D&D 5E DARK SOULS' New 5E Mechanics

Steamforged Games released their first look at the 5E mechanics which will be powering their upcoming Dark Souls tabletop RPG, based on the video game. The game will be available for preorder next week with a release date in March.

Steamforge say they "cut 5E to ribbons before reanimating it", which implies some fairly extensive changes to the system. Here's what they highlighted:

• Position. Position combines 'health' and 'stamina' (two things in the video game). It measure health, but it's also a resource you can spend to boost die rolls or use special abilities. Presumably, this means that hit points have gone by the wayside.
• Bloodied. A mechanic from D&D 4E, a creature is bloodied when it hits half Position. This can trigger bonuses and new abilities.
• Magic. Vancian magic is gone entirely. Instead is a flexible system drawn from the video game. You have attunement slots, and spells take up a number of slots. Some require Position to cast or boost.
• Death. At 0 Position you die. No saves. However you then respawn. But each time you die you lose part of yourself; it's not specified what that means exactly.

https://steamforged.com/blogs/brands/first-look-at-new-mechanics-in-dark-souls™-the-roleplaying-game

 

[overgeeked]

Played the intro adventure at Gary Con, run by one of the creators. It was really, really good. To the point that my brother, who always kinda scoffed at my love of Dark Souls, immediately preordered the book and bought Dark Souls 1 for the Switch. The DM had crafted an adventure that perfectly distilled the Dark Souls experience and atmosphere into two hours.

I played as a Deprived and was so excited to come across a broken half-sword.

Initiative was simple - each monster has an initiative DC - if you make the check, you go before them; if not, after.

With position, you start out at a base level, then roll your specific position die at the start of each fight. If you go below your base level, you stay there at the end. If you're still over, it resets to where you were at the beginning.

That's a ringing endorsement.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

It was a great experience at the table, one suffused with a love of Dark Souls. My brother's copy of DS1 arrives today, so we'll see how it goes for him. After he figures out his class, I'll probably start another game so I can engage in jolly cooperation with him.

That's a ringing endorsement.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Played the intro adventure at Gary Con, run by one of the creators. It was really, really good. To the point that my brother, who always kinda scoffed at my love of Dark Souls, immediately preordered the book and bought Dark Souls 1 for the Switch. The DM had crafted an adventure that perfectly distilled the Dark Souls experience and atmosphere into two hours.

I played as a Deprived and was so excited to come across a broken half-sword.

Initiative was simple - each monster has an initiative DC - if you make the check, you go before them; if not, after.

With position, you start out at a base level, then roll your specific position die at the start of each fight. If you go below your base level, you stay there at the end. If you're still over, it resets to where you were at the beginning.

Was there a spellcaster in your group?

I'd like to know what they did instead of vancian spellcasting (which I hate, personally).

And, are the classes somewhat similar to 5e?

 

[Sacrosanct]

Played the intro adventure at Gary Con, run by one of the creators. It was really, really good. To the point that my brother, who always kinda scoffed at my love of Dark Souls, immediately preordered the book and bought Dark Souls 1 for the Switch. The DM had crafted an adventure that perfectly distilled the Dark Souls experience and atmosphere into two hours.

I played as a Deprived and was so excited to come across a broken half-sword.

Initiative was simple - each monster has an initiative DC - if you make the check, you go before them; if not, after.

With position, you start out at a base level, then roll your specific position die at the start of each fight. If you go below your base level, you stay there at the end. If you're still over, it resets to where you were at the beginning.

I wished I got a chance to play this. After talking with Ginny Loveday, I was sold and preordered mine.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

There was - someone played a Sorcerer (not the D&D sorcerer, but the DS one). It used the magic system of DS1, which is to say each spell you know has X number of casts before it runs out, to be replenished at a bonfire (long rest).

It's hard for me to say how much like D&D the classes were. From just a one shot it wasn't entirely clear how much on the sheet came from classes or from items. He did say that the classes are all the ones in DS3:

Knight
Mercenary
Warrior
Herald
Thief
Assassin
Sorcerer
Pyromancer
Cleric
Deprived

Was there a spellcaster in your group?

I'd like to know what they did instead of vancian spellcasting (which I hate, personally).

And, are the classes somewhat similar to 5e?

That the sessions were only two hours long (and lots of them) made it easy to fit into our schedule. Cannot wait for the book to come out.

I wished I got a chance to play this. After talking with Ginny Loveday, I was sold and preordered mine.

 

[Laurefindel]

At last, "mundane" monsters with saving-throw attacks that aren't spells or a dragon's breath or something! For that alone I'm seriously considering purchasing this. I never cared much for Dark Souls, but this sounds like a good example of how the 5E frame can be transformed with just the right amount of tweaks.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

At last, "mundane" monsters with saving-throw attacks that aren't spells or a dragon's breath or something! For that alone I'm seriously considering purchasing this. I never cared much for Dark Souls, but this sounds like a good example of how the 5E frame can be transformed with just the right amount of tweaks.

Do you think the regular monsters from the MM will be usable in a DS-inspired game?

 

[Laurefindel]

Do you think the regular monsters from the MM will be usable in a DS-inspired game?

From the little that I've seen, yes, but the new DS monsters appear to be more reactionary and have abilities that play directly in DSRPG mechanics.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I think so. You'd need to assign an initiative DC, but that's no difficult thing. If you wanted to come up with position costs for existing abilities, that might be more work, but again, nothing insurmountable. But I imagine the work would increase commensurate with CR - a dragon or beholder would be oof!

Do you think the regular monsters from the MM will be usable in a DS-inspired game?

 

[Weiley31]

The Unyielding Foe trait would definitely be portable over to regular 5E for boss type encounters.