Dark Souls Homebrew

>>50342502
I'd fist suggest that, considering how many unknown factors there are concerning the Dark Souls lore, it might be wiser to simply create a setting INSPIRED by the Souls universe, sharing many of its themes, rather than flat-out setting a campaign in it.

>>50342549

I know the lore pretty well -- I figure by setting something in the 'human' part of the world, I'm pretty free to make up my own shit. It's a lot less restrictive to my mind than even, say, Game of Thrones, exactly because of all the unknown factors. You can paint your own picture in those grey areas.

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>>50342549
I agree with this - either make an entirely original setting in the style of Souls or take the DS2 approach and set it in a new, independant 'cycle' of the world.

I would doubly encourage the first option because the DS style of die and die again translates poorly to tabletop (speaking from experience). Prehaps something akin to Kingdom Death: Monster where all your characters are frail survivors who hunt individual horrifying beasts instead of hordes.

>>50342502
What plots could you really run in that universe while still having it feel like Dark Souls, though?

>>50345022
What if there was a table of random debuffs for each consecutive death, with a limited stock of 'humanity' items to cleanse these debuffs? And if it's a TPK, then they can challenge the encounter again or search elsewhere for something more doable?

I feel like a dark souls game lends itself to a dungeon crawl spanning a huge location.

Regardless of the system, be sure you put a long bridge in your game. And when players walk across it a god damn dragon comes out and kills them all.

>>50345104
And a horrible fucking poison swamp.

>>50342502
I statted out some Souls stuff for GURPS once. Nothing too in depth just some spells, Estus and humanity mechanics. I'd probably tweak the stuff I've done now that I'm more experienced with GURPS, I'd probably tweak the spell system to be more souls like as well. Besides that I'd probably use that last gasp rules for combat, possibly tweaking AP costs to be dependent on weapon weight.

>>50345084
No - I tried running with very severe debuffs for every death and yet the different nature of RPGs combined with the co-operative aspect caused very much a trial-and-error style of gameplay.

An alternative 'Undead' character style could be that, while you have a large health pool, it is impossible to regenerate it. I think it adds to the tension and inevitability that are hallmarks of the series while being relatively new - a good Souls RPG replicates the feel and style of the game rather than the mechanics.

Call of Cthulhu with either Cthulhu Invictus or Cthulhu Dark Ages. Only do san loss when someone dies and respawns other than that ignore san.

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>>50345143
>just finished playing through DS1, did a bit of NG+ and got down to Blighttown, didn't feel like doing it all over again
>my brother just got himself a PS4 and DS3, decide to give it a go
>my growing expression when leaving the Road of Sacrifice and entering Farron Keep

When adapting something to tabletop, it's all too easy to get focused on specific mechanics or the way it worked in the original. The problem with this is that it often leads to clunky and unintuitive measures to replicate it in another medium.

Focus on the broad themes, styles and strengths of the original. Consider how to adapt it at that level, rather than trying to emulate it directly.

For Dark Souls, it would be a really bad idea to try and make people repeat fights over and over until they win. That isn't any fun in an RPG context. Instead, approach what players not being able to die opens up. Death isn't just losing a fight, it's losing an opportunity. You'll arrive late, fail to stop something happening, etc. It lets you go all out with the danger of every fight without it being the end of the campaign, but it is a darker turn for their story- Which is very appropriate to the setting as a whole.

Bosses shouldn't wait around in the same place for players to try and kill them over and over. They should adapt as much as possible. Certain things are an exception of course, bound monsters, demons or Hollows might well remain eternally, but then it should be a matter of figuring out a better strategy and how to exploit their unchanging nature, not just a grind and repeated attempts which will not be fun in a tabletop context.

>>50345856
DS3 is actually relatively easier compared to DS1 especially if you're goin in blind. I wandered around for quite a bit when I first started not knowing what or where to go. DS3 at least gives you a hint or two along the way.

Personally I'd like to see someone take the weapon/magic system from Souls and put it into tabletop effectively. That or someone to stat up the different covenants as things a player could worship like domains in dnd.

>>50345893
do agree, what I meant was the residual trauma from Blighttown resurfacing. I loved how dynamic DS3's combat felt.

>>50345856
Theres one in every Souls game, except 2, but 2 has an equally awful poison area.

>>50345927
why didn't you just take the back way in before the zombie dragon corpse. that's how I always went in anon. it beats climbing all the way down.

>>50345948
I actually played through the game upwards of four times since then and I always ended up passing through the Valley of Drakes.
I am not good enough to speedrun DS1, but I can play through it in less than 5 hours by now

>>50345960
Been putting off reinstalling DS1. but the desire to fight Ornstein n Smough again is really bitin me atm. I wish I could just do that fight over and over again. Shit's so damn fun.

I never fucking beat Kalameet. Everything else in DS1 a couple of times, but not that goddamn dragon.

>>50346002
That is the one fight in that game that just felt downright cheap.

>oh, you're caught in the black dragon's fire breath. You are hit for 40% of your health and fall to the ground regardless of poise
>good, at least I get I-frames for being out of commission
>yeah, nah, the fire breath attack goes on for a while. As you get up, you're hit again.

The most fun I've had was fighting NG+ Artorias with a SL105 subpar build (I was inexperienced as hell). Finally beating the bastard was cash.

>>50346047
Loved the artorias fight. first playthrough I had points all over the place, but then i made a dex pyromancy build that i still basically use to this day.

>>50346047
>>50346077

Agreed. The Artorias fight is still my favourite of the series.

>>50346118
I think some competitors for the best fight could be
>Champion Gundyr for the sheer aggressiveness
>Gwyn for the sheer atmosphere, the whole Kiln level was a masterpiece
>Soul of Cinder, but only because of that damn piano they stuck in the soundtrack for the fight.

>>50346145
OK. so the best fights of the series are as follows.

Ornstein+ Smough for the oh shit things just got worse moments i had fighting the two of them.
Artorias simply because you hear so much about him and then clearly learn why this Mother fucker has such a reputation
Sif because giant sword wielding wolf made feel sad to win the fight. and weeb the hell out over how nearly anime that fight was.
plenty of others, but for DS1 those are my favorites.