What is Fabula Ultima?

A tabletop RPG that wants to feel like a great JRPG: airships, crystal cities, villains with themes, and a party that would die for each other. There is no default continent. Press Start, then invent one.

A JRPG at the table

Heroes are people

You start as everyday souls who become legends. The humble village, then the empire, then the sky.

Bonds are the plot

Who you love, hate, or owe is a mechanic. The campaign is those threads under pressure.

Villains have names

They are people — or close enough. Motives, themes, a last stand. You do not grind them. You confront them.

You do not need to have finished Final Fantasy. You need a willingness to be theatrical and sincere.

The Eight Pillars

Every Fabula Ultima world is different. All of them keep eight promises. If a pitch fights a pillar, change the pitch.

What every world shares

These are not optional flavor. They are how the GM and the table agree what kind of story this is.

Three flavors of fantasy

Natural Fantasy

The green

Spirit woods, stone circles, villages that bargain with the land. Magic is weather and kinship.

High Fantasy

The crystal

Kingdoms, chosen blades, cathedrals of light. Empires, prophecies, a tower you can see from anywhere.

Techno Fantasy

The brass

Airships, magitek, cities of glass and gear. A republic, a foundry, a sky that has a navy.

Most tables mix two. The Atlases add more palettes. Agree the mix in world creation, then keep it.

You make the world

There is no canonical Golarion here. Before characters, the table sketches kingdoms, a threat, and the look of magic. The GM does not arrive with a locked gazetteer.

Name a place you want to defend. Name a place you want to visit. Name the thing that will ruin both if nobody stops it. That is enough geography to start.

Bring

• One kingdom or town you care about
• One aesthetic: crystals, gears, or groves
• One villain-shaped problem, not a stat block
• Permission to let other people add to it

Press Start

World, then group, then characters. In that order. The GM does not arrive with a locked plot.

1

World

Pick flavors. Name a place to defend, a place to visit, and the thing that will ruin both.

2

Group

How you know each other. One shared Bond. Why you would board the same airship.

3

Heroes

Identity, Theme, Origin. Two or three classes. Dice that total 32. A Bond already on the sheet.

Identity, Theme, Origin

Identity

Who they are in one line: “exiled sky-knight,” “mill-town medium,” “the last court scientist.” It is a trait you can invoke.

Theme

The story they keep starring in: belonging, vengeance, wonder, duty. When it is tested, Fabula Points get involved.

Origin

Where they came from in the world you just made. A village, a foundry, a floating school. It ties them to the map.

After a Check, spend 1 Fabula Point to invoke a trait that applies and reroll one or both dice. Or invoke it to fail on purpose and gain a point.

Attributes

Each attribute is a die, not a bonus. Start at d6, d8, or d10. The four sizes must total 32. They never go below d6 or above d12.

DEX

Dexterity

Speed, stealth, many weapons. Feeds Defense and Initiative.

INS

Insight

Notice, study, many spells. Feeds Magic Defense.

MIG

Might

Force, melee, shoving. Feeds Hit Points.

WLP

Willpower

Spirit, resolve, many spells. Feeds Magic Points.

A typical start is d8 / d8 / d8 / d8, or d10 / d8 / d8 / d6 if someone is clearly the strong one.

Bonds

“I will not let this be the last time I see you.”A Bond, spoken in play

A Bond is a named relationship, strength 1–3, with a feeling: admiration, loyalty, affection, inferiority, mistrust, or hatred. You may hold up to six.

At the table

• After a Check, spend 1 FP to add that Bond’s strength.
• The Bonding Opportunity can create one, or add a feeling.
• Villains can be bonded too. That is the point.

Villains

Named, themed, and built to recur. They spend Ultima Points — the dark mirror of Fabula Points. When they enter, every hero gains 1 FP.

Minor 5 · Major 10 · Supreme 15

The bigger the name, the bigger the pool. They do not go down like a random soldier.

Spend 1 UP

Escape the scene. Invoke a trait to reroll or add +2. Or turn a hit into a critical surge.

They come back

Defeat or escape is a chapter. Next time they should have a new scar, a new power, a worse clock.

Classes, mixed

Fifteen core classes. Split five starting levels across two or three. A Weaponmaster/Orator is not a Weaponmaster/Darkblade.

Skills, not prestige. Two people can share a class and still play unlike each other.

More classes, more palettes

High, Techno, and Natural Fantasy books add classes. Same mix-and-match rules. Pick the fantasy, then the mix.

Pilot is Techno. Floralist and Gourmet are Natural. The rest are High Fantasy Atlas and companions. Same mix-and-match as the core fifteen.

Your first table

Four people who would die for each other. Mix roles on purpose — a wall, a blade, a scholar, a spark.

These portraits live in the companion as sample heroes. Steal the mix, not the names.

One action. Make it count.

Move for free if the GM agrees it is reasonable. Then take one action. Talk is free. Guard only once per turn.

Attack

Accuracy vs Defense. Damage is HR plus the weapon.

Guard

Resist all damage, +2 opposed, and you may cover an ally.

Spell

Pay MP. Offensive spells vs Magic Defense. Support just happens.

Skill

A class trick that asks for the Skill action. Follow the card.

Inventory

Spend IP to produce a potion, bomb, or tool from the pack.

Objective

The lever, the hostage, the clock. Not every win is a corpse.

Hinder

DL 10. On a hit, inflict dazed, shaken, slow, or weak.

Study

Read a creature or the room. Affinities, HP, what they will do next.

Conflict and clocks

Slow and fast

Initiative is a choice, not a roll-off. Act slow and take a breath, or go fast and spend the moment.

Crisis

You are in Crisis at half HP or less. Many skills only wake up then. Looking beaten is when JRPG heroes get interesting.

Clocks

4 sections for a small effect, 6–8 for a major one, 10–12 to end a conflict. Beat the DL by 3 and fill an extra section.

At 0 HP you leave the scene — or Surrender for 2 Fabula Points and stay in the chronicle. Sacrifice spends the character, on purpose.

Magic, rituals, inventory

Spells

Pay MP. Offensive spells roll INS + WLP vs Magic Defense; damage often starts from HR. Support spells just happen.

Rituals

Minor 4 / 20 MP / DL 7. Medium 6 / 30 / 10. Major 6 / 40 / 13. Extreme 8 / 50 / 16. Area then multiplies the MP.

Inventory Points

Your pack is usually 6 IP plus class bonuses. Spend them to produce a potion, a bomb, a rope. A rest fills the pack.

Rituals cannot deal direct damage, copy a spell, or mint Fabula Points. If you need those, that is a spell, a skill, or a story beat.

The six statuses

Each one shrinks an attribute die one step. Never below d6. Enraged and Poisoned hit two attributes at once.

Slow

DEX down one size.

Dazed

INS down one size.

Weak

MIG down one size.

Shaken

WLP down one size.

Enraged

DEX and INS down.

Poisoned

MIG and WLP down.

DEX feeds Defense. INS feeds Magic Defense. MIG feeds Hit Points. WLP feeds Magic Points. A smaller die makes you easier to hit and worse at that check.

Rest and the road

A safe rest

Fill HP, MP, and IP. Clear every status. Often costs a tent, a room, or a story beat that says you are safe.

Travel

The road is a scene. A travel die can throw weather, a fight, or a wondrous Discovery at you.

Downtime

Projects, clocks, and zenit. Build the airship, brew the tonic, or advance the thing you promised the village.

A Tonic costs 2 IP and clears one status mid-scene. The rest is how the chronicle breathes.

Growing stronger

5

You start here

Level 5, split across two or three classes. 3 Fabula Points. 500 zenit for gear. Everyday people, not demigods.

+1

Every level

Add one level to a class you have, or open a new one. Raise a skill. HP and MP grow with you.

10

Heroic Skills

From level 10, the sheet grows a signature: extra HP, a second spell list, a hope that looks like a phoenix.

The chronicle runs toward 50. You will not be the person who left the mill-town.

Words you will hear

Nobody expects you to memorise these. Ask at the table — that is what session zero is for.

At the table

How a roll feels

A crit Opportunity can be Advantage (+4 next check), Affliction, Bonding, Scan, Progress, Plot Twist, Unmask. Pick one. Make it theatrical.

Your first hero

A person

Identity, Theme, Origin. One sentence is enough: “a mill-town medium who has never seen the capital.” Those three are traits you can invoke.

A mix of classes

Start at level 5, split across two or three classes. Attribute dice are d6–d10 and must total 32. You begin with 3 Fabula Points and 500 zenit.

A Bond already

Tie yourself to another hero, a hometown, or the villain. The sheet is a reminder. The table is where it becomes visible.

You start as a nobody with everything to prove. That is the point.

Press start here

The primer is the tour. The rest of the app is the table.

Game on.

You know the pillars. You know the Bond.
Now make a world, make a party — and press start.

Drawn from Fabula Ultima (Need Games). Setting and rules © Emanuele Galletto / Need Games. For personal table use.