Pendragon vs The Dark Eye
Compare Pendragon and The Dark Eye side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.
| Pendragon | The Dark Eye | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy, Historical | Fantasy |
| Tags | Character-Driven, Domain Management, Lore-Heavy, Deadly, Simulation, Crunchy, Social Intrigue | Crunchy, Skill-Based, Lore-Heavy, Character Building, Simulation, Social Intrigue, High-Fantasy |
| Core Mechanic | Roll d20 against the relevant skill or attribute: a result equal to or under its value succeeds, a roll exactly equal to the value is a critical success, and a natural 20 is a fumble. Opposed actions have both sides roll under their value, with the higher success winning and a beaten-but-successful roll scoring a partial success. Personality traits and passions use the same numeric scale and are rolled the same way when a knight's character is put to the test. | Skill checks require rolling a d20 three times, each against a different linked attribute (roll under). A pool of Skill Points can be spent to reduce individual rolls that exceed their target attribute. Remaining Skill Points after all three rolls determine the Quality Level of the success. Combat uses d20 roll-under for attacks, with separate Parry and Dodge defense rolls. Spellcasting costs Arcane Energy points and uses the same triple-check system. |
| Dice | d20 | d20 |
| Complexity | High | High |
| Availability | Paid | Free core rules |
| Runnability | 4 of 5 book tools | Book tools not listed |
| License | Proprietary | Scriptorium Aventuris (community content program) |
| Third-Party Publishing | Not yet researched | Not yet researched |
| Publisher | Arthaus | Ulisses Spiele |
| Year | 2005 | 2017 |
| Languages | English, French, Spanish | English |
| Best For | Long-running Arthurian campaigns where a knight's aging, death, and dynastic succession are part of the genre, and where playing out a character's traits, loyalties, and passions matters as much as winning fights. | Groups who want a detailed, skill-rich fantasy RPG with a deeply developed setting and mechanics that model character competence through point-based skill management rather than binary pass/fail. |
| Highlights | Thirteen opposed pairs of personality traits and a set of named passions are rated numerically and rolled like skills, and a passion roll can leave a knight inspired to heroics, disheartened, or maddened beyond the player's control: the heightened behavior that drives Arthurian drama. Every chivalric act (combat, generosity, romance, piety, holding a title) feeds a single lifelong Glory total that sets social rank and rewards embodying knightly ideals over simply winning fights. A yearly Winter Phase resolves aging, estate income, and family events between sessions and passes the line to an heir on death, so a campaign can span generations from Uther's court to the fall of the Round Table. | Triple d20 skill check system rewards investment in both attributes and skills, Aventuria is one of the most extensively detailed published RPG settings, free quickstart rules available |
| Considerations | Core rules restrict player characters to knights, with no mechanics for playing magicians, priests, or commoners, which narrows the cast to the warrior aristocracy. The Winter Phase's multi-step annual procedure adds meaningful between-session bookkeeping to every campaign year. High-damage attacks such as a couched lance or great sword can end a fight in a single exchange, making disadvantaged or improvised fights disproportionately dangerous. | Eight attributes and dozens of skills make character creation lengthy, triple d20 check resolution is slower than single-roll systems, core rulebook is dense and requires significant reading before play |