ah feed him a piece of strudel and he turns into a pussycat, or so i hear.

I did an unofficial translation of the first version of the game, which is at //www.apolitical.info/webgame/eye

It's OK - most like Basic D&D (non-human races are classes, elves are combination fighter/magic-users) with some elements from other games (armour reduces damage, spell points, you roll to parry as well as to hit).

The most interesting rule is that each spell has a magic word, which the player must say for the spell to take effect.

I was going to this Forum because i was interested in Pathfinder, as i found this Topic about my favorite RPG.

I can understand that not everyone loves TDE, because it has its ups and downs. For example the cultures are very close to cultures from reality, adventures can be kind of railroading, some parts of the metaplot were not for me and the system can get very complicated.
But there are a lot of people in germany which are very passionate about this game, even if they have played other games like D&D.

For example i think the combat system is great. We introduced Hit-Zones which determin on which body-part and special skills in our combat and as more familiar you get with it as more exciting become the fights.
I also like that insead of combat, the main focus is roleplaying. That was a point i disliked about D&D. I found, that the combat focus really let the roleplaying part fall short, but if i want a roleplaying game where i can fight all the time, i can play WoW or Diablo 3 and roleplay a bit in Teamspeak. Thats not what i want for a Roleplaying session.

The Second great thing is the variety of Adventures and Campaigns that you can buy. It allows you to get the adventure that you want and even if it is a little bit railroading involved, there are normally plenty of suggestions to enrich the adventure, so that you can make up your own story as a part of the main storyline and allow your group to find there own way to solve things.

The third thing i think is great about TDE is the low use of magic and the fantastic realism. I think it adds to the roleplaying aspect to be sceptical of magic or even afraid and makes up for a lot of atmosphere.

The fourth point is that i love the way you can build your character. Yes it is very complicated, so people use the Hero-Generator, which you can find in the internet, but the complexety allows you to build a very unique character. For example you dont just choose to be a warrior but you chose how you became a warrior in the first place (e.g. Visiting an acadamy or serving a knight). I think this diversity is a great thing and it helps you to get the charakter you want.

the last point i like about TDE is, that it is beginner friendly[If you have an experienced Gamemaster, which introduces you].  Many cultures are copys of medieval-european cultures like Thorwaler = Vikings, Horasier = French, Almadaner = Spanisch ... but if someone is playing TDE for the first time he can take a culture he already knows and use it for his roleplay.
Its different for non-human races like Dwarfs or Elves, but that is another story.

I think to say TDE 4.1 is a great rpg, if you speak  german. The problem if you dont is, that many of the things i just pointed out to be great, are only available in german.
The only Book translated in English was the Basic Rules Book, which is completly useless (In the three years i played TDE 4.1 i never needed it). Why? The Basic Rules you need to play TDE and enjoy it are in different Books. The "Wege der Helden" (Ways of Heros) for example, is needed to build your own charakter. The "Wege des Schwertes" (Ways of the sword) is necessary to use the extended combat rules that makes fighting interesting and has a lot of other important rules (like for Talents, Livestile, Sicknesses, Languages...). Then, if you want to have a charakter which uses magic you have to have two different books the "Wege der Zauberei" (Ways of Magic) and "Liber Cantiones" (Spellbook). Without the Liber Cantiones you cant use a spell. And thats just how TDE works, you have a lot of different rules and such in a lot of different books. The details are important to build a realistic setting.

So if anyone is interestet in TDE he should lern german or find a friend who speaks german and has a lot of time to translate. The good news is, that Ulisses is very relaxed about letting the community doing stuff, so if you can find someone that would translate you the core books, and perhaps a campaign you will have lots of fun with the game.

In conclusion TDE is a great game, but it is not at all translated. So unless you find a translation for the 4 Corebooks + Spellbook and perhaps a translated adventure i think you wont have a lot of fun with it.

Quote from: Sosthenes;1107261st Editon System Details:
As in OD&D there was no distinction between races and classes,

Quick correction in order to quash a bad meme: In OD&D you select your race and class separately.

This is also true in the Holmes Basic Set (1977), but because several races could only be fighters (except when they were thieves) Holmes attempted to streamline the presentation of character creation and advancement but ended up just creating confused contradiction.

To resolve that contradiction, the Moldvay Basic Set (1981) turned all non-human races into classes.

A Nomenclature of D&D Editions.

EDIT: Did not notice the necromancy.

I used to own some version of Midgard in German that I picked up at a used bookshop for $2 because I liked the cover art and the sub-title never failed to amuse me:

"Das Fantasy-Rollenspiel"

I think if I ever get around to self-publishing my own fantasy RPG, that's going to be the title.

Quote from: TristramEvans;599580I used to own some version of Midgard in German

Midgard started out as a fan's translation of Empire of the Petal Throne, stripped of all Tekumel-isms and infused with the setting background of a massive cosim (Das ewige Spiel, commercially available as Armageddon).

It's one of the riddles of the German market why this game that was more complete, better organized, and two years earlier than any of the follow-ups (T&T, D&D, and TDE), never managed to play more than third or fourth fiddle.
Only when a subsidiary of the TDE publisher (Schmidt Spiele) licensed Midgard as well and put it in mass market distribution (in a packaging similar to TDE) the game got significant recognition and sales.



Back on topic:
Last year The Dark Eye got its own ("kind-of") OSR treatment with Abenteuer!



"Kind-of" because Abenteuer! is way more loose and, dare I say it, story-gamey (in a Wushu kind of way), than TDE First Edition really was.

Heh, Midgard was translated into Danish in the early 90s, following the succes of the translated red and the blue D&D boxes. It never gathered much of a following, but just a couple of days ago I flipped through some of the translated scenarios at the local library.

And "The Dark Eye" was the basis of one of my favorite rpg's on Amiga, Blade of Destiny: Realm of Arkania, that came on freakin' 8(!) discs and had a fantastic map in the box. I played it more than Eye of the Beholder.

Quote from: DKChannelBoredom;599749And "The Dark Eye" was the basis of one of my favorite rpg's on Amiga, Blade of Destiny: Realm of Arkania, that came on freakin' 8(!) discs and had a fantastic map in the box. I played it more than Eye of the Beholder.

Well, if you don't have it anymore, or just want an updated version to play on your PC, you are in luck.

Quote from: StormBringer;599811Well, if you don't have it anymore, or just want an updated version to play on your PC, you are in luck.

Cool. I actually have the original on a "50 assorted games"-cd, but the second game I never got my hands on. Thanx.

Quote from: DKChannelBoredom;599749Heh, Midgard was translated into Danish in the early 90s, following the succes of the translated red and the blue D&D boxes.

It was? That's the first time I hear of a foreign translation.
The official Midgard wiki which meticulously lists all publications and historical data of the game doesn't mention it either.

QuoteIt never gathered much of a following, but just a couple of days ago I flipped through some of the translated scenarios at the local library.

Do you remember details, like the adventure's titles, adventure locales, etc.?
Who was the publisher?

Nowadays with deep insight and after much deliberation, there is a thing that TDE/DSA does what no other D&D-derivative offers:

Landscape/Hiking romanticism. It is the Wandervogel of RPGs, crypto-fascist as well as Hippie-relations intact.

If that is your thing, go check it out!

Quote from: DKChannelBoredom;599889Cool. I actually have the original on a "50 assorted games"-cd, but the second game I never got my hands on. Thanx.

:hatsoff:
GoG has piles of awesome games from the early days.

Quote from: Dirk Remmecke;599932It was? That's the first time I hear of a foreign translation.
The official Midgard wiki which meticulously lists all publications and historical data of the game doesn't mention it either.

Do you remember details, like the adventure's titles, adventure locales, etc.?
Who was the publisher?

It was published by a company called Happy Entz, I think. But I can swing by the library a pick up the books and make a quick list (and a scan of the frontpages?). Nothing worse than a uncomplete wiki.

Quote from: DKChannelBoredom;600124It was published by a company called Happy Entz, I think. But I can swing by the library a pick up the books and make a quick list (and a scan of the frontpages?). Nothing worse than a uncomplete wiki.

Wow, that would be awfully nice. But that is not even necessary if you happen to remember one or two details like a place name, an NPC, or a plot.
I can try to remember if it really is the German Midgard content.

Right now my guess is that there was another product also named Midgard.
Just like the Open Design chose Midgard as a name for their campaign setting for Pathfinder.

Spoiler

 

Did the rulebook have a cover like the right one? That was the cover of Midgard during the 90s.

Quote from: Dirk Remmecke;600194

Yup, that's the one. I just checked the local library database, and the writers (Peter Kathe and Jürgen E. Franke) fits the German version, right? I also, despite my abysmal german, found Corrinis on the wiki, and that book came out in Danish as well, a long with a couple of scenario books - one with a bagpipe?

But as I said, it would be no problem for me to pick them up and do a check of titles and some scans, if you (or the wiki) can use them, no fuzz.