The Dark Eye
| Das Schwarze Auge | ||
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| RPG published by Ulysses Games |
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| Authors | Droemer Knaur Schmidt Spiele |
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| First Publication | 1984 (1st edition) 1988 (2nd ed) 1992 (3rd ed) 2001 (4th ed) 2015 (5th ed) |
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Das Schwarze Auge (The Dark Eye) is what Germany equipped on their character sheet where Americans wrote "Dungeons & Dragons". It's pretty much THE fantasy role-playing game in Germany, it's been around since the 1980's, and it's in 5th edition. And it exists because TSR said "we will not do business with the krauts."
There was one shit translation effort, but in the 2010's there was a kickstarter to raise funds to bribe fund DSA's publishers into making a decent English translation for 5th edition.
The default campaign setting is the world of "Dere" (an anagram of "Erde," or "Earth"), on the bog-standard fantasy feudal Europe continent of Aventurien. It's got the usual complment of fantasy races: orcs, Tolkien-like elves, lizardmen, goblins, kobolds, giants, etc. It's got spellcasters and even their own Elminster named "Borbarad", and the technology level is somewhere below muskets and blackpowder. Over the sea far to the west is the golden land of Myranor where it looks more like Final Fantasy games with a decadent and declining wealthy empire, airships, and catgirls. A third continent and setting is the Hollow World of Tharun which has an Edgar-Rice-Burroughs feel in island archipelagos.
Chargen used to be dierolls and classes, but in 4th edition they changed a lot of mechanics and went to skills based. Then they had a D&D 3.0 moment and had to re-release a fixed version of 4th edition, which fans call "4.1 edition".
Success checks are rolled on 3d20, and each die has to roll under one of the three appropriate attributes for the situation. Character attributes are: Courage, Wisdom, Intuition, Charisma, Dexterity, Agility, Constitution, Strength, and Speed. Failing on one or more of these dice tell you exactly how you fail (i.e.: you were agile enough to climb, but got too tired on the way up. or you had enough constitution to last, but couldn't find handholds that lead all the way to the top).
(Edited by someone who can't edit for shit)
Races
They come in different kinds of Not- flavors. You got the Not-Germans (Middlelanders), the Not-French (Horasians), Not-Vikings (Thorwals), Not-Inuits (Nivese), Not-Gypsies (Norbards), etc.. Though the differences come through fluff and not crunch.
Most cultures see men and women as equals, with only a few favoring one or the other.
They come in three flavors:
Wood Elves - Hippy snubs who dislike humans and act high and mighty.
Shire Elves - They've arranged themselves with the human civilization, they might not all like us, but what are they gonna do about it?
Firn Elves - Badass frost elves who take no shit from any outsider, also master skiers, fighting for their survival in the cold and unforgiving north.
Yep, there are no High Elves, cause there once were and they fucked up, so the survivors went back to hugging trees.
Immortal until murdered or until they fulfill their destiny at which point they decide to just die.
Anvil Dwarves - Here there be Gimli. Smithing and fighting, fighting and smithing.
Gem Dwarves - The most jewish of them all.
Ore Dwarves - Big into mining. Really big. Like, that's all they do.
Hill Dwarves - The Hobbits of DSA. Comfy dwarves with a tendency of being british as fuck.
Aztec lizard people, you know the drill. Long lost, ancient civilization, old weird gods. Also they do well in crystal magic shenanigans.
Shorter than humans, hairy as balls savages. Treat their women like cattle, live in a caste system of: slaves (includes the gals)< farmers and stuff < warriors < the elite warriors < chieftain and shamans.
The orcs shorter cousins, also hairy as balls. Though most goblins live in tribes all over the northern half of Aventuria, some goblins live in human cities (most notably Festum and Uhdenberg) and do all the labors that no humans wants to do, like rat catching. The tribal goblins live in a matriarchy with each clan being led by an elderly shaman (male shamans are pretty much unheard of). They believe in the two gods Mailam Rekdai (a bodacious goblin female with a boar's head) who is the goddess of fertility and peace and Orvai Kurim (male goblin with a boar's head)the god of hunting and tribal feuds. Goblins do not honor their deceased. Like, at all. Once a goblin drops dead, he isn't considered a goblin anymore and often ends up just being fed to the pigs. Yeah, they also ride boars, or mountain goats depending on the location.
The World
As mentioned before, the setting is the fictional world of Dere, created when the Ur-God Los and the Ur-Giant Sumu had an epic brawl that ended in Sumu's death. Her body became the world and from her blood came the Titans (some of which would later join the pantheon of the 12 Gods), while Los' tears turned into gods.
The Gods
In contrast to our own world, where the existence of true divinity cannot be proved (or disproven if you will), the gods of TDE are very real. The most well-known or rather mostly worshipped ones are the Twelve.
Praios - God of the Sun, the Law and Truth. Hates magic with a passion.
Tsa - Goddess of Life.
Boron - God of Death and Dreams.
Rondra - Goddess of Battle, Honour and Lightning.
Firun - God of Ice, Snow and Survival.
Hesinde - Goddess of Wisdom and Magic. Fuck you, Praios.
Efferd - God of Water and Storm.
Rahja - Goddess of Sex and Wine and Tits.
Phex - God of Trade and Screwing other people over.
Peraine - Goddess of Harvest.
Ingerimm - God of Smithing and Fire and Metal.
Travia - Goddess of Being Nice To Each Other.