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3 New Character Backgrounds for Mangayaw
🕑 Added 2025-01-13 15:30:02 +0000 UTCIt's been 2 weeks since my first post here on Patreon. I've been writing up some character backgrounds for Mangayaw. I've been trying to figure out how to make a Youtube channel for another TTRPG-related project in the works. I hope to say more about that soon!
My goal for character backgrounds is to have six by the end of the month. But with college semester coming up soon, I might not be able to hit that self-imposed quota. We shall see.
But hey, I have three for you right now!
These are not final, of course. I'd love to get feedback on them.
BEAST HUNTER
You use beasts to hunt other beasts. You have seen the kindness and ferocity they are capable of. You know of their patterns and behaviors, but mutual respect is hard to gain. Take:
Rations (3 uses)
Torches (3 uses)
Bow (d6 damage)
Grass coat (sheds rain, blends well in the forest)
Hunting net
WHAT QUARRY DID YOU FAIL TO HUNT?
1. A boar the size of an elephant. It flattened an entire village. Take a tusk spear (d10 damage, bulky), and a crossbow trap.
2. A crocodile that swallowed an outrigger boat whole, with you inside it. You spent a day in its stomach before it threw you back up. You developed a strong reptilian scent that you can’t wash off.
3. A demon tiger that only attacks at night. You were mauled half to death. You developed feline eyes and sharp claws (d6+d6), but need a healing ritual every week to avoid turning into a demon tiger yourself.
4. A giant skulking spider. It turned a cave cemetery into its nest. Take sticky webbing material (3 uses) and flesh-eating venom (3 uses)
5. An ancient shark that terrorized a bay. It was covered in scars from battles long past. Take a bundle of tethered tridents (3 uses) and some scars of your own.
6. A carabao-eating eagle. Despite its size, it remains elusive. Take a quiver of eagle-flight arrows (6 uses); they will fly to impossible distances with deadly accuracy.
WHAT BEAST AIDS YOU IN YOUR HUNTS?
1. missile-dog (4 GRIT, 6 LAKAS, 12 LIKSI, 10 LOOB, d8 bite). It will spare no effort to chase its quarry, to a fault. A lone, exhausted dog is easy pickings for larger prey.
2. A swift-deer (4 GRIT, 4 LAKAS, 15 LIKSI, 6 LOOB, d6 hooves, 6 inventory slots). It can outrun prey in short bursts, even with you on its back. But it panics when anything hostile gets too near.
3. A scout-raptor (4 GRIT, 4 LAKAS, 15 LIKSI, 10 LOOB, d6+d6 claws). Having a set of eyes that can fly is a great boon to a hunter. It can even answer yes or no questions.
4. A witch-chicken (3 GRIT, 3 LAKAS, 10 LIKSI, 12 LOOB, d6 claws). Long, iridescent feathers means it's not for food. It’s able to learn sorcery.
5. A mimic-macaque (4 GRIT, 4 LAKAS, 15 LIKSI, 10 LOOB, d4 bite). It makes a lot of noise, but never its own. Communicating with it is possible, but it can only respond with sounds it has already heard.
6. An stone-snake (3 GRIT, 3 LAKAS, 10 LIKSI, 8 LOOB, d6 bite, Critical Damage: paralyzes the target). Its name comes from its venomous bite’s effect of stunning and paralyzing those that suffer it.
FLEDGELING WITCH
You wandered too far into the forest or encountered powers you can’t truly understand. Now your words and body carry fear and blight. Fortunately for you, there is a need for your sorcery on these islands.
Rations (3 uses)
Torches (3 uses)
Moonstone dagger (d6 damage)
Herbal poultice (restore d4 LAKAS, 3 uses)
Dreadflower amulet (petty, blooms in the presence of the work of other witches)
HOW DID YOU BECOME A NIGHTMARE TO THOSE WHO COULD NOT SLEEP?
1. You were born with a snake twin. It parted ways with you when you were still young, but you still remember what it taught you. You have a natural affinity for snakes and knowledge of their language.
2. You wandered into a witch’s home and ate something you shouldn’t have. Take chameleon paper masks (wearer assumes the identity of another, 3 uses).
3. You were cursed by a rival. Becoming the same as them was the only way to get your revenge. Take a chopping sword (d6 damage) and a pouch of salt (3 uses).
4. You were attacked by a shapeshifter. You escaped, but not unscathed. Take an owl anklet (signals when the wearer is being ambushed in the night).
5. You were lost in the forest for months. When you found your way out, no one could recognize you. Take a gnarled staff (d6 one handed/d8 two handed, etched with directions to something valuable in the forest not accurate).
6. You fell ill and never really got better. It’s a daily burden, but you found ways to cope (suffer -5 to one Ability Score permanently, but you can make common remedies from the most unsavory ingredients).
WHAT CURSE WAS ETCHED ON YOU?
1. Form of the Beast - You can transform into a specific animal at the risk of losing yourself. Make a LOOB save or take d10 LOOB damage when you change back to your original form.
2. Curse of the Eye - You can look into another’s eyes and watch them become fraught with fear.
3. Form of the Bisected - You can sprout wings from your back and your torso separates from your lower body from the waist down. Salt and spices harm you. Your lower half is a vulnerable target as well.
4. Curse of Swelling - Once a day, you can point at a target and make a part of their body swell to grotesque size.
5. Form of the Nightstalk - Your tongue is a proboscis 3 times your body’s length that can suck a target’s blood and organs (d6 LAKAS every 10 minutes). But beware, it is vulnerable to cutting. You are also DEPRIVED under sunlight.
6. Curse of the Swarm - You tend to attract pests. Once a day, you can command a swarm of them to do your bidding. But wherever there are pests, there is plague. Without prevention, your Community will suffer disaster.
CROP CULTIVATOR
Farms are the cornerstone of every community, and it was your job to make sure they would not fail. From keeping it healthy to guarding it from threats until the harvest, then the cycle continues. Farming is no joke.
Rations (3 uses)
Torches (3 uses)
Farming sword (d6 damage)
Gourd hat (1 Armor)
Weaved basket
HOW DID YOU ENSURE A GOOD HARVEST FOR YOUR COMMUNITY?
1. The fields you farm on are borrowed from a small god that lives there. You get to grow your crops while they get a nice new landscape to play on. Take a favor from a small locality god.
2. Prevention is key. You fortify your field with a sturdy wooden fence as tall as you are. You’ve become very efficient at making them. Take a roll of wooden fence (20 ft, bulky).
3. Weeds steal away the nutrients from the soil, leaving too little for crops. You know to pull them out quickly. Take a karambit (d6 damage) and a hand shovel.
4. Watching over a farm doesn’t have to be boring. With good friends and good wine, the job can be not so monotonous. Take a jar of rice wine and a couple of clay cups.
5. Rains are frequent in the islands, but some crops need more water than the weather can provide. You provide what they need by diverting the water to them. Take an iron hoe (d10 damage, bulky).
6. Clearing a field for farming is hard work. You know to use the help of little helpers to make your work easier. Take a jar of rotbugs (eats through a tall tree in a day, 3 uses).
WHAT CROP DID YOU USE TO WORK WITH?
1. Frostlicked Rice - Grown on terraces carved into frostladen mountains. The meat of the grain is black as charcoal, but tender as clouds. The husk absorbed a harvest’s worth of cold. Take a jar of its grain (3 uses).
2. Ash Plantain - Grown on fields made fertile with the ashes of what once grew on it. The fruit’s meat is dense, starchy, and explodes in direct contact with fire. Makes for phenomenal fritters. Take a bundle (d12 damage, blast, 3 uses).
3. Gecko Bamboo - Grows when barking geckos mate on a bamboo sprout. It is heavier and tougher, and it still lives even after cutting it from its colony. Whenever it is cut, a 1 foot section will quickly grow from the cut ends. Take a long rod (10 ft).
4. Heartache Grass - Said to sprout whenever young love dies. When crushed, it releases a widespread scent so strong and sharp it attacks emotions. Gives soups and syrups a bittersweet flavor. Take a bundle (d6 LOOB damage, blast, 3 uses).
5. Drowned Palm - Grown on murky swamps or irrigated farms. The starch extracted from its core is ever thirsty for moisture. One block of starch can absorb 100 times its volume. Take a bundle of palm-sized blocks (3 uses).
6. Spirit Cane - Grown on a private plantation. To consume its sugar is to steal from your own future; vitality in smaller doses, memories in larger doses. It is coveted by Castellanos’ for this attribute. Take a small block (3 uses).
Some notes:
I've been worrying if I have enough to fill these backgrounds, especially if I were to do 20. So far so good, though. I've been enjoying researching Philippine material culture, though.
I've been trying to internalize Zedeck Siew's "Use King when you mean Raja; Keep a Keris in your Dagger" with these character background write ups. I don't know yet if I'll keep that philosophy. But for now, this is how I'm trying to write.
Comments
Benjamin Moses II Diño
Thanks! I'm open to doing a kickstarter sometime in the future, but I would like to have the game ready before I do that rather than push myself to meet a deadline. Kinda like what Yochai did with Cairn 2e! What is your Cairn hack about?
dare
brilliant, i hope you do a KS or something easy, maybe amazon POD in the future. your cairn hack is one of the inspirations that i am using to make my own cairn hack. just bloody great stuff.
