My musings on the matter. This is sort of a narrative/meta hit point system. One might call them "plot armor" points ;) Players could embark on missions that would reduce villain's plot armor. Players' failures might increase villain's plot armor. This approach encourages players to fight the villain indirectly until they undermined him enough to deal the final blow. That makes an interesting story arc and keeps you villain safe from overly aggressive players ;)
I love mechanizing the “villain escape” spending a sparse resource to set an escape in stone via a potentially feelsbad mechanic. The escape trope is common and works to develop that character’s relationship with the party but often comes “free” in something like DnD, so the players might feel cheated out of their hard fought victory. This tells them that they can only escape so many times more before having no other resources to pull on, and further, if you can get them to spend hard to just survive (or try to cement a victory) then they have even fewer ways out. I think of gang-based shows and stories that have a slippery nemesis that you have to pin down to actually take them out and think around them with resources, economics, and allies. I might be stretching the core of the resource though, but it’s got my brain whirring. It’s great seeing you again!
That's a great point and personally something I also really like. A particularly strategic party would end up strategizing past the single battle, and strategize in the setting and story to force the villain into unfavorable battles and target their assets to force them to "burn" their Ultima points.
This is one of my new favorite RPGs, and it's one of my favorite RPGs of all time! I had the privilege of meeting the creator at Gen Con, and he is genuinely such a lovely person!
6:11 Yeah! I agree! The Villains not only get Great Resource with the Ultima Points! But I LOve LOVE! The ESCALATION Mechanic! It is the Freaking Cherry on top of Great Villain Characters! And it flavors them in both a Narrative, and Gameplay sense that applies both set up and pay-off really well! It can definitely set up some equally unique moments that also does abit of foreshadowing :)
I am glad you posted this. Like you, I have had no interest in Anime, Final Fantasy, etc. but this game has had a LOT of great buzz. I wish I could find a hardcopy. Please do a full review!
The more I learn about this game the more I want to check it out. So many cool mechanics. Can't seem to find a hardcopy though. I;m kinda old school. I gotta have the book!
I run a mini-campaign of this between a bigger campaign. One player has never touch any game like Final Fantasy. She loves the system. EDIT: First one got deleted by site.
Did anyone try this? Are people still upset when you have the bad-guy escape? I tried this by DM Fiat and got a serious "Talking Too". So when the characters have been saving their stuff and do a NOVA round, and I have to "Bow Out" the bad guy...
Let's be honest. Any D&D villain could always have been airlifted away, portaled out, or divine interventioned away at the moment they fell to 0hp. The people saying this cheapens combat are fooling themselves. They've also probably haven't read the parts of the rulebook that DMs can use to cheat death with any NPC they want to keep around. The fact that Fabula Ultima limits the number of get out of jail free cards the big bads get is a good thing.
You are pointing out the parts of Fabula Ultima I love. There are parts I loathe though. Outside of combat the mechanics are very dull and uninteresting to me. But absolutely the villain system would fit many gamesystems.
Many true thing ... yet in a way the villains are the thing that turned me off Fabula Ultima. To be exact the resistances/immunities/weaknesses of whole groups - just like it was in 4e, poison and dark as damage types feel pointless when so undead and other monster groups are resistent/immune, while many monsters are weak against light and hardly any resistant against it. There's no real choice if there are obvious wrong choices from the start.
My musings on the matter.
This is sort of a narrative/meta hit point system. One might call them "plot armor" points ;) Players could embark on missions that would reduce villain's plot armor. Players' failures might increase villain's plot armor.
This approach encourages players to fight the villain indirectly until they undermined him enough to deal the final blow. That makes an interesting story arc and keeps you villain safe from overly aggressive players ;)
I love mechanizing the “villain escape” spending a sparse resource to set an escape in stone via a potentially feelsbad mechanic. The escape trope is common and works to develop that character’s relationship with the party but often comes “free” in something like DnD, so the players might feel cheated out of their hard fought victory. This tells them that they can only escape so many times more before having no other resources to pull on, and further, if you can get them to spend hard to just survive (or try to cement a victory) then they have even fewer ways out.
I think of gang-based shows and stories that have a slippery nemesis that you have to pin down to actually take them out and think around them with resources, economics, and allies. I might be stretching the core of the resource though, but it’s got my brain whirring.
It’s great seeing you again!
That's a great point and personally something I also really like. A particularly strategic party would end up strategizing past the single battle, and strategize in the setting and story to force the villain into unfavorable battles and target their assets to force them to "burn" their Ultima points.
This is one of my new favorite RPGs, and it's one of my favorite RPGs of all time!
I had the privilege of meeting the creator at Gen Con, and he is genuinely such a lovely person!
6:11 Yeah! I agree! The Villains not only get Great Resource with the Ultima Points!
But I LOve LOVE! The ESCALATION Mechanic! It is the Freaking Cherry on top of Great Villain Characters! And it flavors them in both a Narrative, and Gameplay sense that applies both set up and pay-off really well!
It can definitely set up some equally unique moments that also does abit of foreshadowing :)
I am glad you posted this. Like you, I have had no interest in Anime, Final Fantasy, etc. but this game has had a LOT of great buzz. I wish I could find a hardcopy. Please do a full review!
Nice to see you again :)
Fabula Ultima is a system that I keep looking at and considering buying so this definitely helps!
The more I learn about this game the more I want to check it out. So many cool mechanics. Can't seem to find a hardcopy though. I;m kinda old school. I gotta have the book!
Lots of great ideas and material in this game. Looks like it would be a lot of fun, even for people who aren't big fans of the genre.
I run a mini-campaign of this between a bigger campaign. One player has never touch any game like Final Fantasy. She loves the system. EDIT: First one got deleted by site.
Did anyone try this? Are people still upset when you have the bad-guy escape? I tried this by DM Fiat and got a serious "Talking Too".
So when the characters have been saving their stuff and do a NOVA round, and I have to "Bow Out" the bad guy...
Let's be honest. Any D&D villain could always have been airlifted away, portaled out, or divine interventioned away at the moment they fell to 0hp. The people saying this cheapens combat are fooling themselves. They've also probably haven't read the parts of the rulebook that DMs can use to cheat death with any NPC they want to keep around.
The fact that Fabula Ultima limits the number of get out of jail free cards the big bads get is a good thing.
You are pointing out the parts of Fabula Ultima I love. There are parts I loathe though. Outside of combat the mechanics are very dull and uninteresting to me. But absolutely the villain system would fit many gamesystems.
This sounds incredible, I was on the fence before but now I definitely have to check this system out!
Many true thing ... yet in a way the villains are the thing that turned me off Fabula Ultima. To be exact the resistances/immunities/weaknesses of whole groups - just like it was in 4e, poison and dark as damage types feel pointless when so undead and other monster groups are resistent/immune, while many monsters are weak against light and hardly any resistant against it. There's no real choice if there are obvious wrong choices from the start.
This is cool
Love this game. Take away the anime & JRPG aesthetic and you have an awesome fantasy TTRPG that's a better D&D than D&D in my opinion.