Realms of Arkania: Star Trail, a hardcore RPG with turn-based combat has released with Linux support

Quoting: ExpalphalogNever played, or even heard of, the original series. What is a "hardcore rpg?" What sort of games would you compare it to? The trailer doesn't give much indication of what the game really is.

Well, it is based on a pen and paper RPG. Dungeons and Dragons for wxample has a lot of various rules and rule books. I am not sure idlf the Survulival guide is still a thing in the newer editions, but in the first AD&D, it covered rules like freezing to death, starving, dehydration, etc. This all happens in these games.

Probably the only other game I have seen as vicious is Deus (the sequel to Robinson's Requiem, not to be confused with Deus Ex). You would fall down a little pit in that game and break your ankle or leg, then as you were trying to limp away, a native would stab you with a spear and you would bleed to death.

Any other RPG can have huge amounts of skills and classes, but I wouldn't call them hardcore until you can catch a disease and die, or the elements are as big an enemy as monsters hiding in caves.

I once tried such a campaign (in GURPS) with all the ration tracking, and terrible fighting conditions. It made an already brutal game even more amazing!

This makes me happy they finally released the sequel. I bought a bundle of Drakensang games in a box a while back, though they are all Windows and I still haven't tried them yet. The Dark Eye is the Pen and Paper RPG that it is based upon.

Weird fact. The game Sacred was supposed to be Realms of Arkania 4, but by the time they were able to get far enough along into development, they lost the license to release it as such.

Much like Sacred, the first release of the remake of this game was apparently very buggy, but from what I read in the forums they patched the hell out of it so it is playable now.

It is so confusing that they call it Realms of Arkania in English. The German name is Das Schwarze Auge, usually abbreviated to DSA.

I played Schatten über Riva (Shadows over Riva) back in the day and want to re-visited it someday.

Anyway, it's nice to see another DSA game for a change, even if it's just a remake. Voted for it on the GOG wishlist, just in case that helps...

Wasn't it called that because the campaign setting is called Arkania? http://www.mobygames.com/game-group/dark-eye-das-schwarze-auge-universe

Quoting: slaapliedjeWasn't it called that because the campaign setting is called Arkania?

Not in the original German it isn't. It's just Aventurien here. That's the main continent, on the planet Dere [1]. Other continents (each their own setting, essentially) on the same planet are Myranor (aka das Güldenland) and Uthuria. There's also Tharun, which is a setting inside a hollow planet (which might or might not be Dere).

The original Realms of Arkania games were never called that in German either. It was always Das Schwarze Auge.

The new edition of pen & paper roleplaying game Das Schwarze Auge, 5, also has a proper English translation again. It's just called "The Dark Eye" [2] now, and IIRC they completely dropped the Arkania thing.

[1] An anagram of "Erde", the German word for Earth.
[2] Which is a somewhat literal translation. "Das Schwarze Auge" would be "The Black Eye", but since that has the meaning of a bruised eye in English, that obviously wasn't fitting. (A bruised eye is a "blaues Auge", a blue eye in German)


Last edited by DrMcCoy on 16 August 2017 at 7:49 am UTC

Now to wait for Drakensang to be ported to Linux and I'll be happy as a clam in chowder.

Watching the trailer makes me really want a remake or a new game of the Might and Magic 6 - 8 games. Realms of Arkania: Star Trail doesn't look bad but the combat isn't my thing.

Interesting. Thank you.

Not sure if this is a game for me or not. I love pen and paper RPGs, and I love in-depth character creation. But, on the other hand, I prefer games like Baldur's Gate or Arcanum, over games like the old Might & Magic series and it sounds like this might be closer to the latter.


Last edited by Expalphalog on 16 August 2017 at 1:22 pm UTC

Gameplay video here:

View video on youtube.com

It looks quite... bad, actually. The audio is all over the place, bad vocal performances, lacuster graphics, generic animations...

Quoting: ExpalphalogInteresting. Thank you.

Not sure if this is a game for me or not. I love pen and paper RPGs, and I love in-depth character creation. But, on the other hand, I prefer games like Baldur's Gate or Arcanum, over games like the old Might & Magic series and it sounds like this might be closer to the latter.

I can't really speak for the remake, but the originals are definitely more Baldur's Gate or Arcanum level than Might & Magic. I remember playing either 2 or 3 of M&M on the Sega Genesis and it got absolutely ridiculous. Like a fountain where you could exchange gold for XP, and instantly level up to insane power levels.

I have found through my many years of playing RPGs (both computer and pen and paper) that there are two main styles of players/game masters. 1) the people who love a challenge and try to go for a bit more realism and don't really like over powered play. 2) the ones who insist on being over powered so they never get a real challenge, and can brute force their way through everything.

My play style has always been the first, and am rather annoyed by the min/maxer people and their tendency to want overpowered items etc, so that Might & Magic game completely got ruined for me after that. Kind of like the one D&D session I played with a group where they had long time characters that'd hit 40th level (even though in 2nd edition D&D that was almost impossible, especially for non-human races) and they said they'd crushed Strahd in Ravenloft, and defeated several gods, etc... Whereas I'm the type of DM that would have made the characters retire at 20th, and just turned them into NPCs. There isn't any challenge once you hit about that level....

Good times! Actually one of the reasons I switched over to GURPS and refuse to play D&D anymore, that and the later editions are sort of terrible...

Quoting: BeamboomGameplay video here:

View video on youtube.com

It looks quite... bad, actually. The audio is all over the place, bad vocal performances, lacuster graphics, generic animations...

Ha, that does look kind of terrible. Funny thing is, I swear the tavern noise sounds exactly the same as it does in Ishar.