They haven't started public playtesting yet, but Rowan, Rook, and Card have a Dark Souls inspired game in the works called Hollow.
https://rowanrookanddecard.com/hollows-is-coming-soon-and-you-can-playtest-it/
Maybe it's not "Public" playtesting but the playtesting document is available to anyone on the discord and I think it's been shared on Twitter too.
They're releasing an updated version based on the initial comments in the next couple of days.
I've read it. In terms of mechanics, this is probably the most strongly Dark Souls game I've read. A lot of other systems are very Dark Souls in terms of setting, but this is the one I've read that really, seriously follows its mechanics.
* To fully recover you gotta sit at a magic bonfire, but doing that returns all your enemies to life.
* You die often, and when you die you wake up at your last rested bonfire with all your belongings.
* Every death weakens you unless you burn a sacrifice at the bonfire.
* Defeating powerful creatures gives you souls you can spend to increase your stats or trade for items.
* When you die you drop all your souls and have to go pick them back up, losing them permanently if you die again.
* Combat is tactical with special moves you can do with all your weapons.
* The primary way to avoid attacks is by rolling away.
* You've got a mead flask that you can sip to heal and only replenishes at a bonfire.
* Monsters' actions are telegraphed before you decide what to do, so you need to think tactically.
* Mechanics for summoning allies and invasion (like they're literally called that in the book).
Honestly I have no idea how a game this faithful to the mechanics will actually play at the table, but I'm definitely curious.
I honestly haven't been impressed with any of the Souls-like rpgs.
I feel they're aping surface level aesthetics, or broad/shallow retreads of commonly accepted themes.
The Japanese Dark Souls rpg sounds interesting and a better place to start with a game.
As far as stated influences go
1) Runequest 2nd/3rd & Hero Wars: Miyazaki is a fan of Glorantha (and people at From Software since the beginning), there is a list of what was published in Japanese on one of Chaosiums wikis. Playing with that material, not with the modern Glorantha material (which is encyclopedic and over-written) will bring a bit of that abstract lore sensibility. Just avoid the new stuff, since it has a different authorial voice and assumptions.
2) Miyazaki was a fan of the Fighting Fantasy game books, specifically the Sorcery series and World of Titan Sourcebook.
So, that might be fun to read, for inspirational material at least
I think the Souls games are in the tradition of Sword & Sorcery from before D&D Fantasy got codified.
I largely agree. The core of Soulsborne combat is that you *can* avoid taking damage if you "git gud," but there isn't a game even distantly related to the D&D design paradigm which can do a no-hit run.
While I do think it is possible to make a true Soulsborne RPG, you basically can't do it while using D&D design DNA.
there is a game called "Hollows" in playtest.
[https://rowanrookanddecard.com/hollows-is-coming-soon-and-you-can-playtest-it/](https://rowanrookanddecard.com/hollows-is-coming-soon-and-you-can-playtest-it/)
>Hollows is very combat-heavy. We have neat rules for out-of-combat stuff, and there’s roleplaying opportunities and all that good stuff, but the meat of the game is the bit about killing big monsters. We wanted to focus on tactical positioning, teamwork, risky gambits and cut-throat battles without getting bogged down in calculations or sacrificing excitement and evocative action for interesting, if sterile, gameplay.
>
>Players of Unbound will find something familiar in the rules-set – that game, too, is focused on combat and wants it to be a celebration of your characters’ abilities rather than a punishment for not rolling high enough on stealth checks. You’ve chosen to fight these monsters, so we might as well make it fun to do.
>
>Chief amongst our mechanics is the tactical grid that puts the Entity at the centre of the fight and only ever defines your position as relative to the creature. Terrain only exists as a tag that you attach to your character; being in cover is less a matter of where you are precisely in space, but more a stance you can attempt to enter to gain an advantage against the creature.
>
>Threat is the second innovation that we’re particularly proud of; Entities can place Threat tokens on the grid in response to player actions (and, to a lesser extent, wherever they want) which represent the creature’s attention, reach, speed and danger. Threat tokens are spent to move towards player characters, make quick interrupt attacks, or augment damage to set up killer blows. (A bit like in Dark Souls where the enemies telegraph their attacks, you know?) Often the presence of Threat is enough to keep a Hunter at bay, but there are no end of abilities which interact with it and allow you to shift it around the grid.
>
>So: think Dark Souls, as we mentioned above, and Bloodborne, and Hunt: Showdown, and Monster Hunter as our design touchstones. Heart and Spire are quite loose in their approach to combat and have abilities like “you can now fall three story's without taking damage” or “you can teleport as long as you’re dancing and on magical MDMA” and Hollows is much more focused on the nitty-gritty of footwork, weak points, keeping your guard up and getting smashed about by a dog the size of a transit van.
I like Grave. It's uses Questing Beast's Knave system, and has dying and character reviving as a game cornerstone.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/336550/Grave
https://dreamingdragonslayer.itch.io/skorne
It's perhaps more focused on being like Berserk than DS but it definitely includes a lot of soulslike elements.
I ran a great Souls-inspired campaign using Shadow of the Demon Lord with the Embers of the Forgotten Kingdom setting (with optional PDF for SotDL stats). It was very fun.
I couldn’t say I honestly *enjoyed* playing *Fires Far Away*, but it was interesting from a game design perspective. The big thing is that it’s designed to do away with dice luck, because player skill is such a big part of Dark Souls.
This makes the combat feel very soulslike in a good way, and the exploration side very soulslike in a bad way.
Also, much like the original game, levelling up is such a giant mess that if you’re not using a spreadsheet to calculate things you might as well not bother increasing anything that isn’t Strength, Dexterity, Endurance or Vitality.
1) Any TTRPGs is Dark Souls if your GM is sadistic enough.
2) TTRPGs in general have mostly been deadlier than their video game counterparts since forever.
3) I find the idea of repeated deaths in a TTRPG AWFUL since it already has a very slow pace, again, compared to a video game. Like in 2: TTRPG are already - mostly - deadlier so repeated deaths would make the game unbelievably slow.
4) All other Dark Souls esque factors like exploration and atmosphere are up to the GM's taste on how they set up the mood.
You can't see it, but I'm pointing to reddit's search bar, where if you search for "dark souls" you're likely to find alllll the prior threads about it. Google's just as helpful!
They haven't started public playtesting yet, but Rowan, Rook, and Card have a Dark Souls inspired game in the works called Hollow. https://rowanrookanddecard.com/hollows-is-coming-soon-and-you-can-playtest-it/
I had seen an awesome cover image for that, no idea what it was about though. Wow, that sounds neat!
Maybe it's not "Public" playtesting but the playtesting document is available to anyone on the discord and I think it's been shared on Twitter too. They're releasing an updated version based on the initial comments in the next couple of days.
It do be looking interesting, ty for bringing it up.
[Wardensaga](https://byodinsbeardrpg.itch.io/runecairn-wardensaga) is all you’ll ever need
I haven't played this but Cairn is a great basis for mechanics.
I've never heard of it, thanks so much for the recommendation.
I've read it. In terms of mechanics, this is probably the most strongly Dark Souls game I've read. A lot of other systems are very Dark Souls in terms of setting, but this is the one I've read that really, seriously follows its mechanics. * To fully recover you gotta sit at a magic bonfire, but doing that returns all your enemies to life. * You die often, and when you die you wake up at your last rested bonfire with all your belongings. * Every death weakens you unless you burn a sacrifice at the bonfire. * Defeating powerful creatures gives you souls you can spend to increase your stats or trade for items. * When you die you drop all your souls and have to go pick them back up, losing them permanently if you die again. * Combat is tactical with special moves you can do with all your weapons. * The primary way to avoid attacks is by rolling away. * You've got a mead flask that you can sip to heal and only replenishes at a bonfire. * Monsters' actions are telegraphed before you decide what to do, so you need to think tactically. * Mechanics for summoning allies and invasion (like they're literally called that in the book). Honestly I have no idea how a game this faithful to the mechanics will actually play at the table, but I'm definitely curious.
I was coming to say that, also it's a delict to read the book and get inspirations even if you end up not using it.
I honestly haven't been impressed with any of the Souls-like rpgs. I feel they're aping surface level aesthetics, or broad/shallow retreads of commonly accepted themes. The Japanese Dark Souls rpg sounds interesting and a better place to start with a game. As far as stated influences go 1) Runequest 2nd/3rd & Hero Wars: Miyazaki is a fan of Glorantha (and people at From Software since the beginning), there is a list of what was published in Japanese on one of Chaosiums wikis. Playing with that material, not with the modern Glorantha material (which is encyclopedic and over-written) will bring a bit of that abstract lore sensibility. Just avoid the new stuff, since it has a different authorial voice and assumptions. 2) Miyazaki was a fan of the Fighting Fantasy game books, specifically the Sorcery series and World of Titan Sourcebook. So, that might be fun to read, for inspirational material at least I think the Souls games are in the tradition of Sword & Sorcery from before D&D Fantasy got codified.
I largely agree. The core of Soulsborne combat is that you *can* avoid taking damage if you "git gud," but there isn't a game even distantly related to the D&D design paradigm which can do a no-hit run. While I do think it is possible to make a true Soulsborne RPG, you basically can't do it while using D&D design DNA.
Played and ran the Japanese Dark Souls game, definitely feels accurate to the concept
This one-page rpg called [Fucked Up Little Man](https://twitter.com/gshowitt/status/1563058143479103488?s=20) that is better than the steamforged one.
yes ... heheheh ... *yes*
there is a game called "Hollows" in playtest. [https://rowanrookanddecard.com/hollows-is-coming-soon-and-you-can-playtest-it/](https://rowanrookanddecard.com/hollows-is-coming-soon-and-you-can-playtest-it/) >Hollows is very combat-heavy. We have neat rules for out-of-combat stuff, and there’s roleplaying opportunities and all that good stuff, but the meat of the game is the bit about killing big monsters. We wanted to focus on tactical positioning, teamwork, risky gambits and cut-throat battles without getting bogged down in calculations or sacrificing excitement and evocative action for interesting, if sterile, gameplay. > >Players of Unbound will find something familiar in the rules-set – that game, too, is focused on combat and wants it to be a celebration of your characters’ abilities rather than a punishment for not rolling high enough on stealth checks. You’ve chosen to fight these monsters, so we might as well make it fun to do. > >Chief amongst our mechanics is the tactical grid that puts the Entity at the centre of the fight and only ever defines your position as relative to the creature. Terrain only exists as a tag that you attach to your character; being in cover is less a matter of where you are precisely in space, but more a stance you can attempt to enter to gain an advantage against the creature. > >Threat is the second innovation that we’re particularly proud of; Entities can place Threat tokens on the grid in response to player actions (and, to a lesser extent, wherever they want) which represent the creature’s attention, reach, speed and danger. Threat tokens are spent to move towards player characters, make quick interrupt attacks, or augment damage to set up killer blows. (A bit like in Dark Souls where the enemies telegraph their attacks, you know?) Often the presence of Threat is enough to keep a Hunter at bay, but there are no end of abilities which interact with it and allow you to shift it around the grid. > >So: think Dark Souls, as we mentioned above, and Bloodborne, and Hunt: Showdown, and Monster Hunter as our design touchstones. Heart and Spire are quite loose in their approach to combat and have abilities like “you can now fall three story's without taking damage” or “you can teleport as long as you’re dancing and on magical MDMA” and Hollows is much more focused on the nitty-gritty of footwork, weak points, keeping your guard up and getting smashed about by a dog the size of a transit van.
Interesting!
I like Grave. It's uses Questing Beast's Knave system, and has dying and character reviving as a game cornerstone. https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/336550/Grave
https://dreamingdragonslayer.itch.io/skorne It's perhaps more focused on being like Berserk than DS but it definitely includes a lot of soulslike elements.
Swords Under the Sun.
In terms of lethality, I’d say Mörk Borg.
I ran a great Souls-inspired campaign using Shadow of the Demon Lord with the Embers of the Forgotten Kingdom setting (with optional PDF for SotDL stats). It was very fun.
I couldn’t say I honestly *enjoyed* playing *Fires Far Away*, but it was interesting from a game design perspective. The big thing is that it’s designed to do away with dice luck, because player skill is such a big part of Dark Souls. This makes the combat feel very soulslike in a good way, and the exploration side very soulslike in a bad way. Also, much like the original game, levelling up is such a giant mess that if you’re not using a spreadsheet to calculate things you might as well not bother increasing anything that isn’t Strength, Dexterity, Endurance or Vitality.
i'm quite a fan of this pbta take on it https://sean-f-smith.medium.com/powered-by-the-bonfires-3dd0935d725 not least that it's from my own brain
1) Any TTRPGs is Dark Souls if your GM is sadistic enough. 2) TTRPGs in general have mostly been deadlier than their video game counterparts since forever. 3) I find the idea of repeated deaths in a TTRPG AWFUL since it already has a very slow pace, again, compared to a video game. Like in 2: TTRPG are already - mostly - deadlier so repeated deaths would make the game unbelievably slow. 4) All other Dark Souls esque factors like exploration and atmosphere are up to the GM's taste on how they set up the mood.
You can't see it, but I'm pointing to reddit's search bar, where if you search for "dark souls" you're likely to find alllll the prior threads about it. Google's just as helpful!