Intro to The Dark Eye TTRPG - A Remarkable D&D Alternative (Das Schwarze Auge)

The Dark Eye TTRPG is an amazing game originating from Germany. With over 30 years of continuous development and publication it is also one of the oldest TTRPGs out there with as many editions as Dungeons and Dragons. The Dark Eye is also commonly referred to as Das Schwarze Auge or DSA in Germany.
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[@care2425]

I guess the glint in the eyes of Germans and us Austrians is just there because for most of us it is the first RPG played :)

[@Packless1]

@Michael Seitz ...me 2...! :D ...but after a few sessions, we ended up with a combination of Midgard, DSA, D&D and a lot of modifications and home-rules...!

[@nodwick4231]

Or really the horror in the eyes of Germans and Austrians because, while it's the game most players start with, it's the most-hated game, often with a passion.

[@mslabo102s2]

In Japan we have Sword World in place of this. Or Call of Cthulhu.

[@noirmeitte]

It sounds like it's bad but, come on, there are tons of systems that are waaaay worst (d&d is (imho) one of the worst). Actually, i had many many great years of roleplaying with the dark eye..

[@maxschmidt666]

@@noirmeitte I have to agree, D&D is just absolutely inferior to most systems. Its a dungeon crawler system, not a role playing system.

[@floriansteindl9075]

Guy: "This and that is fairly complex, there is a 350 page rulebook,..." Me, playing DSA 4.1, our DM using extra rule books for combat, magic, beasts, religion, geography, history and whatnot: "That's sweet" But honestly, what did you expect from an RPG designed by Germans?

[@darephish2413]

have you heard of pathfinder? *laughs in 125 rulebooks for 1st edition"

[@floriansteindl9075]

@@darephish2413 heard yes, played no.

[@LambertBehnke]

The Dark Eye is definitely simpler than Pathfinder

[@tsandman]

@@LambertBehnke and PF is simpler than HERO :p

[@LambertBehnke]

@@tsandman Definitely and HERO is still not the most complex. But in these comments I have seen repeatedly people complaining just how complicated the Dark Eye is, and I think it on par with D&D 5 (the main check is a little complex but everything works the same) and definitely simpler than Pathfinder.

[@yoinkn]

This might blow your mind but The Dark Eye version 5 is already simplyfied. Version 4 was bureaucracy the roleplaying game. I play it since over 12 years (still am)

[@maximilianz5304]

I play it too and i can confirm it but, nonetheless i love The dark eye 4 and hate 5. I learned all the rules and i will be damed if i don't play it till the end

[@yoinkn]

@@maximilianz5304 I still play DSA4 too but the rules are too much. Nerver tried 5 though.

[@MrMagisterrr]

Both, 4.1 and 5 have their ups and downs. I play Das Schwarze Auge (the dark eye) for ~22 years now, and experienced versions 3, 4 and 5. I didn’t ever have the notion to try another p&p rpg

[@DFYX]

The inside joke in our party was that walking up stone stairs and walking down wooden stairs might just as well be different skills in 4th edition. So glad, they simplified 5th edition a lot. Feels more like the old 3rd edition but at the same time a lot more modern. (Edited for grammar)

[@yoinkn]

@@DFYX That's great. Our inside joke is magic not working as it should. But that's based on the DM.

[@Robert-vk7je]

My first char was a mage. Pro tip: Don't create a mage as your first char in the dark eye, when it's your first time playing a roleplaying game! x) What I realy like about the game, is the vastness of skills. There is a skill for everything and you can build any character you can imagine. Especially ones, that should never go on an adventure! xD

[@skeletonwar4445]

Yeah I made the same mistake. Playing an early mage feels like you don't get to participate in combat and 90% of your spells fail miserably :)

[@Bird0fHermes]

@@skeletonwar4445 Mages are a bit lackluster now. In previous editions, a mage started with 22 spells instead of I believe 7 now. Did someone mention that every spell is a skill you have to train seperatly? :-)

[@lordtsweeble2898]

"IGNIFAXIUS! Kay, I'm out of juice, see ya in a few days."

[@arcanecontent]

I love playing spellcaster characters. Is there any advice you would give to people who want to play a spellcaster in The Dark Eye? What are the spellcasting classes that we should pick? What spells, skills to take/avoid? Also, are there spells that allow you to teleport, like on the battlefield and across larger distances like countries? Thank you! P.S. I remember playing the computer games based on TDE and there was this one spell, that was either kill or meh. What it did is it somehow created either a minuscule or a massive amount of damage. In the later case it would just dissolve your opponent. I think it sounded something like lux or something like that, iirc.

[@denzelpanther240]

@@arcanecontent tipp: specialise. If you want to have a magical tool for everything you will never be as good at anything. Yes there is a teleportation spell, it takes at least 4 Rounds to cast so its only combat viable for mages who can prepare a spell in advance. Ignifaxius changed it now deals 2d6+2 up to 2d6+14 damage. But its cheaper. Base cost 8 ASP, can be reduced to 2 Astral points. So while it was a one shot with up to 18d6 costing dmg=ASP before ,it now can be casted more frequently

[@doomhippie6673]

I remember in the 80s it was basically a question like Kiss or AC/DC: The Dark Eye or D&D. I was on the D&D side. That said I nowadays love both games for different reasons: You want to be the world saving hero, slaughter hundreds of weird and weirder monsters and throw fireballs? Go D&D! You want a much slower game in which you can be the little guy who might perhaps just do the right thing and get the real powers that be finally take action? Than play TDE. To be a little more graphic: Remember the Battle of Helm's Deep in the LOTR Two Towers movie. In TDE you are not Aragorn. You are the boy who asks Aragorn "Is there any hope?". And then you do your part in the great scheme of things (I actually would have loved to know if he survived, but that's another story). I love that way of playing. It takes away a lot of the pressure to "play to win". You play to play your character.

[@RalphH007]

AD&D always felt to primitive for me when I compared it to DSA, you were to boxed in, had less freedom.

[@thodan467]

@@RalphH007 I daresay not, TDE produced very boxed in cliche "Characters" in ADnD you ´d the freedom to make Characters not carbon copy clichee clones

[@Drakendottir]

It is a very hard choice between TDE and DnD, because they are entirely different games, considering they play in quite similar settings. DnD (I'm talking 5th ed because that is what I know, so don't crucify me here) for me is all about choices, and openness, and being cool and having fun. TDE is about rules, tactics, being smart, and really punishing challenges, especially when you play in harsher climates like the jungles of Marraskan or the icy wastes of the north. Your character will literally start dying just by BEING there, and you haven't even gotten to the adventure part yet! I have been playing TDE for close to half my life, which is a significant time. I only recently started playing DnD 5e. Whilst I used to love TDE (or DSA, as we Germans call it), I have grown very tired of the intense rulesets and the forced-upon realism. You want to be a mage? Well, you will be useless in anything that is not your specified little field of study. You'll spend most of your time NOT doing magic because you have to save up points, and then when FINALLY the time is there to release a spell, it fails and you spend too many of those precious points on just... NOTHING. Same with other classes, unless you go for 2-3 specific fighter classes, your built will suck in 90% of the situations you find yourself in, and still have a massive risk of failing when it's finally a situation where your attributes and skills might come in clutch. There is a certain bureaucratic charm in that, and I do not deny it. If you enjoy feeling powerless, feeling the despair of a knight who gets wounded in the beginning of the adventure and then is a burden to his entire party for the entire rest of the mini-campaign, struggling to even regain hitpoints for literally months and months of real play time, sure. Yeah. Go for it. And all the more power to you. It can be fun, in its own right. (By the way, that really happened to me once. I tried to take it with some humour, but when we got to the eigth month of playing, I started to be really sick of being in the way and not useful in any way, and of being the designated party tank who would die if he took any damage at all, thus either ignoring my character's identity - a fierce protector who was gonna sacrifice his life for his friends no matter what - or stand on the sidelines and wait for them to painstakingly chip away at the bad guys while they themselves were dying). For me however, over the years, DSA slowly ceased to be fun. As I grew older, I started to cherish creativity and flexibility in my roleplaying more and more. I feel powerless so often in real life, when I get to RP, I want to let lose and feel awesome for a few hours, and cheer at my friends who are being awesome. I don't want to sit down and discuss complicated archery rules for fifteen minutes before the archer finally takes her shot, I just want her to shoot that arrow, hit or miss, cheer or groan, and get on with the story. DnD is far more suited for that purpose. Now, am I still playing TDE currently? Why yes, I am. I happen to have been playing with the same group of people for 12 years. I'm not going to ditch them over a system, and if they still enjoy all the rules-lawyering, I can hang for a night a week, enjoy some pizza and some fun jokes with my friends, no matter how powerful our characters are in the grand scheme of things. Because at the end of the day, that's what PnP is really about - friendship, a table with fast food, and some dice!

[@thodan467]

@@Drakendottir TDE isn´t realistic, it´s very micro managing Simulation and was very IMbalanced so promoting Powergaming(choose the right class) in the last Editions

[@dasaggropop1244]

i love the two point and click video games too. you are not a powerful wizard, harry, but some untrained magical amateur who has these mini spells, you can break a pot or something like that. you are not out to save the world, but your town, but in the end the scenarios are epic, the world is beautiful and the stakes are high. can highjly recommend these for any fan of the genre (chains of satinav and memoria).

[@SylennOfSkye]

It was my first TTRPG over 25 years ago, since my parents started playing DSA 1.0 back in the day. It's been a while, love to see the perspective of someone not coming from it. Edit: Concerning your dislike of the world of Aventuria as a requirement: its not unusual to create an own timeline or even multiverse, it always worked for us at least.

[@skeletonwar4445]

As the game journalists would say: _"DSA truly is the Dark Souls of TTRPGs"_

[@tomtom7955]

lmao "game journalist"

[@lordofchaosinc.261]

Normally no but then there are "house rules". ;)

[@tarvoc746]

In terms of game depth, maybe. You don't normally die that easily in DSA though.

[@Julien-Limosino-87]

ROFL no, Shadow of the demon lord is the Dark Souls of TTRPGs

[@theloweffortchannel7211]

​@@Julien-Limosino-87 If every item in Dark Souls was replaced with Dung Pie...

[@lancepickett5653]

Klingt interessant Guy. (Sounds interesting, Guy.) Yes I'd like to hear more. Character creation is the most enlightening.

[@danmehring7880]

Or use the free Optolith software to create a character quickly. You really get attached to characters as creation is detailed and takes time.

[@DFYX]

@@danmehring7880 Optolith is just great. If you just need a character for a quick one-shot, you can get one in as little as 10 minutes. At the same time it supports all the additional rules from about a dozen books, so if you spend some more time, you can make every character you could imagine.

[@michaellehner3339]

Moving to Germany to play DSA. Now, that's dedication... :D ;)

[@LorenzCK]

Das Schwarze Auge, or Uno Sguardo nel Buio as we call it in Italy… love it and have been playing it for many many years! 👁️ Great overview of the game!

[@andarted]

I never was interested in the respective current developments in Aventuria. But I loved the feeling of the world. But the feeling of the world came from the fact that all the organically grown history flows through the veins of adventure. If you play a bought adventure, you may stumble over old battlefields where you find arrowheads, stories of past events, unexplainable stone circles, ruins, NPCs with bizarrely deep backstories, etc. The world feels wholesome not because of what happens, but because of what happened.

[@666wurm]

Precisely what I love about the world. It feels so real because it grew over such a long time.

[@Crazybassable]

Quite timeley!! I'm moving to Germany in a mere 4 days, where I'm going to be regularly playing DSA. Thanks Guy!

[@janwalte8302]

Where are you gonna live?

[@MrMagisterrr]

Welcome to germany I guess? :P

[@hiddenwoodsben]

already here?

[@Crazybassable]

Berlin for studies :)

[@Glaswalker1001]

Welcome to Germany! Your going love it here.

[@magiv4205]

What a wonderful coincidence! I just came from recapping our latest amazing 11h DSA session to a friend. Got into the system last August through a university friend, who introduced me to his group, and the game and our characters have become my life now. I love seeing this game get some love outside of the German-speaking parts of Europe. The depth of the lore is absolutely incredible, the modular character creation is so extensive and deep that other systems feel cheap in comparison, and no two characters will ever be the same. Although it takes a while of getting into, the combat and wound system is fantastic and gritty. The game is much deadlier than D&D, and so even if our characters are by now veterans of many combats and tribulations, have killed demons, taken castles and defeated armies, we still know that one wrong step or one bad day with the dice could mean the end. And there's no handy resurrection. The only things that come back from the dead in this game are unholy crimes against nature and the Gods themselves. This makes every blow scary and every death count. If you are interested in trying out a new system, absolutely check this one out.

[@TheSophor]

It's rare that you see non-Germans having such a spot on pronounciation, it's great :3 This said, I never played it myself. To me DSA always had this old-timey vibe to it, probably similar as to how Americans think about aD&D: culturally impactful but not at all modern. That's why I was surprised hearing that the rules at least seem so far pretty up my alley. As a primary pathfinder player, I am a huge fan of deep mechanics and customizability. I'd me mainly interested to hear about the world and lore - because that is another point where I have a fairly negative and unfounded stereotype in my mind that needs some breaking

[@AlexBermann]

Orkenspalter TV made an introduction on the world - and if you speak German, there also is a wiki that is extremely detailed (some might say obsessive). Its name is wiki aventurica.

[@Nubbletech]

@@AlexBermann could you link that please?

[@timokohler6631]

@@Nubbletech You could also just do a google search... de.wiki-aventurica.de/

[@gregorstrohman3619]

The mechanics have been tuned down actually, which is the reason why 8 years after the release of 5th edition Dark Eye 4.1 is still more prevalent on conventions. MOst of the changes they made had already been houserules of mine. In some areas, especially magic, they changed so much that it would break the setting of aventuria I startet my campaign in. You could say something about that 1016 pages letter sized book which is the world changing "Borbarad-campaign" people are still playing today :-)

[@beageler]

It's a pet peeve of mine, I can't help myself but bring it up: I don't like that not-cringy pronounciation is called spot on or perfect or whatever. What's so bad about not telling without being asked for the horrible pronounciation that is common and telling people like him that he is ok?

[@deviles]

The Dark Eye is SO much about the World, much more than the rules. Ulisses even helped publishing a very Simplified Rulesystem that was made by fans (under 200 pages for EVERYTHING). Sure you can ignore the world and just do your own thing, but its so worth it to go into it.

[@LoneWolf2k1_minis]

Excited you do a video on this :) I started DSA when I was 12 and for 25 years it has been my first and main system, until I moved to the US a few years ago. In Germany, it was possible to find other players that were familiar with the world, but over in the US it's next to impossible to get someone excited about a world that is so detailed (just looking to my right where I have stored all my stuff accumulated over the year I can see the source books for trade guilds, and I know I can look up cross-border tax rules somewhere in there - and that's the case for pretty much everything) is next to impossible. Basically, it was possible for me to wrap my head around, but only because I grew up with the world. Starting from scratch it's the equivalent to achieving a Bachelor in Aventuriaism, and you cannot force that upon anyone. Another questionable thing about the system is that it takes AGES for heroes to get good at anything. So, unfortunately, it's D&D from here on out, and I have two shelves full of fond memories over here. (@Guy: By the way, you should connect to Mhaire from your Saltmarsh campaign over this set of 4 videos, if she's not already in there - she is a major KZbin personality for DSA in Germany)

[@heikesiegl2640]

That is thebproblem we had as beginners within our group. We were used to flexible players and dms and as we started a session in dsa it was always: No! Thats not how the world works! No, you need to greet that person in a different way because you belive in that deity etc. To us it was a bummer. Add the drag of calculating all the time, we didn't continue playing the game. I was a huge fan of the character creation though. I think i would have liked it more with a more flexible dm

[@danmehring7880]

Mhaire from Orkenspalter TV playes a lot of dark eye campaigns on Twitch (many only in German however). Great Game Master, focussing on story telling not rules, also the world's greatest Harpy impersonificator. (If that discipline gets created = instant winner!! Check out the Borbarad campaign)

[@PhyreI3ird]

I'm VERY interested to hear more about this premade world. I love the idea of playing in a well-made, communal setting and if the system is built around it, I could well buy in to this game and setting. Definitely look forward to hearing more about it, Guy!

[@olafmeiner4496]

For 4th edition of The Dark Eye there are 16 (!) additional books of several 100 pages each that contain nothing but a description of the various regions, their geography, flora and fauna, locations of interest, the cultures and their history, important NPCs,... For DSA5 there are 6 so far. Covering all of that in one video is impossible. Not all players are into that (or willing to hand over that much money), but I won't dispute that it can enrich your gaming experience, if you are.

[@darephish2413]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z5CWfaykfaecfsk a very brief summary

[@hermes7587]

Some thirty years ago "The Dark Eye" second edition was my first introduction into role playing games. By that time the rules were far less complex and more easily accessible. We were young and it was a lot of trial and error. I quickly became a game master and played third edition for about 10 years before moving on to varios other systems. I briefly tried fourth edition but was very disapointed about the overly complex rules. It took us the first three sessions just to make characters and in the forth session it turned out that our charakters were really bad at their job :-( The game world is very detailed which has it´s pros and cons: On the plus side there is a lot of lore for almost every area but on the other side there is not enough room to discover something new. From the beginning the game world was actually very small geographically and almost every town and village is already named. As a game master you are running the risk that your players already know the name of the bar tender in every village they will arrive. One aspect of "The Dark Eye" I liked was the fact that the power of the characters does not ramp up so dramatically as in D&D. Even an experienced group of adventurers is not going to level an entire army.

[@fredforlautLP]

5th edition has most of the rules reworked, often with the goal to simplify them, leading to 5th being far less complex than 4th edition. Concerning the game world: Most groups create their own timeline but even if you want to incorporate all the official stuff you can create completly new worlds, even with different physics if you like, through the concept of globules that are embedded in the official world. Other than that Aventuria is just one continent and others are far less explored.

[@Reiji77]

This is so exciting! 😍 Love it that you cover this, Guy. I did start playing PnP with Das Schwarze Auge/The Dark Eye as a player and eventually had to leave the group due to moving and then started a D&D group with old friends where I'm the DM. I remember fights being so incredibly intense and hard since crits you have to confirm by rolling another 1 on a d20 - this happened once with my barbarian where I just cut through the legs of a huge ogre with the empowered strength of my god whispering to me - man that was so damn cool.

[@prrfgoul7507]

I have been playing DSA with my friends for 4 years now. I'm so excited that you made a video about it 🤩

[@thecolumbo463]

You should talk about character creation next, but also lore wise, in addition to technical details. Btw another DSA Fan from Germany :) Love your content.

[@Knopey]

Really cool to see TDE getting some love on youtube. Also, props to your pronunciation of Das Schwarze Auge. To me, TDE is not the best of systems as it is unnecessarily complicated at times and also inseparably tied to the game world (for instance magic and karma). However, the world covers almost all fantasy desires and it's ever-evolving. Still, I believe it is a must-play, so ... glad you're gonna play it. Have fun!

[@HowtobeaGreatGM]

Thanks for watching! We hope you enjoyed our intro to the Dark Eye! Let us know in the comments below if you're going to give The Dark Eye a try in your group. Get an amazing discount here: ulisses-us.com/greatgm

[@Frederic_S]

Das schwarze Auge!

[@tengwean6182]

I started TRPGs with DSA5 (the edition which is the one that’s translated to English as TDE) and I understand where you come from, Guy, but this detailed world suits me so well. I can leave out what I want (heck, it’s MY game table!) and dive deeeeeeep into things I’m interested in. And no one stops you from learning as you go. I didn’t know about the timeline of the Shadowlands before it mattered to my game and when I realised I said something “wrong” I just made it be that the NPC was misinformed. Or I could have changed it. I love the feel, I love the diversity and the cosmology of the setting. And I stick relatively closely to the official setting because I love to learn about this world just like I loved to learn about Middle Earth, the Wizarding World etc. It’s so much fun as a gm and I’m currently preparing my second (ever and DSA) campaign after the last one lasted 4 years and was a blast. There are so many open ends that you can weave amazing stories yourself. In Germany we say that the “RPG-Police” won’t come to your house if you play an RPG not as envisioned by the creators. ;-) So take what you want out of this treasure trove of hooks, ideas and settings and leave what you don’t like. But I encourage you to give the world as a whole a try. It’s so cool! :-) Curious to see your take on the other video topics regarding this

[@Psittacus_erithacus]

Good, thorough coverage. Enough information given to actually give a sense of how the system might play. Much appreciated.

[@Curathol]

Finally! I get so often frustrated, whenever I realise, just how little known DSA is outside of Germany. It's my absolute bread&-butter-RPG, with this near infinite pool of great storys and caring detail to it. It's awesome! EDIT: 18:34: just remembered, they banned all (or most) of the nudity from the English publications. What a shame ...

[@Knopey]

Not a shame to me. Nudity is far too over-represented in Das Schwarze Auge, if you ask me (which I pretend you do).

[@Curathol]

@@Knopey ​ Well, I didn't really ask - since I had no idea, you even exist. But I appreciate the input^.^ ... It's obviously a matter of taste (which means I'm not trying to tell you, that you are wrong). But I always appreciated the depiction of love and sex in The Dark Eye. I wouldn't say, romances and erotic are always a prominent part of my sessions, but they are more often then not *a* part. And for that matter I really like, that the rulebooks basically told you: "It's not weird." Which helped a few of my players out, who were a bit shy about roleplaying romantic and erotic fantasies. And I for my part had some very pleasant experiences (pun only half-intended) in that regard as some of my favorite role-play memories went hand in hand with some good, old nudity ...

[@Knopey]

@@Curathol That is actually quite comprehensible. It is always good when the official resources help players indulge in the game. So much nudity and focus on sex put me off, though. Not really my cup of tea. (My personal nightmare was Andre Wiesler's The Dark Eye Uthuria novel(s? I didn't read past the first.)) So I wish Ulisses dialed it down a bit. Maybe make the lascivious stuff optional as additional downloads perhaps? Ah, I don't know. However, that's just me. (Also thanks for your calm reply. KZbin comments tend to get ugly when a different opinion comes up, so yeah. Kudos xD)

[@HowtobeaGreatGM]

@Knopey and @Curathol - this is a major differentiator between European and British/American publications by the way. It is a cultural difference in visual representation. I was surprised when reading TTRPGs from Europe to see nudity in any form the first time I read through one of the books. Having now travelled and played TTRPGs across the world, it is an interesting quirk of what society finds as art/erotic/acceptable or unacceptable. Bottom line (excuse the pun) the rules do not in any way promote sexualisation of the game in either language :)

[@Curathol]

@@HowtobeaGreatGM Well, it's a fun story about the sexualisation of the game. In 2012 Ulisses made an April's fool about releasing an entire rulebook regarding sexuality. And yes, people understood, it was just supposed to be a joke, but they simply refused to accept it as such. So they started multiple petitions about it and petitions turned into crowdfundings. And a very successfull crowdfunding-campaign later, Ulisses said, they would actually write and publish that meant-to-be-an-April's-fool. So in 2018, we got "Wege der Vereinigungen", an entire rulebook about ... the intimate stuff. Highly controversial book, obviously optional, but it exists ...

[@bloodiedporcelain6320]

I'm so excited to see you talking about this!

[@jakubcanis5076]

I was thinking if I should check the Dark eye out for a long time. I cannot wait to check your videos and then maybe I will buy it and test with my group. I love your content and it helped me a lot through years! Keep it on

[@woutervandevyver964]

Great honest review! On most roleplaying channels you only hear about D&D or Pathfinder, so it's refreshing when another game comes up. Especially it it is the one that got me into roleplaying games. We got introduced to the world of Avonturia when we were 14, playing every Wednesday afternoon after school, making up adventures on the fly. After some years we got into other RPGs, board games etc and we left it on the shelf for some time. Now, when we are in our thirties, we picked up the fourth edition and to us, it felt like coming home. It was great to see how the world changed after the last time we played (for those who know it, we ended with the Borbarad campaign, so Avonturia became a lot darker since we played). And it is definitely great to be able to create you own world as a DM and it has a lot of advantages. However, as a DM you need a lot of time creating and preparing and our DM likes it a lot that he can make use of this well-thought fantasy world. To summarize: I can totally recommend the game and I would love to see a play-through!

[@johntuck77]

I played 1st, 2nd, and 3rd edition of the Dark Eye. Everything you said was spot on - Great job. I would love to see the character creation and how it has changed.

[@lloydgyan]

Your timing for this is incredible. I was JUSt looking into it

[@vendolis]

Thank you for this great video. As someone who has been running a lot of TDE at USA conventions, I wanted to give some ideas on how to introduce the game mechanics a little easier. D6/D20: In almost all cases in TDE, you want to roll low on D20 and high on D6. D3 and D2 are very seldom. 1-D20 Attribute check vs. 3-D20 Skill Check: In TDE there are very very few cases where you would use a direct attribute for a check. In most cases, you would roll a matching skill check. The 3-D20 Check: A lot of people get the feeling that the 3-D20 check is overly complicated. And I get its more than one die and sound scarry to compare each of them to another attribute. First thing here is, take three different colored dice that you roll for each 3-D20 check. Disregard the color per attribute, I have never seen it work without being a hassle. Another thing to keep in mind is that most of your attributes are 10 and above, you might have a 9 in there, but most times, it is around that level. That means you can disregard any result below 10 (45% of the dice). So before you even look at the attributes, make your roll. If you have a crit, you can stop and resolve that. If every one of the dice is below 10, you made it, and if the quality level is not essential, you can go on. Next, you take the highest rolled die and see if you can use your points in the skill to buy the dice down. If you cannot, you failed. I have seen people get very fast with this in their first session. The second thing about skill checks is the quality level (QL). You left it out, and I think that is ok. Still, one key result of the QLs is that a person who is trained at a skill can reach a high quality or equalize bad luck, but a person untrained will never be able to get a master's quality, regardless of how good the attributes are. Another great tool with the 3-D20 rolls is telling a story or adjusting them to the situation. I like to take the skill Climbing as an example. It required Courage, Agility, and Strength. You can use the Attributes to tell the story of what happens: The Courage check fails; you hang at the wall and don't dare to go on. The Agility check fails; you tried to grab a handhold and miss it. The Strength check fails; your fingers cannot hold you, and you slip off. The other option is to modify the required attributes. Maybe you stand in front of the wall and want to figure out how to get up there best. You step back and make a climbing check, but instead of the Strength, I let you roll on Intuition (You need the Courage to gauge what you dare to do, you need the body feel to see what you can do). And what you get as QL, I give you as a Bonus on the final climb. As the last comment to the 3-D20 roll, you talked about the Conditions and mixed Conditions and States. States have a general rule effect, like being prone. There are only 7 Conditions; each of them has levels 1-4. These mostly affect checks (D20-rolls), and level 4 is being incapacitated, in most cases. Combat and the feel of the world: While I agree with you that you can take the system into another setting, a specific feeling is ingrained into the system. One key factor is that there is no resurrection and healing is slow. For example, a typical sword does 1D6+4 damage; a leather armor reduces the suffered damage by 3. So, on average, you are hit for 4 points of damage from a sword, but you only regenerate 1D6 life points per rest period. So usually, it will take you more than one day to recover from one hit. Magical healing only moves the recovery to the mage, since astral points to life points only convert 1:1. People tend to think much more before engaging in combat. The other factor is the "Pain-Death-loop." Each time you lose 1/4 of your life points, you gain one level of Pain. Ending at 5LP with you going unconscious. At each level, you get a penalty on all checks (including Attack, Parry, and Dodge), and your movement is reduced by one. Considering that your parry is about half of your attack, losing points in it is very painful. All of this is supported by the strong skill system and that you play more mundane characters than in other TTRPG games. As for the next videos, Character generation is great, esp when you use one of the two available tools: The Dark Aid or Optolith. But I suggest for inexperienced players to play with the Archetype characters from the Core Rules first and then create characters with what they have learned from playing the game first. So, an actual play followed by character generation, based on what you learned, would be nice.

[@Drudenfusz]

Well, living in Germany I have of course played it. I like the setting, but I can do without their metaplot on which I am really not too keen. So, I think you should talk about Aventuria.

[@MircoBeier]

Recommend you "Orkenspalter.tv"s videos about Lore of DSA/TDE :) Is brilliant to get the basics

[@olovilstein7053]

I actually like the Setting Aventuria more than the TDE Rules for it. Aventuria was my first Setting and it still feels like home especially when you read the new Setting Books and young princes and princesses from my youth are Kings and Queens now. And Aventuria isn't the only Setting for TDE. There is also the Continent Myranor west of Aventuria that is more High Fantasy with much more species, cultures and undescribed areas than the more down to earth Aventuria. But please use the official setting in your play tests to get the right feeling for your players.

[@thodan467]

But Myranor is in Limbo now

[@shelleyrix7246]

DSA was the first RPG I played and DMed (way in 3rd edition). I fondly remember those times. We made the world our own and ignored what didn't fit with our playstyle. As a newbie to roleplaying I was comforting to know, that I didn't have to come up with everything on my own - the existing structures gave me something to latch on to and never let them be limiting - neither in character creation nor in creating adventures. Two things are still vivid in my mind even after over 20 years: As a player: Our group had just successfully completed the adventure on an island in a dormant volcano that suddenly awakened. We were fleeing over in our little rowboats trying to get to the mainland as quickly as possible. My character wasn't any good at swimming and a large wave had her tumbling out of the boat. I had to roll for swimming... and rolled 3 20's. I was stunned silent. The players just looked at me, then at the dice. The DM was the last to notice. I took a lot of damage and it is only due to the combined efforts of all the other party members (and the divine help from my god, Phex) that my character didn't drown because of that roll. She did take psychological damage from this life changing event: She refuses to get on boats, ships, ect. and is generally fearful of large bodies of water. As a DM: My players were having to deal with a particularily nasty NPC, the local lord whose wife had died. The players had reason to believe she had actually been killed but were still gathering evidence. They had found the corpse wrapped in a plain linen cloth in a dirty stable in a crude wooden coffin an a single candle. Not befitting a lady at all and they were confronting the lord about this. He told them that by the laws given by the church this was all they could do seeing as she had commited suicide. He then told them in his nasty way that they were overstepping their authority by questioning his judgement in the matter and that they should leave his property or be chased out by his men. The player of the inofficial leader of the group (a cleric of sorts) jumped out of his chair and gave a passionate speech that had everyone (including me) speechless. Total immersion - something even rarer that rolling 3 20s. :O)

[@greencold3038]

I'm glad my favourite Pen&Paper system gets some recognition. Absolute props to you for pronouncing the German rather well and actually having taken care to understand the rules! Just in case you didn't skip it intentionally: You forgot to mention the "Quality Levels". Whatever you have left in your pool gets translated into a Quality Level. 0-3 = QL 1; 4-6 = QL2; 7-9 = QL3 etc. it feels a little clumsy at first but it makes a lot more sense later on :) Thank you for covering the Dark Eye!

[@HowtobeaGreatGM]

I purposefully condensed or left out certain naming conventions - like Quality Levels - as I felt it unnecessarily complicated the idea from this perspective but yes you are correct.

[@muhrks]

For me (I play this game since 22 years now) would love to see you and your group to play it.

[@sillwullivan83]

This seems really interesting. There is some real substance here. Can’t wait to see more coveted.

[@crumpsbandycooch4187]

I would love to see the lore of the game setting. Btw, I love this series you're doing. It's wonderful that you take the time to introduce your viewers to new systems they may not have heard of

[@whalfar1561]

The biggest problem with " Das Schwarze Auge" is, that this games knows nothing else but rules, you dont have to follow them all but....this world has grown this huge, i would not know how to begin with.

[@MircoBeier]

Basic-Rules fits on a Collageblock-Paper. With time... expand to rules you need, ignore the rest ;)

[@nobody4248]

Ordnung muss sein!

[@NightmareSluagh]

Sounds like Warhammer 40,000.

[@freigeist7655]

I'm just glad you are covering this game. Please continue, Guy!

[@renab.7390]

OMG I love you for making this! As someone from Austria who's been dming The Dark Eye for 8+ years and playing for 10+ years, more exposure for this wonderful RPG is what we need! Also, you can totally make up your own worlds using the Dark Eye rule set if you want. Those worlds canonically exist, they're called "Globulen" and basically are a bunch of worlds existing outside of Aventuria (separated by the ether/Limbus) but within the same universe, with their own rules, lore, geography and everything.

[@ameliafeyparsons4816]

I'd love to either see the Lore or the Character Creation next. Great video. I've always been curious about this game but too lazy to learn about it. Your video was quite helpful.

[@kaigunster5814]

Wheeee blast from the past. I haven't played DSA for the last two (or three?) editions, but maaaan, the memories.

[@Magelord79]

This takes me back! Dark Eye (or DSA as it is called here in Germany) was my very first TTRPG experience almost 30 years ago! I don't remember it being so much dice rolling, but things surely have changed from early editions. I remember the AddOn boxes were really cool. My wizard had a real spell book that came with the rules. The boxes also contained posters you could put on your wall of cool Fantasy scenes. And there was (or maybe still is) a regular magazine that expands on the history and politics in Aventurien. Thanks for the time travel!

[@nerdicted9496]

Cool to see it back. Das Schwarze Auge is the first RPG I ever played and still have btw.

[@Jeremy_Days]

Dear Guy, Thank you for this very nice summary about The Black Eye (or as we are calling it: DSA). I am a German who has played this game for over 30 years. Honestly, I always found the world too much. It is all story overlay with very little influence by the PCs. There are great solo-adventures and great modules and campaigns, but if you generally create your own homebrewn adventures, it is hard to get all interesting facts from the world into it. The only way to do this, is reading ALL the books, ALL the adventures, ALL the newsblogs and magazines... I never really fealt like exploring, because even as player you needed to know about the upcoming town already to show that your character is a real aventurian. I like the lore and the races and so on, but I always felt a little bit constricted. The system had a great share in this. You made the system sound great and after hearing your summary I would have taken part in an adventure at once had you asked me. But I know the system (more detailed in 3.5 and 4.1, but I also played edition 5 a couple of times). The attribute and skill rolls are different, yes. But I don't think that it is better. At first glance I see why you get sparkles in your eyes when you talk about 3 attribute rolls contributing to a skill check and a skill pool and modifiers and result ranges... playing though, it takes a good time for every roll to calculate the result and mostly you forget modifiers (for advanced rules) or don't even bother to calculate and abstract a rough result. It stops the game. It slows down the pacing. It gives players that are not so good with numbers a headache (I've seen this!). It is a nice idea, but it is too much calculation (to increase realism?), and it takes away the attention from the description. Just my 2ct on this. But if you ever wanted to play, give me a message. I am following your channel a while now and I love it. Thank you!

[@Gruoldfar]

I had just started roleplaying the first german rpg "Midgard" when they had an actual primetime commercial for DSA (Das schwarze Auge), the GM wearing a mask! That was in 1983.

[@Labroidas]

Thank you for putting a spotlight on The Dark Eye! It's the TTRPG I grew up with, and it was always strange to me that it's not very known in the US even though the world is so wonderful. It should definitly be more successful overseas as well. It's so nice to see the joy of this amazing world being spread!

[@arcubal]

I have to admit that I was on top of DSA/TDE way back in 1985 when the Dutch version 'Het Oog Des Meesters' (The Master's Eye) appeared on game shelves. It was just as magical a moment as I imagine German kids had with their first DSA set or indeed Americans with D&D. The character creation (and the system as a whole) was much simpler of course but the worldbuilding was there, the weird and whacky first few adventures, and the fanzines that appeared because of it. Last year, when Ulisses came out with the Aventuria Card Game (which brilliantly taps into those original adventures of the 80s) I hunted down the original sourcebooks and adventure modules, as I had gotten rid of them in the early 2000s when I volunteered to teach in Eritrea for a few years. Getting those old books again while playing the modern card reinterpretation was a nostalgic trip and it got me interested, once again, in (the now English version of) The Dark Eye. I'll be looking into getting more sourcebooks (I like the option to get them in softcover) and possibly adventures as well - just need to find a way to get them in Ireland where I'm living now (the Ulisses NA site only ships to North America). To answer your question though: a PLAYTHROUGH would be great to witness. Thanks in advance and keep up the great content!

[@Quotenwagnerianer]

DSA was my first foray into TTRPG many years ago. Someone brought his character sheet to school and I took a look at it and though to myself: "I have to try this". So I bought the starter kit, a few adventure books and started DM'ing. It was great fun for a time, but then we eventually moved on to D&D after about 3 years and I finally became a player myself after being the DM for so long.

[@TheBadmintonBaller]

Nice video, I've never heard of this setting before but I'm curious to learn more. I think setting lore should be the next video, followed by GM options, character creation, then finally a playthrough.

[@ScabiousGarde]

American D&D veteran invited to my first Schwarze Auge campaign, feel like I'm cramming for a big test!

[@marcexner1631]

Of course you don't need to play in the official world of Aventuria to play the Dark Eye. But please do talk about the Lore. It's a very detailed and well thought-out world that may serve as a nice setting, but you don't need to follow the official timeline if you don't want to.

[@666wurm]

The evolving world allows to also play at different times, not only places. That has always been facinating for me.

[@nathankey5246]

Ive been trying so hard to get this across to people. Setting and rules are seperate and independant of each other. On ulisses website where they talk about the scriptorium (aka people's homebrew posted for others to use) they list off various stuff that can be there. New races, new worlds, and cultures and on and on. I can't say it enough. Premade settings are for people who dont want to have to do the work to homebrew. Wanna homebrew? Have at it.

[@megaman5559]

I love your reviews! So much passion and you give great points. Keep it up!

[@sylvaincousineau5073]

This was my introduction to TTRPG , 1985 if i recall . 🍺 ...... Man time goes fast .

[@jancleve9635]

Yes, the developing world and the offical events can be shit. Most german players either hated or loved the Borbarad campaigne because it was a big change of the world. Aventurien (Aventuria) sounds ridicullous for english nativ speakers but is not a pun on adventure. The god of travallers and adventurers is Aves. They named the continent after him. The skill check system is pretty easy once you get used to it. You do not need the specific world but I highly recommend it. Regarding the beastiary, aventuria is low on monsters. Orcs and Goblins have a cultur and not merly ap/exp deliverers. Fights are not always till death and social RPG and skills are more important. If you want a german opinion or have any questions send me a PM.

[@jumpman83]

Intresting! Character creation would be a fun subject to cover next I think.

[@pars3c565]

After DSA and D&D hit Germany in 1984 roleplaying became quite huge over here. I think DSA in its first edition was very quick to learn and very accessible - the first edition was WAY MORE simple then the current editions, which made it very easy to teach to new players, most of them in their early teens. The first rulebook was slim, the system had no skills and so on… Another huge advantage of DSA was the simple but important fact that it was sold in bookstores and toyshops (D&D was sold in toyshops as well), not just in some obscure hobbystores (there where a few back then in Germany, but they were hard to find). Like most German roleplayers of my age I started in April 1984 with DSA, and those early days still have a fond place in my heart- but I liked D&D as well, and when we discovered that there were hundreds of other RPGs around we were totally captivated and haven’t stopped since. In fact, I’m meeting some of the guys I started with in 1984 tonight for a session of CORIOLIS… 😊

[@schroedingerscat5405]

Yes I have played an I am still playing DSA! (4.1 Edition though) I have to say character creation can take quite a while, especially if you are new to the game. Combat is great if it is a duel or with small groups, bigger fights can get confusing and can take ages. Nonetheless a great game and a classic at least where I am from.

[@GalliadII]

4.1 is the best.

[@MrSabachtani]

There are other editions than 4.1? 🤭😜

[@diodemis]

The well defined setting defenitely is one of the game's strongsuits: You can sit down at any GM's table, and immediately know, what stereotypes you would expect e.g from a Cleric of one of the 12 Gods. Not that there can't be any expectation subversion, but you do not have to be explained, what your character knows already, like the kings, the gods or the national food. As a player you can concentrate on how your story unfolds from the very first second, not having to learn a new world on every table. As a GM you can concentrate on creating memorable encounters and stories. You often work in a much smaller scale: Villages with lovable or hateable characters, or a witch-clan out in the forest instead of countries or cults. You infuse the world with your very own ideas, and evolve the world with the players. The vast world knowledge of players empowers them to make large scale decisions (if you are at high level), giving them the ability to shape the world with you.

[@Cornu341]

I remember our encounter with Pardona when a tower collapsed and our whole group was wiped out. Or when my stubborn dwarf refused to let go of his heirloom axe and sunk to the bottom of Firuns realm. Edit: Listening to the video the rules seem to have changed quite a bit compared to when I played in 1996. When I played there were still the negative attributes like Greed and selfishness.

[@styrax7280]

greed and selfishness still are in the game but fall under disadvantages, not attributes.

[@Cornu341]

@@styrax7280 Is it still the case that for a disadvantage check you need to roll higher than your disadvantage score?

[@styrax7280]

@@Cornu341 I don't know if it is in 5th edition. In 4th that was one option. The other was to use it as modifier a skill / attribute check

[@swagsolotl]

@@Cornu341 Kind of. If you are in a situation where your disadvantage kicks in you have to roll on a skill (most times with a negative modifier on the roll). As an example, if your character is a cleptomaniac and he sees something like a Purse he has to roll on the Skill self Control with a negative modifier of 2. If the roll succeeds nothing happens but if it fails the player has to try to steal it in some way or at least try to.

[@cirovirha768]

It was the first TTRPG i played way back when i was a Kid and i love it to this Day. I have Played many other Systems and i never found one as complex and in depth like it.

[@X3110s]

When we started playing (20-25 years ago and for about 2), we used an official adventure, but after after that finished our GM made his own story. Now I play with coworkers (most were new players, but one from the old group) an we are using premade adventures, because none of us is confident enough to build his own. We are also rotating GMs, with turned out to be great.

[@freddaniel5099]

Thank you for this very thorough walkthrough of the basic rules. I have a couple years of experience with The Dark Eye and very much like the system. Rolling against the three attributes rather suggests just where you have failed in your skill use. I have played TDE in Aventuria and find it a setting that I am comfortable with. I do not, however follow the official meta plot. I have found all that business a bit frustrating as Ulysses Spiel's release schedule (at least in America) for adventure path material is abysmally slow. (For two years I would hear promises at Gencon for product that never appeared.) I have started two of them off and then abandoned the effort due to having no new material. I play my various TTRPGs mostly ftf and I will say that finding players who are willing to put the effort into generating a TDE character and learning yet another fairly complex system has been a bit of a challenge. I do have a faithful two who have put the effort forth and found the experience rewarding. I will add that one of them liked the setting well enough to use it for a campaign in FFG's Genesys rules.

[@Dany40-LeFix]

I'm a french The Dark Eye 5th edition GM until nearly 3 years now and it's an RPG is really love to use. To be clear, The Dark Eye (1st edition) was the first TTRPG experience for many french roleplayers in the 90's ... and I was one of them. When I came across The Dark Eye 5th edition, I took it at first with nostalgia in mind .... but when I read it I was really chocked by the actual game rules and the conciseness of the book... and I loved to come back to Aventuria. I really like to thank you for saying that this game system (that I really find very coherent and fun to use) must not be limited to the Aventuria setting. This rules, giving a "realistic fantasy" mood and a really grounded fantasy, are perfect to help players and GMs feeling the charm of Aventuria ... yes it's comes perfectly together ... BUT I will be for me a shame to reduce this system to that. To be clear ... yes Aventuria is a great setting and you only have to read "Warring Kingdoms" (a regional sourcebook) to get a confirmation of that. But with it's long and dense history, every GMs will have to make it's own Aventuria ... because you will never know everything you have to know about this world. The proof of what I'm saying (what YOU said in you're video) already exists : Sandy Petersen's Cthulhu Mythos have just been adapted in TDE rules (in fact DSA, the german version). Being an old Call of Cthulhu GM, I can tell you that the lovecraft monsters are just fantastic in this rules system !!!! For my part, I'm working on an adaptation of the famous Dragonlance campaign with The Dark Eye rules ... because the realistic fantasy this rules gives is perfect for the thematics of this campaign (Slavery, slaughter, fear coming from the sky, mysterious powers ...). And I can tell you that the great magic rules of TDE are very enjoying when you write Raistlin Majere character sheet ! I would really like to have your opinion about the magic rules of this game.

[@Schattenschwert]

I'd like to mention that the dedication by fanbase and publisher is amazing! There is literally a wiki (wiki-aventurica) with every city, important NPC, chronological timelines, mage academies, and so on and so forth - Every bit of information you need to know about the world is on that site, which is the GREATEST thing ever for a DM. I've been playing/ DMig for 15 years and my advice is to not let the "official history" get in the way! Your world is alive and changing with your PCs, so there is bound to be a point of diversion at some point. But still, it's the greatest most detailed world and lore I've ever come across. We've played since third edition and probably will always keep playing 4.1 - our favourite edition.

[@Firnling]

It's so fascinating to hear an "outsider's" perspective on my favourite game! I do understand your disliking for premade worlds... kind of, as I have barely ever played in a world created by the DM. What I love about Aventuria though is the vast amount of lore. The fact that I can look up the name of the beekeepers in the small city my character's granddad once visited still amazes me. It makes the world so much more tangible. And of course it makes the DM's job a lot easier.

[@cmeier1980]

Holy Moly, that was a trip down memory lane... I first played "Das Schwarze Auge" in 1994 I believe. If memory serves well it was still the second Edition and you needed to buy the rules in boxes. fter a couple of years when we wanted to play one of us had to bring a moving box filled to the brim with all the diferent rules and boxes we had. Bestiary, Gods and Priests, Magic boxes, etc. It was wild ;-) My very first character was a merchant. Sadly that class got scrapped in the later editions.

[@puddingsimon2626]

if i remeber correctly, technically dnd was born from the idea that The Dark Eye brought forth back then, but they had problems finding themselfs and what they wanted to do, while dnd was ready to take on a very scarce marked, it would take "The Dark Eye" along time to develop into what it is now, ulrich kiesow wrote alot of novels and the 3 part book series "The Broken Wheel" is my all time favorite, a classic.

[@Sanguivore]

Wasn't expecting a TORG reference in this video! Found an old TORG boxed set with everything still in it at a local flea market a few years back (and I live in the absolute middle of nowhere, so I was completely astounded). Gave it to a mate as a Birthday present, but as we're no longer friends, I honestly wish I'd kept if for myself now, LOL.

[@janthummler3548]

Very cool video, thanks. I find it refreshing, getting an outside perspective on das schwarze Auge (which you pronounced perfectly btw ^^). As you might guess, I, like many commenters here, am from germany and DSA is the frst Pen&Paper i picked up. I don't play it anymore, but still like to go through the books for the sheer amount of options, rules and lore. I am looking forward to you next videos on the game.

[@not-a-theist8251]

I'm german and it was the first RPG that I ever played- SO glad I goz zo make this experience. Couldnt even imagine how different my life would be if I had not tried it out.

[@Youtuubpewp]

Let’s have those characters!! :> I’d like to see what sort of inhabitants live in Aventuria!

[@jenshonermann1140]

I was like 'what is the dark eye?' Then I realized... Well it's the first ttrpg I ever played :D I was just cought off guard by the translation. I got the players handbook of second edition (I think) on my hands whilst I was around 14

[@benkernow280]

I think character creation is a must and a play through would be perfect to see how it plays. In addition the extra video would be a talk on the world to see what the world they imagined is like for the game

[@finlayrobertson1355]

I would love to hear more about this system

[@enericm]

I discovered this game at Gen Con & fell in love with it. I think this video captures a lot of what I liked about the game. I'm going to also suggest character creation for a 2nd video.

[@brezentino]

Played some in 1992 with friends from Germany. It was fun. Still have a core rule book in German somewhere.

[@MischkaRPG]

I am playing it since 28 years. Please do a walk trough of an adventure book to show the huge differnence in quality, for example background information, to adventures from other systems. The quality how they do their adventures, with all the references to source books, is what makes the game that wonderful to me. Additionally the fillable Character PDF with self calculation of calculated values and selectable drop-down boxes for example feats and merits is great,

[@Berens666]

Hey there, i am from Germany and i play the game for 7 years. It´s nice to see, that you discovered the game! Somte things i have to say: The rule system is wuite nice and a lot more extensive than in other games, but what fascinates me about his world is the living history. You´re right, man in the video, you can tell your own sotry, you can change the world according to your own ideas. But it´s great to play in a world in which there are relationships between individual countries and regions, between faith and law, between gangs and cults.. Te experience wars and conflicts and also to be able to understand what led to them. To see heroes being born or to come to a tragic end. All of this is already anchored in a 10,000 year old history and lives on. Of course you don´t have to know the whole story, that would be too much to remember. But you should roughly follow this common thread, add marginal notes in the game about what might have happened. And above all, tie your own stories to the common thread, there are enough "blind Spots" on the map, gaps in the story that need to be filled.

[@theotron3000]

I first played The dark eye - or, as we germans call it, DSA - as a teenager in the mid nineties, and I've been in love with the world, more than the rules, since then. You're right, the world is definitely easier to get into when you've been familiar to it for 30 years, but in my opinion it is a pretty straight forward world that leaves enough space to adjust or find some blank spots on the map that you can design relatively freely. We now started again with the 4th edition, after over a decade of not playing. We play in two groups, one is set some 20, the other 10 years back in the official timeline to avoid recent metaplot stuff that we don't want to play (Borbarad invasion).

[@NyxTyrianthinus]

Great video about The Dark Eye, as a german P&P nerd, it was the first game I realy played a campaign in. Though it is a shame, that you dislike how much of the world is set up, because after playing more than 10 systems and years long camgaigns in 5 systems (TDE,40k BC+Only War, SR, Star Wars,Pendragon) this is what defines my love to DSA/TDE. There are many famouse campaigns where you can live and be part of the defining events in Aventuriens history, like the G7. I played this epic adventure as a consecrated knight of Rondra. Now I am playing in the same aventurian regions as a deciple of Aves and I can see the consequences of the events we experienced playing the G7 all around me. It gives the feeling of having lived through the history of the game world. I realy want to play the campaign for the year of fire as well, so I am even more connected to this part of aventurian history as well. Oh and the shattering of Havenna, that would give so much nice depth to my current character who is from Havenna and is very involved with the temple of Efferd. This way every new campaign you have this moments of recognition. If your GM is especialy amazing you might even hear of the deeds of your former party playing your new character 20 TDE years later. I see the apeal of building your own world as well, most campaigns we played were designed by the designated gm and diverged sometimes quite a lot from the original setting. Though if you want to reach even the semblance of the same depth in a self built world you need to be insane in your preparations. Who´s got time for that?

[@derminneritter7568]

Addendum: Guy, I love the way you speak english. It is easily to understand and so beautifully pronounced... Ok, you earn your money with speech, but others do not care. I think one should invite you to "The Shakespeare Society", seriously!

[@volkerwoll5008]

I remenber DSA very fondly. I played the game in the mid 90‘s and it was my first RPG. I even managed to place a shortstory in the 20 aneversery antologie „Unter Aves Schwingen“. Also I have wandered away to SR, Earthdawn and finaly D&D... After your Video I am tried to renew my Oath to Rondra, dust of my Rondrakamm and once again strike Fear in the heart of my enemys!

[@chrisroth7178]

Imagine growing up with this behemoth of all ttrpg. That's what happened to me, basically. I'm so, so happy I finally switched to d&d and my own world, as are my players. I'll never look back. But nice of you to discuss this system and it's... Complexity.

[@Grimlore82]

The Realms of Arkania for PC is one hell of an awesome trilogy. It was from the early 90s. Nice video Guy ;-)

[@maxschluter4591]

I don't believe it! Finally some awesome content on it! If you need any extra information on the game, I as a passionate Dark Eye player will gladly help :)

[@maxschluter4591]

Oh and by the way... we always play the game in our own version of Aventuria... some big countries or cities still exist (far away from the campaign mostly), but the rest is our own

[@zhufortheimpaler4041]

a very relevant addition: the dark eye is not a Table Top RPG like D&D, but a Pen and Paper RPG. the RPG part is emphasized here. the rules are applicable to board representation, but its not needed, as TDE is not very combat heavy but based around the roleplay. you dont need a thick beasteary from the beginning, as 90% of the adventures dont revolve about slaying x amount of ogres in y dungeons, but in a lot of interaction, communication, fluff etc.

[@frigginsepone446]

A huge fan since the very first box set. Beautiful and wonderful world and rules. Always loved it!

[@SheenaTigerspielt]

Oh, this is a video I have to see as someone having started Pen&Paper with a mixture of the 2nd and 3rd Edition... and now the 5th having properly spilled over into other languages.

[@preekja]

Ha. Man sieht sich immer zweimal im Leben, oder?! ;)

[@PsychoWedge]

Your pronounciation is really good. ^^ I never got into The Dark Eye, because I always heard it was more rules than acutal game play. And there where the Drakensang video games which I couldn't get into at all. It's safe to say, I bounced of DSA pretty hard before ever getting into it. I think the character creation would be the best thing to cover because everybody who wants to play this needs to do that.

[@balea2003]

Hey Guy, I'm really glad you like TDE. I've played it for years and it's definitely one of my favorite TTRPGs out there. Over the years I kinda developed a love-hate relationship with TDE though. Although all the rules seem pretty neat the game has its pitfalls and weaknesses. Let's start with skill checks. Testing different attributes and getting rid of failures by spending points sounds great. In reality, though, it involves a LOT of math. The players have to modify their attributes by the difficulty you set for the test, they have to check 3 dice against these modified attributes and have to calculate the skill points they have left after the test... This can really slow down your game and pull everyone out of the fiction as soon as a skill test is needed. The other major pitfall is making defense rolls. At first glance, it seems nice to have the chance to defend yourself in combat. The problem is you add twice the amount of die rolls during combat just like that. Not only do you spend more time on rolling dice but I also noticed that defense rolls don't feel good for my players. First, they have to roll high enough to get a hit, and after that their hit gets taken away from them. They feel cheated. Like you are stealing their successes. This can get really frustrating for your players if you have a few lucky rolls in a row. The problem is not that they failed their roll but that their success gets taken away from them. The outcome is the same but psychologically its a totally different feeling. One other thing about TDE is the way Ulisses chose to publicize all the materials...to make it short, it's a mess. If you want to have access to all the cool options during character creation and later on (buying feats, new spells, and all that cool stuff...) you need like half a dozen books. There are like 3 books for magic users alone, and if you want to make some kind of battle mage you need 3 more books to cover the profane part of your combat abilities as well. Thankfully, this problem can be solved by using their free online rules wiki: ulisses-regelwiki.de/index.php/home.html here you find all the rules, feat, spells totally for free, searchable, and in one place. It's really a great tool. Well, I didn't want to spoil your fun or anything. I just wanted you to be aware of the pitfalls of a game I'm very familiar with, one you are just starting to explore. This whole text might make it seem like I don't really like TDE but as I said before it's one of favorite games ever and I genuinely hope you and your players enjoy it and have a ton of fun. Take care and happy gaming. =)

[@HowtobeaGreatGM]

Most game systems become complex over time as they're enriched and added to. Dungeons and Dragons is the same. More books, more options, more options more books. The mechanics - well that's one that requires me to play it an then I'll see :)

[@TheGamingReaper]

I won't lie, this sounds interesting, and will have to look into it. Also, I would like to see Character Creation for the game.

[@gesamtszenario]

Still waiting for them to drag Myranor into DSA 5th edition! That would be epic.

[@skeletonwar4445]

@@gesamtszenario Hold up, is it not in yet? Some of my characters might be invalid then lmao.

[@robertnett9793]

A classic I grew up with :D Played the Dark Eye long before I ever heared of D&D :D

[@jaaber7319]

I would appreciate more of this :)

[@Talkshowhorse_Echna]

I hope you do more on this. Its a great system and I have 2 groups playing it for years. The living world can be cool, but I myself decided to only use what I like of it. And you are right in calling it a TTRPG giant, since it is nearly as old as D&D and still an on going system with tones of content.

[@siph0r154]

YES YES YES. FINALLY. As a German TTRPG, DSA (TDE) was my first exposure to the whole world of role-playing outside of make-believe and video games, me being not a theatre kid. I *adore* the world and the system and everything about it, it being a more grounded, steeped in central European folklore world with a system, that matches it's aesthetics. So thank you for shedding light on my passion ^^

[@ranekeisenkralle8265]

This was actually the very first TTRPG I ever tried. many, many years ago. As for the evolving world, you are by no means forced to use the most recent iteration of the world, you can just pick any point of time along that 30-year evolution and use that as your setting. And you can also add your own pockets to this world if you so choose. That aside, I am looking forward to when you tackle Shadowrun at some point. I personally prefer SR4 as the more recent versions have been dulled down way too much by making things more and more modular. From my perspective that took away a lot of hte choice and opportunity for creativity a player had before. Granted, it also meant that creating a character could take an hour or two in SR4, but just having all those options is something I dearly miss in the more recent games.

[@carolannefisher1516]

Sounds quite interesting. I’d love to see a play through.

[@tsandman]

Here's one (they're using the Compendium though, which are additional/expanded rules) kzbin.info/www/bejne/n6rLqYB5i8Z_qpo