Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG
Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG Preface - Disclaimer I do not own anything regarding Dark Souls or OD&D, nor the various volumes I have used to create this (AD&D, 5th Ed. D&D, Unofficial Dark Souls RPG by Emanuele Galleto, Silent Legions, etc.). All rights belong to their respective creators (From Software, Namco, TSR, WOTC, etc.). Nothing here needs to be sold or use for money, only personal use.
Finally, I stole a lot of content and table from various bloggers over the years and I can’t say I remember always where, therefore I cannot credit them. I hope they will not be angry with me because of that.
I especially stole a lot from the “Dark Souls Unofficial Role Playing Game” by Emanuele Galleto for anything related to lore, worldbuilding, names, etc. and some ideas for Dark Souls mechanics. I also stole from Silent Legions and Kevin Crawford for some worldbuilding aspects.
Introduction - What is this book and how to use it This experiment started off as a port of Dark Souls 1 into TTRPG using an OSR framework. Rapidly it became quite clear that it couldn’t be OSR as per my personal definition of OSR, that is, a game that retains both the principles and the compatibility of old school RPGs as defined by old school TSR (OD&D, AD&D, Basic D&D and all retroclones of those).
This games keep the principles as much as it can, but does not follow the compatibility. I did try to keep it as much as I could and offer paths to re-compatibilized at the cost of de-Dark- Soulifying the game. Referee’s using this toolbox can go in whatever direction they want. Since my personal goal was to put Dark Souls into TTRPG, the basic proposition will be to have more Dark Souls principles and mechanics and less compatible D&D.
The basic frame that was used to create this Dark Souls RPG is OD&D with Chainmail(ish) combat resolution. It was only a natural choice since it gives more freedom to the Referee to use the three combat system (I scrapped one) to create a tension that’s relevant to the moment while style having a good amount of “crunch” for those that wants to delve into it in a Man-to-Man context. For this reason, I tried to put everything down to d6 to accomodate for easier play and odds. To create again a sense of squishiness in the face of adversity, I came back to a system without HP. You have HD and you go down fast. Nonetheless, having armor, magical items, dodge-rolling about, etc. can give you a good edge to survive.
Instead of a class system, if you want to have a more Dark Souls feeling, there is optional rules at the end for a classless system. The reason I still went with class is threefold: ● Compatibility ● In the Dark Souls game, you are effectively a one-man party because it’s a single player game. Here, you have a party. You don’t need to be able to do everything. ● And even if you can do everything in Dark Souls, there is still “style” of playing through builds, and people generally fall into “classes”: ○ Sorcerer/pyromancy full caster with light armor to roll and move around, i.e. Magic-User Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG ○ Full (or almost) melee, whether is high dodge, high poise, or generalist, i.e. Fighting-Man ○ A mix of Faith and (generally through Dex) melee, or sometimes a pyromancer/sorcerer with some melee, i.e. a Cleric If you still want to provide a better variety for your players, you can elect to give them “boons” outside their class if they consume a great Soul. For example, if you consume the Soul of a Black Knight instead of using it as XP, you could learn to carry bigger armor or weapons, and so on.
I will now provide some tips on how to keep a better compatibility with OSR/TSR below. If you have not read this whole document, I advise you do so before to understand the changes: ● Instead of using the (modified) Chainmail combat system, use the alternative combat system. Using the Chainmail system has the disadvantage of rendering a lot of equipment, spells and monsters incompatible unless the Referee knows what he is doing and is competent in mental gymnastics. If you want to keep the Classless but not the combat, just have your character pick either a progression of Cleric, Fighting- Man or Magic-User every level, and adjust HD and Saving Throws accordingly. If you want to keep the combo thing, I’d suggest making it that every 4HD and plus PCs of any class, when they roll a 6 on damage, can roll an additional one (ad vitam aeternam) to simulate the fact that they perceive a weakness and go again. It would be more logical to put it on the attack roll, but IMO multiple attack roll, especially if they are done one after the other, only makes the game take more time. ● Modify all death rules to suit your needs (that is, character death is permanent death as per normal D&D instead of coming back at Bonfire). ● Return to the Charisma attribute and have Humanity (if you need it) as a 7th attribute or something else entirely. ● Instead of the modified Chainmail monsters, adopt a more OD&D/AD&D list of monsters. With those last four main changes in mind, you could probably use the present books in conjunction with any compatible OSR/TSR material without any major problem, since the rest is mostly kept as-is from OD&D or with minor cosmetic changes/changes brought about by my own experience at running OD&D and AD&D.
Final and important point: this book was created with a West Marches style campaign in mind, heavily focused on pointcrawl (one area being one point) and megadungeons (areas as dungeons) to give a more Dark Souls feeling. Therefore, if you plan to use the alternate rules I presented above to go more towards OD&D and not run either a West Marches or pointcrawl campaign, I fear this book will be 90% useless to you.
Take note that all Dark Souls specific rules are untested for now.
To anyone that wants to read more on the subject and a potential thought process, read/visit those: ● https://grey-elf.com/philotomy.pdf ● http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/17231/roleplaying-games/dissociated- mechanics-a-brief-primer Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG ● http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/13085/roleplaying-games/jaquaying-the-dungeon ● https://youtu.be/QhWdBhc3Wjc ● http://dungeonsddx.blogspot.com/2013/06/dark-souls.html ● https://thehydradm.wordpress.com/2013/12/15/dark-souls-the-dnd-video-game-that- isnt/ ● https://www.enworld.org/threads/dungeon-layout-map-flow-and-old-school-game- design.168563/ ● Skerples series: https://coinsandscrolls.blogspot.com/2018/06/osr-iron-gates-mythic- itinerary.html ● Megadungeon design: ○ https://thehydradm.wordpress.com/2013/12/15/dark-souls-the-dnd-video- game-that-isnt/ ○ https://www.enworld.org/threads/dungeon-layout-map-flow-and-old-school- game-design.168563/ ○ http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/13085/roleplaying-games/jaquaying-the- dungeon ○ https://grey-elf.com/philotomy.pdf ● http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/17231/roleplaying-games/dissociated- mechanics-a-brief-primer ● http://gameswithothers.blogspot.com/2014/03/dark-souls-video-game-table-top- role.html
Core Experience The Core experience of D&D and TTRPG should be, for this type of game, centered around three concept: Exploration, Social Interaction, Combat. ● Exploration: This is one of the main and chief concern of this TTRPG. It might be light on some of the details, but it’s because it bears heavily on the Referee to create intricate dungeons, using the three clue rule (https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/1118/roleplaying-games/three-clue-rule), etc. This Dark Soul OSR will provide basic rules and will try to maximize it by having XP found during exploration, lore have an impact on finding new places or determining a boss weakness, and having a system of revival that will give players new avenues but also more opportunity to delve deeper. ● Social Interaction: This is the one that will most suffer from a Dark Souls campaign. Most Social Interaction will be between players, some phantoms and some NPCs scattered here and there. ● Combat: Combat has been made less critical than in the video game (where its mandatory) but more than in OD&D, which is why there is more rules for (Chainmail redux).
Common Terminology and Abbreviations This section will give definition for common terms and their abbreviations. This is useful to people who are new to either OSR or Dark Souls. Some terms have been changed for the sake of lore/fluff, but as a Referee you could decide to keep terms and abbreviations from OD&D without any problem. Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG ● Attributes:
PLAYER’S SECTION
Character Creation
Summary of Character Creation 1. Roll 3d6 for the first five Attributes (Str, Int, Fth, Dex, Con) and write 10 for Humanity (Hum) 2. Choose your class (Warrior, Pyromancer, Cleric) 3. Choose or roll a background 4. Write down your class features, starting equipment and other characteristics: Saving Throw, Armor type/Armor Class, Hit Dice, Encumbrance, Weapon Slot, Attunement Slot
Attributes There is six attributes: Strength (Str), Intelligence (Int), Faith (Fth), Dexterity (Dex), Constitution (Con) and Humanity (Hum). The first six are randomly generated by rolling 3d6. Humanity starts at 10. Attributes cannot go past 18 at character creation and cannot go past 17 afterwards.
Those attributes serves multiple functions: ● They represent vaguely the capacity of the character compared to other heroes, not to normal humans. Therefore a 3 in Strength doesn’t mean a total weakling, but rather the weakest that a hero can be and still be successful on an adventure. ● Some weapons, armors and objects will require requirement of attributes to use. ● Sometimes, when the Referee will need to decide randomly if an action by a character is a success or not, he will use those attributes as it is fitting for the situation: the player will roll 3d6 and must have a result under his score to have a success. ● They will determine specific modificators to other characteristics by dividing it in three tier: 3 to 8, 9 to 12 and 13 to 18. ○ STR ■ -1/0/+1 -> Bonus to attack roll in melee ○ DEX ■ -1/0/+1 -> Bonus to attack roll in range ○ CON ■ -1/0/+1 -> Bonus to encumbrance ○ INT ■ -1/0/+1 -> Arcane Attunement Slot ○ FTH ■ -1/0/+1 -> Miracle Attunement Slot ○ HUM ■ -1/0/+1 -> All saving throws Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG Saving Throws Saving Throws are “last resorts” for the character to show his heromanship compared to a normal human or normal monster. If he suffers a dire attack or effect, the Referee might call for a Saving Throw of a specific sort to diminish or dodge the effect. Saving Throws are rolled on 2d6 roll over. Everyone starts with all Saving Throws at 11. ● Death Ray or Poison: Everything that can kill instantly or rapidly a creature through Death or Poison. ● Wands: Every artifact, traps or wands that has a physical effect in space and time that can affect characters magically. ● Petrification: Any stone or curse effect that can slow or change flesh into something else. ● Breath: Every zone or area effect that resembles (or is) a dragon breath. ● Staves and Spells: Any other magical effect that doesn’t fall into one of those category from a magical source.
Classes
Choice of Class There is three classes that represents the archetype of your character: Warrior (Fighting- Man), Arcane (Magic-User) or Cleric (Cleric).
Warrior Starting at level one, can wear any armor, shield or weapon, including magical one. Can carry up to three set of weapons and shield instead of the normal two.
At level three, once per adventure, he can put his Strength at 20 for one minute (affect his skills and combat).
At level eight, once per adventure, the Fighting-Man can choose to automatically pass a failed saving throw.
Lvl Title XP HD/FC vs Death vs Wands vs Stone vs Breath vs Spells needed
1 Soldier 0 1 8 8 8 9 9
2 Veteran 2000 2 8 8 8 9 9
3 Swordsman 4000 3 8 8 8 9 9
4 Hero 8000 4 7 8 8 8 8
5 Brave Hero 16000 5 7 8 8 8 8
6 Champion 32000 6 7 8 8 8 8
7 Slayer 64000 7 7 7 7 7 8
8 Conqueror 120000 8 7 7 7 7 8
9 Lord 240000 9 6 6 7 6 7 Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG Pyromancer Starting at level one, can wear any light armor, small shield, one handed ranged weapons and one handed weapons up until weapon class 6, but only light swords such as scimitar or rapier.
Lvl Title XP HD/FC vs Death vs Wands vs Stone vs Breath vs Spells needed
1 Arcanist 0 1 8 9 8 9 9
2 Seer 2500 1 8 9 8 9 9
3 Theurgist 5000 2 8 9 8 9 9
4 Thaumaturgist 10000 2 8 9 8 9 9
5 Magician 20000 3 8 9 8 9 9
6 Enchanter 35000 3 7 8 8 8 8
7 Warlock 70000 4 7 8 8 8 8
8 Wizard 140000 4 7 8 8 8 8
9 Pyromancer/ 280000 5 6 7 7 7 7 Sorcerer
He can use magic according to the following matrix. The number for each level means the number of spells he can attune at any given time of that level until he rest his souls (i.e. long rest/between adventures).
To cast a spell, he needs to have a Flame equipped as a weapon or secondary weapon, but in his hand.
Lvl Title Spell level 1 Spell level 2 Spell level 3 Spell level 4 Spell level 5
1 Arcanist 1
2 Seer 2
3 Theurgist 3 1
4 Thaumaturgist 4 2
5 Magician 4 2 1
6 Enchanter 4 2 2
7 Warlock 4 3 2 1
8 Wizard 4 3 3 2
9 Pyromancer/ 4 3 3 2 1 Sorcerer Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG Cleric Starting at level one, can wear any light or medium armor, small shield or medium shield, ranged weapon and all one handed weapon. The Cleric can see more clearly Guidestone and Bloodstain and can interpret them.
A Cleric can chose from the start one of the different Covenant of the Gods: ● The Way of White, centered on all the Anor Londo Gods and their faithful. ● The Maiden’s Way, centered on the Goddesses Caitha, Velka and Fina. Those of this way will dedicate their life to one of the Maiden. ● The Darkmoon Blades, centered on the purity of the Moon and Moonlight. There is many more hidden Covenant within the game. Each Covenant will affect higher level spells and powers, but also reaction from other NPCs. For more information on the Gods: https://darksouls.fandom.com/wiki/Gods
Lvl Title XP HD/FC vs Death vs Wands vs Stone vs Breath vs Spells needed
1 Cleric 0 1 8 8 8 9 9
2 Servant 2500 2 8 8 8 9 9
3 Acolyte 5000 2 8 8 8 9 9
4 Adept 10000 3 8 8 8 9 9
5 Justicar 20000 4 7 7 8 8 8
6 Paladin 35000 4 7 7 8 8 8
7 Protector of 70000 5 7 7 8 8 8 the Flame
8 Pilgrim of the 140000 6 7 7 8 8 8 Flame
9 Apostle of the 280000 6 6 6 7 7 7 Gods
He can use miracles according to the following matrix. The number for each level means the number of spells he can attune at any given time of that level until he rest his souls (i.e. long rest/between adventures).
Lvl Title Spell level 1 Spell level 2 Spell level 3 Spell level 4
1 Cleric
2 Servant 1
3 Acolyte 2
4 Adept 2 1
5 Justicar 2 2
6 Paladin 2 2 1
7 Protector of the 2 2 2 1 Flame Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG
8 Pilgrim of the 3 2 2 1 Flame
9 Apostle of the 3 3 3 2 Gods
Class Backgrounds Every character must choose a background that determines what he was before being branded with the Dark Sign, the Curse of the Undead. Each of the background gives: a bonus to one Saving Throw, a set of starting items, a special feature of some kind.
Either choose or roll at random a background (suggested for new players).
● Warrior (1d4): ○ Knight: ■ Saving Throw: Breath ■ Starts with Sword, Medium Shield, Heavy Armor and a holy water. ■ Feature: Can use his own Humanity 2 for 1 to give to someone else. ○ Wanderer: ■ Req Str 10, Fth 10, Con 11. ■ Saving Throw: All. ■ Starts with Falchion (sword), Small Shield, Light Armor and a small mirror. ■ Feature: Has better Saving Throw. ○ Thief: ■ Saving Throw: Wands. ■ Starts with a Rapier (sword), a parrying Dagger, a Light Armor and a rope. ■ Feature: Starts the game with a special “master key” that can open most simple locked doors. ○ Bandit: ■ Saving Throw: Poison/Death. ■ Starts with a Scimitar (sword), a throwing knife, a Small Shield, a Light Armor and a oil (flask). ■ Feature: Always receives +5% Souls from killed monsters. ● Pyromancer (1d3) (all three starts with a Flame equipment) ○ Deprived: ■ Saving Throw: Nil. ■ Start with a club and a plank shield (count as medium shield but breaks easily). ■ Feature: +2 Humanity, +1 to one Attributes of choice ○ Sorcerer: ■ Saving Throw: Magic. ■ Starts with a Quarterstaff and a Light Armor. ■ Feature: Starts with an additional spell: Detect and Read magic spell ○ Arcanist: ■ Saving Throw: Magic. ■ Starts with a Scimitar, a Small shield and no armor. Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG ■ Feature: Starts with an additional spell: Cast Light. ● Cleric (1d3) ○ Temple Acolyte: ■ Saving Throw: Death/Poison. ■ Starts with a Mace, a Medium Shield, a Light Armor. Starts with a Talisman. ■ Feature: Can use a Humanity to cast a Heal spell. ○ Knight: ■ Saving Throw: Breath ■ Starts with Sword, Medium Shield, Heavy Armor and a holy water. ■ Feature: Can use his own Humanity 2 for 1 to give to someone else. ○ Hunter: ■ Saving Throw: Stone. ■ Starts with a Dagger, a Longbow and arrows, a Light Armor and a Lloyd Talisman. ■ Feature: Knows weakness of 1d6 monsters. Referee will decide at random which as they are encountered (1 on a d6).
The Dark Sign Every PC also has a common background: the Dark Sign, the Curse of the Undead. This is why they are on pilgrimage, or exile, far from their original home. This Curse hollows them and marks them as they constantly die and are reborn, slowly reverting to being a Hollow, a empty husk without a Soul. The Dark Sign also gives them the ability to do limited psychometry (i.e. learn stuff about objects they find).
In this land, Fates are intertwined: the flow of time itself is convoluted; with heroes centuries old phasing in and out. The very fabric wavers, and relations shift and obscure. The Dark Sign makes them both the target of this, but also the witness of it.
All this is linked with three main concepts for each PCs: Bonfires, Death and Humanity, Revival.
Bonfire Bonfires represents hope of the Primordial Flame, but also physically a mystical link to it: they were created to extend the life of the fading Primordial Flame. Beings in charge of them are called Fire Keepers. Monsters are bound to the land and players are bound to the Primordial Flame. Every time PCs use a Bonfire, monsters and phantoms are attracted.
A Player can use the Bonfire to perform a Revival (see below).
For Bonfires to be alive, they need to be tended by a Fire Keeper. Some will sacrifice themselves to tend to bonfires beyond their death and so without a Fire Keeper, the flame will carry on, although diminished. Sometimes, the death of strong Souls will kindle bonfire (boss souls). But alas, some bonfire are just there and not kindled and never to be kindled again until a Fire Keeper settles in. Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG Death and Humanity When a character reach 0 HD, his body dissolve into the Primal Flame by transforming into Ashes. His Soul is borne into the Flame and, because of the curse, regurgitated at the last Bonfire the player was through a Revival (see below). If he didn’t, he will restart at the starting Shrine, outside of the adventuring world.
Everytime he dissolves into the Primal Flame, the character loses a bit of himself: he loses one Humanity and “hollows” a bit, transforming into a soulless husk of mania and chaos completely overwhelmed by his curse of undeath. When a character reaches 0 Humanity, he becomes a hollow NPC that cannot be played anymore: he dies as a character.
A PC can find Humanity on a physical/mystical form within dungeons, generally when killing bosses or exploring unexpected area where a Hero died. Those can be consumed and will restore a set number of Humanity.
Revival Anytime a PC uses a Bonfire to Rests, regaining all HD and Spells and removing all conditions, he triggers a Revival. When he dies, he comes back to a Bonfire and triggers a Revival.
Revivals are both for the PCs (they take back their form and rests accordingly) and for the Land itself. That is because using a Bonfire will twist the passage of time: a PC may think that he’s resting for some hours, whereas in reality, he rested for centuries, or seconds. In this same way, he might be dragged to another Time and Space.
In other words, encounters that were “cleared” in an area are refurbished partially or totally. There are ways of altering the land to remove some of the re-vival of creatures. Also, NPCs and (mini-)Bosses, having a Soul, will not return and are bound by Fate to the PCs. But killing important Soul will attract new powerful Souls that will want to take new territory or be attracted to artifacts or a specific zone. For Referees, this mean that every time a PC dies and returns to a Bonfire, or that PCs decide to rest at a Bonfire, you will reset all random encounter and can decide to reset all fixed encounters that were dealt with. It is highly advised to use new encounters to differentiate time and space for players and create interesting changes. NPCs, Bosses, Mini-Bosses and major environmental change (such as the opening of a door) are not affected.
Because Revival brings back Heroes from the Flame, it also open up channels for Phantoms, both White (helpful) and Black (antagonistic), to come and invade the world where the PCs are. This means that there is a higher chance of getting invaded every time Players uses a Revival (through resting or through death). For Referees, this means that NPCs will start integrating the world when PCs starts dying. Since this is random, it could either mean a spiral of death (more and more Black Phantom) or a balancing act (more White Phantom). Those can all be played by dead PCs that are awaiting their Revival at the Bonfire (which should be next game), so that those players can actually continue playing even if they died within 5 minutes. This is because there is no Hirelings or Followers as per normal D&D. Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG Defining and Completing Character It is also suggested that the Referee gives a special, unique and secret mission to all players regarding the motivation of the characters to come to this land. It can be generally generated with the action (destroy/kill, find, bury, open, etc.), a place (custom or canon) and a reason (for his country, for himself, because of a prophecy, etc.). If he shares or fail this quest, he could lose humanity. If he finishes it, he could gain some.
Or the player could give a past Sin to atone for, for each of the players. The Sin can be linked with any of the main sinful passions: ● Luxury: carnal lust, intense longing, lost of purity (of oneself or of others), hurting others because of desires and/or temptations, etc. ● Gluttony: taking something good and making it destructive by overdoing it, overindulgence, overconsumption, wasting (time or things), obsessive anticipation of indulgence, etc. ● Avarice: desiring personal things over the good of others or the Gods, thinking always about means, thinking always about others as means, avoiding opportunity for charity or love, being always taken up by material considerations, desiring more temporal things, envy, etc. ● Anger: losing temper, doing violence against others, feeling hatred towards people and situation, judging others, being irrational because of emotions against others or oneself, self-destructive behavior, revenge, etc. ● Despondency: neglecting to do good, lack of joy and thanksgiving, lack of love and respect for others and heroes, being and leading others into despair, hopelessness and dejection, etc. ● Pride & Vainglory: wanting to please others unjustly, unjustified boasting, narcissistic overtones, wanting to challenge the Gods, lack of dignity or no recognition of the dignity of others, perverted self-love, contempt for others, etc. ● Laziness: without care for anything, absence of inclination or exertion, constant discontent, selfishness, wasting of time and effort, etc.
Here is a list of possible names players can use: ● Female: ○ Adney, Alexa, Annabel, Brigitte, Camilla, Cerena, Clarita, Edith, Eva, Fionne, Greta, Hilda, Jeanna, Lea, Lorena, Lucille, Lyle, Katrin, Marian, Melida, Nydea, Ophelia, Ramia, Ryla, Selene, Serica, Valea, Xenia ● Male: ○ Almund, Barton, Braden, Byrne, Carrol, Errik, Falbert, Griffin, Harald, Harkel, Howe, Irwin, Joel, Kurt, Liam, Lewis, Marcus, Mauris, Mikail, Niklas, Quinn, Redwald, Simon, Thorley, Tristan, Valbert, Vance, Xavier ● Others: ○ Adel, Ancel, Ashe, Blaine, Bryde, Casslyn, Clemence, Dava, Eylor, Fenis, Flores, Fraan, Grey, Lamond, Lansel, Lene, Morgan, Ori, Orland, Ravi, Raynell, Roche, Tenes, Toris, Vike, Vosca, Zere, Yortha
Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG Character Advancement
Souls, Soul Level and Infusion Souls Fragment, which are 1 for 1 XP for the sake of leveling up, are only found on “strong” souls, such as ancient heroes corpses, bosses, other PCs that finally died, etc. You don’t get Souls Fragment from normal creature. This is to maximize the core of OSR experience as being not combat per se, but mostly problem solving, exploration, etc. Combat is just a means to obtain new loot or new paths.
Souls Fragments are used for two things: Infuse yourself or Infuse a weapon.
Infusing Oneself - Soul Level Infusing oneself gives you XP. Every Soul level, you gain new class abilities and powers as per your class.
Infusing a Weapon - Weapon Infusion Level To Infuse a weapon, you need: ● A powerful Soul (and not fragments): The power of the Soul and the number of already infused souls will define powers and abilities of the weapon. Any weapon will need at the very least a Mini-boss or Boss Soul to power-up a weapon. The type of Soul and creature will influence the kind of powers. ● A magical ember to select a path: Ember are used every time you want to infuse, and it needs to be of the same essence or a complementary essence. Here are the ember types: ○ Fire: light, fire, old, pyromancy, dark ■ Complementary: you can upgrade a Fire Weapon to a Chaos Flame Weapon. More volatile, but inflict damage/have property based on the Soul level and Humanity of the bearer. ○ Lightning: speed, wind, lightning, detection effect, etc. ○ Enchanted: linked with magic and sorcery ○ Divine: strong against creatures without souls ■ Complementary: you can upgrade a Divine Weapon to an Occult Weapon. Those are strong against creatures with a Soul. ● A proper weapon (broken weapon or weapon of subpar quality cannot be infused) ● A blacksmith: He will do the crafting for a Soul fee. Generally 500 Souls per Infusion Level of the weapon.
You cannot wield a weapon of Infusion Level higher or equal to your own Soul Level.
Attunement and Magic Here is a list of spells and their description by type and level of magic, including miracles of the Cleric. Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG Pyromancy and Sorcery Pyromancy is frown upon by most humans and is considered dangerous, linked with the Primordial Flame. Some Sorcerers will not use Pyromancy. Spell Level Name Effect
1 Magic Missile Throw magical darts at the opponents.
1 Cold Snap (Pyromancy) The pyromancer’s touch becomes completely devoid of any heat and can snap freeze a target.
1 Cast Light (Pyromancy) Creates a floating light atop the head of the caster for an hour or so.
1 Fall Control Can be casted instantly. The target slowly falls for some seconds (therefore an impossible drop will still kill).
1 Sleep Mist The pyromancer breathes strange fumes that covers an area and put creatures to sleep of 2 HD or less.
1 Poison Mist The pyromancer breathes strange fumes that covers an area and put creatures poisoned of 4 HD or less. Also inflict 1d6 damage right away.
1 Read and Detect Magic Can detect magical items or things and their source. Can also read and decipher magical readings, such as Guidestones.
2 Fire Surge (Pyromancy) A line of fire appears from the hand of the pyromancer in a direction, burning everything in its path.
2 Flash Sweat (Pyromancy) A target is watered and soaked magically, giving protection against fire.
2 Hush Cancel noises around caster for some minutes.
2 Chameleon Transforms multiples targets into inanimate object as an illusion.
2 Fireball (Pyromancy) Throws a fireball at a target that explodes on impact, inflicting massive fire damage.
3 Darkness (Pyromancy) A room becomes completely devoid of light for a minute or so.
3 Fire Weapon Pyromancy) Imbue a weapon on touch with fire for some minutes.
3 Iron Flesh The target becomes as resistant (but slow) as metal. Grants heavy armor.
3 Combustion (Pyromancy) The hand of the pyromancer becomes imbued with fire that stays stable only for a couple of seconds. It can either be dissipated afterwards or unleashed and explodes on impact as a melee attack.
3 Soul Spear Creates a Soul Spear that tracks a target and attack with magical energy.
4 Hidden Body The target becomes invisible to others.
4 Magical Ward Ward a door, passage, path, bridge or object to prevent all creatures of a type to move through/use.
4 Dispel Magic The target loses all non-permanent magical effects.
5 Firestorm (Pyromancy) Creates a huge firestorm around the caster that inflict massive damage.
Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG Miracles Miracles are powers that were created by the Gods, especially Lord Gwyn and his famed Knights. The knowledge was passed down to other races, including humans. Spell Level Name Effect
1 Heal Heal X, where X is equal to the HD of the Cleric.
1 Open/Close Portal Can close or open gates, chests, etc. from afar if it’s not magically protected.
1 Rebuke Hollows Hollows must roll 2d6 under 5 + the HD of the Cleric or be rebuke and run away.
1 Protection From Chaos Grants protection from chaotic effect and demons for one hour to the target. In combat, it subtract 1 to the demon rolls.
2 Magic Barrier Creates a mystical barrier that prevents any passing through a pathway, a tunnel, a door, etc.
2 Remedy Cure most ailment, illness and conditions (except Curse).
2 Force Creates a powerful effect around the caster that project anything to the ground. Also shatter fragile objects.
2 Bless Grant a small shining light on the target. It becomes more efficient at almost everything and gains 1 HD for one hour (including benefits in combat).
3 Homeward The Cleric relinks with the Bonfire and return to the original one of the Adventure (thereby ending the adventure).
3 Lightning Spear Creates a powerful lightning spear that targets everyone in a line (as per Lightning Bolt of OD&D).
3 Hold Person 1d6 creatures of humanoid forms, including Phantoms and Hollows, must make a save against magic or be paralyzed.
3 Remove Curse Remove the Curse condition, or automatically rebuke Ghosts.
4 Sun Spear Creates a powerful beam of light that targets one creatures inflicting massive damage.
4 Vow of Silence Creates a zone of silence where no casting can take place.
4 Sacred Weapon Enchant weapons with Faith, giving them a Divine Blessing and making them stronger for one hour.
Equipment
Introduction - Acquisition and Inventory Since there is no “GP for XP”, there is no need for a GP weight system. Since there is no need to carry loot back to a safe place, there is no need for weight system in general. Therefore, everyone can carry: ● One set of armor ● Any kind of jewelry and such ● Two weapon/shield, +1 if a Warrior ● Five general item (tools and/or consumables), +1 with Constitution bonus Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG
Items are either acquired during exploration, or by finding rare blacksmith and merchants in the land that will trade Souls for goods.
Referees needs to determine at random what type of items the merchant will have in predominance, if he has any sort of special or unique items to sell, and then the prices. Prices should vary according to the merchant altruism and where he is situated in the world. In general, most simple items should cost between 500 and 2000. Extra rare items or overpriced items could go up to 10 000. There is no need to balance this as merchants are just an added bonus for PCs to go back to and buy exactly what they want. Real acquisition should come through exploration.
Weapon There is a number of fixed weapon categories which have effect as per the combat matrix of the different style of combat. In specific cases, you could give temporary bonus for particular action: a character using a two-handed greatsword that’s cleaving through hollows wide and large could have an additional dice just by the fact that he’s covering a lot of ground.
Even of the categories are fixed, it’s suggested that every weapon the character finds is of a subtype and carries a personal or universal history. That history has to be linked with the world and the setting (more below in that section). Here is a list of suggestion for the category: ● Dagger: Knife, Parrying Dagger, etc. ● Club/Quarterstaff: Club, Great Club, Quarterstaff, Pole, etc. ● Hand Axe: Throwing Axe, Hand Axe, etc. ● Morning Star: Mace, Hammer, Warpick, etc. ● Two-Handed Battleaxe: Battle Axe, Great Axe, Butcher Knife, etc. ● Sword: Straight sword, Bastard sword, Short sword, Rapier, Falchion, Scimitar, Broadsword, etc. ● Spear: Winger Spear, Partizan, Pike, Trident, etc. ● Halberd: Scythe, Lucerne, Catch Pole, Halberd, Falx, etc. ● Two-Handed Sword: Zweinhander, Greatswords, Claymore, Flamberge, etc.
Weapons determine the number needed to hit particular targets in Man-to-Man Combat.
There exist magical weapons divided in two types: ● Legendary Weapons: Old weapons and artefact that are their own story and composition. They cannot be infused or upgraded in any way. ● Infused Weapons: Infused with a soul through an ember.
Armor Just as weapon, there is a need for a subtype and an history for each armor. Here is a list of suggestion: ● Light Armor: Gambeson, Leather armor, Hide armor, Heavy cloth armor, etc. ● Medium Armor: Chainmail armor, Banded armor, Scale armor, etc. ● Heavy Armor: Any kind of plate armor or heavy chainmail set Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG
Armors determine the difficulty of each weapon to hit and damage the wearer in Mass Combat and Man-to-Man Combat. They “can” have a small impact in Fantasy Combat depending on the type of attack and foe.
Here is the matrix used to calculate hit chance in Man-to-Man Combat:
Weapon Melee Weapon vs Unarmored vs Light vs Medium vs Heavy Class Armor* Armor** Armor***
1 Dagger 6 7 9 12
2 Club/Quarterstaff 8 8 9 12
3 Hand Axe 7 7 10 11
4 Morning Star 7 7 7 8
5 Two-Handed 6 7 8 9 Battleaxe
6 Sword 7 8 8 10
7 Spear 8 8 10 11
8 Halberd 8 8 6 7
9 Two-Handed Sword 7 7 5 8
Weapon Ranged Weapon vs Unarmored vs Light Armor vs Medium vs Heavy Class Armor Armor ****
1 Sling/Throwing Knife 8 8 9 12
2 Short Bow 6/8 6/8 8/10 11/12
2 Crossbow 5/7 5/7 8/9 8/10
2 Longbow 5/7 5/7 6/7 9/11
8 Javelin 6 6 8 10
Tools Tools are general object that can be reused or are always active. Here is a non-exhaustive list, starting with new items from Dark Souls: ● Orange Guidance Soapstone: Can write magical message that transcends time and space which can be seen and/or read by others marked with the Dark Sign. ● Skull Lantern: Act as a torch, but is difficult to find and will gives more chance of being a target (compared to normal torches that can light but will end up burning). ● Silver Pendant: Can create a protection against Dark Magic (roll an extra dice against that type of magic). ● Torches ● Lantern Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG ● Rope ● Spikes and mallet ● Small mirror ● 10’ pole
Consumables Consumables are one use only, or limited use only. Here is a non-exhaustive list, starting with new items from Dark Souls: ● Lloyd Talisman: Stops some creatures from connecting with this reality, i.e. confuse them (Mimic notably). Can potentially stop undead from using Estus Flasks and summoning. ● Firebombs: Explode on contact. ● Divine Blessing: Act as Holy Water and heal all conditions when drank. Extremely rare. ● Prism Stone: Create a small light where it falls. Useful to check height, mark already used path or find hidden pathways. ● Transient Curse: Give a temporary curse that affects player negatively but gives them the opportunity to affect cursed beings such as ghosts. ● Purple Moss Clump: Stops poison ● Purging Stone: Stops curse ● Embers: Use in conjunction with Souls to create powerful weapons ● Gold Pine Resin: Can imbue a weapon with temporary lightning ● Charcoal Resin: Can imbue a weapon with temporary fire ● Alluring Skull: If used on the ground, its eyes will glow and monsters will be attracted to it from a certain distance (about 40-60 feets). ● Oil (flask) ● Holy Water
REFEREE’S SECTION
Environment as Adversary
Environment, Area, Traps and Hazard
Falling For every 10’ the character fall, roll 1d6. On a 4+, it suffers a HD of wound. For every subsequent 10’ after the first, add +1 to the dice (so that after 40’, each dice should be a HD lost).
Suffocating A character without heavy armor cannot swim and will drown in one minute. A character with medium or light armor will need to do a Strength check to see if he drowns.
After one minute underwater, a character will drown and lose 1 HD per turn (5-6 seconds). Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG Vision and Light Different source of light have different impact and time.
Type of Light Effect Time
Candle (Divine Weapon emit Light some feet around the Lasts for 3 exploration turns a light with the same effect) character. Affect only the (30 minutes). character.
Torch (a Bonfire lit will have Light the room, up to 40’ Lasts for 6 exploration turns a Torch effect on the room) (60 minutes).
Lantern (magical light from Light the room and adjacent Lasts for 24 exploration spells is considered a corridor, up to 80’ turns (4 hours). Lantern)
Characters without light are considered Blinded as per the condition.
Some areas, such as the Tomb of the Giant, have a magical darkness. Such magical darkness will diminish every type of light by one level (lantern would light as torches, torches as candle, and candle as nothing).
Traps and Hazard Traps in dungeon are important. They come up in rooms 5% of the time with a treasure, and can also come up as a trapped door or an ambush. It is important to telegraph them, so that players can learn to understand their environment. it is advised to say something regarding the environment and ask for a one word reaction from each player. For example: “You hear a faint click coming from the roof. What do you do ?” From there, you can already rule if someone is out of range of the falling rocks or something like that. If players take a bad decision, then they can make a Saving Throw. Generally, I rule Wands as the Saving Throw of choice for traps: my reasoning is that wands are a (magical) device that has a physical effect that can alter or kill a PCs. That’s pretty much also what a trap will do.
In most cases, because of the nature of the game, traps should be lethal (1d6HD) or create a setback (fall into another portion of the dungeon).
The reason for this is not to make it easy on the players, but to tell them "there might be a danger here". They don't know if it's a trap, a monster, or a trick, but they know there is danger. They still have to find the trap intelligently and disarm it, sometimes getting killed in the process, but that's up to them. I prefer this than having anything that either slow down the game (having someone poke non-stop everything with 10' pole), or force my players to inaction (in most cases, having suspected traps everywhere without a guess on where it can be will diminish player's interaction with the dungeon). To do this, it is suggested to have both traps and elements that will help to reveal it if the players are picking them up, such as trigger, danger zone, corpse, detritus, active warning and other signs of the same type.
There is a lot of good OSR blogs with traps and stuff taken sometimes as "obstacles", and especially old school resources that deal with. You can also search only for interesting Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG "challenges" instead of traps. Maybe I'll do something on challenges at one point. There is also some youtube challenge with puzzles that can be used sometimes as challenge/traps.
Traps need to be understood as hazards as much as monsters. First time you encounter a Medusa for example, you don’t know her special power that will most likely kill you outright. But if you acquire the right item, and/or can fight blindfolded, that knowledge of combat by the players can save them and make the challenge easier. Their character level increase but also their knowledge of the world. For that reason, it is suggested to put very few types of traps and focus on copy-pasting them, based on either monsters making them or architecture (i.e. each ancient culture favored some traps). That way, players with experience can expect some kind of traps in a type of dungeon.
Traps This is a "base list" of traps. You can have other kind of traps, and some traps are unique and doesn’t need a specific description, such as a rolling boulder that crushes people in its way.
The reason the elements of the trap are numbered is to roll a dice to generate them at random with the vertical axis 1d10. Every points needs to be observable, or at least noticeable. To generate randomly, if you don’t know what element needs to be visible to the player, you can roll 1d6 to generate the horizontal axis.
Danger Corpses Other Warning Name Trigger 1 Zone 2 3 Detritus 4 Active Warning 5 6
Distant woosh noise Lenght of in the room prior to 1 Slicer Pressure plate hallway Sliced Sliced rats Niches with scythes this one
Poison spray Agonisingly 2 shower Lever 10 ft square melted Melted helmet Acid pits on floor Bad smell in room
Sleeping Small holes in the Sleeping Gas Switch in the rats in the Dead rats that die of bottom of the wall for Strange smell in the 3 chest chest Room corner malnurishment the gas room Light coming through Spiked Hidden spikes on the that can make the Spiker roof (aka 5 ft, human skeleton on Wooden chip and other side of the trap on spikes or wire 4 Predator trap) Tripwire height the floor spikes nearby the ceiling apparent Small plate on the At the bottom Bitten/poison Corpses of snakes walls, small holes in the 5 Snake pit Pressure plate of a staircase ned corpse outside of it floor "Hissing" sounds
Crushing hallway Opening at the end of Dark stain on the boulder (aka All corridor, Crushed Hugeass rock at the the hallway on the floor, rock chipping on 6 Indiana Jones) Pressure plate up to 100' skeleton end of it ceiling the walls 5' in front of Skeleton Proximity the object it with little Tons of small holes 7 Dart Trap (magical) protects darts around Darts on the ground beside the objects Detect magic
Torch lying on the Pit Trap 10' deep ground (whoever fell Lines and creaks on the Floor will wobble at 8 /w spikes Lid (150lbs) 10' square nil last dropped it) ground 149 lbs and less Recessed Arm Scythe Latch (pull in a There is another small There is a hole up of (protecting a hole to "open Hand is Instruments use to pull hole to actually put a the level (where the 9 door) the door") chopped Hand corpse it chopped key in it blade comes through) Wind coming from the Speared Wooden shaft on the wall (holes are letting 10 Wall spears Tripwire Side of a wall skeleton ground Holes on the side it through) Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG
Other Traps But there is other traps you can have:
● Creature trap: trap that make creature pop up, ambush, open a gate, portal, etc. The Mimic in Dark Souls is an important one of those. ● Explosion: as the name implies ● Falling items: falling block of stones, etc. ● Gas and potion: have your humanoid attach gas potions to ropes that the players WILL knock down without looking and be drown in acid (true story) ● Fog: you can have those do plenty of stuff, like being a normal fog (will still scare player), a "random emotion fog" (can trigger them into confusion), poison gas, etc. ● Illusion: illusion floor that makes you drop to your death is a classic I'd say ● Light: flashbang or extinguishing of all light. ● Alarm: what worse than having the whole dungeon now getting to you ?
I also like having tricks or traps that deal other effect than death, such as:
● Reset other traps ● Animate the weapon of the bearer to attack him ● Causing a magical "cancellation" on all object of bearer for X hours ● Enlarge/reduce ● Teleport elsewhere in the dungeon ● Become invisible, mute and paralyzed ● etc.
Tricks Tricks are stuff that look like they can be interacted with (magic item, chest, trones, etc.) but can be problematic for the player if they are too curious and not cautious enough.
You could have your tricks bound to something else interesting, such as: TYPES Example/Description
1 Bait part of a monster, forcefield crown*, etc.
2 Boon/Bane according to the alignment and class, something positive and negative Confusion/Mis golden platter with yellow mold, monster not what it appears, medusa as a crying women, golem covered with gold 3 direction (looks like a statue), etc.
4 Defended animated furniture, fill with water, etc.
5 Puzzle stone statue missing an eye that reveals a passage (a monster stole it), etc. statue/book/NPC/Ghost that indicate a clue on how to vanquish a monster elsewhere in the dungeon, a door that 6 Quest needs a magical key elsewhere in the dungeon, etc. a hidden secret that could be revealed later because the mecanism will be found on another same-type secret 7 Secret further in the dungeon (meaning player could decide to go back to unlock it when they learn it)
8 Shiny somthing nice that does nothing (ex: a dragon skeleton within a crystal)
does something neutral (ex: putting a rough gem transform it into a perfectly cut one, a statue that repeats what you 9 Tools say in another obscure language, etc.) Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG
10 Transmutation Modified reality (water sharp like razor, false food, etc.)
11 Transport Teleport elsewhere
12 Treasures Treasures
Or you could tie them to features and effects (both column are not linked, you can roll d20 for each and apply as per).
Features Effect 1 Altar Remove humanity 2 Arch Animate itself 3 Ceiling Animate user weapon 4 Fireplace/fire Appear/Disappear 5 Fountain Antimagic (in the room)
6 Fresco/mosaic Electric Shock 7 Idol Asks password 8 Illusion Directs towards... 9 Machine Enlarges/Reduces itself 10 Pedestal Enlarges/Reduces user 11 Pillar/Column Flesh to stone 12 Pool Gaseous 13 Room Greases 14 Statue Greed-producing 15 Vegetation Release coins/gems 16 Wall Release magic item 17 Well Slide 18 Furnishing Teleports 19 Force Field Reduce stats/HD 20 Door Remove magic from item
Other Hazards There are other hazards that the Referee can include in its dungeons: ● Lava: Lava covers surface and is generally moving. Anyone stepping on lava will instantly suffers 1d6 HD of damage per turn (6 seconds). Some magical items can prevent or diminish that damage. ● Swamp: Characters suffer from Difficult Terrain condition and must make a Poison Saving Throw every exploration turn (10 minutes) or suffer from the Poison condition. ● Water-flood: Characters suffer from Difficult Terrain. Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG ● Fog/Mist: Characters cannot see past 30’, without or without light. Everything is more hazy and difficult to see/recognize. Lights can be glimpsed through the mist further than 30’, but not the source of the light. ● Darkness: Such magical darkness will diminish every type of light by one level (lantern would light as torches, torches as candle, and candle as nothing). ● Fire: Buildings or areas on fire will inflict 1 HD of damage per turn (6 seconds). Some magical items can prevent or diminish that damage. Fire can be extinguished partially or totally.
Monster Reaction There is a table with three separate category. To roll on the table, you need a reason between those three: common language, common religion/covenant, common objective/goal. If monsters have none of those, then you don't roll and they are hostile, unless the players present something interesting.
Generally, this means that Hollows will always be hostile. That being said, you could create a different approach to that hostility from encounter to encounter, such as hollows targeting the one with the most humanity, or being afraid of someone with a specific weapon or artefacts, etc.
Of course if the monster is a slime for example, in theory it will never be able to have a particular reason to change his reaction towards the PCs, so it is suggested to use automatically the first category and roll the need to see if whatever need the monster is more important than whatever the PCs are doing can be interpreted as a threat.
The first category on the table is for when PCs are already in combat and trying to negotiate, or there is a break of fighting, or there is a morale break. Generally this is with NPCs. The second is when PCs see monsters in an hostile environment. The last is when they see them in a less hostile or non-hostile environment, again, generally NPCs.
Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG
Needs are calculated according to the type of creatures:
● Ooze and plants: 1d2 ● Beast/animals: 1d4 ● Semi-bestial intelligence: 1d6 ● Savage humanoids: 2d10, take lowest ● Civilized humanoids: 1d10 ● Sophisticated creatures: 2d10, take highest
And then roll on this table: d10 Type of Needs Description
1 Safety Lost, hurt, poisoned, getting away from a predator, without food/water, without light, hollowing and in need of immediate Humanity, etc.
2 Sustenance Hunting, hungry, eating, preparing food, etc.
3 Link with own Trying to mate, trying to bound, trying to kill a fellow, to species gain power, to lead a pack, etc.
4 Comfort Warming itself, taking a nap, watching a Bonfire, watching the Sun, constructing or seraching for a shelter, etc.
5 Territory Patrolling, tracking, conquering, guarding, etc
6 Catharsis Sadism, anger, desperation, revenge, corrupting, etc.
7 Luxury Looking for Souls, looking for gold, looking for magical item, looking for slaves, etc.
8 Knowledge Directions, lore, spying neighbors, wanting to access a particular information, etc.
9 Allies or assistance Roll again 1d10 to determine the reason why they need allies
10 Actualization of the Ideology, religion, development of the self, training, cult, self etc.
Monster Death and Rebirth It is suggested to keep track of the different encounters for each areas and rotate them as players do a Revival at a Bonfire. An adequate method for this is thus: on a piece of paper, write all possible encounter you want to have in a particular area, and link them each with a card from a deck of normal cards. Every time the players enter a place with an encounter, pick up a card. If they defeat it, remove the card from the deck. If they circumvent it or leave, have it stay there for that particular encounter position.
Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG When players do a Revival or the adventure end, you can just reshuffle all encounters. This will help with: ● Randomizing encounters to provide more interesting “going back and forth” in the same areas that might be too difficult ● Having set encounters pre-made so that players can learn from specific monsters and their weaknesses ● Including NPCs in the deck to differentiate the type of tension and interest ● Including mini-bosses to keep players on their toes even in low-level areas ● Easy method of removing dead encounters and refurbishing areas. If for example you have area A with monster I, area B with monster II, and area C with monster III. If the PCs kill monster I in area A, after a Revival and reshuffling of the card, they could see that now monster II is there because you randomly re-attributed a monster (of course, that does mean that now one of the three area is empty). Every adventure, or every X adventure (depending on your group and how much areas you have), you could re-enter the cards in the deck. You could re-enter them at a slower rate when the boss of a particular area is killed. Or if you so wish, you could stop all encounters after a boss is dead.
Megadungeon Exploration
The World as a Dungeon In the Dark Souls universe, everything is interlinked. Game Design, Level Design, Story and all aspect of the game are interconnected, “associated”. In the tabletop, this means for exploration that the World needs to be thought of as a Dungeon (I suggest reading both the articles on Jacquaying and three clue rule of Alexandrian that are suggested up there, but also Philotomy’s Musings on the subject of the dungeon). Therefore, every outside venue is a room, every pathway is a corridor, every boulder blocking the way is a door. Thinking of outside as inside will be able to provide the players with a constant state of exploration, tension and foreboding. On how Dark Souls does this, it is suggested to watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhWdBhc3Wjc
In other words, every area is a dungeon that’s linked with other dungeon through a pointcrawl approach, but that creates one huge sprawling megadungeon.
Roles in Dungeon Exploration Players should have specific role to help the Referee and to speed up the game. Those roles can be considered in-game, but generally they are meta-game role. If you want to include them in, you could decide that the Caller is the Host of the adventure for the other Phantoms.
Caller The caller is the one making the “calls”. That is, everytime the game needs to move forward, or that the group needs to make a decision and can’t agree on it, the Referee will ask the Caller. He will decide for the group. Caller should ideally different every game to switch it up. Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG Mapper The mapper takes care of all mapping in game. He should be the only one asking question about the map to the Referee to make sure he is drawing the right map. Anybody can ask questions about the area to navigate, but the mapper will ask question about the “map” he is drawing.
Order of March Also, when exploring, it’s important to clarify at all time what is the order of march, so that if something happens in front or in the back of the group, the Referee doesn’t have to wing it. For this, it’s suggested that the Referee write down or use small cards to put them in front of him.
Action and Exploration Turn Every 10 minutes counts as an Exploration Turn. Most actions takes one Exploration Turn to do, such as using psychometry on an object, kindling a bonfire, devouring a Soul or Humanity, fighting a combat, etc.
Ressources Every exploration turn, light charges are lost on items. Also, some effect takes place or are extinguished such as magical protection.
Getting Out of a Dungeon at the End of the Adventure Because we have busy life and there is always a chance that the players will not have left a particular dungeon in time prior to the game finishing, players can either accept that they keep fighting on and die in the dungeon (-1 Humanity), or they can roll to see if their character can make it out alive.
This system only works if you:
● Stress the importance of coming back ● Tell players what time it is in real-life so that about 60 minutes before the end of the game they know they need to turn back soon or now (depending on the situation) ● Use it with intelligence
Use this table:
d20 Effect
1 Character dies with an extra 1d6 Humanity lost.
2-3 Character stay lost/imprisoned in the dungeon. He can be retrieved by other PCs. Lose 1 Humanity. Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG
4-7 Character is affected by a grave condition that prevents his return, such as malediction, psychic control, petrification, etc. He can be retrieved by other PCs.
8-12 Character lose 1d6 HD. If he dies because of this, he loses 1 Humanity.
13-15 Character must depart from d6 equipment piece and some Souls to get away from his assailant.
16+ Character is able to leave without a problem.
With these modificators:
● In a dungeon: ○ The group or PC does not possess any light: -10 ○ The group or PC does not possess any direct secure means of getting out of the dungeon: -5 ○ The dungeon is in a state of alertness because of PCs action: -3 ○ The dungeon has monsters with an average HD higher than the PCs (to be used intelligently): -2 ○ The group or PC isn't sure where they are in the dungeon: -2 ○ The group or PC have reliable and multiple source of light: +2 ○ Dungeon is only a lair, or is of a very simple layout: +3 ○ The group has a direct and secure mean of getting out: +5 ● In general: ○ The PC has Wisdom of 10 or more: +2 ○ The PC has Wisdom of 15 or more: +5 ○ The Hex/Area where they are is almost or totally explored/pacified: +3 ○ The road from the Hex/Area to the Haven is cleared or almost clear, using a road or something along the same line: +3 ○ The PC can become invisible using an object, can teleport, or has anything of the same vein: +10
Of course, do this roll behind closed screen and ideally tie it in to the narrative of your world, the dungeon/hex they were in, etc. The modificators are complicated and it would be hell to ask player to keep track of them.
Running Away from a Monster To run away from a monsters, players must either have a secret or impossible path for the monster to go through. If not, they need to drop an item that they monster wants, or Fragments of Souls.
If it doesn’t work, the slowest monster (worst Dexterity in the heaviest armor) needs to do a Constitution check to see if he outrun it. If not, they (or he) has to fight in 1d6 room/path. Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG Random Encounters Two rules are suggested for Random Encounters:
Wandering Monsters: At the end of every turn the referee will roll a six-sided die to see if a "wandering monster" has been encountered. A roll of 6 indicates a wandering monster has appeared.
So every exploration turn, you roll for random encounter. On a 1/6, it happens. They see the monsters (notwithstanding the surprise) as per:
Sighting Monsters: Players will see monsters at 20 - 80 feet (roll a pair of four-sided dice to determine the distance) unless they are surprised by the monster.
The other suggested is a simpler version. Every time the torch goes out, so every 6 turn, there is a wandering monster encounter. Of course this has two problem:
● You need to calculate for the lantern (a simple d6 that you turn on your side of the table is quite easy) ● Even if the probability of 6 turn on 1/6 is in practice almost the same, in theory it is not. You could go for 100 turn without an encounter, or 6 encounters in 6 turns when you roll a dice. Whereas with this method, you WILL get an encounter every 6 turns.
You could switch it up to create tension, such as rolling on turn 5 of the torch, and having an encounter on turn 6 if you didn't get it on turn 5.
Following this, you can easily devise a rule for all steps of the exploration: ● Every exploration turn (10 minutes), roll for a random encounter (⅙) ● Every hour outside of dungeon, roll for a random encounter (⅙) ● Every day of wilderness, roll for a random encounter (⅙) That being said, most of those will not apply depending on how you tackle the world: it is suggested to take everything as one big dungeon instead of the traditional wilderness.
Bloodstain Ancient heroes with strong soul often leave a special mark, named “bloodstain” where they died. It resembles a permanent stain of everflowing blood on the ground, half illusion half astral.
Some of them are more difficult to see and detect. Also, Clerics are able to touch them and tap into them in order to see how the heroes died.
Guidance Soapstone A fabled artifact named the Orange Guidance Soapstone has been passed for generations among heroes and adventurers. There is multiple copies of it. It has been named like that for its shape and use: it can be used to mark various hard surface like floor and wall to create a magical writing faintly visible. These markings are used to give basic advice and warnings across time and space. Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG
PCs themselves have a Soapstone and can give advices and warnings (they most preselect from a list of magical words their message) to other players passing the same point on another gaming night. A bit like the Bloodstain, the Cleric can see them better and can interpret a little bit more about their context.
Here is the list of possible words and sentence that can be made through this Soapstone:
● X ahead ● Be wary of X ● Try X ● Need X ● Imminent X ● Weakness: X ● X ● Here
For all one words according to these categories: ● Characters ● Objects ● Techniques ● Actions ● Geography ● Orientation ● Body parts ● Attribute ● Concepts
Pointcrawl (Outside) Exploration and Open Table Concept
Open Table and West Marches Approach It is suggested to go with an Open Table approach, also known as a West Marches campaign. The open table has been delt with by the Alexandrian (https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/38643/roleplaying-games/open-table-manifesto). Basically, it means running a RPG campaign like this: ● There is no set number of players in the campaign, there is only a set of players for game nights (as per the Referee’s capacity to handle) ● Every game night is based around the Referee’s own schedule possibility: he proposes a time, and players invite themselves to that particular if they can make it ● Every game therefore will have a different group of players. ● For this to work, the Referee will start and finish every adventure of the campaign at the same place, to produce a “state 0” that will permit other players (or the same) at the next adventure to seamlessly go from the same point. ● Therefore, different players will explore the same content Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG It is suggested to set up a group (Discord, Facebook, Reddit, etc.) to share disponibility and information regarding the campaign. With this method, players will have a disparity of level and experience, but will all share in the same open campaign.
Pointcrawl - Introduction It is highly suggested to run a Pointcrawl type of adventure for a Dark Souls game. For those adventures, it is highly suggested to read the multiple blogposts of Chris Kutalik from Hill Cantons (http://hillcantons.blogspot.com) or from the concept of “node-based megadungeon design” here: http://www.kjd-imc.org/blog/node-based-megadungeon-design/. There are multiple reasons for this: ● Hexcrawl and other form of map use is centered around the empty space between interesting places. In the case of a Dark Souls game, the empty space is already taken in the fact that everything is a dungeon and there are, in a dungeon, empty room. ● Dark Souls itself, because of its level design, runs from one area to another area with predefined junction or paths. In other words, it is already set like a Pointcrawl. For an example, take a look at this graph:
● A Dark Souls campaign being lore-heavy, it is only natural to present first and foremost to the PCs the points of interest, which Pointcrawls focus on. ● Connection between points and areas doesn’t mean that it’s automatic and without interaction: a tunnel, an aqueduct or a hidden path can become important part of an adventure in themselves, creating the same kind of tension that overland travel can produce. A pointcrawl is about doing a deliberate path. Therefore a pointcrawl is a method of doing exploration where key areas have a clear and definite path to another key area. There is no wandering around between such areas. That being said, there can be wandering around in the area, and there can be mechanism to open new paths to the same areas.
Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG It is important that Pointcrawl do not become neither linear, nor a choice-breaker where it looks more, for the player, like a Choose your own adventure than an actual living world where everything is open. In Dark Souls, it’s still mostly an open world structure within a fixed campaign. Regarding this, it is highly suggested to watch this video by Gamer’s Toolkit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhWdBhc3Wjc
Therefore a Pointcrawl is about a sprawling world: everytime players connect a new dot or explore a new path, you could give them a new means of opening a new dot, and so on. It could mean that vertically (as a dungeon) and horizontally (as a pointcrawl), the world is ever expanding and constitute something obeying its own logic.
Dungeon as Mythic Underworld For all those reasons, a Pointcrawl is highly suggested. And as we said, it should encompass the whole of the Dungeon-World, that is, the whole map, just as Dark Souls did. For this, we think it very important to share the words of Philotomy on the “Dungeon as a Mythic Underworld”:
There are many interpretations of "the dungeon" in D&D. OD&D, in particular, lends itself to a certain type of dungeon that is often called a "megadungeon" and that I usually refer to as "the underworld." There is a school of thought on dungeons that says they should have been built with a distinct purpose, should "make sense" as far as the inhabitants and their ecology, and shouldn't necessarily be the centerpiece of the game (after all, the Mines of Moria were just a place to get through). None of that need be true for a megadungeon underworld. There might be a reason the dungeon exists, but there might not; it might simply be. It certainly can, and perhaps should, be the centerpiece of the game. As for ecology, a megadungeon should have a certain amount of verisimilitude and internal consistency, but it is an underworld: a place where the normal laws of reality may not apply, and may be bent, warped, or broken. Not merely an underground site or a lair, not sane, the underworld gnaws on the physical world like some chaotic cancer. It is inimical to men; the dungeon, itself, opposes and obstructs the adventurers brave enough to explore it. For example, consider the OD&D approach to doors and to vision in the underworld: Generally, doors will not open by turning the handle or by a push. Doors must be forced open by strength…Most doors will automatically close, despite the difficulty in opening them. Doors will automatically open for monsters, unless they are held shut against them by characters. Doors can be wedged open by means of spikes, but there is a one- third chance (die 5-6) that the spike will slip and the door will shut…In the underworld some light source or an infravision spell must be used. Torches, lanterns, and magic swords will illuminate the way, but they also allow monsters to "see" the users so that monsters will never be surprised unless coming through a door. Also, torches can be blown out by a strong gust of wind. Monsters are assumed to have permanent infravision as long as they are not serving some character. (The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures, pg 9) Special Ability functions are generally as indicated in CHAINMAIL where not contradictory to the information stated hereinafter, and it is generally true that any monster or man can see in total darkness as far as the dungeons are concerned except player characters. (Monsters & Treasure, pg 5) Notice that all characters, including those which can see in normal darkness (e.g. elves, dwarves), require a light source in the underworld, while all denizens of the place possess infravision or the ability to see in total darkness. Even more telling, a monster Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG that enters the service of a character loses this special vision. Similarly, characters must force their way through doors and have difficulty keeping them open; however, these same doors automatically open for monsters. This is a clear example of how the normal rules do not apply to the underworld, and how the underworld, itself, works against the characters exploring it. Of course, none of this demands that every dungeon need be a mythic underworld; there could be natural caves and delved dungeon sites that are not in the "underworld" category, and follow more natural laws. Nevertheless, the central dungeon of the campaign benefits from the strange other-worldliness that characterizes a mythic underworld. A mythic underworld should not be confused with the concept of the "underdark." The underdark concept is that of an underground wilderness composed of miles of caves, tunnels, delved sites, and even whole underground cities. This is a cool fantasy concept, but is distinct from the concept of a mythic underworld that obeys its own laws and is weird, otherworldly, and apart from the natural order of things. (There is no reason a referee couldn't join the two concepts of underworld and underdark, though.) Some common characteristics and philosophies for a mythic underworld or megadungeon (keep these in mind when creating your dungeon):
1. It's big, and has many levels; in fact, it may be endless 2. It follows its own ecological and physical rules 3. It is not static; the inhabitants and even the layout may grow or change over time 4. It is not linear; there are many possible paths and interconnections 5. There are many ways to move up and down through the levels. 6. Its purpose is mysterious or shrouded in legend 7. It's inimical to those exploring it 8. Deeper or farther levels are more dangerous 9. It's a (the?) central feature of the campaign
If you embrace these concepts, you'll be playing OD&D according to some of the original assumptions of the game. And boy, is it fun.
Pointcrawl Map Creation (Concept) The principles that are to be taken into account for a map creation of a pointcrawl adventure are: ● Construction of the graphic map: ○ Lines: ■ Normal walkable passage: write as unbroken lines ■ Unusual connector (teleportation, magic gate, etc.): write as squiggly lines ■ Vertical drop in the direction indicated (stairs, chutes, pits, wells, abysses, etc.): arrow on line in the direction indicated. If the drop is one sided, i.e. players cannot come back by the same means such as a drop in a pit, write an X on the line before the arrow on line. ■ Barrier in passage (cave in, mudslide, locked gate, turnstile, etc.): write as two bars on the line. ■ Long passage that requires more time than normal: write as dot on line. ■ For any connector, drop or barrier, write over the line what it is. Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG ○ Safe areas, i.e. circles. Those are very rare, contains a Bonfire and generally an NPC or Fire Keeper. Write the name in the center of the circle. ○ Normal areas, i.e. square. Those contain multiple information for your own benefits: ■ Name ■ If there is a Bonfire or multiple present (written in roman numerical) ■ The approximate HD of the creatures ■ Important features (in words or VERY short expression), such as bosses An example could look like this for mapping, even using basic tools such as MS paint (this is just an outline example):
As you can see, even paths that connect the key areas can be themselves encounter and/or constitute portion of adventures (such as the Hellkite Bridge). ● Visibility: You should clarify what the players can see (in terms of places and other areas) from any specific paths and areas. For example, you can see from Firelink Shrine a great deal of locations: Undead Burg, Darkroot Basin down below, the walls of Lordran in the background, the graveyard, the Undead Parish up there near the elevators, etc. This creates foreboding. ● Verticality: You should think and write about the verticality, how you can reach it and what impacts it has (falling damage and such). ● Traveling Time: Every line should take one exploration turn to get to the feature and another exploration turn to get to the other side, so 20 minutes or two turns total. If it has a feature (such as the Hellkite Bridge), it will take how many exploration turns it needs. For longer paths (dotted line), count in triple that, so 60 minutes total, or 6 turns.
You can also add a layer of details for yourself by including a color code for the square and circles: ● Red: Caverns or such unformed wilderness (ex: Ash Lake). Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG ● Orange: Ruins that are razed and rubbled, or articles of civilization that were not meant to be habitable (ex: Catacombs or Tomb of the Giants, or Darkroot Garden). ● Yellow: Mostly ruined area, some walls or structure might exist (ex: Lost Izalith). ● Green: Semi-ruined area. You can find structures that are intact and some that aren’t (ex: Undead Burg). ● Blue: Barely ruined area. Most structures are intact or with very little neglect (ex: Anor Londo). To create your own worlds, setting and maps, see the section further below “Creating Areas”.
Combat and Adventure
Combat
Introduction Combat has been highly influenced by TSR Chainmail’s combat, but it’s not a copy or a retroclone of it. If you want to understand the original combat of Chainmail, it is suggested that you read on it, especially ressources such as https://img.fireden.net/tg/image/1457/49/1457497202891.pdf
Rather, I took the original framework of Chainmail with its three types of combat (Mass Combat, Man-to-Man Combat and Fantasy Combat) to create something smooth that emulates properly enough Dark Souls combat.
One of the thing that I changed drastically was how Hit Dice worked and what “Men” meant. In other words, I made it more “across the board” so that combat was faster and easier to understand. I was not interested in having high level fighter (high HD, representing multiple men) do multiple attack in a turn back to back. Also, since my version of both Men to Men and Fantasy Combat have multiple attack imbedded in them, I removed Mass Combat. It is added at the end of this document as an optional rule for those that still wants them. This is also to reproduce the fact that in Dark Souls, even if you are high level, you can still get killed or wounded against normal creatures if you are too reckless.
The following sections are not presented in their logical procession from the point of view of the PCs, but rather from the logical point of view of the Referee: Man-to-Man uses a pool of dice based on HD to create different results (i.e. pairing them up); and Fantasy Combat uses the same pool to gather a single but critical result.
In all combats, a roll of 1 or double 1 is always a failure, with or without bonuses.
Initiative and Turn Order ●
Ranges of Battle ● Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG Man-to-Man
Introduction Man-to-Man is to be used against NPCs, Phantoms, fully attired monsters of equal stature as PCs (such as Balder, Hollow Soldier, etc.) and normal/small monsters (such as rats or dogs) whereas Fantasy Combat will deal more with the environment and the “how” of player’s action against bosses and huge creatures. Man-to-Man deals with the duel, the small exchange here and there. It can still finish quickly if both sides are reckless.
Time Combat in general is simultaneous and variable. When everyone acted, it is a turn. Turns in Man-to-Man Combat are made in very small increment, being a couple of seconds at the maximum.
Generally, to determine other initiative sequence, roll 1d6 for each side (Referee for monsters and PCs for their characters) and the highest roll decide whose side starts.
It is mandatory to say what action the players want to do before any initiative is rolled or mechanics engaged. Referee will then decide what happens when in what order. A good rule of thumb for a sequence is this: ● Creatures speak or start casting ● Ranged missile/combat is made or first portion of movement is made ● Movement is made or finished ● Magic is unleashed ● Melee is made Generally, melee is simultaneous until particular rules of melee apply (see below).
During a turn, each creature can do one main action. This has to be interpreted by the Referee. Of course, one action can be subdivided into some small action. For example, a character that charges while yelling something to another player is seemingly doing three different action (speaking, moving, melee attack). Yet it should be treated as one main action because it all flows down to the same thing: a charge.
Space Since combat is abstracted (theater of the mind), there is a general “range” of combat for the three types of battle. ● Melee: Creatures in melee can perform all melee function but cannot use ranged attack or spells ● Midrange: Creatures in midrange can perform all melee function except that they cannot counterattack, but they can use ranged attack or spells. This is only available if an ally is within melee range. ● Far range: Creatures in Far range can only perform ranged attack or spells. This is only available if an ally is within Melee or Midrange. Unless specified, moving from one space to another is considered an action.
Main Attack Roll Resolution Mechanic Resolving a melee or range attack is an action. That action uses an attack roll. Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG
To do so, you roll one dice + your number of HD d6 in a dice pools. You pick the two best results: if they are a success, you inflict damage. Also, you can make a “combo” (a strings of attack) and look at the next best two. If they are again a success, you can continue on like this until you have no more pair of dice to look at. In other words, the more HD you have, the more adept you are at chaining attacks and exploiting the weakness of your opponent. For every dice, if you have a magical weapon, add +1 to the result (therefore a “4” and a “3” would be a total of “7”, but with a magical weapon, “9”).
For every successful attack roll, the character inflict 1 HD of damage with a one handed weapon, 2 HD with a two-handed weapon, and +1 HD with any magical weapon (so up to 3 HD damage).
Ranged weapons cannot do more than one attack per turn. All other dice than the two best are of no impact.
The following matrix will tell you what number or more you need to have a success on an attack roll:
Weapon Melee Weapon vs Unarmored vs Light vs Medium vs Heavy Class Armor* Armor** Armor***
1 Dagger 6 7 9 12
2 Club/Quarterstaff 8 8 9 12
3 Hand Axe 7 7 10 11
4 Morning Star 7 7 7 8
5 Two-Handed 6 7 8 9 Battleaxe
6 Sword 7 8 8 10
7 Spear (throw as 7 8 9 11 javelin at -1)
8 Halberd 8 8 6 7
9 Two-Handed Sword 7 7 5 8
Weapon Ranged Weapon vs Unarmored vs Light Armor vs Medium vs Heavy Class Armor Armor ****
1 Sling/Throwing Knife 8 8 9 12
2 Short Bow 6/8 6/8 8/10 11/12
2 Crossbow 5/7 5/7 8/9 8/10
2 Longbow 5/7 5/7 6/7 9/11
7 Javelin (melee as 6 6 8 10 Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG
spear, but more fragile)
* Light Armor is leather or gambison (padded). Also include non-fantastical creature with hide or hide-armor. ** Medium Armor is chainmail or banded. Also include non-fantastical creature with thick skin, protective measure or slime. *** Heavy Armor is plate armor. Also include non-fantastical creature with shells, made of solid material (such as rock) or bones. **** For Ranged Weapon, the first number is close range (50’ or less), the second is for long range (up to the maximum range of the weapon). Sling only has one number because it can only fire at close range. Their class is based on what weapon they act upon if used in melee.
Subrules There are additional rules of M-t-M Combat. They are an important part of the Dark Souls feel but they are optional for those finding them too fiddly/detailed: ● All melee action are simultaneous (a creature that can hit prior to the opponent can elect to wait for him to strike first. See the parrying rule below), unless: ○ Creatures that charged strike first; ■ Unless they were countercharged by a polearm/halberd/spear/pike type of weapon. ○ If not, whoever attacked from the rear; ○ If not, whoever is defending/attacking from above; ○ If not, whoever has a weapon with a highest class ● A creature that is targeted by a melee attack can elect to: ○ Parry if he hasn’t attacked yet. ■ To do so, his weapon class must be equal or higher than the opponent or have a shield. ■ If he does so, he will subtract 2 from the opponent attack roll. ■ If he has a weapon with at least two class higher than his opponent, he can elect to counterattack after his opponent strike(s). ■ Unless the weapon is magical, if someone parries with a weapon and the attack roll is still a success, the weapon is destroyed or lost (partially or totally, depending on the Referee and the environment). ○ Dodge-roll if he isn’t wearing heavy armor. ■ If he does so, he will subtract 3 from the opponent attack roll (2 in light armor, 1 in medium armor). ■ Also, the creature can choose to move from one Range to another. ■ If the dodge-roll is a failure, the target is knocked prone on the ground and doesn’t move out of the space it occupied. In Fantasy Combat, it suffers a worse injury. ● Small weapons, such as dagger, short swords and such can roll an extra dice against prone targets. ● If you have two small weapons equipped, or only a one-handed weapon, and roll double 5s or double 6s, you can elect to remove that attack roll from your pool and instead try to kick, pull, grapple your opponent. You can try to disarm him, stagger him, remove his shield from the way or knock him prone. Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG ● Using a bow or crossbow in melee is used as a club. If a parry is attempted, the weapon breaks automatically whether is a success or a failure. ● Having a shield gives -1 to the opponent attack roll. ○ Unless the bearer: ■ Is incapacitated ■ Attacked from multiple sides ○ There is three types of shield with different bonus: ■ Small Shield (Buckler): If you Parry, you count your weapon as +5 for the sake of Weapon Class to determine if he can counterattack ■ Medium Shield (Knight Shield): “Basic” Shield. +1 Breath Saving Throws. ■ Large Shield (Greatshield): If you Parry, add +1 to your Parry. You cannot counterattack with a Parry using this shield. +1 Breath Saving Throws. ● Non-humanoid monsters natural weapons are considered to be either: ○ Blunt (count as club): hand, rock, etc. ○ Hacking (count as handaxe): small claw, mandibule, etc. ○ Piercing (count as dagger for small or spear for large): spikes, pikes, etc. ○ Vicious (count as swords): scythes, jaw, etc.
Fantasy Combat
Introduction Fantasy Combat is akin to the Man-to-Man Combat, but with higher risks against supernatural and generally gigantic foes. Those can be both bosses and mini-bosses. It is highly lethal and can take different form depending on the opponent, the environment, etc. Every Fantasy Combat encounter should feel different.
In such a fight, every hit should be described: a failure could mean that the monster has taken off in the air or teleported, or that he blocked and pushed away the character (more below). A success could mean that the players have discovered a new weak spot, or that they targeted the tail of the dragon, etc.
Time Fantasy Combat has a more fixed structure of time that is also more abstracted. The turn is like this: 1. Explain what the environment looks like at the present moment and how the players are situated (see Space below) 2. Explain what the boss or mini-boss is doing now (see Special Attack telegraphing below) 3. Players decide what they do and tell the Referee 4. Actions, melee, ranged and spell combat are resolved for both sides, simultaneously. Generally bosses will perform their attack last to profit from the rule (see below) which they can get bonus against Chaining Attacks PCs. If they are low on HD, they might forgo this in a crazed rage. 5. Special Attack takes place 6. Turn is finished. Repeat at number 1. Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG Space The area is different than Man-to-Man Combat. Instead, you position yourself compared to the boss: ● Underneath ● In front ● Right/Left Side ● Back ● Far away This can influence how you are affected by the different special attack of the bosses and mini-bosses.
Again, moving from one range to another takes an action (unless you charge to it and can then perform an attack, or perform a successful Dodge-roll move).
Main Resolution The basic attack roll is the same as MtM, but every chained attack (i.e. multiple attack rolls) will add +1 to the next attack the Monster does against the PC since they are so strong they can withstand attacks and retaliate at the same time.
Monsters and bosses all have various attacks that can do between 1 HD and 6 HD of damage. Some of the bosses will have very few HD, and that is normal: they are more difficult to hit than the PCs, they have special attacks which can already affect multiple targets, they have varying resistance and immunities; in other words, they won’t die so easily because of that.
The basic resolution of this type of combat is made through a monster matrix which compares the HD of the PC to the type of monsters. Most bosses have unique abilities which are detailed at the end of this book in the monster lists.
The types of mini-bosses and bosses are: ● Giant Animal (Large Rat, Great Feline, Fang Boar) ● Large Demon (Capra Demon, Mass of Souls) ● Giant Demon (Taurus Demon, Titanite Demon) ● Gargantuan Monsters (Bounding Demon of Izalith, Gaping Dragon, Hydra) ● Dragons (Hellkite Wyvern, Kalameet) ● Giants (Sentinel, Giant, Royal Sentinel, Iron Golem) ● Spellcasters (The Channeler, Moonlight Butterfly)
HD Giant Animal Large Giant Demon Gargantuan Dragon Giant Spellcaster Demon Monster
1 10 11 12 12 13 12 11
2 9 10 12 11 13 11 11
3 8 10 11 10 12 10 10
4 7 9 10 9 12 8 9
5 6 8 10 8 11 7 9 Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG
6 5 8 9 7 11 6 8
7 4 7 8 6 10 5 7
8 3 6 8 5 9 4 7
9 3 6 7 4 8 4 6
10 3 5 5 4 7 4 5
Again, magical weapons grant +1 to all attack roll. Furthermore, Fantasy Combat is more abstract and evocative: if the players decides to hit a weak spot, or does an attack that takes advantage of something another PCs did, than you can grant an additional bonus to his roll. For example: ● Playing defensively and far range when the Gaping Dragon decides to charge ● Playing very aggressively when the Channeler is charging his attack ● Being meticulous, defensive and attacking from multiple sides mini-bosses that are slow moving ● And so on.
Bosses Special Attack Bosses are a special encounter that are very different from normal enemies. They have a statline, including HD, but they act differently. They need to be part enemies part environmental challenge for the players, without it becoming a circus like the Bed of Chaos.
Every turn, they will do two things: ● Base Attack: One attack roll according to their profile against any players (determined at random) according to the profile of that attack. For example, a boss that has a Ranged Attack as his Base Attack will do it against PCs not in melee. The basic formulae of this attack for bosses and mini-bosses is thus: HD of the PC + 2 as the target number. Mini-bosses roll 2d6. Bosses roll 3d6 and keep the two highest. ○ Dodge-roll can be used, but parry/block is up to the Referee, generally depending on the size of the creature and the type of base attack. ● Special Attack: One move that does not necessarily use normal attack roll. That special attack works is randomly determined by the Referee using a d6 and comparing to the profile. This attack needs to be telegraphed to the players at the beginning of the turn. The magic of the Boss battles is that the players can learn the different special attacks of the bosses to try and take tactical advantage of it. For example, at the beginning of the turn prior to players initiative, you would say: “You see the Lava Wurm bellowing and raising his head while his eyes catches fire”. Then when it’s time, you would use the attack, saying “Everyone in front of the bosses do a Magic Saving throw. Lava Spout from the Wurm mouth and covers the entire area. If you passed, you suffer 1 HD of lava damage, if you failed, you suffer 4HD.” The telegraphing aspect is important because it gives players critical information for an informed decision, that is, player skill. ○ Mini-bosses can either choose to do a Base Attack or a Special Attack, they cannot do both. Whereas bosses always do both.
Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG If a player is hit with an attack that doesn’t have a profile, roll 1d10 + his HD and look at this table for a basic description of effect. If the player is wearing a medium or heavy armor, reduce by one effect (so a 10 - 11 would become a 11 - 12).
Then interpret according to the monster himself. A grab by the Iron Golem is literally a grab with hands, whereas against Black Dragon Kalameet, it’s Dark Magic telekinesis that grabs the PC. Or it could be the Hellkite Wyvern grabbing a player to drop him off the bridge.
It is up to the Referee to describe accordingly what the boss is doing to him, especially in case of an instant death, so that it feels organic and not cheap. For example: “The Dragon starts pounding with his legs front and back, but also his tail. He whips everything and you try to dodge it, but you were already committed into trying to cut his belly. He gets you once, then twice, you try to get up but finally he smash your head to the ground. You died.”
1d10 + HD Effect
1 - 4 Instant Death
5 - 7 Suffers 2 HD damage and is incapacitated (either directly or indirectly) for the next turn, waiting to suffer another attack (consider the next turn an automatic attack success against this PCs)
8 - 9 Suffers 2 HD and is staggered (cannot act in melee or range this turn if he didn’t already do it)
10 - 11 Suffers 1 HD and is staggered (cannot act in melee or range this turn if he didn’t already do it)
11 - 12 Suffers 1 HD damage. If he didn’t act yet this turn, his next action will be more difficult.
13 -14 If he blocked with a shield, Change of pace: if the PC was far away, the monsters gets near (jump to him). If the PC was in melee, he gets push out very far. If he didn’t block, see previous result.
15+ Bruised if he blocked with a shield, if not, see previous result.
Spells in Combat Spells in Combat function as magical attack. The difference is that their impact is not reduced as a ranged attack, i.e. they can make multiple blow in one turn. Each spell has different rules: ● Fireball: 6d6 in a small zone ● Combustion: 3d6 melee ● Fire Surge: 5d6 in a line ● Cold Snap: 4d6 in melee. Water creatures can become frozen ● Magic Missile: Xd6 to a single target, where X is the HD of the caster. ● Lightning Spear: 4d6 in a line ● Soul Spear: 5d6 to a single target, homing ● Sunspear: 6d6 to a single target Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG Damage and Death When PCs suffer hit, they suffer 1 HD of damage or more (as per the profile of the attacker). When they reach 0 HD, they die: they lose 1 Humanity (or more) and reappear in the next game. Meanwhile, they can play NPC Phantoms. For all of this in more details, see the rule regarding the Dark Sign.
Resting and Healing When PCs rest, the game ends. They remove all conditions and heal them. Their spells return. For more information, see the rule regarding the Dark Sign.
Conditions There is a list of base conditions that can affect players: ● Blinded: You cannot see. Creatures can attack you more easily and you attack them with huge negative impact (-4 to all attack roll). ● Poisoned: You cannot regain HD and every hour you suffer 1 HD of damage. Your character is dazed and suffers -1 to all combat roll. ● Cursed: If you are cursed, you suffer an additional HD of damage every time you suffer HD damage. Also, you can only see half distance (every is misty and foggy) and cannot gain Humanity. You have -1 to all saving throws. If you die while being cursed, to become Petrified. ● Petrified: You are made of stone and invulnerable. You are not conscious and cannot play anymore. Players need to find a Purging Stone, Divine Blessing or the spell Remove Curse. ● Hollow: If you hollow, your character becomes an hostile NPC controlled by the Referee.
Treasure
Introduction There is no treasure per se, since there is no gold or jewelry as useless trinkets. Rather, for every fight, you roll on a table with exploding d6s (every time you roll a 6, roll an extra d6).
To determine worth of creatures, follow this procedure: ● Roll 1d6 for a basic monster (ex: skeleton) ● +1 for a strong monster (ex: skeleton giant) ● +2 for a mini-boss (ex: fang boar) ● +3 for bosses
To determine worth of chests or fallen heroes, follow this procedure: ● Normal chest 1d6 ● Is it hidden or guarded ? If yes, +1 ● Is it guarded ? If yes, +1 ● Is the area dangerous (as in, not a “starting Area”; think Anor Londo vs Undead Burg)? If yes, +1 Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG ● Is it difficult to get there, for example by climbing and jumping? If yes, +1 If the chest/fallen heroes has “nothing”, then instead give a Soul (see below after items list).
Mini-bosses and bosses also drop their own loot in addition to this randomly generated loot, including a Humanity for bosses.
Table
Result Main Type Subtype d4 from d6s
1 - 3 Normal object
4 - 5 Armement 1 - 2 : weapon 3 : shield 4 : armor
6 Spells 1: low level pyromancies (1-3) 2: low level miracles (1-2) 3: high level pyromancies (4-5) 4: high level miracles (3-4)
7 Magical Rings 1 - 2: uncommon 3: rare 4: legendary
8 Magical armement 1 - 2 : weapon 3 : shield 4 : armor
9+ Embers and Titanite
Embers and Titanite
d10 Type Effect
1 Titanite Shard Used to upgrade Large Ember weapon with souls
2 Colored Titanite (1d4: green, blue, red, white) Used to upgrade Magic/Crystal/Fire/Divine weapon with Ember
3 Special Titanite (1d3: twinkling, demon, slab) Used to upgrade unique item or uniquely upgrade infused weapon
4 Large Ember Upgrade weapon in their quality, very low magic
5 Divine Ember Upgrade weapon in the Divine Path
6 Dark Ember Upgrade a Divine weapon to a Occult Path
7 Magic Ember Upgrade weapon in the Magic Path
8 Crystal Ember Upgrade weapon in the Crystal Path Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG
9 Flame Ember Upgrade weapon in the Fire Path
10 Chaos Flame Ember Upgrade a Fire weapon to a Chaos Path
Normal Object Roll an extra d6 if the source is magical or special.
d20 Name
1 Binocular
2 Orange Guidance Soapstone
3 Torches
4 Lantern
5 Oil
6 Rope
7 Spike and Mallet
8 Small mirror
9 10’ pole
10 Firebombs
11 Alluring Skull
12 Holy Water
13 Charcoal Pine Resin
14 Rotten Pine Resin
15 Gold Pine Resin
16 Prism Stone
17 Repair Powder
18 Homeward Bone (same as spell)
19 Green Blossom
20 Purple Moss Clump
21 Blooming Purple Moss Clump
22 Purging Stone
23 Skull Lantern
24 Divine Blessing
25 Transient Curse
26 Lloyd Talisman Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG Magical Rings and Trinkets
1d10 Uncommon Rare Legendary
1 Havel’s Ring (consider Cloranthy Ring (+1 HD) Ring of Favor and Protection (consider encumbrance of armor and weapon encumbrance of armor and weapon one step less) one step less, +1 HD)
2 Spell Stoneplate Ring (+1 magic Blue Tearstone Ring (when Speckled Stoneplate Ring (half save) you lost one or more HD of damage from all magical and elemental your maximum, subtract 1 to source) your opponents roll against you)
3 Flame Stoneplate Ring (half Ring of Sacrifice (when you Rare Ring of Sacrifice (when you die, damage from magical fire) die, make a death save; if you you do not lose humanity) have a success, you do not lose humanity)
4 Thunder Stoneplate Ring (half Slumbering Dragoncrest Ring Bellowing Dragoncrest Ring (if you are damage from magical lightning) (wearer makes no sound) a Pyromancer, you have +1 spell slot of every level you already have a spell slot)
5 Poisonbite Ring (+1 poison save) Leo Ring (you consider your White Seance Ring (if you are a Cleric, weapon one weapon class you have +1 spell slot of every level higher and have +1 on your you already have a spell slot) attack roll made as a counterattack)
6 Cursebite Ring (+2 stone save) Dark Wood Grain Ring (your Wolf Ring (you cannot be staggered or dodge-roll action subtract an put prone) additional 1 to your opponent roll)
7 Red Tearsome Ring (when you lost Covetous Gold Serpent Ring Ring of Fog (makes the wearer one or more HD of your maximum, (when you find a treasure, the transparent) you fight as if having +1 to your Referee rolls an additional d6 maximum HD) to determine the worth)
8 Rope of Climbing (can attach itself Orange Charred Ring (you can Ring of the Evil Eye (every time you kill magically with a word of command walk on non-magical lava and an opponent, roll a d6; if you rolled to objects) fire) equal or less than the HD of the creature, you regain a lost HD)
9 Wand of secrets (can detect Ring of Telekinesis (can lift Estus Flasks (has 1d6 maximum illusionary walls) object of 30 lbs or less and charges; every charges heals 1 HD; move them at a pace of 1 feet every bonfire refill the charges) per 2 seconds)
10 Ring of Jumping and Striding (run Ring of Water Walking (can Ioun Stone (shine like a fire atop the faster and can jump twice the walk on water as if solid user heard (as a torch), user always distance) ground; if he falls on water, he knows north, +1 to all save) will fall as if on solid ground)
Armors To determine armor set, roll here (2d6 basic, +1d6 if you want to add magical armors):
2d6 Set Effect Description Type
1 Shadow Set more difficult to Black cloth clothing worn by spooks from an eastern land. Light see, count as Designed so as not to hinder their unique form of martial arts being unarmored and stealth practice, while they sacrifice defense for the sake of for the sake of greater mobility. encumbrance
2 Eastern Set Exquisitely crafted, this helm offers excellent defense, Medium particularly versus slashing attacks, which are one of the main Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG
threats in battles in the East. Distinctive armor made in an Eastern Land.
3 Elite Knight Armor of a nameless knight, perhaps an elite knight of Astora, Heavy Set based on the fire-warding heraldic symbol on it's blue surcoat. Despite the thin metal used, the grooved texture gives them added protection
4 Bandit Set Worn by brigands who raid mountain hamlets and attack Light travelers. In addition to protection against the blazing sun, dust, and sand, it helps them tell friend from foe in the heat of battle. The addition of metal over a basic of cloth and leather offers good mobility and defense.
5 Wandering Armor of an aimless traveler, made from sturdy leather and Light Set quilting. It offers protection versus wind and rain, weapons and dangers. Battle comes from the territory when one wanders the land, and this coat provides a certain degree of protection.
6 Steel Set Armor set of the Knights of Berenike, known for their heavy Heavy armaments and armor. Countless Knights of Berenike, once extolled as the mightiest of mighty, became Undead and ventured to Lordran. But their journey was for naught, as they went Hollow, and became a threat to all Undead.
7 Hollow Apparel worn by Hollow soldiers and warriors. It may be old and Medium Soldier Set battered, but its iron construction makes it quite sturdy.
8 Hunter Set Made of soft leather. Very common type of protective gear. Light
9 Chain Set Chainmail apparel made of thin interlinking steel. It is common Medium throughout the human world since it can be easily produce, it is not too heavy, and offers good defenses. Knights may favor flashy armor, but for warriors on the battlefield, anything is fine as long as it keeps them alive.
10 Warrior Set A sturdy helm made of iron with armor made of thick leather. Medium Very common type of protective gear, it provides a sound level of defense. It is wise to wear sturdy form of head protection against arrows and other physical threats.
11 Adventurer’s Strange equipment from the ancient land of Zena. It is said that Light Set the helm two horns symbolize wisdom, the many medals glory, the gold bracelets a vanquisher and the boots an explorer.
12 Dingy Set +1 stone save Traditional clothes of a Fire Keeper. After years and years of Light smoke and ashes, it darkened the pure vestments of a Maiden.
Magical armors:
d6 Set Effect Description Type
1 Antiquated Set +1 level 1 Blessed by special magic upon a previous Unarmored pyromancy slot, -1 owner. Its wearer is blessed by all manner of magic save magic. It comes from the ancient fallen land of Oolacile. Its ivory-colored silk features elaborate embroidery and is imbued with ancient magic power. One cannot expect any physical protection from this garment, as it was not meant to be worn in battle.
2 Maiden Set +1 level 1 miracle Apparel worn by traveling maidens. It is part of Unarmored slot, -1 magic save their formal attire, regardless of rank. It is soft and well-made, but does not offer much in the way of defense, making it ill-suited to use in battle.
3 Paladin Set unique to Way of the Long ago, the Way of White produced its first Heavy Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG
White, +1 to all save Undead, paladins in golden armors. They set out for Lordran, Land of the Gods, in the first Undead mission of the Way of the White.
4 Pyromancer Set half damage from Worn by the pyromancers of the Great Swamp. Light non-magical poison Though it appears tattered, it is actually quite and fire damage strong. Their attire offers substantial protection against poison, fire, and other forces of nature out in the hinterlands where they were driven. Boots made of thick leather and extremely though, on account of the rugged grasslands and treacherous swamps they must traverse. Their soles are nearly impenetrable.
5 Black Iron Set half damage from Built of a special black iron and providing strong Heavy fire source, need 15 defense, notably against fire, but so terribly strength and 12 heavy to be unwieldy to all but the strongest constitution or more knights.
6 Cleric Set if the wearer is Armor set worn by the warrior clerics of the Way Medium attuned to the heal of White, who are famous for being unyielding miracle, he is in battle. Among such armors, those that were automatically black belonged to warrior clerics sent on attuned an extra missions, many of whom were high level time priests. The following armor set can only be dropped by their respective owner, or found in chests related to them (such as guarded by them, or near them):
Set Effect Description Type
Channeler Set Count as medium armor for Armor of the Channelers, sorcerers Light protection, but light for that serve Seath the Scaleless. The wearing it. six eyes arranged in two vertical columns compensate for Seath’s lack of sight. Even after the onset of Seath’s madness, the “snatchers”, as they were often called, ventured to far lands to find suitable human specimens. The heaviest of protective gear for sorcerers, and imbued with magic.
Darkwraith Set Gives the user the Dark Armor of the Darkwraiths, former Medium Hand weapon as a off-hand knights of New Londo who weapon. This weapon descended into Dark. Their armor counts for damage as a transformed, and remains a symbol sword, but weapon class of of the Dark servants and their a club. You can use it to diabolical art of Lifedrain. Some say steal humanity from NPCs the skeletal mask of an ancient or Phantoms, with dire Darkwraith is partially fused with the consequence… flesh of its face.
Thorns Set +1 to counterattack, +1 to Apparel of special knights of the Heavy weapon class for parry and Darkwraiths. A dense patch of thorns counterattack grows from its surface. It is a fitting item for those murderous individual.
Giant Armor Set Require 16 Strength, Armor of the giant sentinels of Anor Heavy subtract -1 to all attack roll Londo.Made from ancient brass, it against the user also offers protection versus non- physical attacks, but due to its giant size, it is extremely heavy for humans.
Black Knight Set +1 to all saves, half damage Armor of the Black Knights who Heavy from fire haunt Lordran. The knights followed Lord Gwyn when he departed to link the Fire but they were burned to ashes in the newly kindled flame, wandering the world as disembodied Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG
spirits ever after.
Silver Knight Set +1 to all saves, half damage Apparel of the Silver Knights who Heavy from lightning protect Anor Londo. When Lord Gwyn departed to link the Fire, his knights split into two groups. The Silver Knights remained in the forsaken capital in service of their goddess.
Balder Knight Set Count as a medium set for Heavy encumbrance, but protect as a heavy set
Shields For shield, roll 1d3 to determine the type (small, standard, greatshield) and then use the following table.
d6 Small Standard Greatshield
1 Small leather shield Wooden Shield Tower Shield
2 Buckler Knight Shield Tower Shield
3 Plank Shield Hollow Soldier Shield Eagle Shield
4 Caduceus Round Shield Balder Shield Eagle Shield
5 Red & White Round Caduceus Kite Shield Giant Shield Shield
6 Leather Shield Iron Round Shield Giant Shield
The following are a list of magical shields:
1d10 Name (Type) Effect Description
1 Effigy Shield (Small) Wearer is immune to lightning Frightful occult shield, defends against divine damage directed towards him weapons and lightning. In an ill-fated plot to destroy the very gods, the followers of the occult once attempt to steal the power of Gravelord Nito, the first of the Dead.
2 Silver Knight Shield +1 to magic save, half damage Shield of the Silver Knights of Anor Londo. A (Standard) from lightning flowing canal is carved deep into its face. The Silver Knights stayed behind in Anor Londo to defend the Goddess, and their shields are blessed with her divine protection.
3 Black Knight Shield +1 to magic save, half damage Shield of the Black Knights that wander (Standard) from fire Lordran. A flowing canal is chiseled deeply into its face. Long ago, the black knights faced the chaos demons, and were charred black, but their shields became highly resistant to fire.
4 Pierce Shield (Standard) Can be used as a thrust Shield of certain knights of Catarina, used in weapon, +1 to Counterattack attacks with a large protrusion in the center. Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG
5 Crest Shield (Standard) +2 to magic save Shield of a nameless knight, likely a high- ranking knight of Astora. One of the enchanted blue shields, the Crest Shield greatly reduces magic damage.
6 Grass Crest Shield In combat, you count as having Old medium metal shield of unknown origin. (Standard) an extra HD for attack The grass crest is lightly imbued with magic, which slightly help recovery and focus.
7 Spider Shield (Standard) +1 to poison save Shield of the savage mountain bandits. Uniquely shaped with a large black spider etched upon it.
8 Bloodshield (Standard) +1 to all save The Bloodshield spoken of in the lost legends. The red blood is slightly enchanted and protects its user against various ailments.
9 Sanctus (Standard) User naturally regenerate 1 HD A legendary shield of the Way of White, per hour granted to an undead paladin long ago. Once blessed with the protection of a white flame, its power has all but faded.
10 Black Iron Greatshield + 2 to breath saves Built of special black iron and even heavier (Greatshield) than Knight Berenike’s tower shield. Especially resistant to fire attacks.
Souls Fragments and Soul Objects To determine worth of a Soul object in Souls found on monsters, fallen heroes or in chests, follow this procedure: ● Roll 1d6 (+ HD if it was held by a monster) ● If the object was hidden, guarded or difficult to obtain, +1d6 ● If the object is not in a starting area (such as Undead Burg), +1d6 To determine the worth of Souls for a mini-boss or bosses, just roll for a Soul item, but instead give it to everyone as Souls fragments when the creature is killed following the next table and rolling Xd6, where X is the HD of the monster. Results Type of Soul Amount Given
1 - 2 Soul of a Lost Undead 200
3 - 4 Large Soul of a Lost Undead 400
5 - 6 Soul of a Nameless Soldier 800
7 - 8 Large Soul of a Nameless Soldier 1000
9 - 10 Soul of a Proud Knight 2000
11 - 12 Large Soul of a Proud Knight 3000
13 - 14 Soul of a Brave Warrior 5000
15 - 16 Large Soul of a Brave Warrior 8000
17 - 19 Soul of a Hero 10000
20+ Soul of a Great Hero 20000 Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG Infusing Weapons Weapons can be infused with Souls to create magical weapons. To do so, you need: ● A powerful Soul to infuse the weapon (i.e. a boss or mini-boss) ● An ember (to determine the path) ● A blacksmith When the weapon is magical and Infused, it can gain new Infusion level that grants it new powers. Those depends on the initial Soul and Path. To do so, you need: ● Put Souls Fragments in it to reach the necessary Infusion Level requirement (i.e., the PC will put his XP in the weapon instead of his class) ● A titanite (special stone for forging) of the kind linked with the path ○ Shard for Large path ○ Red for Fire path (and Chaos path) ○ Green for Magic path ○ Blue for Crystal path ○ White for divine path (and Occult path) ○ Twinkling and demon for unique path (such as magical weapons that players find already infused) ○ Slab: for all path ● A blacksmith
Souls Fragment Req. Infusion Number of Notes Level Powers from Soul
0 1 1 Normal weapon
500 2 2
1500 3 3
3500 4 4
7500 5 5
10500 6 6
Here is a list of suggestions of powers for each of the Ember/Path. They have been divided into Minor and Major, meaning generally mini-boss and bosses. But depending on the level of the weapon, the user, the type of mini-boss/boss, etc. it is up to the Referee to judge.
Ember/Path Minor Major Description of Path
Large Ember ● Impossible to break ● Can cut or open Large Ember creates physically or disarm even stone and imposing weapon that are generally ● Bonus to attack rolls doors sharper, stronger and more resistant ● Emits a faint glow ● Vorpal effect (on a than their equivalent. They are when a creature of double 6, you can magical and will cut through most the Soul type cut the head clean defense and resistance. They are infused is near off) prized by warriors and knights that do ● User can see ● Bypass magical not want to deal with magical embers invisible objects protections and strange effects. ● Emits a faint glow when there is Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG
shifting walls, sloping passages or illusionary walls nearby
Divine Ember ● Creatures killed with ● Clairaudience Divine Ember creates divinely this weapon cannot ● Clairvoyance attuned weapon linked with the Gods be brought back by ● Can heal 1 HD per and their powers. It is very effective necromancer or adventure with a against any creature lacking a soul or hollowed divine light having very few soul left, such as ● Emits a faint light ● Emits a powerful hollow creatures or near-hollow (as a candle) at all light (as a lantern) creatures. time ● Dispel magical ● User can see effects on hit invisible object ● Immunity to curse, ● Bonus to Death poison or life drain save ● Emits a faint glow when a hollow is approaching ● Inflict lightning damage
Dark Ember ● Emits a faint glow ● Life Drain Dark Ember creates occult and when a Dark or ● Vorpal Effect misunderstood weapons that comes White Phantom ● Darkness effect from a time when some humans tried invade the current around the user to kill the Gods. They were banished area (but he can see and punished and the ember was ● Bonus against all through it) at will hidden from all living thing. living creature with ● Massive bonus a Soul against any boss ● Chance to paralyze that are from the target Gods, their ● Bonus to Stone followers or the save Gods. ● Creatures hit with this weapon cannot heal themselves ● User can see invisible object
Magic Ember ● Attunement bonus ● Telekinesis Magic Ember are a form of sorcery in ● Emits a faint glow ● Clairaudience themselves. They create powerful when there is ● Clairvoyance weapon imbued with magic and most magical objects or ● X-Ray Vision prized in Vornheim, who are master effects nearby ● Levitation at creating and using them. The ● Emits a faint glow ● Can parry magical magical weapons are said to derive when there is spells strength from the magic of their shifting walls, ● Can cast once per users. sloping passages or adventure a level illusionary walls 3 or 4 spell nearby ● Can bypass ● Bonus to Magic magical protection save ● Can add Intelligence modifier to attack roll ● Can cast once per adventure a level 1 or 2 spell
Crystal Ember All Crystal Ember weapons ● Vorpal effect Crystal ember were created by Seath will break easily. ● Can paralyze the Scaleless and were only handled ● Huge bonus to target by the giant God’s blacksmith. They attack roll create powerful but brittle weapon ● Can bypass magical that cannot be repaired once broken. protection They are said to be extremely potent ● Emits a faint light and dealing special and magical (candle) at all time damage that cut through everything. ● Can parry magical spells ● Affect more the Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG
magic users
Flame Ember ● Inflict fire damage ● Can melt door and Large Flame ember were used in ● Inflict cold damage steel beams ancient rites and only handled by ● Emits a decent light ● Can bypass blacksmiths knowledgeable in (as a torch) at all magical protection ancient methods. They create time ● X-Ray Vision powerful fire weapon that can cut ● Automatically open through anything. up hidden and illusionary passage ● Can cast a Pyromancy Spell once per adventure
Chaos Flame ● Inflict heavy fire ● Root target in Chaos Flame ember is an art of the Ember damage place lost city of Izalith. It is only handled ● Bypass magical ● Life Drain by blacksmiths knowledgeable in protection ● X-Ray Vision ancient methods. Chaos weapons ● Can add Humanity are demon weapons augmented by modifier to attack humanity which inflict heavy fire roll damage. ● Can cast a Pyromancy Spell once per adventure
Creating Magical Items If you want to integrate any magical items, either from D&D, Dark Souls or your own imagination, it is highly suggested to thing about three mechanical factors: ● Prerequisite ● A upside for a downside ● Mechanical niche or lore Then, it is suggested to answer to those lore questions to integrate it properly: ● What do legends say of it ? ● What great deed was it part of ? ● When was it created ? ● Who created it ? ● Why was it created ? ● How was it lost by its maker or user ?
The World of Not-Dark-Souls
Aesthetic Aesthetic can both mean a work pleasing because of its beauty and the study of it. In Dark Souls, there is a unique definition of beauty from the outset in terms of art which the Firelink Shrine music theme encompasses well: a feeling of hopelessness and homeliness at the same time, of despair and renewal.
The general tone of the setting is high gothic fantasy coupled with dying earth. It has deeply dark and grim venues coupled with highly hopeful encounter (such as Solaire of Astora) and mechanic (Bonfire). Cycles of decay and renewal.
Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG As such, when creating new lore, arts, areas and so on, Referee’s should keep in mind the dual nature of Dark Souls, the disparity of atmosphere. Which is why the opening introduction of the game is of such importance:
"In the Age of Ancients, the world was unformed, shrouded by fog. A land of gray crags, Archtrees and Everlasting Dragons. But then there was fire, and with fire came disparity. Heat and cold, life and death, and of course, light and dark. Then from the dark, they came, and found the Souls of Lords within the flame. Nito, the first of the dead, the Witch of Izalith, and her Daughters of Chaos, Gwyn, the Lord of Sunlight, and his faithful knights, and the furtive pygmy, so easily forgotten.
"With the Strength of Lords, they challenged the Dragons. Gwyn's mighty bolts peeled apart their stone scales. The Witches weaved great firestorms. Nito unleashed a miasma of death and disease. And Seath the Scaleless betrayed his own, and the Dragons were no more.
"Thus began the Age of Fire. But soon, the flames will fade, and only Dark will remain. Even now, there are only embers, and man sees not light, but only endless nights. And amongst the living are seen, carriers of the accursed Darksign."
"Yes, indeed. The Darksign brands the Undead. And in this land, the Undead are corralled and led to the north, where they are locked away, to await the end of the world. ... This is your fate."
Basic Lore
Preface Most of the lore from this section comes verbatim from the Darksouls Wiki on Fextralife (https://darksouls.wiki.fextralife.com/Lore) which is highly suggested.
Also, it is suggested for Referee to make modification to the lore as they see fit in order to have a coherent experience for the players to experience. It is even suggested to use generators and random tables from this book and other sources to populate the lore of their campaign so as to discover with the player at the same time the details regarding the lore of their world.
Finally, note that this book is written as if to play the basic Dark Souls 1 campaign. Referees with players that already played the video games or want some change are suggested to create their own campaign, either set elsewhere, set before the first game or after the first game. Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG Overview The world of Dark Souls is a world of cycles. Kingdoms rise and fall, ages come and go, and even time can end and restart as the flame fades and is renewed. These cycles are linked to the First Flame, a mysterious manifestation of life that divides and defines separate states such as heat and cold, or life and death. As the First Flame fades, these differences also begin to fade, such as life and death having little distinction, and humans becoming Undead. The onset of an Age of Dark, the time when the First Flame has fully died, is marked by endless nights, rampant undeath, time, space, and reality breaking down, lands collapsing and converging on one another, people mutating into monsters, darkness covering the world, and the Gods losing their power. To avoid this and prolong the Age of Fire, the bearer of a powerful soul must "link" themselves to the First Flame, becoming the fuel for another age. If this is not done, the First Flame will eventually die, and an Age of Dark will begin.
The powerful Lord Souls were taken from the First Flame, used to defeat the dragons, and then to establish kingdoms. Souls are inextricably (and inexplicably) linked to fire. Souls are life, and life is fire; it stands to reason that souls are fire, as well. Without the First Flame and without souls, there is no life. The bearer of a strong soul, called a Lord, who links themselves to the First Flame, is thus rekindling the flames with their own soul, returning life to it. In the end, one could expect that all souls will have been returned to the First Flame, and the Age of Fire will have effectively ended anyways.
It is inevitable that people try to find a way around this, another way to continue the Age of Fire without making sacrifices, but in every case they fail. In the first Age of Fire, the Witch of Izalith attempted to create a duplicate of the First Flame using her witchcraft and a special soul, but failed catastrophically. Instead of making another First Flame, she had created a twisted Flame of Chaos that produced distortions of life, turning herself and all her daughters into demons. These demons were malevolent, and wandered the land. Gwyn gathered up his armies and fought the demons of Chaos, eventually driving them back and shackling the Bed of Chaos to bind them. Knowing that the Age of Fire was nearing its end, under the guidance of the primordial serpent Kingseeker Frampt, Gwyn offered himself to the First Flame to stave off the Dark. As the flames surged with new life, the knights who followed him in were burnt by the flames and now wander the world as the Black Knights, hollow shells of armor who attack indiscriminately.
Before he left to link the First Flame, Gwyn gave fragments of his soul to his followers and allies. Ornstein, Gough, Ciaran, and Artorias, his four strongest knights who fought against the dragons, Seath the Paledrake, who betrayed the dragons and played a crucial role in the war, and was also granted the title of Duke and permission to build a grand archive to conduct his research, and the Four Kings of New Londo, who ruled a city of Undead. In time, another primordial serpent convinced the people of the human kingdom of Oolacile to delve into the darkness of the Abyss to unearth the grave of an ancient human. Whether through their actions or some other means, the primordial human - Manus - was resurrected and driven to madness, and his wild Humanity caused the people of Oolacile to mutate into abominations. Manus, Father of the Abyss, began to rapidly spread Dark and accelerate the growth of the Abyss, and would've started an early Age of Dark had he not been defeated. Even so, the kingdom of Oolacile was lost to the Abyss, and eventually forgotten in the Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG modern day. Nothing remains in the present day to mark the passing of this land save for Dusk, the princess of Oolacile.
Gwyn's youngest son Gwyndolin, together with Kingseeker Frampt, shepherds the humans by Gwyn's command. Together they built giant asylums to house the countless undead, hoping against hope that one of them would be chosen to defeat the Asylum demon, and fulfill their destiny. The Undead are sent on a quest to ring the Bells of Awakening, collect the Lordvessel, slay the bearers of Gwynn's soul, then offer those souls to the Lordvessel to open the path to the Kiln of the First Flame. In doing so, the unnatural Undead are given true death and the living can enjoy another age of fire for a thousand years, while the Undead linked to the First Flame will continue to burn, alive and aware, until someone else comes to take their place. And thus, the cycle continues.
Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG
The World These are areas of importance in the world and its history, though not all are visited during gameplay. Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG Lordran Known as the land of the ancient Lords, where their kingdoms converge. This is where the game takes place, and it is a dangerous area indeed. Containing a great variety of environments and filled with many dangerous creatures, any Undead's resolve will be tested to the fullest here. The Undead travel great distances to reach this land, where the First Flame waits to be linked.
Anor Londo Known as the city of the gods, and founded by Lord Gwyn. It sits at the top of a mountain, and both the cliff face and its own walls separate it from the outside world. Long ago, invitations were given to great champions among humans, decided through victories in an arena, but this practice has not been kept up for some time. Sen's Fortress sits below it, an enormous deathtrap serving as both gateway and obstacle to Anor Londo, and those who could overcome it were permitted access, but the pathway at the end has since been sealed. Now, any Undead seeking to enter the city are carried in by bat-winged demons if they can overcome the fortress. The truth of Anor Londo is hidden behind an intricate illusion; when the First Flame began to fade, all of the gods abandoned Anor Londo save for Gwyndolin, Gwyn's youngest son. He now uses his magic to make it look like the city still stands strong, but in reality only he and his knights remain, and he is the only true authority left.
Lost Izalith Legendary city of the Witch of Izalith, one of the four original Lords. She and her daughters founded this city deep underground. The Witch and her daughters were originally practitioners of a form of fire sorcery, but this art was lost when the Flame of Chaos destroyed the city. When the First Flame began to fade, the Witch of Izalith tried to reproduce it using her magic and a special soul. However, she failed, and the result was the Flame of Chaos: a twisted flame that produced distorted life instead, known as the demons. Gwyn and his knights waged a war against these demons and eventually defeated them, sealing the Bed of Chaos, their source of life, with magic. Some demons now appear in roles that suggest they may work for the gods, either willingly or as captured servants. The creation of the Flame of Chaos also created pyromancy as a byproduct, and Quelana, the only Daughter of Izalith to escape the destruction, was able to develop an entire system of magic to imitate the ancient fire spells. She took only one student, Salaman from the Great Swamp. In teaching Salaman, she hoped that mankind could learn to harness and control the flames, to prevent the same catastrophe that destroyed her own home. Salaman then returned to the Great Swamp to spread the art of pyromancy.
The Catacombs An extensive network of tombs and crypts, overseen by Gravelord Nito. All things that die are laid to rest here, and Nito's power of necromancy ensures that they are not disturbed. The area is not completely peaceful, however, and at one point a group of occultists attempted to steal Nito's power and use it to kill the gods. They presumably failed, but weapons and artefacts of their perverse rituals can still be found. Now the necromancer Pinwheel resides in the catacombs, where he slowly siphons away Nito's power for his own ends. Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG New Londo A large city of Undead, this place was once prosperous and known for the foresight of its leaders. All undead were welcomed here, and it soon became a safe haven for undead that were banished from their homelands. New Londo was a city teeming with culture and life. Recognizing this, Lord Gwyn bestowed on the four leaders a fragment of his soul and the rank of king before he left to link the First Flame. Later, the Four Kings encountered Darkstalker Kaathe in the Abyss, who offered to teach them the art of lifedrain. In doing so, the Four Kings and their order of knights were corrupted by the dark, becoming the Darkwraiths of Kaathe. The threat they posed to the outside world was so great that the whole city was flooded to contain them, killing everyone inside. The dead still wander as ghosts through the ruins, and the Darkwraiths themselves survived the flooding even though they are still trapped.
Oolacile An ancient and long forgotten human kingdom that was once in Lordran. It was a peaceful land of scholars, who practiced a now lost form of light-based sorcery. Before its fall, a path to the Abyss was unearthed, and they encountered a primordial serpent who convinced them to delve into the depths of the Abyss to unearth the grave of a primordial human. When revived, this human, named Manus, went mad, and his humanity went wild. This caused him to mutate into a huge abomination, and contact with his humanity caused the people of Oolacile to also mutate into abominations. Manus was a powerful sorcerer and master of the Dark, and with his magic he guided the Abyss to grow, swiftly overtaking the kingdom of Oolacile. Knight Artorias was sent in to defeat Manus and halt the Abyss, but he failed and was corrupted by the Dark instead. The Chosen Undead travels back in time to lay Artorias to rest and defeat Manus in his stead. As the player is not naturally from that time, their actions are instead attributed to Artorias, to be known as the Abysswalker, a legendary knight who traversed the Abyss to defeat the Darkwraiths.
Astora A human kingdom outside Lordran, it is a land known for its traditional knights, clergy, and nobility. The Way of White originates from here, and the knight and cleric classes available to the player are apparently travelers from this land and start with the Way of White covenant. The Way of White itself is very proactive about removing Undead, and sponsors great hunts to round them up and forcibly transport them to an asylum on the edge of Lordran. Clerics and knights within the Way of White who become Undead are sent to Lordran on a pilgrimage, where they are told to search the Catacombs and learn the Rite of Kindling. At some point in the past, a terrible beast known as the Evil Eye attacked the kingdom of Astora, causing great damage. It was defeated, and its spirit is rumored to be trapped in a magic ring.
Catarina Another kingdom outside Lordran that is known for its festivities and drinks, and also for the peculiar onion-like armor of its knights. Their armor was designed to deflect blows and is actually highly effective, and the knights take great pride in it, but the appearance is still mocked by outsiders. Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG The Great Swamp A distant and inhospitable land outside Lordran, unwanted by all save for the people who live there. Not a formal kingdom per se, it is populated by outcasts and exiles from other lands. They share a common interest in the teachings of pyromancy, and appear to practice some form of shamanism as well. As they are not a proper kingdom, they have no order of knights, but pyromancy is an easy craft to use and is still very powerful. Travelers from the Great Swamp are often equipped with wrapped clothing that protects them from the dangers of their homeland, and versatile hand axes that serve as both tools and weapons. It is not specified whether Undead are welcome there, but Undead from there are often ecstatic for the chance to travel to Lordran and hopefully visit the ancient city of Izalith.
Vinheim A land known for the Dragon School, a place of study for the system of sorcery formalized by Seath the Scaleless. The School employs its own spies and assassins trained in sound- manipulating magic, and through this maintain control of the city and its politics. The sorcerer starting class available to the player originates from Vinheim.
Carim This kingdom is most known for its shady aristocrats and knights, and its gods. If anything, it is the polar opposite of Astora. Pardoners of Velka, the rogue goddess, are known to come from here, and it is home to the infamous Arstor of Carim. It is a place known for distinctive weaponry: Carim knights use lightweight parrying daggers in place of shields and their Shotels cut a sinister profile, and its archers are trained in a unique crossbow specialized for sniping. A very particular kind of magic ring originates from here, exceptional at resisting status effects but rumored to be created through dreadful means. The Purging Stone items are also from Carim, and the fact that they contain the remains of humans raises serious questions about the nature of their production.
Humanity Note that for this section, this is a headcanon of the author in order to make sense of the lore presented. If you do not want or like it, skip it or change it.
Souls are the source of all life, and whether Undead, or even Hollow, one continues to seek them.
This black sprite is called humanity, but little is known about its true nature. If the soul is the source of all life, then what distinguishes the humanity we hold within ourselves?
Humanity is what prevents hollowing, what prevents the mania of perpetual domination of the passions of the soul and the tyranny of the body: those without humanity are driven crazy, back to what they were used of doing in life; sometimes roaming endlessly, sometimes being ready for war with anyone that comes by. Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG
Losing humanity, becoming ‘inhuman’, means becoming a monster; both in moral term, by committing atrocities, and by the psychic process of losing the Humanity acquired. Some creatures crave Humanity, have developed a greedy need for it, such as the Darkwraiths; and so rightfully, they are deemed monsters.
Humanity then is a physical manifestation of the growing, multiplying and spreading nature of humanity with an unchecked inherent darkness linked to the Pygmy which emphasize the consumptive nature of it.
But tempered by Light and Fire, humans can be seen in a new way: a new breath can infuse them with a different role to play.
Souls are just fragments of life, the animating principle behind all that moves. Humanity, the dark, is what distinguish humans. But humans are also affected with the danger of insanity, with a strong connection to emotion such as the eight passions. Was it ever so ? Who can tell. But one thing is for certain: Humanity as a Dark sprite attached and grafted to the soul of a human is but a fake and pale imitation of their true nature, of their personal and deep experiences, a nostalgia made form. It replaces the heart and soul and emulates what the human holds dear, forever pushing them onward to an ending all too familiar.
Humans seems to be called to elevate themselves above what is their basic humanity, to elevate themselves towards their Soul and Spirit. Maybe their natural state is that of a humanity that cannot be lost ? Of a real humanity that is not grafted but inherent, giving them reason and purpose ? Who can tell.
Referee’s Tools to Create Worlds and Areas
Introduction This sections was heavily influenced by various DMGs across D&D edition and various other websites on creating dungeons and areas. But mostly, it owes the majority to the “Dark Souls Unofficial Role Playing Game” by Emanuele Galletto.
Creating Worlds Because of the cyclical nature of Dark Souls, you could well choose to create your own world where your campaign takes place, meaning that the whole of Lordran and Dark Souls story is not within the same cycle, with no recognition between yours and the original world.
First, give a name to the cycle. It is suggested to pick something short that is already ingrained in real-world mythology or legends. You could take it from Tolkien, Celtic mythology, Roman mythology, Medieval arthurian mythology, Indian mythology, etc.
Secondly, decided the number of Lords in that cycle:
2d6 Number of Lords Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG
2 1
3-4 2
5-6 3
7-9 4
10-11 5
12 6
Then, you should name those Lords. Keep in mind that this naming convention can also be used to name important NPCs or Bosses.
d6 d6 Name d6 d6 Descriptor d6 d6 Themes
1 1 Name 1 1 Dark One 1 1 Purity Unknown
2 Lyra 2 Judge 2 Deception
3 Eilert 3 Knight 3 Hunger
4 Zita 4 Sage 4 Lust
5 Roland 5 Sorcerer / Sorceress 5 Obsession
6 Agnes 6 Abyssal 6 Fear
2 1 Name 2 1 Keeper 2 1 Knowledge Unknown
2 Vinsald 2 Silent 2 Betrayal
3 Thea 3 Watcher 3 Love
4 Emyr 4 Lost 4 Order
5 Alenna 5 Old One 5 Hatred
6 Gregor 6 Champion 6 Darkness
3 1 Name 3 1 King / Queen 3 1 Pride Unknown
2 Yrena 2 Oathbreaker 2 Madness
3 Asger 3 Tyrant 3 Decay Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG
4 Elianor 4 Dragonslayer 4 Failure
5 Yannic 5 Child / Daughter of... 5 Pyromancy
6 Vineth 6 Giant 6 Tranquility
4 1 Name 4 1 Oathkeeper 4 1 Cruelty Unknown
2 Cradoc 2 Witch / Wizard 2 Vengeance
3 Elaine 3 Usurper 3 Duty
4 Grifald 4 Executioner 4 Rebirth
5 Yora 5 Ravenous 5 Leadership
6 Colewyn 6 Unseen 6 Sleep
5 1 Name 5 1 Butcher 5 1 Loyalty Unknown
2 Melea 2 Corrupted 2 Masochism
3 Iudoc 3 Giantslayer 3 Prejudice
4 Lucine 4 Father / Mother of… 4 Flame
5 Urial 5 Pale 5 Miracles
6 Maja 6 Demon 6 Hope
6 1 Name 6 1 Dragon 6 1 Covetousness Unknown
2 Torbec 2 Twin 2 Sorcery
3 Breit 3 Forgotten 3 Isolation
4 Dorte 4 Lady / Lord 4 Despair
5 Ellena 5 Pygmy 5 Chaos
6 Malageth 6 Old Lady / Old Lord 6 Regret
Then, you can create kingdoms and meta-areas. You could possibly create a new kingdom with a new Lord to adapt the canon for your needs, using the table above.
First define the size of the World / Kingdom: Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG
d6 Size for World Size for Kingdom
1 Tiny City-State
2 Small Regional, small
3 Substantial Independant Region
4 Large Full Kingdom, large
5 Region Empire, important
6 World Spawning the Whole World
Then, establish the basic trait of the Kingdom or World. Those tables are taken (and very lightly modified) from the excellent “Silent Legions”. They are meant to feed the imagination with features that can then be constructed into an actual kingdom/world lore.
d20 Terrain An important Oddities Some of the flora The fauna is element has a special recognized feature because…
1 Airless Rock Caverns Birthplace of monsters Carnivorous Avian or feathered
2 Arid Badland Clouds Comes from strange Colonial or hive-like Made of strange sources stuff
3 Blasted Waste Earth Found where it shouldn’t Gelatinous/Tentacu Has human traits, be lar such as voice
4 Desert Earthquakes Ignites in unclean flames Geometric in Dead but still moving structure
5 Endless Sea Fog Induces a great emotion Grows in alien Feeds largely on matter carrion
6 Forest Geysers Induces madness Jewel-colored Ghostly or semi- tangible
7 Glassed-over Hills Is a home for dark things Largely parasitic Insatiably voracious
8 Icy waste Lakes Is a road to evil places Like prehistoric Inscribed with glyphs cycads
9 Island Archipelago Lightning Is a slow poison Mobile Insecte or arthropodic
10 Jungle Rain Is a strange color Nauseating in hue Intelligent as humans
11 Landless Sky Rivers Is acidic or noxious Sentient to a Made of light or fog degree
12 Moorland Seas Ancient ruin remnant Produces strange Metallic or artificial drugs
13 Mountains Seasons Sentient places Produces strange Warped and music tormented by the Abyss
14 Plains Shores Issues terrible commands Resembles animals Parasitic on each Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG
other
15 River Sky Made of something strange Spongy and moss- Piscine or crablike like
16 Savannah Stars Murderously dangerous Strangely fragrant Plotting against humans
17 Swamp Storms Punishes those who offend Symbiotic with Reptilian or animals serpentine
18 Tundra Thunder Scours or wounds Vine-like and Ressemble humans creeping
19 Underwater Tides Serves dark powers Violently invasive Warped in its shape
20 Volcanic Wind Whispers something Corrupted by the Warm or hive Abyss entities
Each kingdom, in order to be more simply fleshed out when generated, needs to have an overall tone, i.e. “stereotype”. If you don’t have a premade idea, it is suggested to use a real- life example:
d12 Inspiration What kind of population is still Ruling Authorities (you can roll a living / not being hollowed second time to determine what is historical for them and what is present now)
1 Ancient Greco-Roman One household or NPCs only Anarchy
2 Ancient Cambodia/Southeast Asia One household or NPCs only Caste Leader (i.e. Lost Izalith)
3 Historical China One clan Clan Elders
4 Historical India One clan Democracy
5 Historical Japan One town Feudal Lordship
6 Middle East One town Godly Monarchy / Lordship
7 Medieval Africa Many towns Monarchy
8 Medieval Continental Europe (i.e. Many towns Dual Kingship Astora)
9 Medieval Constantinople (i.e. Anor Many cities Magocracy Londo)
10 Pre-Columbian New-World Many cities Oligarchy
11 Pre-modern tribal An actual kingdom Tyranny
12 Roll twice and stitch together An actual kingdom Theocracy
d20 Values d12 Desires d8 Attitudes towards outsiders
1 Domination 1 Creation 1 Oblivious
2 Envy 2 Expansion 2 Frightened
3 Fanaticism 3 Knowledge 3 Hateful Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG
4 Greed 4 Peace 4 Exploitative
5 Hatred 5 Reform 5 Indifferent
6 Hedonism 6 Rescue 6 Hospitable
7 Ignorance 7 Restoration 7 Welcoming
8 Obedience 8 Stasis 8 Reverent
9 Treachery 9 Unity
10 Violence 10 War
11 Beauty 11 Wealth
12 Compassion 12 Worship
13 Courage
14 Excellence
15 Honesty
16 Honor
17 Justice
18 Knowledge
19 Loyalty
20 Selflessness
It is also important to locate your Kingdom or World within the many cycles, and the adventure itself within that Kingdom or World. There are multiple eras, ages and stratas of history. For example, in Dark Souls, the player is acting almost a thousand year after Gwyn re-kindled the First Flame, and a hundred years after the fall of Oolacile. This also means that there is 900 years of events between those two where heroes such as Astorias lived and acted upon the world.
Therefore it is advised to divide your world into four eras (out of simplicity), and write vaguely what happened in each of them: ● What did the Lords do in each of them ? ● Who died ? Who was born ? ● Was there a new type of creature ? ● Any catastrophic event ? ● What kingdom rised or felled ?
Creating Covenants You can also create Covenant or different religions for your Kingdom or World.
To create a Covenant, determine a name which will help right away give a “flavor” to the Covenant: Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG
d6 d6 Name d6 d6 Adjective/Title
1 1 Sisterhood 1 1 of Sunlight
2 Blades 2 of Chaos
3 Wardens 3 of White
4 Children 4 of the Pit
5 Brotherhood 5 of Chains
6 Guardians 6 of Sin
2 1 Daugthers 2 1 of Blue
2 Sentinels 2 of Shackles
3 Way 3 of the Old Gods
4 Faithfuls 4 of Flame
5 Spears 5 of the Forest
6 Watchdogs 6 of Dark
3 1 Servnats 3 1 of the Grave
2 Hunters 2 the Witch
3 Keepers 3 of Blood
4 Pilgrims 4 of the Dragon(s)
5 Champions 5 of the Cairns
6 Heirs 6 of the Depths
4 1 Lost Ones 4 1 of the Painted World
2 Reapers 2 of the Asylum
3 Whisperers 3 of the Archives Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG
4 Claws 4 of the Abyss
5 Singers 5 of the Giants
6 Cloaks 6 of Iron
5 1 Avengers 5 1 of the Sunken Ruin
2 Masks 2 of the Great Tower
3 Seers 3 of Steel
4 Widows 4 of Want
5 Hounds 5 of the Harvest
6 Eyes 6 of the Wall
6 1 Butchers 6 1 of the East
2 Legionnaires 2 of the Forgotten
3 Cenobites 3 of the Dream
4 Hands 4 of the Lords
5 Weavers 5 of Ash
6 Slayers 6 of Silence
Then, answer those questions: ● When were they founded ? Which ages ? Before or after “history” ? ● Who founded it ? What is the motivation of the founding ? What is the hidden agenda of the founding ? Was there someone behind the foundator ? ● What is their most important past event ? ● Who or what troubled them the most ? ● Who were the early recruits ? ● Are they secretive ? If so, how did they conceal their Covenant ? ● What are the recruitment requisite ? ● What are the sins of the Covenant ? ● Where do they meet ? Do they have a type of area they prefer to rest or do their job ? ● Do they have a distinctive sign ? Does their phantoms appear different ? ● Do they seek to destroy, hinder or help other hosts and phantoms ? Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG Creating Areas/Dungeons
Generating the Pointcrawl Map When creating a map and the dungeon therein, it is important to already have chosen a world, kingdom, covenants and general ideas of the gaming map (that is, the pointcrawl).
In order to generate the interconnectedness of the areas, the method used by Logan Knight for his In Corpathium (https://www.lastgaspgrimoire.com/in-corpathium/) is excellent. Here is a modified and functional version for Dark Souls.
First, pick up a number of dice (of different set of value) according to the number of areas you want to have. For example, in Dark Souls, there is 28 areas, including small ones such as Firelink Shrine, Kiln of the First Flame or Garden Sanctuary. In terms of important ones, there is arguably 20 areas or meta-areas. This is a lot of material: you do not need that many. You can always add more later, especially if you include magically sealed door and such other narrative devices for later use.
When you have chosen the number of dice (8-12 is suggested, with equal proportion of every type of dice), roll them all at once in a reasonably close fashion.
Then, you will take note of them on a piece of paper by taking good consideration of the following points:
● The most “middle” dice is your first sanctuary ● Consider every dice as having a triangle-shape, such as this image: Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG
● Imagine a line going out from every triangle point. This is a path. If a path meets with another dice, this is a direct link to the other area. If it hits another line, then those paths meet in a junction area (this is not shone in the picture). ● When you have decided on the points and lines, that is, areas and paths, you can decide what each of them represents. ● Every line going out of a triangle into nothing is, for now, a blocked path or a magically sealed door. You can use those later in the game to create new areas if you wish. If you don’t think you will use those because your campaign is all set and will be more narrative, then you can ignore them. ● Every path should be different then the other. For this, roll 1d6 to determine the type and the accessibility:
d6 Type Accessibility
1 Under the area Blocked until boss is dead (such as a sewer Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG
path)
2 Bridge or suspended Sealed by a key from another area (roll at random to pathway determine which; make sure it doesn’t create situation where it’s impossible to get that key because the area is blocked off from somewhere else)
3 Through something Need to be opened (or activated for elevators) from the other that wasn’t meant to side be a way (such as an aqueduct)
4 Elevator One way trip
5 Long ladder or Guarded by a mini-boss stairway
6 Normal through Normal accessibility, two-way walking and opening a door/huge gate ● Paths are one of the most important thing in this game because of the possibility of opening new pathways and such. For this reason, always try to add paths outside of the generation method showed above if you think you don’t have enough.
The number on each dice represents the elevation according to this table: Dice Result Elevation
1 Abyssmal (ex: Lost Izalith)
2 Deep (ex: Blight Town or Tomb of the Giants): You cannot access outside through this
3 - 4 Underground (ex: Sewer system, like The Depths, or Catacombs): You can access outside through this
5 - 11 Ground Level (ex: Undead Parish)
12 - 13 Above Ground Level (ex: Sen’s Fortress)
14+ Very High Above Ground Level (ex: Anor Londo peak)
Generating the Areas Then, you can determine for each area the Name, Descriptor and Theme. You can alternate between the two next tables to keep your ideas fresh.
d6 d6 Name d6 d6 Descriptor d6 d6 Theme
1 1 Cove 1 1 Ashen 1 1 Poison
2 Lake 2 Silent 2 Water Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG
3 Halls 3 Secluded 3 Decay
4 Shore 4 Overgrown 4 Glory
5 Mansion 5 Crumbling 5 Fire
6 Prison 6 of Bones 6 Military
2 1 Necropolis 2 1 Painted 2 1 Devotion
2 Path 2 Sunken 2 Torture
3 Graveyard 3 of Chains 3 Knowledge
4 Keep 4 Far 4 Corpses
5 Palace 5 Holy 5 Eternity
6 Woods 6 Frozen 6 Fear
3 1 Swamp 3 1 Smouldering 3 1 Tranquility
2 Fortress 2 Forgotten 2 Illusions
3 Sanctuary 3 of Tears 3 Darkness
4 Crypt 4 Fading 4 Sorcery
5 Burg 5 Untended 5 Mourning
6 Hive 6 Iron 6 Pleasure
4 1 Basin 4 1 Festering 4 1 Corruption
2 Bridge 2 of Storms 2 Betrayal
3 Forest 3 Abyssal 3 Revelation
4 Village 4 of Summer 4 Height
5 Temple 5 Deep 5 Pyromancy
6 Aqueduct 6 Howling 6 Torment Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG
5 1 Crossroads 5 1 of Salt 5 1 Fog
2 Tower 2 Tainted 2 Loyalty
3 Cathedral 3 of MIsts 3 Hunt
4 Valley 4 Crystal 4 Bigotry
5 Throne 5 Royal 5 Mud
6 Shrine 6 of Winter 6 Ambition
6 1 Peak 6 1 Hidden 6 1 Blood
2 Catacombs 2 Ancient 2 Science
3 Waterway 3 Profaned 3 Sand
4 Archive 4 Undead 4 Moonlight
5 Belfry 5 of Want 5 Miracles
6 Garden 6 Archdragon’s 6 Time
d6 d6 Name d6 d6 Descriptor d6 d6 Theme
1 1 River 1 1 Whispering 1 1 Madness
2 City 2 of Sacrifice 2 Creation
3 Castle 3 Demon’s 3 Seclusion
4 Ruins 4 Great 4 Hatred
5 Asylum 5 Lost 5 Gluttony
6 Maze 6 Broken 6 Riddles
2 1 Tomb 2 1 Ephemeral 2 1 Necromancy
2 Copse 2 Nameless 2 Anger
3 Pit 3 of Idols 3 Golems Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG
4 Road 4 Upper 4 Imprisonment
5 Tunnels 5 of Heroes 5 Fungi
6 Altar 6 Giant’s 6 Rituals
3 1 Cave 3 1 Shaded 3 1 Chants
2 Retreat 2 Blessed 2 Frost
3 Fork Road 3 of Cages 3 Hopelessness
4 Lair 4 Witch’s 4 Chasms
5 Passage 5 of Sands 5 Dreams
6 Mine 6 Unseen 6 Spores
4 1 High Wall 4 1 Dying 4 1 Thorns and Vines
2 Chambers 2 of Dusk 2 Ash
3 Gate 3 Hangman’s 3 Memories
4 Cellar 4 of Embers 4 Lightning
5 Gulch 5 Warlord’s 5 Executions
6 Hearth 6 of Autumn 6 Sunlight
5 1 Warrens 5 1 Poisoned 5 1 Insects
2 Outer Wall 2 of NIght 2 Traps
3 Dungeon 3 Lower 3 Religion
4 Church 4 Everlasting 4 Flesh
5 Threshold 5 Blackened 5 Rebirth
6 Grotto 6 of DUst 6 Webs
6 1 Sewers 6 1 Withered 6 1 Moving Passageways
2 Lighthouse 2 of Drakes 2 Curses Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG
3 Garrison 3 Pale 3 Oblivion
4 Cliffs 4 of SPring 4 Mirrors
5 Pyramid 5 Consumed 5 Eggs
6 Fields 6 Fungal 6 Humanity
For each of your areas, you should try to fill in: ● Enemies ○ 1d4 types of monsters ○ What monsters for each types ○ Any minibosses ? ○ Any bosses ? ● Friends ○ NPCs ○ Phantom trigger ○ Blacksmith ○ Fire Keeper ● Schemes ○ What’s the narrative behind this zone ? ○ What is happening right now ? ○ Why are the player going there ? What can be accomplished by them ? ● Secrets ○ Is there hidden paths ? ○ Is there hidden content ? ○ Is there hidden boss ? ○ Is there important lore ? ● Places ○ What do you want to put in there in terms of important rooms or locations ? ○ Here is a suggestion of different places that could be included in an area (taken from Hill Cantons blog): ■ Necropolis ■ Cemetery ■ Crematorium ■ Death House ■ Ossuary ■ Aqueduct ■ Bath Houses ■ Gladiatorial Arena ■ Obsservatory ■ Scriptorium ■ Oracular Well/Cave/Grove ■ Triumphant Arch/Monument/Tower ■ Temple ■ Path filled with gigantic statues Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG ■ Giant Ceremonial Bell/Gong ■ Oubliette ■ Tar Pits ■ Strangling Bog ■ Megalith ■ Random room with a floating object ■ Ziggurat
Generating the Dungeons When you have determined what your world is, what the kingdom is like, what are the areas, what are the connections and paths between them and what is in each of them, now it’s time to consider each of them as a dungeon. From here, then, you create one dungeon for each area. Some of those “dungeons” will be “outside” dungeons, which might seem strange. But consider the following: ● Dark Souls is already doing this on a massive scale. You are only replicating this on a TTRPG ● A dungeon is confined area where individuals can shine through heroics. You can have confined area and individual freedom in a city, in a cavern, in a forest, etc. As long as it’s created with this in mind, there shouldn’t be any problem. ● It is a method for you to organize the space and the time of exploration. You could write down a very tight dungeon layout with squares on a graph paper, but explain it in an abstract way such that players would think they are walking down a forest as if it’s was 100% open.
Overall Design At that point, you should decide how many levels in your dungeon you want, and when and how they connect between each other.
Then, you should also design the rooms layout. It is highly suggested for this to use different (and sometimes complementary) tools for level design: ● Dark Souls is very much anchored in real life architecture. Therefore, creating dungeons out of real life dungeons, castles, mega-structure and such is a good starting point. ● You can use a random generator of dungeon such as this one: https://donjon.bin.sh/adnd/dungeon/. This will help you create a basic dungeon, and then you can modify it to your taste and populate it. ● You could also use a method like the one used for the area distribution above, and only change the areas with rooms accordingly.
This is where “Jacquaying the dungeon” will come in handy. Here are some principles and tips for it:
● Multiple entrances. ● Loops (having branches that gets back together to avoid dead-ends). ● Multiple level connections. ● Discontinuous level connection (level one going to level three, then two, then five, back to three, etc.). Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG ● Secret/unusual path (ex: caved-in tunnel, teleportation that must be decoded, submerged bypass, etc.). ● Sub-level (depart from main dungeon). ● Divided levels (where you can go down to a particular level at two different places, but they don't connect, effectively creating two different "level"). ● Nested Dungeons (two separate dungeons that gets back together further down). ● Minor elevation shifts. ● Midpoint entry (ex: in a tower, players can decide to get in at different level, not necessarily level one).
Some "design philosophy" points:
● Size (doesn't need to be big). ● Beware the sprawl (no need for infinite branching). ● Structure in the dungeon (some areas are easy, others difficult; some are easy to access, others not; some will transfer far to near and near to far, etc.). ● Having landmarks.
You can use various Level Design Tools to achieve all of the above:
● Stairs. ● Slopes. ● Chutes. ● Ladders. ● Trapdoors. ● Windows. ● Teleports. ● Traps. ● Multi-level chambers. ● Basket and pulley. ● Ethereal travel. ● Rivers. ● Underwater. ● Collapsed passage. ● Transport. ● Being swallowed. ● Brute force. ● Combo platter (ex: ladder that brings underwater, elevator that gets out, etc.). ● One connector, multiple level. ● Invisible transitions. ● False stairs. ● Misleading stairs. ● One-way paths. ● Remote activation. ● Banana Shape level (foreshadowing; for this, play E1M1 of Doom 1 to get a feeling). ● Overlooked secrets (ex: when you take a path that leads back from behind a statue, hinting that other such statue in the dungeon might be actual hidden paths). ● Raised bridge. Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG ● Lava and acid. ● Illusory walls.
Optional: 5 Room Dungeon To help with the "design philosophy points", you can use a variation of the 5 Room Dungeons. The idea behind the 5 Room Dungeon is mostly useful for small thematic dungeons, as they are very linear in their overall concept. That being said, it's possible to integrate some of its aspect into any big dungeon.
Some of those “Rooms” are not very complicated, but as you "check in the box", it makes you think of your level design and it makes sense for players to go through it. Can they go around some of the points or do them in disorder ? Sure, and it doesn't matter. At that point, agency is in their hand and you just go with the flow.
Here is a suggested checklist. Roll 1d6 for each of the five "rooms":
Room 1 2 3 4 5 6 Multiple Entrance entrance but Aggressive with most leads to Entrance needs a Neutral Guardian Entry without visible Guardian Trap dead-end key/password Guardian (ambush) exit (ex: hole) Puzzle or Roleplayin Coded Door Permanent NPC Impermanent NPC g Intricate Challenge with (ex: pacifist (ex: Ghost, (ex: adventurer, Challenge trap Puzzle multiple solutions chest) Golem, etc.) enemy) Teleport, trap, Rescue NPC Shortest way seems Challenge map change, They find a that may be blocked, needs to do a Trick or (start from illusion etc. that door/chest, but the Challenge that dangerous/boob long detour or find a Setback beginning) cuts the party key is not here tricks them y-trapped, etc. way to go through Only the boss has Item boss (he Boss has information about uses something something he Cues to destroy the Environmen something important to gain threathen to boss all over the Big Climax tal boss Multiple bosses (exit, lower level, etc.) advantage) destroy dungeon Hints at a Bonus treasure bigger Le boss that leads Misunderstandin Reward boss/donjon ressucite en elsewhere g (PCs and and /item partie ou en (teleport, monsters could Neutral guardian that Revelation elsewhere totalité Memorable Lore drop tunnel, etc.) have been allies) protects a treasure
Room Function Now you know the story of your dungeon, you have your level laid out and you know what kind of monsters will be in. You can start putting stuff in the rooms. If you picked a random dungeon, or already have a vague idea of the bigger story of the dungeons, you can skip right to here everytime and just go with the flow.
This is a modified Gygaxian room filling roll using a d20:
Event d20 1 Nothing Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG
2 Nothing 3 Nothing 4 Nothing 5 Nothing 6 Nothing 7 Nothing 8 Nothing 9 Keyed Door 10 Trapped Treasure 11 False Treasure 12 Guarded Treasure (roll monster) 13 Unguarded Treasure 14 Unguarded Treasure 15 Trapped Door 16 Trigger Trap 17 Tricks 18 Monster (omen) 19 Monster (omen 1st) 20 Monster
Room Description What comes next is just bunch of tables that will help you flesh out the rooms.
Corridors
d8 Corridor 1 Dead End 2 Small Space 3 Hole bottom 4 Barricade 5 Contains... 6 Contains... 7 Danger 8 Magical
Room type (d8) + the subtype (d6)
Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG
Room Type 1 Public Assembly 2 Containment and Imprisonment 3 Pleasure/Relaxation 4 General Function 5 War and Conflict 6 Deities and Worship 7 Learning and Knowledge 8 Special Utility
Public d Containme d Pleasure/ d General d War and d Deities and d Specia d6 Assembly 6 nt 6 Relaxation 6 Function 6 Conflict 6 worship d6 Learning 6 l Bestiary/ker Bathroo 1 Throne room 1 nel 1 Arena 1 m 1 Armory 1 Chapel 1 Classroom 1 Kitchen Divination 2 Antechamber 2 Cage 2 Banquet 2 Bedroom 2 Barrack 2 Crypt 2 chamber 2 Forge Dormitor Guardroo Embalming 3 Amphitheather 3 Cell 3 Gallery 3 y 3 m 3 Chamber 3 Laboratory 3 Office Receptio Gymnasi Meditation 4 Audience hall 4 Oubliette 4 Maze 4 n 4 um 4 chamber 4 Library 4 Garage Interrogat Works 5 Courtroom 5 Prison 5 Museum 5 Foyer 5 ion 5 Shrine 5 Observatory 5 hop Service 6 Great Hall 6 Stockade 6 Pool 6 Salon 6 Training 6 Temple 6 Study 6 room
Description : d6 + d12 + d10 + d20 + d8 d d d d1 d 1 2 d 6 Size 2 Shape 8 Smell and air 0 Danger 0 Contains 8 Magical Collapsed, Small (15 not all Clear and Yellow magical automation (unseen 1 x 15) 1 accessible 1 earthy 1 Mold/slime 1 altar, statue, etc. 1 servant, etc.) protection (protective shield Medium Foggy and arch, pillars, etc. on a door, corridor, chest, 2 (30 x 30) 2 Circle 2 salty 2 Fire/cold 2 (can hide view) 2 etc.) 3 - Activated oil, inflammable, physical effect (fire door, 3 Medium 6 Rectangle 3 Smoky 3 repeating trap 3 etc. 3 items floating, no gravity) 7 - Hazy and ropes, ladder, visual effect (no shadows, 4 Medium 10 Square 4 dank, moldy 4 Huge gap/hole 4 etc. 4 etc.) Large (60 Pentagon/he Stale, fireplace, forge, visual illusion (illusory 5 x 60) 11 xagon 5 obscured 5 Cave-in 5 etc. 5 door/angles, etc.) decoration Hall (90 x (fresco, mosaic, auditory illusion (sounds, 6 90) 12 T 6 Dusty and dry 6 Trick 6 etc.) 6 music, etc.) Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG
Chlorine and difficult to food, waste, magical utility (magical lights, 7 breath 7 Bridge 7 latrine, etc. 7 etc.) antimagic field (general, or Putrid and plants/fungi, specific like anti-divination, 8 damp 8 Vermin/fungi 8 animals, etc. 8 etc.) Toxicity that needs to be instruments, 9 purified 9 tools, etc. 1 1 0 Flooding 0 bath, pool, etc. 1 water (fountain, 1 etc.) 1 2 holes in wall/floor 1 stuck/inaccessibl 3 e door/trap 1 4 barricade 1 5 used trap 1 scratch on walls 6 etc. 1 furniture with 7 equipments on/in 1 8 writings 1 strange 9 substance 2 0 magical
Challenges Challenges are anything that can stop PCs in their tracks, but provide for a fun problem- solving portion. It can be anything, and it doesn't have to be very big. Here is a list of examples:
● Invisible bridge ● Appearing bridge ● Object high out of reach (can only see a reflection, in a narrow hole, etc.) ● Bottomless hole ● Treasure inside a monster ● A treasure that stops a trap from springing ● Doppleganger ● Demon trapped in a circle of protection with a magical object ● Mislabeled potions ● Vines for swinging above a pit that are monsters limb (a classic would be ropers) ● Illusionary/fake treasure that is a creature (or straight-up mimic) ● Maze with invisible walls ● Tesseract rooms ● An altar that diminish 1/6 any object or creature that goes on it Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG ● A trap that targets your companions ● Illusionary fire wall ● etc.
Creating Bosses and Mini-Bosses Every bosses needs a statblock which possess: ● Name ● Theme/Background ● Entrance ● HD ● Size ● Type ● Special Defense ● Special Attacks (5 are needed, 6th is rest). Each of those attacks need: ○ Telegraphic Move ○ Effect ● Basic Attack ● Reward
Every turn, the boss will do one basic attack and generate one Special Attacks with a d6, where 6 is rest. Those attack will generate a telegraphic move for the players at the beginning of the turn and will produce an effect at the end of the turn.
For the Background and Theme, use the naming generator above, and answer those questions to locate the boss within your world: ● Where are they from ? ● What is the thing they desire ? ● What’s wrong about them ? ● Who sent them ? ● What uncanny mark do they bear, what curses do they have ?
Here is an example of a boss statblock taken from the Gaping Dragon of Dark Souls.
● Name: Gaping Dragon ● Theme/Background: An ancient dragon that was transformed and twisted by its passion for gluttony. He became a huge gaping mouth on a dragon frame. He feeds on those banished and ropped into the depths. ● Entrance: Crawls up from the depth of the sewers. ● HD: 12 ● Size: Gargantuan. He is very long and possess wings which are not effective. ● Type: Dragon ● Special Defense: None ● Special Attacks: ○ 1 - Engorge. He will rear back his head, open his mouth very big. The attack will slam the ground in front of him. It will inflict 2 HD and 2/6 change of being grabbed by the mouth. Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG ○ 2 - Dash Attack. He will raise his head and torso into the air, start pounding the ground. He will dash and charge in front of it knocking everyone back and inflicting 1d4 HD and prone. ○ 3 - Float Attack. He will bounce up and use his wings to levitate to readjust himself. He will dive in the direction he is pointing, inflicting 1d3 HD of damage. ○ 4 - Tail Swipe. If someone attack his tail, he will make a huge noise and roar and raise his tail. He will swipe everyone beneath and behind him for 1 HD damage and knocking prone. ○ 5 - Acid Throw Up. He will squat down and curl it’s upper body’s teeth inward in a slight writhing motion. He will push acid all around and beneath him, inflicting 1 HD of damage, poison and ⅙ chance of breaking non-magical equipment. ○ 6 - Rest. He will do some steps backward and launch a ferocious roar towards his opponents to dissuade them from approaching. Most likely if they stay away, he will use his Dash Attack next turn. ● Basic Attack: Kick. The dragon will try to use his leg to kick and claw a target. Inflict 1d2 HD. ● Reward: Because of his gluttony, he swallowed the key to Blighttown. He will reward it. Also, his tail can be cut to be forged into a weapon (Dragon King Greataxe). He will also give a Gaping Dragon Soul (25 000) and a Twin Humanity to everyone present.
Lists of Monsters The two lists uses a simple method of displaying information that can be tweaked by any Referee. It lacks flavor, which is to be according to your own setting and areas.
Also, if a monster is on the “normal monsters” list, it’s because he is generally fought using the Man-to-Man Combat. If not, he should be fought as a mini-boss using the other system. You can also use some monsters as special non-repeatable encounter (i.e. like mini/bosses) in low-HD areas, and as common encounters in high-HD areas. It is then suggested that some monsters always be fought as mini/bosses because of their size and inherent danger, such as Taurus Demons. That way they always represent a threat, even if a well organized high-level group can dispatch them easily.
Monsters having Saving Throws of a Warrior of same HD.
Size is: ● S for small ● M for medium (humanoid) ● L for large ● G for giant-sized ● Gargantuan for out of class
Normal Monsters
Monster Size HD Type Armor type Attack type Special Special Description/Oth Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG
Attack Defense er
Hollows M 1 Hollow Unarmored Dagger Maniac, hollowed. Can carry torches for fire damage (⅙).
Hollow M 2 Hollow Medium Sword, spear Maniac, hollowed. Warrior or double- handed axe
Undead M 2 Hollow Light Dagger and Can throw Ambush, Assassin buckler knife hollowed.
Balder M 3 Hollow Heavy Sword and Can parry at Focused fighter, Knight buckler +1 hollowed.
Undead M 1 Hollow Light Bow or Maniac, hollowed. Archer crossbow
Engorged M 2 Hollow Unarmored Torches Explode in Immune to Maniac, hollowed. Hollow poison mist poison
Undead S 1 Hollow Unarmored Claw Maniac, hollowed. Dog
Flaming S 1 Hollow Unarmored Claw Can throw Maniac, hollowed. Undead fire in front of Dog them
Infested M 3 Hollow Unarmored Dagger or Can grab and Maniac, hollowed. Ghoul spear eat alive
Blowdart M 2 Hollow Unarmored Blowdart Hit will Maniac, hollowed. Sniper (count as poison sling)
Darkwraith M 6 Hollow Heavy Sword and Can steal Magical Calculated and Knight magical humanity shield count focused fighter, shield with a as standard hollowed. Work powerful +1, can be with the attack upped/downe environment. d instantly. Bonus to Death Saves
Necromanc M 3 Hollow Light Fire Can raise the Will try to flee to er projectile dead around survive them elsewhere. ⅙ to drop a Skull Lantern
Skeleton M 2 Skeleton Light Sword and Can be raised by shield Necromancer. Affected by Divine.
Giant L 4 Skeleton Medium Two-handed +1 to attack Affected by Skeleton sword roll because Divine. of size
Giant L 4 Skeleton Medium Bow +1 to attack Affected by Skeleton roll because Divine. Archer of size
Skeleton L 4 Skeleton Medium Claw +1 to attack Affected by Beast roll because Divine. of size. Very fast. Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG
Skeleton M 2 Skeleton Light Wheel Very fast Affected by Wheel (count-as charge. Divine. spear) Bonus on charge of +2 dice.
Bone Tower L 2 Skeleton Light Claw Can burrow Affected by and get up Divine. the ground
Infested L 5 Giant Unarmored Two-handed Saving throw Barbarian club (count or get as two- poisoned handed axe) when hit or a throwable/roll able big rock
Crystal L 4 Giant Light* Blunt Can throw Golem (made of crystal from Crystal) the ground or create a huge mace- like crystal for reach and hitting multiple opponents
Sentinel G 5 Giant Heavy Giant Shield AC in Halberd and front is +1 greatshield
Royal G 6 Giant Heavy Giant Can cast Shield AC in Sentinel Halberd and Healing and front is +1 greatshield Force
Basilisk M 3 Wildlife Unarmored Claw Curse spray in an arc in front
Ents L 2 Wildlife Unarmored Claw Can extend its claw to one higher reach
Frog-Ray M 2 Wildlife Unarmored Bite
Small S 1 Wildlife Unarmored Punch After every Mushroom attack, it falls People to the ground for one turn
Large G 5 Wildlife Unarmored Big punch Roll an extra Mushroom dice with its People punch
Man-Eater L 4 Wildlife Unarmored Bite Can close Shell when it’s itself to gain attacking, better Heavy when defense. not Need to be attacking opened at the beginning of a turn to attack during that turn.
Rats M 1 Wildlife Unarmored Bite Poison bite
Giant Leech M 2 Wildlife Unarmored Bite Poison bite Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG
Giant S 1 Wildlife Unarmored Bite Poison spray Mosquito
Cragspider L 2 Wildlife Unarmored Claw Firebreathing
Man M 4 Wildlife Medium Sword and Can also do Serpent shield a poison bite
Serpent M 3 Wildlife Light Two swords Can throw Mage Lightning Spear (3)
Slime M 2 Wildlife Unarmored, Nil Will try to but englobe the considered target and Heavy drain its life against non- away 1 HD elemental per turn for weapons 1d4 turn unless it is killed or removed.
Stone M 3 Demon Medium Nil Firebreathing Demon
Bat Wing L 4 Demon Unarmored Pike Can jump Demon (lightning) and fly a bit. Can also throw a lightning with its Pike (same damage and profile, but ranged).
Crow M 3 Demon Unarmored Claw and Can jump/fly Demon bite a bit and grab, inflicting an additional HD of damage if successful.
Ghost M 3 Undead Unarmored Sword Is ghostly. Cannot be hurt by non- cursed character.
Banshee M 4 Undead Unarmored Nil Is ghostly. Cannot be hurt by non- cursed character.
Phalanx M 3 Undead Medium Spear and It’s shield shield give +3 instead of +2 if beside another Phalanx.
Chaos L 5 Demon Unarmored Claw Can spray Eater poison and acid, destroying equipment (⅙ for magical, 3/6 Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG
for non- magical)
Egg Carrier M 1 Undead Unarmored Claw Can give a egg illness
Pisaca L 3 Wildlife Unarmored Hacking
Silver M 6 Godlings Heavy Sword (or Half damage Knight spear) and from shield lightning, +1 saving throw.
Black M 8 Godlings Heavy Halberd, Immune to Advised to Knight Greatsword fire damage, consider as mini- or Greataxe +1 saving boss combat for and Shield throw. beginning of game.
Mimic L 5 Demon Unarmored Claw, bite, Can eat Can become hacking people that a chest that’s open it. Can not try to eat distinguished afterwards from a during a bite normal chest. attack (⅙).
Treant L 3 Wildlife Unarmored Huge Gardener scissors (greataxe)
Butcher L 4 Undead Light Great cleaver (two handed sword)
Berenike L 5 Hollow Heavy Mace and Knight Towershield
Mini-bosses and other such creatures
Monster Size HD Type Base Special Attack Special Defense Description/Other Attack
Giant Rat G 5 Wildlife 1d4 HD, Sweep (knock prone) Nil Very fast for its size. Poison
Giant G 5 Giant 2 HD, blunt Furious Charge (will Nil Nil pump up and charge to inflict massive damage and knocks prone; dodge-roll have +1 against this; deals 2d3 HD)
Burrowing G 6 Demon 2 HD, blunt Can grab and inflicts Can enter back Tries to ambush Rockworm 5HD of damage if into the earth and players. standing in front. Can burrow itself. Will throw a poison spray only come out at at about 40 feet (1HD specific places. of damage + poison). Will always try to burrow if PCs try to kill him with ranged attack.
Moonlight G 5 Wildlife 1 HD, Will charge up and Can fly off a little Butterfly (magical ranged, send the Magic bit above the ) magical Missile spell divided ground. Needs to among the PCs. come back to earth Dark Souls OSR Unofficial RPG
every 1d4 round.
Taurus G 7 Demon 2 HD, blunt Jump smash. Can Nil Demon move one or two range and deal double damage.
Capra L 5 Demon 1 HD, Can roll as a Warrior Nil Demon slashing of its level and do chaining attack.
Mass of L 4 Demon 1HD, huge Poison spray, 2HD Nil Every 1d4 turn, it Souls spike (massively slows the generates a Wraith movement) Skull.
Bounding Gar 8 Demon Bite, Stampede. Everyone Immune to fire. Demon of gant 1d3HD around, in the back or Can walk on lava. Izalith uan underneath will suffer 1d4HD damage.
Great G 5 Wildlife Claw, 2HD Can roll up in a ball Good at dodge-roll Feline and charge super (+1). fast. Deals 1d4 HD and knocks prone.
Great L 5 Giant Greataxe Can cast a spell that Considered Stone (stone), binds people in place Heavy+1 Knight 2HD (takes more time to move, cannot dodge- roll or counter-attack)
The L 5 Hollow Spikestaff, Can cast Soul Spear Can teleport within Channeler 2HD spell range once.
Drake G 7 Dragon Claw, 2HD Lightning breath (2d3 Can fly for one turn HD) (can still attack with claw as a pass-by, or lightning breath)
Titanite G 8 Demon Pole, Can throw lightning Can jump very Demons 1d3HD spear high to move around (can do it to charge)
Fang Boar L 5 Wildlife Tusks, 1d3 Can do a violent Creatures hitting HD charge that is them from the front unstoppable dealing or side have -2 to 3HD and knocking their attack roll prone everyone until because of an the charge is done armor.
Hydra Gar 8 Wildlife Biting Water projectile, Has 8 head. Lose 1 gant charge, ranged, 1 HD per head per HD. uan 1HD per projectile. Random head (very targeting. random targeting)
Undead G 8 Dragon Claw, Poison breath, Cannot fly but can Dragon poison, 1d4HD move fast and still 2HD charge.