The Dark Eye Core Rules

by Markus Plötz, Alex Spohr (Editor), Jens Ullrich (Illustrations)

The Dark Eye is Germany’s premiere fantasy role-playing game, in continuous publication for more than 30 years, now in English in this exciting new edition.
You and your friends play the leading roles at the center of heroic action. Travel the land as a virtuous knight, elven ranger, or erudite mage. Rebuild the war-weary Middenrealm, marvel at exotic wonders in the Lands of the Tulamydes, discover lost ruins in the steaming jungles of the South, or try to drive back the evil of the Shadowlands. Rescue innocent victims from cults of the Nameless One, navigate labyrinthine plots and intrigues at the Court of the Empress, or stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the brave defenders of the border cities to repel the ever-growing Orc Storm. Experience the breadth of Aventuria, The Dark Eye’s immersive fantasy world crafted by those steeped in medieval lore amid ancient forests, forbidding mountains, and fairy-tale castles.

The Core Rules present all of The Dark Eye’s refined, time-tested game system. Character experience earns additional skills, new spells, and special fighting styles to face ever greater challenges. To get started, all you need is pen and paper, dice, and this book. Build the characters you want to play, or choose from a large selection of customizable character archetypes.

Enter the classic fantastic world of The Dark Eye. Glory and adventure await!

Genres: Role Playing Games, Games

414 pages, Hardcover

Published December 19, 2016

Reviews

[Paul-André Beaulieu · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Dark Eye and I have some history. It was the very first RPG I ever played, way back in 1986, even before I'd heard of D&D.

This brand new version is quite beautiful and well put together, with closely-related rules bundled into separate chapters. Despite being a bit more crunchy than I like my systems nowadays (three rolls for every skill check? Really?), everything is consistent and there are no odd orphan rules. The book even suggests a few optional rules here and there, even going as far as saying whether said rule will make playing the game more or less complex. There even is an optional rule checklist at the back of the book, complete with page references, so that your group can check off those rules it uses. This is an awesome idea I think every RPG should be emulating.

The magic (and divine magic) systems are quite elaborate and simulate paltry cantrips, potent spells and powerful rituals using the same consistent rules.

Combat seems to be biased towards melee, as many ranged weapons or spells seem to take more than one action to bring to bear.

Character creation is point-based, and therefore very crunchy and lousy with options of all sorts. However, the game does a wonderful job of integrating race, culture and profession choices for the characters, while suggesting appropriate (and less appropriate) choices at each step. The way a character's culture is integrated in character creation is especially interesting, as it serves as a primer for the setting, without hammering us with a hundred of so pages of flavour text, the way other RPGs do.

All in all, a very solid game I'd very much like to try out.

[Andy Hoover · Rating 4 out of 5]

The system has a lot of promise, a little high on crunch but not Shadowrun. The world is a bit bland as presented here, but feels less comic book and more literature than whatever the fuck D&D is becoming.

[Malum · Rating 3 out of 5]

I applaud this game for doing something different, but rolling three times (or three dice at once and keeping track of what dice corresponds to what skill) and then spending skill points on every skill check seems a bit much to me.

[ik.ben.henri · Rating 4 out of 5]

This game is really difficult, very crunchy. The rules are very comprehensive, which makes the game interesting. It feels more 'realistic' than Dungeons and Dragons