The Dark Eye (role-playing game)
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27%C5%92il_noir
First tabletop roleplaying game I ever played: a friend going to the same school and living in the street next to ours had it. I was maybe 12 or 13 years old.
Then a little bit later we discovered the real thing: Advanced Dungeons and Dragons" (oh the memories not just of playing but also melting metal in mom's kitchen, late at night when she was asleep, in the regular pan she'd use to cook [!] to mold figurines, paint them, etc.).
Once I discovered AD&D, I couldn't help but feel that The Dark Eye was a cheap knock-off, a pale imitation, of D&D / AD&D.
Fond memories of Laelith ;-).
Oh yup I read/played those books too! The earliest one you could find the end by going, literally, to the last page of the book. Then at some point they changed that and you couldn't cheat anymore for the end was "hidden" at some random place on the book!
Thanks for reminding me about those (Cthulu I remember too!).