Month: February 2026

A Perfect Wife (Play Report, Session 1)

by goobernuts

This is a narrative recap of a campaign of A Perfect Wife by Zedeck Siew and Copy/Paste Co-op. I was using Liminal Horror as a system for this one, with a few tweaks.

On a Wednesday morning, a woman walked out of the Desa Damai Wet Market, canvas bag filled with groceries in arm. Outside were six strangers; strangers to each other, to the town, but not to her. She knew all of them personally. They knew her as Sara.

Miaow, an artist, taught her the basics of painting. She knew the author Li Ting’s wife, before she disappeared mysteriously. She has supported Uncle Gurang’s campaigns as a social worker before. Kier has interviewed her before as a journalist. She helped Deyna in her complicated ( an understatement) family situation. Pinang, a street kid, stole from her but she let her keep the money.

“Thank you for coming. I didn’t know who else to turn to.” Sara led them to the Peaceful Heart Community Center. There was someone she wanted the six to meet.

She was slow to walk, every now and then caressing her swollen belly as if it is the most precious thing. Some women at the Community Center waxed compliments about her complexion, said she’s glowing. She knows they’re lying. She knows she looks like shit. She hasn’t been sleeping well recently.

A child hugged Sara as soon as she saw her. Yinyin was her name. Her father disappeared two Saturdays ago. Not an uncommon phenomenon in this town. The first disappearance was from a year ago, and they have only gone up in frequency.

“The police don’t really care about the case anymore. Can you find Yinyin’s father, Tet?” Sara asked of the strangers.

They asked Yinyin questions to get some sort of lead. Some way of identification, where was he seen last?

“Papa doesn’t have a middle finger in his left hand and he has a picture of a black cat on his arm. Oh, and he always has a panda pendant I gave him!” Yinyin pointed them towards Zaya Trading as her father’s last known location.

Before the group left, they noticed a brown stain on the rug in the community center. Deyna identified the stain as blood.

Sara made excuses about it. “You know how kids can be. They run around and make everything filthy!”

—–

The group headed to Zaya Trading. There was a small area cordoned off with police tape on the way there. A constable waved and told them to move along.

Curiosity struck Pinang, who ducked under the police tape. What met her eyes past it was a severed hand. The constable picked her up and returned her to the group, but now without berating them for being so irresponsible with a child. He warned them about Desa Damai and its frequent show of gang violence. “If you’re not careful, that’ll be your arm next.”

Kier tried taking a picture of the arm but the constable caught his phone before he could. He pocketed it, telling him to pick it up at the Police Kiosk, but not before paying a confiscation fee. Pinang tried stealing it back, but the constable caught her and has had enough of the group.

—–

At Zaya Trading, a general store with all sorts of wares, a man greeted the group from behind a counter. He introduced himself as Uncle Yat. “See this panther here?” He points to a tattoo on his left arm. “We fought. We believed! But we lost. That’s life.”

The group asked him if he saw Tet come by. He remembers, Tet came by with a real pretty girl. The prettiest girl he’s ever seen. Li Ting asked what she looked like, but he couldn’t remember.

Miaw saw a door with a sticker saying “KEEP OUT” behind the counter. Curious, she and Pinang snuck over the counter while Kier and Deyna were buying from Uncle Yat.

Past the door was an alley with people too stoned to really comprehend anything. Most of them had black panther and black band tattoos on their arm. Pinang swiped some of the weed and stored them in her pocket.

—–

The group decided to get Kier’s phone back from the police kiosk. On the way there, three Black Bands accosted them for snack money. While Uncle Gurang was mentally calculating how much would be enough of a bribe to leave them alone, Pinang handed the men 10 in cash and the weed she stole. That was enough.

—–

The group had to ring the bell in the front desk of the police kiosk an officer could come to attend to them. She told Kier to fill up a form and pay 50 in cash to get back his confiscated phone. Li Ting convinced her that the confiscation was just a mistake, and Pinang convinced her to give Kier back his phone without the fee.

They also asked about Tet and the other disappearances. For that, the officer called Sub-Inspector Rafiq. “Still open investigation.” he answered them dismissively.

The group pushed with more questions. The sub-inspector got suspicious. “Did Dr. Azman’s wife put you up to this?” This was the first time the group heard about Sara’s husband.

“The doctor’s wife has pure intentions, yes. But she is naive. These refugees? Human trafficking. We should protect pure women from bad realities.”

—–

The sun is going down, and the group has collected pieces they don’t know how to put together yet. Perhaps more would need to be collected to create the whole picture.

The Essence and Death of Folk in Mangayaw

by goobernuts

This is an old blog from my Patreon. Support me there!

Last month, I released a very early version of a new edition of Mangayaw, dubbed Folk Hero Edition. Now the time has come for some designer commentary.

– – – – –

Mythic Bastionland made the change from the classic Into the Odd attribute spread of Strength, Dexterity, and Willpower, to Vigour, Clarity, and Spirit, now calling them Virtues. The brilliance of this change is in how well it meshes with the new game’s themes. Calling them Virtues reinforces the feel of being knights with high physical and moral standards to uphold. Putting all physical stuff into Vigour and adding Spirit instinctively tells players that the game cares about the internal turmoils of a character equally as their physical challenges.

From this I made a reframing of my own, inspired by Philippine folklore and beliefs. These attributes are what makes one a person, the Essence of Folk.

Essence represents different elements of Folkhood. Each is used for different circumstances. 

  • Body represents the physical form and ability of a Folk.
  • Spirit represents the intellectual and moral powers of a Folk.
  • Bond represents the social and environmental oneness of Folk.

– – – – –

In Hinilawod, a Sulod ethnoepic, the hero Humadapnon requested his sister to create a companion, a new brother, to accompany him in his travels. She made a body out of her, Humadapnon, and their mother’s blood, but a body does not make a person. 

“Bestow life on this man,

Grant him the breath of existence;

Bestow on him life,

Plant in him reason to think;

Give him the voice to express

His free will. And to check

His actions, give him a conscience.”

The body sprang to life. They named him Dumalapdap. He became Humadapnon’s most loyal companion.

– – – – –

In the previous edition of Mangayaw, losing LAKAS meant death, losing LIKSI meant paralysis, and losing LOOB meant delirium. Each of these outcomes fit the theme of dungeon crawlers, but do I want Mangayaw to be a dungeon crawler? I must take it further, I thought.

If the Essences make up a person, what does it mean to lose Essence? It means a kind of death, but maybe that is inaccurate. A transformation? A new way of being? 

– – – – –

The Philippines is filled with ghost stories. Stories of headless men roaming cemeteries. Stories of white (not pertaining to skin complexion) ladies hailing midnight taxis and scaring the drivers. Stories of spirits haunting buildings built on top of WW2 era hospitals where they met their demise, or worse, wartime atrocities. 

Ghost stories from centuries ago are less horrifying. People would call upon and pray to the spirits of their ancestors, like they would to gods. They believed their ancestors protected them from harm.

– – – – –

At 0 Body, the character becomes a spirit. Without a physical form, it must be tied to an object, another Folk, or Site to avoid wandering.

This will probably be the most common kind of death in Mangayaw. Makes sense for how many ghost stories we have. 

Spirits can possess objects or Folk. Spirits can haunt a particular spot. Spirits can stay in the underworld until their descendants call upon them in request. Not even death can prevent a grandparent from doting on their apos.

– – – – –

It is a common indigenous belief in the Philippines that a person has a spirit or multiple spirits that are considered separate from the body. The spirit is a person’s intellect and morality.

Dreams are the result of the spirit travelling while the body is asleep. Sickness or ill-health is the result of long or violent separation between the body and spirit. Traditional healing, then, involves the healer calling the spirit to inhabit the body once again. 

– – – – –

At 0 Spirit, the character’s Spirit flees its Body, leaving it ill and unresponsive. The Body cannot survive long in this state.

There are a number of ways to lose Spirit. Internal damage like poison or illness may be considered damage to the Spirit. Using sorcery or getting affected by witchcraft may prove too much for one’s spiritual fortitude. Intense fear may force a Folk’s Spirit to leave the Body, rendering it unconscious. 

So long as its Body is alive, the Spirit will return, in time. It risks becoming a wandering spirit, anyways. But to make it return faster, healers may have to make an enticing proposition. Free the Body from what it is afflicted by. Give the Spirit a deal they can’t refuse.

– – – – –

When the babaylan Malubay Hanginon enchanted Humadapnon to be lured into the cave of Tarangban, he started slowly changing. He could not think straight and forgot the purpose of his journey, captured by a lust for Hanginon. He ignored and dismissed Dumalapdap’s warnings and entered the cave. He was trapped inside for months. 

The hero Sunmasakay raided the cave to get him out, but he had transformed into something else.

“There he attacked

Buyong Sunmasakay

With savage fury.

The big, red, angry eyes

Of Buyong Humadapnon

Burned like embers

Sharp like razor edge.

Fierce and deadly to look at.

Oh, Sunmasakay! He spat on his face

‘Oh, what filth you are

A disgracing speck of dirt

You are no longer a lampung

No longer a man

You are now one of the witches

Roaming around as an ingkantadu’”

He had become something less like a person and more like a feral beast. He could not recognize Dumalapdap nor his parents. He had become a monster.

– – – – –

At 0 Bond, the character becomes a monster, its Body and Spirit becoming distorted. Monsters bring Ruin in their wake.

Ever since I read “D&D Doesn’t Understand What Monsters Are,” I’ve always wanted to contextualize my monsters. The existence of monsters in my game, in my fantasy world, has to be rooted in something. Injustice, atrocity, colonialism, among many many others.

For this new edition of Mangayaw, I thought it best to tie the existence of monsters to an Essence, particularly a social one.

I already made a post about how important Community is to the Folk and Heroes. Following this, it makes sense that monsters, something so hostile and opposed to the concept of Folk and Community, would come from the lack or loss of it. Folk must slay them to create settlements in the islands. They lurk in the shadows, away from the warm lights of a village. Monsters attack Communities and leave them in Ruin.

– – – – –

Death is not the end in Mangayaw, but it does mean you cease being Folk. It is hard to maintain webs of social relations when you are a spirit that is unable to maintain a form outside the underworld. It is contradictory to be a monster and be in a community.

Regain your Essence and you will be Folk again. But scars of your death remain. Maybe you are more in tune with your spirit, or maybe your spirit becomes more skittish. Maybe you retain your monstrous traits, but someone has accepted them, now.

Lose all of your Essence? You cease to exist, then.

Debt in Mangayaw

by goobernuts

This is an old blog from my Patreon. Support me there!

Back in 2022, I added the concept of debt to Mangayaw. You can see the latest iteration of this in the current version of Mangayaw in itch.io. Not much changed, but there is an infant idea there.

Debt in Mangayaw was inspired by Gubat Banwa’s Debt mechanics, which was connected to the player characters’ Honor and the economy. The PCs in Gubat Banwa are called Kadungganan, “honored ones”– Honor is how they move up in the world. Debt being tied to such a concept, both in the world and mechanics, makes it equally important.

I ran a Mangayaw campaign with my adaptation of Gubat Banwa’s Debt mechanics sometime in 2023. In play, I felt something was missing. I was not able to adapt the extra dimensions of debt, beyond the economic. It wasn’t a glaring issue, just a nagging feeling.

Why am I making such a big deal out of such a thing as debt? Is it not just something of monetary value that someone owes and pays another person? Well, no. I’m only using debt as a snappy, easily understandable game term, but when I say debt, I really mean to say the concept of utang na loob in Philippine cultures. 

Debt as utang na loob goes beyond the economic sense of the word. Gubat Banwa treats debt as a concept equal to honor. Mangayaw will treat debt as economy, relationships and community. 

But first, a disclaimer. Debt as a concept in Philippine culture and history also has the dimension of slavery attached to it. Entire societies were built on peasants and prisoners indebted to the elite and the powerful. Utang na loob still exists in our cultures. Though it is more disconnected from the concept of slavery (in most cases), it can still be a toxic concept that we live with. 

Adding debt to my game does not mean I romanticize the toxic dimensions of utang na loob. Debt as social connections might seem like an optimistic view of debt, but I mean to have both the good and bad of it. I want players to appreciate the closeness and reciprocity debt provides, struggle with the obligations debt entails, and revolt against the injustice debt can be used for. 

Besides, if D&D and other western fantasy games and worlds can depict monarch and feudalism as status quo, why can’t Filipinos use our own imperfect societal systems in our games?

Heroes and Community in Philippine Ethnoepics and Mangayaw

by goobernuts

This is an old blog from my Patreon. Support me there!

I have been reading and studying Philippine ethnoepics a lot recently. Just cultivating that brainrot of mine (or letting it fester?). I’ve found that these texts are a wealth of inspiration for Mangayaw. In vibes, in game loop, in identity. 

There is an interesting commonality in these ethnoepics in how heroes are tied to community. I began contemplating how the player characters’ relationship with the game, the world, and the narrative they will make would change if they were part of and responsible for a community of their own. This is not an original concept by any means– folklore and stories from other countries have community-focused heroes as well. But in the realm of fantasy TTRPGs, heroes are usually framed as outsiders and travellers. They enter a new town, solve their problems, and move on. 

Heroes from these islands’ ethnoepics can’t just move on. They are tied to their communities, for better or worse. 

This is an attempt to define heroes and their communities as seen in a few select Philippine ethnoepics, and how I’ll try to take that as inspiration for Mangayaw. My sisyphean task of revising Mangayaw’s character creation continues.

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The Bikolnon ethnoepic Ibalong follows three different heroes: Baltog, the hero who slayed a giant boar; Handiong, the hero who tamed the land by slaying monsters and creatures that threatened his community; and Bantong, the hero who outsmarted a giant with mystical powers.

In the Sulod ethnoepic Hinilawod, the hero that the narrative first introduced, Humadapnon, became trapped in an enchanted cave. From then until Humadapnon was freed from the cave, the narrative followed his brother, Dumalapdap, and the powerful binukot whom Humadapnon was searching for, Nagmalitong Yawa, who ultimately freed him from the cave. 

There is no one hero in a community. Multiple heroes may appear and grow from it. The focus of the narrative might even shift from one to the other.

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In the Ifugao ethnoepic Hudhud hi Aliguyon, the hero Aliguyon learned from his father of a rival community, whose champion he was at a stalemate with. Aliguyon ventured out to this rival community and faced the son of his father’s rival, Pumbakhayon. Both their skills were so great a winner couldn’t be decided. So after years of fighting, the two decided to become brothers, and their communities became allied with each other. 

The community is a character of its own. It has history and relations with other communities. And the hero further write its story. 

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In the Ilianon ethnoepic Agyu, the hero Kuyasu’s community could no longer pay tribute to a sultan, so he killed the sultan. As a result, the brothers Agyu, Banlak, and Kuyasu had to lead their people into the mountains and fend off the sultan’s men who gave chase. 

A hero does not leave the community even when they are venturing outside of it. The hero is always responsible and representative for their community. The community may even suffer from the hero’s rash actions. 

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I want players to create a community of their own during character creation. The community is:

  • Their home, a refuge after their journeys. Raiding is seasonal, and a hero has to rest eventually.
  • Their strength and power. So a hero must labor to build the community up. 
  • Their responsibility. A hero’s actions have consequences, especially to their community.

Where is the community situated? Who considers it home? What does it do for a living? What trial is it going through? These are questions I want the players to answer.

From this home they have made for themselves, wounded and fatigued heroes may rest, and other heroes may venture out in their stead. The character stable concept is already common in OSR games, so there are plenty of games to take inspiration from.

A hero representing a community in their journeys would act differently from a hero without a home to go back to, no people to be responsible for. Favors become alliances. Connections become trade. Conflict becomes war. 

They may (and will) still make bad decisions or perform less-than-spectacularly. That’s fine, that’s just what happens in TTRPGs. But they still hold responsibility for their community.

A hero is responsible for the community. They may venture out to solve the problems of the community, to build and maintain it. When there are holes in your ceiling and the storm is approaching, you will have to repair it.

But the relationship between the hero and community doesn’t have to be one-sided. They might bring back treasure, assets, or people, increasing the community’s capabilities. A war boat to travel with, a crew of warriors to lead into war, a mentor to train heroes. Building up the community is building up the heroes. 

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By next month, I’d like to have a draft of the Community mechanics for Mangayaw. I’m inspired by a lot of different games, not just from the OSR/NSR space. Whitehack, Mythic Bastionland, storygames, collaborative worldbuilding games. I have a bit of experimentation to do. 

I also want to read more on how other TTRPGs handle similar subjects. Some games I’m eyeing are Blades in the Dark and Beyond the Wall. Is there anything I should add to this list?