Rolling up a hero in The Dark Eye involves a fifteen step process. When fashioned into a Dark Eye, the iron takes on the form of an orb or, in very exceptional cases, an eye, hence the name.” (PG 6) Creating such an artifact calls for very powerful magic and a huge quantity of meteoritic iron. Wizards of eras long gone used them to look at far distant places, even other worlds, or to glimpse scenes from the distant past.

“The game is named after the most intriguing magical artifacts it has to offer-the Dark Eyes, extremely powerful orbs that are very rare and hard to find. While it would seem that 478 Kickstarters backers likely received a thief’s bounty for a mere $20 pledge before we get into the review itself let’s talk about what is, “ The Dark Eye,” or the main premise of this RPG. Point of fact the writing really impressed me. I had my concerns (and would understand anyone else’s for that matter) knowing that this product was a translation, but I’m happy to report that my concerns were unfounded. Included with the setting elements is very healthy amount of art, the quality of which is top notch. The magic is toned down a bit from your usual fantasy RPG, and medieval elements are a bit better detailed than the usual fair. The Dark Eye offers a fantasy realm of gods (and churches) for the characters to worship and magic to wield. There is an interesting chapter that distinguishes the many dwarven, elven and human cultures, rather than jamming them all under individual race descriptions, which rounds out the setting nicely. As far as setting elements go, Aventuria seems to have all the bells and whistles of a typical Tolkien inspired RPG, which many will be familiar with, dwarves, elves, orcs and the like. The Dark Eye is a fantasy setting in the world of Aventuria.

Hopefully that will be the last time I note that… I have no plans to review RPGs bigger than this. By page count, the game is by far the largest (single volume) I’ve reviewed for Indy Game Scene (column, at the time). The Dark Eye RPG is full color and is a behemoth at 418 pages cover to cover.

I receive a token % if you purchase something on the landing page. ( Disclosure: This post includes affiliate links.

Download the dark eye rpg review