'The Black Eye') is a German tabletop role-playing game with a high fantasy theme created by Ulrich Kiesow and launched by Schmidt Spiel & Freizeit GmbH and Droemer Knaur Verlag in 1984.

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).

In April 2007, Ulisses Spiele assumed the TDE pen-and-paper licence from Fantasy Productions.

[2] The first German edition, released in 1984, was translated into Dutch (Het Oog des Meesters), French (L'Œil noir) and Italian (Uno sguardo nel buio), but not into English.

The player can choose five different character types (or classes): adventurer, warrior, dwarf, elf and mage.

All characters can be adventurers, but there are attribute conditions that must be met before accessing the other types (for example, a warrior must have at least 12 in both courage and strength).

Stamina represents resistance to exhaustion; it decreases when the hero makes physical efforts such as running, swimming and fighting.

The extended rules also provide four more classes that can be chosen during the creation of the character, or sometimes as an evolution of an adventurer or dwarf: rider, druid, priest or wood elf.

It introduces the aptitudes (skills) that are chances to manage definite actions (such as horseback riding or camouflage), whereas the qualities are generic indicators.

Typical attack/parry values for a new character are in the range of 14/12 (for fighters) to something like 6/8 (dedicated non-fighters, such as priests of the goddess Tsa).

When the attack test of the attacker is successful and the defender misses the parry test, the defender loses the number of vitality points equal to the damage of the weapon minus the protection rating of the armor (chain mail has a protection rating of four, and knight armour has six).

When the attacker rolls one or two on the die, they make a master hit; the maximum damage is inflicted, and the armour does not protect.

The extended rules provide for miniature figures which allow a finer representation of movement, with (for example) the possibility to push back an enemy.

Divine runes (one of the only sources of magic which can be used by magicians and druids) are scattered all over the world.

The Tharun setting was abandoned, but it is said that the world and its pantheon still exist; some deities are worshiped in Myranor.

The character is defined by the same five positive attributes (qualities) as in the first edition, as well as five new negative ones: Aberglaube (superstition), Höhenangst (acrophobia), Raumangst (claustrophobia), Goldgier (avarice) and Totenangst (necrophobia).

The fourth edition of The Dark Eye supports a great variety of character choices.

One reason for this development is the large community of professional authors and enthusiastic players, which have helped to define the continent of Aventuria over the last 20 years.

Three books are available in English (all published 2006): Ulisses started development of the fifth edition in the beginning of 2014.

Its development involved a players poll and parts of the publishers internet forum are dedicated to that topic.

In today's ingame theory Tharun is a so-called "Globule", a place in another Sphere of reality – or an alternate dimension (although this explanation is very simplified).

Myranor or Gyldenland (In the original Güldenland, meaning "Golden country") is a large continent west of Aventuria.

There are gigantic Metropolis, flying ships and cities, several races unknown to aventurians including cat-like humanoids and intelligent insects, as well as a country leached by its vampire-like, skull god "Draydalān" worshiping population.

While most of Aventuria is set in the central European Middle Ages, Myranor is based on a mixture of classic Greek/Roman as well as medieval Asian background.

Two fans, however, revised Myranor to be played with the "final" 4th edition rules with FanPro's permission.

The games revolve around a group of Heroes battle against a snake sorcerer named Korak and his minions.

The Village of Fear expansion game requires the Heroes to rescue two townsfolk to retrieve the keys to enter the castle.