Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Aldarc" data-source="post: 9781364" data-attributes="member: 5142">Let's continue. Game Materials So what do I need to play Fabula Ultima? What could possibly be different than usual here? A TTRPG is a TTRPG. Character sheets? Standard. Group sheet? Wait. What is that? It's a sheet the player group uses for notes about the people, creatures, and places they have encountered, as well as common consumables the group will use (e.g., potions, tents, antidotes, etc.). There is even a place for the group to track up to three progress clocks. World sheet? More sheets? Oh, so the GM generally gets a sheet for managing the names of the world, kingdoms, characters, and noteworthy historical events. The sheet also has things like "Enigmas and Mysteries" of the world and "Threats." Cool. Map sheet? The game comes with some PDFs for blank maps that can be used for creating worlds and even calculating travel. Then we get the usual stationary game materials: pens, pencils, paper, erasers, etc. Tokens. We apparently need tokens for Fabula points (players) and Ultima points (villains) in the game, and yes, these are meta-currencies. The game recommends green and red plastic gemstones. Maybe green and red plastic gemstones are common in Italy? Regardless, I'm not sure if I would recommend green and red given color blindness. I would probably recommend either "blue and orange" or "blue and red" or even just "black and white." Poker chips could likely work if needed. <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ndg-needgames/fabula-ultima-ttjrpg-celebration-edition-bestiary-vol-i?ref=user_menu" target="_blank">The Kickstarter</a> also includes a box with tokens for Fabula and Ultima points. Dice. The game uses the standard polyhedral dice that one expects in TTRPGs. The Players I wanna play as a player. What else do I need to know? Read this Book: That task seems easy enough, but admittedly that isn't something that everyone does or will do. But as I am doing a read-through, I should be able to manage that. The book instructs me to familiarize myself with the Press Start character creation materials. Also tells me to steer clear of the Bestiary section. Okay. Gather the Proper Tools: These are the aforementioned materials above. Check.Create the Game World: Wait a tick? This is in the section for Players! <img src="https://media1.giphy.com/media/6nWhy3ulBL7GSCvKw6/200.gif" alt="Surprised Meme GIF" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />So if you didn't know, creating the game world is something that is done by the GROUP! and not the exclusive purview of the GM. This is one of those things that will definitely ruffle a few feathers, particularly for GMs who like doing solo world-building and players who don't want to be part of the world creation process. However, the world that the group creates must adhere to the Eight Pillars of Fabula Ultima, which I think is fair. The Eight Pillars are pretty broad. The only two points of potential contention for most groups that I could see would be "Everything has a Soul" and "Magic and Technology." (Some people really hate anything that could be perceived as sci-fi or technological in their fantasy, which is one reason some people dislike Eberron.) This is our responsibility as a PC player, but we don't yet have details about how we will go about this world creation as a group. Choose an Archetype for Your Group: Huh. So there are "group types" that we will need to select for our group. Do these group archetypes mechanical or simply tonal? Are they anything like group playbooks in Blades in the Dark? We will find out. Either way, I suspect that most people/groups would be fine with this, but I could see how that others here would dislike/hate that. Anyway, we don't get the full list of group types (upcoming on p. 152) but we do get two mentioned: revolutionaries and guardians. Create Your Heroic Character: Our character should be heroic. We should create them with the world and the rest of the group in mind, particularly our Bonds (capitalized so probably a mechanic!) and relationships. Cooperate With Everyone Else: Wah! But I don't want to! Kidding. But I do appreciate that Ema is instructing players to be cognizant of other players and giving others the space to shine in the spotlight. I feel like this is equivalent of the players being told to "be a fan of other player characters" much in the same way that GMs are instructed in PbtA games (among others) to "be a fan of the characters." Contribute to the Ongoing Story: This is mostly about bringing your ideas and enthusiasm to the game. This builds on the previous one by reminding us that we should cooperate with the group. Note: "all participants are equally responsible for the quality of the game experience." Thank you for saying this, Ema! Play as a Hero: So again, we were told to "create a heroic character" earlier, and here we are reminded that our characters should be heroes. We should create characters that act heroically, face challenges, and try to do the right thing. IMHO, this is underrated advice. Make and play a character that fits with the heroic tone of the game and the group. Your character may be conflicted but they should still be heroic. Play to Change and Evolve: In short, play an evolving round character and not an unchanging flat character. Your character will and should change as part of playing the game. Ema flat out says that how your character changes and grows through play is "far more important" than your character's complex pre-authored backstory! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f60d.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":love:" title="Love    :love:"  data-smilie="16"data-shortname=":love:" /> Don't you love to see it? I know I do. I still have the GM section to read, but this is enough for this post.</blockquote>

Verification