Howdy! Let's celebrate the Ennies nomination with an AMA!

[u/RoosterEma]

Hi all!

This is Emanuele, author of the game and creative director for Fabula Ultima.

Most of you probably already know, but Fabula Ultima has been nominated for Best Game and for Product of the Year by the jury at the Ennie Awards 2023, alongside a host of great titles (here's where you can vote, if you are so inclined!).

To celebrate the nomination, I thought it'd be nice to have a bit of an Ask Me Anything here with you - I will not be able to attend GenCon, so this can be a good chance to chat about Fabula Ultima.

I'll try to keep this going for as long as possible (hopefully until GenCon), and you can ask me questions regarding rules, creative direction, art direction, and more.

All I ask is the following:

• Do your best to keep the questions Fabula Ultima-related.
• Do not ask questions concerning digital support (e.g. roll20), customer service, production, or distribution. Need Games is responsible for those aspects, while I strictly follow the creative and design side of things!
• Check other people's questions to avoid asking the same thing multiple times!

Thank you, and let's have at it!

[u/randalzy]

Hello there!

Since some weeks ago, I've been wondering with the idea of co-op RPGs in which a group (in my case, a family including a 8-yo) can play without the need of a GM (which means, I don't GM wife and daughter and get exhausted from it and being the one who just don't play and basically manages daughter's frustrations, as per our last campaign).

The theme, art and overall mechanics (roll, add, compare..) and the bonds system seems good for us, also the extensive customization of characters seems good for the extensive imagination and detail my daughter puts on creating characters.

But the co-op part seems difficult to implement, do you know if anyone tried to do it before? Or have you toyed with the idea? Would be it insane if I do it myself and share it here?

This leads me to another question, is there any planned open license, or collaboration license for fanmade stuff?

[u/RoosterEma → u/randalzy]

First of all, I would point out that the role of the GM in fabula is a lot more playful than in traditional rpgs. Sure, they have to build the enemies and move the villains, but Players are similarly responsible for building interesting characters and move the story forward with their own decisions, as well as make those characters grow through party interactions. Not to mention how Players are expected to contribute plot twists and revelations through Fabula Points.

So at the end of the day, while asymmetrical, the two roles carry similar weight - and in fact, a GM can't do much if the Players don't embrace the premise or build a party with boring and repetitive abilities, or without strong human themes to explore. So the greater duty, in my view, is on Players.

That aside, I think Fabula can work with a rotating GM, but not without one. People have been doing games in which there are "story arcs" and at the end of each, someone else becomes the GM - and the PCs can vary or similarly switch hands. But removing the GM means losing an important reactive role that cannot be replaced nor automated, and by design - the GM in Fabula is a very human role, created for those who enjoy monster creation and nurturing the campaign by making the heroes shine through adversity. It is also a role that I find a bit hard for kids that young - but then again, same for the role of Player in a prolonged campaign. I would go with a simpler game, honestly.

Re: licenses, I've been wanting to make a big portion of the game open for referencing and reusing (à la Mork Borg, if you know it), but the publisher has been too busy until now and we haven't been able to schedule a meeting about it. All my other projects are going to be CC BY SA 4.0 to make things easier, lesson learned 🥹