Drakensang - Dev Diary #11 @ Drakensang.info

The latest Drakensang dev diary sees Dennis Reichell discussing the implementation of The Dark Eye 4 ruleset:

A short review: At the end of 2001 the [Ed.: German] 4th Edition of the Pen&Paper Roleplaying Game "The Dark Eye" was released. It came in the shape of 4 boxes each containing two more or less thick volumes and creating partly radical changes and very detailed rules compared to the previous sets. A three-tier system of basic, optional and expert rules enabled every TDE-player group to compile their own individual catalogue of rules.

This TDE rule set is the foundation for Drakensang. The team around Lead Programmer Nicolai Pogoczelski stood before a hard-to-survey mountain of (separate) rules that had to be sifted through and checked on playability and feasibility of implementation. Thus one prerequisite for the programers was to have very good knowledge about the rules, preferably from real use on the game table.