Mangayaw in 2025

Last day of 2024. Time to start something new.

In 2024, I got to achieve one of my goals for my Filipino folkloric fantasy TTRPG Mangayaw: run a long campaign with the game set on Southeast Asian fantasy worlds made by the likes of Zedeck Siew and Mun Kao. It started with a 10 session campaign in Lorn Song of the Bachelor and opened up to the larger world of A Thousand Thousand Islands. The party of Binmanwa got into debt with the King of Korvu to have a boat made for them, saved coralfolk from a pirate den, went ruin-delving in Mr-Kr-Gr, hunted down a demon tiger, and helped a worker revolt succeed. 

The campaign was not without its faults. Scheduling issues were common, players would come and go, and eventually I had to end the campaign because of a very hectic and hellish semester. Still, it was a dream come true and I had a lot of fun running it. I would love to run another sandbox/west marches type campaign set in a fantasy Southeast Asia when I find the time for it again.

This campaign taught me a lot about my game. What worked, what didn’t, what needs to be added. There’s a lot that I have been itching to write and design for Mangayaw. 

Cairn 2e/Electric Bastionland-style Character Creation

Character creation is probably the one aspect of Mangayaw that I tinkered with the most. For the 2022 release, I went with something very similar to Cairn 1e because it tested well on my playtests. But having gone through the process so many times for playtests, it has gotten stale for me.

It might be just for me. Maybe it’s fine for most players.

But reading Electric Bastionland and the recently released second edition of Cairn got my imagination running. I want that for Mangayaw.

I’ve always thought it was daunting to write 20 backgrounds with 2 d6 tables of unique, thematic gear/traits/anything that makes characters more distinct from another, but it’s a challenge I’m willing to take on. I think having that will add so much to the implied world of Mangayaw and would make character creation a more enjoyable experience. 

I recently ran Mangayaw for a local D&D con. For the game, I wrote up 10 pregenerated characters. These pregens are aspirational– this is how I want player characters to be like in the new character creation I’m making.

A Focus on Community

Tied to character creation, one thing I want to experiment with is having the party of player characters come from one community. In a more updated playtest version of the game, I experimented with Debt as a mechanic and setting element. The player characters would collectively have a debt they had to pay (just like in Electric Bastionland). 

I liked the idea of debt tying a party together. It gives them cause to go out and make money. It’s interesting to see players choose between what’s morally right or what could give them a bigger payout. I feel I didn’t execute it well enough in the campaign, but the potential was there.

I already have Barangay-building mechanics in the 2022 release, but I think having a party start with a community would be interesting. Just like with debt, it could potentially lead to interesting roleplaying decisions. Player characters can’t be too individualistic, not when they have a collective of families they call home that could be affected by their decisions.

Sorcery

Sorcery in Mangayaw is flawed. I love the narrative-effects-focused approach I designed it with, but I was never really satisfied with the mechanical cost of using them. 

In the 2022 release, it cost fatigue. It worked, but seemed bland to me.

In the playtest version, different kinds of sorcery had different costs. Mausritter-style conditions, owing debts to NPC gods, the physical and mental corruption of your PC. I like the idea, but it’s convoluted. It’s 7 pages in a google doc. 

In the playtest version, I flirted with the idea of tying Sorcery to items, basically making custom Cairn Relics. I’ve been thinking of just leaning into that. Make common sorcery accessible through magical items/relics/anting-anting. 

I also want to explore mechanics for long and costly ritual sorcery for wider-scale or more powerful effects. 

Its Own Identity

Mangayaw started as a worldbuilding project, but the game itself was initially a platform for me to play A Thousand Thousand Islands in a campaign. I think I succeeded at that. I’m happy whenever I hear people plan to use Mangayaw to play in ATTI. Those zines and book are a major inspiration to me and it’s a huge honor that my game is put alongside those small, amazing, imaginative worlds.

That said, I think Mangayaw could have an identity past being a platform for playing ATTI. I want to find out what that is. It may be through focusing on a certain gameplay loop, developing more concrete setting elements and details, or making more microsettings and adventures. 

Of course, I’ll still be using Mangayaw to play in ATTI because I am in love with those worlds. But I don’t want Mangayaw to stay in the shadow of those works. 

Mangayaw has always been at the back of my head, brewing. This year, I want to cook with the game more actively. I’m thankful for anyone who is rooting for me and this special game of mine.