Introduction

Ohoy Manggugubat! This is a substantial update to Gubat Banwa, and I'm proud to talk to you about it here. We'll go through it one by one, but it's a huge leap forward for the game!

New Content

NEW Professions!

Katulusan Kameser

Holy Protector. A warrior that focuses on drawing attention to them as a knight-martyr, channeling the blessings of the Katulusan to let their virtue shine through their soul. Nothing will get past them. 

Paraputli

Holy Skirmisher. Professional avengers and exorcists. They perform the required rituals and dive into the most occult of knowledge, learning about the most evil of yawa, to the strangest lores of the diwata, all powered by their zeal and faith to go about and perform their task of keeping tawo souls pure from corruption. 

4 New Backgrounds

- Orangkaya
- Parawali
- Hunter/Fisher
- Potter

An increase in Origins and Factions

From the four main factions, there are now EIGHT NEW FACTIONS

- Dagindara, inspired by Maguindanao, a brother sultanate and rival of Akai
- Sinuku, inspired by Pampanga, home to peerless mercenaries and fields of rice
- Bayi, inspired by the ancient kingdom of Bayi, where they have access to ancient technologies and trade
- Vuyu, inspired by the various Cordilleran peoples, home to rice terraces and intimacy with nature, the worship of it
- The Pannai League, inspired by the Madjaas Confederation and other Suludnon and Ilonggo cultures, home to the Ten Nations and an intrinsic fascination with the metaphysical and the spiritual
- Put'wan, inspired by Ancient Butuan, the city of abundant gold, where even houses are decorated with flower-ribbons of pure gold
- Ibalong, inspired by Ancient Bikol, home to the powerful Elder God Gurang and the exalted Hunter Heroes, which has caused Ibalong to continue to exalt the profession of Hunters to emulate their culture heroes
- Sritaluk, inspired by the various sea peoples of the Philippines, home to people that can hold their breath longer underwater, as well as use violet coral spears and worship in giant crab-shell temples

Lore is changed to accommodate this change.

General Changes

- Better formatting in general, and better sections
- The entire PDF is now just one file
- The addition of Levels to help parse the Ranks better. You Level up after every Venture, where you get a Mastery Point that you must spend

Combat Changes

- Assault renamed into Attack, to avoid more rules confusion. 
- SMA and SRA now deal weapon damage.
- Weapon stats are changed into Bravery or Spirituality
- Focus Action is removed. Almost every Ability that was a Focus Action before has been turned into Standard Actions.

General Profession Changes

- New Mechanic: ELITE SKILLS. Skills that are tied to your Profession (so you must be that Profession to use their Elite Skill) and something that you only get AFTER getting all 4 Masteries in a single Profession.
- DECISIVE Usage type is GONE. Exert now gains the round number prerequisite that Decisive used to have. Only Elite Skills now are once per Venture. 
- Added the Bravery and Spirituality Stats - I had the design goal that, other than equipment gotten from the Professions (and even them, honestly) weapons and gear should be refluffable and have no major mechanical advantages. If a Manggugubat wanted to wield an impractical anchor as a bludgeoning weapon, or a chain whip, they should be able to, with the only difference being possibly the damage type. 

Bravery and Spirituality thus ties most damage to your Profession. These damage stats almost never change. Skirmishers get more damage than other Professions. Some monster building has been changed to recompense this change.

I've updated every current Profession to house these two new stats, which are untouched by your Manggugubat's Violent Values. 

Other Profession changes:

- New War Babaylan art, featuring Bitoon from the STARS WITHOUT BRIGHTNESS!
- General wording tweaks across the board.
- Fool Cartomancer's traits have been changed
- All Professions have had their Abilities and Equipments tweaked to fit the Bravery and Spirituality change

In the Copperplate Inscription

- Added eight new Tawo descriptions for the added eight polities
- Added a section on gender and sexuality
- Added a section on the various non-human tawo that can be found in the islands
- Added a section that dealt in the metaphysical concept of Pagbuo, of the Isa and Wala, inspired by Animism, Daoism, Buddhism, and Philippine Folklore

That's it for today. Thank you so much for coming down this journey with us. There's still a lot more to come! Rejoice in the glory of combat!