Anyone else here remember playin that? It was called "L'Oeil Noir" in french (literally, word for word, "The Dark Eye").

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.