Hey all! Sundang Langit RPG Playtest 2 is now out. You can download it below.
There's been some changes but most of it has become scaled down and is now punchy, quick, and effectively rules-lite while keeping the Crunch + Friction in the parts where its most important for the game. Carry equipment, let it define you, fight against the oppressive suffering of the world. Reject all the Gods. Embrace your inner Devil-Nature.
Nirvanapunk Dark Fantasy Roleplaying.
For a moment, breathe, and imagine an archipelago brittle, shattered, gasping. In its death throes.
The Mindstreams meant to reincarnate have clogged up the Devil God Maw. They now wander, haunt the living.
The alien societies of the Unseen: of the spirits, the gods, the demons, the fey, the demigods... live alongside those of the Lower Realms. Those of the human and the animal. Caught up in horrific divine politics. A mad Wind God aggrieved brings moons of debilitating monsoons. A petty Mountain God constantly demands for sacrifice.
The human. The mortal among them all, struggling once again to survive. There is a semblance of order, yes. But it is a pale shadow of what once was--of the many what-once-were. Those in power are Cultists of the Machine God and its Infinite Progress. Workers are cursed to live to work, and then even in death their Mindstreams are harvested for karma or for necrolabor.
Trudge. Trudge. Trudge along. There is nothing but suffering here.
Play as one of those corpses. Incomplete. Imperfect. As all human beings must be. The consequence of becoming human is to fail. Be...
...a tryhard magickist hoarding knowledge to attain immortality.
...a physical cultivator who wishes to protect their village in exchange for their sanity.
...a mercenary or sellsword, numb to the horrific act of Killing.
...a street thief, sky pirate, or mountain bandit surviving by stealing from both mortal and immortal.
...a delver-sorcerer-scholar delving into unearthed ancient ruins--all places stamped with Death--to find the cure for Death.
...a priest of Durgr, Black Goddess of Death, travelling across the land to bring about Fated Ends to those that have passed their death-date.
...a geomancer scamming rich vampiric bourgeoisie trying to fund the college education of their 4 siblings.
...a pugilist trying to support their ailing grandmother by participating in the fighting rings of the Elite.
Live and love and die. Do it again and again. Until all beings are free.
The Wheel turns: what will you do?
Dharmapunk means inspired by Buddhic, Gnostic, and other esoteric practices. The metaphysics, aesthetics, and spirit lore of Buddhist societies. Punk because this is a world choked by dark powers: by devil chakravartins, capitalist emperors, and amoral anti-human spirits... and the teachings of all the Enlightened provide refuge from Suffering.
Dark Fantasy because this a dead world. A Grand Flood covered the entire planet. The only landmass that exists is the tallest mountain that pierces the atmosphere, and the Utter Islands: a set of islands that is in truth the corpse of a Primeval God. Ruins pock the land, ghosts and demon and skeletons--freed from the hells--roam the land. Empires crumble. The Latter Day of the Law means the Law of the Buddhas is slowly dissipating, and with it, the integrity of the world. Suffering is intensified.
Realist because it takes inspiration from reality. Suffuses quantum mechanics with Sunyata metaphysics. The world is primed for a World Revolution by its proletariat, which works even as the world-corpse festers around it. Even as the Sun's very rays bleach the corpseland. Giant cats turned into apartment complexes, ghost horse steeds that tire not, walking giant mechanical armors turned into public transportation, charnel wizards summoning the long-dead, witches wielding the Pureflame of Creation, the Machine God beginning its slick advance into forever progress... the Age of Furor is upon us. The Latter Day of the Law. The Termagant Enlightened watches closely.