Bringing Dark Souls to D&D, need help with some rules ideas

[Slarg]

In case you don't know, in the Dark Souls' franchise you play as Undead/Unkindled (Don't ask) who has no overt special powers in the Strength/speed/intelligence departments. You are Cursed with the Dark Sign, a brand that marks you as an Undead, doomed to die over and over. This power comes at a heavy price, however; with every death the Undead lose parts of themselves: Their memories, their morals, and their sanity until nothing is left but a murderous husk with a thousand yard stare.

Dark Souls is also known for it's difficulty, with death counts of new players typically being in the 200-300 range for a new playthrough. This facilitates that even players can "go Hollow" and become insane; if they give up before making their quest, it's understood that that is what happened to them.


So, this is what I was thinking of doing for my D&D Campaign, please tell me what you think;

Players start out having to define several characteristics about their backstory:
1. Name
2. Place they were born.
3. Members of their family, be it if they were/are married or still thinking of family as their parents/siblings.
4. The name of their kingdom.

And then two wildcards based on class; What order of Knight were you, what Thieves Guild did you belong to, that sort of thing. When a player character dies, they respawn at the last town they rested at and lose one of those characteristics; they can forget who they served, what their quest was, their family, and even their name (They can be reminded, but they won't remember it after being reminded). If a player loses all of these memories, their character wonders off and becomes a hostile NPC that I can use to pit the party against.

Complete with notes as to how that player played that character, turning any cheesy tactics the players use against them. Upon losing the character, the players can re-roll a character that is X - (X/6) level, where X was that character's level. 12 goes to 10 for instance.

Combat will be dialed upward where they go against monsters they can't really fight by Leeroy Jenkinsing in, but I do intend to hand out more Magic Items than normal.


Basically, my hope is that I can get my players to act hyper cautiously and throw things that are too big for them to handle, but not punish them too much for screwing around/the occasional death. And having a horror scenario where one of them surprise-dies and the rest of the party knows that it just got real; Entering a haunted house, hearing a little girl crying in a room, go to save/comfort her and having her rip one of their hearts out for instance. It would also hopefully invest them in the occasional fight against their old characters as well.

Thoughts?

[Waterdeep Merch]

Years ago, I actually did this. I didn't look to match the mechanics, though- I aimed for the flavor.

You'll want a lonely, dark, ancient setting with fantastic vistas and crawling with secrets and evil. There should be a heavy sense of foreboding and fear. You can get that with dangerous encounters, permanent losses (I used NPC's), and using the madness rules. Talk about the worst of the bad guys long before the party runs into them, let their imaginations run wild. Be weird and horrifying in your descriptions. And let your dungeons twist and turn in byzantine ways, filled with esoteric puzzles and traps that give the sense that the city itself is against the players.

Corruption and decay are two of the most prominent themes in Dark Souls. At the very least you should have the whole campaign crawling with the undead. Have events happen which slowly change the players, forcing them to make darker and darker choices. And when it comes time for boss fights, throw on the razzle dazzle. Create unique and memorable fights against epic, weird foes. Let it feel like they're up against a force beyond them, a challenge that requires guts and skill and luck in even measure.

And especially remember that the stories within will not have happy endings. The best anyone can ever hope for is bittersweet.

[Arcangel4774]

A caution, if you bring darksouks to dnd people may want to join the covenants, and they are by and large PvP heavy

[scalyfreak]

Easy fix on covenants - don't include them. And don't call it Dark Souls. Just explain the setting, the desired mood and the consequences of dying, and hand out an extra award to the player who makes the connection first.

Mostly kidding.

@Slarg
Are you planning to do anything with alignments? Your comment that characters could lose their morals when they die and respawn suggests they might go from CG to CN to CE... that takes dying twice and you can keep the characters in play longer if that is your goal.

I would also suggest that you notify the player of what their character lost either via note or text message, or some other way that won't let the other players know. Let them discover what changed over the course of the campaign. It will be a fun role play challenge for the players as well. After all, it would be perfectly natural for a character to try to hide the fact that they are going hollow. Too far gone might make the group see them as expendable in this harsh and deadly world - or as an enemy.

In addition to dialing up the combat I would also suggest being stingy with rest periods. Force some serious resource management on the group. There is one single healing spell left, there's four of them, and a long and dangerous walk back to safety....

And of course, monsters get rest periods too. Long ones.