Let's Look at Fabula Ultima!

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1

So a lot of groups I’m in have been talking about a game called Fabula Ultima, a TTRPG have covers a lot of the same ground as Megalos–an action-adventure game primarily inspired by the themes and ascetics of Japanese console RPGs (JRPGs) and fantasy adventure anime/manga like Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, and Phantasy Star. This game also takes a lot of its core concepts from another TTRPG: Ryuutama, the Natural Fantasy RPG.

To dig into this game, I’m going to do something I frequently do and see how you make a character and what some straight forward challenges play out like.

As a forewarning, this isn’t a promise that I don’t plan on running this game, this is just to explore some of the basics to get an idea of what the game would look like in play. This game treads a lot of the same ground as Megalos with its own pecularities and twists. While I do find it interesting, I don’t know if that interest would last for entire playthrough. That said, if there is interest from the group, I would definitely be willing to give it a shot.

2

So first thing is first, let’s see what the basic mechanics of this game look like.

Each character has four Attributes: Dexterity (DEX), Insight (INS), Might (MIG), and Willpower (WLP). Each of these Attributes is measured in the form of a die (from d6 to d12). Most checks will be performed by combining two of these into a roll. For instance, a roll of DEX+MIG may be called on to escape a group of mercenaries chasing your heroes. Sometimes it may be the same attribute twice (like MIG+MIG to move an enormous boulder out of the way of your path). These rolls are then checked against a Difficulty Level (DL) that is normally 10 but goes from 7 to 16.

If both dice show a 1, that is considered a Fumble. A Fumble means you automatically fail the check (which isn’t surprising, if I call for a roll that you don’t have a chance of failing if you roll as low as possible, why am I asking for a check?) but in exchange you gain a Fabula Point.

Fabula Points are spent to invoke your character’s Traits (their Identity, Origin, and Theme, which we’ll dive into more later) in order to reroll your dice. While Fumbles can’t be re-rolled, any other roll is free game for this. (Fabula Points are also important to gaining XP at the end of the session, but we’ll get into that when we talk about advancement.)

In addition to Fumbles, there are also Critical Successes, which occur when you roll the same number on both dice AND those numbers are 6’s or higher. Like Fumbles, Critical Successes automatically succeed.

Finally, if you Fumble or Critically Succeed, an Opportunity is generated: one of you if you are Successful and one for your Enemies if you Fumble. Opportunities are minor bonuses (such as the next check performed by an ally gaining a +4 bonus) and penalties (such as becoming Weakened.). All of these are described on a table and it seems a bit much, but not terribly so. Most of the time I imagine your going to be granting an ally a bonus to their next roll or giving an enemy an Affliction, but there’s 11 options on this list and I’m probably going to forget half of them when I’m more worried about succeeding a roll.

Next up, let’s make a character.

3

So let’s build a character. First thing’s first, let’s come up with a concept. :thinking:

How about… an outcast Atlantean archaeologist who channels the spirit of legend to fight enemies? We’ll call them Serius. :wink:

So let’s dive in. We’ll go to page 154 for character creation, skipping past the world and group creation (since we want to focus on how the game plays and these are more session zero, preparing the game-type of activities) and they provide us a step-by-step walkthrough of how to build a character. Great!

The first thing the game asks us for is to create an Identity: a short sentence describing the basics of our character. This is one of the traits we described earlier. That’s easy enough for Serius, we know they are a Hunted Atlantean Historian. We write that down and continue on.

Next, the game wants us to select the character’s Theme: their motivation emotion or ideal. There’s a list of them on page 158, but none of them quite fit Serius, so we’ll write down Discovery.

Finally, we figure out their Origin and mark it on the map. Everyone is from somewhere and Serius is from Atlantis, so we write that down and make a note to mark it on our map later.

So far all this has had a soft mechanical impact on the character: these traits will determine what rolls we can spend Fabula Points on (mentioned earlier in the basic mechanics section). Going forward, we’ll be dealing with harder mechanics that will affect the dice we roll, the numbers we add, and the resources available to our character.

Now we will pick our starting classes. Yes, plural. In Fabula Ultima, each character level is assigned to one of several classes. You are limited to only three classes at a time, but once you get to level 10 in a class (called Mastering that class), you can no longer gain levels in it and must start leveling up another class. At character creation, our character starts at level 5 and we have an additional limitation: we can only assign up to three levels to a single class. With this in mind, let’s peruse the character classes.

Going back to our theme, we know that Serius acted as the defender of the group, so let’s find something that will let us do that. The Guardian class is an obvious selection with benefits that help that idea… but maybe it’s a bit too obvious. Instead, let’s look at the Fury class. The Fury’s Provoke skill emulates Serius’ marking enemies. And looking up the Enraged status effect it causes, we see that it temporarily reduces that enemy’s Dexterity and Insight die size while they are Enraged, which sounds great. We’ll mark down that we’re going to select Fury as one of our (up to) three classes and note its Free Benefits: increasing our Hit Points by 5 and granting access to martial melee weapons and martial armor, which we’ll get into later.

In addition to being a defender, Serius summoned spirits of legend to help them in combat. Looking over the list of classes, we see a perfect fit for this: the Arcanist. Their Bind and Summon skill would emulate this very well. We note down that class as well (as well as its Free Benefit of +5 Mind Points).

Now we have a decision to make: only select two classes or pick a third? Since the primary benefit of leveling a class is getting to gain a new skill of that class or gain another level of that skill (if possible, skills that can be leveled has a star and number representing the max amount of times you can take a given skill), so let’s look at our options.

With Fury, we’re definitely taking Provoke at least once. Each skill level gives the initial MIG+WLP test a +1 bonus, so taking more levels will just make the skill more likely to hit. However, Fury also gives us access to Adrenaline, a skill that gives us Skill level X 2 extra damage while our HP is at half its maximum or below (called Crisis in this game). That sounds cool, so let’s take that twice for a total of +4 extra damage while in Crisis. Those three skills mean we need to take at 3 levels in Fury, which is the max we can take at character creation, so we’re settled there.

With the Arcanist, we already noted Bind and Summon which can only be taken once. Looking over the other skills, Arcane Regeneration looks useful, letting us recover Skill Level X 5 HP when we summon an Arcanum, which can help us when we’re low at HP, so we’ll take that as well. Finally, when we took Bind and Summon, we needed to select our starting Arcanum. There’s a lot of good options, but let’s go with Arcanum of the Sword , which when summoned makes all our attacks deal +5 extra damage and lets us increase the number of targets any attack hits at the cost of dismissing the Arcanum. This means that Serius is a Fury 3/Arcanist 2.

Now we determine our Attribute scores. We know MIG+WLP is important to our Provoke skill, so we may want to prioritize those. Additionally, Dexterity increases our physical defense, Insight increases our magical defense, Might gives us HP, and Willpower gives us Mind Point. All of that is important to Serius, we’re probably safe selecting the Jack of All Trades option that gives us a d8 in each Attribute.

Now it’s time to calculate our Hit Points and Mind Points. Our maximum Hit Points are 50 (our character level + (max Might die size times 5) + 5 from Fury) and our maximum Mind Points are 50 (our character level + (max Willpower die size times 5) + 5 from Arcanist), making us fairly rounded. This also puts out Crisis score at 25 (half our maximum HP, rounded down). Mind Points are spent to activate Skills (like Provoke) and cast spells (which we’ll deal with when we get a character with spellcasting).

Now we mark down our Defense of 8 (our max Dexterity die size) and Magic Defense of 8 (our max Insight die size), our 6 Inventory Points (all characters start with 6, though some classes may affect this), and our Initiative modifier of 0 (again all characters start with a 0).

Now it’s time to spend our starting money (called Zenit). I don’t go into depth on my decision making, but I will list out what we bought and why.

  • Heavy Spear. Since Serius used polearms in Megalos, I figured to continue the trend. We’re taking the two-handed version since shields are for cowards and its HR + 12 damage looks fun.
  • Runic Plate. We could have taken Steel Plate (we had the cash for it) but I figure let’s take advantage of Serius’ good Insight die and increase our Magic Defense a bit more. Plus -4 Initiative looks scary (yes, even in comparison to -3).
  • This leaves us 50 zenit + another 70 for our roll of 2d6 x 10 for starting funds.

Finally, we mark down that we start with 3 Fabula Points (all characters start with 3 and will spend and gain them throughout the course of the game) and we’re done! You can see all this in character sheet format here.

Next time, let’s see how Serius handles in a fight.

4

While exploring a ruin, Serius finds an ancient magical construct called an Arcane Lantern (pg. 328) and it sees them as an intruder. Looks like it’s time for a fight!

Combat starts off with an Initiative check. If Serius were part of an adventuring group they would make a Group Check (pg. 50) but right now Serius is all on their own. The Difficulty of this Initiative check is the highest of all enemies in the combat (in this case, just the Arcane Lantern’s 8). However, Serius is rolling DEX + INS - 3 due to their Runic Plate’s Initiative penalty. They get a 6 (8 + 1 - 3), so the Arcane Lantern will get to go first. (Much like other games we’ve played, Fabula Ultima’s initiative is round-robin with one participant from one side taking their turn, then one participant of the opposing side taking their turn, and then back and forth until all participants have gone, at which point the round is over. This check just determines which side goes first.)

Each enemy has a set of unique attacks, so we’ll use the Arcane Lantern’s Elemental Discharge (DEX + INS, Damage is Highest Roll [HR] + 5). We roll this against Serius’ Defense (11 in the Runic Armor) and get a 16 (8+8)! This doesn’t just succeed but it’s also a Critical Hit. Looking at the list of options, we’ll just go with inflicting the Weak status condition (reducing Serius’ Might die by one size from d8 to d6). Note that this doesn’t cause us to recalculate anything, we’re just going to use the new die size when making rolls. The High Roll was 8, so the attach deals 13 (8 + 5) damage, which because of Elemental Discharge’s effect we roll a d6 to see that it is Bolt damage (not important here, but could be with Skills and Equipment). This brings Serius down to 37 HP. Ouch, not a great start.

Serius is going to bring their Heavy Spear to bear and try to take down the Arcane Lantern. They roll DEX+MIG (based on the weapon) and get a 10 (6 + 4) which is enough to hit the Arcane Lantern’s defense of 9. This deals 18 (High Roll of 6 + 12) physical damage which is a good hit… but it looks like the Arcane Lantern is Vulnerable to Physical damage, which means they take twice that amount! That drops the Arcane Lantern down to 2 remaining HP, which also puts them in Crisis (20, half their Max HP of 40, or lower). Good job, Serius!

Unfortunately, Status Effects like Serius’ Weak are persistent, so it won’t recover on its own. Serius will need to take some time to rest after this fight to get rid of it.

That’s the end of the round, so we cycle back to the start where the Arcane Lantern gets to do again. It uses Elemental Discharge again and gets another Critical Hit with a 12 (6 + 6). That deals 11 ice damage to Serius, taking them to 26. Not quite to Crisis, but close. For their Opportunity, they’ll inflict Slow, reducing Serius’ Dexterity to d6. Not looking for good them!

On Serius’ turn, they return the attack but only get an 8 (6 + 2).

Back at the top of the round, the Arcane Lantern gets another hit with an 11 (3+8) dealing 13 ice damage, taking Serius to 13 HP and putting them in Crisis. Oh dear!

On Serius’ turn, they miss again with a 7 (2 + 5) which is not what they need right now. Since they have 3 Fabula Points, they can spend one to invoke their Hunted Atlantean Historian trait (since they probably know a thing or two about these magical constructs with their archaeology work) to re-roll one or both of their dice. Since the 5 is pretty good, they’ll reroll just 2 and get another 5, bringing their roll up to 10 and a Critical Success to boot! That will deal 34 damage to the Arcane Lantern (5 + 12 x 2 for the vulnerability to physical damage), defeating it! Sadly, none of the Opportunities make much immediate sense, so we won’t worry about that right now.

What a good turn of events. Unfortunately, that leaves Serius Slowed, Weakened, and with only 13 HP. I wonder what they’ll do about that?

Unfortunately, without someone else to lean on for help, Serius’ only option to try resting. With their 6 Inventory Points, they’ll spend 4 to produce a Magic Tent from their satchel, which will let them rest in the wilderness without retreating back to safety first. Resting causes Serius to regain all their lost HP and recover from all statuses, getting them back to full health, however, resting usually takes 6-8 hours of downtime, so if Serius was in a rush they would have to decide between safety and whatever was at risk.

Next time, we’ll see how things look when Serius has friends to support them.

5

So one oversight in my previous post is that I didn’t talk about the area that the combat Serius had. That is simply because Fabula Ultima doesn’t care about that sort of stuff. With some minor exceptions (such as flying creatures being immune to melee attacks) the game doesn’t care about positioning. It defers to the idea of “if you are capable of taking some action, you’ll figure out some way for that happen in the fiction.” Vault over a wall of foes to face off with your nemesis in a duel? Awesome. Go forth and do it.

Additionally, I made one mistake… that didn’t end up mattering. When Serius was Slowed and I said we didn’t need to re-calculate anything, I was wrong. Your Defense and Magic Defense are always based on your current Dexterity and Insight. However, because Serius was using Runic Armor that makes their Defense a static 11 (rather than based on their Dexterity die) it didn’t matter.

So now that I’ve cleared up some of my mistakes, let’s see what happens when we put our hero into a situation that this game is bit more setup to handle.

After retreating back to town, Serius met up a pair of new allies: the catling assassin Carabas and the bloodwitch Auoy. Carabas is based on the “classic character” quick build option of the Spell Fencer, while in order to make sure Auoy had the right flavor I dug into one of the Atlas books to pull out the Mutant class. We don’t need to dwell on that right now (we’ll talk about Atlases in a future post), instead we’ll dive into some more example play.

When Carabas, Auoy, and Serius return to the ruins, it appears a group of tomb raiders have set up shop and are plundering the ruins. This will just not do. Looks like it is time for fisticuffs.

Our foes are a pair of Brigands (pg. 338) and their Mercenary leader (pg. 340). To spice things up, we’ve give the Mercenary an accessory to make them a bit more powerful (as well as to be a reward if our heroes are able to defeat them): Crested Helm (p. 286) which will increase their Accuracy checks by +1. With all that done, it’s time for initiative.

Looking over the enemies, the Brigands have the highest Initiative with 10, which sets the Difficulty Level (DL) of the test. Of the three of our heroes, Carabas has the best Initiative modifier with a -1 and the best DEX+INS with d10+d8, so he’ll be leading the check. Before his roll, Auoy and Serius both make their own check against a difficult of 10 (just the default for any group check). Auoy succeeds with an 11 (3 + 10 – 2) which will give Carabas a +1 bonus to his roll, while Serius fails with an 8 (3 + 8 – 3). Fortunately, this doesn’t penalize Carabas’ roll.

Carabas rolls his initiative and gets a Critical Success (8 + 8 – 1 +1 from Auoy’s assistance)! For his Opportunity, Carabas looks at the list and sees Bonding, which will create a Bond towards someone or something. Here he’s going to chose to gain a bond of Loyalty toward Auoy. They are proving themselves focused on the task at hand (unlike Serius) and so Carabas feels a touch more at ease around the blood witch. This bond is useful for some Skill and any group checks, as if someone assisting has a bond with the leader, they add add an additional +1 to +3 depending on the strength of their bonds to the person leading the group. (See page 56 for more details on this.) With this decided, we get to combat.

Auoy will take the first turn and see if they can determine anything about their foes with the Study action. As they look over the Mercenary leader, Auoy rolls INS+INS as an Open Check (a check with no DL, but instead depending on their roll they will get more or less information). With their d10 Insight, they get a 12 (2 + 10), which will give them info on the Mercenary’s species (Humanoid), their Max HP (60), and their Max MP (50). If they’d gotten a bit higher (13+), Auoy would have also learned their Traits, Attributes, Defense, Magic Defense, and Affinities. If they’d gotten even higher (16+), they would have learned all that plus their basic attacks and spells. Very useful.

With their turn complete, the first Brigand goes. They take their Axe and take a swing. But at who? Well, by default all enemies determine their targets randomly! There’s abilities that affect this, such as Serius’ Provoke, but this is the suggestion of the book. So we take a d3 with Serius, Carabas, and Auoy’s names on it and roll Serius! The Brigand makes their attack with MIG+MIG and get an 11 (8 + 3) which will hit Serius’ Defense of 11. With a High Roll of 8, that deals 18 Physical damage, bringing Serius to 32 HP.

Serius will go next and, using their Bind and Summon skill, call forth the Tale of the Warrior. This costs 40 MP, which leaves them with out 10 MP, however, their Arcane Regeneration skill causes them to regain 5 HP, bringing them back up to 37 HP.

The second Brigand now goes and uses their Axe as well on Carabas, however they get a Fumble (1, 1)! This grants Carabas an Opportunity which he will use to Weaken them. Additionally, since the result of their attack was an even number, Carabas can use their Counterattack skill for a free melee attack. Using their Rapier, they roll DEX+INS+1 and get a 13 (4 + 8 + 1). Normally this would deal 14 physical damage (HR + 6), however, the Counterattack skill specifies that this attack treats the High Roll as 0 regardless of the outcome, meaning he only deals 6 damage. A fine hit still, dropping the second Brigand to 54 HP.

Now it is Carabas’ turn and they will spend 10 Mind Points (bringing him down to 45 MP) for his Bladestorm skill, letting his attack hit up to two people; specifically the Mercenary and the second Brigand. He will roll one attack and compare it against each foe’s defense to determine whether it hits or not. He doesn’t feel confident about rolling a 9 (7+1+1) so will use a Fabula point to re-roll the 1. That turn it into a 3 for 11 total, which will hit both his foes. With a High Roll of 7 that deals 13 physical damage to each of them, bringing the second Brigand to 41 and the Mercenary to 47.

That leaves the Mercenary. Instead of an attack, they will use their Charged Attack action to grant their next attack Multi (2) (which will hit two targets, much like Carabas’ Bladestorm) and ignore any Resistance. This won’t matter here since our heroes don’t have any Resistances, but we’ll do it anyway so they can attack two folks with a single roll.

Back at the top of the round, our heroes can decide who goes first. It does not have to stay the same. That said, Auoy will go first again. They are going to cast a Spell. Spells use the Spell action and come in two flavors: normal spells which just require an Action and an amount of MP (sometimes variable based on the number of targets affected) and just work, and offensive spells which require a Magic roll to determine if they succeed against the target’s Magic Defense. They will cast Drain Vigor which is an offensive spell with an MP cost of 10 (down to 45 MP) and so will require a Magic roll of INS+WLP. They target the Mercenary and get a 10 (9 + 1) which just barely overcomes their Magic Defense of 9. The spell deals HR + 15 Dark damage and causes Auoy to regain HP an equal amount of HP. While this deals 24 Dark damage, Auoy is already at full HP and so doesn’t recover an HP.

It is now the first Brigand’s turn and they aim their Axe at Auoy (guess they should have waited a bit to take their turn). A 14 (9 + 5) easily hits Auoy’s 9 Defense and deals 19 physical damage, nearly knocking Auoy into Crisis. Ouch!

Carabas will go next, again spending MP for Bladestorm (down to 35). They could use one of their spells like Elemental Shroud (to give Resistance to an element) or Elemental Weapon (to change the damage dealt by one of the weapons used by the party to gain an elemental damage type) but since the foes have no obvious elemental properties, they’re not obviously useful. If elemental attacks start coming, then he can use it with some assurance. For now it’s more reliable damage. Once again he’ll target the second Brigand and the Mercenary, only getting a 6 (4 + 1 + 1). Again, he’ll use a Fabula point, rerolling both dice to get a 14 (10 + 3 + 1). This hits both enemies for 16 physical damage each, dropping the Brigand to 25 (now in Crisis) and the Mercenary to 7. Almost enough to take them down, but not quite.

It’s the second Brigand’s turn and they turn their Axe at Auoy as well (oof, bad day for them!) getting a 15 (9 + 6). This deals 19 damage and brings Auoy to 2 HP!

It’s Serius turn and while they were thinking of trying to Provoke someone, they need to focus on bringing down the Mercenary before they can take their turn so they don’t take out Auoy. Serius makes an attack with Heavy Spear, but only gets an 8 (1 + 7), not enough to hit the Mercenary’s 11 Defense. They’ll spend a Fabula Point (bringing them down to 1 remaining) invoking their Atlantean fighting style and reroll the 1, getting another 7 making this a Critical Hit! They’ll do 24 physical damage (7 + 12 + 5 from their Arcana’s merge effect), well more than enough to take down the Mercenary. For their Opportunity, they will take a Bond with Auoy, choosing Inferiority as the emotion. They don’t feel like they are doing enough to protect their allies, as exhibited by Auoy’s injuries, and will strive to do better.

With the Mercenary taken out, we’re now back to the top of the round. Auoy will again go first, hoping to recover some of their strength. They cast Drain Vigor again on the second Brigand (down to 35 MP), and get a 14 (4 + 10)! This will deal 25 dark damage to the second Brigand, defeating them, as well as healing Auoy for 25 (up to 27!). Also, because they were in Crisis when they cast the spell and it dealt damage, their Biophagy skill will heal them for an additional 5 HP (up to 32). Not too bad a swing for someone who was almost at 0 at the start of their turn.

The first Brigand swing for Serius and gets an 18 (8 + 10), easily hitting the historian’s Defense of 11 and dealing 20 physical damage. This brings Serius down to 17 HP, below their Crisis threshold.

Serius will take their turn now, going for the remaining Brigand. Since they’re in Crisis, their Adrenaline skill is active so if they can hit, they’ll do 4 extra damage. They roll a 10 for their attack (8 + 2) which will hit for 29 physical damage (8 + 12 + 4 + 5), bringing their foe down to 31 HP.

Since there are no more foes left, Carabas follows up with an attack of their own with their Rapier. They get a 19 (10 + 8 + 1) while will deal 16 physical damage, knocking the Brigand down to 15 HP remaining. Normally I’d call it here, but the Brigand’s Bad Temper trait makes me think they would go down swinging rather than flee or surrender, their anger clouding their better judgment.

With the start of the round, Carabas will go first, thinking they have the best chance to take down the Brigand. They barely hit with a 9 (2 + 6 + 1) and only do 12 physical damage, leaving the Brigand with 3 HP.

The Brigand makes a charge for Carabas in retaliation (Or so the d3 says), hitting with a 12 (8 + 4) and dealing 18 damage, making the first hit on Carabas and taking them down to 22 HP.

Serius goes for the finishing blow, and hits with a 15, defeating the Brigand.

While everyone catches their breath, Auoy casts Heal to recover Carabas and Serius’ missing HP. For 20 MP (10 per target, max of three) each regains 40 HP, maxing them both out. With only 8 missing HP, Auoy is counting on finding some enemy later to make up for their missing HP. Additionally, the group recovers the Mercenary’s Crested Helm, giving it to Serius to give them a better chance at hitting with their high damage attacks.

Calling this the end of the session, the group tallies up their XP. Each person gets 5 XP by default, then they count the number of Fabula Points spent. Carabas and Serius both spent two, that means 4 total were spent. We divide that by the number of players (3) giving us 1 and some change, but because we always round down (pg. 33) that means everyone earned 6 total XP. Not bad, as leveling only requires 10 XP.

6

So this has been a fairly quick look at Fabula Ultima. I wanted to get a feel for the characters it makes and how the game plays, and I think I think I got that.

It feels like a very striped down RPG even in comparison to systems like Megalos. While there are some cool tactics you can do in combat, I wouldn’t say it’s really deep. Though there are some very elegant bits of game design on display, which I do appreciate.

Additionally, the game wears its influences on its sleeve, which is going to come down to personal preference on JRPGs. I like it personally, but I know it won’t be for everyone.

I think it might work for us, but I suspect it’s all going to come down to player investment. Everyone (including the GM) is going to need to be invested in the story and characters of the game, because I don’t think mechanics alone in this one is going to keep someone engaged for more than a few sessions. If folks are interested and want to try things out, I would recommend we try out the quick start tutorial Press Start before we dive deep into things. I think Bill’s run it, so he may have his own insights as well on the game.

So now that I’m finished, what do folks think?

7

I’ve played and run the game. I want to talk about the things that might make it interesting for this group:

  • It’s the sort of game that winds itself around the player characters, deliberately so. The PCs’ personal lives, backstories, and feelings are meant to matter. The Villains in Press Start (the tutorial scenario) have a personal connection with one of the pregen PCs, for example.
  • With its roots in Ryuutama, it’s got elements of pilgrimage, the joys of travel, and an appreciation of the world around these characters. It really helps that the game setup asks the players to actively participate in the worldbuilding.
  • Like MEGALOS, bonds between PCs can be formed and heightened and this can have mechanical effects on certain rolls.
  • PCs can perform amazing combos that arise out of their individual class abilities. You don’t have to build for synergy, but it can happen anyway, and if you do it deliberately, things are amazing.

An example from a TTRPG forum:

For me, the biggest feature was finding out your party can absolutely do JRPG wombo combos. In my case, it was making a Dark Knight with High Might using an Axe so she hit with MIG+MIG and then getting boosted by someone to make my Might d12s and then using Dark Strike. Then, getting healed back to full by the third person. It wasn’t substantialable long run but it was like an omega strike combo train.

Basically, I think the appeal of the game is that it will make people generally feel good to play characters in it, which is probably something we could all use right now. It’s adventure and combat and treasure with decent people who have meaningful interactions with each other, playing in world you helped build.

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8

Thanks for the test plays, Mike!

This does sound a lot like Megalos, but for all that you noted it as a more stripped-down system, it sounds more complex (lots of adds and subtracts, lots of die types, lots of changes in stats mid-combat based on results). That’s not necessarily bad, esp. if that flow is or becomes intuitive, which is hard to determine here.

It also sounds like it’s largely (based on the notes on combat locations) mostly a Theater of the Mind setup, which is certainly workable. I’ve actually found myself missing Megalos’ zone work which, coupled with the nice maps Mike found, made visualization of things easy.

I’m glad to hear it supports or encourages RP bits. I don’t have a character concept in my back pocket right now, but that’s not usually a problem.

The overall setting, aside from a pilgrim vibe, isn’t clear; it needn’t be at this point, I just want to be sure there are sufficient narrative hooks (esp. after we get characters developed) for a story to be told here without a massive amount of prep effort involved.

At any rate, I’m willing to give it a whirl. I’ll ping Margie to make sure she sees the discussion and can weigh in as needed.

9

The Roll20 FabU sheet is excellent and automates a ton of stuff, even more than my MEGALOS sheet did (and can do that because it is that much simpler). As long as your status boxes are properly checked, most of the time you will just have to hit the correct button to roll dice and it’ll handle math for you.

I don’t think Mike went into this quite as much, but basically there’s not so much a single setting as a buffet of setting options, and the players will bring what they want to the table.

The game provides “Eight Pillars” that any FabU game should have: ancient ruins and harsh lands; a world in peril; clashing communities; everything has a soul; magic and technology; heroes of many sizes and shapes; it’s all about the heroes; mystery, discovery, and growth.

But beyond that, it’s the group’s world to define. You can either provide details of things like kingdoms, empires, and mysteries to explore, or you can also roll on the provided tables. For example, a world of funny animals, a world of just humans, or a world of classic fantasy races are all possibilities.

The game also invites the players to figure out what kind of group they are: brought together by fate; guardians of something; heroes of the resistance; revolutionaries; or seekers. This is basically down to “what drives us to go on adventures and face dangers”.

So the setting will have a generally consistent tone & feel, but the details and nuances will be up to us to provide - which hopefully means the world will be something we’re interested in, because we helped build it.

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10

Ah, so that’s part of session zero in this game: figuring out the setting. Other than each game of Fabula Ultima having some shared elements (called the Eight Pillars) part of session is creating the world and threats that the game is going to focus.

Those Eight Pillars by the way are:

  1. Ancient Ruins and Harsh Lands: The world is an ancient and dangerous place: cities and villages are separated by vast plains, scorching deserts, frozen peaks and impenetrable forests.
  2. A World in Peril: Villages, castles, and city-states are among the few areas that aren’t literally crawling with monsters, brigands, and hostile creatures. Far more dangerous still are Villains, powerful antagonists casting their shadow over the entire land. Cruel sorcerers, evil gods seeking reincarnation, power-hungry emperors, perhaps even alien entities:there’s a single, unspeakable terror behind the dangers of the world, and our heroes are bound to cross its path sooner or later.
  3. Clashing Communities: The world may be in danger, but its inhabitants are still divided by ancient grudges: religious schisms, memories of war crimes, and the conflict between magic and science are among the most common causes of enmity. Reuniting these communities will be key to defeating the great evils of the world; the protagonists should help them overcome their hostilities and see their differences as blessings instead of obstacles.
  4. Everything Has a Soul: All matter that forms the world, including its creatures, the earth, sky, sun, and stars are part of a vast flow of spiritual energy. The origin, nature, and function of this energy may vary depending on the world you create, but its presence is undeniable and anyone possessing the ability to manipulate it (be it through magic or science) is a force to be reckoned with.
  5. Magic and Technology: In every Fabula Ultima world, science and magic represent two different ways of studying and manipulating reality: one concerns itself with the tangible nature of matter, the other with the souls that dwell within it — two sides of the same coin. Miraculous machinery might be hidden beneath the ruins of an ancient civilization, and even the most powerful wizards will often make use of vehicles and airships.
  6. Heroes of Many Sizes and Shapes: Fabula Ultima’s protagonists are full-fledged heroes, extraordinary individuals that possess unique abilities and whose actions will shape the fate of the world. While some may not be noble paladins or virtuous paragons of justice, even the thieves and dark knights among them have a fundamentally good nature and can be trusted to do the right thing when the situation gets desperate.
  7. It’s All About the Heroes: Any relevant event in a game of Fabula Ultima is tied to the heroes, either directly or indirectly. Dramatic plot twists shall happen when the protagonists are present on the scene, and the great powers (and evils) of the world shall pay them special attention.
  8. Mystery, Discovery, and Growth: his game is built upon discovery: of ancient mysteries and forgotten powers, yes, but most of all, of the heroes themselves, of their feelings, and of what they are willing to do in order to fight against darkness. Fabula Ultima’s protagonists are complex and sometimes tragic figures, and their journey will change them forever.

In addition to the Pillars, there are Atlases: supplementary books that give advice and new mechanics to take the game in a specific direction. So far there are:

  • Atlas of High Fantasy: Adds more in the theme of your typical high fantasy setting: floating cities, Dragon queens, and new classes like the Dancer and Chanter.
  • Atlas of Natural Fantasy: This one brings the game closer to its inspiration of Ryuutama where the heroes are fighting against some sort of calamity or ancient force that affects the world. For examples, I would look to the latest Legend of Zelda games (Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom) or Princess Mononoke.
  • Atlas of Techno Fantasy: This one takes us more into a space fantasy setting with it not necessarily revolving around a single world, but possibly multiple! I poked into this book to recreate Auoy because the Mutant class has some of their tricks. Also considered using the Esper class for Carabas given the themes of the Psythe, but decided against it after seeing the mechanics. It’s still fantasy, but one informed by science fiction like Star Wars. Finally I can live out that childhood memory of playing Phantasy Star 4 and being shocked that not only is our newest party member an android… but she’s going to take us to a spaceship so we can travel to a satellite where we can met her counterpart who handles the atmospheres and climates of all the inhabited worlds in this system.

There’s more to it than just that, but right now this is just a “hey, does this seem interesting?” temperature feel.

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Instead of repeating Mike on the mechanics and numbers of character creation, I want to highlight a few classic JRPG characters.

Justin (Grandia): a 14-year-old kid obsessed with the notion of adventure and exploration, who gets his chance when he discovers a hologram pointing the way to a long-lost civilization. He’s a little like a fantasy Luke Skywalker, if Obi-Wan Kenobi was a hot teenage girl and survived her encounters with the Villain.

Celes Chere (FFVI): a former Imperial general who joins the heroes after being imprisoned as a traitor. She lost her faith in the Empire, but with the heroes she feels guilty about her past actions. She has a hard time showing her emotions. Dave should recognize elements of characters like Alycia Chin here, if Alycia had to sing in an opera as part of the team’s hijinks.

Yuna (FFX): a Summoner and priestess, Yuna performs an important social function: the “Sending” of dead spirits to the Farplane, to keep them from plaguing the living as Fiends. She balances a public face of joy and encouragement with a private sadness shared only with her companions.

Alfyn Greengrass (Octopath Traveler): an apothecary who’s dedicated his life to healing the sick - even when he heals someone who goes on to hurt other people. Alfyn’s story is about the consequences of doing the right thing, and how hard it can be to uphold one’s personal code.

Lloyd Irving (Tales of Symphonia): Lloyd is a human raised by a dwarf, and a talented swordfighter and crafter. He starts out as idealistic but naïve, and not the brightest when it comes to formal education. Lloyd’s story is about his discovery of the many truths of his world - some darker than others - and how he grapples with his unwitting participation in one of those dark truths.

What all these characters have in common is that each one of them has a driving goal - exploration, revenge, compassion - and a formidable personal challenge - whether powerful enemies or just one’s own past or present actions.

What makes JRPGs and games like FabU special to me are that characters aren’t just humanoid-shaped vacuum cleaners sucking up gold coins and monster blood. They live in fantastical worlds with dragons and magic swords, but their emotions, their inner conflicts, and especially their interactions with close companions are at the center of their story.

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Hmmm, that would be interesting. Alycia, who resembles a famous celebrity, has to act as her body double when she is targeted by a super-powered admirer? It’s a plot that definitely has some appeal to it. :thinking:

What I think is probably my weakest point as a GM is setting the stage for these themes and moments take the forefront of the game, which isn’t to say I’m not up for challenging myself, but jeez if it doesn’t mesh well with my natural tendency to make set pieces and action scenes.

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I want to spin off a separate thread to talk about this, if you are interested, because I’ve been teaching myself to solve that very problem in the Phase 2-3 stories.

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