Faolyn
(she/her)
I've done cutscenes in my Monster of the Week game and they rarely take more than 2-3 minutes. So if it's a one-person show, it's really short.
But mine are more like extended flavor text than anything else.
Fabula Ultima general thread [+]
- Thread starter overgeeked
- Start date
But mine are more like extended flavor text than anything else.
CandyLaser
Adventurer
I'd add that if people are interested in listening to people play Fabula Ultima, Perpetua is the current season of the excellent and long-running AP series Friends at the Table and a great choice. Some of their seasons are sequels or otherwise connected to one another, but this is a standalone, so there's no need to listen to anything that has come before. The premise of the season is that there are two groups of PCs exploring a world which periodically undergoes cycles of world-ending apocalypse followed by rebirth, with some beings and items managing to persist across this cycle. The current cycle is a fantasy world inspired by Dreamcast-era JRPGs with some anachronistic tech elements; the world contains a clock which is inexorably counting down to the end of the current cycle, and the PCs are learning about various mysteries associated with the cycles and the things that manage to survive from one world to the other.
aramis erak
Legend
I grabbed it, but haven't played with it yet. (pun intended)
aramis erak
Legend
Yes. At least occasionally. It's part of the genre, so it's included in the game.
Campbell
Relaxed Intensity
One of the things on the villain scenes piece is that while I do not think you necessarily have to include them if you do not you likely should probably step up direct interactions with villains. Regardless my sense is that you are meant to embrace that you are telling a story together. As a player you are rewarded for playing into your character's emotional journey and suffering narrative losses, dying is a choice you have to earn the right to make and you always know when a villain makes an entrance because you get Fabula Points for it. If dramatic irony is a problem for you it likely is not the right game for you.
Aldarc
Legend
Aldarc Reads Fabula Ultima (again)
This is a plus thread for Fabula Ultima, and a big PLUS for me of this game is the core rulebook itself. I have said elsewhere that I nowadays prefer that my games have opinions. I like games that have a clear vision for what playing the game looks like for the GM and players. These are games that are not trying to please everyone. The author's voice rings throughout the text. People cite the AD&D DMG as a good DMG, and that is notably an opinionated game where Gygax's authorial voice is clear. I likewise like Fabula Ultima for similar reasons. It's a TTRPG that knows what sort of TTRPG it wants and doesn't want to be.
INTRODUCTION
There is a forward by Italian designer Emanuele Galletto (he/they/she).
When I get the chance to read a book of scholarly work, one of the first things that I always do isn't start with page one of the book. Instead, I like to read the Bibliography or Works Cited. It provides a good sense of who and what works inform the author's arguments, whether that is for, against, or somewhere in-between. It can give advanced insight into the scholar's arguments before they are made. It is also a great resource to scour if you want to follow up with research of your own. And yeah, sometimes you want to see if they are missing any key scholars or works, and judge them for not including those reasonably available before the time of publication.
Here in Fabula Ultima that is the Origins & Inspirations section. I love when designers include the works that inspired their game for a similar reason as above. What games did they play? What games did they enjoy? What games inspired them? How does their list of inspirational games shape my expectations? And simply from reading the Origins & Inspirations section, I had strong suspicions that Fabula Ultima was a game with opinions.
So a big inspiration for the game is Ryuutama. Ryuutama is a Japanese table talk roleplaying game designed by Atsuhiro Okada. The game has sometimes colloquially been referred to as "Hayao Miyazaki's Oregon Trail."
It's a fairly casual game about pilgrims going on journeys as a sort of rite of passage. Their adventures are recorded by the dragon-like Ryuujin and told to dragon eggs (i.e., ryuutama) to help them grow. It's from Ryuutama that Fabula Ultima gets its core resolution system. Ryuutama has four attributes rated by different sized dice. Different checks call for the player to roll two dice based on which two attributes are involved and sometimes using the same attribute twice. Add the results and compare versus a difficulty rating.
I really liked this when I saw this for the first time in Ryuutama. It's similar to Savage Worlds, but in SWADE, the rated die for a single attribute is generally thrown with a 1d6 called the Wild Die. Cortex Plus/Prime also has something similar, but you are generally rolling three (or more) rated dice, adding two, and selecting an additional die to be your "Effect die." One of the benefits of attributes rated by dice, IME, is that it gives players a "tangible" sense for their PC's attributes.
But Ryuutama is a trad game. In fact, the culture of TTRPGs in Japan would probably get labeled as "railroady" here. The GM preps basically plots. Would that be the case for Fabula Ultima? The other works listed helped alleviate that worry for me.
I can't speak to all the works cited. I have no knowledge or experience with the anime/JRPG TTRPGs listed like Aegis, Anima Prime, Kamigakari, or Tenra Bansho Zero, or Arianrhod. However, the other inspirational works cited caught my eye.
In terms d20 fantasy games, Fabula Ultima cites both 13th Age and 4th Edition D&D as inspiration! Holy Heinsoo, Batman!? That in itself excites me. But then Fabula Ultima also lists more narrative-focused games like Fate, Apocalypse World, Blades in the Dark, Burning Wheel, and Sorcerer! So we are talking about the designers Fred Hicks, Rob Donoghue
love, Vincent Baker, John Harper, Luke Crane, and Ron Edwards! IME, when Rob Donoghue posts about another game on his blog or Twitter/BlueSky, other designers clear their schedule to read what he has to say. There is NO WAY that Fabula Ultima is a game without opinions.
These credits were when I first felt that I was in for a real treat. Sure, I had already read through Press Start quick start, so I had some insight into the mechanics and what the game is about. I could suss out some of the potential mechanics based on the character sheet and the adventure. But this Origins & Inspirations section? It sent the best sort of chills through my spine, and I was chomping at the bit to read more...
This is a plus thread for Fabula Ultima, and a big PLUS for me of this game is the core rulebook itself. I have said elsewhere that I nowadays prefer that my games have opinions. I like games that have a clear vision for what playing the game looks like for the GM and players. These are games that are not trying to please everyone. The author's voice rings throughout the text. People cite the AD&D DMG as a good DMG, and that is notably an opinionated game where Gygax's authorial voice is clear. I likewise like Fabula Ultima for similar reasons. It's a TTRPG that knows what sort of TTRPG it wants and doesn't want to be.
INTRODUCTION
There is a forward by Italian designer Emanuele Galletto (he/they/she).
When I get the chance to read a book of scholarly work, one of the first things that I always do isn't start with page one of the book. Instead, I like to read the Bibliography or Works Cited. It provides a good sense of who and what works inform the author's arguments, whether that is for, against, or somewhere in-between. It can give advanced insight into the scholar's arguments before they are made. It is also a great resource to scour if you want to follow up with research of your own. And yeah, sometimes you want to see if they are missing any key scholars or works, and judge them for not including those reasonably available before the time of publication.
Here in Fabula Ultima that is the Origins & Inspirations section. I love when designers include the works that inspired their game for a similar reason as above. What games did they play? What games did they enjoy? What games inspired them? How does their list of inspirational games shape my expectations? And simply from reading the Origins & Inspirations section, I had strong suspicions that Fabula Ultima was a game with opinions.
So a big inspiration for the game is Ryuutama. Ryuutama is a Japanese table talk roleplaying game designed by Atsuhiro Okada. The game has sometimes colloquially been referred to as "Hayao Miyazaki's Oregon Trail."
I really liked this when I saw this for the first time in Ryuutama. It's similar to Savage Worlds, but in SWADE, the rated die for a single attribute is generally thrown with a 1d6 called the Wild Die. Cortex Plus/Prime also has something similar, but you are generally rolling three (or more) rated dice, adding two, and selecting an additional die to be your "Effect die." One of the benefits of attributes rated by dice, IME, is that it gives players a "tangible" sense for their PC's attributes.
But Ryuutama is a trad game. In fact, the culture of TTRPGs in Japan would probably get labeled as "railroady" here. The GM preps basically plots. Would that be the case for Fabula Ultima? The other works listed helped alleviate that worry for me.
I can't speak to all the works cited. I have no knowledge or experience with the anime/JRPG TTRPGs listed like Aegis, Anima Prime, Kamigakari, or Tenra Bansho Zero, or Arianrhod. However, the other inspirational works cited caught my eye.
In terms d20 fantasy games, Fabula Ultima cites both 13th Age and 4th Edition D&D as inspiration! Holy Heinsoo, Batman!? That in itself excites me. But then Fabula Ultima also lists more narrative-focused games like Fate, Apocalypse World, Blades in the Dark, Burning Wheel, and Sorcerer! So we are talking about the designers Fred Hicks, Rob Donoghue
love, Vincent Baker, John Harper, Luke Crane, and Ron Edwards! IME, when Rob Donoghue posts about another game on his blog or Twitter/BlueSky, other designers clear their schedule to read what he has to say. There is NO WAY that Fabula Ultima is a game without opinions. These credits were when I first felt that I was in for a real treat. Sure, I had already read through Press Start quick start, so I had some insight into the mechanics and what the game is about. I could suss out some of the potential mechanics based on the character sheet and the adventure. But this Origins & Inspirations section? It sent the best sort of chills through my spine, and I was chomping at the bit to read more...
FU is as opinionated and directive towards the GM as games like AW and BITD, if less deliberately provocative in word choice then the former. The mechanical tools for getting there are very different and the eye towards goals of play as well, but it has a vision and by god will it do its best to get the people sitting down with the game there too.
Cordwainer Fish
Imp. Int. Scout Svc. (Dishon. Ret.)
It's supposed to be Procrustean; it's emulating computer games, where you cannot even attempt to do anything the programmer didn't think of.
Oh, I dont think that's it at all. Ema had a very specific vision of how they wanted the arcs of play and relationship between GM and Players to go and has done all they can to try and make it happen. The actual gameplay constantly has things the "programmer" didn't think of happening (see: Fabula Points to add narrative and mechanical elements to scenes so long as they don't contradict establish world Truths).
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