So I am wanting to adapt rules for Pathfinder that would allow for a Dark Souls RP that would be completely player run. Do you think this can be done while maintaining the themes? Do you have any advice?

Things like allowing players to offer Humanity in order to become boss monsters of their own realm and evolve into monstrous creatures, or add things to their domain. Players would also be able to offer humanity on a regular basis in order to become the Keeper of a Bonfire. Only areas that have Keepers can have functioning Bonfires.

I figure Souls would be able to be exchanged at a Bonfire for XP, or exchanged to NPCs or players for goods and services.

This message was deleted by a moderator, as it was off-topic, at 02:20, Mon 01 June 2015.

As a big soulsborne fan, I'd love to hear if you get somethign like this together. I could go for PF, though I'm no pro with the system. Count this as interest in this premise, though, I've little advice to contribute.

I've actually considered doing just this, only I hadn't thought about players becoming boss monsters of their own realms or anything like that. Is that a new thing in Dark Souls 2? Haven't played the sequel yet.

Anyway, for me the appeal of a Dark Souls-esque roleplay would be the trappings. Strange dreamlike world. Minimalist plot. Vague yet alluring story elements. Themes of physical and psychological decay. Horrific enemies. Insane difficulty and high death rate. As long as you have at least some of these things going for you, I don't really see how you could go wrong.

I'd probably work humanity a little differently than the games do. Make it a little more like Sanity in Call of Cthulhu. You lose more and more of it as you go on. You can even use it sort of like a currency to kindle bonfires and such. But when you run out, you turn hollow and your character becomes one of them.

EDIT: I failed to notice the player run part. Yeah, I dunno. I've never really messed with stuff that didn't have a GM.
This message was last edited by the user at 02:50, Mon 08 June 2015.

This message was deleted by a moderator, as it was against the forum rules, at 18:44, Wed 10 June 2015.

I did do this, briefly, in a 5e game.  The PCs got "blessed" by an elemental prince and could no longer permanently die (though they didn't know this).  Then I ramped up the difficulty and attempted to murder them in every encounter... I only actually killed one PC, the one that decided to take a nap on the pile of rugs of smothering...

Anyway, you don't even have to use mechanics for the decay.  You can scare the PCs just by describing some of the side effects and describing it as a bad thing every time they die.  Mine volunteered to attack Hell in order to convince their gods to break their "blessing" with almost no prompting (and tromped through half of the Elemental Plane of Fire to find them... all while suffering from a fire vulnerability).

TL;DR.  You don't even really need mechanics for it.  Just have them come back to life two turns after they die and tell them it's bad.

The boss of their own realm thing was a systems concept I am designing to allow for a system where you do not require a story teller. Essentially while other players trade souls to a bonfire for EXP or Gear or something, those who make a Pact with a certain covenant of my design can offer large amounts of humanity to change their own body and own realm. That way you get new and interesting dungeons designed by players who essentially become mini-moderators.