Do you know the secret about the Fantasy Avengers idea? When I considered running something last time, it was the idea I wanted to pursue. However, it got swapped out at the last minute for the Werewolf: Accelerated campaign. It looks like it will happen again, as I’ve been wrestling with just running Fabula Ultima.
Can this idea become a Fabula Ultima campaign in some form? Let’s try a few things and see if they seem exciting.
The Camera You Use
Making a camera analogy is pretty weird, but hear me out. It’s often said that the best camera you should have is the one you’ll use, whatever that camera may be. It’s similar to role-playing campaign ideas: the best one is the one that will hit the table.
It doesn’t feel like Fantasy Avengers will make it to the gaming table. It’s not impossible, but it just doesn’t feel like it will, so it won’t. These things have to have a solid momentum. The available group options have changed since Werewolf: Accelerated was completed, as the gaming group has effectively died. None of the new formats feel right for it. I want to try Cortex Prime, but it also introduces a few things I’d rather not navigate outside of the high-performing environment of the extinct gaming group. It could be navigated, but for whatever reason, my enthusiasm for that isn’t high enough as measured by the clear metric of it not happening.
I’ll admit to wanting to give Fabula Ultima a spin, but I felt moving into that territory would erode the need to run the Fantasy Avengers idea. This makes sense as some JRPG influences are hanging around, and the grammar in Fabula Ultima influenced some of the ways of thinking about the setting.
But maybe Fabula Ultima is the camera I’ll use?
Animation And Video Games
This is probably the first campaign I’m not imagining as a live-action TV show. In my head, it’s something sumptuously animated like Arcane, a gloriously rendered JRPG cut scene, or one of those crazy Blizzard entertainment promotions for World of Warcraft or Overwatch. The primary influences are those computer graphics cut scenes that are gloriously delivered, acted, and have brilliant cinematography.
The primary reason is that I find it hard to imagine the characters outside of art.
I’m also curious how it will lean toward being a tabletop role-playing game experience in a particular video game style rather than a scripted live-action show. I know some people think these musings are irrelevant, but they shape and change what happens at the table in ways that influence the outcome.
One’s Fate. Forever And All Time
I want to keep the theme of a world defined by fate that used to be characterised by destiny in the ancient past. I want this to be a verbalised and talked-about fact: one’s fate, forever and all time.
This means the core of the setting ideas will remain broadly the same, but I’m probably going to simplify it and make more of it a mystery of a past so ancient it is lost to time. It also makes sense to keep the Star Wars idea of splitting creation into the core, the middle kingdoms and the elemental reaches. The grammar of creation can also remain the same, as I stole this from Fabula Ultima anyway. The tone of the setting can change in the different zones, such as it being more natural fantasy the further you get away from the core.
The Passion And The Destiny
The sensible approach would be to lean into the passion and destiny of proceedings, which brings us to Fabula Points and how they are spent. Fabula Points are a meta-currency, but in this game, they’re not just a meta-currency; their spending is felt within the setting, and maybe the protagonists know it?
That is because the protagonists are agents of destiny, not fate. They don’t talk about spending points, but they know they can reach for their destiny through who they are (identity, origin, theme, and the ability to re-roll). They are strengthened by their passions for the things around them (bonds and the ability to add them to the roll).
Are They Exalted?
The original idea was to present my take on Exalted, but I asked if the protagonists were really like the Exalted. The answer was no; they weren’t the exceptionally skilled to preternatural levels protagonists from Exalted but full-on superheroes akin to the X-Men or the Novas from Aberrant but in a fantasy setting. They know they are different from other people, and the meta-currency reflects that.
The re-framing here pulls things back a bit and has us looking at the protagonists through the lens of the epic heroes that might feature in a JRPG since this is the experience Fabula Ultima emulates. It’s both a big and small leap. It’s significant because shifting away from full-on superheroes is a big shift, but the landing point being JRPG protagonists is not. Things like Final Fantasy, Battlechasers, League of Legends and DOTA 2 have always influenced the idea and have even been used as blog banners.
It is funny, though; one day, I will run something with actual bonafide superheroes, even though we often say all our games are, to some degree, superhero games, but that’s a whole other post.
Arenas, Zoning In And Scaling Out
One challenge was the way Fabula Ultima simulates JRPG combat encounters. I thought it clashed with the idea, and my experience of them in play was enjoyable, but I wanted some extra juice. I’ve come around to the idea when you think of it in terms of arenas, zoning in, and scaling out.
Yes, Fabula Ultima combats effectively take place in an ‘arena’ where movement is irrelevant, but having read the book, this is a positive and purely a matter of driving what you want at the table. The mechanics may focus on the non-geographical application of class skills, but the description of their application is gloriously unrestricted by geographical constraints.
You can mix up zoning into an arena and scale out to allow for scenes that exemplify how the protagonists appear in the fiction. The heroes wading through a literal army can be a clock focused on getting to a point where you zone into an arena for a combat encounter with a significant participant on the field. Enemies in combats can just be described as sizeable mobs. These tools allow you to fictionally flex so that the heroes can take out swathes of enemies like Thor with a lightning spell or the prodigious Hela-like melee skills, only for it to ‘focus down’ when you zone into fictional important moments and enemies.
While Fabula Ultima is very different from Fate or Cortex Prime, it does have a similar flexibility that allows the players to scale the fiction dynamically in ways I like rather than consistently applying a fixed norm.
Limit Breaks And Quirks
I like zero powers, but I’m ambivalent about quirks, both of which come from the High Fantasy book.
I like zero powers, as they’re essentially limit breaks from JRPG games. The characters have triggers that fill a clock, and they can do something explosive when it is complete. These are formidable and will alter the game’s dynamics in ways that might make some combats challenging or exciting, but they’re such a brilliant concept I’d not run this idea without them. It’s also true they’d add a unique spice to the combat challenges beyond just applying class skills in tactical sequences.
I’m less sure about quirks. It’s not that they are bad or that some aren’t cool. Sometimes, they feel a bit unnecessary and a power step too far. They’re also very random. I also feel like it moves the game into being a bit Buffy-system-like in terms of how that game had named selections that were a bundle of funky positive and negative stuff. That seems a bit…old.
Zero powers are a definite, quirks are a let’s see what happens.
A Levelling Experience I Can Accept
I like all sorts of games. It’s no secret I’m a fan of systems that lean towards modelling the fictional reality, but I also like good old levelling over time experience. I’ve always wanted to run my fantasy campaign levelling experience, but no system has ever fully sat well with me. Yeah, games like 13th Age have come close, but it’s all about the games that will get to the table, right? 13th Age hasn’t, and that’s the only metric that matters.
Fabula Ultima is different. The reasons for this are numerous: –
- It’s a levelling experience but models the fiction
- It has elements that are Aspect-like equivalents
- The combat dynamics are constrained but exciting
- The enemy dynamic has a 4E Dungeons & Dragons feel
- The equipment is exceptionally streamlined
- The systems abstraction leaves space for the fiction
- I love the passion and explosive action of a JRPG
It’s a levelling experience that might mildly stress me out with multiple class and skill choices, but from a GM perspective, where that is for other players who hopefully enjoy it, I’m all for it.
And, Finally…
I will resolve the challenge of Fabula Ultima stepping on Fantasy Avengers by dumping the more literal interpretation of a Fantasy Avengers or a fantasy The Authority and by focusing on my version of something like Battlechasers (which even has a JRPG implementation) but leaning more into a sweeping, JRPG animated show feel.
Fabula Ultima does this perfectly while delivering an action component that works for me. It focuses on the characters’ passions and has enough ‘play the fiction elements’ that allow the protagonists to be represented like they would in an animation or a comic, with power levels fluctuating to represent the needs of the fiction at the moment.
It’s exciting.