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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Aldarc" data-source="post: 9774521" data-attributes="member: 5142">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." [spoiler][ATTACH=full]419284[/ATTACH] [/spoiler]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 <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt="(:" title="Smile    (:"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname="(:" />love<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />, 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...</blockquote>

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