Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
The earliest tabletop roleplaying game – dungeon & Dragons , Traveller , Runequest – were made by American fashion designer breathe in by westerly genres of fantasy fable , but theconcept of tabletop RPGswas swiftly adopted and localized by gamers in other countries like Sweden , Japan , and in more recent year , the Philippines . Through indie publication website and crowd - sourcing venues , advanced - Clarence Day Filipino gamers and plot interior designer are creating game with themes resonant with their archipelago lives – fantasy RPGs likeTadhanathemed around pre - colonial chronicle and Tagalog mythology , weird fantasy RPGs likeKaranduunsteeped in theme of anti - compound insurrection , and sci - fi RPGs likeMaharlikathat see the the culture and ecology of the Philippines into an expansive interstellar future .
The Philippines , stretch out across the westerly one-half of the Pacific Rim , are an archipelago of immense biological and social diversity , thanks to the distinct flora , fauna and cultures on each island , along with the bequest of many diasporas and invasions . The pre - compound Philippines were a mélange of kingdoms rule over byDatuaristocrats , their cultures tinged by trade and immigrant from China , India , and Muslim states . Spain ’s colonial conquering in the 16th century visit Spanish terminology , societal structures , and Catholicism , while the American and Japanese occupations of the tardy 19th / early 20th hundred go forth their own mark on the Filipino mode of life . In the wake of all these migration , occupation , and revolutions , the " Philippine identity " is multi - faceted , a complexness expressed vividly in Filipino movies , cartoon strip , display , and games .
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The Filipino - made tabletop playact games listed below ( three of them made by indie game designer Joaquin Kyle Vincent “ Waks ” Saavedra ) are arguably attempt to reconcile mod cosmopolitan Filipino fellowship with the myth , tribe tales , and cultural traditions long - suppress under compound rule . They ’re also politically active works filled with ire and passion , tell stories centered around rise against and top an unjust status quo . Last but not least , they ’re fun , action - packedindie tabletop RPGswhere players can make awesome characters that do awe-inspiring thing , adjust the rules and tropes of American , Japanese , and Chinese phantasy RPGs into something fun and unmistakably " Filipino . "
Karanduun: Make God Bleed
Karanduun : Make God Bleeddescribes itself as"modern Filipino Epic RPG about worthless heroes level God , whatever round of oppressiveness that must be . “Appropriately enough , this RPG is rig in a world where Gods can and have died – some at the hands of other deity , and others at the hands of the " Karanduun , " prodigious mortals who dispute graven image and destiny with unearthly powers , formidable martial skills and a knack for stand up up to oppressive rulers .
The " Alamatpunk " universe ofKaranduun : Make God Bleed , ruled over by the Holy Trinity of god who murdered Batala the Creator , commingle caparison of modern day Filipino society with ancient Filipino myth and historic events – featuring industrial cities co - inhabited by homo , spirit , and giant boar alongside more traditional fantasy landscape where guerrilla fighters and martial societies plot rising against the puppet regimes controlling their homelands . Gameplay - wise , Karanduun : Make God Bleedborrows heavily from the narrative mechanics of"Powered By The Apocalypse " games , assign the fiction first and generate interesting plot evolution from each roll of the die .
Maharlika
In 1978 , a Japanese children ’s cartoon calledVoltes Vaired on several Philippine TV stations , a elephantine robot melodrama where a grouping of plucky teenager pilots and their " Voltes V " unite mecha defended the Earth from the war machines of a tyrannical alien empire . AnEsquirearticle recount how , afterwards , dictator Ferdinand Marcos hadVoltes Vpulled from the line for boost violence and subversiveness ( theVoltes Vteam trigger a political rebellion on the foreign empire ’s homeworld during the the serial finale ) , and this fairly popular kid ’s show inadvertently turn into a powerful symbolisation of anti - dictatorship , with a major fandom developing in the Philippines after the People ’s Power Revolution of 1986 oust Marcos from power .
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The setting ofMaharlika , a science - fantasy Mecha RPG , owe more to militarysci - fi games likeBattletechthan the superhero legal action ofVoltes V , but contains the same themes of rising and rebelliousness against bedded social systems that madeVoltes Vso popular in the Philippines . The titularMaharlikaare spirit - warriors who control " Meka , " techno - occult war - machines forged from steel , bamboo , and Mangkono ironwood , then enliven by " Diwata " booze from an animist kind of hyperspace .
Players ofMaharlikamay choose to fight Xenobeings in defense of the feudal interstellar polity known as the Lakanate , take payment from the great corporations to fight in proxy wars , or carve their own course and press for their own ideals . Narrative dice mechanics are used to search character kinship outside of combat , while more formalLancer RPG - inspired rulesto seizure the destructive , dynamical atmosphere of giant automaton battles .
Gubat Banwa: The Warring States of Kitatak
IfKaranduun : Make God Bleedis subtextually a plot about throwing off the yolk of colonialism , thenGubat Banwa : The Warring States of Kitatak , release in early admittance onitch.io , is a tactical fantasy RPG meant to homage the culture , tradition , spiritual ecologies , epic poem , and war of the pre - compound Philippines , a time commonly referred to as the Late Porcelain Period . In the fictional phantasy archipelago ofKitatak , players areMaggugubat , penis of their nation ’s warrior caste , who fight in the name of theDatusandSultansthey trust religion to … even if it means turning their blades and spell against phratry , buff , or friend .
Narratively , theGubat Banwais about telling eccentric - driven warfare storiesin the vein ofFire EmblemorFinal Fantasy Tactics , concenter on the painful clashes of nations , philosophic ideal , and divided loyalties on the battlefield . Mechanically , Gubat Banwais high on " crush , " with aDungeons & Dragons4th edition - inspire ruleset that rewards tactical maneuvering and apt manipulation of battlefield power .
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Twenty - sided die are roll to adjudicate the achiever or failure of attack , magic spell , and special abilities during grid - based fight scenario . Outside of fight conniption , players roll a fistful of four - sided die to see how well they do at sure action , a measured court to the pre - colonial praxis of puke tons of crocodile tooth or wild boar tusks .
Tadhana: A Filipino Tabletop RPG
Tadhana : A Philippine Tabletop RPGalso takes place in a universe sop in pre - colonial Filipino story / mythology , where human co - subsist with magical creatures inspired by beings of folklore – the mountain - dwellingTikbalanghorse people , Diwata nature life , the shapeshifting , life - drinkingAswang , etc . UnlikeGubat Banwa , Tadhanais less - focused on warfare and more focused on gameplay where player graphic symbol search their magical world and survive up to their responsibility give to them by their community . Dungeons & Dragons - style classesand power customization mechanic let players create unique character archetypes over the class of play , while the elementary firmness of purpose mechanic shuns die in favor of a deck of cards of forty lineup predict the Cards of Destiny model after Tarot Decks .
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reservoir : itch.io , Esquire
