Dark Souls: The Roleplaying Game hands-on preview – prepare to roll

metro.co.uk:

GameCentral previews the latest Dark Souls game: a tabletop role-playing adaptation that uses Dungeons & Dragons as its foundation.

Death isn’t a regular occurrence in Dungeons & Dragons. The tabletop role-playing landscape is changing for the darker though and there’s none of the usual magical shenanigans to save you in the forthcoming Dark Souls tabletop role-playing game. It went up for pre-order last week from Steamforged, who have already produced a board game and card game based on developer FromSoftware’s Dark Souls franchise, and we got our hands on a preview copy to let you know what to expect.

Elden Ring is certain to give gamers a run for their money in the difficulty stakes and that’s what you expect from the Souls franchise and its punishing live-die-repeat cycle. The idea that you need to become familiar with what’s round the corner, to plan its demise instead of yours, means tentatively exploring the environment step by step.

Traps and enemies punish unwary travellers and there’s no such thing as an easy opponent. This sense of exploration and adventure fits the Dungeons & Dragons campaign mould well, even if dying doesn’t. And though there are still some questions about how well Dark Souls suits the Dungeons & Dragons 5e rule-set a full campaign is still an enticing prospect.

Most Dungeons & Dragons campaigns are based around a co-operative levelling experience, where players’ characters typically start out with enough spells and equipment to get by and then attempt to increase their skills over time, until, years later, they might hit level 20 and be able to tackle a medium sized dragon or two. Here there is no chance to thrive and prosper, as the spectre of death is ever present as you play. Used to