Heard There Were Entire Groups Of Grown Adults Who Get Really Upset When Things Aren't Straight?

Heard there were entire groups of grown adults who get really upset when things aren't straight?

I wonder why? One of my favorite blade types isn't straight, and these things fought off colonizers.

They're called kalis in certain parts of the Philippines. Here's a bunch with some pretty colors on them:

Maybe pointing these at those groups will help change their minds?

Tawen

The metal fell from the space between stars, cold as the peaks on which it landed, black as the night on which it arrived.

Our finest craftsmen accepted it the same night the skies gave it birth, and labored in their cold forges in the dark under the watch of a thousand blinking eyes.

And from it, they carved out a blade, one that would serve as well in hand as it would at the tip of a spear. That could hunt to feed, that could carve to shelter, that could hack to warm, that could bleed to protect. Black and cold and smooth and glassy as a shard of frozen night.

The strangeness began when it met the light of day.

At first it was reflection- a warrior's eyes in gleaming steel.

Then refraction- the sunlight playing a finger's depth beneath the surface of a lake.

Then a glow- lights devoid of fire who dance where other secrets dwell.

The sun was slow to rise in the mist between the pines, chill and friendly winds through the terraces, clouds exploding silently above where fading stars yet twinkled. And the new creation watched, and marveled.

And forevermore, that shard of night glowed the color of a morning sky.

Weapon design commissions are open again!

Fill the form: HERE!

The price begins at $30 for a very simple design, but the exact price will depend on the complexity of the design and will be discussed individually.

Waiting time is around 1 week per order, from contact to delivery. This does not account for delays in correspondence.

I will reach out to you when I reach your submission on the queue.

Payment is upfront after confirmation of your interest and agreement on the quote.

Each design comes in two versions: grey background, and transparent background.

8 slots available at this time.

Thank you for looking! ♫

Forgive me a moment of kahilas, but let me tell you why you'd want to play Gubat Banwa for your next Tabletop RPG Fantasy campaign (or kandu, as we call it!) instead of the other prospects out there! Long post ahead~

1: You want a fantasy setting that doesn't have a foundation in modern and western paradigms. This one is the easiest one to pitch. This is not just for those that are tired of European Medieval Fantasy: this is for those that want to look at the fantasy genre through new lens

It's one that doesn't have "adventurers" as an inherent fact of the setting. It doesn't accept "defaults". It doesn't romanticize monarchism. It is built from the ground up for tactical fights and the complicated contexts that surrounds those fights. "Combat as storytelling"

It centers us, in the Southeast Asia. So there are some things that might not be as common as in the West:

- oversea and river travel is much more common (and let's be honest, easier) than pure overland travel.

- Honor and Debt are huge parts of the game's social systems (and if you do some reading on medieval societies, aren't even unique to Southeast Asia at all!)

- There's no single dominating culture or empire: it's very diverse, and we don't use any one culture as the default

- You can adapt any Fantasy style campaign you have really, though it is a paradigmatic shift! You'll have to let go of fantasy defaults and imagine a wilder and more vibrant world

- There are no elves or orcs or whatnot--for us those are chaining things, binding things. Gubat Banwa is the wind. In fact, the closest thing we have to "humans" are strange bamboo people - Anything in normal fantasy has a fresh take: Knights wear moonstone armor and ride upon omen bird steeds, "berserkers" are holy martyrs ready to die for Goddess, sorcerers are mantra and mudra masters and utterers who have an enlightened will sharpened into a blade, archers are zen-daoists who have suffused into their surroundings and achieved minor enlightenment

2: You want a game that's specifically built around war drama and martial arts combat and the kinds of stories that entails. There's a section in the book that covers "What kinds of stories you can tell" with the GB System

These genres are the kinds of stories i love to partake in and consume: stories of wandering martial heroes, or of complicated political warring, or of grand gods and sorceries a la Ramayana, or of small stories of warriors protecting their community

dungeon delving is not even inherently against the feel of this game, though of course sacking a grave is looked down upon by most religions in the isles. they are functionally replaced by "Raids" which is much more widely applicable! You can even Raid Heaven and Hell!

3: You like complex buildcrafting, tactical combat, and martial art fiction. Instead of the classic "Hey we're a bunch of scrappy mercenaries that wield a sword out of necessity", you play as Kadungganan who inflict violence by choice, philosophy and will

"Martial Arts" here is every kind of way of inflicting violence, or of perfecting one's self. Elementalist sorcery? Combat healing? Pugilism? Mantra utterances? All martial arts in Gubat Banwa's purview.

This feeds into the buildcrafting: you start with a "Discipline" (a martial art), and each Discipline has a number of Techniques within it. Whenever your Legend Grows (level up) you gain 2 Techniques from ANY DISCIPLINE, keeping in mind prerequisites

This has led to some genuinely flavorful builds: like a priest from beyond the dead crocodile rider, a sniper that launches stolen demon seeds, a folk healer who practices flower necromancy and swordmancy, and even a Knight-Monk that is constantly dancing between stances

All of this is built upon a tactical combat system that (similarly to PF2e!) has three actions as a base, and you can do anything with those three "Beats", lending to the martial arts fiction being invoked

And you start off with pretty limited options, so most of your build is pretty emergent: creating a Kadungganan is easy, since you can't choose from a huge pool of options, but advancement is exponential

It's all on a tactical grid too that has important considerations such as Elevation, Terrain, and even Weather! All to create slick wuxia-esque scenes!

4: You want an endlessly iterative setting. Gubat Banwa is a trichiliocosm, which means it has three-billion worlds. Each one might have your table's version of the Sword Isles. The Sword Isles is a gigantic archipelago, too many islands too count, too many kingdoms to track.

Everything you can think of will fit into the islands of the Sword Isles, just know that it centers Southeast Asian paradigms. A wandering adventurer from a far off land will be the exception, the norm. But endlessly interesting cultures and campaigns can arise from the Isles

And so much more. If you're already interested, take a gander at our itch page:

itch.io

Gubat Banwa First Edition by makapatag

Martial arts fantasy in the islands of revel and beauty.

Also we have a discord where i run games back to back like a goblin: https://discord.gg/8h7ZrU6353

Due to popular demand, I made another entry to this series, just in time for 2 days after the end of June. Enjoy~

Heard there were entire groups of grown adults who get really upset when things aren't straight?

I wonder why? One of my favorite blade types isn't straight, and these things fought off colonizers.

They're called kalis in certain parts of the Philippines. Here's a bunch with some pretty colors on them:

Maybe pointing these at those groups will help change their minds?

A dragon who decides to hoard mint and various types of mint plants (and not knowing that mint has the mushroom’s blessing of inevitability were ever its planted) can go one of two ways.

1: The dragon is absolutely horrified as the mint engulfs and takes over its den. Its gold? Mint. Its gems and goblets? Mint. Its stores of wine? Mint. No matter what they do they can’t get rid of it.

2: The dragon is delightfully ecstatic as the mint engulfs and takes over its den. It’s a self growing hoard. No matter what any adventurers or knights do, they can’t get rid of it.