The Campaign Builder's Guild

Quote from: Hoers
If you have access to a PS4, you should really check out Bloodborne for some inspiration.

Back at College I had a roommate who had a PS4, and I began playing. Unfortunately it was a couple of weeks before Graduation so I wasn't able to get my head around the games system. But yeah, I'm definitely looking into it.

I think that would be a good way to provide a top-level interaction in combat. When I think of what made Dark Souls combat for me, I think about the PvP and how aggressive it made me - as a perpetual invader (i.e. try to ruin peoples' day as they try to get through an area for covenant rewards), I think about the all-out aggressiveness strategy I took, where I'd get repeatedly right in someone's face at the risk of taking extra hits just to spook them and make them scared of every swing I made. I also think of the other extreme, where some players will get a high-defense shield and just "turtle" behind it and take jabs when they can. A lot of it comes down to positioning - meaning a grid is pretty much essential for a TTRPG - where various consumables/buffs are implied through cast/use times to require "space" during combat to use. "Primary actions" in combat revolve around this kind of posturing, or around mutually-familiar enviroment/enemy placement (again, a product of the "time is convoluted" gimmick where each character is from one of multiple timelines that see essentially the same layout) to gain an advantage.

Does that answer the question?

Magical movesets are basically special high damage/high reach/high AoE attacks that cost mana to use without a damage penalty. If you have enough mana, the attack goes through (provided the enemy is within range). If not, it usually still works but barely does any damage. If it's instead a "buff" or something, it just fails. At least in Dark Souls 3, this was a combination of "unique to the weapon type" and "one-off weapons having weird abilities". In practice, that'd probably translate to weapon classes having special moves, with legendary weapons of heroes/villains/ubermonsters having special abilities. I call them "magical movesets" because some iconic ones would imbue the specific weapon with fire/lighting/magic damage for a short period rather than having an explicit special attack.

Ok, that's a good list!

I like the idea of fast, brutal-but-fair combat and I think using stamina as a central tactical mechanic is a good one. The "range rings" abstraction that the game you found uses is a pretty good one, and I think it keeps the feel of a Dark Souls battle intact, while using a grid map might just be unnecessary complexity and slow the battle down for no real gain.

All of the stats are combat stats, ultimately. This is like D&D and unlike some other tabletop games where you have stats that are specifically devoted to out-of-combat utility. I think a big question around any "Dark Souls inspired" game is to what extent out of combat stats are even going to matter. Not having any mechanics for out of combat stuff is one option, but I'm not sure if it's the best one. Being able to use these stats for "skill checks" could work, instead.

I don't know what you mean by "magical movesets" and "weapon arts" so if you wouldn't mind could you explain that a little more?

Anyway, this a good list but the one thing missing is just... the overall feeling, I guess. What sort of primary actions do you see as being important in combat? What kind of tactics go through your mind in a Dark Souls battle? Like, how would we abstract this down to something that's tactically interesting but can be played at a tabletop? How about the idea used by Yomi, and also I think by Riddle of Steel, where both combatants choose a strategy and then you reveal them at the same time and you see how they interact?

If you have access to a PS4, you should really check out Bloodborne for some inspiration.

It works for me :D

Alright, I fixed something, so let's see if it works for you guys now.

So here are the core mechanics that I think collectively define the mechanics and fluff of Souls games:

Mechanics

• Brutal-but-fair, fast combat. Enemies and situations rarely ever become unthreatening, but you gain more methods to approach them and can handle more complex encounters
• "Tension-inducing decision-making", e.g. deciding to use up your stamina to make an extra swing or spell cast at the risk of having none to dodge/block the counterattack with
• Stats: DkS3 for example has Str (some weapons' damage), Dex (some weapons' damage), Vigor (HP), Vitality (equip load), Endurance (stamina), Attunement (cast speed, spell slots, mana pool increase), Intelligence (sorcery spells, fire spells, magic damage and res), Faith (holy spells, fire spells, lightning damage and res), Luck (item drop, bleed and poison effectiveness). All stats contribute to a lesser extent on various defenses and resistances
  
• Hybrid magic system: Attunement stat provides a number of spell slots to assign known spells to (with diminishing returns to acquire), and also provides a mana pool that is shared among the spells you might want to cast
• Magical movesets: "Weapon arts" for different weapons that use the same mana to perform effectively
• Stat- over proficiency-based item usability. Allows the "quality" build (improving both Str and Dex) and diversifies options. This is not as universal with magic - the "Pyromancy" spells in the game require a mix of both Intelligence and Faith for example, allowing you to be proficient in Sorceries (Int) and Miracles (Faith) as well, but the reverse is not true (the latter two types require heavy, exclusive investment into the one stat)
• Weapon/casting focus upgrades meaning just as much if not more for damage output, including due to increasing the damage multiplier from the stats they scale with (e.g. a +10 sword having an "A" grade multiplier rather than a +0's "C" for the Strength stat)
• Parry and riposte/backstab/other critical damage opportunities adding to combat intensity

Fluff

• Closed but interconnected world with unlockable shortcuts, alternate routes
• Recurring theme of acting in the "final" stage of something, e.g. the end of the age of the gods
• Lack of backstory
• Limited allies/neutral encounters, most of which come from other players
• Antagonistic encounters with other players, where there are rewards for invaders killing other players
• Generous "second-chance" death mechanic, but with possibility of permadeath/"corruption" after too many
• Focus on kill-or-be-killed as a story resolution mechanic - again, most adversaries are that way because of corruption or because they are spawn of sinister circumstance
• Covenant allegiances changing the way players interact with each other and the rest of the world
  
• Overlapping timelines/realities on essentially- or mostly-the-same game world (tied to the summoning/invasion concept)

A lot of that mechanics list just looks like it won't translate too well, but we'll see.

Your links point to what are apparently 1x1 images, so it still isn't working right.

Changed them to links. If that doesn't work let me know.

For some reason I can't see your map images! Maybe post a direct link??