Penned by Zum-Lee, Master rank of the Lercel Das Guild
Das Origin
The origin of das is more mysterious than one might expect because most, if not all, races play it, so it likely predates divisions among them. However, the game features Aspects as the primary pieces, and it is those same Aspects who played a significant role in fracturing the tribes. One possible explanation for this paradox is that a version of the game existed before Aspects were known, and over time Aspects came to replace the original pieces. Another is that the game was created in the earliest days of the Aspects, when relations were less strained among the races.
Regardless of its beginnings, it is a game that has survived--and even flourished--over the years and now has a robust culture of its own.
Playing Das
Simple das is played on a black board with ten black numbered tiles: two sets of 1 through 5. There are also ten Aspect pieces, two of each type.
The setup for the Aspects goes Life, Blood, Gold, Death, Tears from left to right on the back row, like so:
[ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]
Life
Blood
Gold
Death
Tears
This order is repeated for both players, meaning Gold is the only Aspect across from itself:
Tears
Death
Gold
Blood
Life
[ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]
Life
Blood
Gold
Death
Tears
In simple das, the different Aspects don’t matter a great deal. What does are the number tiles. Both players place each of their tiles, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (marked as I, II, III, IIII, IIII), facedown in front of their Aspects of choice, one tile per Aspect. The board and tiles are both black to make any slight differences among the tiles very difficult, if not impossible, to see. So, even if someone was familiar with the set, they would be unable to tell how their opponent had placed their numbers.
Players are allowed to change their tile choices as much as they wish until both agree that they are finished. Starting on the guest’s left, both players flip their number tiles across from each other. The person with the lower number knocks their Aspect over. If the numbers are the same, both Aspects fall.
Once all five tiles have been flipped, the player with more Aspects left standing wins.
Some strengths of this version of the game are the speed in which it can be played and how easy it is to tell who is the victor. Also, some find betting in this version of the game more appealing since ties are fairly common, thus allowing more games for a single bet. The weakness is that, without a significant amount of Gold ris at one’s disposal or a very good eye for someone’s tendencies, the game relies a great deal on luck.
Playing with Patrons
The standard version of das, the one played in tournaments, uses patrons. Patrons are chosen using a six-sided patron die, which has colors green, red, yellow, purple, and blue, which correspond to the Aspects of Life, Blood, Gold, Death, and Tears. Its sixth side has all five of those colors, the “wild” side, which can be used to pick any Aspect as patron the player wishes.
In addition to the patron die, standard das uses the numbers running along the side of the board, which show how many points each patron is worth:
1
Tears
Death
Gold
Blood
Life
2
3
3
2
1
Life
Blood
Gold
Death
Tears
To start the game, the non-guest player rolls to determine their patron. Once the die reveals which patron the player is using, they move that patron up on the board to the 3rd rank, indicating that it has a value of 3 points if it remains standing after tiles are turned. Then, any patron to its right or left is moved up one rank, making it worth 2 points. These are considered sub patrons.
For example, if the red side of the patron die was rolled, the Blood Aspect would become the patron and move up to the 3rd rank. Also, both Life and Gold, now sub patrons, move up to the 2nd rank. The remaining patrons stay where they are in the 1st rank.
1
Tears
Death
Gold
Blood
Life
2
3
3
Blood
2
Life
Gold
1
Death
Tears
So, in total, there are 9 points to be won on this side: 2 for Life, 3 for Blood, 2 for Gold, 1 for Death, and 1 for Tears.
The point totals would be the same if Gold or Death had been rolled as patron. However, if either of the patrons on the far sides had been rolled, Life or Tears, then there would only be 8 points available. For example:
1
Tears
Death
Gold
Blood
Life
2
3
3
Life
2
Blood
1
Gold
Death
Tears
Or:
1
Tears
Death
Gold
Blood
Life
2
3
3
Tears
2
Death
1
Life
Blood
Gold
If one player has 9 points available and the other only has 8, the one with 8 is said to be at disadvantage. However, it is still possible to tie when at disadvantage or even win.
Once the non-guest player has rolled for their patron and moved their Aspect pieces accordingly, the guest player does the same. The reason it is a boon for the guest to go second is because if they roll the “wild” side of the die, knowing their opponent’s patron can affect which one they choose for themselves.
After the Aspects are set, the die is put to the side and tile placement proceeds like it would in the simple version of das. However, with different Aspects having varied values, and the same being true for your opponent, there is much more strategy involved in tile placement.
Conservative Play
Also known as the Tra-Gar Defense. When learning das, conservative play is considered the standard foundation, as it teaches both offense and defense in relation to your Aspect values and your opponent’s. Conservative play is defined as:
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Giving your highest value Aspects your highest tiles. Where ties exist, using higher number tiles to block Aspects of your opponent that are worth more points.
For example, to return to the Blood patron setup:
1
Tears
Death
Gold
Blood
Life
2
3
3
Blood
2
Life
Gold
1
Death
Tears
Playing conservatively, you would use your IIII tile on Blood since that is your highest tile and the Blood Aspect is worth the most points. You would then use your IIII and III tiles for Life and Gold because they’re worth the next highest amount. And lastly, you’d use your II and I for Death and Tears because they’re worth the least.
As to how to decide on the IIII/III and II/I splits, it should be based on the value of your opponent’s Aspects. For example, if both players had Blood patrons, a conservative player would do the following:
1
Tears
Death
2
Gold
Life
3
Blood
3
Blood IIII
2
Life III
Gold IIII
1
Death II
Tears I
As you can see, the III/IIII split went III where the opponent had an Aspect worth less and IIII where the opponent had an Aspect worth more. And the same for the II/I split.
The benefits of playing conservatively are that:
1. It provides the player a “right” way of placing their tiles in most Aspect setups.
2. It is a relatively safe way of playing, which means it has a good chance of beating out less mindful players.
One disadvantage of conservative play is that if both players adhere to the mindset, ties become extremely likely. For example, this is how two strictly conservative players would likely lay their tiles if one had a Blood patron and the other had Gold (yellow shows wins):
1
Tears II
Life I
2
Death IIII
Blood III
3
Gold IIII
3
Blood IIII
2
Life III
Gold IIII
1
Death II
Tears I
In this case, both players have earned 5 points, thus a tie. Of course, a slight change by either would have resulted in a win, and this is why variations on conservative play are very common.
Another disadvantage of conservative play is that it can lead to overspending in losing face offs. For instance, in the above example the bottom player was unlikely to win against their opponent’s Blood sub patron with a tile as low as II. So, the II might as well have been a I, freeing up the II to be used elsewhere. And if that had been done, the bottom player would have won the game.
The last and perhaps biggest disadvantage of conservative play is that it can be heavily countered if one player suspects the other of using it. For instance, in the previous example if the top player had guessed that bottom player would play conservatively, they could have laid their tiles like so:
1
Tears IIII
Life II
2
Death I
Blood III
3
Gold IIII
3
Blood IIII
2
Life III
Gold IIII
1
Death II
Tears I
Winning 7 to 3 and thereby eviscerating their opponent.
Due to these drawbacks, players need to be careful of going too far with conservative play too frequently.
As one final series of examples, here are the plays from Tif and Sur-Rak’s first game:
Sur-Rak
1
Tears I
Life II
2
Death III
Blood IIII
3
Gold IIII
3
Death I
2
Gold IIII
Tears II
1
Life III
Blood IIII
Tif
This match was a tie, 2 to 2, even though Tif has more Aspects left standing than Sur-Rak. It’s also worth noting that Sur-Rak played perfectly conservative, which can be a sensible way to start off a two out of three series to get a measure of your opponent.
Next is the conclusion of their second game, where Tif was at disadvantage:
Sur-Rak
1
Tears III
Death I
2
Gold II
Life IIII
3
Blood IIII
3
Life IIII
2
Blood IIII
1
Gold III
Death I
Tears II
Tif
She manages to squeak out a win, 6 to 5, by drastically switching her playstyle, convincing Sur-Rak to play less conservatively, and getting a touch lucky on the Gold face off.
The Key to Winning
Beyond reading the opponent--either through their play patterns, behavior, or sensing their desires with Gold ris--the most profitable exchange is when you can take an opponent’s tile with one of yours that is only a single number higher. For example, if you can take your opponent’s IIII with your IIII, you are denying them use of that high tile in all other face offs. In that sense their IIII was wasted because any other lower tile on their part would have led to the same result. On the other hand, if you beat an opponent’s I with your IIII, you overpaid by three to do so, and so they are now at tile advantage for the rest of the match. If you consider the previously listed games, you can see examples of face offs that leave one opponent or the other in a better position with their tiles. It doesn’t always last, but this can be one way to measure who is ahead as the game progresses.
Named Plays
In addition to the Tra-Gar Defense, other named plays have come into use over the years for tactics that are frequently employed. The most common are:
Jun-Pyo Offense = using your highest tile, IIII, on your opponent’s patron to deny them 3 points and potentially win the face off if they played anything other than their highest tile.
Gem-Dee Split = sometimes confused for conservative play, but in actuality refers to using your highest tile, IIII, on your patron and your lowest tile, I, on your opponent’s patron.
Boh-Chi Support = using your highest tile, IIII, on one of your sub patrons, which is less likely to be blocked.
Min-Lew Sacrifice = using your lowest tile, I, on your patron, so your high tiles, like IIII and IIII, can be employed in unexpected placements. If a II or III is used instead of I it is sometimes called a Soft Min-Lew Sacrifice or Half Sacrifice.
Xen Series = placing your tiles in order, either IIII, IIII, III, II, I, or I, II, III, IIII, IIII. This can happen when someone’s patron is on the far right or left, but more often appears in non-patron games when the player doesn’t want to overthink their play. In the majority of cases, it is considered a rather lazy choice since it is not taking into consideration your opponent’s patron, or in non-patron games, their likely tile placement. However, it is a good series to defend against if you deduce that your opponent likes making simple plays.
Faa Favorite = basing your play on what you recognize as your opponent’s favorite Aspect/s to use high tiles on, regardless of patron.
Tournament Format
Seasonal and major tournaments are single elimination, use patrons, and are two out of three games. If there is no clear winner (e.g. three ties, or one win each and a tie), then the points from the three games are added up and whoever has more is the winner. If it is still a tie, both players count as losing, like when two Aspects face off and have the same number tile flipped. If this leads to an odd number of competitors for the next round, one receives a bye.
A similar system is used for the final match between the top two players. All three games are played, but the winner is whoever wins the most points total. This means that someone could win even if they lost two games, as long as those were close matches and their one win was a blowout. If the points are equal at the end of all three games, they will keep playing games until one scores higher than the other.
League Schedule
Tournaments happen in the four host cities, which are within Gold, Tears, Life, and Blood. Every city holds four tournaments that correspond to the four seasons. However, each city has a different season assigned to them which is their major. They are as follows:
* Life = spring
* Blood = summer
* Gold = fall
* Tears = winter
This means that in Gold’s city of Lercel, the tournament season would be:
* Spring = seasonal
* Summer = seasonal
* Fall = major
* Winter = seasonal
This also means that 16 tournaments happen throughout the year, and they are spaced so that someone could conceivably go to all of them, which some players do. However, that is becoming far less common the more Death Tribe conquers and kills. It has been many years, for instance, since any players from Blood Tribe have come to Gold, or vice versa.
Ranks
A das guild is present in not only Lercel but also other major cities, and it is the guild’s job to foster new players, host tournaments, and track the rank of all registered players. These ranks are as follows:
Apprentice - Someone who has entered das training in a sanctioned guild. They are allowed to play in seasonal tournaments that their guild hosts but not the yearly major. During the major it is their role to setup and breakdown the tournament space each day, as well as act as service while the tournament is in progress.
Adept - After around a year of training, when they have placed well in some seasonal tournaments and their instructors deem they are ready, the player is moved from Apprentice rank to Adept. At this stage, they are allowed to play in their guild’s major, and they may enter tournaments other guilds host--seasonals and majors.
Journeyman - After the player has “journeyed” to at least one other host city and placed top three in either a seasonal or major tournament. Many instructors at das guilds come from this level.
Master - Achieved by winning the major tournament in any of the four host cities. If another similar win is not secured within a decade, the title is revoked and the player returns to their previous status, which could be Adept or Journeyman.
Grandmaster - Achieved by winning the major tournament in all four hosting cities. These wins can happen at any point in the player’s career and the title is good for life.
It should be noted that while winning a seasonal tournament does not always provide an increase in rank, all tournaments have prizes, which is how most professional das players support themselves. Also, there are many within the community who track yearly seasonal and major wins and use that information to gauge skill levels within the higher ranks.
The Effect of Ris
Gold is the only ris type that has a quality that would influence the game of das. Specifically, the ability to sense what others desire. This is surely one reason why a game with hidden information is so very popular in the Gold city of Lercel. Like with all ris, the more one possesses the greater this sixth sense is, and so, players with too much Gold ris would be at an overwhelming advantage when facing those without. Due to this, the maximum number of Gold seals a tournament player can possess is two. Exhibition matches have certainly been held though with competitors who have more, but interestingly, there have been some knights and even arcknights who have gotten seals of ris types other than Gold as they advanced in class to ensure that they could still participate in the das league.
Variants
The above play information has been for how das is played in Lercel. Other areas use largely the same rules with the following exceptions:
* The Tribe of Tears places the Tears Aspect at the start of the board instead of the end, thus making the sequence: Tears, Life, Blood, Gold, Death. It is not entirely clear why.
* In the Life Tribe, I beats a IIII. Perhaps this is to show that a small opponent can best a larger, alluding to the tiny stature of fairies. Or perhaps it is so there is a continuous cycle of numbers winning over other numbers.
* In the Blood Tribe, winning with a III counts for an extra point. Though a bit difficult to track, this may be to show that the middle, balanced piece has more value than expected, or to reward those who manage a tricky win since III can only best two other tiles.
* It is unlikely that Death plays das at all, but if they do, it is surely a very different game considering how little regard their violent actions show them to have for the other tribes.