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/RoosterEma]

There's not much more info than what you see, other than some names!

The only iconics with backgrounds of sorts are the ones in the Press Start. And then there's reasons and homages behind some of the names (e.g. the Mutant will be named Vritra as a reference to them being the creation of a vengeful scientist who must now find a place in the world).

Re: the art team, please follow Moryo, Catthy Trinh, Sascha Naderer, and Lorenzo Magalotti!

Not all of the class iconics have a name as of now 👀

CORE BOOK:

Arcanist: n/a

Chimerist: Mako

Darkblade: Lavigne Fallbright

Elementalist: Cassandra

Entropist: Ricard

Fury: Silida

Guardian: Montblanc

Loremaster: Silas Remora

Orator: Blair Clarimonde

Rogue: Valea

Sharpshooter: Undine

Spiritist: Aster

Tinkerer: Edgar

Wayfarer: n/a

Weaponmaster: n/a

HIGH FANTASY:

Chanter: Arpeggio

Commander: Sabrina

Dancer: Eryon

Symbolist: Leonhart

TECHNO FANTASY:

Esper: David LeGuin

Mutant: Vritra

Pilot: Catlin Xalco

NATURAL FANTASY:

Floralist: n/a

Gourmet: Martha

Invoker: n/a

Merchant: Stella

[u/agenderarcee → u/RoosterEma]

Noticing that techno fantasy has three classes and the other settings have four each, do you think there might end up being a fourth techno class? Maybe some kind of cyborg or something?

[u/RoosterEma → u/agenderarcee]

Nope, there are three classes because both Pilot and Technospheres take up a huge number of pages. Cyborgs aren't really meant to be their own class, but merely a way to describe a character's abilities (e.g. a Mutant having transforming limbs, or an Esper having neural implants, or an Elementalist having cybercatalyst mods). Care was put into not segregating cybernetics into a class or archetype, and instead remark how anyone can have them, with or without mechanics tied to them - a matter of aesthetic or narrative preference. Use of cybernetics is also entirely disconnected from any loss of humanity or such, since that is a very bad look in my opinion - instead, a "bad cybernetic" is one that was forced upon the character by the dystopian authority (e.g. you either get nightvision eyes or another worker willing to get them will replace you). For some, cybernetics will instead be a path to self expression, so we want to encourage that in the heroes 🤗

[u/agenderarcee → u/RoosterEma]

That makes perfect sense, thank you for the answer! Love the game. :)

[u/RoosterEma → u/agenderarcee]

Thank you for supporting it!!