As important as it is that we, as TTRPG writers, understand the largest players in our industries it is also important that we look at smaller developers from time to time. It is in these independant studios that we can find real innovation in our hobby or perhaps just some ideas that can inspire us. That is what these “Another Shoe” articles will be about, reviewing the mechanics and ideas of TTRPGs made by smaller developers.

Our first subject will be The Crownless by Marrensmusings. The developer is very upfront in describing it as being inspired by FromSoftware’s flagship ‘soulsborne’ game style, specifically Elden Ring. Because of this it is inevitable that we compare it then to the officially developed Dark Souls TTRPG by Steamforged Games, but that is something I will try to avoid since that is essentially just a D&D 5e supplement. Instead I will discuss how well it can capture the spirit of its inspiration.

The current Crownless bundle comes with a players guide, a keepers guide, a spell list, an ability list, a loot table, a character sheet, and the adventure ‘A Promise Kept’. All of which are designed for printing and folding into booklets for your table.

In The Crownless one player takes on the role of the keeper while the others play as … the crownless.

The crownless have “legacies” which offer different types of starting weapons and spell lists. Additionally each crownless has 3 distinct memories and one of two types of ‘metal souls’ which help dictate their overall personalities as well as offering a useful ability.

Mechanics are entirely focused on combat. A d6 is rolled to determine if an attack hits, defender rolls a d6 to determine if they avoid the attack, d4s, d6s, and d8s determine how much damage is dealt, and finally armour (a d4 for players) determines how much damage is mitigated.

Every round, all combatants get 2 actions which they can use to move, attack, heal, cast spells, ect. Unfortunately, due to the constrait the developer has put on their formatting style, some rules appear to be missing since there was not enough space to write them down. Rules like what the difference between a near, far, or distant foe simply aren’t explained. Obviously these are simple fixes for us but it is something that could have been fixed with a simple sentence.

Put together these rules do offer a very quick and deadly feeling, though not actually that dangerous until the boss, experience. Players actually have quite a bit of health (average of 15) and each have access to healing (average of 13 healing per bonfire). This with what seems to be the suggested encounter rate (one medium enemy, average 2.4 damage per round, per player and one of which is hard difficulty, average 4.1 damage per round each) means that the players are constantly taking damage and using resources. Bosses however deal a whopping 8.3 average damage per round which means they can take out a player quite easily.

This captures the feeling of a soulsborne game quite well in my opinion. Those games are built around the idea of constantly draining resources as you explore before coming to a final boss which is tough but fair.

Also like most soulsborne games, magik completely breaks this balance. You randomly get 1-3 castings of magik per combat, so its a resource that regenerates automatically, and these spells deal a lot of damage. The average player will deal an average of 2.4 damage each turn with their weapon if they attack twice whereas a spell like cresent slash deals an average of 17 if cast twice on a turn. That is over half a bosses suggested health of 32! Combined with the Overcharge or Manifest tactic and they automatically deal 24 damage.

So yeah. It perfectly replicates the games.

The keepers role is the same as a game master for any other basic TTRPG with one interesting caviate. The keeper is actually a character in the story while also being the narrator. This role is described as being the voice of the wyrd, a seemingly all knowing deity that wishes to see the players succeed.

This appears to be referencing the role of characters like Melina in the games. An interesting twist on the usual formula where the game master is simply an omniscient narrator. An it actually does cause a thematic shift since now we have both an unreliable narrator that is also an unknowable being. Once again a good thematic reference to the source material.

Overall, I’d say that the game does fine at what it is trying to achieve. I can even see this as being a groups go to game for quick, rules lite dungeon crawling. I’d like to see an expanded ‘enemy tactics’ list since right now all of the uniqueness to the bosses is completely up to the keeper to make. Overall I’d say its worth a one-shot if your table enjoys the theme.

If you’re interested in trying The Crownless for yourself, it can be purchased from https://marrensmusings.itch.io/the-crownless for $5, but the developer provides free community copies and it is commonly packaged with other games in community bundles.