The Dark Eye: Difference between revisions
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''The Dark Eye'' (originally called "''Das Schwarze Auge''" or ''DSA'' for short) is a German pen-and-paper RPG. Originally released in 1984, its fourth edition was published in 2002 and fifth edition in 2015. The game is set on the planet Dere (an anagram of the German word for Earth, “Erde,”) more specifically the continents of Aventuria and Myranor, even though a supplement for a third continent was announced last year. Aventuria, the main continent for the game, is tiny, but one of the most well-described RPG settings known to mankind – every region has its own sourcebook of 200 pages or so, often with minute details about the food, customs and people of that region.
Typical for ''The Dark Eye'' is a very strong and continuous [[Metaplot]], including the political decisions made in [[Play-By-Post Games]] for, preferably, [[Hard Core]] players. This very strong canon orientation has created a vivid background but also has the consequence that sourcebook content ages quickly and is rarely up to date. The detailed world is also one of the major selling points of the system, and creates a feeling of verisimilitude which is quite uncommon for fantasy RPG settings.
The majority of the setting consists of blatant [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture]]s, with a few alterations and new names. The major religions are also very similar to either the Greco-Roman pantheon, matriarchal goddesses or Islam, respectively. All religions have a semblance to Zoroastrianism.
In Germany, it's the game most roleplayers start with, and more popular than every other single system. It is well known (at least in Germany) for its many adventure modules, even though the quality varies widely between them. Historically it suffered in English speaking countries due to poor translations, limited supplement book releases, and no translation at all. Come Fifth Edition the system finally received proper English support thanks to the publisher using Kickstarter to fund translation and physical printing.
One of the strongest selling points rule-wise is the completely open character development. It is based on 4 elements:
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The starting value of all these 4 elements are influenced by choices of race, culture, subculture and starting profession, but from there on, the character can develop any way the player wants to, making it even more interesting to keep a character for several adventures.
Fun fact: Even though the first English rule book got published in 2003, between the years 1993 and 1997, novels and [[Realms of Arkania|games]] based on ''The Dark Eye'' were released under the title of "Realms of Arkania".▼
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'''Tropes in this System:'''
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* [[Alchemy]]: It exists and is a far more common version of magic than the "cast-a-spell" variety. Every potion is created by a specific ritual. This raises the worth of a single health potion into the areas of a very good weapon or armor and [[Too Awesome to Use|makes it the perfect gift for a party about to embark on their journey]]
* [[An Adventurer Is You]]
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