Recently, I had the pleasure of trying out a new table-top RPG with some friends. For years, we played Dungeons & Dragons but our campaign went on hiatus following COVID-19 and other commitments. We learned about Fabula Ultima and thought it would be the perfect opportunity to get back into the genre.

What is Fabula Ultima?

Fabula Ultima is a TTRPG inspired by classic JRPGs such as Final Fantasy. It was created by Emanuele Galletto and published by NEED GAMES! in 2022. The book is currently being translated into multiple languages, and is available digitally. Artists from around the world contributed to the stunning artwork, including:

• Moryo (contributed the cover and Classes artwork)
• Catthy Trinh (contributed the chapter, bestiary, and interior illustrations)
• Sascha Naderer (contributed the pixel artwork)
• Lorenzo Magalotti (contributed the chibi portraits)
• Susu Nonohara and Christian Benavides (contributed the landscape artwork)
• Lorc (contributed the icon artwork)

The inspiration of JRPGs like Final Fantasy is most apparent in the artwork. Some of the Class designs contain familiar Final Fantasy visual elements (the Elementalist resembles the Miq’ote from Final Fantasy XIV, while the Arcanist has a horn much like Eiko from Final Fantasy IX).

In addition, a symphonic soundtrack called Aetherea Melodias, composed by Son of a Die, can be purchased and played during your campaign to help immerse the players and set the tone and atmosphere of your story.

You can choose from a few different settings, including high-fantasy and techno-fantasy. The game places an emphasis on its fantasy worlds, fantastical locations, unusual monsters, and heroes and destiny. You can pick skills from a variety of JRPG-inspired classes such as rogues, summoners, and more.

What immediately sets it apart from other TTRPGs, though, is the player freedom to actively shape the story through a gameplay mechanic called “Fabula Points.” In true JRPG spirit, you have the ability to dramatically change the story and situations around, enabling players a deep level of involvement.

The game is ideally balanced for four players and one game master, but you can absolutely have more or less players. A game with six or more players may require some extra work to balance the difficulty properly, but there’s no hard number for how many characters you can have in your traveling party.

Our experience with Fabula Ultima

Campaign overview and stats

We decided to dip our toes into Fabula Ultima with a one-off campaign. Our group was comprised of six players. The world and characters were pre-generated by our GM, along with beautifully detailed line-art illustrations of the characters, who we were able to pick in advance. The GM also provided us with an abridged history of the world and overview of the setting. We picked a sci-fi and steampunk fantasy world with elements of the fantastical.

Many of the stats on the character sheet, such as Dexterity and Insight, are familiar to fans of Dungeons and Dragons. Luckily, though, there aren’t half as many stats to keep track of in Fabula Ultima, and there are interesting status effects that you can track on your sheet like Slow and Dazed. Another important difference are the dice: in Fabula Ultima, there are no 20-side dice, or d20s. Generally, you’ll be rolling d6s and d8s more often than not.

Characters and Story

Important factors to character creation that we didn’t have control over in the one-off, but will in our upcoming campaign, include their Background, Identity, and Origin. These are important character details that you can call upon during a scene or combat to improve a roll.

In addition, you can have relationships with the characters, and you can pick from loyalty to distrust to admiration and more. This is a great feature, as it allows players to forge relationships with each other or NPCs and then be able to call on them in rolls (in scenes or combat) later.

Fabula Points are earned generously and can be used in scenes and combat to shape the story. For example, if a key villain in your backstory appeared, you would get a Fabula Point. Because they’re so generously given, it gives players the flexibility to change the story and impact it on their terms.

You don’t have to skimp or save your points; you’ll always get more for pretty much any reason your GM sees fit, and the game is designed to give you a lot of them. As a fun twist, villains also have Fabula Points, adding tension to combat as they, too, can bend it to their will.

As we adventured, the GM would narrate what were essentially cutscenes outside of the player characters that would help shape the story and setting. It added to the tone and urgency of our mission, it wasn’t overdone, and it was really effective.

Combat and objectives

In our one-off campaign, we had two battle encounters. The first one was pretty standard and introduced initiative, which works a little differently than in Dungeons and Dragons. In Dungeons and Dragons, everyone rolls for initiative. The character with the highest roll goes first, and the list goes from there. If you roll poorly, it can mean a long time waiting for your turn, especially if you’re in a battle with a lot of enemies.

In Fabula Ultima, you do group checks to succeed at tasks such as investigation and who starts combat initiative. Our group succeeded in going first in the turn order, but the players get to choose who should go first. We were told to imagine our characters standing in a line, such as in Final Fantasy VI.

From there, the turn order alternates between players and enemies, and players get to pick who goes next. This is helpful to either heal or defend and maximize the amount of turns you have for shielding. It also keeps combat more collaborative and moving, instead of players waiting for their set moment in the initiative.

The action economy in Fabula Ultima is less (you only get one action per turn, though there are abilities that can be used outside of that rule). Overall, this is a little unfortunate, as sometimes your turns can be very basic and limited, but it’s not a glaring issue.

In the second encounter, we fought a “villain” and were introduced to the Objective “clock” or pie chart that we could fill in based on completing certain objectives. In our campaign, the objective was sealing the ventilation system in the laboratory so the creatures couldn’t escape from the inside. 

This is a great feature that I really enjoyed. It made combat far more strategic and not just “attack the enemy until they fall.” Now there’s an element of tactics and thoughtfulness to each turn: should some characters attack the villain to keep their attention, while the others work to fulfill the objective?

Final thoughts on Fabula Ultima

Overall, we had a blast with Fabula Ultima. The game’s JRPG inspirations lead to some fun opportunities for team building and combat. The narrated scenes outside of the player characters lend the story a sense of scale and destiny.

The amount of freedom with the Class skills and characters is truly impressive, and I’m excited to start a full-fledged campaign using the Fabula Ultima rulebook.

Featured Image: Fabula Ultima

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