Let's Talk About Fabula Ultima

[Aldarc]

How do you find it?

Sorry. I've been busy and (subsequently) tired last night and today. I have enjoyed my time playing FabU. My partner wanted to try running a TTRPG for the first time, and they ran the brilliant Press Start tutorial. That was a load of fun. The experience was positive enough for my partner to also want to go in on the FabU Ultimate Box Set in the Kickstarter from last year.

Back in February, I got into an ongoing FabU online game using Foundry. I've also been having a load of fun with that, especially playing with people with more FabuU/TTRPG experience than my partner. I'm playing a Star Seer (Entropist/Spiritist/Loremaster) in search of answers after seeing visions and signs in the stars of a possible calamity. So I a lot of combats starts with me analyzing opponent weaknesses and then either healing/cleansing or nuking (with light and dark spells) as needed.

After about three months playing it, I would say the aspect that gets underrated are players spending Fabula points to create narrative details. Sometimes it's just about establishing the existence of settlement or a fact about a the world. But the players in my game have been using them as well to complicate their own PCs' lives: e.g., a player spending a Fabula point to name a pirate NPC walking around in the port and declare that they are an adversary from their past or another player spending a Fabula point to create a "spirit of the forest" kaiju monster that is wrecking villains and allies alike.

What is the initiative replaced with?

No rolling for initiative or initiative scores.

Named villains go first. Then one of the PCs (party's choice). Then one of the foes. Then one of the PCs. Repeat.

If no named villains are present, one of the PCs go first. Then a foe. Then a PC. And so on.

I believe that is the gist of it. I prefer this. It's just quick and easy.

Are battles and stuff supposed to be done in a few short rounds, or is it meant for bigger, longer fights?

thanks.

IME, generally more like 4e style where combats are typically big set pieces. Boss fights typically take longer than fights with just scrubs. Clocks and "skill challenges" are generally recommended for the small stuff.

 

[jian]

Are battles and stuff supposed to be done in a few short rounds, or is it meant for bigger, longer fights?

thanks.

I guess as usual, it depends what you’re doing. So, a group of 3 average PCs whacking away at 3 mildly challenging monsters with intent to defeat them and nothing else is probably going to take them out in 3 rounds or so, maybe less.

What does make a huge difference in FU is how many actions one side has. So, if you have 3 PCs facing one boss monster*, that might actually be easier and take less time than the above scenario, because the boss doesn’t have nearly as many actions per round. Equally, put the 3 PCs up against 6 mooks and it’s very possible that the PCs are in trouble because of the action disparity. This is even assuming the boss has great stats and the mooks have crap stats, because the mechanics are a bit swingy and so it’s the mook scenario that is more likely to end up in a TPK. This is probably why there are very few PC abilities that give extra actions.

*Assuming the boss monster doesn’t have extra mechanics like regeneration, one-winged angel form, etc.

 

[kenada]

What is the initiative replaced with?

I’m using the alternate rules from the playtest documents.

INITIATIVE

Core Rulebook, page 61. Initiative was never particularly meaningful; a leftover from a previous initiative system that failed to evolve into something truly interesting. Too often it becomes a time-consuming yet futile Group Check.

Conflict scenes follow a simple rule for determining which side goes first: if the conflict features no Villains, the heroes' side wins initiative. If the conflict features one or more Villains, the enemy side wins initiative.

This variant has consequences throughout the system.

• Rules and effects that affect initiative no longer exist. If an option grants benefits to Initiative, do not replace it with another benefit: just ignore it.
• Armor no longer gives initiative penalties; this makes the travel garb and combat tunic identical, so the combat tunic profile (as well as that of rare items based upon it) changes to granting a +2 bonus to Defense and a +0 bonus to Magic Defense.
• NPCs no longer have Initiative, so elite and champion foes do not increase it, and the NPC Skill Improved Initiative is no longer available.

And can you elaborate a bit more what makes combat good? Because I did only read it and liked what I read and could also see tactical components, but it always felt "oh this is quite tactical, for a game without movement".

What I liked about combat is that it flowed pretty quickly, and my players were constantly collaborating on how to work together to beat the monsters. They would structure their initiative order to set each other up (e.g., one person applies a buff or brings down the flying monster, then the next takes advantage of the situation) or to protect each other. The tanky type character got to do a lot of tanking, which is what the player wanted. They also loved when hitting a vulnerability made the numbers big. The game is designed around the PCs playing smart together (and, according to commentary in the introduction to Bestiary Vol. I, doing so becomes a requirement to survive and win at higher levels).

 

[kenada]

*Assuming the boss monster doesn’t have extra mechanics like regeneration, one-winged angel form, etc.

Wouldn’t most bosses be champions or elites, which get more actions to make up the action economy deficit?

 

[jian]

Wouldn’t most bosses be champions or elites, which get more actions to make up the action economy deficit?

Yes. but usually not as many as a full PC group.

 

[aramis erak]

NOTE: I did a search and did not see a recent thread on this game. If there is one, please link it.

Fabula Ultima (FU*) is included in the current big Humble Bundle, and while I had slept on it because JRPG, I decided to give it a look since folks seem to really like it. I was immediately impressed and intrigued. it gives me very similar vibes as Daggerheart: that is, a trad game with a lot of narrative elements carefully woven in to create a hybrid experience. I have only scanned it so far, of course, so i do not know if that holds up under scrutiny.

Have you played or ran FU? How do you find it in play? Is the JRPGness of it baked in beyond aesthetics and intended playstyle? If so, how, and what does that mean at the table?

*::snicker::

Played a one shot.
Light trad with some narrative concessions? Yup.
The demo is great fun to play, but that's the extent of my experience.
Have read it, have the supplements, too. Great fun to read, but I don't know if I can run it well.

It's very Final Fantasy in the demo.
And it reads as very much Final Fantasy.

I'm finding the Twilight Sword beta filling my need for a JRPG-inspired better, but that's because I'm more Zelda than FF, and Fabula Ultima is more FF. Also, TS is simpler, and I'm in a "simpler is better, to a point" phase in my life. TS is hitting that, FabU* is just a bit too detailed for me right now.

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* TO distinguish it from the other FU - Freeform Universal