The Dark Eye: Difference between revisions

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.

 

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'''Tropes in this System:'''

* [[Alternative Calendar]]: Quite a few, actually.

* [[Always Chaotic Evil]]: It's played completely straight with the [[Our Elves Are Better|Dark Elves]] of the Setting.

** And those who follow the [[God of Evil|Nameless god]].

* [[Authority Equals Asskicking]]: For the most part averted. Only in the Heptarchies of the Dark Lands is raw (magical) power a requirement for the highest Echelon of Leadership. [[Justified Trope|And]] [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder|for]] [[The Starscream|staying]] [[Klingon Promotion|on top.]]

** As do the [[Lizard Folk|Maru]], a race of crocodile people. According to their legends, their patron god Kr'Thon'Chh wanted them to be this way {{spoiler|despite the belief of many humans that Kr'Thon'Chh is a demon, he is in fact the god Kor.}}

* [[Boisterous Bruiser]] The {{spoiler|late}} Duke of Meadows (Waldemar the Bear) is Aventurias standout example.

* [[Captain Ersatz]]: ''The Dark Eye'' exists only because the publishers didn't have enough money to buy the ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' license.

** They did have the money, but they preferred to spend it on an advertising campaign. Which worked out rather well.

* [[Cast From Hit Points]]: Exists both in a socially acceptable way, by using ones own life force when all magic power is gone, as well as the socially unacceptable way of Borbaradianism, where anyone who learns this can cast any (borbaradian) spell he learns without any inherent magical talent, only using his life force to cast. {{spoiler|The additional downside of borbaradian spells is that they are all at least somewhat demonically tainted.}}

* [[Character Customization]]: Using a [[Point Buy]] system, and several templates. Characters are all based on the trinity of race, culture and profession. Characters are customized afterwards.

* [[Color Coded for Your Convenience]]: if it is black, red or black and red it is likely to be something bad. Or a priest of the god of smiths, or the god of mercenaries.

* [[Church Militant]]: The cult of Rondra, the warrior goddess are the best example, but roughly half of the cults maintain their own faith militant.

* [[Continuity Porn]]: Some might think that the setting's depth of information was a "bad" thing.

* [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder]]: [[Enforced Trope|Naturally]], the followers of the Demon Lord of deceit and strife Lolgramoth.

* [[Dark Messiah]]: The Aikar Brazoragh, leader of all orcish tribes is one of these.

** [[Alternate Character Interpretation|At least in the eyes of the humans.]]

* [[Demi Human]]: Half-Orcs and Half-Elves are the most obvious examples.

* [[Demon Lords and Archdevils]]: The demons in The Dark Eye are this, because [[Our Demons Are Different|their demons are different]] - practically every Demon Lord is the dark reflection of one of the major god with an agenda which is basically the perverted ideals of the original god.

* [[House Rules]]: Usually made to simplify the game.

* [[Human Sacrifice]]: Always a favorite of demonologists and other users of black magic.

* [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain]]: Well, perhaps not all that sympathetic - but certainly ineffectual: Pardona, the Tongue of the Nameless God and Envoy of Evil, is canonically defeated, rejected or thwarted in every one of her apperances. Adding insult to injury - her official stats aren't that great either. Even if their Characters might fear her - most players regard her with a bemused mix of detached pity and condescension.

* [[Judge, Jury, and Executioner]]: In theory, every Noble with the privilege of Jurisdiction. As long as he or she is on the grounds of his/her own fiefdom.

*** The Rays of Light often assume these privileges, always in error (assuming the privileges, not the denunciation)

* [[Kill and Replace]]: There are at least two demons who use this as their trick.

* [[Knight Templar]]: The Rays of Light,The Priest-Emperors and often the Church of Praios in general.

* [[Kryptonite Factor]]: Common iron blocks magical powers. For some spellcasters, this is only a minor problem, others like druids cannot use forged metal at all.

** For all elementals their opposing element is their greatest weakness, no matter how resistant to any sort of damage they become.

* [[Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards]]: Averted. While spellcasters can be very powerful, a PC wizard remains very squishy for his whole career, and an optimised warrior is usually very dangerous, even for wizened old wizard guys.

** If a PC is played for long enough, a Wizard can level up in combat arts greatly thanks to the skillpoint system, since every character is open to nearly everything once created. Also, they get magical staves that cannot be destroyed by any nonmagical means, bypassing the very realistic break-factor checks.

* [[The Necrocracy]]: Warunk, a city state under the control of an undead dragon used to fit this very much. There still are mini-necrocracies in the area around the city.

* [[Obfuscating Stupidity]]: Mizirion III, King of Brabak.

* [[Obstructive Bureaucrat]]: The Imperial Chancellery of the Middenrealm. Proudly obstructing every move of their own empress.

* [[Odd Job Gods]]: Some of the half-gods are this.

* [[The Dragon]]: Rhazzazor to Borbarad. Bonus points for ''actually being a dragon''.

* [[The Kingdom]]: The Middenrealm combines aspects of this with [[Vestigial Empire]].

* [[The Pope]]: The former priest-emperors of the Middle Realm were basicly the Holy See of the Papal State in a fantasy setting, complete with no tolerance for heretics. The island of Jilaskan, where the priest-emperors' descendants were sent to exile, preserves this.

* [[Time Travel]]: Not a common feature, but a few adventure modules deal with this.