The Best Game Master Support for The Dark Eye TTRPG (Das Schwarze Auge)

[@HowtobeaGreatGM]

Grab your discount when you pick up your copy of The Dark Eye via this link! ulisses-us.com/greatgm

[@DelphineTheWorstBladeEver]

Can you maybe do a video about why "having fun" is the game's first priority, and why "rules" come second? I'm a DM, first time ever, 20 sessions in. We have a new player because one of our players moved. The new player is my best friend, and recently got into DND because of my obsession with it. But all he can criticize me on is how I stray from the rules so often. He never has told me anything he likes about the session, but instead always has something to criticize me about at the end. He's got a habit of ignoring me when I tell him I'm capable of looking up the rules after the session... And instead he looks it up during the game. I try to tell him that it's okay to misuse a spell here and there, and then know exactly what it does the next session, but he's always shoving the book in my face. He's about to DM a session, and although he has incredible imagination, I'm almost scared to play his upcoming campaign. I just think he has the wrong idea about DND, and doesn't quite understand that the rules are more like guidelines. I love my friend, and have tried to tell him that any experienced DM would tell him that the rules are second priority to having fun, but I still don't think he understands that DND is supposed to prioritize having fun.

[@Nodjia]

@@DelphineTheWorstBladeEver Your friend doesn't understand the rule of cool, or how a loose system benefits story telling (so long as it is consistent). Basically that is the beginnings of someone who is a rules lawyer. I am not saying this as an insult, it's just how some people relate to others in a fictional world, because the "rules" are what makes the game "fair". Generally speaking, this is the type of situation where you talk to your friend outside of the game to explain that the rules as written aren't always going to take precedence over everyone having a good time and just enjoying the narrative, and if he gets annoyed with it that is something you can work on together. I do stress that if you are fudging the rules in circumstances to help the game progress or the narrative to be more entertaining, make a note of it in an online document or shared list, so that if a similar situation arises later, for example a creative use of a spell to do something slightly different than as written, you have a reference to that type of use having a precedent. Just don't make it a big deal, or a huge mess of cross referenced stuff.

[@ericjoziah5085]

i dont mean to be so off topic but does any of you know a tool to get back into an Instagram account? I was stupid lost the login password. I would love any tricks you can offer me

[@damienangelo1229]

@Eric Joziah instablaster =)

[@ericjoziah5085]

@Damien Angelo thanks so much for your reply. I found the site thru google and I'm trying it out atm. Looks like it's gonna take a while so I will get back to you later when my account password hopefully is recovered.

[@matthiasstoppel786]

As mentioned in comments of your previouse videos to TDE, I appreciate the neutral stance and point of view from someone with DMing experience who is not familiar or overloaded with TDE but exceptional knowledgable in TTRPGs in general and points out what is good on a system and what is not as good from that unclouded point of view.

[@Metalframey]

I agree with your opinion sir!

[@MrEyescream]

@@Metalframey yes! thats awsome! it happent often to me that someone i wantet to tell about TDE was like "..ehw 3 d20 dices? so much abilitys? WAY to complicatet!" this game has so much to offer, al you ahve to do is give it some time to explain itself. lots and lots of this complicatet stuff is briliant and logical if you jsut think about it once or twice. Also you always shuld mention all this books like "Aventuran Magic" or "Armory" are completely optional, you dont need them to play the game

[@Metalframey]

@@MrEyescream I particularly like the look of TDE because it looks like you can literally do anything and it matters! Take D&D 5e eg. I like making items and consumables giving new ways for the party to tackle situations BUT it's to the DM's discretion here theres a whole BOOK ON IT!? plus the cherry on top it guides players AND GM's to avoid confusion a big thumbs up from me who likes to build there way out of challenges :)

[@thodan467]

@@MrEyescream 3d20 aren´t necessary complicated, they´re cumbersome and unwieldy

[@sleazy1drache]

😂 the Bovarad Mosquitos! Yes, i used them once. It was a trap built into/around a lever that opened a door in a dungeon. The lever was inside a dragon head. When the hero reached inside and moved the lever his forearm was trapped, and mosquitoes sat on his arm and started sucking his adventure points away. It was supposed to last only 2 rounds, but he panicked and chopped his arm off. Being a Thorwaler, the hook he later got was on point. That was one of the most memorable characters my friend played.

[@zhufortheimpaler4041]

the most evil stuff you can do to your players are borbarad moskitos, mishkara demons, non voluntary demon pacts and vampires. vampires if they have a certain age are just totally over the top and ridiculusly dangerous. just like horned demons.

[@MrMeanSpeaks]

Very excited to see a live play! Cant wait!

[@beowulftrondesson3117]

I own the bestiary (for the previous edition), but I actually use it rarely. More often I make use of the overall realistic feel of the game and use human(oid) conflicts and opponents (though still the occasional monster is welcome icing on the cake). And while the historical references of the fantastic cultures quite obvious, the real fun begins when you start tweaking the historical original, because it's fantasy.

[@pascalwittmer-braun6025]

What I love is to change politics or level of a groups power by magical reason. You will always find a possibility to bring up a mess out of nowhere and you don't end up screwing the history of the lands. Also magic and (in)celestial blessings work in decent kind of way, so it's not too randomly done. You always think about the backstory if you are preparing your adventures and plan out how it happened. There are many spells and rituals which are not available for more than small group of people in particular. It's very interesting if just one player has the knowledge to work the case out, but the information will be collected by all of them, each after each!

[@Punintelligent]

Yes, checklists for optional rules. Thank you. Why don't more RPGs do this!?

[@tsandman]

Every book that has Optional Rules (not supplemental rules, but optional ones within the supplemental ones) have a checklist at the end for those

[@thilov3338]

I am from germany and we love playing the dark eye. I often ask myself, how to make the rules less complicated especially in combats... But all in all it's a very nice game. Like you said, TheDarkEye takes you by the hand and explains how to gm very nice and the world is endless and gives you a lot inspiration for your adventures :) Please keep making videos about the dark eye!

[@sleazy1drache]

A very useful tool is also the wiki aventurica.

[@vesperiadragon3221]

Based solely on their encouragement to have you be candid in your review, I’m interested in this rpg. Based on your subsequent reviews over these last few videos, I’m going to get my hands on this. :) EDIT: Grammar

[@HowtobeaGreatGM]

Hope you enjoy it!

[@chrisakacanto5756]

It is definetly worth your time. While edition 5 made some changes that are disliked by the german community, there is no doubt that Aventuria is an excellent contrast to DnD.

[@olafmeiner4496]

One great thing about the lore of TDE/DSA is that you can actualyl live it. The Year of Fire (mentioned 10:35) is a campaign for DSA 4. Once you played through that, you will know what happened to Darpatia and why it was integrated into the Western Marks. Then lore is no longer that dry text in dusty books. It is a fond memory of your former party's heroics with lots of memorable character moments. Like the one time our dwarf killed an supposedly invincible foe in one increadibly lucky critical stroke during the siege of a major city. When we visited the ruins of that city in another campaign with new characters, we could see consequences of that day from a new perspective, including NPCs telling stories of that dwarf's heroic duell. For me that was a new level of immersion.

[@thodan467]

That could and should happen in every setting and rule system

[@olafmeiner4496]

@@thodan467 If you stay with one group, then yes, you are absolutely right. But ithe amazing thing is that in The Dark Eye, since it is a shared world, you can meet up with new players in a completely new group and still have these moments. Let's say you go to a convention to play this one-shot with random people and suddenly not only do you recognize names and places, but others recognize you and your heroic deeds. I haven't experienced this with any other game, yet.

[@thodan467]

@@olafmeiner4496 If i didn´t ´d run the year of fire no it wouldn´t´ve happened in my world and that isn´t different from the time of troubles in the realms or siege of tolkeen in Rifts and my year of fire was much different than the official version and the difference in outcome even more

[@olafmeiner4496]

@@thodan467 What point are you trying to make? All I am saying in my first comment is that learning the extensive lore of TDE / DSA isn't neccessarily as tedious as memorizing dates for history class. Instead you can be there and experience it first hand if you want. The second point is that, IF you chose to participate in the shared lore, that CAN be a great experience that transcends insular gaming groups. Nobody is forcing you to become part of it. I DON't say that TDE / DAS is the only game with a shared lore where this is possible. I am merely saying that I personally haven't had this experience with other settings, yet, while it is a major selling point for TDE / DSA.

[@thodan467]

@@olafmeiner4496 That your great thing about TDE is nothing special in RPG, as almost all "great things" about TDE. Remember how the Realms changed during the times of trouble? The only supported world that isn´t officially "developing" is IIRC Harn

[@lukasmorn3812]

will be sure to look into your playthrough. happy gaming and thank you guy!

[@joshuatheawesome9440]

I love the simplicity of 5e, but moving to a more involved system could be really fun with the right group.

[@LosMozi]

Ma dude, check out the kompendiums. There you have hit zones, armed meele styles, unarmed meele styles, rules for crafting with different materials and modifications (e.g.: How does crarfting a longsword with +2AT made from meteor iron influences the crafting check), ruels for living standards. Even the exact costs for building a house are there. I once played in a group where we were a holy order and we found enough money to build our own guild house, with secret underground temple. All with official rules.

[@Rastayeti666]

for me personal the dark eye is to rule heavy (but many are optional, they even have rules for sex), and i have no problem with d&d3.5 or pathfinder. But it gives a huge inspiration to and how to convert some things in easier rule system and maybe its one of the systems with the deepest lore and fleshed out settings ever made. when the dark eye teach you about a jungle, they dont teach you enemies and races, they teach you cultures, economy and rituals of every tribe, pages of vegetation and what you can use it for, diseases, climate......and thats for every single region :D

[@Rastayeti666]

@Hauke Holst as you said, the core rules are easy and mostly consistent while in dsa i experienced them as clunky and couterintuitiv (at least the old ones, its been a while). And yes d&d and pathfinder have tons of stuff with tweaks and modifications, but nearly all is based on the rule of 20 which makes it consistent

[@pascalwittmer-braun6025]

@@Rastayeti666 TDE is also very consistent! TDE uses three attributes to check a skill instead of just one. You just need to underthrow them. Because of three attributes, your proficiency bonus is like a pool of points. It can vary from 1 for an inexperienced guy to 18 for a grandmaster. You can spend these points flexible on all three attributes to equalize your throw and make it work. I don't use 3 dices! That's rubbish! I throw just one d20 three times and count every single throw what's left from my skillpool. If there is anything left, it worked! If it's not enough and I'm getting in debts, I failed. If your attributes are high and you are a very proficient master in this skill, your DM could give you a high penalty/difficulty and you will still succeed anyway, just because of your experiences. Otherwise a fresh noob without proficiency must he very lucky to throw 3 times under his attributes, because he has nothing to equalize. Even if the DM makes every attribute of the throw 3 points easier , it's not to easy to be successful! These Skillchecks work always in this way. For knowledge, abilities, talents, spells, magic or prayers for celestial blessings, it's all the same. Compared to this system is a DND skillcheck like flipping a coin compared to a dice throw!

[@russelljacob7955]

6:30 is a very good one. Summarization and ad hoc. The section seems to very much address some of the RAW player metality. I use 6:30 to example because for many years, I changed how stuff was done in home game to eliminate monotony. Checking for traps is a prime example. I REFUSED to play trapfinders because of how horrible "checkfortrapscheckfortrapscheckfortraps awww you forgot to check that for traps" play is. So I prerolled secret rolls when I prepped. Party had a default order so I assumed that unless actively doing something, they are that default order. I can then treat it as roleplay, not rollplay. For me, repetitive monotony is one of the biggest killers of enthusiasm, and am impressed these creators have a section devoted to play style and tips.

[@Jeremy_Days]

Thank you, Guy! I am a German and have 30-odd years of DSA experience, but I must confess: I didn't know about the many useful questions in the back and the 7 player types they present (I must have read this way in the past). The latter sounds very much like the list given by Robin Laws (Glenn Blacow), though there are still differences. Anyway, I need to re-read this part, it seems. Good Work!

[@kumasilverheart7192]

Great Video. This was my very first TTRPG. I and my friends got totally overwhelmed (in a positive way) by it and the possibilitys Pen and Paper has. I`m glad you cover this now, I think it deserves it. greetings from Europe.

[@Frederic_S]

Thank you for the honest review of germanys most beloved ttrpg. Tde equals ttrpg to me.

[@bakuubb5718]

Just to grasp how detailed the world of Aventuria is, there is a Google Earth Addon called "DereGlobus" (Dere is the planet Aventuria is on). This addon let's you view Aventurias map in detail, with every little tavern, village or city that was ever mentioned in any publication. Most location are even linked to the german The Dark Eye Wiki so you can get a lot of information on the fly.

[@twincast2005]

10:00 It's a real shame that the other continents of the world, all of which explored in DSA's 4th edition, have yet to get any official TLC in its 5th edition. (Some details on those further down in this post.) Aventuria excels admirably at its stated goal of "fantastical realism" at the micro scale, i.e. every homestead, town, or region on its own (with one major exception explained below). Partly due to the sheer depth of the descriptions that have built up over time, partly due to the areas reflecting late medieval and/or early modern European villages/cities/countries/societies veritably exuding real authenticity, whereas their counterparts on Oerth, Toril and so on feel like theme park depictions of Europe. (However, the Aventurian stand-ins for Scandinavian, Arabian, and Mesoamerican peoples certainly have their fair share of well-intentioned exoticism mixed in.) But it falters completely at the macro scale, i.e. the continent taken as a whole, mostly due to decisions made at its very creation. The two "original sins" are: 1) The tiny absolute size of the continent. There are counterparts of most European cultures and then some on an area of about the size of _Central Europe._ This causes a general problem and one specific issue on top. There's the question of plain believability of so many vastly different cultures, mostly within very stable borders, on so small an area, but that might be handwaved in a pinch. What can't be reconciled is the fact that the "huge, deadly desert" poses no threat of getting lost as you can see the surrounding mountains at all times and is small enough to cross within a few days. The frankly inane reason given is to keep travel distances between interesting destinations short. As if people were forced to play out the journeys in detail! On the contrary, those who do enjoy detailed travels between points of interest don't really get to ever experience long ones. A common approach in player/GM versions of Aventuria is to double the distances, quadrupling the area to a sensible size. 2) The huge relative size of the largest country, the Middenrealm, which covers almost a third of the continent, while the many countries surrounding it each have maybe a fifth of _its_ size in the very best cases. Defenders of this (of which there are many as the country is - naturally - home to most player characters as well as the setting of most major events/adventures) claim that this is fine as the "poor" country is supposedly weakened by political infighting as well as the death toll from leading the liberation wars of its eastern third from demonic occupation. But that is a temporary weakness at best, and one that none of its smaller neighbors exploit for territorial gains while it lasts, so the whole argument immediately implodes on itself. Almost everyone who has played The Dark Eye started out following the Living History's metaplot, but it is far from rare for people to eventually branch off into their own timeline (and/or stick with older adventures of which there are so many). In my case, while I have some issues with (few, but central) elements of the fifth edition rules, the reason I decided to no longer purchase almost anything but the solitaire adventures was my utter disdain for what was being done with the metaplot. Late 3rd edition and early 4th edition introduced major threads/threats. The last five years or so of 4th edition took them (first the rival to the imperial throne of the Middenrealm, then almost all of the demonic realms) off the board while providing us with nothing in exchange. And after starting off with a - literal - bang five years ago, 5th edition is just now getting around to following up on that. I'd like to adapt these cosmological shakeups for my Aventuria once they finally - maybe - happen, but in my timeline most of the aforementioned pieces are still on the board with the official Middenrealm as seen in the rulebook having been divided into three parts of roughly equal size between Emperor Selindian, Empress Rohaja, and the Dark Coalition. But I digress, sorry. What I actually wanted to talk about are the official settings other than Aventuria. Up until about twenty years ago (in the real world) the continent was thoroughly isolated from the rest of its world via magical barriers erected by the very gods. Frozen ocean to the north, impassable range of gigantic mountains (plus seriously treacherous waters) to the east, boiling ocean to the south, and eastward-only winds and currents to the west. But all of those that count have since been weakened to various degrees. If the enormous (to explain the many climate zones on tiny Aventuria) ice-shield is hiding something at the north pole, we don't know. To the east there's the postapocalyptic bronze age swords & sorcery continent Rakshazar. I don't know how far along its adaptation to the fifth edition is, but ironically enough it's definitely going to be the first outside Aventuria if it isn't already. Why do I say ironically? Because it's fully a fan project that took what few titbits of lore had been available before and ran with them. Why do I list it here then? Because while technically non-canonical/unofficial for legal purposes, it has uniquely seen acknowledgement and support by Ulisses with limited high quality printruns of their PDF books and what extremely little has been heard and seen of the continent in official material since having taken elements from those fanworks, most notably the primary proper name for the continent itself. To the south there's Uthuria, the (oversized) Africa to Aventuria's (undersized) Europe. First launched about a decade ago not as an independent setting, but as a place for Aventurian player characters to newly explore, it hasn't really seen much use since. To the west there are the magotech magocracies of Myranor, the major realms being a vast quasi-Roman empire long past its prime, bogged down by bureaucracy and nepotism, but still chugging along, a quasi-India led by amaunir (the most populous of several species of catfolk), and a huge (sort of Mad Max-esque) evil empire worshipping the Nameless One. The primary appeal to me (out of many) is that its cultures' pantheons actual feel like real world ones thanks to their multigenerational celestial families, unlike the Aventurians' more... clinical views on what happens in the heavens. It is the continent with by far the most official books released outside Aventuria (but for perspective, there was a lot of ebb and flow over the years, so on average it's fairly comparable to print D&D5e in frequency) until a year or two into fifth edition on Aventuria Ulisses retracted the sub-license for Myranor from Uhrwerk, a publisher run by former Ulisses staff (it's complicated), with nothing in the pipeline for the continent by Ulisses themselves. Furthermore, there were a setting box and a couple of official adventures set in the Dark Times, over a thousand years in Aventuria's past, which is kind of similar to Myranor in many ways (other than which non-human sapient species/player character races are present), but considerably darker, basically a fantasy version of the Christian myth of decadent Rome right before it fell (in this case to demons). And finally there's the hollow world quasi-Japanese archipelago called Tharun. Originally created way back when as a short-lived campaign setting for epic level Aventurians to go heroically overthrow an oppressive regime, it was revived by Uhrwerk for fourth edition with a character creation book, a setting guide, and (with much delay) an adventure anthology before they lost the license for it as well.

[@twincast2005]

On a side note, other than a barely detailed region in the south of Myranor and their (playable) small diaspora in its north, Tharun is the only place in the world for Asian-looking people to come from. (That said, its population consists of descendants from various parts of the surface world, which is also why the sub-archipelagos are culturally more diverse than you'd think at first glance. On that note, ignore the run-of-the-mill Caucasian hero illustrations from the setting's original release.) Aventuria does have a very cool island called Maraskan whose culturally unique population combines Japanese architecture as well as weapons and armors with Subsaharan dress, a dualistic religion, and even more gender equality than the Aventurian average, but genetically the island's population is a mix of the quasi-Arabians to its west and the quasi-Europeans to its north. Speaking of gender equality: Novadis, Andergast and to a certain degree all druids are your average patriarchies. Amazons, Arania and to a certain degree all witches are equivalently matriarchies. Native ork culture is extremely patriarchal. Native goblin culture is extremely matriarchal. Pretty much everywhere else has full legal equality, and the ususl RPG trope of no different max ratings for attributes is explicitly canonical as well, providing equal ranges in every single physiological aspect not directly related to procreation. Illustrations and descriptions do tend to adhere to different ranges of stature and musculature etc. akin to the real world, though, leading to countless fan debates about whether creators' unconscious biases result in inaccurate depictions of the actual setting, or whether while the ranges may be the same for both sexes, the distributions within those aren't equal. Similar goes for whether there should be 50% female soldiers and smiths etc. or whether other factors (like precious pregnancies versus fairly expendable sperm donors) make them - while more common than in the real world - still less in number than their male counterparts. Finally, I want to address the "cultured species" (or however they translated the term; to put it simply, the player character races) on the five continents. In fourth edition Aventuria had humans, dwarves, elves, half-elves, half-orks, orks, goblins, and achaz (the most numerous - and most humanoid - of a handful of reptilian races), but in fifth edition we're still left waiting for the latter half to be playable. Now, while they all differ from both D&D and WoW norms, the only one really crucial to note is that many millennia ago high elves went and conquered all of Aventuria's surface (while the dwarves were controlling much of the subterranean) until it all fell to ruin due to corruption by the Nameless One via a draconic agent of his posing as a deity (which is why all properly raised Aventurian dwarves hate all dragons despite there being both good and evil ones), after which the few survivors came looking for guidance from the wood elves who had stayed in the area where elves had first entered the world from the realm of light and never strayed from the ancestral, natural ways, meaning that other than a few elves living in human settlements (and the demi-demonic dark elves living in domes under the sea in the far north) all elves in Aventuria now are of the tree-hugging (yet far from pacifist) type. Orks and especially elves differ tremendously in Rakshazar. In Myranor there's a race of werewolf half-elves, while dwarves are a slave species to another diminutive subterranean species, grolms, who in turn have a long but very minor presence in Aventuria. And that's it for the classics elsewhere. In Myranor there are loads and loads of different sorts of anthropomorphic species, most notably half a dozen types of catfolk (representing cats (in both wild and domesticated subvariants), lynxes, lions, tigers, leopards (black panthers), and snow leopards (irbises)), plus some from Greek myth (e.g. satyrs) and a few others like a winged one, a four-armed one, a hermaphroditic one, and more, most of these created by mages in ages long past. I believe Uthuria has some overlap with Myranor, but (other than quasi-African and quasi-American humans) is skewed more toward lizardfolk species. On a side note, Aventuria in turn has a number of "beastingers" (?) - intelligent, talking animals akin to ones seen in traditional fairytales. But NPC-only. Oh, and at least in Myranor and Tharun you can ride on giant insects. Quite possibly in Rakshazar and Uthuria as well. Just a fun little factlet in closing. 11:00 I am frankly baffled that they didn't actually translate "Marken", i.e. "Marches", not "Marks".

[@thodan467]

I think that in theit goal of fantastic realism the game failed utterly rules and setting. I find it absolutly believable that Kiesow played out the travels, sort of at least and others did too

[@EnraEnerato]

So I remember visiting one of my local stores for rpg supplies etc. it's a chain, but the chain and the single store have an entire shelv with 3-5 dozends books (all different from another) to supplement each other and make Aventuria even more indepth. You have titles like "ways of magic" (Wege der Zauberei) a not so generic map book, kind of like an Atlas, but a bit different, the bestiary, books for reagions, books for cultures, history, local geography and the list goes on. I think that's what makes DSA/TDE so great the world is feeling alive, somewhat messy, complicated all the parts are interconnected and react and act upon certain events, my closest aproximation in SciFy terms would be Shadowrun, Star Wars (FFG version) and maybe Warhammer 40k, but the fantasy warhammer is just as living. I still think there is a difference between all of the later and DSA though, it is more or less "self contained" for a lack of better words, it is dynamic, but it doesn't change as much as for example the Warhammer universe/s, it changes and yet stays somewhat the same, kind of like the real world, "same, same but different", in those other systems change is somewhat rapid, new things are sometimes pulled out of the hat and thrown at the customers. DSA is a bit different I believe, the world was there and so was most of the lore, a lot of things have been put into the" ages of myth" but even as the world changes (that magazine once a year) it evolves, you don't get thrown into the mess with "Here are new bad guys, have fun, no it doesn't matter where they come from." kind of situation, there is an evolution cause and effect it's slower and feels more natural.

[@lastbaumstanding1802]

Be careful: a lot of the DSA supplements are half/one third reprints of rules from other books.

[@pascalwittmer-braun6025]

The "Way of magic" rules book is from TDE/DSA, but it's 4.0 edition. It's from the most complex DSA/TDE rules edition ever. The proclaimed edition in this video is the shortened and renewed 5. Edition. Don't interchange them! It's the same game in the same setting but under different rules. The dice throws seem to be the same, but the skillchecks of the 5e don't work exactly the same way as they did in older editions. They got this new "result-level" or "grade of succes" system, that's why it's calculated a little differently. Even if it should be the same lore you shouldn't mix them! DND5e and DND4e isn't interchangeable either and you wouldn't use both rules in the same session for the same actions. TDE is the English version of the German DSA 5e, which is a simplified shortcut of the older versions.

[@styrax7280]

I'd like to get an oppinion on Ulyssess' product range from someone who plays in 5th? To me it seems quite excessive: armories for every region no matter how little the differences, three different blank books and even a kamasutra-analog?!

[@lastbaumstanding1802]

@@styrax7280 I played it quite some time and TBH most of the extra rules are super useless. Sure it is cool with all the extra info but you mostly dont need it. The Magic and the Cleric books are not bad, but they have a lot of reprints in it. Grab the CRB, the Almanac and ask what your players wanna play and maybe get another expansion. The Price value in DSA/TDA is pretty bad

[@pascalwittmer-braun6025]

@@styrax7280 it's done like DND in pathfinder books. It's very similar to books like "Icewinddale", "Ravenloft" or "the Saltmarch". All people and regions in aventuria differ from each other. So these books are portraying the differences in cultural behaviour and the diversity in their weapons and their fighting style. Of course you could say the Spartans fought with shield and spear or shortswort, so I can use the stats from Caesars Legion as well. But they are not Italian, they are Greek and they would have different training and a whole different world sorounding them. That's why Ulysses built up these guides, they enable you to set up your own campaigns. So you will find very regional tropes, plothooks, PCs and NPCs and the description of their lifestyle. You don't need them to play an average character in a prescripted adventure for this area, but if you wanna work out your own regional campaigns, they should be worth it! They are pretty detailed and adventures keep up to them. So any experienced player could recognise the details even if he plays for a oneshot in another group. "This isn't Darna tribe, these guys are from the Uthullus, of course" Even if both tribes life in the southern rainforest and only wear a piece of leather around their genitals. "This Boron cleric is clearly from Al'anfa and the other one is from Warunk, for sure!" I would see it immediately, even if both are blond and pale or are wearing their helmets, gloves and chainmail with heavy plates. Even if I would meet both of them in the centre of Gareth. It works, because Ravenguards from Al'anfa looks always the same and Golgarites have a unique armor and weapon too. If you see any traveler you can assume where they are from. And the keys to this assumption should be the same for everyone. This is what we call a "recognition worth" because you feel immediately familiar with it! It's very helpful if you wanna dive in deep and go for immersion. So Aventuria is in this case a whole other world, than the DND realms and well-known to the players. That's what these books and pictures are good for! You want to write your own campaign for your players to be fierce warriors with axes? Maybe with sailing ships like Vikings? So you need buy "Torwal" and you can read how living in an Ottajasko or sailing a dragonboat through a storm will work out. You wanna play like Indiana Jones or Jack Sparrow, between Indigenous people, human reptilians and African warrior tribes, then you need to buy "damping jungles". If you wanna play oriental campaign with Haj’Mammudin, Djinn lamps and fairy tales from "1001 nights" you should give "Arania" or "Manadistan" a try. So you could create every special characters from this areas! But you don't need them to use a buyable prescripted adventure. The prescripted adventures have everything you need for a group of average heros in it! From statboards, to maps, to pictures, enemies and plothooks.

[@mmelmon]

"There's stone rather than grass. There's snow rather than grass." Lol. I must use that description for at least someplace.

[@carolannefisher1516]

Brilliant review - you make it all too tempting. I can’t wait for the play through! Will you video your prep for it? As an aspirational DM, I find that sort of video most helpful!

[@HowtobeaGreatGM]

That's the plan!

[@MrSabachtani]

I always am a fan of your pronunciation. It is spot on!

[@PaddyANS]

OMFG! DSA Das schwarze Auge - The Dark Eye in english! NICE! but im from germany, so pffffffff... it is the most famous german P&P game and its 5th edition now. You - my dear friend - run through it. Not bad, you sayed so much in this short time. But i have to say: It wasnt even the tip of the iceberg! there ist so. soooooooooooo soooooooooooooooooooo many more to say about. but what i want all of you to know. Its a campaign and progress based game for longtime fun. And the mortality is way lower than in DnD. Its a more friendly world. (you cane play a cthulhu horror plot if you want, but its not standart.) since 5th edition you have a way more thin rulebook. less rules. its a total overhaul of 4th edition, whats the most komplex and complicated rulebook ever made. but dont think its a little friendly dicegame. every time you make a skillcheck, throw 3D and fu*king love it! :D and if you want to know a secret: There is a rulebook, called "Die schwarze Katze" and you play cats. awesome cats. Money are smal bells and you wear tiny shoes and little weapons. its awesome!

[@svenuckermann3196]

One Point from a german DSA player (dark eye) : best part for a gm is that every book, region etc hase small adventure seeds, you have a regular newsletter with adventure ideas and also a lot of adventures to buy, and because of the shared living world it is quite easy to play with multiple groups (like on the discord server I am a member of), so gm 1 can run adventure a, gm 2 can run adventure b and that adventure is set after a ..... well great ... even profession discriptions (like the cloak and dagger book "Klingentänzer" .. every fencing master has its own mini adventures and hooks.) SO as a gm I can look up the profession of my players, the region or the time etc and have a huge libary of hooks and ideas and then every so often you can play a comercial adventure and everything slots more or less in.

[@thodan467]

Interesting, i found that the setting books before very poor in adventure hooks and themes,

[@danmehring7880]

Thanks for this! Can't wait for you to play a session. Don't go for the all too mundane adventures. Bring out them mega serpents!

[@danmehring7880]

Also when using Fantasy grounds, the 3 dice rolls are done in one click. I really enjoyed this.

[@keiths81ca]

Guy, an ad cut part way into your GM 'rant,' awesome.

[@SuperUnnamedplayer]

The Dark Eye TTRPG books look like they'd be fun to read even if you don't plan to use the system itself. Plenty of stuff to use for inspiration or if you're like me, just as a nice fantasy book.

[@shieru2207]

Can confirm, sunk hundreds of Mark into TDE 25 years ago, never got to play, still had a blast reading all the rule books and campaigns

[@heldengrab8312]

Looking Forward to your adventure

[@caligo7918]

In fourth edition, Orcs and Goblins are playable races. So that might come for 5th Edition at a later time

[@marcelosilveira2276]

5:10 I have a very strong opinion on that one. GMs don't demand you describe your attacks correctly, actually, often they will ask you to just say "I attack", because they don't understand the nuances of combat to understand what your combat manuvers are suposed to do... but then, when it comes to talking, they demand you talk word by word what your character says. Now, notice the double standarts: if I want to play a warrior, I don't need to know how to fight in real life, just to say "I attack", but if I want to play a socialite, I better be some movie star or something, because they will stick to the letter of my speech, instead of letting me say "I will try to persuade him" and roll the dice. It goes in directly oposition to the idea of what a ROLEplaying game should be, if I should know exactly how that character speak and have the same expertizes as him to play him properly. This mentality forces the players into either playing themselves or some tugish character that need only say "I attack", because the gamemaster won't give him the same freedom to deal with social challenges as they get for physical challenges. I attack, I jump, I climb, none of those you are asked "how do you do that?" "no, no, no, I want you to DESCRIBE how you do it, not to say you do it and roll a dice" etc. Personally, I find it extremely disengenious, I pratice(d - before lockdown) martial arts, and most combat scenes that GMs describe are absolutely nonsense, but the moment my character try to manipulate, intimidate, lie to someone, or try to use a knowlodge I don't have, specially if the GM have that knowlodge, sudenlly I'm supposed to describe how my character does that. It annoys me to no end that they will ignore any skill I actually have and tell me to just roll the dice but expect me to have, irl, other skills that my character have but I don't.

[@andarted]

Yeah, I 100% agree! I give up good fighting skills or high life energy to have a high social skill, but then the GM demands that I play every conversation out, and punishes my player character with failure because my real life me don't has a high social skill. Then the dull warrior enters the conversation and speaks in simple one or two syllables words, but builds a rhetorical construct like a 21st century lawyer - and the GM goes along!

[@marcelosilveira2276]

@@andarted damn, I have a friend that is like that... He is a smooth talker in real life, so he dump all his points in breaking the combat system (he becomes literally unbeatable in most new systems that didn't got a decade of balancing experience), so he is literally perfect. Doesn't help that the GM just happen to like the cool things he does in combat and becomes more lenient woth what they try/say

[@thodan467]

@@marcelosilveira2276 I would consider that cheating

[@thomasgovens5622]

first

[@great_lord_of_madness3507]

11:00 Well, the year of fire was a series of great battles against the "heirs" of the mighty mage/demon master Borbarad (yes, the one who created these little nasty flying buggers...among other nasty things). In the events great parts of Darpathia including the biggest military city Wehrheim, a part of Gareth, capital of the garethian Empire and biggest city of Aventuria, some of the holiest artifarcts of two churches and two emporers got lost. "The year of fire" was a campaign in three parts after the epic Borbarad-campaign (about 2 years of regular playing in RL) or "The seven Marked Ones" and before the "Splinter Dawn"-campaingn. The reamains of the former pricinces of Darpatia and Tobria became the new eastern boarders ob the garethian Empire, the Eastern Marks. If U ever wanna play a Ohshitohshitweregonnedie-to-maybewecanmakeit- to-ohshittheyareeverywhere-to...letsbringhimfinalydownatanycost-campaign, then "The seven Marked Ones" should be your choice. Playing or even mastering this one is deninitly something for your CV.

[@MrEyescream]

oh you shuld mention the great community behind it :) for example the orkenspalter community helped me with some really short questions, understanding some race mentality or even with creating a whole new charakter with ideas and feedback

[@OMentertainment]

I'm really curious how the video games compare to the tabletop (thats how I learned about this setting) The way you described the history lore, reminds me of Pillars of Eternity.

[@zhufortheimpaler4041]

for 4.1 there was a book called wege des meisters -> the ways of the gm, wich includes everything you need to learn how to gm etc. it was about 180 pages. in 4.1 there were 15 regional books, each around 230 pages, wich describe every region in detail with culture, land etc plus for each sub region there are detailed descriptions of each larger town plus maps. to that there was the aventurian atlas, with relativly detailed maps for whole aventuria (like a road atlas), the geographica, wich is comparable to the almanach today, wich was a summed up version of the 15 regional books, bestiary and herbarium etc. the zoo botanica, a more or less full bestiary and herbarium wege der alchemie, the ways of alchemy. a book containing alchemy rules, artifact construction, magic materials etc. wege des schwertes, the ways of the sword, wich included the advanced and complex skills and combat rules, wege der zauberei, the ways of magic,wich had the rules for all magic traditions and their rituals wege der götter, the ways of the gods, the same for clerical or priestly traditions wege des entdeckers, a book about survival in the wilderness etc the 12 blue gaming aids, wich contain stuff like trade relations, secret societies, dungeon design etc etc etc (these are specially made for the gm role) and the liber cantiones and liber liturgicum, for spells and divine acts. in german there is a s**t load of material, plus the aventurischer bote, aventurian messenger, a quartal newspaper with ingame news and ongoing metaplot plus convention reports, house rule suggestions etc. you dont really need everything of that tho.... but if you play for 25+ years, some stuff ends up in your bookshelf. i hope that tde5 will some day get to the same level and that you players overseas soon get the full package not only the tde light with basic rules and only and overview of the lore and world the year of fire is by the way one of the larger campaigns and is a very relevevant ingame event, as it marks the end of the borbaradian war and the liberation of most territories wich were occupied by demon worshippers. during the year of fire the city gareth and its sorrundings were mostly destroyed and the emperess of the middenrealm, rohaja, started the itinerant court, where she and her court travel from kaiserpfalz to kaiserpfalz, visiting her local kings, counts and dukes on the way, the route is dependant on the political situation. (like the german emperor did in medival times) in the end, you dont need the bestiary often, as tde adventures and gameplay does not really revolve around slaying beasts and monsters, but more on interaction and roleplay, intrigue etc. i can remember only 3 instances in the last 25 years my groups fought something bigger than a bear. and in 2 of those cases it was a dragon. didnt end well for us, even tho,we were high leveled. the exception are certain campaigns like the sieben gezeichneten / the seven marked, wich is about the beginning of the borbaradian war, but thats endgame content with very high lethality for player characters. (my group had 2/3 of the group killed and replaced when we reached the end) often its more mundane like finding a grave in the deep woods to release a trapped ghost, on the way you stumble into a gang of thieves, wich are not happy about that etc. i dont own the tde5 bestiary, but in 4.1 creatures had something called a thread level from 0 to open end, to indicate how dangerous they are. as example the karmanthi, a lower demon of nagrach (the archdemon of cold an frost, deadly merciless hunt etc), wich manifests as calf sized ice cold demon dog with glowing eyes. its thread level is 10. for each additional karmanth the level is raised by a few points, as the demons hunt in packs and coordinate. (also demons are no laughting matter, even the lower demons will cause mid exp players a lot of trouble, horned ones are deadly as the netherhells)

[@magiv4205]

As a 4.1 player, I appreciate this comment alot and agree that the sheer wealth of information in DSA is absolutely incredible. Recently, one of my group found a page where almost every available pdf of every existing edition was collected for download purposes, similar to The Trove for D&D. It was like we found the One Piece, we were absolutely extatic. Of course, using VPNs, we proceeded to download it all over the course of a couple days just in case the site got taken down. Give me aaaaall that juicy lore and worldbuilding please.

[@thodan467]

You don´t use domestic animals like watchdogs? I´d 5th level Rondrian who chopped a Zant = horned (greater) Combat to pieces and went one that her Rondrakamm was called demoncleaver and

[@zhufortheimpaler4041]

@@thodan467 yeah ronnies can do that, as they are specialised more or less for that. put most other player characters infront of a zant and they end a s minced meat

[@thodan467]

@@zhufortheimpaler4041 Not necessarily, most PCs can have blessed weapons and i ´d mundane Characters with mundane Kit stopping a demon long enough for a mage to banish him.

[@zhufortheimpaler4041]

@@thodan467 yeah but the blessing needs to be prepared ahead and in most cases lasts only a few days, as the long term blessings until the next solstice are higher level and thus not very common. But even a mage will neet to either have banish demons wich is very rare or enough arcane power to blast the zant with ignifaxius or an other direct damage spell repeatedly.

[@madengineerkyouma]

"Sure all the TTRPG rulebooks give the same advice to the GM" **Laughs in FATE, Apocalypse World, TOON and Burning Wheel**

[@Shamustodd1]

LOL I love the self righteous GM voice.

[@kornrat8284]

One thing to notice here: this is a relatively low fantasy world that origins in Germany. For us it is fully okay if an adventure does not use any special monsters. For me personally in about 30 % of the cases where we meet to play TDE there is a monster involved in the Plot (and in 70% it’s not). A skeleton, a zombie, a dragon, all these monsters are very rare, even in an adventurers life. So my main character only met one dragon in its life and only one time there were undead to fight. (I play the char probably since 5 years regulary) For some long time after the release of the core roles there wasn‘t even the bestiary available. There is a difference in mentalities, for us a monster is something special and the existence of one is deeply integrated in the plot, while for americans monsters are a normal part of the world an adventurers will meet them at every corner. Both are absolutely fine play styles.

[@kornrat8284]

Hauke Holst of course, but looking at The region Gareth - Havena, the horasian empire, the Kalifate and AlAnfa, in all of this settings monsters are not that common. Of course even there are exceptions but generally speaking...

[@processseer6693]

You can‘t have a medieval fantasy world with the common tropes and monsters running around everywhere at the same time. If Zombies, Dragons and Werewolves roam free around the lands then the villages, cultures and people would look and behave ENTIRELY different than what most people imagine rpg fantasy worlds to look like. So yes, low fantasy is the way to go and it makes the rare encounter with Skeletons something special and exciting.

[@thodan467]

I remember many stories with monsters, even the 2 TDE adventures i know include monsters. My first character met at least 3 dragons one was killed by the group(suicide by party) a few demons along the ride etc. all in an official campaign Undead werren´t an unusual encounter in the black lands or demons or demonic creatures

[@torte21175]

@@processseer6693 I wouldn't say its the way to go. As Kornrat mentioned, both styles are absolutely fine. But Aventuria has the "problem" that it is very small, so except for the Shadowlands and the mountainous regions, there isn't that much room for hordes of monsters like in huge worlds like Faerun. So yes, Aventuria has the classic German/Central European Medieval setting as a background, with many small villages and civilisation, where the chance of being robbed by a group of bandits is higher than encountering a bear or pack of wolves, while in America - to the day - those are still real threats in the wilderness (lets not talk about snakes and scorpions in some parts) - so of course their are complete different mindsets involved.

[@marcexner1631]

If you like Borbarad Mosquitoes you will also like The Year of Fire because Borbarad is behind all those things.

[@einCAA]

The year of fire is a campaign with a length of 3 books, where each book has the size of a PF or D&D campaign...

[@Mythraelis]

And it is the worst campaign ever created in DSA (TDE). :-D But this may be a subjectal and not objectal opinion.

[@einCAA]

@@Mythraelis the first book is one of the best adventures ever published. The third book is okay. The second book is not talked about 😂

[@Mythraelis]

@@einCAA I played the Borbel campaign one and was the DM in 2 Borbel campaigns. Year of fire was awful because of its over over over the top stupid high fantasy stuff paired with the immense railroading. A human mage more powerful than a demigod and a undefeatable undead dragon (there are no stats like life or mageresistance in the book). No way, this is a candidate for best adventure ever published. I understand, that it was a more or less necssary campaign to break the middle realm and its kingspeace and so on for creating the space for new settings but the way they delivered it, was mehh in my eyes.

[@einCAA]

@@Mythraelis it is awesome because of the over the top high fantasy stuff ;-)

[@Mythraelis]

@@einCAA :-) Never discuss taste. Even in rpg games. Hope you had fun with this campaign.

[@lurchlurche411]

I gm for half a year now, beginning with an older version, but somewhere in June we switched to the rulebook you present. Currently, I'm preparing my first dnd Campaign, and while reading through the monstrous spell list, I just realised, what I am missing. In tde, i guess(never used the english shortened form), there is a downside, a risk to every action you choose. In dnd, sure, you miss a spellslot, if the spell misses, and that is bad, but I mean, in tde, you want to hit harder? OK you can, but that means, you decrease your chance of actually hitting. whereas in dnd, its for example almost always the spell safe dc, whether you want to slow down a creature, or outright incapacitate the opponent. and dont get me wrong, I am very curious of the crazy epic stuff, our party is going to be able to do in dnd, and how much easier everything is going to be for the party, probably, but it just struck me, that the benefit for higher risk thing isn't as present, and I had to verbalise that somewhere. Liked your video very much, and a good day to everyone who actually read up to here.

[@billybridges5467]

Guy, great review as always, thank you. I do wonder if the writers of the Dark eye are considering Roll20 or other online platform support? This is quickly becoming the new normal for gaming in this new COVID-19 world.

[@twincast2005]

They have mentioned a couple of months ago that they're working on _something,_ but no word yet on which platform that is, let alone when it'll be ready.

[@OverboardDM]

Sounds cool

[@Slippy6582]

I play DND and i play The Dark Eye and i am also leading an group there... DND is easy and it just makes fun to play, we are on an island with dinosaurs, that´s something spicy and i really like it. Why do i say DND is easy... Well, if you know the rules of "The Dark Eye", everything else so far i have learned is EASY to understand. "The Dark Eye" is also the perfect example how Germany works... There are a lot of rules, bureaucracy and "the try" to think of every little detail possible. Both games are great, but DND is more fluid, even if you know "The Dark Eye" very well, there will always be a discussion about something, but that´s also something that makes it special and interesting. Soooo... DND FUN, The Dark Eye is more mature... That´s how i would describe it

[@thodan467]

try Midgard, you would be surprised

[@jaaber7319]

Seems that you are as hooked on TDE as I am :) Greetings from Germany!

[@keinname6431]

>What was the year of fire? "In the year 1002 BF, 25 years before the year of fire, Gaius Cordovan Eslam Galotta was the mage of Emperor Hal's court and he was orde-" "Please just tell me about the year of fire..." "We get there when we get there!" Soooo, I take you will not dive into the lore of the Dark Eye? Shame, would really love to see how someone new describes it

[@TheScorpioProject333]

If they add a CR to the monsters I will buy straight away Hopefully they hear your voice because this seems almost perfect

[@torte21175]

@how to be a great game master I too appreciate the neutral look onto TDE from someone that hasn't played it (in German) for over 30 years now and point out what's good and what isn't. The Dark Eye has a very different approach on the understanding of role playing. And one for sure is: it's mostly not us versus monsters, but most villains will be NPCs from a different faction or with their own agenda. And unlike D&D it emphasizes to avoid combat and find different solutions. But that being said, even most wild animals can be a deadly threat to a group that isn't made up of Knights/Fighter and Combat Mages (both of which are rather rare in the world - most characters are meant to be commoners that somehow find themselves in unusual circumstances). I do feel though one important tool for GMs is being forgotten: the structure of each adventure itself is made to help GMs to sort important from unimportant events.

[@thodan467]

most characters are meant to be commoners that somehow find themselves in unusual circumstances No, bakers are the absolute exception and btw most animals aren´t a threat to humans

[@torte21175]

@@thodan467 You seem to have a very fixated opinion, so its not worth mentioning that in 30+ years of DSA/TDE most of my parties consisted of merchants, rogues, craftsmen, hunters, etc. and the minority were Warriors or Mages. And if a mage then usually more of utility magic than pure damage or summoning. And the most deadly encounters in 5e we had so far were with beast and their special abilities. So I do appreciate the range of commoners that TDE offers.

[@thodan467]

@@torte21175 Interesting because that was what i got from the German TDE community, which btw did put down craftsman skills to mostly unimportant tasks and some GMs to XP sink More interesting because the adventuring merchant is a character "class" in Midgard far longer than in TDE. The merchant gave short play in TDE2 but was dropped in TDE3 IIRC for unpopilarity . Rogues, woodsmen etc are classical adventurers Animals usually don´t attack humans, exceptions exist if they ´re feeling threatened etc. or are man eaters, guard dogs etc. and really as an old TDE player, shouldn´t you´ve gotten the sugar baker innuendo? Personal experience, i saw in my over 20 years of Roleplaying only one craftmen being played in TDE but i saw at least a few merchants in midgard.

[@WarThrawn2]

Wonderfull!

[@Aurora2097]

Hate me for the picknick simulator... but i love the dark eyes traveling system with random encounters, calendar, weather pattern... awesome!

[@nyar5863]

The Zoo Botanica Aventurica of older editions is far more encompassing than the 5. Edition Bestiary. It mostly concerns animals and plants, but there's plenty of monsters to choose from as well.

[@tengwean6182]

I think the almanac is supposed to go with the rule book so the bestiary was basically moved there. But i realise that’s kinda annoying if you’re not planning to play in Aventuria. Interested to see yout take on it. Thanks for the video.

[@snapshot79]

I think you did not comment on expansion of the rich world description of TDE. Actually one of the TDE creators personally knows George RR Martin. One day he said to him: „Your description of Westeros is a joke compared to Aventuria“ There will be 23 regional descriptions each 230 pages to describe Aventuria. The Almanach is just the absolute basics.

[@Bartoc1988]

Just grab the old 4th or 4.1 boxes. Every part of Aventuria had lots of fluff around them + the bonus that they are all openly leaned on real world aspects makes it even easier to expand on it without going against the intended aspects.

[@thodan467]

@@Bartoc1988 Books not boxes andthey´re not leaned on anything in the real world but they´re popcultural counterpart especially movies

[@Bartoc1988]

@@thodan467 Thank you for correcting me. I see the errors of my world now.

[@thodan467]

@@Bartoc1988 Sorry, i didn´t want to preach but this difference in detail was for me an history nerd in my first years the source of a great but subtle communication problem at the gaming table. What many called a realistic medieval setting was in truth an hollywood popcultur somewhat renaissance aka fäntelalter setting

[@Bartoc1988]

@@thodan467 I rather expected to tell me that the BOXES were in 3rd edition Dark Eye and not 4th as I wrote.

[@gtosh1097]

nice haircut😎

[@gerrimeister]

What kind of adventure are u gonna play? One of the other things about TDE is the huge amount of prewritten adventures available (at least in german). With huge quantity of them, the quality does vary quite a bit, but if u find the good ones its quite nice. And u can iterate your own ideas onto most of them.

[@kobaltblueknight]

So, speaking of GM support; I couldn't really find anything in the Core Rulebook about things like building settlements, building dungeons, using traps. Is there a seperate book that expands on this for the GM?

[@Mythraelis]

As a long time gm in the TDE my questions are, what would do with rules for creating a settlement and why you would need them? Make your settlements natural. A village or several villages need a mil at some point, they need water etc and most of them have a shrine for the agricultural goodess peraine or the goodess of hospitality. Ask yourself, if it would be realistic, that your created dungeon with orcs and orges is under the castle? Improvise traps. A hole wayblocking trap in the main entrance would not be really realistic, or?

[@gendor5199]

What I want to know: What kind of games are this system made for? Like how D&D is made for players to reach god levels of spells at level 20 or so, Pathfinder is more smaller but still turning into heroes. What does das scharze auge that makes it different? What kind of games should be played using this system, and what games should NOT?

[@Talkshowhorse_Echna]

After 3 years with the dark eye, i would say its a more lower level setting where the smith and his friend the farmer can meet a mage and slowly become adventures. It is perfect for people who like more fable like short stories or a long campaing with the goal of becomming a well known hero. But in the End you will allways have to fear some enemies that will stay stronger than you. In short. Its perfect for the unexpected hero or a good story driven journey.

[@tsandman]

It's lower level, I'd peg it between "Sword & Sorcery" and D&D It won't turn you into a God, but you won't find wonky jumps in your character power either as the growth is organic. "Adventure Points" aka "XP" are the same points you get at character creation. so if your Gm is more generous, you'll "grow up" faster, but you'll never be able to cast Atomic Bomb or Summon Dragon Swarm or Transmute Planete...

[@vendolis]

The system focuses a lot on the skill system. Combat is deadlier and has a lot more lasting effect than in D&D. Even in the base rules in TDE you lose defensive ability when you get hurt. And healing is much, much slower than in D&D (It takes you more than a day to recover from one average sword hit) ... So, Monster of the week is not the play style that is really supported. I see my emphasis more on problem-solving and detective stories. Fights are often not to the death, but most opponents will try to flee if they see they are losing. Sames goes for the players, to avoid situations that might not be manageable. In this system, a highly trained knight can be killed by a group of farmers with pitchforks. In general, I see monsters as far less prevalent, and there are more encounters with humanoid dangers.

[@pascalwittmer-braun6025]

TDE can be a high fantastic world like DND or Pathfinder! Dragons, flying elf ships from the past, big temples of humanoid reptilians where the gods seem to be demons (and sometimes are) or even giant war battles with Orks or Ogres. But it's also kind of "fantasy-realistic" in its own way and the rules point that out in a very good way! As example a single advanced Ork or a very experienced goblin could cause you some troubles if you are a fresh baked knight, ranger or even a mage. 3 advanced orks at the same time could kill an experienced warrior. A experienced warrior could still fight 3 noobs at the same time. But such a situation or even more enemies, could become dangerous for him, because of the "action economy". A heavy plate armor could help, by sucking up the damage, but it also lowers your attack and parry abilities. The earlier DSA had levels from 1 to 21+ like DND. The lifepoints a character can get through experience shouldn't improve much more than a double from his start. Even for the most experienced warriors. But his weaponskills and his abilities will improve a lot. Imagin level 20 DSA/TDE felt like level 10 or 12 in DND, but you could chose 2 special abilities or a new spell every level. So even if the levels are a little different, its easier to compare them to each other and run them together. Also magic works differently. You don't use a spellslot system. You will have a pool of astral energy and a list of spells which you learned. You can learn new spells, but you can cast every spell on your list, as long as you have the energy and prove a skillcheck for it. Every spell you cast will drain points of your pool untill you are exhausted or "empty". It will regain after a while though. The more power to the spell has, the more astral points you need to spend. Some spells even take more time to cast, than you have in one round of combat. So action and energy economy is everything and even magic isn't so much op like in DND. But it's still fun to play a witch or a sorcerer. I can't complain about playing a witch who has rules for cursing/hexing a perpetrators or brewing some lovepotion in a cauldron. Her combat spells aren't as powerful as a fireball, but she still could try to conjure a very powerful demon without the help of her sisters. But in general for all magical character classes, you will have some restrictions and single spells will be a lot weaker than some in DND. But normally you can choose a lot more class abilities which are very good to roleplay therefore. TDE has thousands possibilities for magical or clerical Charakters. The "blessings" of the priest and paladins work different than magic though.

[@preypacer]

First off: Love your review! I really enjoy your videos about TDE. It's what brought me to your channel. As someone who played TDE since 1984 through all editions and having seen it grow both rules and lorewise it's interesting to hear the opinion of someone new to it. Also I'm anxious to hear your opinions about the lore, the world of TDE and its cultures. I could imagine that the lore of TDE, being from Europe, might be perceived differently by someone from a different cultural background. I'm really looking forward to that!

[@sirpwn8538]

If you want to have a look at the continent Aventuria, there are several sites: At first, there are all (!) crunch rules for free on the official website: ulisses-regelwiki.de/index.php/home.html - But I'm not sure if everything is already translated. Furthermore, we have the fanmade travel map for Aventuria: avespfade.de - which translates to "Aves' paths" with Aves being the demigod of traveling (and having the funniest priests and travel stories in the books) And, finally the fanmade Wiki Aventurica: en.wiki-aventurica.de/wiki/Main_Page - it's the most important source of fluff for me, but not everything is translated yet. And yeah, fluff is what makes TDE so great.

[@RobertVlcek]

Aventuria Almanac... HA! 5th edition, hold my beer. Way of the Master (Game master book), Castles and Honkey-tonks (about buildings), The Horas Empire (book about a specific region, No12 in the series), Way of Alchemy (Rulebook just about alchemy), Way of.... You get the idea. And I have only a few books. Admittedly, a few things you point out sound as if these should have been in the 4th edition. There was a really good article in the 2nd edition I think, talking directly to players and how they can make the life of a game master miserable.

[@tsandman]

unfortunately, there is a *LOT* that isn't translated into english yet

[@RobertVlcek]

@@tsandman Yeah, I guess that's the case, however the 5th edition is fairy "new", not really, it's about 5 years old but the 4th edition had so many books (over a dozen books just about regional lore) I have the impression the 5th edition is a bit behind even the German version. Anyway, it is nice to see that DSA as we say for short of "Das Schwarze Auge" comes around because it has a lot to offer. Although I wasn't always happy with that, I admit that, but if you are a good enough game master you can pull off some really good adventures within the lore or just with its help. I even thought of writing a little language book because one of the regions is influenced by 17th century France (Musketeers and Cardinal Richelieu) and early Renaissance Italy (the time of Rodrigo Borgia), a very intriguing place but I was never sure how to play my character, how to swear or just make a comment. Is it "Allons-y" or "Andiamo", does thos depend on social status or is it a Northern-Horas/Southern-Horas thing... My guess, they could and would even make a compendium about all the languages if they had the manpower 😅 Like I said, despite some flaws (in my opinion the lore is a bit convoluted in certain areas and is more for those who don't want to bother to build their own world - then btw its perfect!), it has a lot one can use for a good role playing evening. Or two. Or three. I'm actually a bit excited to see this Dark Eye experiment he talks about in the video...

[@pascalwittmer-braun6025]

"the way of...." Is 4. edition, that's true!

[@thodan467]

Way of the Master (Game master book), Heaven was that thing horrible, the ODnD encyclopedia had much better GM advice

[@cacklebarnacle15]

To be fair, my groups tended to jump between timelines without really adressing it. There are a bunch of really good ready made campaigns and some of them are years apart from each other, so what?

[@andarted]

There is an google earth add on for the word of TDE. Here is an old video that presents it. It's a fan thingy, though idk if they managed to translate it into english till now. kzbin.info/www/bejne/lYmukKeqatKafqs

[@snapshot79]

Character creation in TDE5 is much easier than TDE4.1 😂! TDE 4.1 was like a life simulator, you could compare it to the kind of flight simulator where you need to spend 300 hous just to train taking off 😂

[@devilbhrothesavage2807]

TDE4.1 will always be the only system Ill ever touch.

[@snapshot79]

Dani the Mayqueen Yeah, you had to go through 5 spreadsheets to determine if your final farming skill is 4 or 5 😂😂😂

[@Hagenfels]

And if you use Optolith, you can pretty much push out a fully skilled and equipped character or NPC within 5 to 10 minutes without even breaking sweat.

[@beageler]

... You want moskitos as easy monsters for the players? Well, to each his own, I guess, I prefer to have my bestiary not include useless filler.