I'm starting a dark souls, one inspired campaign, changing little things as I go along. I agree that D&D 5th edition was not the best base to build this game on, but at the same time with all of my players being familiar with D&D 5th edition, it made it a lot more accessible. I love position, I think it's a really cool idea and may even keep it in other games outside of the dark souls RPG I also love that different armors and equipment do different things and give different abilities, so that even though there aren't as many spells in the game, it's kind of made up for by having really interesting equipment as opposed to 5th edition D&D. Anyway, had my first session and it went well so let's see how it goes.
How 2 Create a Dark Souls TT-RPG Character Step 1 Draw a hollow eyed Undead, with skin like jerky Step 2 Layer on a ton Armor in said drawing Step 3 Prepare to Die. A lot Step 4 Find a Bonfire, and sit in solemn silence Step 5 Praise the Sun
It was really interesting to hear your thoughts, I sought out some thoughts from others as I'm gonna run the system as a series of one shots soon. To me I think people apply very modern trpg takes to the system- not enough NPCs, overly combat focused etc. For me, this system will run best as a love letter to old school TTRPG systems like 1st and 2nd edition DND. It's all about combat, all about dungeons and working towards a goal is an excuse to do that rather than the story being the main goal of modern ttrpgs. I'll be running it as a "beer and snacks" kind of game. It's just an excuse to roll dice, kill some stuff and have a fun time doing it. The roleplay will exist but be weird and minimal like it is in the games. The story will be abstract and only vague directions to go on. But overall, the experience isn't about that. Totally agree with you that position is the mechanic that sets the game apart. I think it's a wonderful idea and really adds and extra dimension to combat. I also really like the spell system, but spell balance is atrocious (surprised you didn't mention this as balance throughout is quite poor!) And I'm planning on rewriting most spells as I hand them out to make them fit better to the games and either less broken or more useful I wonder- have you had a chance to run the game and did that change any opinions at all?
That is a very interesting perspective! I never thought of it as being an homage to old school game design. I have not played it and am unlikely to bring it to my gaming group.
Just having stamina points that you spend on your movement, attacks and defensive maneuvers would work better. Burn all your stamina on attacks, can't dodge or block now so you have to just let your armor and HP soak up the damage and hope for the best. It's possible to have weapon scaling from F to S in D&D, but HP and AC values will have to be adjusted to account for some of the extra damage and it has to balance out with how faster attacking weapons will get MORE attacks for less stamina being spent. The thing they're really missing here to me is a Hollowing mechanic. You can die over and over, but you lose more and more of yourself ever time you resurrect until you lose your mind and can't play your character anymore (like a Call of Cthulhu game).
I think a book that fleshes out the Demon Souls / Dark Souls / Elden Ring "Worlds" pre-fog would have been allot more useful. The "themes" and lore of this worlds are really captivating and evocative but it needs allot of work to be put into a RPG setting.
I happened to see the book that adds more creatures from DS1 & 2 into the game at my local game store and it intrigued me enough to look for this review. So at least they do have a book available if you want to add them.
Great review and great assessment. The great irony is that Steamforged Games made the board game, which came out before this game. They could have extrapolated the mechanics they used in the board game outward to an RPG, but I suspect that greed and small-mindedness got the better of them in their decision to make it a 5e-compatible product. IMO, Dark Souls doesn't need 5e compatibility to sell itself! It already has a massive fan base that will serve to introduce them to the TTRPG hobby! All the 5e compatibility made it do was to draw D&D players to this poor showing that is the Dark Souls RPG. The rules are basic and the way they covered the setting was basic. I squeezed more value out of the Elden Ring setting using Ironsworn than what I suspect the book covers.
SFG are wasting the license. V1 of the board game just needed a few tweaks to be a 7-8 out of 10 game. They instead decided to completely change it to the point v1 products are not compatible with v2 (while making it easier and not really dark souls anymore). Basically splitting the player base and are now selling old v2 content that is lower quality (ex: v1 character boards vs v2 character boards) and in lower quality for a much higher price (sunless city is missing so much content from the core set). They keep trying to start from square one instead of build upon what they have. If they updated the core rules with some qol fixes and used it as a base for the rpg, they would have really gone places.
Nice video, my dude! :D I agree with you 100% when it comes to approaching the setting as a DM. A few years ago I actually tried running a Dark Souls campaign for my group around a table. It just didn't work. Like you said: the whole setting needs that feeling of isolation to help it be very effective. I would say that the setting might work for dedicated dungeon crawlers, but that would be about it. This thing does seem pretty unnecessary, and it looks like artwork aside, only the basic minimum was done for the book, aside from the Positions. I also note that they took bosses heavily from 3, but only a couple of the more popular from 1. Where the hell are Gwyn & Nito?
Something that I found out after the review: they are making a proper monster manual with more bosses and monsters. I just want my Ornstein and Smough! 😪
I feel it would be better with some hollowing mechanic where the player characters lose their memories and/or sanity until they become a threat to the party themselves. New characters also then might have to fight those hollowed out selves
@MrToothpicks that would be very interesting and cool. Like you could have a few different memories that give you some sort of bonus and every time you die, you roll to see if you lose that memory. Once you have no more memories, you become a hollow and it's game over!
@knightsaberZ42 definitely every time I see dark souls level up screen, I get to thinking that it can 100% be transferred into a ttrpg. The only problem was that the company that did it had little to no experience on ttrpgs other than board games. Big rip but hopefully they will add updates to the pdf then publish a final hard copy that is more refined like how D&D does with each new edition.
@@twinklingjoiner I don't think we'd be so lucky. It's really interesting because while they were developing the Dark Sould ttrpg, they were also creating their own setting for 5e, Animal Adventures. It looks like that game is going to get more support going forward.
As a person who doesn't play 5e a whole lot, I honestly don't mind the fact it's largely CtrlC-CtrlV-ed off of 5e. With WoTC crashing and burning these days, I think it's important to preserve the things from 5e that do work. For the NPC question, I suppose you have to mold it a bit to fit the Charisma stuff 5e has, but DS3 has some pretty involved questlines, so for me it's not that unnatural to have some NPCs like that. Not with as big a focus as with 5e, but some.
@@knightsaberZ42 I was thinking about it, but then the cool books would be sorta useless... Unless I go really crazy and reprint everything and rebound it. Then again 2e isn't extremely far off from current 5e.
My favourite for for Soulborn indspired rolepaly was always the chipter system: Roll to dodge boock, effort rules mimoc the cost of stamina like position, and it has free form chara her creation advancement. Also player can take and spend xp in various says during play like souls/runes/echos
this is my first time ever playing an rpg game and i am going to be a dm and play it with 2 friends who are new to roleplaying, based on your review you are basically saying this book is shit. Is it really that bad? is it better for me to start elsewhere? i chose this since im a big dark souls fan and always wanted to get into role playing
@@knightsaberZ42 wait really? i have been reading reviews left and right and everyone is talking about grammatical errors and not about the mechanics or how it plays so i was skeptical if running it at all would be at least fun thanks for the responce man
@vagg0065 if I remember correctly, the pdf version has a lot of the grammatical fixes. Also, grammar and spelling can be annoying when you come across them the first time, but that has no bearing on whether or not a game is fun. This game does evoke a dark souls style, so be prepared for TPK's. Once you have enough experience you'll be able to tell what works with your group and what doesn't. Then you'll be able to start thinking of ways to tweak it to meet your group's needs. Hope this helps and have fun!
I'm starting a dark souls, one inspired campaign, changing little things as I go along. I agree that D&D 5th edition was not the best base to build this game on, but at the same time with all of my players being familiar with D&D 5th edition, it made it a lot more accessible. I love position, I think it's a really cool idea and may even keep it in other games outside of the dark souls RPG I also love that different armors and equipment do different things and give different abilities, so that even though there aren't as many spells in the game, it's kind of made up for by having really interesting equipment as opposed to 5th edition D&D. Anyway, had my first session and it went well so let's see how it goes.
That's great to hear!
How 2 Create a Dark Souls TT-RPG Character
Step 1
Draw a hollow eyed Undead, with skin like jerky
Step 2
Layer on a ton Armor in said drawing
Step 3
Prepare to Die. A lot
Step 4
Find a Bonfire, and sit in solemn silence
Step 5
Praise the Sun
🤣
Hey man, great video! I'd love to see you play the game!
It was really interesting to hear your thoughts, I sought out some thoughts from others as I'm gonna run the system as a series of one shots soon.
To me I think people apply very modern trpg takes to the system- not enough NPCs, overly combat focused etc. For me, this system will run best as a love letter to old school TTRPG systems like 1st and 2nd edition DND. It's all about combat, all about dungeons and working towards a goal is an excuse to do that rather than the story being the main goal of modern ttrpgs.
I'll be running it as a "beer and snacks" kind of game. It's just an excuse to roll dice, kill some stuff and have a fun time doing it. The roleplay will exist but be weird and minimal like it is in the games. The story will be abstract and only vague directions to go on. But overall, the experience isn't about that.
Totally agree with you that position is the mechanic that sets the game apart. I think it's a wonderful idea and really adds and extra dimension to combat. I also really like the spell system, but spell balance is atrocious (surprised you didn't mention this as balance throughout is quite poor!) And I'm planning on rewriting most spells as I hand them out to make them fit better to the games and either less broken or more useful
I wonder- have you had a chance to run the game and did that change any opinions at all?
That is a very interesting perspective! I never thought of it as being an homage to old school game design. I have not played it and am unlikely to bring it to my gaming group.
Just having stamina points that you spend on your movement, attacks and defensive maneuvers would work better. Burn all your stamina on attacks, can't dodge or block now so you have to just let your armor and HP soak up the damage and hope for the best. It's possible to have weapon scaling from F to S in D&D, but HP and AC values will have to be adjusted to account for some of the extra damage and it has to balance out with how faster attacking weapons will get MORE attacks for less stamina being spent. The thing they're really missing here to me is a Hollowing mechanic. You can die over and over, but you lose more and more of yourself ever time you resurrect until you lose your mind and can't play your character anymore (like a Call of Cthulhu game).
I think a book that fleshes out the Demon Souls / Dark Souls / Elden Ring "Worlds" pre-fog would have been allot more useful. The "themes" and lore of this worlds are really captivating and evocative but it needs allot of work to be put into a RPG setting.
I find it odd that this book is almost entirely dark souls 3 until you get to the bosses.
I happened to see the book that adds more creatures from DS1 & 2 into the game at my local game store and it intrigued me enough to look for this review.
So at least they do have a book available if you want to add them.
Great review and great assessment.
The great irony is that Steamforged Games made the board game, which came out before this game. They could have extrapolated the mechanics they used in the board game outward to an RPG, but I suspect that greed and small-mindedness got the better of them in their decision to make it a 5e-compatible product.
IMO, Dark Souls doesn't need 5e compatibility to sell itself! It already has a massive fan base that will serve to introduce them to the TTRPG hobby! All the 5e compatibility made it do was to draw D&D players to this poor showing that is the Dark Souls RPG.
The rules are basic and the way they covered the setting was basic. I squeezed more value out of the Elden Ring setting using Ironsworn than what I suspect the book covers.
I wholeheartedly agree!
SFG are wasting the license. V1 of the board game just needed a few tweaks to be a 7-8 out of 10 game. They instead decided to completely change it to the point v1 products are not compatible with v2 (while making it easier and not really dark souls anymore). Basically splitting the player base and are now selling old v2 content that is lower quality (ex: v1 character boards vs v2 character boards) and in lower quality for a much higher price (sunless city is missing so much content from the core set). They keep trying to start from square one instead of build upon what they have. If they updated the core rules with some qol fixes and used it as a base for the rpg, they would have really gone places.
Is this the "updated version" of the book?
Most likely not as I preordered this way back when.
Nice video, my dude! :D
I agree with you 100% when it comes to approaching the setting as a DM. A few years ago I actually tried running a Dark Souls campaign for my group around a table. It just didn't work. Like you said: the whole setting needs that feeling of isolation to help it be very effective. I would say that the setting might work for dedicated dungeon crawlers, but that would be about it.
This thing does seem pretty unnecessary, and it looks like artwork aside, only the basic minimum was done for the book, aside from the Positions. I also note that they took bosses heavily from 3, but only a couple of the more popular from 1. Where the hell are Gwyn & Nito?
Something that I found out after the review: they are making a proper monster manual with more bosses and monsters. I just want my Ornstein and Smough! 😪
I feel it would be better with some hollowing mechanic where the player characters lose their memories and/or sanity until they become a threat to the party themselves.
New characters also then might have to fight those hollowed out selves
@MrToothpicks that would be very interesting and cool. Like you could have a few different memories that give you some sort of bonus and every time you die, you roll to see if you lose that memory. Once you have no more memories, you become a hollow and it's game over!
They could have started with Cyberpunk's skill based system and go from there
That would actually be pretty sweet!
@knightsaberZ42 definitely every time I see dark souls level up screen, I get to thinking that it can 100% be transferred into a ttrpg. The only problem was that the company that did it had little to no experience on ttrpgs other than board games. Big rip but hopefully they will add updates to the pdf then publish a final hard copy that is more refined like how D&D does with each new edition.
@@twinklingjoiner I don't think we'd be so lucky. It's really interesting because while they were developing the Dark Sould ttrpg, they were also creating their own setting for 5e, Animal Adventures. It looks like that game is going to get more support going forward.
@knightsaberZ42 that sucks. Hopefully someone with experience with making home-brewed games can make a Dark Souls game for people to use
@@twinklingjoiner it's called "Fires Far Away".
It's *free*
Look into it.
As a person who doesn't play 5e a whole lot, I honestly don't mind the fact it's largely CtrlC-CtrlV-ed off of 5e. With WoTC crashing and burning these days, I think it's important to preserve the things from 5e that do work.
For the NPC question, I suppose you have to mold it a bit to fit the Charisma stuff 5e has, but DS3 has some pretty involved questlines, so for me it's not that unnatural to have some NPCs like that. Not with as big a focus as with 5e, but some.
Welp, the fact that I don't see DS2 stuff in here, it's a major pass.
Looks to be DS1 and DS3
@@knightsaberZ42Why was DS2 not included?
@@serraramayfield9230 I honestly have no idea.
Since I'm moving away from 5e to PF2e I'm a little sad I'm losing out in things like this.
It would take a lot of work, but you could do a conversion.
@@knightsaberZ42 I was thinking about it, but then the cool books would be sorta useless... Unless I go really crazy and reprint everything and rebound it. Then again 2e isn't extremely far off from current 5e.
My favourite for for Soulborn indspired rolepaly was always the chipter system:
Roll to dodge boock, effort rules mimoc the cost of stamina like position, and it has free form chara her creation advancement.
Also player can take and spend xp in various says during play like souls/runes/echos
this is my first time ever playing an rpg game and i am going to be a dm and play it with 2 friends who are new to roleplaying,
based on your review you are basically saying this book is shit. Is it really that bad? is it better for me to start elsewhere?
i chose this since im a big dark souls fan and always wanted to get into role playing
This is your first game. You are a big Dark Souls fan. This game is perfect for you! Go for it!
@@knightsaberZ42 wait really? i have been reading reviews left and right and everyone is talking about grammatical errors and not about the mechanics or how it plays so i was skeptical if running it at all would be at least fun
thanks for the responce man
@vagg0065 if I remember correctly, the pdf version has a lot of the grammatical fixes. Also, grammar and spelling can be annoying when you come across them the first time, but that has no bearing on whether or not a game is fun. This game does evoke a dark souls style, so be prepared for TPK's. Once you have enough experience you'll be able to tell what works with your group and what doesn't. Then you'll be able to start thinking of ways to tweak it to meet your group's needs. Hope this helps and have fun!
You Died... probably happens... a lot
I wonder if Praising the Sun does anything...