Through the Veil: Souls-like RPG - Intro, Chars, Rules

Heartbreaker? This is a SOULSbreaker.

Here's the idea. I want a ttrpg that captures the fun of Dark Souls. I need:

• tactical, punchy, exciting combat
• armor and weapons that feel dramatically different
• weird, evocative spells and interestingly limited spell schools
• encroaching madness, but also a pull to the dark side
• learnable enemies
• PC flexibility, but also interesting starting classes that tell me about the world and make players excited to get into it
• respawns, but without losing the drama
• deadly, tragic, complicated bosses that drop drool-worthy weapons
• deadly, tragic, complicated NPCs that capture the beauty, horror, and well tragedy of it all

I'm not the first to try, and if I'm the last it's on you. Each of those attempts is along a spectrum from very interesting blog post, to nearly playable game. This doesn't include actually playable games like this, or this, or this, etc.. I'll be stealing remorselessly (with annotated credit if possible) from these and other sources. My primary goal is not to make Original Content, but to make the best Soulsborne TTRPG that currently exists with as little bother with OC as possible. That said, a plain port of video game content into a new format is only marginally interesting, so originality will be used as a spice to keep things fun and avoid too much predictability.

Since we're going all out, I have a few more unrealistic, idiosyncratic constraints I want to work with. I've heard tell of the early days of DnD, when all the players had their own personal dungeon to run for their friends, and all the GMs had their own characters to test their skill in their friend's deathtrap madhouse dungeon. I love that. It implies an open play format before the days of detailed campaign story arcs, filled in maps, splat books, and hundred-plus page setting guides. 

I also have a family, a yob, and a few other hobbies, blessed as I am. So I want a game that I can sit down and play for 2 hours and have a great time in and not be obligated to prep a game/campaign each week. I know many pl*yers are in the same boat, cursed as they are. 

Fortunately, these two constraints collide in the following game format:

• Expeditions start at a bonfire in the middle of the action
• Each expedition focuses on exploring a small region with 2-4 encounters plus a boss
• Each player has a region, each GM a character.
• Games scheduled as a group, rather than by a main DM. One offers to run their region, and players take turns.
• The world is built at the table as each player reveals the secrets of their region.
• Player/GMs seeking the unifying tone of a SOULSBORNE setting, but giving leeway to each other to explore the lore and backstory of the setting, building it together.
• A unifying hub to tie the otherwise disparate sessions together.

Surely, a pipe dream. But if Dark Souls taught young me anything, it's that horrifying nightmares sometimes do come true. I'm going to try and get such a thing going with literally 0 online social capital to spend. We'll see. 

First, the rules. The problem with the earlier earnest attempts was that they either started with a system and then tried to bolt Dark Souls onto it, or they tried to emulate a computer game in a ttrpg format. These foundational flaws either result in a game that does not feel like a Soulsborne game due to artifacts from the chosen system or because GMs are not computers and require much more simplicity for our games to be fast-paced and exciting. The following is a system designed from the ground up to emulate Dark Souls. You may recognize bits from my mon game (Best There Ever Was), but that game stole the basic mechanics from my draft form of this game, so here we are.

David Hoskins

CHARACTER STATS

Character stats are Health, Stamina, Mana, and Humanity. These are all dice pools of d6s with distinct uses described below.

Health: A character's health is determined by level + 4 per health dice.

Stamina: Stamina dice are rolled when performing almost any combat action. This pool is tested during skill checks to avoid effects that predominately affect the body. Dice rolled showing a 1, 2, or 3 return to your pool. Regain 1 stamina each round at the end of the round.

Focus: Focus dice are used mostly in casting spells, which is possible for any character who holds a spell-granting item in their hands. The spell text will determine how to calculate its effects but may use notation like sum and dice which refer to the total shown on the dice or the number of dice rolled, respectively. This pool may be tested to avoid magical effects. Dice rolled showing a 1, 2, or 3 return to your pool.

Humanity: Love, sacrifice, adventure, violence, tragedy, beauty. These are the passions that refine a soul in life. This fire has purified the dross from your soul and allowed you to awake this side of the mortal veil. These are what separate you from the husks that have succumb to the suffering and malevolence which haunts life. Your humanity starts at 5 and is tested to resolve skills you may have had in life. It is also reduced when you die. Drop to 0 humanity and you become a husk.

CHARACTER CREATION

Your humanity stat is tied to memories, which are anchors which keep you from fading into a husk. Write a 1 sentence memory for 5 of the passions.

    Love (health)

    Sacrifice (health)

    Adventure (stamina)

    Violence (stamina)

    Tragedy (focus)

    Beauty (focus)

Your starting stats are based on these memories. Add one dice (d6) to the corresponding pool if you have a memory associated with it. Next, choose a class and you're done.

CLASSES
Based on archetypes created by excellent humans. Thanks, Loch and others on the discord server. Content may be directly stolen with exceedingly minor adjustments, inspired by, or up to maybe 50% my ideas. It was super fun to riff off of y'all creations and ask the question "what if they died?"

EDIT:

I though my consience would let me steal things from others. IT WILL NOT. Doing so, even after asking is too disrespectful to the creators. This section is under construction as I write custom classes.

EDIT 2: Classes

//Fighting Types//

\\Tricky Types//

//Magic Types\\

SKILL CHECKS

Tell your GM what you want to accomplish and how you want to achieve it. The GM will determine if the task requires a health, stamina, focus, or humanity check. These correspond to feats of toughness/endurance, strength/agility, mental/magical prowess, or something corresponding to your previous life, respectively. 

To make the check, roll a D6. If you roll under the maximum number of dice in your stat pool, the test is a success.

COMBAT

Players and enemies activate in order of highest current stamina to lowest. Bosses win ties with players, players win ties with monsters.

Attack by rolling stamina dice. Damage done is equal to the sum of the roll. Melee attacks may be mitigated by dodging, blocking, or parrying. Ranged attacks may be dodged, or blocked.

Dodge by rolling 1d6 under current stamina to reduce incoming damage to zero. Reduce your stamina by 1 afterward. -1 to the number you must roll under for each bulky item you carry.

Block by discarding stamina dice to reduce incoming damage by 3 per dice. This must be done prior to the attacker's damage roll. If you take more than dice damage after blocking and armor are considered, you are staggered. Your next turn is moved to the end of the round and you take +2 damage until then. Requires a shield. 

Parry by rolling stamina dice as if making an attack. Whoever rolls the highest sum (including any damage bonuses) deals damage to the other.

Ranged weapons cannot be shot within melee range, cannot be parried, and have a set number of stamina dice that must be used when attacking.

To cast a spell, roll focus dice according to the spell text. Spells targetting enemies with a projectile can be dodged,  or saved against by rolling under your current mana or humanity as determined by the spell text.

DAMAGE, DEATH, HEALING

You may return to full health and refresh dice pools at the bonfire where the adventure began. Time passes. The enemies refresh too, although things may not be as you left them.

You may empty your Estus Flask to avoid a single source of incoming damage. The flask refills at a bonfire.

When reduced to 0hp, Y O U   D I E D.

If your party survives you and gets your body to safety, they may revive you by warming your corpse near a fire. If everyone dies, you all awaken at the last bonfire you visited.

Humanity Fades

When you die, the trauma rends at your remaining humanity. Reduce your humanity by 1 and erase one of your memories determined at random. Speak your lost memory to the group as you do so. It's lost forever now.

As your human essence is tarnished and compressed into an increasingly violent husk, you grow more deadly. Increase your combat rolls or spell rolls by 1 for each point of humanity you have lost. You also gain a compulsion:

1. Pardon me, I was absorbed in thought. Recite one of your memories whenever you meet someone new, or whenever you are first addressed by another player during a session.
2. Hmm, I seem to have misplaced it... You forget you have an Estus flask unless another player reminds you to use it.
3. Not to worry. Great planning begets great fortune. Your first action in combat is always the same. Write it down and be specific. It's not "wait in the back", either.
4. I've just been sitting here, weighing my options. Whenever your stamina reaches 0 you take a knee and catch your breath. +2 damage against you until you stand up.
5. Can't even die right. Gives me conniptions. One of your current items disgusts you, discard it immediately. Surely, it caused your last death.
6. This is a land of monstrosities. And I am no exception. Always use at least 2 focus dice when casting spells, if possible.

SPELLCASTING

Spells are bound in enchanted items and released and directed by the will of the spellcaster. To cast a spell, the item containing the spell must be held in hand.

Spells are cast by rolling Focus dice and resolved according to the spell's text. Focus dice showing a 1-3 are returned to the caster's pool.

As with Stamina rolls, a PC may voluntarily take 1 Fatigue to add 1 additional dice to a spellcasting roll. Dice gained from fatigue cannot be returned to the spellcaster's pool.

Encroaching Madness

Whenever you roll doubles the magic roils and warps your mind. Roll again on the following table:

1. Change/Add a Negative Adjective to a random memory.
2. Change/Add the verb in a random memory.
3. Change the subject of a random memory.
4. Change the subject of a random memory to a person/location beyond the Veil.
5. Combine a random memory of yours with another PC's.
6. Combine two of your memories by mixing and matching.

INVENTORY

Each PC has 10 inventory slots. Items in bold in your starting equipment list require a slot to hold them. Except for ammo or currency, 1 item to a slot. Every filled slot over 10 results in 1 point of Encumbrance. Encumbrance is a negative modifier to rolls.

Fatigue also takes an inventory slot. You may voluntarily exert yourself to gain 1 Fatigue and add 1 dice to a roll. This can only be done once per roll.

Fatigue is reset at a bonfire.

Items that take up more than 1 inventory slot are considered bulky. Unless noted otherwise, bulky items take 2 slots. Fighter-types can carry 2 bulky items, everyone else can carry 1. The most common bulky items are heavy armor and great weapons. Everyone takes -1 to dodge rolls for each bulky item they have in their inventory.

Everyone starts with an Estus Flask.

EQUIPMENT

Armor: Each point of armor reduces incoming damage by 1. Certain types of damage may bypass armor as sensible to the DM. Armor takes up 1 slot for each point of damage absorption granted. Generally, light armor takes up 1 slot, chain 2, and plate takes 3. Items such as helmets increase armor by 1 up to a maximum of 3.

Melee Weapons: Deadly weapons allow PCs to deal normal damage according to the sum of their stamina roll. Unarmored or improvised attacks deal half sum. Melee weapon types also provide small differences in their usefulness in combat.

Shield: Required to block.

Unarmed: +1 to dodge rolls. Attacks deal half sum. Cannot block or parry.

Daggers or small weapons: +1 to dodge rolls if all held weapons are small.

Swords: +1 to parry rolls due to weight shifted toward the pommel.

Axes: successful or blocked attacks reduce enemy armor by 1.

Maces: stagger an enemy if any damage passes through a blocked attack.

Two-handed Weapons: +1 damage.

Dual-wielding: allows you to make an additional 1 stamina dice attack on your turn. 

Great Weapons: bulky, +3 damage, requires a minimum of 2 stamina dice to swing.

Ranged Weapons: Ranged weapons deal damage according to the sum of a stamina roll as melee weapons do. However, ranged weapons must always be fired with the number of stamina dice noted. Ranged weapons' attacks cannot be parried or directed at a melee assailant.

Shortbow: 1 stamina, due to lack of tension.

Longbow: 1-2 stamina. -1 to dodge rolls when wielding due to size.

Hand Crossbow: 1 stamina. Reloading takes 1 turn.

Crossbow: 2 stamina. 2 hands. Reloading takes 1 turn.

Flintlock Pistol: 1 stamina. Deals +2 damage with incredibly loud report. Reload takes 3 rounds.

Flintlock Rifle: 2 stamina. 2 hands. Deals +4 damage with incredibly loud report. Reload takes 3 rounds. -1 to dodge rolls when wielding.

Great Bow: bulky, 2+ stamina due to incredible tension. +2 damage.