They reproduce by converting a Tao into an Aswang through a dark ritual.Ĭome next year, Project Tadhana plans to launch an expansion that will welcome two more Lahi into the mix: the ageless and near-immortal Anito, and the tall, pale, and sexless Tamawo. Unsatisfied hunger turns their appearance feral. They can’t ingest regular food or water, and instead feed on the innards or blood of living creatures. Each comes with its own unique traits, abilities, history, and culture.Īswang, for example, can shapeshift into any harmless small animal. The first six are Tao, Aswang, Engkanto, Diwata, Tikbalang, and Garuda. Speaking of people, Sekunda’s playable races, or Lahi, should be familiar to Filipinos. Trade between the young civilizations already exists, and there is some interaction with foreign people. Its many regions are uncharted, and magic and spirits abound. The world resembles prehistoric Philippines. The planet on which your adventures take place is Sekunda, which boasts five major continents, and is orbited by three moons. Project Tadhana, however, has already worked out the framework from which new tales both big and small will rise.įor starters, Kalawakan is home to two main gods, Pahla and Goema, who represent the aspects of life and death, respectively. Every new campaign introduces fresh events, characters, and lore. Like most RPGs, the story of “Tadhana” is an evolving one. It forms the very fabric of Filipino culture, so much so that it’s bizarre we’ve produced so few games revolving around our stories, creatures, and values.Įnter Project Tadhana, the all-Filipino game development group behind the tabletop RPG “Tadhana.”Īs described by its lead writer and developer John Nathaniel Briones, “Tadhana” is set in “the universe of Kalawakan, which is inspired by Filipino mythology.” As such, it’s more than just a game it’s an expression of the unique identity we’ve suppressed for so long. We’re always craving spectacular new experiences, which is why it’s a shame there’s a scarcity of extensive fantasy realms populated by Diwata, Engkanto, and Manananggal to explore.īut Philippine mythology is far from new.
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And since they’re very cheap (free to download on DriveThru or cost of printing + shipping on Lulu), they’re worth investing in for those ideas that are spawned, the bits and bobs that are useful. Though this is definitely the most unified volume I’ve read so far, the big strength of these books is their ‘throw everything at the wall and see what sticks’ attitude. And then some adventures and such, including some for variations on the game (mods to run contemporary Urban Fantasy or World War 2, neither of which light my fire). Some new classes, of which I think the Dwarf Sapper is my favorite. New patrons, some of which are quite nasty. Still, more variety never hurts.Īfter that, it’s the usual. In spite of my interest in running a more nautical-themed game, little of this felt like it would translate over to what I want to do.
As I read through it, I thought a lot about how I might enjoy playing something in this Dark Seas setting, but had no interest in running it. It’s a sort of underground ocean-set British-themed Steampunk Fantasy with lots of ironclads and monsters. There’s one in particular, The Carousel of Doom that I’m giving serious thought to running as a sort of Halloween season scenario.Ĭhapter four is all about a setting called Dark Seas. Or you could simply lift the hex and plop it down into whatever game world you happen to be running. The first three chapters have a lot of hexes, so if you wanted to run your characters through Pandemonium as a “hex-crawl” you could. Like the other volumes, I found lots of inspiration and plenty of cool ideas, though large swaths of the book will almost certainly never make it into my games. From adventures and locations to character classes and monsters, there’s a lot of Pandemonium in this, and I imagine your mileage may vary.
This volume has a large chunk devoted to a specific theme, the chaos realm of Pandemonium.
As with previous volumes of this series ( 2015 & 2016), this is made up of fan-created material for Dungeon Crawl Classics (as well as Mutant Crawl Classics and some other less official variants).