The Dark Souls RPG

 

Before we get into my thoughts on this game we need to go over my opinion of “trad” games, such as modern DnD, Pathfinder, and derivatives such as the Power Rangers RPG and the like. We’ll also need to talk about the other RPGs that are openly based on Soulslike games. It’s not exactly a spicy and original take but without knowing my opinion on both Trad and games inspired by Dark Souls my comments on the Dark Souls RPG are going sound odd.

Spoiler: I like the game. Kinda.

No, I wasn’t sent a review copy.

No, the game is not perfect, it has its very obvious flaws. Yes, shame on Steamforged for not taking more time!

But hear me out.

Trad games (as defined by this blog post) are classified in part as games where the  GM is active and the players are reactive. The game rules have a giant hole where storygames, the OSR, and classic games have a turn structure. Whether it be PBTA Moves, Burning Wheel’s round robin style of showcasing player Beliefs, BDnD’s turn structure, etc, most RPGs have some pretty detailed rules on how to handle the story as a part of the game. It’s actually pretty common for RPGs, if you take the hobby as a whole.

But not Trad. There’s a big gaping hole in that area, by and large, because one of two things are expected: either your GM has come up with his own little structure/flowchart/map or whatever, or he bought an adventure so he didn’t have to prep for God knows how many hours.

Don’t balk at that. Even a cursory glance at DnD 3.5 and up reveals that is the assumed state of play. Hours are assumed to be spent by the GM in prepping a showcase of goodies that players of the “wrong” (aka people who are allergic being reactive) persuasion will wreck within minutes. Ironically enough if you hand one of these ornery players a game of literally any other type they become fantastic players, by and large. This is Trad’s greatest disadvantage: if a player wants to do more than react to whatever the GM has in mind they’re going to create waves, regardless of how much the GM communicates with them.

So, now you know my opinion on Trad games.

Dark Souls the RPG is the best Trad game I’ve personally ever read.

There are a lot of games based off of Dark Souls. I’ve played some, and enjoyed them. I’ve read more than a few, more than I can remember right now, so I have a… decently(?)… educated opinion on the subject. These games try to take the feeling of Dark Souls and explore it on their own terms. One of these games, Bleak Spirit, is one of my favorite games. So I’m not here to talk against the many adaptations. They’re good games in their own right, by and large.

But Dark Souls the RPG is the most faithful adaptation that I, personally, have ever read. 

It’s not close either.

I’ve now made two astoundingly ridiculous sounding claims. Let’s take them in reverse order.

Dark Souls the RPG is the most faithful adaptation that I, personally, have ever read, for an astoundingly simple reason: with the exception of class features every single mechanical element of the game is an in-game object. You don’t gain spells, can’t just grab whatever weapons you want, you find them! Souls can be scattered throughout the world. Even your backstory is a part of the game, an object you can lose. I’ve not seen another game that’s owned up to it to this degree. And this faithfulness to ludo-narrative cohesion fixes Trad play. The GM can construct an environment with all the mechanical bits and bobs, complete with all the layout tricks he likes. He then drops the players into this environment and sits back. And waits. The greatest strength of a Trad game (letting the GM just go nuts in the background) then overcomes Trad’s greatest flaw (the ease of railroading). 

“But the game’s lacking in combat balance!” This freaking Dark Souls, why’re you looking for a fair fight??? That's not a thing in Dark Souls and we all know it!

“The game has glaring flaws!” Yes it does, but you know what you do with that? What you literally do with all Trad games: houserule it extensively. Just 'cause 5e is more polished than Dark Souls does not mean that 5e is a good game, nevermind that they expect you to fix their design stupidity. There’s no real operative difference, like it or not. I’d much rather house-rule a game with a good chassis (Dark Souls) than a mediocre one (5e, and I’m being generous by calling it mediocre). And the set up of Dark Souls is actually really really good. 

You can find all the obvious flaws and discuss the really bad production cycle of The Dark Souls RPG all you like. It’s deserved. The game was clearly rushed. But if you’re going to do that the other side of it should be discussed as well. The Dark Souls RPG respects the actual gameplay ideas of the video game, and adapts it to TTRPGs more faithfully than any other adaptation than I’m aware of. That makes the flaws of this game all the more tragic.

That being said, I’m going to enjoy drawing up dark and twisted environments with all the crunchy/fictional goodness I can. Not to mention hacking part my players’ backstories with glee when they die.

If you don’t then that’s your choice. But me? I’m gonna go have some fun.

Sometimes I am really glad I write these awhile in advance. My opinion's become a bit more sarcastic since the above, so in my typical fashion I'm not going to rewrite the above (because it's not wrong) but contextualize it. See, I really like this idea of the special abilities being tied to stuff you find in the world, and that you change your character build by swapping out the items you have, with some influence and choice within the class you have. Combine that with a good and crunchy combat system and something passible at skills and you'd have a good game!

That seems.... familiar... somehow... where have I seen this before?

Yes, Dungeons and Dragons 4th edition, the Essentials line. The classes have more choice than Dark Souls, nevermind the feat choices are voluminous. 4e's got multiple books worth of items, along with a way of fixing the math so that you don't need the items to keep up. Monsters are built off of 4e's far better engine, with plenty of room to not just do what Dark Souls currently does.... but a lot better. Like, a hell of a lot better.

THAT, my friends, is about 80 bucks: the cost of the Dark Souls roleplaying game, shipping included! If you can throw in some extra money for a copy of DM's Guide 2 you'll be set for the rest of your life.  You can take the same ludo-narrative stuff that Dark Souls does and put it in here, with more variety, better builds, and actual guidance for hacking the game.

Sure, the art ain't as nice. And the writing in Dark Souls I find more enjoyable. But those above books? They'll give you the same experience, but more reliably.

So yes, Dark Souls is actually a good RPG

But 4e is better, buck for buck.

But that's true of 4e against a lot of modern games, Essentials or not.