The Dark Eye: Aventuria Compendium

Experience The Dark Eye and its ENnie-Award winning setting Aventuria in even greater depth with the Aventuria Compendium.

Whether your characters prefer weapons or words, the Compendium gives your heroes exciting new options for interacting with the world of The Dark Eye! As a player, choose the rules that you like best. Options can apply to all characters or even just to one—you decide how you want to play!

Master new fighting styles and wield new weapons on the battlefield, or put more subtle skills to use and outmaneuver your opponents in social interactions. Expand your game with new rules for Fate points, weapon breakage, hit locations, information gathering, item creation, and more!

The Aventuria Compendium and the Aventuria Armory broaden the setting of Aventuria by introducing new character professions and dozens of essential pieces of equipment. Explore new paths to heroism in Aventuria with the first major rules supplements for The Dark Eye!

We designed our pledge levels to be clear and simple. This Game On campaign offers one digital level and three collection levels with the best combinations.

$40 - Compendium Digital Set: You get the Compendium and Armory as PDFs, plus all digital stretch goals

$90 - Compendium Basic Set: You get the Compendium and Armory in print and PDF, plus all digital and physical stretch goals

$150 - Compendium Deluxe Leatherette Complete Set: You get the Deluxe red leatherette Compendium along with the Armory in print and PDF, the Hit Zone Dice Set, and all digital and physical stretch goals

$175 - Compendium Limited Leather Complete Set: You get the black leather Compendium along with the Armory in print and pdf, the Hit Zone Dice Set, and all digital and physical stretch goals

The best way to obtain all Compendium products is to select one of the Complete Set reward levels. If you don't want everything, or if you need multiple copies of something, order each item individually as an add-on. We have quite a few items from our back catalog and previous campaigns, included the Limited Leather editions of the Core Rules, Almanac, and Warring Kingdoms Sourcebook, so make sure to take some time in the Game On store to see what you want to add to your collection!

Here's the list of the items that were specifically added to the store for this campaign. Note that the Compendium and Armory are included in all physical pledges, as are One Death in Grangor and the Compendium Card Pack. The Hit Zone Dice Set is included in Deluxe and Limited Collections. These prices are for additional copies.

Aventuria Compendium - $50

Aventuria Compendium Deluxe Red Leatherette - $75

Aventuria Compendium Limited Black Leather - $100

Aventuria Armory - $40

One Death in Grangor - $20 (Included in Pledge)

Armory Card Pack - $13

Compendium Card Pack - $10 (Included in Pledge)

Hit Zone Dice Set - $35 (Included in Deluxe and Limited Pledges)

NPC Card Pack - $13

The Kickstarter campaign unlocked all the possible stretch goals we set up! If you pledge late through Game On, you'll still get all of them, so here's the summary list of everything that comes with your pledge:

One Death in Grangor (PDF and Physical)

A 64-page adventure set in Grangor, the City of Canals. The heroes race to catch an elusive criminal who murdered one of the city’s most influential merchants. Free with all reward levels! (PDF for digital, both for physical)

Deluxe Character Sheet (PDF and Physical)

An expanded character sheet with room to record every aspect of your hero. Incorporates all rules and options from the Compendium. (PDF for digital, both for physical)

Compendium Cardpack (PDF and Physical)

Contains a total of 174 cards with summaries for all special abilities, advantages, disadvantages, and other rules elements in the Aventuria Compendium. (PDF for digital, both for physical)

The Aventurian Herald - E8 and E9 (PDF and Physical)

Each backer gets the next two issues of the Aventurian Herald, the in-game newspaper of The Dark Eye, which expands on the plot and the setting. (PDF for digital, both for physical)

Compendium Figure Flats Supplement (PDF and Physical)

Figure flats for the characters and professions from the Aventuria Compendium, including some as enemy groups. (PDF for digital, both for physical)

Pawns Compendium Supplement (Physical Only)

You get a punchboard of pawns for characters and professions from the Aventuria Compendium, expanding the tactical elements of play. (Physical only)

Social Conflict Map (PDF)

A rules summary for social conflict and a play mat to show your character's position in social combat. (Ready-to-print PDF)

Sneak Preview of Aventuria Magic (PDF)

You get a ready-to-play preview of new rules from Aventuria Magic. Expand your game today and get hints of things to come. (PDF)

Sneak Preview of Aventuria Gods (PDF)

You get a ready-to-play preview of new rules from Aventuria Gods. Expand your game today and get hints of things to come. (PDF)

Sneak Preview of Aventurian Names (PDF)

You get a ready to play preview of the new rules from Aventurian Names. Expand your game today and get hints of things to come. (PDF)

Train as a Dajin Buskur and show the world why students of Master Dajin go forth armed only with a tuzak knife.

As a loyal servant of a noble house, keep your eyes and ears open at court, work your way through plots and intrigues, and use what you learn to advance your allies’ goals.

Provoke your enemies into thoughtless action in combat. Ride a camel, a wild boar, or even a dragon into battle.

Forge powerful weapons, or search for secrets and rumors in libraries and alleyways across the continent.

All this and more await you in the Aventuria Compendium, and that's just the beginning!

The Aventuria Compendium

The Compendium is the main attraction, with 240 full-color pages packed with rules, examples of play, and new character options. As the first in a series of sourcebooks focusing on each major character type, the Compendium concentrates on non-magical professions such as fighters and rogues, yet offers much that is useful for every character. The Compendium reveals the power in the spoken word, the hands of the artisan, and the fighter’s blade, and gives you the rules to make it count.

The Compendium is also available in red leatherette Deluxe and black leather Limited editions.

The Aventuria Armory

The Armory is a collection of highly useful gear for your Aventurian heroes. The Armorypresents new material on classic Aventurian weapons and introduces new weapons such as the Warunk hammer, the broadsword, and the fearsome, two-handed Pailos axe. Each entry provides rules, advantages, and disadvantages that make every weapon stand out.

The Armory also presents armor, travel gear, books, provisions, and everything else an adventuring hero needs. Each item includes a full-color illustration and suggestions for uses in the world of The Dark Eye.

Hit Zone Dice Set

These ten specially crafted 20-sided dice were designed to go with the new hit zone rules introduced in the Aventuria Compendium. They provide at-a-glance hit zone results for humans and a wide variety of creature types, so you can concentrate on playing the game.

The Dark Eye Core Rules

Now is a great time to start playing The Dark Eye! If you join this Kickstarter campaign, you may choose to receive the Core Rules in the same shipment by selecting the Core Rules as an add-on. Get everything you need to start playing, all in one package!

The Game On store also offers numerous other adventures, sourcebooks, and products to enhance your Dark Eye experience!

Let’s take a look at each chapter of the Compendium to give you a closer look of what you can expect. You can also download a preview here to see the full contents and a few sample pages!

Chapter 1: Skills

The first chapter takes an in-depth look at every skill and application in the game. Rules and colorful examples help players choose specialties for their characters, and the same advice helps GMs prepare exciting and challenging adventures. Guidelines show what you get for each QL and indicate which modifiers apply. This chapter also presents new focus rules for hunting, finding edible plants, conducting research, creating items, using trade secrets, conducting chases or research, resolving social conflicts, and asking around for information.

Chapter 2: General Special Abilities

This chapter focuses on the moments in your character’s life that don’t involve fighting or casting spells by introducing new special abilities for Animal Taming, Crafting, Movement, Social Interactions, and even Agriculture. New rules allow you to use social skills in combat, while others expand your options for using Fate points, such as using prophecies to share your Fate points with other characters. This chapter also contains an overview of languages and scripts from everywhere, including lands beyond Aventuria.

Chapters 3: Advanced Combat Rules and Chapter 4: Combat Special Abilities

Use your surroundings to your advantage! Pull carpets out from under your opponents, attack while sliding down a stair railing, roll a heavy barrel at your foes, and swing on a rope to cross a chasm! Learn how to fight underwater, in the air, or while mounted on a fearsome creature! Besides new focus rules that everyone can use, these chapters present new combat styles for trained fighters, each offering new special abilities and techniques. Whether your specialty is unarmed combat, melee combat, or ranged combat, these chapters have something for you.

Other sections present guidelines for running knightly tournaments, and introduce rules for hit locations, which make combat feel more realistic and add drama to martial encounters. These rules are fully compatible with the Hit Zone Dice Set, which is available as an add on in this campaign.

Chapter 5: Group Rules

This chapter discusses gaming styles and presents rules that reward collaborative play. Expanded Fate Point rules give new options for spending and regaining Fate Points and even sharing them within the group.

New rules reward players for weaving character backgrounds and goals together to create a thematic adventuring group, such as a stalwart community of villagers, a tough band of brigands, or a hardy ship’s crew. Follow the example group of players as they create well-rounded characters who serve in a knight’s retinue. Play to your group’s style and strengths!

Chapter 6: Professions

The Aventuria Compendium offers 25 new, ready-to-play professions, each with its own illustration and detailed background information. Become a wandering sword like the Tulamid Balayan or the Dajin Buskur, an Aranian Chariot Driver from Baburin, or a traditional knight from Baliho. Or perhaps you prefer to tell the story of a day laborer, scholar, innkeeper, or pastry chef. Aventurian heroes often arise from the unlikeliest of places.

Chapter 7: Archetypes

This chapter presents eight new, ready-to-play archetypes that supplement the twelve archetypes from the Dark Eye Core Rules. Each entry highlights the many options available to the non-magical professions listed in the Aventuria Compendium, such as warriors, scholars, and characters that specialize in Social skills.

Check out the Orkenspalter TV channel for all 5 episodes!

Many people worked on developing the Aventuria Compendium in two languages. Please allow us to introduce just a few of them.

Alex Spohr

Designer

As a child, Alex Spohr discovered the second edition box set of “Die Helden des Schwarzen Auges” in a toy store and has been captivated by the fantastic world of Aventuria ever since. With the help of a teacher who had been playing the game since it first appeared, Alex and his classmates rolled their first d20s and created their first characters while on a class trip. After defeating an evil wizard, he knew he wanted to contribute to the game, and he has since gone on to write and edit adventures, and eventually became one of the designers for the current edition of the rules. Alex still plays almost every weekend with his friends from that fateful class trip.

Kevin MacGregor

Managing Editor

Kevin MacGregor is a veteran of tabletop RPGs whose writing credits include contributions to several of the original West End Games licensed and D6 products, such as Star Wars, the D6 RPG, Metabarons, and Hercules and Xena. Kevin edited the War of the Worlds RPG by Gold Rush Games, and also contributed to their Sengoku and Usagi Yojimbo games. He has helped to connect the current Ulisses North America team, working both on Timothy Brown’s Dragon Kings line and Eric Simon’s Steamscapes line. Kevin became Managing Editor for The Dark Eye RPG (the English version of Das Schwarze Auge, produced by Ulisses North America), in 2016.

Besides The Dark Eye, Kevin enjoys tabletop and computer gaming of all kinds. Some of his other favorites include Era Ten and Guardians of Sol (Better Games), Divine Right (TSR), Hammer’s Slammers (Miniature Wargames), Hellas – Worlds of Sun and Stone (Khepera Publishing), Injurious Games (Red Shirt Games), Low Life (Mutha Oith Creations), Noumenon (Abstract Nova), Ogre (Steve Jackson Games), The One Ring (Cubicle 7), Ring of Rule (Zvezda), Run Out the Guns (I.C.E.), Stormbringer (Chaosium), and Traveller (GDW). For computer gaming, Kevin enjoys Alien: Isolation, Bad Mojo, Gears of War, Left 4 Dead, the Myst/Riven series, Rogue Trooper Redux, Space Engine, and Universe Sandbox 2.

Nikolai Hoch

Editor

Niko discovered The Dark Eye as a child in the late 80s. Even if he has been taking trips to other roleplaying games and their world since the 90s, The Dark Eye always remained his home as a role player. 2011 another author recruited Niko as a GM for a big convention event and soon after as an author for a major campaign. One thing came to another and by the end of 2015 Niko left his career as a teacher and marine biologist to become editor in chief and line developer of The Dark Eye for Ulisses Spiele.

Nadine Schäkel

Art Director

In the year 1991 Nadine Schäkel was born in a region where you know it is summer because the rain is getting warmer. The north of Germany. Still she has a sunny disposition and a healthy dose of forwardness. Because no one could convince her to give up the dream of doing “something creative” with her life, she got an education at the HTK Academy of Design in Hamburg and finished with honors. At Ulissess Spiele she is the art director and the person to talk to about anything relating to images.

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