Ohoy Kadungganan! Waks here.

The last few months have been pretty rough. A mixture of just constant work, family members dying, and more not very happy news as we’re all caught up in this hellhole of a world that our ancestors have left for us (sound familiar?).

Nevertheless, I got a nice RPG writing gig, have some more exciting news eventually concerning my RPGs, and have been working hard to get Gubat Banwa out there and up to snuff. 

0.8 so far has been a particular pride for me. In the games I’ve run with it, I felt that it has become a game that I really wanted to make with this setting. It’s flashy and combat isn’t boring. It’s quick and it hones in on the War Drama, the bloodshed and regrets. In writing it and playtesting it, I’ve developed a few new Design Principles for it.

• The Mang-aawit is also a player. This has been a thing since Karanduun for me, but I made it even more so in Gubat Banwa. In addition to the new Harmonies mechanic for Mang-aawit, I wrote in that a lot of the responsibilities of the game falls on all players, which includes both the Mang-aawit and those playing Kadungganan. Thus it is placed up front, and is a major rule to follow the responsibilities. Role-Playing Games are communal, not adversarial, and to pull off those K-Drama levels of absolute heart-wrenching OST background playing moments, it needs buy-in from all players. I think a lot of people underestimate just how much drama there is in the media they consume, from the absolute haminess of Armstrong in Metal Gear Rising, to the Dante vs Vergil saga in Devil May Cry, to the intercharacter politics of Final Fantasy.
• Keep numbers small. Numbers in 0.8 are much smaller than in past editions, and they have been mostly replaced with dice pool rolling. No longer do I want to go with the d20 rolling paradigm. In fact, numbers in this particular version aren't as important anymore, and build crafting prioritizes the Techniques you buy in importance.
• Unshackle from Turn Order. I know, a very grandiose header, but a very simple one. I find that the combat I enjoy the most (discounting 4e and Lancer, of course) are those that explicitly don't have a Turn Order. Until now, my favorite way of going about combat is PbtA, because following the Fiction is so much more exciting and fulfilling than waiting for your turn. With the changes in 0.8, I've made it so that almost every single one of my games doesn't have the classic initiative order. It might work for video games, but it's boring to me in Tabletop RPGs, and I've been actively looking for ways to create games that transcend video game conventions and limitations (one of which I believe PbtA is a step in the direction of).

Additionally, I wanted to write a bit more about the combat processes of 0.8 and how I got into it. After switching over to this combat system, violence felt a lot more lethal, exciting, and dynamic. My favorite Strategy games (other than Tactics Ogre and FFT of course) like Fire Emblem and Troubleshooter and XCOM all used a similar idea of one side goes first and then the other goes after. 

In this paradigm, strategy and set-ups not only became possible or easier to do, but were kind of necessary, because if you wanted to actually hit enemies in this game now, you have to be stylish. Describing attacks in a stylish way lets you gain Favor, which you can use to gain additional dice for attacks, as well as spend to use stronger Techniques. 

You can accrue Favor from describing any action in an impressive way, or attempting something incredibly risky. You can gain Favor from dramatic scenes. This Favor lasts for the entire session, so Favor you gain from drama scenes carry over to combat, and vice-versa. This has a certain good flow and mechanically incentivizes players to get invested into the game (as far as I've run it) so that they can get more dice that they might need. The Dice Math makes it so that there's still a probability of failing rolls even with a lot of dice, so that kind of excitement never fades away.

In this new paradigm, combat feels quicker, more lethal, and more fluid. It reinforces theme as well: no more Turn Order rolls obviously, but the Side that has less combatants gets to take their Phase first, which is called Against All Odds. Kadungganan use d8 dice pools now in combat just like in non-combat scenes, to hammer in the fact that as Kadungganan violence is simply a part of their life.

Can violence ever be removed when it is so integral to their nature? Every time the players pick up the dice, they think of this. Of how decapitating a lowly slave only working for a rich chauvinist is just like cooking a meal or trying to express their love for another person. Is this how it must be?

Other than Fire Emblem, I've also made it so that I took some cues from Devil May Cry and Sengoku Basara. In those games, I found that proper positioning and usage of Techniques is part of the tactics. End up in the wrong place at the wrong time, or not properly using Techniques, will lead to subpar play and death. It's less so in Sengoku Basara, as it's hard to fail in that game, but proper positioning there is still important because it's almost impossible to hit other heroes if you simply mash buttons.

This principle of positioning, movement, and attacking has carried over to Gubat Banwa's 0.8 version. You have to keep on your toes, using the environment to find out ways to describe your next action impressively (this can even be movement!) so that you can gain more Favor. This leads to naturally exciting fights in the games I've run, and I'm content with that. This is a game I like to run, and that's more than enough for me.

This is 0.8.4, and it’s gotten to a point where I’m happy with both how out of combat and in-combat stuff works. 0.8.4 has the following additions: Harmonies for the Mang-aawit, and the optional rule of Quick and Dirty Bloodshed for those that simply want a quick and dirty way of fighting instead of going into the nitty-gritty of stylish tactical combat. Narrative Combat is faster, and only has a couple or so rolls, but it still lets Kadungganan be stylish and still has a sense of danger to them.

Other than that, I’ve also included a few new inspirations over in the Inspiresong: The Scar by China Mieville, in the Fiction section, as well as D&D4e, Lancer, and Exalted as my primary RPG inspirations.

Added the following trigger to gain Favor in the Buwaya Rule:

> When you actively play into or ramp up the drama...

This is to actively incentivize players to get into the drama, and to implicitly state that drama is what we want in the game. Having Favor is not a thing that you must do, so playing into this mechanic is still up to the player and needs player buy in to work. The player must adhere to their responsibility and uphold drama and narrative tension.

Added a cap to the Favor Pool: 20 at a time.

Edited a few Elite Skills, mostly just making sure Favor expenditure is there and all.

Added the Quick and Dirty Bloodshed rule beat for those that don't want to interface with Tactical Combat and want to go with a much more narrative fighting system, while still allowing the usage of Techniques and still fulfilling the mission statement of Stylish combat.

Cleaned up the Respite Beats, particularly Seek News and Information.

Harmonies for the Mang-aawit

The Consequences portion is removed, replaced with a new rule and mechanic for the Mang-Aawit: Harmonies. Similar to GM Moves in PbtA, they are additions to the poem-song that the Mang-Aawit use in response to the actions of the Player Kadungganan. In general, a Mang-aawit performs a Harmony when...

• - The Kadungganan get a Weak Pass, a Fail, a Fumble, or otherwise must suffer consequences.
• - The Kadungganan ask you what happens next or you have to move the scene along.
• - You find a perfect opportunity in the fiction to do so.

And the Harmonies defined in the game are the following. They are expanded upon in the Mang-aawit guide.

• - Inflict Wounds outside of combat.
• - Threaten to start violence.
• - Expend their resources.
• - Separate them.
• - Make them honor an Utang.
• - Bring the drama to them.
• - Make them face their Complications, or entangle them in a new one.
• - Foreshadow threats.
• - Give them an opportunity but with a cost.
• - Apply consequences.

Discipline Tweaks

More Professions have been tweaked. I removed the Initiate and Upkeep wording of the phases and replaced them with the much easier mental load of just "start of phase and end of phase". Many Techniques have been customized and changed to reflect this. Most Disciplines have also been tweaked, so check yours out!

Foe Tweaks

The Math for Foes have been upended and changed as well, to reflect the faster and more dangerous nature of the game. In general Foes have less Mettle, so battles go a lot faster than before.

The Kasuratan

The writing you see in the new Gubat Banwa title spread is the writing medium across the isles, known as Kasuratan. While each Major Mandala has their own writing style, they stem from the same linguistic parent, and thus they are mutually intelligible. Thus, Kasuratan is a con-lang representation of that, inspired by Surat Bisaya, Baybayin, Kapampangan, Old Javanese, and Kawi! Lore and an entire sheet for it is coming in later versions.

The Pipeline

I don't have an exact date to give you due to the number of things I have to do, but the following content is planned for Gubat Banwa in the future, which you can look forward to.

• 7 new incoming Disciplines: Pak-an, Gahum Headhunter, Tambalan, Dalub-agbilang, Maninipa, Agham Slinger, Dumog Grappler
• More chapters for Where We Were Most Beautiful
• More art! And more of which will come thanks to your support of this game.
• More Lore: Kasuratan, the lingua franca writing system of Kitatak, the various tongues of Kitatak, d88 Islands of Adventure and Bloodshed, and more~

As I write this, I thank you for following Gubat Banwa's development over the months. It has been almost 5 months since I've started development on this game with a singular goal in mind: Fun Tactical Combat and War Drama in Precolonial Philippines. I think I'm close to achieving those goals, and that's only the beginning.

Thanks for following along, and I'll see you in a bit. Quench the forge of your heart with blood, and forge the future upon the flames of your Conviction, Kadungganan!