A Quick Look at a Big Book: Fabula Ultima

 

Having read through another Big Book, I am here to offer my thoughts my thoughts once again. This time I have read Fabula Ultima, written by Emanuele Galletto and published by Italian outfit Need Games! Originally in Italian, but in English since 2022.

Compared to His Majesty the Worm, my previous Big Book, this one is physically much smaller. However, the text feels much denser with less art and whitespace on the pages, so I would not be surprised if the word counts were at least comparable. This poses no problem, however, as the layout design is impeccable, making the book a smooth read. Similarly to The Worm, this seems like a book with a singular purpose: where The Worm wanted you to have fun making and playing in megadungeons, Fabula Ultima seeks to emulate the JRPG genre of video games. This is a clearly stated goal to the extent that the cover calls it a TTJRPG. I am not extremely experienced with the genre, but I have played a few and absorbed enough knowledge through cultural osmosis that I can declare it successful, at least on paper (since I have not played the game).

The book is nicely separated into (colour coded!) sections, roughly a third covering the basic rules of the game, a third covering the character classes, basic equipment and starting a campaign, and the last third being GM focused with advice for running and prepping as well as a bestiary. The language is simple and clear, with mechanical terms bolded, and infoboxes providing advice, examples, and alternative options as you go. It is very clearly written so it could be someone's first TTRPG, so it is probably wordier than needed for someone with a lot of play experience under their belt, but the way the game is presented makes it sound very appealing and unthreatening, making it clear that you don't have to be perfect, either as player or GM. It also makes it very explicit that the point is that everyone should have fun, and that is the main purpose of the activity. While this probably obvious to anyone reading this blog, I think it is probably helpful for new players who might have mainly absorbed their RPG knowledge through mainstream (D&D) culture, and perhaps watching APs. It's focus on agreeing on the rules of play prompted me to write about rules as a safety tool, and the book does a good job of explaining why the rules are chosen the way they are. The basic rules are based on the system of Ryuutama, but with a lot more granularity in the PCs, including a variety of classes invoking various JRPG archetypes, and a simple level up/multiclassing system where a class is chosen at every level up, letting the players choose a new skill (or improve a previously selected one) from the class. Each class is capped at 10 levels, requiring multiclassing if playing the campaign to intermediate-to-high levels (which it seems is the clear intention), with PCs capping out at level 50. The XP rules are simple and intuitive, giving an automatic base level of X per session played, as well as additional points for spending narrative currencies.

The game uses two narrative currencies: the players can spend Fabula points to give them an edge, either by altering the story, or to activate special abilities, use their bonds with other characters for bonus to a roll, or their traits to reroll a result. As a dark mirror to the Fabula points, the GM's villainous characters have Ultima points to spend to similar effect.

An interesting wrinkle in the rules, which feels a bit grating against my currently OSR-pilled brain, is that player death is always explicitly by consent of the player: as a PC is reduced to 0 HP, they can choose whether to sacrifice themselves (which should accomplish a "seemingly impossible deed"), or to surrender, suffering some negative consequence. I honestly think that it is a good thing to formalise it in this way, and it puts the fiction in line with the genre the game seeks to emulate. I think this is especially good for inexperienced players, who might be unprepared that their character might suddenly die due to poor choices, or a series of unfortunate dice rolls (the latter being especially annoying in games like 5e, where characters are supposed to be fairly resilient when it comes to death).

The game also offers a step-by-step walkthrough to session zero, including collaborative world-building. Again, it is emphasised that while the GM is doing the legwork of filling in details and running the world, choosing the type of world and the general themes should be done as a group, as well as coming up with a compelling reason for why the group travels together. The game is rather prescriptive in this respect, offering a selection of possible worlds (High Fantasy, Natural Fantasy, and Techno Fantasy) and party types (Brought together by fate, Guardians, Heroes of the resistance,  Revolutionaries, and Seekers), instructing that you should choose options from these lists rather than making up your own. Of course, I am my own man and no book can tell me what to do, but it makes sense in the context of the game guiding you to emulate classical JRPG storyline types: the rules assume you want to be railroaded into this type of fiction, why else would you be playing Fabula Ultima?

The GM section is similarly useful, providing both general advice for how to run the game well, as well as assurances that it is okay to not be fully prepared for every eventuality (e.g. it explicitly says it is okay to ask for a small break to prep statblocks for NPCs). It also has extremely clear guidelines for setting up balanced combat encounters (which is important for this type of game), and while I haven't played the game so I cannot confirm whether they work, I would be surprised if it had not been playtested.

The game's art sits in a funny spot for me. The art that is there is generally great, with nice full-page images for each chapter, and detailed character art for each class. However, there is relatively little art in the book compared to many others. I imagine this is at least in part a question of budget: art is expensive. The format is also a bit surprising to me - it is a softcover with nice glossy pages, and a nice glossy dust jacket, but the cover underneath the dust jacket just has the same cover art in lower quality black&white print? This is not really a problem, as the layout is generally good enough to stand on its own, but it does mean that it cannot justify itself as an artbook: when you buy it, you should buy it for the rules, don't expect a book filled with cool anime art.

All in all, I am not sure how keen I am to play this game right now. This is no slight on the game, which I think does a great job in explaining itself, I am just not really in the mood for a build-crafting, semi-crunchy, very "trad" game right now. However, if anyone was looking for a game to play JRPG-like stories, or someone wanted to get into TTRPGs and weren't put off by the anime aesthetic, I would absolutely recommend this. I imagine it does a great job of being someone's first game without feeling watered down (or dumbed down). It's not for me right now, but I'm happy I own it, and even happier I've read it.