The Dark Eye - The One Shot Playthrough (Das Schwarze Auge)

[@HowtobeaGreatGM]

Thanks for watching! Want to see how we put together this adventure? check here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oYKwi52il5ynZrM or get an amazing discount on this game here: www.ulisses-us.com/greatgm

[@lancepickett5653]

Guy, it would be interesting if you had a short chat with us who watched this it would be helpful as well.

[@arisavage4221]

Regardless of anything else said in lower comments, thanks for doing these Dark Eye videos. I'd been considering the game for a while. I now own several of the books and am learning to run it for my friends.

[@zhufortheimpaler4041]

well ive watched it completely and must say, interesting ideas, not the way i would have done it, as it strays away from the tde lore but thats fine overall. a dungeon crawl is just very atypical for tde adventures and more of a D&D thing. your representation of elves in aventuria is a bit off, they tend to stay away from humans and dwarves and live in more or less hippie communes to keep a close connection to the "light" of being an elf. they are more like north eastern us native americans, unlike the d&d elves. dwarves on the other hand tend to keep their records and stay away from any kind of magic, as it brings ill luck. the dwarven god´s are Angrosh who created the dwarfs and some minor deities like the rest of the 12 as servants of angrosh, formerly pyrdacor the god dragon until his betrayal. elves do know that there are gods, but chose to not worship them, due to the damage said worship to the wrong god and the revenge of the 12 had done to the high elven society/culture, that it broke down into stone age like tribal cultures. this taboo of worship has prolonged for such a long time, that the elven tribes have no longer the concept of worship and cant comprehend the concept of religion in human/dwarven/ork etc societies. also elves are unable to comprehend certain types of magic. demonic magic in special. necromancy is demonic, elves have next to 0 knowledge about it. aaaaaaand elves have no concept of monetary values or monetary systems, aswell they dont have the concept of property. your portrayal of jansu as an elf would fit more to Pardona the damned, first of the night albs (dark elves) and high priestess of the nameless she is a bitch and regularly intervenes in aventurian history even tho she would have kicked the group in the ass with ease a small note on names: elven names consist of an elvish name and a nickname and a clan name, they earn. like this: telirion crystalarrow dhá yeanshiae dwarven names consist of the surname, son/daughter of and than the surname of one parent. like this: brombolosh son of darulosh i like kethyriel, as the character portrays a classic tde glade elve almost perfectly. tally is a bit strange but okay, i guess he would have had more fun with a gjalskerlandish spirit warrior or something like that. even tho, he had a strenght of 15, that would require the advantage hightened attribute, because attributes are capped at 14 during generation, unless the race, culture, profession or advantage increase the max value and i must say, i wouldnt had accepted molly as character in my group as gm. its purpose build rule breaking and violating powergaming, ignoring basic lore of the gameworld and the character creation was likely not legal. the combination of elf who had a dwarven upbringing and then went to a guild academy is EXTREMLY unlikely and thus needs gm permission. the amount of special abilities like combat reflexes, gifts like dwarven nose etc are staggering. the amount of disadvantages he has, but conveniently forgets to apply is also mind blowing and very likely he got more points through disadvantages than legally possible during character creation. his mix and match building of his character also violates certain character creation rules, like spell distribution levels for his tradition (the beard growth cantrip is not availible for guild mages but only learnable after creation etc) but also his character violates lore based rules and disadvantages and advantages he gets with his profession. mages from the guilds are forced by law to openly display their mage status, are forbitten to wear armor and arms like crossbows, chainmaille etc. the effects of the iron ban or curse of iron are severely and would neutralise any kind of magical regeneration and powers this character may have posessed, prior to wearing armor, turning him into a mundane person without magical powers. he has several automatic disadvantages like sensible sense of smell and skill inabillity drinking (dont know how its called in tde english) (part of the elven race kit) that prevent drinking alcohol, smoking tobacco or consuming anyking of fermented or cured foods as they smell vomit inducing to elves. how many ap did you use during character creation? some of his special abilities are extremly expensive during creation and he has ALOT of them. the next problem i see, are his cantrips, as he missuses/abuses them. the flaming finger costs for every activation arcane power and gives light like a small candle at max. and how many AE does he have? he has spend more than an beginner character is able to have with the backstabb by jansu, you would have used intuition and he would have had a dodge/evade roll on his base parry value + his dodge skill - his encumberance. in most cases this would be the average roll on 8 on a d20. drawing weapons or getting combat ready takes 1-2 actions, if you have quickdraw its a free action for one weapon. the body control checks and every other physical skill have added difficulties for encumberance. in case of body control it is encumberance x2 as added difficulty to the skillcheck. fall damage is not reduced by armor but he may perform a body control check to reduce the damage by 1d6 per quality level the balsam salabunde takes 45 seconds to cast and then 4 minutes 15 seconds to be "used" to heal, so 1 game turn. he pays minimum 4 arcane points for 4 health points, but each hp costs 1 arcane points. to heal wounds you need a minimum spell skill value of 7. also in that case you need to remember that he wears armor and thus has an added casting difficulty for ban of iron. when in combat, you have to announce special moves like faints beforehand and deduct the difficulty from you attack or defense throw prior to rolling. 18 damage on a two handed warhammer seems a bit high, as it is 2w6+3 damage the action for getting the water from her clothes would be unarmed combat wrestling the whole interpretation of ignifaxius and paralysis were questionable at best. ignifaxius damage is reduced by armor, he has invest prior to casting an amount of AE to determine damage, he has to announce the modifications prior to casting. spontaneous modification reduced casting time is 3 points per modification, guild mages get a bonus of -1 to this, so its -2 for the modification and -2 for the ban of iron, so a difficulty of 4 or more on the spell casting. same goes for paralysis, but here you have to substract her magic resistance from the final value and then you define the quality level. ( in this case it would be max quality 1, the victim is slowed down and has -1 ini, -1 at and parry, profane weapons still apply damage. the total paralysis will only set in if you reach max quality level after deducting the magic resist.an object in max level paralysis is not able to be damaged, except by specialised damage spells. the status effect burning is 1d3 damage per combat round and only applies to burnable objects, in this case janso was wet, so not burnable. fire damage is not reduced by armor also she had a dodge against the ignifaxius -2 - her encumberance.

[@arisavage4221]

@@zhufortheimpaler4041 While all of your lore concerns were accurate, some of the rules details you cited did not sound quite right. Some of them sound like 4th edition rulings rather than 5th. I've done some basic calculations on Molly's disadvantages and he seems to be fine. He has a large number of disadvantages, but seems to point them out whenever they actually come up, and most of them were cheap anyway so he could easily have stayed within 80 pts. Firefinger's cost would have made more than perhaps one daily use of it for his purposes too taxing.They were using 1100 AP, so he would most likely afford the effects used. However, Bartwuchs would be available during character creation for a guild mage - per the 5th Edition DSA core book they start with 1 out of tradition spell which they can treat as in-tradition. It's a ridiculous use of that feature, but, well, it's his character. Modifications also work differently in 5, though a penalty would be applied to reduce casting time as Ignifaxius requires two actions to use by default in addition to any Bann des Eisens issues. The action economy issues, with everything drawing and firing or swinging like it was no big thing without indicating they had the right trait to do so did irk me a little too, as did the paralysis issue, but on the whole I felt it was quite serviceable. New players AND a new GM for the game and the world are bound to have some issues.

[@zhufortheimpaler4041]

@@arisavage4221 yeah i have not touched tde5 for 2 years now, as it is still incomplete and is missing core elements

[@Mjolnir007]

Mad props for not playing a Marbo-Cleric delving into a tomb, its players with this kind of attitude that The Dark Eye was made for. Rules aside the lore and roleplaying is what makes it so worth playing TDE.

[@bogaty72]

When Tally fell and took 8 LP of damage, it's normally the case that the character can roll a Body Control (Jumping) check to reduce damage by 2 per quality level. Also, for the Balsam Salabunde spell, you don't heal four Life Points for one Arcane Energy. It's a 1 LP for 1AE ratio with a minimum cost of 4 AE. The maximum amount of damage you can heal is equal to your skill rating in the spell.

[@WarpedLord]

I've been reading through the rule books and prepping to run my first TDE adventure. Watching this just got me even more excited. Thanks for the great playthrough, everyone!

[@sturmkind]

You wanted us to pin point Gameplay mistakes: A 3d20 Check is only critical with 2 or 3 Ones rolled and don't need to be rechecked like the 1d20 check Critical. Same counts for botches of course. So mathematical spoken: 1,1,X; 1,X,1; X,1,1; 1,1,1 = Critical Sucsess 20,20,X; 20,X,20; X,20,20; 20,20,20 = Botch 1d20 Checks need to be rechecked, if you roll a CS or Botch. You roll a 1 and recheck it with a failure or a botch, it's degraded to a normal success. You roll a 20 and recheck it with a success or critical success, it's upgraded to a failure. Combat rules are even more complex: A unsuccessful rechecked critical attack has a bonus (defense against the attack is halved) and a successful rechecked critical get the same advantage plus all damage of the attack is doubled (before armor protection).

[@giovaniteixeira67]

I'm just going to play D&D.

[@sturmkind]

@@giovaniteixeira67 have fun 😉

[@bogaty72]

Molly misunderstood how the paralysis spell works. He needs to inflict 4 levels of paralysis to achieve the effects he was describing. The GM was correct in his interpretation of the condition.

[@derminneritter7568]

Finally, I´d like to thank you, Guy, for your fair and extensive review of The Dark Eye. Allthough I´m still sad about the fact, that you didn´t present the World of Aventuria - the best about TDE - in a greater scale. I really do hope, that there will be a big community of TDE-players in the english-speaking countries. And thank you, too, for the very nice playthrough-entertainment. Until then, I wish you the very happiest of living :-)

[@giovaniteixeira67]

I'm a brazilian new RPG player/gm. I just discovered this system/world and prefer D&D5e for it's simplicity. I've created my own lore based in D&D content, but I'll expand my knowledge studying other games as Call of Cthulhu and Das Schwarze Auge, and then adapt to my own system.

[@SheenaTigerspielt]

3:13:10 I fully agree with Molly. TDE was always having the feeling for me that it works best long term. The characters are to unfocused with the huge amount of specific skills with so much room for improvement.

[@pascalwittmer-braun6025]

TDE is a game about character development, that's true! You will always improve yourself and gain new skills and talents. Usually you start small and will become a famous hero, as long as your journey goes. There are single adventures, as well as huge epic campaigns available in Germany.

[@Hagenfels]

Just a little note on the critical sucess skill check at the beginning. A critical sucess happens only if two of the three dices have a 1, but there is no need to roll again.

[@Hagenfels]

at kzbin.info/www/bejne/hnjNhqZqi8-rpck Most dwarfes do not realy subscribe to 12 gods except of Ingerim/Angrosh, and the old dwarfes didnt even know of Boron. That one was dragged along with the human settlers of Aventuria.

[@TheNetterRiese]

or all three 1s

[@derminneritter7568]

The short silence when Jansu asked Tally if he had something long and hard with him made me smirk...

[@bogaty72]

For spell modifications, you may chose one modification for every 4 levels of skill that you have in the spell so Molly's use of Ignifaxius could use up to 2 modifications. The use of the enhancement, Intense Ray is only allowed if the character had purchased that specific ability (and was allowed to purchase it based upon their school of magic).

[@lancepickett5653]

Not only the cool kids hang out over the oceans, but the used to be cool ancient kids at heart.

[@SirFleisch]

So many rules mixed up, but its sooo entertaining! I still dont know if this is a display of the actual game or rather homebrew. Well, i think this homebrew did make it better!

[@bogaty72]

When making a skill check using 3d20, you need to roll two 1s in order to obtain a critical success. There's no need to roll for confirmation. When you're making an attribute or a combat roll using 1d20 and you roll a 1, then you roll a confirmation check to see if it's a critical success.

[@fletcherkristian1298]

Great Playthrouhg. I liked it. I just had sometimes to bite on a lemon how the Lore was used🙈. I was pleased to see how fast you were resolving skill checks with the 3D20 rule 👍 and I was a littel bit surprised how often you asked your players to roll a skill, it seemed to me that you tried to show everyone of them😂. As you asked for some rule feedback: - as some peoble already mentioned two of the dices have to show 20 or 1 for critical failure or success. And there is no confirmation. - There is no such thing in TDE like Magical fire. Fire is fire and the person will stop burning when strucked with a Paralys. - When you throw water at an opponent you can use the skill body controll or an attack with unarmed combat and maybe just use the base value. - The characters regain one fate point after every session and all after the adventure is completed.

[@AlexBermann]

There is magical fire. First, you have effects like the Brenne toter Stoff which Burns even if the material isn't flammable, when the object is underwater and so on. Also, you have demonic fire of Agrimoth.

[@fletcherkristian1298]

Alex Bermann hmmm... couldn‘t find That in TDE 5E.

[@styrax7280]

I agree with Alex. Fire is magical if it's sustained by magic alone. So the burning status from the Ignifaxius spell is mundane fire, while the spell "Brenne toter Stoff" (eng: Burn, dead matter) is magical as long as the spell lasts. After that it goes out (no fuel, under water) or becomes mundane. For demons you could argue that it is a sustained magical effect (because the body of a demon on the material plane is pure magic) or that it's the result of demons' / chaos' corrupting nature

[@pascalwittmer-braun6025]

There is magical fire in Aventuria, but the Paralysis-Spell puts you in the state of elemental/magical stone. So under duration of the Paralys you are not able to burn anyway.

[@pascalwittmer-braun6025]

There is magical fire in Aventuria, but the Paralysis-Spell puts you in the state of elemental/magical stone. So under duration of the Paralys you are not able to burn anyway.

[@tirirana]

I love the badoc Elf

[@michaelmerkle6838]

Really great game. Since You asked I want to point out a common misconception for Aventuria. Hilldwarfs are pretty much hobbits as far as lore goes. It's open to interpretation, I know. But reading the texts with that in mind, it becomes clear.

[@derminneritter7568]

Yes, they are Dwarfes by "Race", but their culture is like hobbits/halflings (there are no such ones in TDE)

[@arisavage4221]

Personally, while I do think Molly would have fit a bit better as one of the rare Guild Mages who actually are Dwarves, he acts more like a mixture of a Daimond Dwarf and maybe a Northern Aventurian. So I'm more picturing this ridiculous Elf kid growing up among the world's most accomadating enclave or Daimond Dwarves who keep him around because he's amusing, and also because they feel sorry for him because he's a) Colorblind, b) suffers from some form of OCD, c) has no common sense, d) clearly has nowhere else to go, and e) clearly suffers from some sort of biological disorder due to being a fat elf with no tolerance for heat nor cold. He's like a one-eyed puppy that can talk.

[@michaelmerkle6838]

Molly is funny as hell. Nothing wrong there. It's a one shot, details like this are less important than having fun. That said, I was mostly refering to Mollys scottish and therefore dwarven accent. I wanted to point out the way aventuria treats hobbits and gnomes. By race they all are of dwarven descent, but as far as culture goes the hilldwarfs are halflings and the diamanddwarfs are tinkering smallfolk. Maybe I'm wrong, but when I hear scottish in a game, I see a thick armour, a massive axe and a mind like a brick around a body shaped like a keg. (U know the tropes) I just don't see Merry or Pippin, that's all.

[@arisavage4221]

@@michaelmerkle6838 Ah, I see. My only familiarity with the Daimond Dwarves is a close reading of their culture entry, which makes them sound like a variation of the Tolkien standard fantasy Dwarf that happens to be less traditional but still quite Dwarven (while the Hill Dwarf is distinctly hobbitish). He is funny. Even his build choices, lots of humorous ~2 to 10 point disadvantages instead of 2-3 more severe 20-30 point ones, make the character more amusing.

[@AntHalus]

For the first Time 'The dark Eye' I think it was great. It was a good look for the People who don´t know the System. To get rule firmly it takes his time. :)

[@baerchenkiller1012]

Thanks for the public Playthrough. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Molly was defenitly special and defenitly the thing most TDE fans/DSA enthusiasts would have a problem with but i actually liked the idea of an elf who abandoned his culture to enter a diffrent one. Tally was defenitly the cool sellsword/fighter dude and Kethyriel was a pretty authentic TDE Elf considering they players had just a couple weeks maybe to prepare their characters were pretty enjoyable. I also have to agree with the closing statements. TDE is probably not the best Oneshot System as its far to complex and the lore, well thats a topic for itself i gues. For the Rules part since u asked, but it seems thats (partly) a translation error? i contacted someone of Ulisses spiel but anyways: I dont own the english rulebooks but i used the Ruleswiki to check this so i hope this information is accurate. -Jansus Scale armor is considered a metal armor. Its not dragon/reptilien scales its like interconnected metal plates. But it does not really matter. Elves have other armor which is made of Wood/Ivory and interwoven with their magic which she could totally use. -Paralysis is a spell that is modified by the targets toughness (usually between 1-3, the enemy was an elf who have really low toughness so a toughness of 0 wouldnt be a big mistake, Elves are fragile) - Paralysis (The Spell) on QL 2 just applies the condition Paralysis on level 1 for 4 minutes. If you reach QL 5 the target is completely paralysed (condition paralysis level 4) and becomes immune to burning, fall dmg and "non-magical weapons". In the german text it says "common" weapons (nothing about non-magical). Also as someone else pointed out, this fire would most likely not damage a fully paralysed person as the paralysis also stops venom and sickness for the duration. Its basically a nonlethal spell or one to slow someone down to either catch them or run away if you dont fully paralyse someone which is super hard anyway (QL5 is pretty difficult considering you have to enhance the cast time or range most of the time + Toughness). -Ignifaxius is the other Spell you had a bit of problem with but i can see why. First Ignifaxius is considered a ranged missile attack which means that the target is allowed to either dodge or block with a shield if it has one at a -4 Penalty. (deals dmg to shields of blocked) -Second the Spell says "Flammable targets are set ablaze on a roll of 1-3 on 1D6." This means that the GM can rule, that the target is not flammable due to beeing soaking wet And the next part is which bothered me as a german viewer a bit more. Mistakes happen, you guys have never played this before and most players misread DnD spells as they do TDE spells. But the setting ablaze part in german is much more precise as it say "Entflammbare Ziele werden bei 1-3 auf 1W6 angezündet und erleidet somit den Status Brennend auf kleiner Fläche." Which would translate to :"Flammable targets are set ablaze on a roll of 1-3 on 1D6 and suffer from the state burning on a small area." Which greatly helps referring to when checking for fire damage (1D3 per CR). Also a burning hero can make a Body Control check and use an action to douse the flames. Edit: The ignifaxius setting ablaze thing seems to be known by Ullisses US and is going to be changed in an upcoming Errata. In any case. I had a lot of fun watching you guys and another tip. Give the BBEG some minions/henchman. Or dont have a confrontation where the Mage is in melee range to a fighter. Mages can defenitly be powerful but once a real warrior gets close they bring the pain. Also giving a BBEG like 10 Extra hit points goes a long way. Would love to see more in the future but i gues thats it. Maybe for another TTRPG? Hoping for that.

[@danra1420]

It would have been great to see the adventure rolling out. But unfortunately I agree with other voices that the faux Scottish accent and voice volume of the Dwelf was just too much to bear. The character idea was actually cool. Taking other accents and trying to maintain them for 2 hours is a very challenging and taxing on the ears. I hope Guy will dive deeper into Aventuria some other day. I wouldn't worry about the lore professors here and play whatever works. But I agree with long time TDE DSA players that there is a whole wealth of mood and setting that can be used by the shovel load to make the adventures even more immersing.

[@michaellehner3339]

It's an amusing thing. I mean, there were plenty of situations where the rules were used a bit strangely or wrongly, but in the end, what does it matter? I've played through several editions of the game and especially before we had the internet, we missinterpreted a number of rules. Yet the game worked perfectly fine for us. We had fun, which is what really counted.

[@hasumoto1707]

in the world of the Dark Eye there are lets say mostly 12 "main gods". And many demigods (most of them are offspring's from the main gods) It's a bit like in the Greek/Roman and/or Egyptian mythology. The gods are: Praios - the god of the sun, the law, monarchy. He's really really not into magic. His symbols are the griffin and the sun-eye (looks similar to the Horus eye). He's kinda mix between Horus and Zeus. Colors for his priests are white and golden. Efferd - the god of the sea, the ocean, the water, rain, fishes and other water creatures. His symbols are dolphins, fishes and the triton. He's kinda like Poseidon. Colors for his priests are blue, turquoise, petrol. Boron - the god of death, the dead, silence, the sleep, the night and the forgetting (in terms of a healing process, like for trauma or something). His symbols are the raven and the broken wheel (kinda like: "the circle ends with me"). He's a bit like a mix between Hades, Anubis and Odin (because of the ravens gathering informations or used as couriers). He's not evil, he's fair: everyone is threated the same. The Grim Reaper aka Death is one of his minions. Colors for his priests are mainly black. Phex - the god of thiefs and traders. He's a cunning and kinda thrickery god. A trickster for sure, but in a charming way. He also loves to prank. His personality is like Hermes, but without the ability to fly or being a messenger. His symbol is the fox. His priests mostly doesn't show themself as a priest of Phex. So the beggar in the street could be one, or not - you often never know. Think about him like a charming thrickster god. Or like that kind of bard who seduces a person and steals 3 out of 10 gold coins from the pouch while flirting. Hesinde - the goddess of knowledge, fine arts, wisdom, teaching and so on. She's engaged with Phex and they share a lot of offspring's together. Her symbols are the snake and books. Colors for her priests are mainly green. These priests are often also librarians, teachers, archivists, artist, potter... and so on. Ingerim - the god of forge, fire, earth, ores, stones, mountains and metal. He's the creater of the dwarfs. The dwarfs call him Angrosh. His symbol is the fired forge with hammer and anvil. If you think about Hephaistos, there you go (but without the handicaps of Hephaistos). Colors for his priests are red. Tsa - the goddess of spring time, rebirth and renew. Her symbols are the rainbow, the lizzard and the egg. She's a bit like the German goddess Ēostre. Peraine - The goddess of fertile fields, good harvests, healing, herbs, grain, agriculture, and so on. She's pretty much like Demeter in a lot of ways. Her symbols are grain and crain. Colors for her priests are green and sometimes in a mix with brown. Travia - the goddess of hospitality, food, family, motherhood, protection of children, fidelity, cooking and a few more. She's very much like Hera. Her symbol ist the goose. Colors for his priests are white and orange or ochre. Rondra - the goddess of war, storm, lightning and thunder, honorable fight, fair duels, knighthood... She's like a mix between Athena and Sekhmet. Her symbols are the shield with sword and the lioness. Colors for his priests are white and red. Firun - the god of winter and hunting. His symbols are the bow with arrow and the polar bear. Colors for his priests are white and fur. Rahja - the goddess of wine, ecstasy, seduction, physical love, sexual pleasure, beauty and horses. Her symbols are mare, a symbol that looks a bit like an uterus, wine grapes and wine. She's a bit like a mix of Aphrodite and Dionysos. Colors for her priests are claret and they are often very provocative and slightly see-through dressed. as I said, there are a lot of demigods as well. I will not cover them here. If you're hooked, check them out. There are some very cool ones, not gonna lie.

[@torte21175]

Fate Points: you regain one per session and all at the end of an adventure. There are no levels in TDE

[@nrais76]

Dude! I love explaining nuclear physics to children! Sometimes they even remember.

[@giovaniteixeira67]

I'm a brazilian new RPG player/gm. I just discovered this system/world and prefer D&D5e for it's simplicity. I've created my own lore based in D&D content, but I'll expand my knowledge studying other games as Call of Cthulhu and Das Schwarze Auge, and then adapt to my own system.

[@bogaty72]

The weapon aptitude advantage only lets you reroll your confirmation roll for criticals or botches, not for normal misses. When using feint, the target of the attack suffers a -2 to their dodge or parry roll to defend against that attack only. It's not a permanent penalty.

[@hardenbergcreative8042]

I love the dark eye

[@thodan467]

IIRC by a Skill or spell check you need to roll 2 ones for a crit and 2 20 for a fumble

[@philippkoch4646]

great introduction I think for people new to the game. Its kinda complex so it´s normal that some stuff gets mixed up sometimes. Hope you had fun with it. The System might take a little to get comfortable with but the world really is amazing.

[@uhlrichsofister7907]

common aventuria dwarves would never have a sculpture of a dragon exept the dragon would be dead, very dead

[@HowtobeaGreatGM]

That's why I set this from 'before the surrendering of the dwarves' :)

[@derminneritter7568]

About the tomb: I liked what you changed compared to your plan. And I liked the puzzles, especially the door with the moving dwarves when light hits them. Allthough it is a very fantastic approach compared to the magic-level TDE has, I appreciated it much What I didn´t find fitting to Aventuria was the myth behind the tomb and Dwarves won´t have a relation to Boron. I liked the dark mood within the tomb that you transported very well, but I was surprised that you didn´t describe very much details of what the heroes see, hear, smell etc.

[@torte21175]

To be fair though, the Core Rules and even the Almanac make it look like all species and cultures worship the Twelvegods.

[@pascalwittmer-braun6025]

They could, but it's at least not common. Maybe the books should also explain the elf's lost fate in gods. That's why they compare themselves to the nature, like a druid in DND would do.

[@Jeremy_Days]

What a great session! Please excuse me commenting several times on the execution of your plan (last video) while watching the video. 1) How much did the players know about the adventure beforehand? The player of Kethyriel evidently knew that they would be investigating a dungeon. 2) How could you have planned the fallout at the start that would eventually lead to the PCs going in alone? Did you give each player instructions beforehand? 3) I was surprised by the PCs lack of fear of the crossbow pointing at them (when stepping in-between). In the Black Eye my experience is that crossbows are extremely deadly. What I want to say: I as a GM would have stressed the danger of the moment. You did not. Is this because it is just a one-shot or because you generally don't level up the drama of the moment?

[@TheRaziel08]

thank you for the public session. that was very enjoyable to watch. i really liked how you incorporated a bit of lore into this, despite you saying you prefer to use your own (which is totally fine, i generally do the same and just use some of the existent lore as a guideline). big kudos to the players. very pleasant people and going the extra mile in learning their heroes background and checking some of the lore to understand their characters concept and the world setting better. overall very few mistakes. i would have ruled the same thing with body control check for wringing the water out, so good call. ;-) and yes, skill checks auto fail/critical fail at 2x or 3x rolled 20 and do not need to be confirmed. however in combat, the single rolled 20 needs to be confirmed or its just a regular fail. dark eye is a bit weird in that, because in older editions everything was just a single d20 for both combat and skill checks. i like the newer 3d20 and quality system better tho, less freak successes or fails if you are trained in that skill and different heroes definitely feel and play very differently. its more math tho, but if you get used to it it only takes a few seconds. as for the encounter difficulty: as you noticed combat is far more deadly in tde than d&d (not counting early levels in d&d). a single opponent gets taken down very quickly when outnumbered (even most types of dragons or higher demons), therefore action economy is extremely important to take into consideration when designing combat encounters. i always give my main villains multiple attacks/actions and probable a few goons, or make the terrain more difficult for the players to navigate, or put some time critical component in it (like a dying important npc that needs to be saved mid combat). otherwise combat is over with just a few failed dice rolls as a gm (remember that you can use fate points for the big baddie as well, which at some point you did here but i sometimes forget).

[@elthor-o5119]

There actually is no coffee in Aventurien. It comes from a mythical continent - Uthuria - somewhere in yet unexplored south. There is a potion to stay awake, like... coffee times 20.

[@torte21175]

It is called The Magenta Ongallo-Ox ;)

[@AlexBermann]

Technically, there now is a trade route to Uthuria and coffee is available... But very expensive and rare.

[@Jan-gh7qi]

LORE UPDATE +++ BREAKING NEWS +++ LORE UPDATE There is Coffee in Aventuria now. The last Aventurian Herald reported, that the empire of Al'Anfa had it's first generation of Uthuria-imported Coffee-plants grown and harvested in the fall of 1045 BF. The joy of playing in a living world... :)

[@christiandemers8763]

SO MANY MISTAKES (especially the paralysis spell) but that was still very entertaining. And as opposed to some other comments here, I actually didn't mind the different lore. Just a bit sad that you didn't use the quality levels of the skills and the spells properly because it is the heart of the system. Ohhh, and I don't see where those 18 and 16 DP from Tally's came from !

[@TheTriforcekeeper]

1 fate point lets you re-roll as many dice as you like on a 3d20 Check. You cannot re-roll the same check again.

[@riffleeds]

Which map program are you using for this? I'm looking for an easier to use that looks good.

[@civilized_half-orc5689]

WOW, Guy! This. Is. Well. Thought. Out.

[@toxikfire6668]

OMFG MOLLY! Star of the show lad, well done. I need him to voice a character for a mod for me, how do i reach this guy?!

[@AlexBermann]

Here are my nitpicks: - The names for the NPCs didn't sound very Aventurian. It makes a big difference if you can sort of make out where a character is from, what their social standing is and so on. - Stripping the lore of the setting to fit a dungeon crawl is okay, but you still signalled that it is set in Aventuria because you kept the deities and because one of your players immersed herself in the lore. I mean you don't need a decree in Aventuria and setting accuracy isn't that important - but you didn't give the "feeling" of the setting a chance. - Molly. This character is raised by hill dwarfs, but has nothing of their culture. He is a wizard who breaks all rules wizards have to abide to and to add to that, he is an elf who uses arcane energy every day to grow a beard and uses magic to light his pipe. If this character existed more than a few days, he'd run out of arcane energy if he did anything besides those things. He's just a very weird character for a one shot in a new system. Many frustrations could have been avoided if the concept was a bit more simple. But I also have to say one good thing: the flexibility of how you reacted to what the players were doing and that you didn't get that much into combat was great. One big mechanical strength of TDE is that it doesn't really assume that combat is the default resolution for a problem. Combat is costly and every character has many other ways to approach a problem. - With how long it took for everyone to enter the dungeon, I am actually impressed that you managed to finish in three hours. One other thing: nobody really has to know the associated attribute checks to skill roles as they are right on the character sheet. Even if you don't know all the skills, players can recommend using one which again gives them a way to express the particular way their characters do things. About checks being easy to pass: if a check is hard, penalties are there to do that - and sometimes, a low quality level just means that you barely make it. Furthermore, the skill checks are something you need to get used to. While succeeding at every one ability check is 60% if your attribute is 12, succeeding at all three checks is just 21.6% if you have no skill points. The math to estimate success chances is pretty complex, bit the short of it is: things get rapidly easier with a few skill points. I think it's really neat as a skilled character can become consistently good at their thing.

[@AlexBermann]

@Freddie Heinz I'm pretty sure the cantrips cost 1 or 2 points each cast. I get that you wanted to bring your own flair to the game and that isn't a bad thing. All I try to say is: there was so much of that that the flair of the game was overshadowed. It's like too much of a good thing. Also thanks for the reply!

[@AlexBermann]

​@Freddie Heinz About beard growth: I misremembered that the spell has an immediate duration, so my point about that spell is moot. About the rest: you played the character in a three hour one shot. I agree that he needed more time, but that's the format you played him in. The part about your character in my comment was about how your character worked in the video. I also didn't want to say that your character should be absolutely the typical wizard. But there is some middle ground. I mean a wizard who wears armor and has a crossbow wouldn't have provoked that reaction. But we're talking about a guy who was born an elf, grew up among dwarves, didn't drop any cultural mannerisms despite being trained for years in a tradition that is not present in dwarven culture, learned a druidic spell to appear more like a dwarf and has the armor thing. I sincerely hope that my criticism wasn't hurtful. While I stand with my criticism of the concept for the format, I do believe that you played your character really well - and am jealous of your accent skills. It sometimes happens that comments come of harsher than indented. I'll try to sound less harsh with criticism of that sort in the future.

[@zhufortheimpaler4041]

@Freddie Heinz well the "grief" with your character has several reasons, as stated above. its fine if you want to play like you feel it should be but the ruleset has several key points for balancing that your character broke. 1. a magician wearing metal armor or large quantities of metal on his body for several hours a day over a prolonged time will suffer "the curse of iron". his arcane regeneration will drop slowly to 0 and if that point is reached and his arcane power is used up, he is "burned out" and no longer can regenerate arcane energy. (this is a practice used by several churches for their acolytes to "clean" them from arcane abilities.) iron is a arcane blocker. rulewise this will reduce your arcane regeneration at night and meditation by 1-6 points depending on the mass of iron. and in some cases may induce a penalty to use magic by 2-4 points or more for the skillcheck, as the iron distracts the magician.this is a rule to balance magic users. 2. dwarves are lore wise and rulewise extremly non magical and dont have magical traditions or schools. only a dwarven twin, wich sibling has died can dream and thus use arcane energy (those are extremly rare and normally get scooped up by the dwarven druids). if your character was brought up in dwarven society, he should have bought the relevant dwarven culture traits in character creation. 3. where does the magical tradition of your character originate? elven magic is locked into their culture and livestyle, so a "badoc" elf like yours wouldnt be able to acess this form of magic, due to his loss of connection to his "elfish being". (elves are a bit of the hippies of aventuria, as they have to live in balance with nature and their surroundings, in their community to stay "elven". if they dont do that or even act against their elven worldview (an advantage/disadvantage elves get, wich connects to almost every elven ability, skills, magic etc) they will get massive penalties on those skills etc. if your character studiet at an academy or private tutor your character is part of one of the 3 magic guilds. in this case he has to obey and follow the rules of the guild. eg openly displaying his profession as mage, he is forbidden to wear armor by law, he may not carry and use weapons like crossbows and close combat weapons larger than a short sword. the regulations on weapons and armor may be lifted for a short duration, if he has a dispens of a higher guild representative for a certain task. this is ingame due to the harsh laws on guild magicians, as they were responsible for the magician wars etc 4. core character rules: -elves have sensible sense of smell and are unable to consume anything made via fermentation or curing, as it is vomit inducing to them. smoking, alcohol etc are all part of this. (this is a soft form of the disadvantage dietary restrictions) -elves loose the ability to use the elven magic if they are not subjected to an elven culture, as it is part of the advantage/disadvantage "elven worldview" -spells have different distribution levels throuout the magical traditions of aventuria. for example the spell "hazelbush and gorse" has in elven traditions a distribution of 5, wich means most skilled elven mages know this spell. in druid tradition this is only a 2 and only in elven tradition, only a handfull of druids in the whole of aventuria know this spell. this also is relevant with magical tricks like growing a beard. -it seems like your bought your character combat reflexes, otherwise a base initiative value of 14 is extremly unlikely, wich then results in the question: how many ap did you got for generation? the special ability combat reflexes is pretty expensive even for fighter characters. also you need to substract your encumberance from your initiative value. -a magical character, wearing constantly armor and using a lot of magical tricks per day, will end up as a nonmagical character very quickly. your base regeneration with penalty would not be sufficient to keep your character "arcane charged" and burn him out in the long run. you can play whatever you want, but in an average tde group molly wouldnt have passed the gm and you had to make another character, as he breaks several core rules and ignores disadvantages he has automatically that are there to prevent powergaming. this character would be considered broken/breaking core rules of the game on purpose of powergaming. thats nothing about lore etc.

[@dennisperry6885]

Hey Guy, Is there anyway normal people have a chance to run a game with you?

[@lancepickett5653]

Guy's Wednesday game is populated with "normal" people chosen from his patrons... so it is possible for "normal people" (if any of us are normal) to game with him.

[@dennisperry6885]

@@lancepickett5653 I guess with normal I mean more so the plebians lol

[@lancepickett5653]

@@dennisperry6885 My dark and ancient (according to Guy) humor. Besides if you look at what is considered normal in this crazy world who would want to be considered "normal"?

[@Lancastrianer]

dont know if you read it in the comments about the character creation, but you made a mistake and if you didnt read that comment, your players probably made the same mistake: attributes at 8 are free. the first 8 points dont cost you AP, as you automatically start with 8 before you start spending AP on the attributes. - oh and the feint attack gives the enemy -2 for defense against the feint attack, not against all attacks in that turn

[@PSroka]

YOU BELONG IN A MUSEUM 4:04 like if you get that reference :D

[@euansmith3699]

Snakes?!

[@derminneritter7568]

About the heroes: I was glad to see, that the player invested much time to read the character´s cultural backround and that they took their time to learn the rules. Allthough, I think that especially Molly wasn´t technically correct. He had 13 disadvantages. Ok, the number of them is not limited, but one can only get up to 80 AP from them as a maximum. Maybe he passed the rule, but from my point of view it has the smell of powergaming to give a hero so much disadvantages just to get APs. Too many disadvantages make a hero unrealistic (even in terms of a fantasy-world). And this is a thing, too, speaking of an elf with a dwarven culture. Allthough it is not explicitely forbidden to do so, the rules say, that choosing an unusual culture must be discussed with and permitted by the GM. I wouldn´t have allowed it... And concerning the beard - elves in TDE do not have hair except from the top of their head and from their eyebrows. And speaking of the restrictions to use magic while being in touch with iron or steel, I don´t like the TDE5-rules (minus 1 per 2kg). It is too easy. In former editions of TDE there was a maximum or the general rule, that one cannot cast a spell while wearing armo(u)r of metal. A better rule, from my point of view. Tally seemed to me overpowered, too, but I don´t know his stats... I liked the character of Kethyriel (allthough I normally do not like elves at all). She fitted into Aventuria as I understand the world.

[@arisavage4221]

I'm just going to assume he got someone to magically transform him so he can grow one. I do not know who could do that - maybe a Witch? - but it might work. Probably have a weird texture though. Elf hair isn't like human or even Dwarven hair, as you know

[@derminneritter7568]

@@arisavage4221 We´re talking about TDE, not the much more magical D&D. A Transformation of that kind (not for a short time) is beyond the power of mortals.

[@derminneritter7568]

@Freddie Heinz Maybe you had it in D&D or pathfinder or whatever, but surely not in the official TDE. On the other hand... well, why not, if one has fun with it?

[@arisavage4221]

@@derminneritter7568 Good point. Freddie did reply that he has to use a spell every day to grow one, so that probably works? I would probably have a made it a cantrip, but considering the low magic of the setting a full spell probably makes more sense?

[@TheTriforcekeeper]

@@arisavage4221 TDE 5 has a spell which let's you grow a beard instantly. It is limited to druids. I don't know the exact name in the english version. In the german version, it is a "Zaubertrick" (spells that only cost 1 to cast) called "Bartwuchs"

[@MacMatzi0815]

Hey you guys are aware there is a complete sourcebook on the erotic and let's say "the art of making love" 😃😂 It went from April's fool, to crowd funding to full print.

[@metallkopf988]

And "seduction" is an actual skill. (Courage, Charisma, Charisma) if I'm not mistaken.

[@andarted]

Yes, the source book has 240 pages, with cultural background, tables, pictures, rules, and the whole shenanigans. The target audience seems to be adolescent boys from the 90s. That's such a missed chance. But anyhow, here's someone flipping through the book. kzbin.info/www/bejne/naitemycjaiei9E

[@marcexner1631]

Molly and his accent are super annoying!

[@maddockemerson4603]

*Oh now that's rrratherrr intolerrrant of you sirrr if I do say so meself. Had ya everrr considerrred that maybe perrrhaps not all peoples frrrom arrround the worrrld speak in quite the same intonation as yerrrself? I mean it's not like ya could be blamed ferrr not underrrstandin' a parrrticularrrly thick accent but it's a wee bit rrrude ta simply call an accent annoying. Do I come o'errr ta yerrr house and say yerrr accent is annoying, well no mostly because I rrreally don’t know ya, but the point rrremains I think, if ya don't got nothin' nice ta say, keep yerrr bleatin' trrrap shut then aye?*

[@derminneritter7568]

Allthough it wasn´t easy for me to understand (I´m not a native english-speaker) I wasn´t annoyed by the accent, but by the loudness...

[@barefootwalk1798]

I can see why but I guess ymmv - I liked it.

[@martinthewarrior5016]

I think that's kinda the point..

[@arisavage4221]

@@derminneritter7568 the volume was an issue for me too, though in general I didn't mind it otherwise.

[@derminneritter7568]

About the players and the GM: It is totally frowned upon by the circle where I play, that a group decides which character does the action by comparing the skill- or ability points. The heroes do not have the possibility to measure these points and therefore I don´t consider it to be a thing one should do in roleplaying.

[@martinthewarrior5016]

Admittedly i havent play TDE and im only really familiar with DnD 5e so I may be completely missing your point here, but I dont get what's wrong with checking stats before attempting some sort of check/action. Sure, the characters dont have specific numbers to be able to read, but that shouldn't stop them knowing who is the strongest, fastest, cleverest etc. Take any given group of friends, especially one where they all had varied and diverse skill sets, and I bet you they would be able to figure out which of them is best suited to a certain task.

[@arisavage4221]

What Martin said makes sense, but yeah, I like it better when players actually roleplay figuring out who should do something and why. That's what we do in one of the games I play. Usually only takes a minute or two more at most and it makes more sense.

[@HowtobeaGreatGM]

"I am a better driver than my friends because I've done advanced driving lessons and have logged 400 hours of defensive driving..." Versus My Drive Check is 12. Whether your table frowns on people or not is a personal matter. Whether you want RP for everything or not is also up to the table. In the case of a 3 hour adventure, sometimes speed is more important. In the case of demonstrating how a game works, clarity is more important.

[@arisavage4221]

@@HowtobeaGreatGM Well said. Addendum: I meant something more like: "I found a piece of alien tech!" [Player with highest tech rank] "I've seen something similar before..." We do the standard "compare numbers" thing first sometimes, then maybe two sentences of description. More if it's actually interesting or adds something. But like you said that's a personal issue, and you chose the best approach for the situation.

[@Aardvark892]

Your first Dark Eye video got me so enthused I went right to DriveThru and bought it. Watched the first three vids several times. I encourage players to be in character, but that bad-scot-accent by the elf-wanna-be-a-dwarf player made this video unwatchable. Sorry.

[@Thomas-der-Zweite]

I'm sorry. Had to stop the video at ~40 Minutes. If you are looking for a The Dark Eye Game, the rules might be there, but not the spirit, nor the lore. This is a standard fantasy (dnd) game thats "loosly" set in Aventuria. An Elve raised by hilldwarfs (which are more like hobbits than dwarfs anyway) and he's a guild mage - but has 14 disadventages??? what the heck? Guy (I mean the GM, not the player of Molly), I know you said, that you like the system, but don't really care about the lore. But this is supposed to be a game that shows the world and lore of Aventuria (at least, this is what I think Ulisses NA wanted from you). I, as a player and gm for more than 20 years, was hoping you could bring the aventurian flavor to the english speaking rpg community. But this game (at least in the first 40 minutes) is just a standard dungeon crawl. Why didn't you play one of the premade smaller adventures that are only a few pages? That should be enough plot to fill the 3 hours of gaming. In addition, it would represent the style of TDE better than a dungeon crawl with no connection to the lore or the world as you stated in the beginning "a forest, which could be anywhere on the continent" - or any fantasy setting I might add. Again, it might be an entertaining session where all involved have fun, but its not a good representation of the dark eye - and thats what you claim at the start. Sorry, but that is a thumbs down from me, who was expection something else. Aside that main thing, the gaming session seems to be well made with good players and good gm. For those of you interessted in the dark eye, here is an actual play with another good gm in english from Orkenspalter TV / Orccleaver TV: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZpWym3pjmrargtk

[@manticore6963]

Ah yes, the typical "If it doesn't adhere to the lore to a T it's not a real Dark Eye-game." No bending allowed, no "my version of the lore", no nothing; if you play a Dark Eye game, you better not change a thing about it. Don't you dare be creative or do things different. Every time I see posts like yours I'm reminded why I don't bother playing TDE. Gatekeeping at it's best.

[@Thomas-der-Zweite]

@@manticore6963 Hi Manti Core, Where's a gate, there's a key. ;-) I get your point. And yes, you can play TDE as you want to play it. Who am I to narrow your options there? I was trying to point out, that this should be something closer to the source. Obviously, I don't expect Guy to get everything lorewise to the letter. How could he? Thats not realy possible without a university degree of Aventurianism. ;-) But for me, the plot is so interchangeable to any fantasy setting, that for me, it lacks Aventuria or TDE in it. Let me give you an example: Lets say, you play such a dungeoncrawl in Forgotten Realms for D&D. And then, a UFO appears. Its the USS Enterprice. They beam the characters up and than they fly to the planet Vulcan to throw out the invading Ferengi. Would you consider this a typical d&d adventure? No, me neither. Again, my point is not that you can change things in the setting - as a gm, I do that on a regular basis - but if its supposed to be an introductionary game; so it should stick more to the source than this or my ridiculous example - especially if you doing it for an audience which wants to get a first look. PS: This text is not meant to be offensive. If you find yourself offended by it, I'm sorry. I just wanted to explain my complain with the video.

[@HowtobeaGreatGM]

All I have heard from people is: TDE cannot be played without - your words "a university degree" - in Aventuria. Then that is a game I shall NEVER play. Of course this game is going to run like a D&D game because that is the context in which most folks will be exploring this game. The sad part is, is that you joke about the Gatekeeping, and yet you become your own worst enemy. You obviously love this game and the lore, then promote it as an awesome place for everyone to play in, not as an elitist lore only club. I'm trying to help promote your game, and you're telling everyone that I'm not doing a good job. I think TDE is an awesome alternative to D&D without the lore, if the lore is added and it makes it even better, then that is awesome. If the lore doesn't, then it is still a fun game.

[@Thomas-der-Zweite]

@@HowtobeaGreatGM Hi Guy, thank you for your reply. The "university degree" line is a joke here in the german rpg community, because there is so much lore. My blinking emot was there to point out, that this was meant as a joke from my side, and that I'm not serious with this statement. You obviously can play TDE without a degree. Where D&D is a ruleset without an attached setting, TDE has a unique selling point in Aventuria and its 30 year history that you can, or in my eyes, should utilise. Also, if you play at conventions or online with a lot of different players; you all play in the same word. This makes recognising places, persons etc much easier. Why do all associate an dark elve ranger with to scimitars with Drizzt Do'Urden? Because the know him from the same setting: the forgotten realms; the books and the pc/console games. Why do people assosiate the millenium falcon with a spaceship in Star Wars and not a yacht in Miami? My point is: using the same setting - instead of creating a new one - makes it easier to play with different people the same way as using the same ruleset. Yes, you tweak that to make it more accomodating to your playstyle, but in large, you should stay with the premade stuff. Again, it is totally fine if you don't like it or you just want to use parts of TDE. In my point of view - and to the things I want from an rpg - thats a better way. From your more freeminded point of view (not meant in a negative way), not using the stuff is a better solution. - It's is just a question about the point of view with no objectiv best answer. It all depends on what you want from your game.

[@gerhardadler3418]

@@HowtobeaGreatGM I liked what you did. I have played TDE a lot and i think that it is more "realistic" than DnD. It never went into my head, that for example Perception is a skill that not everyone has or that climbing a tree just needs strength. I think it also gives more experienced roleplayers some more possibiliites to create a more unique character. The lore can be interesting, but i think it's just too much with TDE. Therefore i totally respect your choice in ignoring it somewhat. And even if you don't, there is that much stuff out there (at least in german), that it is impossible to know everything what is going on. On the other hand, ignoring it completely would make some characters a little strange, since they only find their place in TDE because of the lore (for example the priests of the Twelve), but i think with some effort, you could create your own world, ban some characters or rewrite them to fit your needs. That's probably a reason we switched from TDE to Rolemaster later on, since you it is easier to adapt it to any world (even though it's a dice orgy when it comes to combat).