We’re taking a look at the rest of the rules in Fabula Ultima today, particularly the ones that don’t quite fit into the two categories from our previous entries.
Clocks
Those familiar with Blades in the Dark will recognize this mechanic, and Fabula Ultima expressly credits this to the game. More of a visual and timing tool, clocks essentially serve as a status bar made to look like a countdown towards something being triggered.
These can have anywhere from four to twelve segments and are always laid out in the open to help give a sense of tension and drama where every action taken towards the goal counts.
It’s a neat tool and one that can be used in pretty much any game.
Bonds
The Bonds mechanics helps determine the strength of emotional connection a character has to another. Unlike Passions from Pendragon, these are only in relation to another individual and isn’t applicable to an organization of a creed.
Bonds are described by three pairings:
- Admiration or inferiority
- Loyalty or mistrust
- Affection or hatred
The more pairs apply to a given individual, the stronger the Bond becomes. So if your character Admires the King and is utterly Loyal to him, then the Bond is strength 2. Interestingly, these Bonds are one-sided. A knight’s bond to his liege, might be pretty strong, but the lord might not even care that the knight exists.
Bonds can be created, strengthened and weakened, and each character only holds enough space in his heart for 6 different Bonds.
Fabula Points
Each character begins play with 3 Fabula Points, and can gain more through play. This is often from circumstances like rolling a Fumble, or when a Villain makes an entrance. But you also gain some when you ever choose to fail a roll by invoking a Trait or a Bond or if you surrender after being taken down to 0 HP.
Fabula Points may be spent to trigger several effects:
- Alter the Story – More details below
- Invoke a Bond – As covered in the Invoking mechanic
- Invoke a Trait – As covered in the Invoking mechanic
- Use a Skill – Not all skills require FP, but some have an FP cost
Altering the story is a freeform tool, and can be generally used by a player to add or change elements in a scene to make things better for the characters. This can be anything from introducing a tool that they could use, or an NPC that suddenly shows up to help, or a reveal of a critical weakness of the villain. The GM has veto power over this to an extent, but is encouraged to work with the players for the sake of the story.
Villains and Ultima Points
The opposite of Fabula Points are Ultima Points, which is a metagame currency used by the Villains. Depending on the scale of the Villain, they have a different number of UP to utilize and can use them to enact their own list of special effects:
- Escape – Spending 1 UP to effectively get away alive in some plausible fashion
- Invoke Trait – In the same fashion as the player characters can
- Recovery – Spend 1 UP to remove all status effects and recover 50 MP
But one of the most interesting abilities of a Villain is called an Escalation. An escalation is a rare event where a Villain effectively levels up, and becomes a more powerful version of themselves. This isn’t done haphazardly and not all Villains get to do the evil glow-up, but it is a neat little mechanic that can reflect a Villain either literally transforming into a more monstrous version of themselves in a fight in the “This isn’t even my final form” moment, or just a defeated villain deciding that the kid gloves are off and that the next time they see the heroes they’ll be vastly more powerful.
Remember the bit about FP being gained whenever a Villain shows up? It applies in cutscenes too. So if the Heroes are running low on FP, a GM might choose to cut away to a villain doing something, advance a Clock closer to doomsday and then smile at the players and tell them that they gained 1 FP each.
Impressions
The Clocks and Bonds mechanics are solid rules choices to a genre that will thrive with their presence. Fabula and Ultima Points also lend themselves to a lot of group-GM interactions that can enrich the game if everyone is on the same page.
Moving on, we’ll deal with the last block of rules left in this chapter: Inventory Points and Magic!
I hope this series has been of help to you. If you’re interested in buying a copy of Fabula Ultima, you can get it in PDF over at DriveThruRPG for $17.90
You can also purchase the books from the Need Games! Website
Life and Times of a Philippine Gamer 