People and Cultures of Derbalan
The World of Derbalan
Derbalan has one primary language, normal, which virtually everyone speaks. There are various isolated pockets of people who speak dude or gibberish, but such are the exception rather than the rule.
Derbalan has one primary language, normal, which virtually everyone speaks. There are various isolated pockets of people who speak dude or gibberish, but such are the exception rather than the rule.
Classes
Elementalist
Focus: Combat and utility magic
Elementalists study long and hard to master the three elements of nature: rock, paper, and scissors. Rock represents the strong power of the earth. Paper represents the intelligent power of the written word. Scissors represents the dividing power of metal.
Elementalists are usually scholarly types who have studied at magical academies for a decade or two before journeying out. Either that or they're young and attractive females who venture out in skimpy outfits and have somehow managed to master magical lore without actually having to expend any effort to attain the lore, discipline, and control needed to use magic properly.
Elementalist
Focus: Combat and utility magic
Elementalists study long and hard to master the three elements of nature: rock, paper, and scissors. Rock represents the strong power of the earth. Paper represents the intelligent power of the written word. Scissors represents the dividing power of metal.
Elementalists are usually scholarly types who have studied at magical academies for a decade or two before journeying out. Either that or they're young and attractive females who venture out in skimpy outfits and have somehow managed to master magical lore without actually having to expend any effort to attain the lore, discipline, and control needed to use magic properly.
Universal Theocrat
Focus: Healing and protection magic
Universal theocrat are mages who use the power of the divine or their own inner faith or the power of the world around them or the will of the great Snoozy to heal and protect those in need. There's not a lot of agreement among universal theurges about where their powers come from or how they work, but they do agree that love and tolerance are of utmost importance. They are currently waging a holy war against anyone who shows intolerance or lack of love, but this war is not going particularly well because the various theocracy churches are divided about how that war should be prosecuted, and often fight each other over their varying interpretations of what love and tolerance actually mean.
Focus: Healing and protection magic
Universal theocrat are mages who use the power of the divine or their own inner faith or the power of the world around them or the will of the great Snoozy to heal and protect those in need. There's not a lot of agreement among universal theurges about where their powers come from or how they work, but they do agree that love and tolerance are of utmost importance. They are currently waging a holy war against anyone who shows intolerance or lack of love, but this war is not going particularly well because the various theocracy churches are divided about how that war should be prosecuted, and often fight each other over their varying interpretations of what love and tolerance actually mean.
Cat Burglar
Focus: Stealing and douchebaggery
Inspired by the grace, skill, and cunning of malkins, cat burglars seek to steal everything that's not nailed down, and then they come back later with a ring of magnetism and steal the nails.
Cat burglars do not seek out fights. However, given all their lying and thievery, fights tend to seek them out, and so they quickly learn to handle themselves in battle. They resort to trickery and deception, rather than all-out attack.
Focus: Stealing and douchebaggery
Inspired by the grace, skill, and cunning of malkins, cat burglars seek to steal everything that's not nailed down, and then they come back later with a ring of magnetism and steal the nails.
Cat burglars do not seek out fights. However, given all their lying and thievery, fights tend to seek them out, and so they quickly learn to handle themselves in battle. They resort to trickery and deception, rather than all-out attack.
Viking Warrior
Focus: Waaaaaaa! Kill stuff! Smash things! Your puny attacks amuse me!
Vikings are proud warriors who, tiring of fighting each other, head out to fight other people. Viking warriors put a great amount of effort into growing and maintaining their mighty beards, doubly so the men.
Viking Warriors are often capable of great feats of wisdom and intellect, they just choose not to ever do anything like that.
Focus: Waaaaaaa! Kill stuff! Smash things! Your puny attacks amuse me!
Vikings are proud warriors who, tiring of fighting each other, head out to fight other people. Viking warriors put a great amount of effort into growing and maintaining their mighty beards, doubly so the men.
Viking Warriors are often capable of great feats of wisdom and intellect, they just choose not to ever do anything like that.
Adventurer
Focus: Inclusion into other decks to modify a class.
Adventurer is the only class in the game that isn't designed to be played as a normal class. Instead, you take adventurer cards and slip them into other decks. Derbalan Shuffle was designed to be a deck-building game among other things, and though it has progressed away from that, you can still use adventurer cards to customize any deck and shift its abilities.
For bonus rules, if you really want to play a generic adventurer, you can compose a deck entirely of adventurer cards. The class deck should consist of 10 number cards, 3 face cards, and 1 ace. Each Derbalan Shuffle set comes with a few of them, so you'll have to buy several sets to get enough number cards. It would be overpowering if you could just stick a bunch of face cards into a deck and throw off its balance, so we usually only give out adventurer face cards as special promotions. Better make sure you're part of all of those. Just to name a couple examples, playtesters are given a jack, and the writer Cameron's business card is a king. Aces are a bit rarer, but we give them out as backer rewards on Kickstarter and might do so for other occasions.
Focus: Inclusion into other decks to modify a class.
Adventurer is the only class in the game that isn't designed to be played as a normal class. Instead, you take adventurer cards and slip them into other decks. Derbalan Shuffle was designed to be a deck-building game among other things, and though it has progressed away from that, you can still use adventurer cards to customize any deck and shift its abilities.
For bonus rules, if you really want to play a generic adventurer, you can compose a deck entirely of adventurer cards. The class deck should consist of 10 number cards, 3 face cards, and 1 ace. Each Derbalan Shuffle set comes with a few of them, so you'll have to buy several sets to get enough number cards. It would be overpowering if you could just stick a bunch of face cards into a deck and throw off its balance, so we usually only give out adventurer face cards as special promotions. Better make sure you're part of all of those. Just to name a couple examples, playtesters are given a jack, and the writer Cameron's business card is a king. Aces are a bit rarer, but we give them out as backer rewards on Kickstarter and might do so for other occasions.
The Races
Humans
Human Focus: Humans have no focus. Each human card does something different.
Humans are the dominant species in Derbalan, having a population larger than all the other races' combined. They come in various shades of boring brown, are of average size, average intelligence, average strength, average magical potential, and have an average lifespan. There's a lot that could be said about human culture, but none of it would be interesting.
Humans
Human Focus: Humans have no focus. Each human card does something different.
Humans are the dominant species in Derbalan, having a population larger than all the other races' combined. They come in various shades of boring brown, are of average size, average intelligence, average strength, average magical potential, and have an average lifespan. There's a lot that could be said about human culture, but none of it would be interesting.
Dwarves
Rogue Dwarf Focus: Drawing item cards.
Princess Dwarf Focus: Gaining minions.
Upon first discovering dwarves, humans quickly discovered that all known members of the race were tireless laborers who all seemed to male, have the same personality, and would be eager to throw themselves into even suicidal combat to protect the interests of dwarfdom as a whole. It is surprising that it took humans so long to discover that they were a colony race with a queen and a hive mind.
Female dwarves have an ability called domination that allows them to project their desires into other beings as impressions and impulses, or even outright commands. Most beings are not very susceptible to this. While they may feel an urge to act in a particular way, it is not too hard to overcome. But for male dwarf drones, such a command is not a mere urge, it is the only idea they are capable of thinking of or acting upon.
There are several varieties of dwarf:
Drones: Drones are strong and hardy, enabling them to do the heavy work of tunneling and mining, as well as crafting metals and other materials into usable goods. Drones will fight to the death to protect the queen without a second thought.
Princess Dwarves: Princess dwarves are female dwarves who have not yet formed their own underground hives. They are sometimes able to tune their mind-controlling abilities to affect other races besides their own, though outright mind control is usually impossible. Nonetheless, princess dwarves are bold and charismatic, using subtle social maneuvering or outright commanding presence to get others to do their will. Princess dwarves are known to leave the hive when they reach maturity, search for a safe place to set up a new colony, and then quickly begin gathering the necessary materials. They will either bring a few drones with them from their own colony or look for a rival's drones to dominate.
Queen Dwarves: Princesses that have their own colony mature into queens, developing the reproductive capacity to give birth to several new drones at a time, every few weeks. The larval dwarves are then taken to a nursery to be cared for until they mature.
Queen dwarves are too bulky to move about under their own power, so they rely on their drones to do the work of caring for, protecting, and serving them. The largest part of their anatomy is their head, which is able to project their domination effect for miles.
A queen dwarf can know any of the thoughts of the drones she commands as well as issue mental thoughts that they obey without question. As queens speak for the hive as a whole, they typically use the royal “we.”
Rogue Dwarves: Most drones have no independent will. But for reasons unknown, the occasional male drone gathers the free will to break free. Such a being is called a rogue dwarf, and he will wander the world, usually without any place to call home, although confident in his strength, his endurance, his skill, and his equipment. Though some rogue dwarves are intimidated by their freedom, most cherish it, and resist any attempt to control them.
Rogue Dwarf Focus: Drawing item cards.
Princess Dwarf Focus: Gaining minions.
Upon first discovering dwarves, humans quickly discovered that all known members of the race were tireless laborers who all seemed to male, have the same personality, and would be eager to throw themselves into even suicidal combat to protect the interests of dwarfdom as a whole. It is surprising that it took humans so long to discover that they were a colony race with a queen and a hive mind.
Female dwarves have an ability called domination that allows them to project their desires into other beings as impressions and impulses, or even outright commands. Most beings are not very susceptible to this. While they may feel an urge to act in a particular way, it is not too hard to overcome. But for male dwarf drones, such a command is not a mere urge, it is the only idea they are capable of thinking of or acting upon.
There are several varieties of dwarf:
Drones: Drones are strong and hardy, enabling them to do the heavy work of tunneling and mining, as well as crafting metals and other materials into usable goods. Drones will fight to the death to protect the queen without a second thought.
Princess Dwarves: Princess dwarves are female dwarves who have not yet formed their own underground hives. They are sometimes able to tune their mind-controlling abilities to affect other races besides their own, though outright mind control is usually impossible. Nonetheless, princess dwarves are bold and charismatic, using subtle social maneuvering or outright commanding presence to get others to do their will. Princess dwarves are known to leave the hive when they reach maturity, search for a safe place to set up a new colony, and then quickly begin gathering the necessary materials. They will either bring a few drones with them from their own colony or look for a rival's drones to dominate.
Queen Dwarves: Princesses that have their own colony mature into queens, developing the reproductive capacity to give birth to several new drones at a time, every few weeks. The larval dwarves are then taken to a nursery to be cared for until they mature.
Queen dwarves are too bulky to move about under their own power, so they rely on their drones to do the work of caring for, protecting, and serving them. The largest part of their anatomy is their head, which is able to project their domination effect for miles.
A queen dwarf can know any of the thoughts of the drones she commands as well as issue mental thoughts that they obey without question. As queens speak for the hive as a whole, they typically use the royal “we.”
Rogue Dwarves: Most drones have no independent will. But for reasons unknown, the occasional male drone gathers the free will to break free. Such a being is called a rogue dwarf, and he will wander the world, usually without any place to call home, although confident in his strength, his endurance, his skill, and his equipment. Though some rogue dwarves are intimidated by their freedom, most cherish it, and resist any attempt to control them.
Malkins
Malkin Focus: Drawing loot cards.
Malkins are a race of catlike people who are known for their agility, quick reflexes, sharp senses, stealth, craftiness, and flexibility, as well as their dignified and selfish natures. They are able to leap long distances, twist around in midair, and land with perfect grace. They can lick virtually any spot on their bodies. Malkins can run as fast as a horse, see in near perfect darkness, and if necessary go weeks on as little as twelve hours of sleep in a day with minimal loss of mental prowess.
Malkins tend to avoid traditional labor, preferring to work as hunters, scouts, rangers, courtiers, business owners, and thieves. This last trade they particularly excel at, and anyone who fancies himself a skilled thief calls himself a cat burglar in reference to malkins. Studies show that one in three malkins is a cat burglar, which some take to show that two thirds of malkins can be trusted and others take to show that two thirds of malkins are good enough not to get caught.
Malkins are sometimes taken as slaves to work for dwarves. Dwarf queens have their drones to provide uncompensated manual labor and to handle unpleasant or demanding tasks. But the lack of independent minds leads to a lack of independent thought, so they often take malkins prisoners to serve as slaves tasked to produce new ideas, “consultants” as the dwarves prefer to call them.
Malkin consultants are imprisoned in lavish cells where they are provided as much milk and food as they require. They are able to requisition items they feel would stimulate their creativity, and are forced to endure an hour or two of grueling work dreaming up ideas every day, except for rest days as needed to recover from the exertion. Drone guardians surround the enslaved malkins at all times to keep them from escape but to also protect them from harm and provide chin scratches when needed. The universal theurges have tried on multiple occasions to free these malkins from their servitude, but so far the malkins have been able to prevent them every time.
Malkin Focus: Drawing loot cards.
Malkins are a race of catlike people who are known for their agility, quick reflexes, sharp senses, stealth, craftiness, and flexibility, as well as their dignified and selfish natures. They are able to leap long distances, twist around in midair, and land with perfect grace. They can lick virtually any spot on their bodies. Malkins can run as fast as a horse, see in near perfect darkness, and if necessary go weeks on as little as twelve hours of sleep in a day with minimal loss of mental prowess.
Malkins tend to avoid traditional labor, preferring to work as hunters, scouts, rangers, courtiers, business owners, and thieves. This last trade they particularly excel at, and anyone who fancies himself a skilled thief calls himself a cat burglar in reference to malkins. Studies show that one in three malkins is a cat burglar, which some take to show that two thirds of malkins can be trusted and others take to show that two thirds of malkins are good enough not to get caught.
Malkins are sometimes taken as slaves to work for dwarves. Dwarf queens have their drones to provide uncompensated manual labor and to handle unpleasant or demanding tasks. But the lack of independent minds leads to a lack of independent thought, so they often take malkins prisoners to serve as slaves tasked to produce new ideas, “consultants” as the dwarves prefer to call them.
Malkin consultants are imprisoned in lavish cells where they are provided as much milk and food as they require. They are able to requisition items they feel would stimulate their creativity, and are forced to endure an hour or two of grueling work dreaming up ideas every day, except for rest days as needed to recover from the exertion. Drone guardians surround the enslaved malkins at all times to keep them from escape but to also protect them from harm and provide chin scratches when needed. The universal theurges have tried on multiple occasions to free these malkins from their servitude, but so far the malkins have been able to prevent them every time.
Sun Elves
Sun Elf Focus: Being special enough to draw more class cards.
Sun elves are a race that are just that much more special than every other race. They can see colors that the other races can't, cast the spells in a much more exciting way than other races, . And they somehow managed to manipulate the laws of magic so that every major prophecy includes a sun elf at some point.
Sun elves draw on solar energy to fuel their abilities, especially any magic they may use. Female casters especially are known for their practice of wearing skimpy outfits to expose as much as their skin as practical so they can absorb the sunlight to channel it into magical attacks. Sun elf smiths craft armor that's as protective as possible while not actually covering much of the wearer's body.
Roughly 110% of sun elves have an incredibly plot-relevant backstory. They are either long lost royalty, have amnesia, are the sole remaining guardian capable of holding back an evil power, bear a talisman of inconceivable power, or are actually a god or goddess hidden in a mortal form. The 110% figure represents the fact that while a few actually seem to have no relevance to any plot, many of them exhibit two or more of the preceding characteristics. Their leader is queen Falania, who wandered the world as an orphan not knowing that she was actually a goddess who had sealed her memories and inconceivable power into a talisman to avoid detection by the evil powers that she alone could defeat. Sun elf epics tell about sun elves who managed to overcome the powers of fate and go on to, against all odds, live normal and uneventful lives.
Sun Elf Focus: Being special enough to draw more class cards.
Sun elves are a race that are just that much more special than every other race. They can see colors that the other races can't, cast the spells in a much more exciting way than other races, . And they somehow managed to manipulate the laws of magic so that every major prophecy includes a sun elf at some point.
Sun elves draw on solar energy to fuel their abilities, especially any magic they may use. Female casters especially are known for their practice of wearing skimpy outfits to expose as much as their skin as practical so they can absorb the sunlight to channel it into magical attacks. Sun elf smiths craft armor that's as protective as possible while not actually covering much of the wearer's body.
Roughly 110% of sun elves have an incredibly plot-relevant backstory. They are either long lost royalty, have amnesia, are the sole remaining guardian capable of holding back an evil power, bear a talisman of inconceivable power, or are actually a god or goddess hidden in a mortal form. The 110% figure represents the fact that while a few actually seem to have no relevance to any plot, many of them exhibit two or more of the preceding characteristics. Their leader is queen Falania, who wandered the world as an orphan not knowing that she was actually a goddess who had sealed her memories and inconceivable power into a talisman to avoid detection by the evil powers that she alone could defeat. Sun elf epics tell about sun elves who managed to overcome the powers of fate and go on to, against all odds, live normal and uneventful lives.
Shadow Elves
Shadow Elf Focus: Succeeding at the impossible and doing it with style.
Shadow elves strive to be the most awesome beings in existence, allowing pain and conflict to push them to their limits and beyond. Their underground cities specialize in creating dark urban areas full of intrigue and mystery, with a gang member on every corner and a murderer in every alley. Shadow elves are not allowed to leave their city and head up into the light until the city council authorizes their backstory as being sufficiently troubled and tragic, with hints of hidden depths of awesomeness lurking buried within, waiting to burst out. The council also requires the death of at least two loved ones and betrayal involving a mentor before certifying a shadow elf as an adventurer. Many shadow elves chafe at these restrictions and seek a way to escape the underground and go into the light to adventure, but this is considered a sufficiently awesome path if the elf manages to pull it off.
Shadow elves can see even in perfect darkness that would leave a malkin blind. And yet, this does not satisfy them. They work until they have achieved proficiency at a wide variety of skills, including no fewer than seven styles of martial arts and three languages, no mean feat in world where nineteen out of twenty people speak the normal language. Sometimes dark elves have to make up a language to meet this requirement, but they do it.
Finally, no dark elf is even considered an adult unless he or she can perform an ordinary task in an unnecessarily-complicated manner. Thus, they're known to say things like “I know seventeen ways to prepare an omelet without using any eggs” or “I can kill you in my sleep with only a pair of bowstrings and this twig.”
Shadow Elf Focus: Succeeding at the impossible and doing it with style.
Shadow elves strive to be the most awesome beings in existence, allowing pain and conflict to push them to their limits and beyond. Their underground cities specialize in creating dark urban areas full of intrigue and mystery, with a gang member on every corner and a murderer in every alley. Shadow elves are not allowed to leave their city and head up into the light until the city council authorizes their backstory as being sufficiently troubled and tragic, with hints of hidden depths of awesomeness lurking buried within, waiting to burst out. The council also requires the death of at least two loved ones and betrayal involving a mentor before certifying a shadow elf as an adventurer. Many shadow elves chafe at these restrictions and seek a way to escape the underground and go into the light to adventure, but this is considered a sufficiently awesome path if the elf manages to pull it off.
Shadow elves can see even in perfect darkness that would leave a malkin blind. And yet, this does not satisfy them. They work until they have achieved proficiency at a wide variety of skills, including no fewer than seven styles of martial arts and three languages, no mean feat in world where nineteen out of twenty people speak the normal language. Sometimes dark elves have to make up a language to meet this requirement, but they do it.
Finally, no dark elf is even considered an adult unless he or she can perform an ordinary task in an unnecessarily-complicated manner. Thus, they're known to say things like “I know seventeen ways to prepare an omelet without using any eggs” or “I can kill you in my sleep with only a pair of bowstrings and this twig.”
Tattoo Giants
Tattoo Giant Focus: Killing things (artistically)
Tattoo giants stand about one-and-a-half times taller than humans and are stronger, tougher, and yet more graceful and pristine than humans. They are a warrior culture, training to defeat any foe, man or monster. But they also value beauty and the arts. They are called tattoo giants because they are covered in artistic designs that tell their life story; not only their career and where they've lived, but also exploits and misadventures, blessings and sorrows, loved ones married or birthed and loved ones lost. All that is revealed to anyone familiar with the ways of tattoo giants and an artistic mind able to take disparate symbols and words and piece together the story from them.
Here are some typical tattoo giant vocations:
Dancer: Dodging in combat should be performed with not only precision, but grace. You must not only avoid the attack, but look fabulous doing it.
Drummer: It turns out that enemies in armor make excellent percussion instruments when you hit them with things.
Bard: Tattoo giants have created instruments that create pleasing sounds to them, but others seem not to enjoy the sounds of the bagpipes, especially when the pipes are vuvuzelas.
Painter: Tattoo giant paintings are rendered in beautiful shades of red, ochre, and crimson.
Poet: These poets can read poetry so loud and cringe-inducing that it actually causes enemies to be killed to death.
Comedian: Tattoo giants tell the kind of jokes that make you bend over in uncontrollable laughter, which places it in an ideal position for swift removal if necessary.
Roleplaying Game Designer: A select few but honored Tattoo Giants are recognized for their wisdom and talent and are thus allowed to handle the sacred duty of roleplaying games, tools that let other people tell their own stories and yet tactical simulations that give people a realistic simulation of what battle is like. Other Tattoo Giants create art. Roleplaying game designers create artists.
Tattoo Giant Focus: Killing things (artistically)
Tattoo giants stand about one-and-a-half times taller than humans and are stronger, tougher, and yet more graceful and pristine than humans. They are a warrior culture, training to defeat any foe, man or monster. But they also value beauty and the arts. They are called tattoo giants because they are covered in artistic designs that tell their life story; not only their career and where they've lived, but also exploits and misadventures, blessings and sorrows, loved ones married or birthed and loved ones lost. All that is revealed to anyone familiar with the ways of tattoo giants and an artistic mind able to take disparate symbols and words and piece together the story from them.
Here are some typical tattoo giant vocations:
Dancer: Dodging in combat should be performed with not only precision, but grace. You must not only avoid the attack, but look fabulous doing it.
Drummer: It turns out that enemies in armor make excellent percussion instruments when you hit them with things.
Bard: Tattoo giants have created instruments that create pleasing sounds to them, but others seem not to enjoy the sounds of the bagpipes, especially when the pipes are vuvuzelas.
Painter: Tattoo giant paintings are rendered in beautiful shades of red, ochre, and crimson.
Poet: These poets can read poetry so loud and cringe-inducing that it actually causes enemies to be killed to death.
Comedian: Tattoo giants tell the kind of jokes that make you bend over in uncontrollable laughter, which places it in an ideal position for swift removal if necessary.
Roleplaying Game Designer: A select few but honored Tattoo Giants are recognized for their wisdom and talent and are thus allowed to handle the sacred duty of roleplaying games, tools that let other people tell their own stories and yet tactical simulations that give people a realistic simulation of what battle is like. Other Tattoo Giants create art. Roleplaying game designers create artists.