Once, tabletop RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons inspired video game designers to created their own original computer RPGs. Now, fantasy action RPGs like FromSoftware’s Dark Souls franchise are inspiring tabletop designers to create their own tabletop RPGs. The following dark fantasy indie RPGs are, like Dark Souls, centered around undead protagonists trying to explore dangerous, dying worlds, using the free-form possibilities of tabletop RPGs to tell the dynamic, shifting stories Dark Souls video games cannot.
The three Dark Souls games take place in eras separated by the span of centuries, if not longer, but their core premise remains the same: In a world cursed by a contagion of undeath, a lone Undead clinging to their sanity and humanity journeys through a land of Hollows, monsters, and nightmares, searching for a way to halt the decline of their doomed worlds. Melancholic, grandiose, and operatic in tone, the stories of the Dark Souls games are about making the choice to be kind and determined in the face of certain death – not just in the “we will all die, one day” sense, but in the more immediate sense of merciless bosses repeatedly smashing a player’s character into the dirt.
The following indie tabletop RPGs, each purchasable on itch.io, follow the general model of Dark Souls gameplay in their settings and mechanics – undead adventurers who confront peril, die, and rise from the grave to continue fighting while trying to retain their humanity. The unique touch of these game systems lies not in their simulations of combat and exploration, but in their rules and storytelling guidelines for how PCs interact with each other. In the Dark Souls video games, the PC is a mute individual who can only deal with hostile individuals by running or fighting; the players and GMs of these tabletop RPGs aren’t so limited.
Dark Souls-Inspired Tabletop RPGs – Sword and Board
Sword & Board, a two-page Dark Souls-inspired hack of the Lasers And Feelings RPG system, is available on itch.io. It puts players in the shoes of Undead heroes embarking on a quest through hostile lands. A single numerical stat determines the character’s “Sword” and “Board” skills, i.e. their ability to attack and defend themselves. Players must roll under their number if they want to “Board,” and must roll over when they want to “Sword.” The rest of the document contains tips for how the GM can run a game, coupled with dice charts that can be used to create randomized Dark Souls-esque plots.
Dark Souls-Inspired Tabletop RPGs – Exhumed
Exhumed is a Dark Souls-esque dark fantasy RPG modeled after Into the Odd and “Old School Revival” RPGs, which emphasize quick character generation, player creativity, and highly lethal dungeon-crawling gameplay. Characters can quickly be generated by randomly rolling dice to determine their classes and starting items, and all the core gameplay are included on the first page for swift reference. The “sample session” included on the second page of Exhumed (available on itch.io) starts with player characters waking up in a dark crypt, remembering only their names, and making their way through passages of terror and traps to sanctuaries similar in form to the Firelink shrines from the Dark Souls trilogy.
Dark Souls-Inspired Tabletop RPGs – Dice Souls
In the Dark Souls trilogy (and its progenitor series, Demon Souls), player characters grow stronger by slaying enemies and absorbing the energies of their soul to use as both currency and fuel to improve their abilities. In the indie tabletop RPG Dice Souls (also for sale on itch.io), the player character has an additional motive for killing undead enemies. By taking in the essence of the mindless, corrupted foes they encounter, they seek to free their trapped souls, carrying legions of damned within their bosom and shepherding them towards a final, curse-free rest. The gameplay of Dice Souls is a dialogue between a single player creating a lonely hero’s journey and a Guide who creates areas, enemies, and obstacles for the player’s character to overcome.
Dark Souls-Inspired Tabletop RPGs – Bonfire & Blade
Bonfire & Blade is a hack of another dark, gothic RPG available on itch.io called Vampires & Claymores, taking a game system about undead characters struggling to retain their humanity and adding Dark Souls-style features such as bonfires, spells, the harvesting of magical soul-fire from slain foes, and the loss of memory from repeated deaths. Gameplay is centered around the core mechanic of rolling pools of Action Dice against pools of Challenge Dice, with players gaining Insight every time they fall and learning important Truths as they progress through a game story. The three ending paths of Bonfire & Blade – the Paths of Restoration, Release, and Ruin – reflect the variable endings of Dark Souls games, each walking their own line between optimism and despair.
