Now that we have a character, let’s have a look at the Advancement Mechanics and perks in Fabula Ultima Experience and Levels Characters grow in levels as they advance. Starting characters begin the game at Level 5, but can go all the way to Level 50. At the end of each gaming session the character will gain a variable number of experience points based on a small checklist of conditions. These range from an automatic reward for just being there, to more XP gained by the use of Fabula Points by the group and Ultima Points used by the villain. If you have 10 or more Experience Points at the end ..read more

I was supposed to go into Character Creation first, but I realized that to do this, a group would need to sit down and do World and Group Creation steps first. So let’s do it according to the proper sequence! World Creation Fabula Ultima establishes early on that the world of the campaign is a joint creation of the group. To facilitate this they have a series of questions and helpfully, provide a table to roll on in case people prefer to do things randomly. Since I’m doing this by myself I figure I might as well let the fates decide. After a fair bit of rolling and some creative license we ha ..read more

Moving on from our previous article, we’re looking at how Fabula Ultima handles consumables a little bit differently from the usual, and take a peek at the magic system later on. Inventory Points Rather than having a list of items, characters in Fabula Ultima normally have 6 Inventory Points which is an abstract metagame resource that is spent whenever they try to pull out a consumable item from their inventory. This could be a Remedy for HP recovery, or an Elixir for MP recovery or even something like a Magic Tent for resting in the wilderness. This takes out the early guesswork of what you ..read more

We’re picking up where we left off yesterday with a look at the Conflict mechanics for Fabula Ultima. Reflective of many newer games, Conflict mechanics here are meant to be used to adjudicate situations where one party is up against one or more opponents. In addition to combat, these mechanics are also meant to cover things like Chases or Social situations where you have people opposed to each other. Preflight Checklist At the start of a conflict scene, there are a few steps that need to be taken first. After identifying that the game is shifting into a conflict, the group identifies the par ..read more

Continuing from yesterday’s look at the Introductory chapter of Fabula Ultima, we’ve hit the Rules chapter. Here we’ll see the various mechanics that make the game run, and I was a little bit surprised at just how much was here. Then again, the intent to emulate a videogame genre should have been a clue. Checks The basic dice resolution mechanic in Fabula Ultima is a check. A check is essentially rolling 2 dice, one for each Attribute. Rather than being a “Stat+Skill” setup, you roll and add together two stats instead. These Attributes are represented by a die, from d6 all the way to a d12. T ..read more

The cover is pure JRPG Today we’re starting off a new Let’s Study series, this time focusing on a different kind of Fantasy Setting. Fabula Ultima labels itself as a TTJRPG, a clever take on tabletop RPGs and the obvious inspiration for the game, Japanese computer RPGs, or JRPGs. When I first heard of Fabula Ultima, I was definitely intrigued, given that I did grow up playing a boatload of JRPGs, having been lucky enough to experience amazing games like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI, even before the Playstation era. So when I heard someone was going to try to make a tabletop rpg whose pu ..read more

Disclaimer: This series is made possible by the generosity of the fine people of Chaosium, who provided me with a review copy of the game on PDF. No further compensation was provided to me, and all opinions in this series are mine. I think I now understand why Pendragon is so highly regarded among TTRPGs. Of all the TTRPGs I’ve had the pleasure of reading, only a few strike me as uncompromising in their vision of what they are. Rather than jump onto trends or common tropes, these games present themselves as a true invitation to become something else outside of our modern experience. Even fewe ..read more

Disclaimer: This series is made possible by the generosity of the fine people of Free League Publishing, who provided me with a review copy of the game. No further compensation was provided to me, and all opinions in this series are mine. Being someone who missed the bus on the original D&D in the 80’s and only having truly come into TTRPGs in the 90’s with Legend of the Five Rings and World of Darkness, I will admit that I only had a passing understanding of what made dungeon crawling RPGs a thing. I knew they were fun. And I knew that people weren’t in it for the story. So I came into t ..read more

Disclaimer: This series is made possible by the generosity of the fine people of Chaosium, who provided me with a review copy of the game on PDF. No further compensation was provided to me, and all opinions in this series are mine. I would be remiss if I didn’t at least spend a little bit of time talking about two crucial social attributes of a player-knight in Pendragon: Honor and Glory Honor Honor is a measure of a knight’s integrity and morality. They behave in a way expected of them because they are honorable, and that affords them a measure of public trust as the society expects that hon ..read more

Disclaimer: This series is made possible by the generosity of the fine people of Free League Publishing, who provided me with a review copy of the game. No further compensation was provided to me, and all opinions in this series are mine. We’re hitting the GM-side chapters of Dragonbane today, with a look at the Bestiary and Adventures sections of the book! Bestiary One thing that Dragonbane does differently is that it classifies opposition as Monsters and NPCs. Some traditional (small “m”) monsters you encounter in dungeons are treated as NPCs, while bigger threats are the (uppercase “M”) Mo ..read more