TDE 5th Edition

Fenris said:

Drakensang 2: River of time is great, a bit light on choices and consequences, but with great atmosphere; the AddOn is one of the worst games ever though.

Drakensang 1 is… shallow. When I first played it I was disgusted, only after years of RPG Drought I managed to play through it. It is ok if you don't mind a generic, rail roaded plot and lots of filler combat. It has an epic scale though, and the character-system is good.

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Thanks for the honest opinions.

How is the number-crunching, nerdy side of those games? Are there a lot of meaty attributes, skills, character customization? Lots of loot and unique goodies to find?

Lots of number-crunching, esp. in River of Time;
Take a look at the Screenshots at the Codex:
http://www.rpgcodex.net/gallery/10744.jpg

You have to plan your chracter carefully, you need a lot of XP to learn combat feats or to master weapons and spells. Loot is good

Fenris said:

Lots of number-crunching, esp. in River of Time;
Take a look at the Screenshots at the Codex:
http://www.rpgcodex.net/gallery/10744.jpg

You have to plan your chracter carefully, you need a lot of XP to learn combat feats or to master weapons and spells. Loot is good

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Oh my goodness that looks crunchy! Delicious! I definitely have to find some time to check this game out. Thanks!

The 5th edition is pushed towards August - towards the annual "RatCon" Convention.
It's the "TDE house convention" where exciting new things are shows, played & discussed.

For completeness' sake :

Kordanor said:

On a slightly related note: The Pen and Paper System Realms of Arkania which is based on "The Dark Eye" (German: Das Schwarze Auge) was released in a new Edition a few months back: Edition 5. Now with this new Edition it is also getting a release in the English language. They will start by releasing the rule book in the US in early 2016 followed by adventures and background information. One of their partners in the US is Timothy Brown who was one of the responsible people behind Dark Sun and Dragon Kings.
Source: http://www.ulisses-spiele.de/neuigkeiten/2015-07-24-das-schwarze-auge-kommt-auf-englisch/

They also launched an english Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/thedarkeyegame?fref=ts

Just to reiterate: This is about the Pen and Paper game Realms of Arkania is based on. Not about Realms of Arkania itself.

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What is some major differences in 5e? Has the dice mechanics changed? I am not a P&P player but I enjoy rpg systems, and TDE better than most. I bought 4e when it came out in English, but I don't want to spend money getting 5e if there aren't significant changes since I will never use it beyond reading through it myself.

You can download a "quick starter" to TDE 5 here : http://ulisses-us.com/thedarkeye/TDE-Quickstart-new.pdf

Web site (in contemporary style) : http://ulisses-us.com/thedarkeye/

German RPG news site article about it : http://nandurion.de/blog/2015/07/30/englischer-dsa5-schnellstarter-veroeffentlicht/

Seems the translation isn't that good ?

German-language Character sheet can be downloaded there, within that "Downloads" frame at the very bottom of that article : http://www.ulisses-spiele.de/produkte/1108/dsa5-regelwerk-hardcover/

The only significant change I see is that all skills in a skill group all use the same attribute roles. I can see how that makes things easier and flow better, but it also makes less sense when you look at some of the skills and their now governing attributes.

The rest of the changes seem minor (new advantages/disadvantages? etc). I don't know if the fate point system was in 4e, but if so I don't remember.

The Dark Eye 5th Edition will be published in Dutch language as well : http://www.ulisses-spiele.de/neuigkeiten/2017-08-26-dsa5-erscheint-auf-niederlaendisch/

The Dark Eye 5th Edition will be published in Spanish language as well : http://www.ulisses-spiele.de/neuigkeiten/2017-08-26-dsa5-erscheint-auf-spanisch/

TDE during GenCon 2017 Part 1 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QTgx_JngEY
TDE during GenCon 2017 Part 2 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSs_g7Xi0rk

I just saw that the officisl shop has books and other items translated into English language : https://www.f-shop.de/rollenspiele/das-schwarze-auge-5.-edition/?p=1&o=100&n=48&s=1591

Two other things of notice :

- Die Schwarze Katze (DSK) (literally it would be The Black Cat) has been founded via crowdfounding. It's an alternative to the standard TDE setting, featuring cats as playable characters. It's said to use an modified rules system. The first rule books appear to have been sipped to the supporters.
https://www.gameontabletop.com/cf140/die-schwarze-katze.html

- Of the "Wege" (would be literally "Ways") rule book´series, of which this "Wege" title was common during the 4th editions, (like "Wege der Helden"),
crowdfounding has produced the currently most successful product of Ulisses, the licens holder, so far : "Wege der Vereinigungen",
which has started as an April's Fool joke, but is now and official rule book to the 5th edition covering sexual intercourse in Aventuria. No joke. And of course only available in German language (my sheer guess is that it would get immediately banned in the U.S.).
Maybe this will become the next cliché about Germans beside beer, Bavaria, Oktoberfest and Hasselhoff : That "the Germans" actually do RPG rule books about sexual intercourse …

Apparingly there's now a crowfunding project for a book regarding the gods of Aventuria : https://www.gameontabletop.com/cf404/the-dark-eye-gods-of-aventuria-eng.html

Make a crowdfunding project for Drakensang3 and I'm in.

Me, too !

I'd likely kick in for that one!

Oh I remember those games! With the interesting German tabletop system, I loved those games. The best part was the sheer customization and fun available when making/statting characters, from what I recall. I have those floating in my steam library I believe.

I'd play a new game based on that system again in a heartbeat.

Currently there are a lot of translated books and other items on sale until January, 7th : https://www.f-shop.de/hortpluenderung/hortpluenderung-das-schwarze-auge/