The Dark Eye

The Dark Eye (German: Das Schwarze Auge) is the most popular German role-playing game, a fantasy-themed game similar to Dungeons & Dragons.

History

The game was designed by Ulrich Kiesow and first published by Schmidt Spiele, a major German games publisher, in 1984, after Schmidt Spiele had unsuccessfully attempted to attain a license for a German translation of Dungeons & Dragons. The game was similar to early D&D. A character had five basic attributes: courage, intelligence, chasrisma, agility and strength. The five available character classes were adventurer, warrior, thief and Elf (the only playable non-human race in the first edition; later editions added more classes and playable races). The publication by Schmidt Spiele had the advantage that the game was easily obtainable through mainstream toy retail.

The second edition was published in 1988; it added a skill system and five "negative attributes" as counterparts to the five positive attributes. The third edition appeared in 1993. It added two more positive (dexterity and intuition) and negative attributes.

When Schmidt Spiele went out of business in 1997, the franchise was purchased by Fantasy Productions, who published the fourth edition in 2001. This edition introduced a much more flexible character creation system similar to that of games such as GURPS or Shadowrun. An English-language version was published in 2006. In 2008, the franchise was taken over by Ulisses Spiele.

System

The game system has changed considerably over time and grew more complex from humble beginnings. The following describes the current fourth edition of the game.

Characters are built by assigning points to attributes, skills and other traits. (Earlier editions had a level and class based system similar to D&D.) The task resolution system is based on a roll of three 20-sided dice, with 1-1-1 being the best possible result. The combat system is based on attack and defense rolls.

Setting

The setting of The Dark Eye consists of four continents on a planet named Dere in German and Ethra in English (anagrams of Erde and Earth, respectively). These continents are named Aventuria, Myranor, Rakshazar and Uthuria. In addition, there is a hollow world named Tharun which originally was presented as the hollow interior of the planet but later retconned to be in a pocket dimension. Each of the continents has its own flavour, and travelling between continents is very difficult.

Aventuria

Aventuria (German Aventurien) is the main game world of the game. Aventuria is a small continent (smaller than Europe) which nevertheless runs the full gamut, climate-wise, from arctic tundra in the north to tropical rain forest in the south. The cultures of Aventuria resemble various cultures of Late Medieval Europe, the Middle East and Africa. In addition, there are Elves, Dwarves and other fantastic races, making Aventuria a typical EDO world.

Myranor

Myranor, also known as Gyldenland, is a large continent that lies west of Aventuria, separated from the latter by an ocean that is very difficult to navigate. Myranor is a much more exotic realm than Aventuria, with a very high level of magic. There are no Elves, Dwarves or similar races on Myranor; instead, it has several species of beast-people. The continent is dominated by the Imperium, a huge empire dominated by humans.

Riesland

Riesland is the continent that lies to the east of Aventuria. There is no official elaboration of this continent, but it has been elaborated in a fan project, Rakshazar. Rakshazar is a barbaric sword-and-sorcery setting.

Uthuria

Uthuria is the continent to the south of Aventuria, a very exotic setting which has been published only recently.

Tharun

Tharun is a hollow world, accessible through underground portals. It was originally presented as the hollow interior of Ethra, but later retconned to a globule (a kind of pocket dimension) which was only mistaken for the hollow interior of Ethra by Aventurian geographers. Tharun is a very exotic world with a different kind of magic than Aventuria.

External links

• The Dark Eye @ Wikipedia
• Wiki Aventurica (in German)