Gubat Banwa

Gubat Banwa is Tabletop RPG physical game developed by Waks Saavedra and Dylan Briones, developer from Philippines. Set in released on 29 December 2022. The game received high praise from both Southeast Asia TTRPG community as well as public. As a Kadungganan, you must find what it takes to fight in the land of guts and glory.

Following the release of Gubat Banwa, the game obtained an award being The Best Setting Award in The Indie Groundbreaker (IGDN) Awards 2023 .

## Story

### The Realms of Battle

The Sixth Cycle is one of era of peace. Many of settlements and families worked together to help with each other. However it was soon changed when they invented weapons in order to enforce ownership and take another rights. The Sixth Cycle quickly ended after *The Sixth Tuig Bituon* ended in the hands of Rajaraya Pintas - The First Rajah. During the leadership of the First Rajah, Gubat Banwa considered living in the golden age. Many teachings of war were considered after experiencing suffering during the sixth era. This era ended gradually after Rajaraya Pintas challenge the gods, leading to violent acts of Rajayara Pintas dethrone and cast to into devastating war and violence.

### The Rise of Datu

During the seventh Tuig Bulan, Datu considered as the higher power as equal to Rajaraya Pintas once held. Many societies, cultures, and states rise and fall. The time of war and never-ending violence so common and brought many cruel rules leading to cruel people. With the influence of Datu, Gubat Banwa bears the red sea across the land .

### The Lunar Advent & The Invasion of Issohappa

Whenever there is violence, there must be peace. The lunar advent is one of the most powerful faith survived the never-ending war. They brought stability to broken world alongside with the strength of zeal warriors waged wars against other. However this does not take long as the land was invaded by a parasitic vampiric folk known by thousands as The Pale Kings. The land of Gubat Banwa plunged deeper into darkness, turning the capital city into slavery. Resistance formed and made alliance with The old rulers of Rusunaga to take down The Pale Kings.

### Eclipse Age / Tuig Bakunawa

With The Pale Kings repelled from the land, Gubat Banwa stuck in the era of stagnation. No true enlightenment and peace ever achieved. The land has become true test of might from the never-ending violence of the eras .

## Gameplay

The game served as straightforward TTRPG with 5 to 6 players but can be played on your own. The game needed Kadungganan/Players and Umalagad/Gamemaster in order to moderate pacing of the game, however during solo play Umalagad is only a guiding force when things are uncertain. Five game rules serves as general theme for the game, it can be concluded as below .

### The Rules

* **The Bulawan Rule,** a rule sets in making the game dramatic and keep it immersive.
* **The Pilak Rule,** a rule that specific rule is above general rule.
* **The Tumbaga Rule,** a rule where it must be round down when you must halve something
* **The Vajra Rule,** a rule of martial arts where players must says everything from their actions.
* **The Puthaw Rule,** general rule where both parties (players and gamemaster) agree on theme and tone, combat, and make sure everyone is having fun.

### Kadungganan

Kadungganan (the player) is warriors accross Gubat Banwa. They considered as true skill of martial artists and one of the best. Before playing the game, players can create their on Kadunggan based on the path step they took. The Path Steps consists of eight steps, choosing the character, roll culture, conviction, conjuncture, alignment, skill ability, warband, and naming the hero.

#### Alignments

Alignments are the essences of nature in folk religions of Gatusan Folk. The belief in Alignments stem from asyncretization of elemental theory from the Ashinin priests, as well as knowledge passed down from Annuvaran missionary-monks that arrived at Gatusan through diffusion from Ba-enon shaman-priests. The five elements are fire, water, metal, earth, and air.

#### Folk

The people of The Sword Isles are numerous. All those born in the islands, no matter what they might look like, are known as tawo. Together they are all called Folk. The folk of The Sword Isles are the people that fill the entire world. The following are the Folk that are prevalent in The Sword Isles that you can play such as Kawayanon, Iro-Iro, Kamikam, Laksamam, Pilandokan, and Pak-an.

#### Cultures

The five major polities have five bespoke cultures that color and inform how your Kadungganan will look at the world. The cultures can be choose as Gatusan, Apumbukid, Akai, Virbanwa, and Ba-e

#### Conjunctures

Conjuctures are one time special events that Kadungganan can choose. Each Kadungganan can choose two conjunctures from 70 conjunctures.

#### Debt

Debt is a way of social movement in Gubat Banwa. In other words what motive the player becoming a Kadungganan.

#### Complications

Complication considered as relationship between player characters. During the character creation, player can choose two complications or roll randomize .

#### Convictions

Convictions is solely motive of why Kadungganan or player live and fight. Player can choose between one of the convictions such as curiosity, survival, wealth, valor, loyalty, honor, revenge, family, spite, duty, knowledge, and love .

#### Warbands

Warbands are parties of Kadungganan / players during the play of the game. They considered as colleagues or according to the rulebook "consecrated with the Blood Compact Ritual" .

### Violence

Violence consists of combat system as Thundering Tactics Battle System (TTB). It focuses on using quick martial arts in grid environment, each attack deal damage with the beat of Rhythm evoking war gongs. Further more the system use dice pool for attacks and defenses as each attack and defenses based on dice rolls. The effect of the attack can be burst attack, blast attack, line attack, and path attack.

#### Martial Abilities

Each martial ability starts at 3 and able to gain +1 every time the character level up. Martial abilities are based on six stat e.g Bravery represents physical attacks, Faith represents mystic attacks, Posture and resistance represents defense while speed is how fast the character travels during combat.

## Development

While it's unknown how long has the game been developed, the game was announced and released in 29 January 2021 in early stage. According to a devlog by the writer and creator of Gubat Banwa Makapatag, the visual elements are currently undergoing development and certain aspects of the game have been redesigned and adjusted. For example adding profession profiencies in order to receive no penalty while wielding weapons or armors, weapons tweaked based on types of weapon such as heavy or light ranged, one handed or two handed melee .

Major changes were implemented upon its launch. On February 19, 2021, a major update was rolled out, incorporating numerous modifications. Adjustments were applied to the combat system, including the introduction of status alignment and a revamp of the action economy . The game launched in Early Access on November 17, 2021 with numerous modifications and additional features introduced prior to the release. One significant update includes the reintroduction of roles for disciplines, the introduction of new elemental categories, the inclusion of fresh status alignments, and the implementation of visual enhancements for Gubat Banwa . Gubat Banwa First Edition was released to the public on December 28, 2022, garnering favorable responses from TTRPG enthusiasts for its captivating gameplay.

## Trivia

* Many aspects of the game based on cultures from Southeast Asia.
	+ One instance The Rajahnate of Gatusan is inspired by Kingdoms across Southeast Asia including Sugbu, Butuan, Ma-I, Sriwijaya, Mataram, Kediri, Singasari, and Langksuka.
	+ The protectors of Diwa or The Confederation of Apumbukid is inspired by various living traditions of Southeast Asia, for example Dayak, Balinese, Sundanese, Batak, Bagobo, Kalinga, Maranao, and Yakan.
	+ The Sultanate of Akai inspired by postclassical Southeast Asia Sultanate such as Sulu, Brunei, Maguindanao, Aceh, Johor, Gowa, and Banten.
	+ The Lakanate of Virbanwa heavily inspired by the colonial resides in Southeast Asia, for example Spanish/American Manilla, Dutch Batavia, Portugese Malacca.
	+ The Kingdom of Ba-e based on Hindu-Buddhist Kingdoms from Southeast Asia, mainly Butuan, Mai-I (precolonial Laguna), Champa, Majapahit, Ayutthaya, Khmer, and Funan.
* The inspiration of Gubat Banwa is based on numerous TRPG title such as LANCER, Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition, Pathfinder 2nd Edition, Strike! RPG, Shadow of the Demon Lord, Apocalypse World, and many more .
* According to Art Director of Gubat Banwa Dylan Briones the potrayal of fights between opponents is based on experience practicing Eskrima .

## Official Links

* Gubat Banwa : First Edition Official Itch.io Page
* Makapatag Official Twitter
* Gubat Banwa Official Youtube
* Gubat Banwa Official Patreon

## Reference

1. ↑ [1] The Indie Groundbreaker Awards 2023 announcement on igdnonline.com
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 [2]Saavedra Waks, and Briones, Dylan. 2023. Gubat Banwa First Edition Core Rulebook. Page 14-17.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 [3]Saavedra Waks, and Briones, Dylan. 2023. Gubat Banwa First Edition Core Rulebook. Page 139- Page 184.
4. ↑ [4] Makapatag. *0.2 Update*. Itch.io. 1 February 2021
5. ↑ [5] Makapatag. *Once You Spill The Blood, You'll Never Rid Of The Stain.* Itch.io. 19 February 2021
6. ↑ [6] Makapatag. *Gubat Banwa Early Access Release.* Itch.io. 17 November 2021
7. ↑ [7]Saavedra Waks, and Briones, Dylan. 2023. Gubat Banwa First Edition Core Rulebook. Page 4.
8. ↑ [8] Wargamer.com article "How Southeast Asian RPG Gubat Banwa ditches DnD tropes" written by Gab Hernandez