I work on a lot of homebrew myself, so maybe. The only problem is that I'm not actually that familiar with DS. I have however conquered all of the King's Field games.

It would be important for me to have an understanding of just how deeply equipment is incorporated into the game. For instance, do characters have equipment proficiencies that determine how strong equipment is? Can magical parameters (such as prefixes or suffixes a la Diablo) be applied to equipment? Can equipment be forged into more powerful versions using alloys? I'd have to be familiar with any such logic before trying to create any basic equipment statistics.

Okay, so here's a way I'm seeing to consolidate basic weapons (minus statistics, as that will come later)

Dagger
Straight sword
Curved blade - a sword that perhaps executes attacks with greater efficiency, increasing the character's initiative (turn order)
Great sword - a sword that requires two hands to wield, preventing the use of a shield
Katana
Foil - a sword that can pierce enemy armor
Axe
Great axe
Hammer
Maul
Fist
Claw
Spear - can extend attacks by one rank (allows the character to reach past enemy front lines and attack other enemies within close quarters)
Halberd - same as spear, but probably a more powerful and menacing weapon
Whip - chance to entangle / grapple opponent
Bow
Cross bow
Catalyst - a staff-like weapon used to channel sorceries

I'm not sure what distinct advantages some of these would have to set them apart from other weapons. e.g. What features would a katana have that a straight sword or curved sword lacks? Is it functionally any different?

So. the logic of Dark Souls when ti comes to weapons is thus:

Proficiency does not exist. However, EVERY weapon has stat requirements. A Scimitar might require you to have 9 STR and 14 DEX to use at all, but as long as you have the stats for it you can use it no matter who you are. Some things have really high requirements, like a giant fucking stone hammer needing 45 STR. Some stuff has weird requirements, like a holy sword needing 12 STR, only 6 DEX, but 17 FTH.

Getting your damage up can come from two sides:

Firstly, Damage Scaling. Generally, every weapon that has a Stat requirement for a weapon has a Rank for that Stat. S, A, B, C, D. The better the rank, the more damage you do with that weapon based on the stat. So a weapon that has a A rank Dex is going to be only mildly better than its base damage days in the hands of someone with 9 Dex, but in the hand of someone with 50 Dex is doing great. Scaling from all of your stats the weapon uses gets added together as a giant lump of extra damage. So leveling up, if you invest in the right abilities, increases not only what weapons you can use but how well you can use them.

This creates a situation where only rarely is any weapon just straight up 'better' than all of its competition. A weapon that doesn't scale well is useful in the hands of people who invested in other stats. A weapon that has shitty base damage but awesome scaling is wonderful for a dedicated build. And so on.

Secondly, weapons can be improved. You need a blacksmith and the right ores, but you can increase the damage of weapons with some simple reinforcement or add fancy elemental effects using infusion.

Then there are weapons that are already magical and special when you find them. They are sweet, but can only be Reinforced (never infused) using even rarer ores. You can also oftentimes reforge the souls of powerful enemies into unique weapons thematic to them. Because thats how Dark Souls rolls, baby.

If you want to spice things up a bit, maybe throw in a basic upgrade system and the option to add magical suffixes to equipment. For instance, let's say we have the materials promeus, titanite and cobalt. Promeus might add +2 damage to a weapon, or +2 damage reduction to a piece of armor; but it's quite heavy and would penalize the character's initiative as a result. Titanite might add +1 damage or damage reduction, and is a very lightweight material that doesn't affect initiative, or actually increases initiative. And cobalt enables weapons to deal damage to incorporeal foes that might normally be immune to corporeal weapons? I don't know if DS has foes like this.

So some example equipment could include:

Promeus Straight Sword of Disruption - a +2 sword that's enchanted with the power to destroy undead creatures upon contact. (Isn't everything in DS technically undead? I'm not sure how that works, so maybe this is a poor example.)

Titanite Plate Mail of Mirrored Malice - a +1 suit of armor that reflects a point of damage back at the opponent when its wearer endures a close quarters attack. The counter-damage cannot be evaded or absorbed.

Cobalt Halberd of Woe - a halberd that can damage corporeal foes, and has an additional chance of killing (or paralyzing?) its target in a single strike.

>Firstly, Damage Scaling. Generally, every weapon that has a Stat requirement for a weapon has a Rank for that Stat. S, A, B, C, D. The better the rank, the more damage you do with that weapon based on the stat.

This certainly makes things complicated. I wonder if this system could be reworked so weapons have only a single class that determines their damage formula. For example, there might be strength weapons and dexterity weapons. Straight swords could be strength weapons while katanas could be dexterity weapons. This merely means that the bonus damage added to the weapon is derived from one stat or the other. So it would be wise for characters to use weapons that correspond to their strongest stats.

I don't think you can boil Dark Souls down to a single weapon of each category like that. Its simpler, sure. But its very un-Dark Souls.

Dark Souls isn't about simplicity or balance. Its about dumping a bunch of toys on the table in front of you, unsorted and with almost no explanation, and pointing you at a monster.

"But which of these tools is the best?" You ask.

"Fuck if I know. Whichever one works for you. Just pick whatever looks or sounds cool, thats what I do! Ha ha ha!" Dark Souls says, before getting plucked from the ground by a giant raven and flying away to parts unknown for reasons you'll have to piece together later.

> "But what the hell is pooooise?"

>Dark Souls isn't about simplicity or balance.

But this translates to a LOT of work for the GM. You're talking about managing the kinds of features and statistics normally handled by a video game engine. If you're going to convert this to a tabletop-friendly format, a degree of compromise is going to be necessary to keep the rules streamlined. At the moment, the system is too convoluted for a tabletop environment.

It isn't, in DS3.

No offense, but how much of the PDF have you read? There's already an upgrade system.

> At the moment, the system is too convoluted for a tabletop environment.

I don't think that's true. Things are already simpler mechanics wise than the games themselves actually are, its just the numbers that are still high.

And as the combat example shows, all of the real math happens during chargen/level up. Once you know what damage your weapon does on your character, it will always do that damage. All a GM has to do is know how to subtract a monsters Damage Absorption, another unchanging number.

So creating your own homebrew stuff might be work, but honestly I see this as much less complex than DnD already is. No skills, no feats, no laundry list of class abilities.

...

Monsters as traps. Neat.

I like how bigger, more damaging weapons are likely to be slower, so less useful in an Ambush. Elegant.

Sounds fun, user. I had an idea originally based around a table top diceless dark souls simulation, too, card based though.

on it boss

bump

My only immediate complaint is high HP and damage values. Yeah sure you just keep your phone nearby with a calculator but then you've potentially got people browsing le interwebz and just making math generally slower

Yes because people might want to print it and have a physical copy at the table if they play it.
For that, you’d want a Contents

Third time's the charm

>character sheet even has the appropriate icons

OP, I take my hat off to you. This is a deeply worthwhile endeavour.

OP is a cool designer, I wish you luck
Denion

Looks awesome!

Only problem I see is that I'm pretty sure we need the armor stats the old way. You list head, body, arms and legs separately with no convenient row for a total defense/weight, etc for the values.

You want the total defense from armor to be an easy, already written down number for quick reference. Otherwise people will have to add it up again every time.

Has anyone told you that you were a pretty cool dude?

This RPG is needlessly autistic. Nobody wants to play a Dark Souls combat simulator that's just as restrictive as the video games. Nobody wants to number crunch numbers in the 100s when you could just divide everything by 10 and get the same result. If I want to play Dark Souls, I'll boot up the game. A Dark Souls RPG should be about exploring Dark Souls, not emulating it.

>A Dark Souls RPG should be about exploring Dark Souls, not emulating it.

Okay. Lets take that to its logical conclusion. How would YOU do that?

Given the postitive response in the thread, I'd say that there are in fact people who want to play this.

That said, sure, exploring the setting in a different way would be neat, but part of the entire atmosphere/setting IS the restrictive combat simulation - might it not lose some of the appeal without that?

>How would YOU do that?

There's no reason why the game can't explore the Dark Souls universe and use more conventional tabletop rules and statistics at the same time. Hell, you could just graft DS lore on top of D20 or D6, or some other existing system of your preference.

I just don't see this game working out if you insist on emulating a video game engine instead. Video games and tabletop games have vastly different approaches for several reasons. You seem to be unfamiliar with those reasons, or perhaps with tabletop gaming in general.

Use a generic system with good and open combat mechanics so I can focus on nailing the atmosphere, descriptions, environments, and lore in a Dark Souls manner. So, a lot of influence from European mythology, integration of cyclical metaphors, a bleak future and loneliness in the hostility of the world. You can use any system for this as long as it has deadly combat and many options for fighting styles, like Dungeon Fantasy RPG.

It's not even close to being an important part of the atmosphere. The systems of interaction with Dark Souls are important in terms of immersion, but that works because of its nature as a video game. It is utterly ridiculous to limit combat options when you are not coding a video game at a computer and incurr technical debt for feature bloat. You can infer fighting style from real-world applications of weapons that will be just as meaningful, if not moreso, because they are no longer arbitrary restrictions based on time, effort, and hardware.

>Use a generic system
See, this brings up something that always comes up when someone home brews a system: Why are we not all using generic systems all the time for everything? Why create any system when cut and stitch the fluff and tone of anything you want onto a generic system?