Was thinking about the Dark Souls series of games, and came up with this a little thought experiment in trying to implement some aspects of Dark Souls into Dungeon World. It’s totally untested, and probably wildly more complex than anyone can be bothered with – but here it is anyways.
I kinda wanna do this for darkest dungeon
These rules look better than the original fighting rules for DW
Darkest dungeon would have less moves for characters and spend more time on the hamlet, and uncovering the horrors of the estates past. Your adventurers would be a resource to be used up, then discarded.
I would totally play the crap out of darkest dungeon world.
Adrian Thoen How about some new rules for dealing with stress?
I would give them their Wisdom in Sanity Points and when they run out, their alignment changes to something less than positive.
Then have a move like carouse to change their alignments back
I like it.
Maybe with a sliding scale of behaviors linked to the alignment.
Es: Drive – Love.
– Protect or impress a person who you love.
– Give someone you love something beautiful they do not need.
– Sacrifice something precious for someone you love.
– Frighten, a person you love through the intensity of your obsession.
__________________________________
Drive – spread knowledge.
– Help someone through the use of your knowledge.
– Make your name well known as a source of knowledge.
– Make some answer pass as true when it is not.
– Damage knowledge or persons in order to enforce YOUR KNOWLEDGE
And obviously, hirelings would die by the handful
The results on All out Attack seem backwards. The 7-9 results allow you to do MORE than if you had rolled a total success. Remember 7-9 is partial success, you shouldn’t be able to deal MORE damage on a 7-9, IMHO.
I think it would be easier to just say on a regular Hack & Slash 10+ you can spend 1 stamina to pick the 7-9 results or maybe get one of those results if you roll a 12+ for free, perhaps.
I really don’t like that you MUST spend stamina to fire a bow or hurl a spear.
And resurrection? Sort of removes the stakes if you can’t die.
I like it!
This is neat!
Very cool.
Rebel Wulf Just posted this https://plus.google.com/u/0/100235234777467665842/posts/TuLiCvXAS9r
Eric Lochstampfor resurrection is a big thing in souls games.
Overall, I’d add one thing to make it truly a Souls game:
Humanity
You start with your Wisdom divided by half in Humanity, rounded down. Every time you die, or from special moves by the GM, you lose 1 Humanity. Once that reaches 0, you go Hollow, turning into another obstacle for the PCs.
Burn Bright
When you recover humanity at a bonfire, you may spend up to half your Wisdom’s worth in XP to recover the same amount in humanity.
David Perry did I?
I read it like that too. He forgot the punctuation lol
Sebastian Meid
Love the Souls games. DS 1,2 & 3 (pre ordered!) & Bloodborne.
Don’t think the experience would translate well to Pen & Paper RPG.
Want a “tougher” game, then have the GM make harder moves. Rip off limbs, gouge out eyes, etc. I think the mechanic of starting over until you’ve got it right can lead to frustrated players & a sense of being lead around by the nose by your GM or a groundhog day type scenario.
I’d also point out that a LOT of people do NOT like the souls games, simply for that very frustration factor.
Also in general I don’t think adding more mechanics to DW improves it. Check out the Deathtrap Dungeon World series of articles if you wnat a darker/grimer DW:
http://www.critical-hits.com/blog/2013/12/10/deathtrap-dungeon-world-part-1-gm-principles/
Eric Lochstampfor it’s less about a tougher game and more about trying to rig Souls mechanics into DW. That repetitive frustration is a big part of the Souls games, so I’m not sure it wouldn’t translate well. The difference is it’s happening to a group of people rather than just one.
Also, I would never run a Souls styled game without first having players agree to it with the knowledge of what kind of frustration/repetition that entails.
My two cents: Short rest eliminates the need for the “recover stamina when you camp” line, and replace “You are dead” with “YOU DIED”
Eric Lochstampfor A 10+ on all out attack lets you choose two options, while a 7-9 lets you choose one, so I don’t quite understand what you mean?
Using bows in Dark Souls, has a stamina cost, so it does in these rules. As I said, this was just a thought experiment about capturing Dark Souls ideas in DW moves. I agree that in a actual game the resurrection stuff probably wouldn’t work well at all, not without a lot of changes to game structure.
Dave Sealy
Ahhh did not see the “take two” part of that move.
Eric Lochstampfor credit SVD Press for Deathtrap Dungeon World