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Post by WaffleM on Feb 7, 2014 5:21:01 GMT -9
Does anyone know anything or have any impressions of the RPG "The Dark Eye" or "Das Schwarze Auge"? I've heard it's the most popular fantasy RPG in Germany, but I've never played it and I was wondering what the latest version is like...
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shep
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Post by shep on Feb 7, 2014 6:33:18 GMT -9
In short? Complicated... I've been playing Das Schwarze Auge (or DSA) for 25 years now. When I started, the 2nd edition was just coming out. Right now, it's edition 4.1 and the 5th installment has been announced. DSA 4.1 gives you point based characters, combined from race, culture and profession, which essentially leaves you with hundreds over hundreds of character types. You wanna play a half elf bard that was raised by dwarves? Tricky, but not a real problem. Aventuria, the world of DSA, is rich with history and culture and gives you many possibilities concerning the style of your campaign. You can play barbaric or frontier themed campaigns up in the northern wastes, Viking sagas in the north-east, medieval fantasy in what is left of the once proud Mittelreich, Renaissance fantasy in the realm of the Horas, Arabian adventures in the Khom desert and the lands east of it, Pirate, Conquistador and colonial campaigns in the south of Aventuria and even Asian horror stories on Maraskan island in the far east. Basically, everyone will find his setting in this game (as long as it is not too modern). The German rules are broken down into core rules (red binding), regional descriptions (green binding) and cultural supplements (blue binding) plus several extras that can be used be in game by the player characters (like a grimoire and several small handbooks for the various priests). However, you don't need all the books to play the game. Instead, you should concentrate on the first four (out of 6, I believe) core rule books "Wege der Helden" (character generation), "Wege des Schwerts" (combat and skill rules), "Wege der Magie" (magic schools and special magic rules) and "Wege der Götter" (belives, churhces, gods and all special rules for miracles and wonders). Aside from that, you will need the "Liber Cantiones", which is the book with all magic spells and all rules for magic rituals and basic magic items, and the book for the region where you want to set your campaign. These regional guides give you all the info about history, culture, land and people that you might need for staging adventures, including drawings, maps and adventure hooks. I'm not sure, how many of those have been translated into English, nor do I know what the English version looks like. I would give it a try, though, since the game is really really rich in info and provides you with almost everything.
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Post by kane on Feb 7, 2014 14:38:18 GMT -9
This game sounds awesome! Will have to go digging for a translation.
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shep
Eternal Member
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Post by shep on Feb 8, 2014 12:05:29 GMT -9
I did a bit of research and found out that three books have been released in English: (1) The Basic Rules that cover almost everything you'd find in the German Books "Wege der Helden" and "Wege des Schwerts" (essentially THE two books you need to play the game). (2) World of Aventuria that gives you a detailed overview over all the realms and their rulers, as well as cultures, sports, cuisine, clothing, peoples and people, history, geography, astronomy and a huge cast of detailed characters that can be used for encounters of any kind. (3) The Secret of the Blue Tower and Witching Hours contains two introductory adventures to start off your campaign. On amazon.com you can have all three as a bargain for a little less than 55 US-$...
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