VelixNobody
2015-09-09, 07:48 PM
Now, it's important to note that these words about to spilled all over this page will not include hard campaign stats or maps or monsters or stories of any sort. Mainly because most of my DM-ing style involves half improvisation, and half funny voices. If you are truly dead-set on not creating your own materials for an adventure, use a published module or reskin the heck outta stuff. That being said,
Base Assumptions
The rules added here will radically shift balance in fun ways, and give the game a more Souls-y feel. In my opinion anyway. If you use these rules, you can expect these things:
Your players dying a lot.
Your players being wretched and awful at low levels, and pretty dang dandy at high levels.
Martials to gain more options.
Spellcaster to whine a bit because they only get a couple cool rings sorry about that.
Wacky, wacky stuff. The new ability score caps and their subsequent abilities will allow some schenanigans.
TPK's multiple times in a row. In a fun manner though.
Your players dying a lot.
Note that I used the word fun several times so far. There are ALSO assumptions being made about your DM style in regards to using these rules, and having adamant understanding from your players. If you get a bunch of first time players together, this is the last set of rules you want to spring on them. Or maybe the second last, depending on how comfortable you feel about creeping them with in depth kissing checks, attack rolls, and saves. If you want to use these rules, make sure you do the following:
Don't be a butt.
Inform the players that they'll die a lot but it will be worth it.
Make dying worth it by seriously crafting a compelling narrative and treasure hoard that gives them a sense of accomplishment in character and out of character. Because the main draw of the Souls games are their fiendish difficulty, and that can't be properly emulated due to the randomness of a roleplaying system using dice, make rewards crunchy and fluffy. Even if they're generic. "Oh shoot man! We totally saved the prince and swiped a sweet dragon hoard!" has a suprisingly hard time getting old.
Don't be afraid to encourage your players to explore a different area if they're stuck. It's not a linear game. No proper DnD is. Always have a backup location, or at least a backup encounter or two. They're handy for getting players out of a rut.
Create creative boss fights, give them a fun weakness the players can exploit. They need a reason to die multiple times to a boss. Perhaps they can climb them to reveal a place where a scale is missing, that they can only locate if they had prior knowledge from listening to the complete rant of a prisoner they encountered earlier? Maybe saying a certain series of sacred runes located on the walls around the battle arena lowers a magical shield around a mage? Make these things tougher than a simple skill check, make the players think.
If you don't already, take occassional time to remind everyone how sad the world is. Describe a corpse as so withered it might be mistaken for a pile of mud, tell how its back bends at a scary angle from crouching so long in the fetal position, guarding its precious prize of a single soul cusped between its hands. Weave words to form the tired ivy on a castle wall, long rotted, long watching, for any sign of life to finally perhaps rip it free from its purgatorial existence feeding off of a dead stone wall. Set that world up, its important.
Don't be afraid to kill players. Not intentionally of course, but don't hold back.
With this out of the way, we can get on to the crunchiness.
Base Rules Changes
Awww geez I have a lotta stuff for this. I'll write it tomorrow.
Soul Level
While not truly needed in the DnD game, the ability to improve ones scores with souls is a greatly appealing part of the game: seeing instant small increases in power can be quite exciting. Each soul level in this system works a bit differently: you start the game with ability score penalties (as detailed in base changes), and first pay off those at a rate of +1 per soul level, then increase any score you like by +1 per level after 8 up to the maximum of 23! This is to offset the lack of any plus=to=hit magic items while still maintainging a high power late game.
Feel free to totally cap the level, slow the soul progression, or speed it up as your see fit. A soul level that has worked well for me has been x1.35 the actual party's level, but it depends on, again, on how you want the game to feel.
Soul Level
Total Souls Required
Title
1
1
Wretch
2
4
Squalid
3
8
Woebegone
4
14
Forlorn
5
21
Dolorous
6
30
Faded
7
40
Drab
8
52
Common
9
70
Swain
10
90
Jejune
11
112
Banal
12
136
Stodgy
13
162
Vapid
14
190
Flat
15
220
Risen
16
252
Higher
17
294
Considerable
18
339
Formidable
19
386
Ardent
20
436
Great
21
488
Imposing
22
543
Saturated
23
600
Superb
24
750
Hero
25
950
Prodigious
26
1200
Master
27
1500
Titan
28
3000
Absolute Arrant
Ehh, everything else is still in the process of being written down here, sorry bout that.
Base Assumptions
The rules added here will radically shift balance in fun ways, and give the game a more Souls-y feel. In my opinion anyway. If you use these rules, you can expect these things:
Your players dying a lot.
Your players being wretched and awful at low levels, and pretty dang dandy at high levels.
Martials to gain more options.
Spellcaster to whine a bit because they only get a couple cool rings sorry about that.
Wacky, wacky stuff. The new ability score caps and their subsequent abilities will allow some schenanigans.
TPK's multiple times in a row. In a fun manner though.
Your players dying a lot.
Note that I used the word fun several times so far. There are ALSO assumptions being made about your DM style in regards to using these rules, and having adamant understanding from your players. If you get a bunch of first time players together, this is the last set of rules you want to spring on them. Or maybe the second last, depending on how comfortable you feel about creeping them with in depth kissing checks, attack rolls, and saves. If you want to use these rules, make sure you do the following:
Don't be a butt.
Inform the players that they'll die a lot but it will be worth it.
Make dying worth it by seriously crafting a compelling narrative and treasure hoard that gives them a sense of accomplishment in character and out of character. Because the main draw of the Souls games are their fiendish difficulty, and that can't be properly emulated due to the randomness of a roleplaying system using dice, make rewards crunchy and fluffy. Even if they're generic. "Oh shoot man! We totally saved the prince and swiped a sweet dragon hoard!" has a suprisingly hard time getting old.
Don't be afraid to encourage your players to explore a different area if they're stuck. It's not a linear game. No proper DnD is. Always have a backup location, or at least a backup encounter or two. They're handy for getting players out of a rut.
Create creative boss fights, give them a fun weakness the players can exploit. They need a reason to die multiple times to a boss. Perhaps they can climb them to reveal a place where a scale is missing, that they can only locate if they had prior knowledge from listening to the complete rant of a prisoner they encountered earlier? Maybe saying a certain series of sacred runes located on the walls around the battle arena lowers a magical shield around a mage? Make these things tougher than a simple skill check, make the players think.
If you don't already, take occassional time to remind everyone how sad the world is. Describe a corpse as so withered it might be mistaken for a pile of mud, tell how its back bends at a scary angle from crouching so long in the fetal position, guarding its precious prize of a single soul cusped between its hands. Weave words to form the tired ivy on a castle wall, long rotted, long watching, for any sign of life to finally perhaps rip it free from its purgatorial existence feeding off of a dead stone wall. Set that world up, its important.
Don't be afraid to kill players. Not intentionally of course, but don't hold back.
With this out of the way, we can get on to the crunchiness.
Base Rules Changes
Awww geez I have a lotta stuff for this. I'll write it tomorrow.
Soul Level
While not truly needed in the DnD game, the ability to improve ones scores with souls is a greatly appealing part of the game: seeing instant small increases in power can be quite exciting. Each soul level in this system works a bit differently: you start the game with ability score penalties (as detailed in base changes), and first pay off those at a rate of +1 per soul level, then increase any score you like by +1 per level after 8 up to the maximum of 23! This is to offset the lack of any plus=to=hit magic items while still maintainging a high power late game.
Feel free to totally cap the level, slow the soul progression, or speed it up as your see fit. A soul level that has worked well for me has been x1.35 the actual party's level, but it depends on, again, on how you want the game to feel.
Soul Level
Total Souls Required
Title
1
1
Wretch
2
4
Squalid
3
8
Woebegone
4
14
Forlorn
5
21
Dolorous
6
30
Faded
7
40
Drab
8
52
Common
9
70
Swain
10
90
Jejune
11
112
Banal
12
136
Stodgy
13
162
Vapid
14
190
Flat
15
220
Risen
16
252
Higher
17
294
Considerable
18
339
Formidable
19
386
Ardent
20
436
Great
21
488
Imposing
22
543
Saturated
23
600
Superb
24
750
Hero
25
950
Prodigious
26
1200
Master
27
1500
Titan
28
3000
Absolute Arrant
Ehh, everything else is still in the process of being written down here, sorry bout that.