Gaming Monk Review

[@MrTohawk]

Good video. I just don't know what you meant with the shields? You can attack with them or use combat maneuvers like sweep. Imo the biggest advantage of TDE is Aventuria, it's living world.

[@christiandemers8763]

Totally agree. I will even add that in this game you are really using a shield. It doesn't simply add his defensive value to the character's armor protection, it add it's defensive value to the parry value in two different ways. Full shield's defensive value if you use the "shields" combat technique to parry or half of it if you use it while using another combat technique instead like "swords". And of course you can also use your shield to attack by using the "shields" combat technique and also maybe some "combat special skills" which show the fighter mastering of that type of weapon. Shields feels like a real and useful piece of equipment in the Dark eye rpg.

[@shaicass]

I liked the new review style. Also I had my eye on that game a while back. Maybe, I'll give it another look.

[@shaicass]

Pun not intended

[@MildraTheMonkVT]

@@shaicass Glad you enjoyed it!

[@murgel2006]

TDE is called the Germany D&D not because of its similarities, in fact, the creators went through some effort to be different from D&D (while later editions took inspiration from it). It is called the German D&D because it was, for the longest time fare much more well-known and accepted. I remember back in the late 80s I even heard some people ask if D&D was not just a "cheap copy"... From my point of view, TDE has become more inspired by D&D since the work on 4th ed. started at least rules-wise and 5th ed TDE shows that with things like cantrips etc. which did not exist prior. Currently, the system is at a turning point because the publisher started 5th ed. to reduce the number of rule books, and clean up the game. Obviously, this has led to the most convoluted game, organisation and, by far the most number of rule books TDE has ever had. So I think we will see an overhaul at the least but more likely a new edition in the next few years. Just like D&D is preparing for one.

[@dylanashcroft890]

“The land of cheese and power metal” lol!

[@timokohler6631]

I can already tell you some gms are not going to like the Firnelf Knight Idea :D For me the biggest strenght of this game is also it's weakness. The world is very detailed and has a rich history that keeps evolving, it makes everything feel more real and beliveable. However that also leads to people limiting themselves, a Firnelf Knight for example will certainly be rejected by many groups, people are sometimes so focused on being true to the background that they forget that Roleplaying is about having fun. Also a lot of the ressources are simply not available in english, starting by the countless books that have been published since the 80s, but also online tools like the wiki which has become a vital tool for GMs.

[@murgel2006]

I do agree with the world of Aventuria with its fine detail granulation being the main weakness of TDE. I do however not agree that it is also its greatest strength. Personally, I see the consistency of the rules as TDE's main advantage and the basic combat system as its greatest strength. The fact that all skills, magic and miracles work the same way makes the learning curve an easy one and the simulative nature of the basic combat system makes it really easy to reenact iconic combat scenes from movies and books. Sadly, that versatility has been somewhat corrupted by additional rules that were not relay needed and the combat would have been served better with a set of guidelines to make one's own manoeuvres and styles. Aventuria is IMO the greatest weakness of the game explicitly because the world is so finely detailed. In its home country of Germany, some players take to the lore as gospel and any deviation can lead to extreme content within a group, to the point of it breaking up. Which I have personally seen far too often. When a player gets upset because the ruler of a small town is not the one mentioned in the sourcebook then there might just be a problem with that player but also the fact, that a small town in the middle of nowhere is even mentioned and described in a sourcebook. Personally, I consider TDE my primary and most favourite rules set for roleplaying but I use my own world mostly and if I do play in Aventuria I make very sure to have players understand that this is by no means anything like the Aventuria they have read about in novels, sourcebooks or the various DSA forums.

[@zhufortheimpaler4041]

@@murgel2006 as a 4.1 player i have to disagree. 5.0 is very D&D ified dumbing down many gameplay elements. and the combat system in both 4.1 and 5.0 are not really the smoothest ones around

[@matthaeushilpold9851]

Sounds like it gives no background... but the dark *is* it's worldbuilding

[@MildraTheMonkVT]

I'm altogether hesitant on talking about setting lore in my reviews. Whenever i've tried it comes off like i'm reading an article. That's why I haven't done Lore videos on this channel. TDE does have an interesting setting, though.

[@matthaeushilpold9851]

@@MildraTheMonkVT I get that. But I wasn't referring so much to the quality (which is rather subjetive) of the lore, but more to the quantity. TDE has heaps upon heaps of lore books, regional guides, fauna&flora guides, landscape guides, novels ... you name it, that make up the canon of the world - and it very much lives through that (so much so, that there is even a fan-driven progressing timeline of events and history that you theoretically should embed your stories in as a DM...very german). The basic guide provides only the rules of the system, and doesn't give much "background" as you say. But the basic guide is also not representative of the wealth of material set in aventuria (and the other continents), rivalled perhaps only by D&D itself. It's also, imho, one of the biggest differences between D&D and TDE. I get the feeling that with D&D, the majority of players play in homebrew settings with homebrew lore, whereas in TDE it is more popular to follow canon and to strictly adhere to the TDE setting

[@MildraTheMonkVT]

@@matthaeushilpold9851 Nice as that is, it's not something I can focus on in my review style.