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Flerida is the Saint of Truth in my Umineko-inspired ttrpg, When the Crocodiles Weep. Yes, the Flerida from Florante at Laura! Here, she represents the force of truth as she tries to get to the bottom of Doña Jeronima's riddles.

I thought giving her the truth theme was appropriate, given that she wields a bow and arrow ("true" aim) and is faithfully devoted to Aladin ("true love").

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Ballad of the Princes Three is a ttrpg set in the Filipino classic epic poem Ibong Adarna. It stars the three princes of the story - Pedro, Diego, and Juan - alongside Juan's love interest Maria as their lives are shaken up by the quest for the Adarna bird.

All the while, higher-existence beings called Saints spectate on the story - Plata Panata, Nining Matsing, Leron Sinta, and Prinsesa Blanca; each one corresponds to one of the main characters.

This ttrpg specifically takes place in a rewritten continuity of Ibong Adarna; I decided to weld together the Crystal Kingdom plot with Maria to the main Adarna bird quest to make things narratively tighter.

Here, the bird is the escaped pet of Maria's father King Salermo, with Maria being tasked to recover it. However, she plans to disobey her father and gift the Adarna bird to a worthy guardian - hence, she disguises herself as a beggar and waits for anyone to capture the bird.

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> Laura: Rewind.

No no no no no. Everything is all WRONG. You were supposed to be saved by your darling Florante, NOT some other woman!

You inadvertently activate your SAINT FORM and begin to rewind the story back to its very beginning. Yes, now you remember. You are the Saint of Salvation. You only recently became aware of it. Like, just this moment. And then you'll forget again once time resets.

You will do this as many times as you have to. So that your beloved Prince will save you. You are a laurel, only deserving to be placed on the hero's head. You will not stop until you get your happily ever after.

Happily. Ever. After.

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When the Crocodiles Weep is a murder mystery tabletop inspired by Umineko, Nick Joaquin's Doña Jeronima short story, Mutya ng Pasig, and other folk tales about the Pasig River.

It features the wealthy Obispo family trying to survive seemingly-impossible murders supposedly enacted by Doña Jeronima, the Muse of the Pasig. Meanwhile, higher-existence beings called Saints spectate on the story, trying to solve its mysteries - among them, Bernardo Carpio, Asuang, and Flerida.

Check it out here:

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Swellbloom kids as a queer allegory

In one of my earlier Swellbloom Kids campaigns, I had the PCs as relative strangers brought together by circumstance and going on a wild adventure through Rizal's Noli. Because they didn't know each other all that well, one of the things they grappled with was disclosing to each other their identities as swellbloom kids.

Do I let them know? Do they know what I am? Do they know I know what they are?

While I did have themes of marginalization in mind while writing the Swellbloom Kids module, as I ran the campaign I realized that I had unintentionally created an allegory for queerness. As a queer person myself, I was quite pleased! Keeping parts of yourself secret may always be a reality, but there are certainly people you can trust to be your authentic self around.

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The Cicada-Song Solstice is absolutely peppered with little Kagepro references and callbacks. This formed a large part of the fun designing it!

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sandosenang santos!

SAINTS are minor deities in Swellbloom Kids. They are higher-existence beings that spectate on the story, making comments as it progresses but also sometimes meddling themselves. They like to squabble with each other in a metaphysical space called The Retablo.

(Image from the San Agustin Museum.)

Their realm is named after real-life retablo, altarpieces with spaces inside for statues of saints.

Saints each have their own divine domain, as encapsulated by their title. Mechanically, this gives a bonus to certain rolls by their devotee (aka, your Player Character). For example, Bernardo Carpio as a Saint of Toil might give a bonus to his devotee for rolls involving repetitive or grueling tasks.

Saints are the Swellbloom Kids equivalent of Umineko witches, but it's not a one-to-one correspondence.

In my two games When the Crocodiles Weep and Ballad of the Princes Three, each player picks both a regular person and a saint to play as, the two having a patron relationship.

Learn more about the Saints here:

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Quick sketch of Juan and Maria! They're the heroes of the Ibong Adarna story - at least, my reimagining of them.

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New cover art! SWELLBLOOM KIDS is a ttrpg about bipolar heroes blessed by the gods of Philippine myth. Have adventures across the various eras of history - crash a vaudeville show, defend Rajah Soliman’s palisade, enact a town-wide revolt against the guardia civil - all while learning to control your powers! Swellbloom Kids is a love letter to Philippine history, as well as being neurodivergent.

Download it here:

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THE MAIN CAST (AKA WHO YOU CAN ASK)

Ometeótl, The deity of Duality, aka the boomer Quetzalcoatl, God of Wisdom, aka jealous bitch Xipe Totec, Flayed god of Gold and Farming, aka skin fashion designer Tezcatlipoca, God of Deception and Darkness, aka vengeful bitch

Tecuziztecatl, Cowardly God of the Moon

and Tonatiuh, Brave War God of the Sun

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the spectating saints.

Saints are higher-existence beings spectating on the story - in this case, When the Crocodiles Weep - a Filipino reimagining of Umineko. From left to right, they are:

Bernardo Carpio, the Saint of Toil. An imprisoned giant chained between two mountains.

Asuang, the Saint of Damnation. The mother of monsters and all things hellish. Dwells deep under Mt. Malinao.

Sto. Monito, the Saint of Gifts. The saint form of Kulas Obispo, the story's hero. He must defeat Doña Jeronima and uncover her lies.

Flerida, the Saint of Truth. Her statements, just like her arrows, always hit their mark. Values accuracy above all.

I've got other Saint OCs, but these are the main ones. They're premade PCs for When the Crocodiles Weep, though you can always make your own.

Check out WTCW here:

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ASUANG, SAINT OF DAMNATION

The mother of monsters and all things hellish. Dwelling in the depths of the earth under Mt. Malinao, from her cave come all manner of bats and beast. She loves to reward do-gooders almost as much as she loves to punish sinners.

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This is a reimagining of Asuang, the god of evil in Bicolano myth. Although in the original myth Asuang is a man, I thought having a whole "mother of all monsters" theme would be more interesting! I was aiming for a ghoulish vibe for this drawing - though hopefully not too scary.

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Asuang is the Saint of Damnation, the Swellbloom Kids equivalent of Umineko witches. She features in my module, When the Crocodiles Weep! Check it out here:

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In my head I'm brewing a version of Laura that's absolutely unhinged.

A Laura that fully buys into her role as the Princess, the damsel to be saved. She is a laurel, a wreath to be placed on the Hero's head as a symbol of his victory. A prize. She is to be won. This is partially due to the indoctrination of her father, the King.

She waits for Florante. Patiently. He will save her, he is the Hero, and fate has decreed that they will ride off into the sunset together. Happily ever after. This delusion is what keeps her going when Count Adolph launches his coup. When he forces her to be his queen. She will not, because she is saving herself for Florante.

To make her Worse™, let's give her metanarrative/time looping powers. She must have been absolutely pissed when Flerida saved her. This is not how it goes, she thinks to herself, even when she narrowly escapes her death. Her Hero is supposed to save her. This story is getting off-script.

And so she resets the timeline. She will endure the suffering of being a princess over and over and over, just to get the Happily Ever After she wants. She doesn't want to be happy if it's not in the prescribed way.

She wants to be saved in the worst sense of the term.

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in which bipolar heroes blessed by the gods of philippine myth go on wild adventures across the different historical eras.

Compilation of character designs for Swellbloom Kids, my ttrpg about bipolar Filipinos moving around in a world that might not always understand them. If you like:

Magic-wielding neurodivergent girlbosses

Bickering demons who are also found family

Unhinged telenovela-style drama about a political crony clan

Umineko witches who are also furries

Check out Swellbloom Kids!

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Everyone feels the Twins’ presence, one way or another. He, as the parched earth cracks and the air rises in ripples. She, as the rolling thunder rumbles like a drumbeat. We call them different names. In the times of old, El Niño and La Niña. The lord of summer and the lady of the rains. The Heat Haze Boy and the Monsoon Girl.

The two supreme forces of the universe in my Philippine mythology tabletop, Swellbloom Kids! They represent cosmic heat and cold, influencing the eponymous swellbloom kids' mania and depression, respectively. The Heat Haze Boy represents all that is hot, bright, and restless, while the Monsoon Girl represents all that is cold, dark, and flowing. Their true names are Apolaki and Diyan Masalanta, twins and the two first breaths of the Bakunawa given life.

Check out Swellbloom Kids here:

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choose your fighter! (ibong adarna vers.)

Choose to play as:

Don Pedro, the eldest prince of Berbania. Certified dad pleaser.

Don Diego, the second prince. Plotting a coup as we speak.

Don Juan, the youngest prince. Dad's favorite - also The Narrative's.

Doña Maria, princess of the Crystal Kingdom. Unhinged sorceress.

These are the premade PCs for Ballad of the Princes Three, an Ibong Adarna ttrpg. In Ballad, you each play as one of the brothers + Maria, acting out different versions of the Ibong Adarna story.

Parallel to this, Saints (higher-existence beings with meta influence) spectate and comment on the royals' performances. They are:

Plata Panata, the Saint of Devotion. A bloodied automaton of pure silver.

Nining Matsing, the Saint of Wit. A crafty monkey always in a rivalry with her friend Turtle.

Lerong Sinta, the Saint of Fortune. Her luck alternates between good and bad. Likes papayas and hates falling down.

Prinsesa Blanca, the Saint at the Gates. Gatekeeps the universe's secrets. Doña Maria is her self-insert.

In case y'all were wondering, Doña Maria is a character that shows up in the second part of Ibong Adarna - schools usually only cover the first part. For her design, I was inspired by Utena + gave her snail motifs as a reference to being cursed to crawl like a snail in the Ibong Adarna story.

Check out Ballad of the Princes Three here:lip

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Crescendo! When the waking world was fished out of the marshland, the Heat Haze Boy decided that all things should have an inner restlessness that would propel them to action. The very particles within them would tremble and vibrate, creating heat. The up, up, up of swirling air and rising temperature. CRESCENDO! The Boy himself would govern this heat, and thus began the waves of cosmic El Niño.

Cover art for Solstice of the Coiling Snakes. Longer post on it soon, but for now I want to talk about the design elements. Solstice uses a lot of imagery centered around summer, from the time-looping realm called The Noonblossom Plains to the deity the Heat Haze Boy (El Niño).

For this, I felt compelled to use the paintings of Fernando Amorsolo as a peg given their warm tones and lighting. My art style is very pixel-y, so it was a challenge for me to emulate Amorsolo's way of coloring. I'd like to think I got close, though!

+ You can download Solstice here: