The Dark Eye Blackguards - turn-based tactical RPG set in The Dark Eye world

[abnaxus]

Blackguards Character Info

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Better than the usual band of bros, at least.

 

[poetic codex]

Methinks the translation is off. How can a wolf "literally chop" someone up alive ?

 

[Crichton]

I guess they could be worse and maybe I'm just bitter about only being able to create one character but it sounds like they're hitting the Grimdark Stout (TM) pretty hard. Though I suppose at some level every RPG character is just another slight variation on some previous poorly-characterized NPC;

Elanor, sweet girl, the kind your mother would like you to bring home, but oh wait, never mind, she dies in the combat tutorial (Amie (NWN2), Caroline (Witcher) )

Naurim, grim drunken dwarven brawler (Kagain (BG I/II), Khelgar (NWN2) )

Zurbaran, unhelpful, pretentious and unmanly mage (Sand (NWN2), Xan (BG) )

Aurelia, bad girl witch with an Electra complex (Qara (NWN2), Morrigan (DA), Viconia (BG I/II), Abigail (Witcher) )

 

[Athelas]

It sounds like the characters are more vigilantes and free spirits who don't play by the rules rather than truly immoral. Not that I mind - any video game story that attempts to be dark and gritty inevitably comes across as laughable. Though I wasn't impressed with what I saw of Daedalic's writing in their previous games.

I hope the turn-based combat is more than the usual tedium of characters slowly taking turns to hit each other.

 

[Indranys]

To be honest I'm expecting the game to be more like The Black Company and stuff, playing as a party of mercenaries/sellswords/scums who happens to be in the wrong place at unfortunate time, thus the authorities perceive them as the alleged murderers and all that jazz.
But the party is already predetermined, so there goes my wishful thinking.

And what's up with those childhood friends and shit??
The witch, the princess and her boyfriend are your beloved childhood pals?
Mang, please. Douchebag spoiled rich manchild detected. :/

How linear will it be bros?
If it's truly an exposition - encounter - exposition - encounter stuff, the story has to be great and it must be filled with decent C&C to make the game replayable IMO.
Good combat alone isn't enough for me, TRPG also needs at least a good story just to be worthy in my eyes.
Something like FF Tactics and Tactics Ogre will be nice indeed.

 

[abnaxus]

Good combat alone isn't enough for me, TRPG also needs at least a good story just to be worthy in my eyes.

Judging from their Dark Eye themed adventure games, I don't think this will be a problem.

 

[markec]

Pretty much everything sounds good about the game, its just that I hate "saving the world from ancient evil" plots.

 

[Lhynn]

Pretty much everything sounds good about the game, its just that I hate "saving the world from ancient evil" plots.

Theres nothing intrinsically bad about those kinds of plots. The problem is the places they take you, most of them dont bother going farther than "ancient evil, beat the shit out of it before it kills you", when there could be so much more,

Last year i DMed a table with the same premise, a band of evil scumbags forced to be together because they were the world last best hope, thing is, no one knew that but them.
Was fun to see how far theyd fall in order to survive, and it turns out, being sorta heroic, even if forced, changed them, they eventually drew a line, there were stuff that they simply werent willing to do, evil deeds that would have given them power or made it easier.

One of them sacrificed his first born to a demon for power, and after realizing what he did (took him like 3 months for the character to realize what he did) he spent the rest of the campaing trying to fix it, while antagonizing the same demon and losing everything he had won. He simply did not care about that.

 

[markec]

Pretty much everything sounds good about the game, its just that I hate "saving the world from ancient evil" plots.

Theres nothing intrinsically bad about those kinds of plots. The problem is the places they take you, most of them dont bother going farther than "ancient evil, beat the shit out of it before it kills you", when there could be so much more,

Any premise can make a interesting story if you put effort in it, but if gaming thought me anything is that "saving the world form ancient evil" plots always means devs got lazy and ill be seeing same story for a hundred time.

 

[Smashing Axe]

Pretty much everything sounds good about the game, its just that I hate "saving the world from ancient evil" plots.

Theres nothing intrinsically bad about those kinds of plots. The problem is the places they take you, most of them dont bother going farther than "ancient evil, beat the shit out of it before it kills you", when there could be so much more,

Last year i DMed a table with the same premise, a band of evil scumbags forced to be together because they were the world last best hope, thing is, no one knew that but them.
Was fun to see how far theyd fall in order to survive, and it turns out, being sorta heroic, even if forced, changed them, they eventually drew a line, there were stuff that they simply werent willing to do, evil deeds that would have given them power or made it easier.

One of them sacrificed his first born to a demon for power, and after realizing what he did (took him like 3 months for the character to realize what he did) he spent the rest of the campaing trying to fix it, while antagonizing the same demon and losing everything he had won. He simply did not care about that.

Where can I find such a tabletop group? God, that sounds brilliant. With most of the current players I know, they'd just get more and more debased before they eventually turn on each other for the EVILZ.

 

[Lhynn]

Pretty much everything sounds good about the game, its just that I hate "saving the world from ancient evil" plots.

Theres nothing intrinsically bad about those kinds of plots. The problem is the places they take you, most of them dont bother going farther than "ancient evil, beat the shit out of it before it kills you", when there could be so much more,

Last year i DMed a table with the same premise, a band of evil scumbags forced to be together because they were the world last best hope, thing is, no one knew that but them.
Was fun to see how far theyd fall in order to survive, and it turns out, being sorta heroic, even if forced, changed them, they eventually drew a line, there were stuff that they simply werent willing to do, evil deeds that would have given them power or made it easier.

One of them sacrificed his first born to a demon for power, and after realizing what he did (took him like 3 months for the character to realize what he did) he spent the rest of the campaing trying to fix it, while antagonizing the same demon and losing everything he had won. He simply did not care about that.

Where can I find such a tabletop group? God, that sounds brilliant. With most of the current players I know, they'd just get more and more debased before they eventually turn on each other for the EVILZ.

There party was composed of:

A drow raised his hand against the head of his house, a warlock that got tired of following womens orders and betrayed his society, escaped to the surface to live free but was still hunted by them.

A half-vampire that was into his 40, a nobleman whose family name and keep was in ruins, hated by the villagers and powerless to do anything about it, he decided to take up adventuring as a form to make money, prestige and connections, he was a warrior/mage obsessed with the power of the blood.

A Yuan-Ti ranger/psion, hated humans all his life, could trust no one, and no one could trust him, all he cared about was information and control. This one was actually the one that had the most problems in the campaign, no one trusting you meant a lot of unnecessary obstacles in his way.

A veteran soldier, leader of many in the past, now in his 50s his body began taking his toll and all he wanted was his youth back. This guy was actually neutral and kind of responsible for protecting the whole group, he had principles, but he had sworn to keep them alive till the time came for them to die, so it made for a lot of awkward priceless interactions.

Funny thing is, on this world i actually punished heroic acts, much like in real life, it was so much easier to just fall into depravity, chances were plenty and it was mostly up to them to find ways. The battle between good and evil was not "balanced".

It was on house ruled AD&D 2nd, because i didnt want to deal with "builds" and "balance" issues.

 

[deuxhero]

Methinks the translation is off. How can a wolf "literally chop" someone up alive ?

Actually that seems right to me. One thing I was wondering from when I first found out about the game is how the authorities are unable to tell a wolf attack from something a human would do, and that at least acknowledges it (though in a weird way, but I guess there's nothing wrong with wolves with weird teeth in a fantasy setting).

The rest of the article is very weird though.

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

Pretty much everything sounds good about the game, its just that I hate "saving the world from ancient evil" plots.

Theres nothing intrinsically bad about those kinds of plots. The problem is the places they take you, most of them dont bother going farther than "ancient evil, beat the shit out of it before it kills you", when there could be so much more,

Last year i DMed a table with the same premise, a band of evil scumbags forced to be together because they were the world last best hope, thing is, no one knew that but them.
Was fun to see how far theyd fall in order to survive, and it turns out, being sorta heroic, even if forced, changed them, they eventually drew a line, there were stuff that they simply werent willing to do, evil deeds that would have given them power or made it easier.

One of them sacrificed his first born to a demon for power, and after realizing what he did (took him like 3 months for the character to realize what he did) he spent the rest of the campaing trying to fix it, while antagonizing the same demon and losing everything he had won. He simply did not care about that.

Where can I find such a tabletop group? God, that sounds brilliant. With most of the current players I know, they'd just get more and more debased before they eventually turn on each other for the EVILZ.

There party was composed of:

A drow raised his hand against the head of his house, a warlock that got tired of following womens orders and betrayed his society, escaped to the surface to live free but was still hunted by them.

A half-vampire that was into his 40, a nobleman whose family name and keep was in ruins, hated by the villagers and powerless to do anything about it, he decided to take up adventuring as a form to make money, prestige and connections, he was a warrior/mage obsessed with the power of the blood.

A Yuan-Ti ranger/psion, hated humans all his life, could trust no one, and no one could trust him, all he cared about was information and control. This one was actually the one that had the most problems in the campaign, no one trusting you meant a lot of unnecessary obstacles in his way.

A veteran soldier, leader of many in the past, now in his 50s his body began taking his toll and all he wanted was his youth back. This guy was actually neutral and kind of responsible for protecting the whole group, he had principles, but he had sworn to keep them alive till the time came for them to die, so it made for a lot of awkward priceless interactions.

Funny thing is, on this world i actually punished heroic acts, much like in real life, it was so much easier to just fall into depravity, chances were plenty and it was mostly up to them to find ways. The battle between good and evil was not "balanced".

It was on house ruled AD&D 2nd, because i didnt want to deal with "builds" and "balance" issues.

You sound like a GM and your group sounds

Why do my friends have to be

 

[HiddenX]

 

[Lhynn]

Looks good, wish it had a combat log.
From what ive seen you can only attack (1 attack based on class) or move. is that right? Because id enjoy more tactical options in a combat.

 

[HiddenX]

You can use the area options, like rousing a swam of beas, using poison puddles or mantraps.

 

[Lhynn]

You can use the area options, like rousing a swam of beas, using poison puddles or mantraps.

But i want my mages to cast grease, or freeze an enemy on its place, or place fire walls.
I want my warriors to take defensive or offensive stances. I want their weapons and armor to give them different options. i want them to be able to stun/lockdown movement or even boost morale of my troops by wasting a turn relaying commands.
I want engineers(?) to be able to clear a path or make special use of the terrain in a way none of the other soldiers are able to.
I want enemy monsters to be able to do charge attacks, etc.


I want my tactical depth! :

 

[Azrael the cat]

Pretty much everything sounds good about the game, its just that I hate "saving the world from ancient evil" plots.

Theres nothing intrinsically bad about those kinds of plots. The problem is the places they take you, most of them dont bother going farther than "ancient evil, beat the shit out of it before it kills you", when there could be so much more,

Last year i DMed a table with the same premise, a band of evil scumbags forced to be together because they were the world last best hope, thing is, no one knew td lhat but them.
Was fun to see how far theyd fall in order to survive, and it turns out, being sorta heroic, even if forced, changed them, they eventually drew a line, there were stuff that they simply werent willing to do, evil deeds that would have given them power or made it easier.

One of them sacrificed his first born to a demon for power, and after realizing what he did (took him like 3 months for the character to realize what he did) he spent the rest of the campaing trying to fix it, while antagonizing the same demon and losing everything he had won. He simply did not care about that.

I'd love to see a 'Pinky and the Brain' style scenario, where you and your misfit band of greedy scoundrels have to stop the world from being taken over by some (more competent) villain, because it's YOUR right to take it over goddammit! You didn't spend the last 5 years bravely throwing rocks at the local guardhouse windows (but only at night when no-one is watching, because what type of villain operates during the day?) and running a protection racket amongst the homeless to have your plans of world domination thwarted by some johnny-come-lately Lovecraftian Horror, whatever that means! I don't mean an attempt at an out-and-out comedy (they rarely work in crpgs), but something with a good mix of 'serious' challenges (in particular, have it grow more serious as the game goes on) and dry character/observational humour ala the Tex Murphy adventure games (Under a Killing Moon in particular).

Could still have plenty of C+C (becoming minions of the Lovecraftian Horror should be a game over like joining the Master in FO1, but could choose to become heroes, unwilling heroes (while still being a bunch of scoundrels in reality), harden up into genuine villainy, work with a more pragmatic/practical villain (a 3rd party that also wants to take over the world, but because they've got a moderately plausible basis for suspecting that it's a practical necessity that justifies the means), etc.

 

[HiddenX]

You can use the area options, like rousing a swam of beas, using poison puddles or mantraps.

But i want my mages to cast grease, or freeze an enemy on its place, or place fire walls.
I want my warriors to take defensive or offensive stances. I want their weapons and armor to give them different options. i want them to be able to stun/lockdown movement or even boost morale of my troops by wasting a turn relaying commands.
I want engineers(?) to be able to clear a path or make special use of the terrain in a way none of the other soldiers are able to.
I want enemy monsters to be able to do charge attacks, etc.


I want my tactical depth! :

In the Dark Eye world magic is used low key.

 

[Lhynn]

You can use the area options, like rousing a swam of beas, using poison puddles or mantraps.

But i want my mages to cast grease, or freeze an enemy on its place, or place fire walls.
I want my warriors to take defensive or offensive stances. I want their weapons and armor to give them different options. i want them to be able to stun/lockdown movement or even boost morale of my troops by wasting a turn relaying commands.
I want engineers(?) to be able to clear a path or make special use of the terrain in a way none of the other soldiers are able to.
I want enemy monsters to be able to do charge attacks, etc.


I want my tactical depth! :

In the Dark Eye world magic is used low key.

Then swich mage to alchemist and spells for grenade like weapons.

 

[Azrael the cat]

Pretty much everything sounds good about the game, its just that I hate "saving the world from ancient evil" plots.

Theres nothing intrinsically bad about those kinds of plots. The problem is the places they take you, most of them dont bother going farther than "ancient evil, beat the shit out of it before it kills you", when there could be so much more,

Last year i DMed a table with the same premise, a band of evil scumbags forced to be together because they were the world last best hope, thing is, no one knew that but them.
Was fun to see how far theyd fall in order to survive, and it turns out, being sorta heroic, even if forced, changed them, they eventually drew a line, there were stuff that they simply werent willing to do, evil deeds that would have given them power or made it easier.

One of them sacrificed his first born to a demon for power, and after realizing what he did (took him like 3 months for the character to realize what he did) he spent the rest of the campaing trying to fix it, while antagonizing the same demon and losing everything he had won. He simply did not care about that.

Where can I find such a tabletop group? God, that sounds brilliant. With most of the current players I know, they'd just get more and more debased before they eventually turn on each other for the EVILZ.

There party was composed of:

A drow raised his hand against the head of his house, a warlock that got tired of following womens orders and betrayed his society, escaped to the surface to live free but was still hunted by them.

A half-vampire that was into his 40, a nobleman whose family name and keep was in ruins, hated by the villagers and powerless to do anything about it, he decided to take up adventuring as a form to make money, prestige and connections, he was a warrior/mage obsessed with the power of the blood.

A Yuan-Ti ranger/psion, hated humans all his life, could trust no one, and no one could trust him, all he cared about was information and control. This one was actually the one that had the most problems in the campaign, no one trusting you meant a lot of unnecessary obstacles in his way.

A veteran soldier, leader of many in the past, now in his 50s his body began taking his toll and all he wanted was his youth back. This guy was actually neutral and kind of responsible for protecting the whole group, he had principles, but he had sworn to keep them alive till the time came for them to die, so it made for a lot of awkward priceless interactions.

Funny thing is, on this world i actually punished heroic acts, much like in real life, it was so much easier to just fall into depravity, chances were plenty and it was mostly up to them to find ways. The battle between good and evil was not "balanced".

It was on house ruled AD&D 2nd, because i didnt want to deal with "builds" and "balance" issues.

Did a similar kind of Planescape campaign once, though with heavier aspects of city management (set at a time when the prior loss of the factions' traditional power structures has caused civic chaos along with the disappearance of the Lady of Pain with an accompanying weakening of the restrictions on entry (gods and the most powerful demons can't enter, but the factions have had to be resurrected and have greater power than ever because it's only their cold war - the influence of the independents and non-aligned in dominating the commerce across the multiverese and the a tenuous stalemate between the lawful and chaotic, good and evil, factions being the only thing that's stopping sides sending armies into Sigil).

We had a party made up of semi-fantastical character races with various alignments, all of which had separate 'real' and 'public' character backgrounds (as in the other players wouldn't know your character's actual backstory, and could even hide the full extent of your abilities (or even that you've got levels in a secondary class) from the rest of the party. Each party member had a backstory element that would put them on the hitlist of at least one other character in the party (though in a context where subtle sabotage or patient waiting for an opening was more advantageous than the risk of losing a straight-up fight, let alone the risk of being seen as the aggressor and having to fight the rest of the party).

My own character was 'openly' a vampire rogue (the vampire stats boosts and abilities letting him play like a fighter-rogue with charm and great escape skills) with an item that protects from sunlight (sounds cheesy, but was part of the base idea - it's a mage-only item, and at least 2 other party members would have realised it if they say the character using it - the 'actual' backstory is that of a particularly evil mage who'd been spending centuries sacrificing children to stave off old age, who when discovered first inflicted himself with vampiricism and then fled to Sigil to lose the hunters' scent - I'd have to constantly hide my low thief level/skills from the party, and while he'd always have his high-level mage powers available, 2 of the party members had direct motivations to kill him if they worked out who he was (one having travelled to Sigil for that reason), as well as drawing heat from those hunting him (and each casting had to combined with a dice roll to determine whether the spirits of all the children he'd murdered, who had manifested in a single powerful entity, detected it, with each failed role enabling it to track the character's location to a slightly more specific degree than the last).

In turn, I worked out fairly early that one of the other p,ayers was sitting on the knowledge of my character's identity, and had a primary goal of waiting to sell my character out for $$$ if he ever got the opportunity. We had a rule that character deaths wouldn't result in take-backs, but the player would get to roll a new character one level lower than before (a temporary setback, as they would soon catch up the level gap) and if another player had killed them for 'good reason', the change in characters would take the heat of that player for at least the short-term.

Mage crafting-skill + vampire abilities making up for having a very low thief level compared to the rest of the party (and compared to what the party thought my character had as they entrusted thief duties to him) + tricking him into drinking combined poison and invisibility potions + spending all my money on a detect invisibility item = rapid disposal of potential rat without risk of being observed and having time to place invisible corpse somewhere where the rest of the party would have no reason for suspicion.

Were only able to play it that way because we were happy for the rest of the players to go to the next room to play pool and have some drinks while characters settled 'hidden' business with the DM, but it was fun being able to work in PvP while restricting it to occasional, usually indirect, circumstances that relied upon copious planning and the other player creating an opportunity by letting their guard down (meaning that it only rarely interrupted the main party play).

 

[HiddenX]

You can use the area options, like rousing a swam of beas, using poison puddles or mantraps.

But i want my mages to cast grease, or freeze an enemy on its place, or place fire walls.
I want my warriors to take defensive or offensive stances. I want their weapons and armor to give them different options. i want them to be able to stun/lockdown movement or even boost morale of my troops by wasting a turn relaying commands.
I want engineers(?) to be able to clear a path or make special use of the terrain in a way none of the other soldiers are able to.
I want enemy monsters to be able to do charge attacks, etc.


I want my tactical depth! :

In the Dark Eye world magic is used low key.

Then swich mage to alchemist and spells for grenade like weapons.

You get a lot of tactical options:

 

[Darth Roxor]

So, this game, huh. I wonder how it actually plays in practice.

 

[HiddenX]

So, this game, huh. I wonder how it actually plays in practice.

Gonna be awesome!!!