prepping a map for a new Dark Souls campaign. It wasn't ready, but I was really excited to get it done. I'd just been thinking through it and deciding what to put on the map. You know, the usual overthinking.
And then, suddenly, we had the opportunity to do an Omega Rangers session... until we didn't. The character sheets couldn't be found. The kids were heartbroken. I was... disappointed, for them. I am not a fan of running trad games, even something as fun as Power Rangers.
Suddenly, I was asked: "Hey, can you run Dark Souls?"
Wait, what?
"My map's not done."
"Is that a problem?"
No, not it is not. I turn around, grab my Dungeon Map 5e book, photocopy a small map, pull out my core Dark Souls book and grab a low-level location with its random table. Boom. Ready. My more detailed map can wait.
They hadn't made characters. Also not a problem: Dark Souls character generation is not quite as fast as Wight Box, but it's pretty damn close. I helped them make characters: Marcus the Brute Knight and Jackson the Fencer Assassin. Boom. Done.
Five minutes for a map and twenty for character creation.
"What exactly are we?
"Undead."
"Like zombies?"
"Yes."
"Why are we back?"
"You don't know. That's part of the point."
"Oh, okay!"
I then described
the opening room: "You awaken in a mostly empty room with an altar, bonfire atop it, and a locked door. The light is dim but warm."
I then turn on the music.
"What's this?" I was asked. Oh, right, they've never actually played Dark Souls. I explain it's The Music of Dark Souls. It was a really cool moment.
They pick the lock, round the corner, round another corner... to a dead end. I get The Look. "We just started!"
"Yeah, funny ain't it?"
"There's gotta be a secret door!"
There is! They
find the secret door quickly, with a good roll. They walk through the secret passage, come out into a larger room with another altar... and then there's a hiss as the corpse next to them stands up. Marcus kills it in one shot. Three skeletons come running from another room. Marcus and Jackson kill them, but get roughed up doing so. They loot the bodies for their scimitars and short bows, and then keep going.
They go down a hallway, only to find themselves face to face with nine Hollows. Jackson hangs back with his bow to shoot down a few, but Marcus gets absolutely slaughtered by the onslaught, one of which was a critical. Marcus lost all his souls. That moment when they realized that death erased their XP/money... a light went on in their heads.
Suddenly they realized they shouldn't be so stingy with their Position/HP. The amount they lost by spending was a lot lower than being hit.
So Jackson beat a hasty retreat back to the bonfire, brought Marcus back. Marcus lost 2 Charisma as a consequence of being brought back. He flinched, as he realized that dying could really hurt.
Marcus and Jackson
then went back out, found the Hollows and skeletons were they had been before, and killed them again. They did a little more exploring and realized they could get the drop on the nine Hollows that had wiped them out before. Jackson did a Stealth roll, and was able to take out two Hollows almost immediately, Marcus ran down and killed another.
And that was just the surprise round.
They spent Position hard and fast, turning their misses into hits and their grazes into insta-kills. The nine Hollows went down extremely quickly.
Jackson had enough
souls to level up! But that meant going back to a bonfire. Marcus wanted to push on to find another bonfire, not wanting to repeat the ground again. Jackson pointed out if they died, they'd lose everything, and they didn't have enough power to get away with that kind of thing.
After thinking it over, Marcus agreed.
They went back, and Jackson the Assassin leveled up. From 1d8+4 to 2d8+4 for Position during combat is a huge change! They went back, took on the one Hollow and three skeletons again, and Jackson almost knocked out all four by himself.
There were more
passages. The two decided that they would go try one of the other passages next time. Maybe they' d find another bonfire and not repeat the fights!
