The Dark Eye
The Dark Eye logo
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| Designer(s) | Ulrich Kiesow et al. |
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| Publisher(s) | Schmidt Spiele (1984–1997) Fantasy Productions (1997–2007) Ulisses Spiele (2007–) |
| Publication date | 1984 (1st edition) 1988 (2nd edition) 1993 (3rd edition) 2001 (4th edition) 2006 (4.1) 2015 (5th edition) |
| Genre(s) | Fantasy |
| System(s) | Custom |
| First released in English as Realms of Arkania (novels and role-playing video games only) from 1993–1997. The first English edition of RPG rules was published in 2003. | |
The Dark Eye is a German role-playing game created by Ulrich Kiesow and launched by Schmidt Spiel & Freizeit GmbH and Droemer Knaur Verlag in 1984.
It is the most successful role-playing game on the German market, outselling Dungeons & Dragons. Many years of work on the game have led to a detailed and extensively-described game world. Droemer Knaur dropped the project in early 1989; after the bankruptcy of the Schmidt Spiel & Freizeit GmbH in 1997, publishing was continued by Fantasy Productions (which had already done all the editorial work). Since the game's launch the game system has gone through three editions, making the rules and background more complex. The basic rules of the fourth edition of The Dark Eye were published in 2001, and was the first edition to be released in English (in October 2003). The fifth edition of the game was released in August 2015, with an English translation released in November 2016.
Aventuria (the continent on which the game is set) was first introduced to the English-language market through a series of computer games and novels and later under the name Realms of Arkania. The trademark Realms of Arkania was owned by the now-defunct Sir-tech Software, Inc., which spurred the name change to The Dark Eye; Fantasy Productions was unable to obtain the trademark. In April 2007, Ulisses Spiele assumed the TDE pen-and-paper licence from Fantasy Productions.
The German first edition (1984) was translated into Dutch (Het Oog des Meesters), French (L'Œil noir) and Italian (Uno sguardo nel buio), but not into English. It has a very simple class and level system. It was published in Das Schwarze Auge—Abenteuer Basis-Spiel (The Dark Eye—Adventure Base Game). Advanced rules were published in 1985 in the book Abenteuer Ausbau-Spiel—Zusatzausrüstung für alle Abenteuer (Extended adventure—Additional equipment for all adventures).
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