Nice video, as a German player i‘d like to mention an other very important fact for tde: the story of aventuria is fluently developing. As players you can vote, who will be the new king in one of the countries after he died in a big public campaign. They implement fan projects into the official history as well. This is how they fixed some issues in the world and now we have a very deep and logic developed continent. This is very unique.
also this process is curated by this veterean group of people who have been writing for the game since forever. so although the creator is dead, development stays true to the original vision.
I´m a german gamemaster of the dark eye rpg and stumbled over your very nice video. Like you said it's arund here for decades and evolved very much through the help and participation of the players an their rich community here. My personal experience from the contents and rules of the dark eye are, that provided with the rich political, historical and cultural backround of the World in which the charakters of the players were born, live and struggle, it is so much easier for the gm to create challanges and opportuneties as well as ambience for roleplaying. the complexity of the rules may seem daunting but it creates an environment were players have large control over their actions and therein also realistik expectaitions of success and risk involved. And you can also always simplify parts as beginners. I find it as a player just as well very rewarding to own your accomplishments more to the strength of your charakter and your choices, as to the primary luck of your dice role. To note at the side is that through the development of the game and its community, most influential and aristocrat npc's in game are played by gamers in larp's throughout the year. Thats results in an active and changing political landscape of the game itself. So as an example there are and were ongoing wars (also with the tribes of orks decades ago) and players of the rpg take part in these in campaigns were the outcome is not predetermined. please excuse any slip up in my writng, I'm not that fluent yet.
it is my pleasure to experience my favorit rpg flourish overseas and more so to see well done videos like yours come out keeb up your good work I enjoyed it very much
I think this evolving landscape is one of the best things about the game. And you're right, it can be very simulationist but its easy to scale back from the full depth of the rules, which is great. Sometimes and with some players, I want the extra depth, sometimes and with some not so much. If I'm playing with my kids, I don't want the extra detail slowing down. Also, you can gloss over unimportant or undramatic moments quickly and zoom in and use the full detail of the rules when every little is important and the whole outcome of the quest hangs in the balance.
It 's very funny to see a video, made for english speaking people and me as a german, watching it, and getting intriequed again to play "The dark eye" again. I played the very first edition of the german version and loved it, back in the day. Then at some point we got introduced to AD&D and all the cool guys played this game, so me and my friends left "the dark eye" and loved the new game because of the new and different mechanics it offered. But now it seems i would like to play "the dark eye" again!
The game is built up in onion shells. There is the core rulebook and that's essentially all you need. For a more sophisticated game, there are supplementary rulebooks (e.g. magic rules, combat rules) that add rules on the basic rules on top. And the third layer are the sourcebooks like regional modules which provide a lot of fluff information on the population, flora and fauna, customs and traditions etc. of said region. These are not necessary but give you the full immersion into the world. And, of course, there are the adventures that of course use the background described in the sourcebooks.
Hi there and thanks for your nice vid! I've been playing The Dark Eye half of my life in Germany. When I first heard about a translation of the latest game edition in the US, I was curious about how it would be accepted in the 'home of big D&D'! Some facts you've presented are the main reason, why I like this game so much. There are so many ways to tell an atmospheric story in this world. It's just amazing! If you've got an idea as gamemaster, there are so many social backgrounds in this game, you can easily adapt to whatever your plan of a story is. In my group we playd some of the great adventure campains, but also create our own. Also we're still playing by 3rd edition rules. Just because we bought almost any expansion the days we started playing the game - and now think, it's not necessary to have anything twice to get along. Okay, there are several new ideas. But if ou are smart - and we are ;) - it's possible to adapt the latest published adventures for our needs. Although I think Ulisses did a great job, working out the 5th edition and did everything to offer a high quality product to the US market for a really fair price. So I hope you'll like The Dark Eye and enjoy playing. Welcome to Aventuria!
GermanDachshund thanks for your kind words! It is my mission to spread the influence of the Dark Eye here in the US. D&D is awesome and the US is the home of roleplaying, but the Dark Eye does all this so much better. Game on!
I ran a group through the quickstart rules adventure for free RPG game last year and I loved it. They were all hardcore D&D 5e players and though they seemed to enjoy the session, they were not willing to commit to another RPG. :-( I will be looking to play in and run this game as much as I possibly can. Love the earthy, organic feel. It doesn't feel fake or forced at all. :-) The quick start rules had a bit of what I thought was an error where there was a random encounter with a boar that didn't seem to fit in the story. Also, as you found, the solo adventure had some inconsistencies that bothered me a bit, but like you I looked past it and enjoyed it all the same. I would like to see the company support the product with errata updates to fix some of these issues, but I will be a fan none-the-less. :-) Great video and thanks for speaking on this cool game.
Folks nowadays find something they like and cling to it like drowning men. Back in my day we played anything we could get our hands on. Although I say that, and instantly I remember many a time back in the 90s and many a "no, I don't want to learn a new system" and some "no, that's stupid, it does x" "have you tried x?" "no, but it sounds stupid." Okay, so I guess some of us tried out anything we could get our hands on. People need to move outside their comfort zones occasionally so they can grow. This applies to gaming as equally as life.
i see it like this: as a gm you dont have to apply every rule that doesnt enhance your game. just ignore them and let players play it out as you see fit. you can use easier throws, or let them describe what they are doing, no rogue should die because of a critical dex failiure when hes trying to tie his shoes, but if you are need them rules, they are there. tde is really strong for open ended sandbox gameplay, where you kinda have the main plot points and factions of your campaign mapped out and then let players do what ever they want in that scenario.
First edition was published in 1984. A big German game manufacturer wanted to publish a translated version of D&D. But WotC wanted 20% royalties, so the publisher urged the translator to come up with an alternative. By coincidence, they were currently working on their own system, so that one was published instead and was sonn very successful because due to the existing infrastructure it was available in nearly every toy store rather than just in comic book shops. And so it became the most popular roleplaying system in the German speaking world and still is today. Way ahead of D&D 5e. And it has a living proceeding history which is updated in an ingame newspaper every 3 months. And since 1984, a lot of stuff has happened. There isn't just a world source book but also modules with descriptions of the different regions at a detail that you normally only have in pre-written adventures of the locations where said adventure takes place. There is a joke that there is a description of every milk can in the world. And there is the problem: many (German) players tend to take that too seriously and abide by the description in each detail instead of taking it as a serving suggestion and making the world as you like it. That leads to players complaining on conventions that there isn't a temple of (insert deity) in (insert town name) and the local innkeeper's name isn't (insert name A) but (insert name B) which can become quite exhausting for a GM who just wanted to offer an exciting adventure.
I love the digest size book but find that the print is very small. I wish they did a slightly bigger version of the paperback. Otherwise I've already picked up the bestiary and the solo adventure so I've got a good base to start from. I will be buying the hardback book once I can find it as I just cannot read the digest sized one. Overall I enjoyed your review and will check out Mr. Mean's videos too. Thanks Quest Wise!
Allan Bray I completely understand that. If you don't mind me passing along a suggestion, I get most of my rpg needs from GameNerdz out of Plano, Texas, when I cannot find the items I want locally. They have always treated me very well. www.gamenerdz.com/the-dark-eye-rpg-core-rules-hardcover
Bear in mind that the US edition has sone images censored…however the game is superb. I played it back in the ‘80 actually before D&D red box. Also you get spell point which is a plus imo.
@@questwise4077 After reading through the books, making a couple of characters and doing a solo test run. My initial thoughts are that if this game came to the United States 30 years ago when it started, it would definitely give D&D and Pathfinder a run for their money for those people who like a realistic game engine, in a well developed world. It is definitely a good game engine. I wouldn't mind running this with a group. It is also the most complicated game I have done solo, but I think I can handle it.
@@solorpgguy and if you need any monsters still, go to the official Ulisses rules wiki (it says .de, but it language is EN, too): ulisses-regelwiki.de/ There is a bestiary in there plus all the other crunch you might want to look up.
A commentator already recommended Drakensang. There is an online game with the same name, which has nothing to do with the DSA lore. But there are two "regular" parts of the game for the PC/laptop. Although I found it to be pretty good, they made some bad decisions with the first one. The beginning is built up very slowly, so people tend to lose interest rather fast. And the first major quest you get is kind of boring and hard at the same time and supposed to be played later on and/or bit by bit. Another opportunity to lose interest. But when you finish the first map and ignore this first rat-filled quest with a hard endboss, one will enjoy it in most of the cases. Another game series I personally like very much, are the games "Satinavs Chains" and "Memoria". They are click and point adventures and have a good story and attractive settings. There are English Let's Plays to be found on TH-cam. I would recommend to check those out, or even better, play those games for yourself :)
Try it - you´ll love it! The world ist so rich and immersive. You´ll get the feeling of wanting to be there and of home. I´m german and I play TDE since the beginning in 1984! It´d take hours to explain, why I totally recommend TDE, but you never would understand it in total (and my english is far not good enough). You´ve got to play it to understand and then you´ll get sucked in...
Yes there is an entire section on the orclands. The Almanac is a great fluff book. D&D equiv is Forgotten realms, but covering more than the sword coast, like D&D spends most of its time on.
@@thorinbane Thank you very much! It’s been 2 years for a reply. I have the core book but haven’t really dug in. I’m pretty excited about the game and want to.
Orcs, a nomadic race of merciless and brutal warriors, make their home in the barren steppes and hills of the Orcland. Time and again they have laid waste to the realms of men. They are about one head smaller than humans but have a stronger build and their entire body is covered with thick, dark fur. Their less-hairy faces seem rough and possess a broad, flat nose, a receding forehead, and deepset eyes, and their ears are slightly pointed. The orcs’ teeth are especially remarkable in that the canines that protrude from their lower jaw would not look out of place on a boar. Orcs have a life expectancy of around 40 years but many die long before that in battle, a mainstay of orcish culture. Female orcs sometimes live longer, but they play a subordinate role in orcish culture and are seldom regarded as better than slaves. In fact, they are not even granted names of their own. Orc tribes include the black-pelted Zholochai, the brownpelted Mokolash, and the white-pelted Shurachai, or snow orcs, which live in the Far North. The union of orcs and humans produces the coarse half orcs. The home of the goblins lies in the Sickle Mountains as well as the plains of Bornland and the Far North. Since they are very numerous and multiply quickly, goblin clans have even spread as far as the Horasian Empire. They are slightly taller than dwarves and have strong, oversized arms. Their slender bodies, which are covered in short, fuzzy, red fur, are not as strong as those of orcs, and their faces seem to be a mixture of orc and ape, with large canines, broad noses flat foreheads, and protruding eyebrows. Male goblins rarely live longer than 35 years, but female goblins, who are sometimes endowed with magical powers and who tend to lead the tribes and clans, can live twice as long.
The Steppes of the Orcs and the Former Svellt League of Towns The Stone Oak Forest and the mountain ranges of the Great Olochtai and Firun’s Wall surround the dry steppes of the Orclands, as if placed there to prevent their inhabitants from ever leaving. Yet many wars of the past showed that the orcs cannot be penned in. While most orcs are content to reside here in large tribes and subsist via animal husbandry and hunting, they are feared as vicious warriors everywhere. A gruesome fate awaits their captives: the strong are forced into slavery, and the weak are sacrificed to the minotaur-like god, Brazoragh, or Tairach, the orc god of death. The Aikar Brazoragh is seen by most orcs as the unifier of the otherwise chaotic tribes and ruler of the Orclands, sent by the gods directly
I've been playing The Dark Eye in the late 90's (the german third edition), the RGP as well as the old DOS-PC-Games. The orcs and the orc wars were an important part of the metaplot in the early and mid 90's. I think that's why they 're mentioned so often (I haven't bought the 5th editon yet.) In fact, for The Dark Eye, the "Orcland-Box" was the first supplementary box describing a complete region, it's culture and so on... That's why you are missing more information about them. The 5th editoin version has just not been published yet. Orcs, elves and dwarfs have been described by a regional supplement in the previous editions, each of them by a single one. The third edtion had 13 regional supplements, the fourth edition had 15... so it may take a while until it will be published, even in Germany. But not too long, I think, as orcs and the orcland desription should be still very popular here.
And before that, the Orcland Trilogy (de.wiki-aventurica.de/wiki/Die_Erforschung_des_Orklandes ) was the first campaign of the system in which the adventurers have to make an expidition though the Orcland. This is, by the way, in which the Dark Eyes and the NPC Nahema were introduced.
Ah, an interesting video about DSA or TDE. This even has a rich story in its development. I come from the town where DSA was created (Erkrath), but I have no connection to the founders. However, their task was to translate Dungeons & Dragons into German, to bring it to the German market. Schmidt Spiele wanted to buy the D&D licence from TSR, but they wanted to have a ridiculous amount of money. After a long time of negotiations the guy from Schmidt Spiele said: "listen TSR, either you make a serious offer and we can work together, or we are done here, and we will create our own RPG and blew you out of the German market before you are even here." TSR didn´t took it seriously. So Schmidt Spiele told the guys who translated D&D before: "Screw them, we now make our own game. There is this games convention in 6 weeks from now in Germany. TSR will announce D&D for the German market. But we will be there too, with our own game. Let´s do it!" The map of Aventuria with all the cities and interesting points was drawn in just one evening and the game was kind of rushed, and the first edition was a bit wonky with silly ideas. For example, there was a stupid mask in the box, which the game-master should wear while telling the story. Schmidt Spiele didn´t quite understood the concept of the game. A game without a board to play on, where people are sitting around a table and talking to each other? Without a goal? Who will be the winner? What is this? And the name "Aventuria", thats not a name for a game like this. Let´s call it "Das schwarze Auge" or "the dark eye" that has nothing to do with the game, but it sounds awesome and mysterious. On the convention, TSR was amused about the stupid failed copy of D&D. But Schmidt Spiele produced the boxes in high amounts, and every shop in every town all over Germany got some of them, they made TV spots, just to block the market for TSR. And it worked. People really bought it all over Germany, it was new and exciting. The fan base was there, and people were able to connect with DSA, and nearly nobody played D&D in Germany. Schmidt Spiele continued with the game, and brought it to a new and better edition (which wasn´t that difficult, if you take a look at the quality of the first edition). But 1997 Schmidt Spiele got into financial problems, they had to sell the company, and the founders of DSA bought back the lincence of their game and put a lot of love into their baby. Today it is still alive and published by Ulisses. And more than that, now it is coming to the US market and bites TSR in their ass from behind, just because they wanted to have too much money for the D&D licence back then in the early 80s. :)
TSR was already bit in the ass by itself, though. I wish I had heard this story before Gary passed, I could have asked for his take on it. I don't know the timelines involved. It doesn't sound like an attitude Gary would have encouraged himself. Then again, I knew him when he was older, and most people mellow with age. Lots of tales about how he screwed over Dave Arneson, too, that I don't know the truth on. (This is not me doubting you, this is me wondering if Gary was involved and was a jerk at times when he was younger or not.) I hope Ulisses gets their stuff together. I would like to see this do better over here and more support for 5th edition DSA, especially in English. I'm not above learning German and picking up all the 4th edition stuff, though.
I have to say I really like the setting, the rules are solid in the current edition (even though I still not be too keen on them). The German edition before the current had Orks and halforks as playable races, so I am surprised that it take them so long to reintroduce that option again.
Drudenfusz, I am really looking forward to the day we get to see the Orcs here in English. It may be possible that they are working on a supplement all their own.
The system takes ages for the updates. I am German, so I have access to all the new books, and the system didn't even started to really go into the debth. For example, of the magic books, only 2 of at least 4 are published yet. The druids and the more unusual magicians are still missing, also at least half of the magic-schools. To add to that, the system is not really good yet. For DSA 4, they eventually, after releasing all the basic books, they released DSA 4.1 that fixed all inconsistancies and some of the design-flaws that DSA 4 had. Considering the way the system is structured yet, I am 100 % sure that we will get a DSA 5.1 sometimes down the line that makes this system really usable.
Mysterios1989 two things: first we (Germans) should write TDE not DSA so that everyone knows what we are talking about ;-) Second: I don’t think that there will be a TDE 5.1 any time soon. I think that ulisses rather focuses on publishing all lore, spells and regions and then, in some years does the jump to 5.1. if they do it at all. And I wouldn’t go as far as saying that 4.1 was better. Yes it was way better described than 5 but that’s because it is much older. I think that the concept of the 5th edition is better than the one of 4.1. I am of the opinion that the most important change they made was, that they made it way less cluckier so that it is much simpler for newcomers to understand.
@@kornrat8284 Here we are another year later. I see a few more books in English. From what I understand its still slow going and it looks like I will have to learn German and buy the 4.1 books up! I got in the habit already of using DSA, so really its all the same to me, and Das Schwarze Auge sounds cooler to say. :-)
It's one of the core mechanics of the game. Fans were asked many times in the past if the next edition should get rid of it and decided against it. It's a lot faster than it sounds though. You are not rolling 3 skills, but one skill against 3 attributes and your skill points decide how easy or hard it will be. Since you will know out of memory what your main attributes are, you can roll quite quickly and can instantly see if you made it or not. What makes this system so special is that the amount of skill points left after the 3 checks defines how well you performed or how bad you failed. So when brewing, a lot of skill points left might increase the class of the resulting potion and it might heal more now. Barely failing might still result in a healing potion that is only half as potent. Complete failure results in something that is either undrinkable or poisonous (maybe because you took the wrong incredients) The same thing applies to magic as well. This has another side effect though. If you are an expert in some skill or magic, and you don't need a good success (because either the task is not that hard or it is important to just not fail) rolling becomes unnecessary and the master (DM) might just roleplay the result. (A character that has 15 out of 20 skillpoints in reading, does not have to roll if he can read a normal book. But he has to roll a skill check of increased difficulty if the book is especially old with some strange dialect being used and/or parts of the pages have already faded.) But like so many other rules, this rules i optionala and a party that wants to roll on everything can do just that. Of course this is a system not everybody will enjoy. The dark eye is not a light weight system at all (it used to be up to second or arguebly third edition, but that has changed since then). There are other systems now that can do that (light weight) much better. The dark eye lives through it's rich world and lore, which are heavily bound to the rule system.
you roll 3 dice at once, its very simple. If someone can play with 4 different conditions in Pathfinder and D&D plus flanking minus flat footed etc ect. Its easier in this game. Its all just what you are use to.
shotguns machetes it could be a possibility. I have friends in Adrian and come down there several times a year. I would like to make a few more convention appearances down that way in the next year. Any that you would recommend?
I haven't played in a while, but mostly because my local crews have been exploring other systems. I do still love this game though and would jump back in in a heartbeat.
Nice video, as a German player i‘d like to mention an other very important fact for tde: the story of aventuria is fluently developing. As players you can vote, who will be the new king in one of the countries after he died in a big public campaign. They implement fan projects into the official history as well. This is how they fixed some issues in the world and now we have a very deep and logic developed continent. This is very unique.
also this process is curated by this veterean group of people who have been writing for the game since forever. so although the creator is dead, development stays true to the original vision.
I´m a german gamemaster of the dark eye rpg
and stumbled over your very nice video.
Like you said it's arund here for decades and evolved very much through the help and participation of the players an their rich community here.
My personal experience from the contents and rules of the dark eye are,
that provided with the rich political, historical and cultural backround of the World in which the charakters of the players were born, live and struggle,
it is so much easier for the gm to create challanges and opportuneties as well as ambience for roleplaying.
the complexity of the rules may seem daunting but it creates an environment were players have large control over their actions and therein also realistik expectaitions of success and risk involved. And you can also always simplify parts as beginners.
I find it as a player just as well very rewarding to own your accomplishments more to the strength of your charakter and your choices, as to the primary luck of your dice role.
To note at the side is that through the development of the game and its community,
most influential and aristocrat npc's in game are played by gamers in larp's throughout the year.
Thats results in an active and changing political landscape of the game itself.
So as an example there are and were ongoing wars (also with the tribes of orks decades ago) and players of the rpg take part in these in campaigns were the outcome is not predetermined.
please excuse any slip up in my writng, I'm not that fluent yet.
Alian Anderson, thank you for your kind words. It is nice to feel connected to such a global rpg community.
it is my pleasure to experience my favorit rpg flourish overseas
and more so to see well done videos like yours come out
keeb up your good work
I enjoyed it very much
I think this evolving landscape is one of the best things about the game. And you're right, it can be very simulationist but its easy to scale back from the full depth of the rules, which is great. Sometimes and with some players, I want the extra depth, sometimes and with some not so much. If I'm playing with my kids, I don't want the extra detail slowing down. Also, you can gloss over unimportant or undramatic moments quickly and zoom in and use the full detail of the rules when every little is important and the whole outcome of the quest hangs in the balance.
It 's very funny to see a video, made for english speaking people and me as a german, watching it, and getting intriequed again to play "The dark eye" again. I played the very first edition of the german version and loved it, back in the day. Then at some point we got introduced to AD&D and all the cool guys played this game, so me and my friends left "the dark eye" and loved the new game because of the new and different mechanics it offered. But now it seems i would like to play "the dark eye" again!
Great review! I now both have the TDE Core rule book and the TDE digest version. The digest version is actually nice to carry around. Glad I got both.
The game is built up in onion shells. There is the core rulebook and that's essentially all you need. For a more sophisticated game, there are supplementary rulebooks (e.g. magic rules, combat rules) that add rules on the basic rules on top. And the third layer are the sourcebooks like regional modules which provide a lot of fluff information on the population, flora and fauna, customs and traditions etc. of said region. These are not necessary but give you the full immersion into the world. And, of course, there are the adventures that of course use the background described in the sourcebooks.
Hi there and thanks for your nice vid!
I've been playing The Dark Eye half of my life in Germany. When I first heard about a translation of the latest game edition in the US, I was curious about how it would be accepted in the 'home of big D&D'!
Some facts you've presented are the main reason, why I like this game so much. There are so many ways to tell an atmospheric story in this world. It's just amazing! If you've got an idea as gamemaster, there are so many social backgrounds in this game, you can easily adapt to whatever your plan of a story is. In my group we playd some of the great adventure campains, but also create our own.
Also we're still playing by 3rd edition rules. Just because we bought almost any expansion the days we started playing the game - and now think, it's not necessary to have anything twice to get along. Okay, there are several new ideas. But if ou are smart - and we are ;) - it's possible to adapt the latest published adventures for our needs.
Although I think Ulisses did a great job, working out the 5th edition and did everything to offer a high quality product to the US market for a really fair price.
So I hope you'll like The Dark Eye and enjoy playing.
Welcome to Aventuria!
GermanDachshund thanks for your kind words! It is my mission to spread the influence of the Dark Eye here in the US. D&D is awesome and the US is the home of roleplaying, but the Dark Eye does all this so much better. Game on!
I ran a group through the quickstart rules adventure for free RPG game last year and I loved it. They were all hardcore D&D 5e players and though they seemed to enjoy the session, they were not willing to commit to another RPG. :-( I will be looking to play in and run this game as much as I possibly can. Love the earthy, organic feel. It doesn't feel fake or forced at all. :-) The quick start rules had a bit of what I thought was an error where there was a random encounter with a boar that didn't seem to fit in the story. Also, as you found, the solo adventure had some inconsistencies that bothered me a bit, but like you I looked past it and enjoyed it all the same. I would like to see the company support the product with errata updates to fix some of these issues, but I will be a fan none-the-less. :-) Great video and thanks for speaking on this cool game.
Folks nowadays find something they like and cling to it like drowning men. Back in my day we played anything we could get our hands on. Although I say that, and instantly I remember many a time back in the 90s and many a "no, I don't want to learn a new system" and some "no, that's stupid, it does x" "have you tried x?" "no, but it sounds stupid." Okay, so I guess some of us tried out anything we could get our hands on. People need to move outside their comfort zones occasionally so they can grow. This applies to gaming as equally as life.
Video got recommended to me after watching an english TDE kickstarter :^)
You did a great job on the review, keep it up.
Great video, I told you it was a great game! I love the digest size... Need to pick that up...
Thank you, Sir!
i see it like this: as a gm you dont have to apply every rule that doesnt enhance your game. just ignore them and let players play it out as you see fit. you can use easier throws, or let them describe what they are doing, no rogue should die because of a critical dex failiure when hes trying to tie his shoes, but if you are need them rules, they are there. tde is really strong for open ended sandbox gameplay, where you kinda have the main plot points and factions of your campaign mapped out and then let players do what ever they want in that scenario.
First edition was published in 1984. A big German game manufacturer wanted to publish a translated version of D&D. But WotC wanted 20% royalties, so the publisher urged the translator to come up with an alternative. By coincidence, they were currently working on their own system, so that one was published instead and was sonn very successful because due to the existing infrastructure it was available in nearly every toy store rather than just in comic book shops. And so it became the most popular roleplaying system in the German speaking world and still is today. Way ahead of D&D 5e.
And it has a living proceeding history which is updated in an ingame newspaper every 3 months. And since 1984, a lot of stuff has happened. There isn't just a world source book but also modules with descriptions of the different regions at a detail that you normally only have in pre-written adventures of the locations where said adventure takes place. There is a joke that there is a description of every milk can in the world. And there is the problem: many (German) players tend to take that too seriously and abide by the description in each detail instead of taking it as a serving suggestion and making the world as you like it. That leads to players complaining on conventions that there isn't a temple of (insert deity) in (insert town name) and the local innkeeper's name isn't (insert name A) but (insert name B) which can become quite exhausting for a GM who just wanted to offer an exciting adventure.
I believe it was TSR
I love the digest size book but find that the print is very small. I wish they did a slightly bigger version of the paperback. Otherwise I've already picked up the bestiary and the solo adventure so I've got a good base to start from. I will be buying the hardback book once I can find it as I just cannot read the digest sized one. Overall I enjoyed your review and will check out Mr. Mean's videos too. Thanks Quest Wise!
Allan Bray I completely understand that. If you don't mind me passing along a suggestion, I get most of my rpg needs from GameNerdz out of Plano, Texas, when I cannot find the items I want locally. They have always treated me very well.
www.gamenerdz.com/the-dark-eye-rpg-core-rules-hardcover
Bear in mind that the US edition has sone images censored…however the game is superb. I played it back in the ‘80 actually before D&D red box. Also you get spell point which is a plus imo.
Oh ho! Ribbon bookmarks on the full size Bestiary too! I DEFINITELY need to get my hands on that then!
After watching vids on DE, ordered 3 of the books, got the shipping notification, so they are on their way.
I can't wait to hear your thoughts!
@@questwise4077 After reading through the books, making a couple of characters and doing a solo test run. My initial thoughts are that if this game came to the United States 30 years ago when it started, it would definitely give D&D and Pathfinder a run for their money for those people who like a realistic game engine, in a well developed world. It is definitely a good game engine. I wouldn't mind running this with a group. It is also the most complicated game I have done solo, but I think I can handle it.
@@questwise4077 also the almanac does have stats for orcs, goblins, ogres, trolls and a few other criiters.
@@solorpgguy and if you need any monsters still, go to the official Ulisses rules wiki (it says .de, but it language is EN, too): ulisses-regelwiki.de/
There is a bestiary in there plus all the other crunch you might want to look up.
@@solorpgguy Well, but in this game, orcs aren't critters but a primitive, nomadic civilization within its own boundaries.
A commentator already recommended Drakensang. There is an online game with the same name, which has nothing to do with the DSA lore. But there are two "regular" parts of the game for the PC/laptop. Although I found it to be pretty good, they made some bad decisions with the first one. The beginning is built up very slowly, so people tend to lose interest rather fast. And the first major quest you get is kind of boring and hard at the same time and supposed to be played later on and/or bit by bit. Another opportunity to lose interest. But when you finish the first map and ignore this first rat-filled quest with a hard endboss, one will enjoy it in most of the cases.
Another game series I personally like very much, are the games "Satinavs Chains" and "Memoria". They are click and point adventures and have a good story and attractive settings. There are English Let's Plays to be found on TH-cam. I would recommend to check those out, or even better, play those games for yourself :)
Try it - you´ll love it! The world ist so rich and immersive. You´ll get the feeling of wanting to be there and of home. I´m german and I play TDE since the beginning in 1984! It´d take hours to explain, why I totally recommend TDE, but you never would understand it in total (and my english is far not good enough). You´ve got to play it to understand and then you´ll get sucked in...
Did you get the almanac & does it have anything about the Orcs?
Yes there is an entire section on the orclands. The Almanac is a great fluff book. D&D equiv is Forgotten realms, but covering more than the sword coast, like D&D spends most of its time on.
@@thorinbane Thank you very much! It’s been 2 years for a reply. I have the core book but haven’t really dug in. I’m pretty excited about the game and want to.
@@TheJDough1 Let me know if you have other questions. Ill do my best to help, but I have barely played.
Orcs, a nomadic race of merciless and brutal warriors,
make their home in the barren steppes and hills of the
Orcland. Time and again they have laid waste to the realms
of men. They are about one head smaller than humans
but have a stronger build and their entire body is covered
with thick, dark fur. Their less-hairy faces seem rough and
possess a broad, flat nose, a receding forehead, and deepset eyes, and their ears are slightly pointed. The orcs’ teeth
are especially remarkable in that the canines that protrude
from their lower jaw would not look out of place on a
boar. Orcs have a life expectancy of around 40 years but
many die long before that in battle, a mainstay of orcish
culture. Female orcs sometimes live longer, but they play a
subordinate role in orcish culture and are seldom regarded
as better than slaves. In fact, they are not even granted
names of their own.
Orc tribes include the black-pelted Zholochai, the brownpelted Mokolash, and the white-pelted Shurachai, or
snow orcs, which live in the Far North. The union of orcs
and humans produces the coarse half orcs.
The home of the goblins lies in the Sickle Mountains as well
as the plains of Bornland and the Far North. Since they are
very numerous and multiply quickly, goblin clans have
even spread as far as the Horasian Empire. They are slightly
taller than dwarves and have strong, oversized arms. Their
slender bodies, which are covered in short, fuzzy, red fur,
are not as strong as those of orcs, and their faces seem to be
a mixture of orc and ape, with large canines, broad noses
flat foreheads, and protruding eyebrows. Male goblins
rarely live longer than 35 years, but female goblins, who
are sometimes endowed with magical powers and who
tend to lead the tribes and clans, can live twice as long.
The Steppes of the Orcs and the Former
Svellt League of Towns
The Stone Oak Forest and the mountain ranges of the Great
Olochtai and Firun’s Wall surround the dry steppes of the
Orclands, as if placed there to prevent their inhabitants
from ever leaving. Yet many wars of the past showed
that the orcs cannot be penned in. While most orcs are
content to reside here in large tribes and subsist via animal
husbandry and hunting, they are feared as vicious warriors
everywhere. A gruesome fate awaits their captives: the
strong are forced into slavery, and the weak are sacrificed
to the minotaur-like god, Brazoragh, or Tairach, the orc
god of death. The Aikar Brazoragh is seen by most orcs as
the unifier of the otherwise chaotic tribes and ruler of the
Orclands, sent by the gods directly
I'm genuinely interested!!!
I've been playing The Dark Eye in the late 90's (the german third edition), the RGP as well as the old DOS-PC-Games.
The orcs and the orc wars were an important part of the metaplot in the early and mid 90's.
I think that's why they 're mentioned so often (I haven't bought the 5th editon yet.)
In fact, for The Dark Eye, the "Orcland-Box" was the first supplementary box describing a complete region, it's culture and so on...
That's why you are missing more information about them. The 5th editoin version has just not been published yet. Orcs, elves and dwarfs have been described by a regional supplement in the previous editions, each of them by a single one.
The third edtion had 13 regional supplements, the fourth edition had 15... so it may take a while until it will be published, even in Germany.
But not too long, I think, as orcs and the orcland desription should be still very popular here.
Thanks for the info, Bruder! They do have a smal section in the new Almanac, but nearly enough for me. ;)
And before that, the Orcland Trilogy (de.wiki-aventurica.de/wiki/Die_Erforschung_des_Orklandes ) was the first campaign of the system in which the adventurers have to make an expidition though the Orcland. This is, by the way, in which the Dark Eyes and the NPC Nahema were introduced.
Ah, an interesting video about DSA or TDE. This even has a rich story in its development. I come from the town where DSA was created (Erkrath), but I have no connection to the founders. However, their task was to translate Dungeons & Dragons into German, to bring it to the German market. Schmidt Spiele wanted to buy the D&D licence from TSR, but they wanted to have a ridiculous amount of money. After a long time of negotiations the guy from Schmidt Spiele said: "listen TSR, either you make a serious offer and we can work together, or we are done here, and we will create our own RPG and blew you out of the German market before you are even here."
TSR didn´t took it seriously. So Schmidt Spiele told the guys who translated D&D before: "Screw them, we now make our own game. There is this games convention in 6 weeks from now in Germany. TSR will announce D&D for the German market. But we will be there too, with our own game. Let´s do it!"
The map of Aventuria with all the cities and interesting points was drawn in just one evening and the game was kind of rushed, and the first edition was a bit wonky with silly ideas. For example, there was a stupid mask in the box, which the game-master should wear while telling the story.
Schmidt Spiele didn´t quite understood the concept of the game. A game without a board to play on, where people are sitting around a table and talking to each other? Without a goal? Who will be the winner? What is this? And the name "Aventuria", thats not a name for a game like this. Let´s call it "Das schwarze Auge" or "the dark eye" that has nothing to do with the game, but it sounds awesome and mysterious.
On the convention, TSR was amused about the stupid failed copy of D&D.
But Schmidt Spiele produced the boxes in high amounts, and every shop in every town all over Germany got some of them, they made TV spots, just to block the market for TSR. And it worked. People really bought it all over Germany, it was new and exciting.
The fan base was there, and people were able to connect with DSA, and nearly nobody played D&D in Germany. Schmidt Spiele continued with the game, and brought it to a new and better edition (which wasn´t that difficult, if you take a look at the quality of the first edition). But 1997 Schmidt Spiele got into financial problems, they had to sell the company, and the founders of DSA bought back the lincence of their game and put a lot of love into their baby. Today it is still alive and published by Ulisses. And more than that, now it is coming to the US market and bites TSR in their ass from behind, just because they wanted to have too much money for the D&D licence back then in the early 80s. :)
TSR was already bit in the ass by itself, though. I wish I had heard this story before Gary passed, I could have asked for his take on it. I don't know the timelines involved. It doesn't sound like an attitude Gary would have encouraged himself. Then again, I knew him when he was older, and most people mellow with age. Lots of tales about how he screwed over Dave Arneson, too, that I don't know the truth on. (This is not me doubting you, this is me wondering if Gary was involved and was a jerk at times when he was younger or not.) I hope Ulisses gets their stuff together. I would like to see this do better over here and more support for 5th edition DSA, especially in English. I'm not above learning German and picking up all the 4th edition stuff, though.
@@nrais76 Yes, I hope Ulisses will do it right and translate enough of the adventures, otherwise it will be quite useless.
I hope they'll bring out something like an atlas on the lands... because tde has damn amazing maps!
I'm always interested in New to me, rpgs'. Very informative.
Yes, rolling separately builds a lot of tension. That's how we did it in my youth. We didn't even think of rolling them at once
also we had only one d20 each, so we kinda had to^^
then i got a huge bag full of kinds of dice, now i have a mobile app.
do u ever come 2 southeast Michigan 2 play?
shotguns machetes where are you at?
OMG... How can this be 30 years old???!!! And Matt Mercer is on the cover... JUST AS HE APPEARS TODAY!!!!
He is The Devil Strahd himself!!!!
i think palladium has an open house 2018 or 19, not sure
shotguns machetes I will definitely be there for that, seeing as how my channel is an official media partner of Palladium.
I have to say I really like the setting, the rules are solid in the current edition (even though I still not be too keen on them). The German edition before the current had Orks and halforks as playable races, so I am surprised that it take them so long to reintroduce that option again.
Drudenfusz, I am really looking forward to the day we get to see the Orcs here in English. It may be possible that they are working on a supplement all their own.
The system takes ages for the updates. I am German, so I have access to all the new books, and the system didn't even started to really go into the debth. For example, of the magic books, only 2 of at least 4 are published yet. The druids and the more unusual magicians are still missing, also at least half of the magic-schools.
To add to that, the system is not really good yet. For DSA 4, they eventually, after releasing all the basic books, they released DSA 4.1 that fixed all inconsistancies and some of the design-flaws that DSA 4 had. Considering the way the system is structured yet, I am 100 % sure that we will get a DSA 5.1 sometimes down the line that makes this system really usable.
Mysterios1989 two things: first we (Germans) should write TDE not DSA so that everyone knows what we are talking about ;-)
Second: I don’t think that there will be a TDE 5.1 any time soon. I think that ulisses rather focuses on publishing all lore, spells and regions and then, in some years does the jump to 5.1. if they do it at all. And I wouldn’t go as far as saying that 4.1 was better. Yes it was way better described than 5 but that’s because it is much older. I think that the concept of the 5th edition is better than the one of 4.1. I am of the opinion that the most important change they made was, that they made it way less cluckier so that it is much simpler for newcomers to understand.
@@kornrat8284 Here we are another year later. I see a few more books in English. From what I understand its still slow going and it looks like I will have to learn German and buy the 4.1 books up! I got in the habit already of using DSA, so really its all the same to me, and Das Schwarze Auge sounds cooler to say. :-)
The orcs are detailed in the Aventurian Almanac. You could also get the stats out of the free Quickstart rules.
Great namedrop with Lloyd Alexander...
Having to roll 3 different skills for something like climbing a wall sounds bit excessive to be perfectly honest.
It's one of the core mechanics of the game. Fans were asked many times in the past if the next edition should get rid of it and decided against it.
It's a lot faster than it sounds though.
You are not rolling 3 skills, but one skill against 3 attributes and your skill points decide how easy or hard it will be.
Since you will know out of memory what your main attributes are, you can roll quite quickly and can instantly see if you made it or not.
What makes this system so special is that the amount of skill points left after the 3 checks defines how well you performed or how bad you failed.
So when brewing, a lot of skill points left might increase the class of the resulting potion and it might heal more now. Barely failing might still result in a healing potion that is only half as potent. Complete failure results in something that is either undrinkable or poisonous (maybe because you took the wrong incredients) The same thing applies to magic as well.
This has another side effect though. If you are an expert in some skill or magic, and you don't need a good success (because either the task is not that hard or it is important to just not fail) rolling becomes unnecessary and the master (DM) might just roleplay the result.
(A character that has 15 out of 20 skillpoints in reading, does not have to roll if he can read a normal book. But he has to roll a skill check of increased difficulty if the book is especially old with some strange dialect being used and/or parts of the pages have already faded.) But like so many other rules, this rules i optionala and a party that wants to roll on everything can do just that.
Of course this is a system not everybody will enjoy. The dark eye is not a light weight system at all (it used to be up to second or arguebly third edition, but that has changed since then). There are other systems now that can do that (light weight) much better.
The dark eye lives through it's rich world and lore, which are heavily bound to the rule system.
you roll 3 dice at once, its very simple. If someone can play with 4 different conditions in Pathfinder and D&D plus flanking minus flat footed etc ect. Its easier in this game. Its all just what you are use to.
cool, glad i subbed! see u on the flip side
Unfortunately the irratic release schedule of the module series (starting but not finishing) has compromised my interest in The Dark Eye.
Maybe you could volunteer as an translator to make it quicker.
northwest Detroit (old Redford)
shotguns machetes it could be a possibility. I have friends in Adrian and come down there several times a year. I would like to make a few more convention appearances down that way in the next year. Any that you would recommend?
I don't know where you get the idea that orks are soooo important in this world, as they are not really that influential.
DSA just rocks!
*TDE :P
@@Bayseek *DSA
@@theoldbear4151 "Das Schwarze Auge" just sounds cooler, am I right?
This game has only one big problem: 95% of the material is only in german.
Still playing?
I haven't played in a while, but mostly because my local crews have been exploring other systems. I do still love this game though and would jump back in in a heartbeat.
5th ed.!!!