How 5e D&D Is Different In The Dark Souls RPG | Screen Rant
Dungeons & Dragons fans around the world will soon prepare to die, as Dark Souls: The Roleplaying Game is on the way. Dark Souls: The Roleplaying Game uses 5e rules, which means that players who are familiar with the current edition of D&D should have an easy time getting to grips with the game. This doesn't mean that Dark Souls: The Roleplaying Game is just copying the Player's Handbook, however, as the developers have added new mechanics based on the ones from the Dark Souls video games.
It's no secret that the Dark Souls series and Demon's Souls took inspiration from tabletop RPGs. While many tabletop RPG-inspired games went the turn-based route, the Souls games made a name for themselves by branching out and doing their own thing. Dark Souls became one of the hardest RPGs by flipping the fantasy genre on its head, with the player balancing their stats and gear while relying on reflexes to dodge enemy blows. Developer FromSoftware hit on something special with the Dark Souls series, as the combination of skill-based gameplay, resource management, and powerful boss monsters made for an exciting gameplay loop, with many citing the series as being among the greatest video games of all time.
Dark Souls: The Roleplaying Game will send parties on a trip to the haunted realm of Lothric, but players won't be rolling up the standard fighter/wizard/rogue/cleric party to fight the Asylum Demon. Developer Steamforged Games has revealed some of the new mechanics that will be present in Dark Souls: The Roleplaying Game, and it seems that the game will have lots of unique rules that will separate it from the familiar D&D experience. These rules will also be helpful for DMs who want some fresh homebrew D&D rules.
In the Dark Souls games, the players have two separate pools for both health and stamina. Health is the equivalent to hit points, while stamina is a recourse used to perform actions, such as attacking, dodging, or blocking. Careful stamina management is an important part of the Dark Souls series, as spamming too many attacks will leave the player unable to defend themselves from an enemy counterattack, and being too defensive can cause players to block attacks that decimate their stamina reserves. This is especially important for boss fights, as even the easiest Dark Souls bosses will make short work of a tired character.
In Dark Souls: The Roleplaying Game, the decision was made to combine health and stamina into a single resource, called Position. The player spends Position to perform actions in combat that are tied to their class features or equipment, or add bonuses to dice rolls. The caveat is that burning through Position means they are burning through hit points, making it easier for enemies to kill them. The amount of Position a player has is generated randomly at the start of the battle and it increases as they level up. It's confirmed that bosses also have access to their own moves that cost Position to cast.
One of the biggest reveals about Dark Souls: The Roleplaying Game is that it's bringing back the Bloodied condition from 4e D&D. In 4e, the Bloodied condition was activated whenever a player or monster dropped to below half of their maximum hit points. Once Bloodied was activated, it could change the abilities used by the monster. To use the Tarrasque as an example, it could use the Fury of the Tarrasque attack whenever it was at high health, but when it became Bloodied, this ability was replaced with an ability called Frenzy.
Dark Souls: The Roleplaying Game will bring the Bloodied mechanic from 4e into 5e. In Dark Souls: The Roleplaying Game, a boss enters Bloodied when it drops to half Position, giving it access to new abilities that can be used in battle. Players also have access to the Bloodied condition, granting them bonuses when their Position drops.
D&D has often used the Vancian magic system, where casters need to prepare their spells ahead of time. 3e started to toy with this concept, with classes like the sorcerer, which didn't need to prepare spells, but could only learn a finite number of them. In 5e, there are some classes that pick a pool of spells each day, while others always have access to a smaller library of spells. Characters also have access to cantrips, which are weaker spells that can be cast an infinite number of times per day.
In Dark Souls: The Roleplaying Game, the magic system from D&D has been completely replaced. Instead, it uses the one from the Dark Souls video games. Characters have a limited number of attunement slots for spells and these have a limited number of times that they can be used. The spellcasting characters will have access to Dark Souls magic: miracles, pyromancies, and sorcery. There are some spells that also require Position to cast, while others can be improved by using Position. It seems that there is a lot of risk involved with playing a spellcaster and it might just be a feature of classes that can also fight in the traditional manner.
In Dark Souls: The Roleplaying Game, the player doesn't make death saves when they hit zero hit points the way they might be used to doing in D&D. Instead, the characters just die. Luckily, death isn't quite as severe in Dark Souls: The Roleplaying Game as it is in D&D, as the undead players remain alive after death by the magic of the bonfires. If half of the party dies, then they are all reborn at the bonfire. Like in Dark Souls, returning to the bonfire means losing souls, which are the game's equivalent to experience points. It's unclear if the players can reclaim their lost souls by returning to the point where they died.
This situation might not seem to bad, as it would give players infinite chances to take down any threat in the game, especially as it's a dice-based RPG. The characters in Dark Souls: The Roleplaying Game aren't quite so lucky. There is a chance that each death and respawn in Dark Souls will have a permanent cost, eventually leading to the character becoming a mindless hollow. It seems that Dark Souls: The Roleplaying Game will be forgiving in some ways, but unlike in the video games, the players cannot keep throwing themselves into the jaws of danger and hope for a lucky victory.
Dark Souls: The Roleplaying Game can be pre-ordered from February 8, 2022.
Source: Steamforged Games