632 Rely on the magic of “Yes” Depend on What Do You Do? When saying Yes in response to a player’s query, you play into what your players give you, letting them get invested into the game and having them be more excited with what you do. This relies heavily on being on the same page as well: obviously a European castle might not exist here in The Sword Isles, but stone idjang citadels do! So when they say “Is that a castle?” when you describe something in the distance, you can respond with “Yes, a kind of castle!” Additionally, one of the most powerful questions you can ask is “What do you do?” This is the crux of roleplaying, and what you want to do whenever you speak is to have everything you say eventually lead up to that question. However, remember that you can say “No.” Especially to anything that does not hew to the Philosophies or Principles of playing this game. Aftercare Alternatively titled, after the game. The first thing that I usually say is: “I hope you guys enjoyed the game!” I don’t ask my players if they liked it, since that usually puts the players on the spot. I just state that, and then usually go around and message my players if they did have a good time or not. That’s pretty important.
633 Ending the Game As someone who’s written serials before, what you want as much as possible is a cliffhanger for a campaign. Now a cliffhanger doesn’t exactly have to be a cool gotcha moment, like an evil guy coming to their village or a mountain collapsing under them. Sometimes a good cliffhanger is reminding the players that there are still some loose threads unsolved even after you’ve finished a particular narrative arc or story beat. That will definitely help keep the players on their toes, thinking about the next session. Now if it’s going to be a kind of “season ender” or if the session you’re currently having is setting up for a big payoff, it would be a good idea then not to have a cliffhanger (although loose threads still work fine). Let the players relish at the end of a payoff. Let them breathe. Breathing is the most important part of a game: it lets them reflect back on the game, how much fun they’ve had, all the memorable NPCs and events that happened, and how long they had gotten. Keep those in mind, and you’ll be fine. Rest I highly recommend not jumping into prep right after the game. Resting after a game is integral: roleplaying as different NPCs, facilitating combat, and being the one to dole out the rules and follow them is a heavy, heavy task. One that is usually rewarding (and some people really do love running games!) But one that can take a toll on you mentally. Have a good break, maybe eat some food with your friends, talk about your favorite thing that happened during the game, compliment each other, have a blast.
634 Encounters When talking about Encounters in Gubat Banwa, these are not strictly tactical combat scenarios. Instead, they might be interesting happenings that challenge the players and exhaust some of their resources. When speaking of resources in Gubat Banwa, that will usually be the following: Conviction, Debt, Barter, Wounds, Items, Anting. Exhausting Debt can mean them having to gain more debt to someone, or become indebted to someone, which will have repercussions down the line. When designing non-combat encounters, keep in mind their debt and what the players want from the game. If they want more drama, give them more drama: a dead brother, a politicking noble catches up to them, etc. Make sure that the encounter makes sense in the fiction: that is, if the raid or current situation is in a burning village in the fields of Rusunuga, it wouldn’t make sense for them to run into a rich mercantile noble from Virbanwa that never leaves his palanquin. Here are some interesting non-combat encounters.
635 Roll a d8: 1 – A Wounded Person. You find a wounded person, probably not even wounded by you during the Raid. What do you do? 2 – A Crying Child. You find a crying child, looking for their parents amidst the flames. What do you do? 3 – Abundant Wealth. You find a house or hidden away part of land where heirloom wealth has been hidden away. It will bring you great wealth, but carrying it will hamper you when you Repose. 4 – Puzzle. Somehow, maybe diwata work, sorcerers’ work, or ingenious planning by blacksmiths, but there is a puzzle during the raid that forces players to confront it non-violently. 5 – Important Folk. They come across an important character. Maybe someone tied to the place the players are Raiding, maybe someone wandering by and has a stake in the players’ destiny. 6 – Debt. One of the players’ debt has arrived to collect what is rightfully theirs. 7 – Willing Captive. A person runs into your arms, asking you to take them into your barge or wing. They will always have something they can do. If you have a Following, they join your Following. 8 – Haunting. You encounter a spiritual or magical—or metaspiritual?—haunting. Maybe a god speaks with you, or the ancestors congratulate you, or demons block your path, asking for salt or some other inane thing? Whatever it is, you must deal with it.
636 Philosophies Gubat Banwa’s setting is one of Southeast Asian Hyper Fantasy. It will be difficult to grok, and there is a lot of material. It can be overwhelming, but you do not need to know every little detail about the setting. As long as you follow the following Setting Assumptions, or Philosophies you are playing in Gubat Banwa’s setting. A Violent World The word violent and consequently, violence, is a powerful word that is used by this game to denote strength of emotion. Violence is often used to mean physical force, usually in an adverse manner. Occultists and the Bible have used Violence as a manner of superlative: to showcase intense emotion. “The kingdom of the heavens is taken by violence” meant a large flock of people are filled with an overwhelming joy and feeling to enter into heaven. To take by force what we have not by nature, such as love and glory. Violence in the physical manner is also just as important in the world of Gubat Banwa. The world itself has been fraught and torn apart due to incessant violence, and the lack of response by better men. Violence is a tool, as with any human creation, and there is such a thing as justified violence. The violence of the master is different from the liberating violence of the slave. The World Is in its Final Days The world of the Warring Realms is on the verge of death. It is destined to be destroyed by burgeoning empires and mercantile dreams. This era of decay is beautiful, in the same way a sunset is beautiful. The world must end, but what is important is what the people within it are doing to make a better world from its ashes: They must bring about the violence needed to bring about something better than this one. Kings must be torn down, gods must be dethroned.
637 Inspired By Southeast Asia Gubat Banwa is a fantasy setting, but it seeks to re-evaluate and revamp what “Fantasy” means. It starts its foundations and assumptions upon Southeast Asian folklore and experience, instead of any fantasy literature or pop-fantasy crafted by many Western Fantasy conventions. If you wish to play Gubat Banwa, you must center Southeast Asia. Old Fantasy conventions might be found here, but only because of the inherent similarities of Southeast Asian stories with other stories. It is important to remember that Gubat Banwa is not Southeast Asia. It is inspired by it, and in turn uplifts it, but it is not it. This is an important dichotomy. There are five major mandalas in the Sword Isles, each one inspired by a different period of Southeast Asian History. 0 Gatusan - Inspired by Maritime Hindu-Buddhist Kingdoms (Srivijaya, Sugbu, Majapahit) 0 Apumbukid - Inspired by Hinterland and Highland Indigenous societies. (Sama, Balinese, Maranao) 0 Akai - Inspired by Islamized Sultanates and Kingdoms. (Sulu, Maguindanao, Ternate, Aceh) 0 Virbanwa - Inspired by Colonial Era settlements, cities, and villages. (Batavia, Malacca, Manila) 0 Ba-e - Inspired by Chinese Influence in Southeast Asia and Mainland Southeast Asian kingdoms. (Champa, Ma-i, Ayutthaya, Khmer) Embrace Diversity There are a thousand thousand kingdoms within a thousand thousand islands. Even the larger continents are made up of an excessively diverse collection of cultures and ethnicities. This fact is inspired by the inherent and vast diversity found in the real world. Use this to your advantage: no single religion is correct, there are a million gods, no single polity type exists, you can create truly unique and weird cultures that embrace the truth of the world.
638 No Single Ruling Body There is no single ruling empire across The Sword Isles, and especially none through Gubat Banwa. There might be some kingdoms that have a larger stretch of control over others, but there is no single ruling body that warrants a single hegemonic culture. Revel in this diversity, all become unique. Consequently, interstate war is more likely in this setup. Culture is Magic Magic here is not simply fireballs and magic hands. Gubat Banwa approaches magic through what it is: culture and religion. Magic is the little hand gestures we do before walking into a dark spot in the forest, the reverence we do by avoiding certain rocks, the worship we do by placing rice balls upon a tree stump altar. Don’t be fooled, there are still fireballs and such, but that is squarely within the purview of martial arts. Exalt the Martial Arts We reject the Western pop culture definition of martial arts being simply “kung-fu”, or anything that looks like a “Monk”. Martial Arts is an important art of any culture as much as visual art or performance art is. Martial art is an expression of humanity and culture, and so we do the same here. Any fighting style is a martial art (because they are), whether it be the sword and board or the bow and arrow.
639 Divinity in the Uncanny Gods live within every single thing. You can speak with them, and they will speak with you. Large concentrations of them gather in the divine wilds, deep outside the limits of civilization. They do not care for you, so be careful with them. The dark is holy through them, for that is where they live. They live in the cold and the dark, in the uncanny, in the supernatural. They do not and will never think like us. Nature is not us, nature is not human. Reverence, Respect and Awe are all children of Fear. Glory Through Conviction To enact proper violence, one must have proper conviction. Violence without proper conviction is bloodlust. Violence with harmful conviction is evil. Violence with proper conviction is the path to Glory. Only by achieving Glory will one find true enlightenment, and the path to Glory is not something that can be chased after. One must become Glory. Healing Through Violence The world is old and aged. It must change. It is wounded and scared. A sickness cannot be spoken to, it must be purged. Therefore violence is not inherently evil. In fact, in the face of the end of the world, in the face of incessant and cruel force, one must enact proper violence to be able to achieve healing. The storm must always come before the rainbow. Therefore, attain healing.
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