The Dark Eye

So the kickstarter for The Dark Eye has been going for about a week and is at 55,000 $ right now:

kickstarter.com/projects/1216685848/the-dark-eye-rpgenglish-edition

It's the biggest pen & paper system in german speaking countries and has been in publication for well over 30 years.

The system was quite bloated in the past, but with the 5th Edition they boiled it down to basics in a better way while keeping it interesting. What I like about the system is the fact that it feels more skill based and you can actually create the sort of character you like - even a confectioner is possible from the rules.

I think it's biggest advantages is it's really well-developed setting. You have one region that is sort of like the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, you have a setting that is Renaissance Italy / France, you have Vikings, an Arabian setting, colonial slave holders and much more.

As the setting had a living history of more than thirty years, it also all feels really cohesive.

It's also more "low-fantasy" / grounded in reality. Obtaining a full set of knight's armour is a great deed in TDE and (permanent) magical items are usually very rare.

The game system also avoids many pitfalls of other major RPGS - e.g. no rising hit points, character progression as opposed to character leveling, armour decreases damage taken and doesn't make it harder to hit you etc.

I've been playing in the setting for more than 20 years myself, so feel free to ask me anything.

I'll dump some artwork in the meantime.

Other urls found in this thread:

youtube.com/watch?v=CdQASoSnolc
youtube.com/watch?v=SwPnwSysDK8
youtube.com/watch?v=DzZT9_0iZlo
youtube.com/watch?v=p4ZYk4x2yuQ
twitter.com/SFWRedditGifs

There is also a series of lore videos:

youtube.com/watch?v=CdQASoSnolc

youtube.com/watch?v=SwPnwSysDK8

youtube.com/watch?v=DzZT9_0iZlo

youtube.com/watch?v=p4ZYk4x2yuQ

They summarize a lot of the main facts of the setting, but they are by far not complete.

The old "Realms of Arkania" games (Blade of Destiny, Star Trail, Shadows over Riva) as well as the Drakensang games and Satinav's Chains and Memoria as well as Blackguards are also all set in Aventuria

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Has combat stopped being so terrible that nobody ever uses the actual rules?
If yes, how?

It doesn't matter how bad the combat rules are, it's about ROLEplaying not ROLLplaying. Haven't you ever played Dungeons & Dragons?

What's the core mechanic? For example Do you roll a d20 to resolve an action, and that tells you only whether you've succeeded or failed in your attempted action?

Or do you roll a bunch of different dice, and these tell you whether you've succeeded/failed, gained some circumstantial bonus or detriment, etc.

Does it support Myranor?
Aventurien is the most blandy bland tasteless cold stew of a setting this side of Greyhawk.

So you mean to say there is no reason to get TDE because freeform is where it's at?

Yes, combat has been re-vamped in many areas, although I liked the core combat mechanics and the fact that wounds already make it harder for you to keep fighting. Not sure which edition you played?

Main changes summarized:

- There's a status system which includes things such as Pain, Confusion etc. and easily wraps several modifiers together in a single status

- Stamina has been removed completely (now most of the relevant effects, such as Exhaustion, work via the status system)

- Parry values and combat abilities have been redesigned to make defense much more unlikely (if you roll a hit, you are relatively likely to actually deal damage).

Core mechanic is d20 based. It's actually very skill-heavy. There is a great number of social / nature / knowledge / craft skills. You roll 3 d20 based on your attributes and have to pass all three checks.

I am not entirely sure, since Myranor still seems to be based on 4th ed. but I guess it's easier to convert from 4th to 5th than from 3rd ed to Myranor for instance.

I like the Roman Empire and flying ships of Myranor but I could do without all the catfolk, lizardfolk, four-armed blue guys of Myranor.

I really like huge variety of setttings in Aventuria and the amount of adventures possible.

>armor reduces damage and dosent make it harder to hit you

You realize in real life it does both right

Well, not in the sense that the attack misses you.

In TDE you have an attack & parry system. If your parry misses, the damage taken is lowered by your armour class.

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>"And while we are at it, please cover up the breasts of your women and pray to our god."

I assume you're referring to dnd
A failure to "hit" in dnd is not a failure to hit, it's a failure to wound

The best way would be to give every armor a reduction value and a coverage value, so you can choose to either just wack the guy on his breast plate of take the coverage penalty to your attack to hit him on an unarmored spot.

I don't know. The greatest waste of money in my whole life has been the rulebook for 4th edition and I only even did that because I had grown desperate for some gaming in a city full of elitist Dark-Eye-fags. The only actual selling point this whole game has had, ever, is that "It is D'n'D, but -with just one pre-made setting- and -not originally in English-! You can play -random ethnic stereotypes- that take -nine hours to create- and some -two rounds- to die, and all you have to do is simply forget about wanting to do -anything beyond just sitting there and talking about shit that you could do yourself at the next LARP if you HADN'T ALREADY WASTED YOUR BUFFER-SWORD MONEY ON THIS SHIT, RAWR-."

So yeah, from Germany with love: Veeky Forums, stay the fuck away from this shit. It's for masochists and louts.

Yeah, even though most Aventurians don't have much of a problem with sex and nudity. This is Rahja, goddess of love, lust, wine and horses. She is part of the pantheon most inhabitants of the continent believe in.

INFLATION WIZARDS

Oh hey, there is a quickstart guide.

Seems you played with the wrong crowd of people.

One great experience I had as a GM was at a Free RPG Day with a crowd of young players.

I handed them a couple of pre-gens, they had some idea of TDE, Aventuria or just fantasy in general.

They had a blast playing their roles, adventure was just small and light-hearted with elemental spirits fucking up a village. A small dungeon with spiders.

It was a really enjoyable playing experience, we played for 5-6 hours non stop, I got applause at the end of the session and I think I got quite a couple of people into pen&paper.

Well, godspeed to you then. But honestly I don't think DSA adds anything remarkably unique.

>The game system also avoids many pitfalls of other major RPGS
You mean it avoids doing things you don't personally approve of.

>It's for masochists and louts.

I'm a bit of a masochist, and I wish that Ulisses were publishing the 2nd edition (Advanced Hiking & Camping Simulator) instead of 4th-5th.

3rd was pretty shit, who the fuck thought it would be a good idea to roll 3 individual d20 for each skill check?

I feel bad for you though, hopefully you can get a decent group together and play something more suited to your preferences.

I really like the setting, cosmological background and everything. It's all pretty deep - I mean they have prayer books for all of the individual twelve gods with all sorts of fluff. But it's not easy to give players all of that knowledge.

It's still possible to run something light-hearted, fun without having to know a lot of the background like that adventure with the elemental spirits.

Never played 2nd ed. Got into the game with 3rd ed.

Rolling 3 d20 might seem odd at first, but it makes skill checks much more balanced. In DnD / Pathfinder I always have the impression that skill checks are too easy if you roll for a really high stat in which you already have a lot of levels.

Man, Protector of the Realm Brin of Gareth used to be one of my favourite NSCs from the "classic" era, I was really devastated when he died :(

>tfw I be trolling and then everyone is nice
You win, Veeky Forums.

But the things I'd do for a decent group these days... Hell, I have practically been all the way out of this hobby for a year now just because of the continuous defeats. It's fucking killing me and now I can not even shit on everybody's fun like some retarded summerfag.

Having the right people for a group seriously feels like the biggest issue these days.

I think I stopped like half a dozen Pen & Paper groups as DM, because I didn't feel like the players and I had the same ideas of roleplaying.

Ran a really nice Pathfinder campaign with three players a year back plus the session on the Free RPG Day and a Cthulhu One-Shot turned out really nice