The Dark Eye

The Dark Eye (TDE, German: Das Schwarze Auge (DSA)), is a German role-playing game created by Ulrich Kiesow and launched by Schmidt Spiel & Freizeit GmbH and Droemer Knaur Verlag in 1984. The name literally means "the black eye". However, this does not imply a "black eye" (as in a bruise); the German expression for such bruising is "blaues Auge" ("blue eye").

It is the most successful role-playing game on the German market, outselling Dungeons & Dragons. Many years of work on the game have led to an extremely detailed and extensively-described game world. 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 (Fuchs' company, which had already done all the editorial work). Since the game's launch the game system has gone through three editions, making the rules and background more complex. The basic rules of the fourth edition of The Dark Eye were published in 2001, and was the first edition to be released in English (in October 2003).

Aventuria (the continent on which the game is set) was first introduced to the English-language market through a series of computer games and novels and later under the name Realms of Arkania. The trademark Realms of Arkania was owned by the now-defunct Sir-tech Software, Inc., which spurred the name change to The Dark Eye; Fantasy Productions was unable to obtain the trademark. In April 2007, Ulisses Spiele assumed the TDE pen-and-paper licence from Fantasy Productions.