[Free RPG Day 2025] Píaga 1348 Quickdeath

Now in its eighteenth year, Free RPG Day for 2025 took place on Saturday, June 21st. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Thanks to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day.

—oOo—

The year is 1348 and mankind is subject to a divine punishment for its sins. For the last two years, all of Europe has suffered the devastating Black Plague which seems to spread fire and kills almost everyone it touches. The symptoms are easy to spot, black spots on the skin and swollen lymph nodes called buboes. Yet there is a second symptom, one that remained secret, one that the Papacy fought in secret and one it managed to eradicate—the Revenant Plague. Victims of the Black Plague are known to rise and not only spread its symptoms, but also feed upon the flesh of the living. The Papacy instituted the Ordo Mortis, a military order dedicated to not only fighting the secret war against the Revenant Plague, but also to keeping knowledge of the war against the Revenant Plague a secret. Word of it cannot spread, for it would weaken faith in the Catholic Church. This is the set-up for Píaga 1348, a storytelling game from NEED! Games, the Italian publisher best known for the Fabula Ultima TTJRPG.

Píaga 1348 Quickdeath is the quick-start released for Free RPG Day 2025. It includes the core rules, three scenarios, and four pre-generated Player Characters. The core mechanics are simple and straightforward, but the roleplaying game is played with shifting focus on the Soldiers of the Ordo Mortis who take it in turn to be the Soldier on Duty, whilst the other Soldiers will provide him with support—if they can. A Soldier is simply defined by several traits. These are the ‘Motto of the Ordo’; ‘Name’, including both full name and nickname, if any; ‘Description’; ‘Weapon’, which can also be an ability; and ‘Armour’. These are the five core traits, but he also has entries for ‘What I Want’, ‘What I Don’t Want’, and ‘Traumas’, the latter physical, psychological, and social wounds suffered when a conflict is lost. A player simply has to define these traits in order to create his Soldier.

At a start of scene, the Ludi Magister—as the Game Master is known in Píaga 1348—asks the player whose Soldier is the Soldier on Duty what he perceives and based on those answers, frames the scene for her players. When a conflict ensues, the Soldier on Duty’s player decides what his Soldier wants to do and builds a dice pool based on his five core traits. For each of them that the player can persuade the Ludi Magister to include, a six-sided die is added to the pool. Every result of five or six counts as a Success and only one Success is required for Soldier to achieve the objective outlined by the player. The Ludi Magister will narrate the outcome of the dice roll, though if a failure because no Successes are rolled, the Soldier on Duty will suffer a Trauma.

Any excess Success go into the Morale Pool, which on subsequent turns, the Soldier on Duty can draw from to increase the size of dice pool. Additional dice can come from the two sources. One is the other Soldiers, who can contribute dice based on their traits. The second is from a ‘Gamble’, in which the player adds a die of another colour to his dice pool. On a result of one, two, or three, nothing happens, but on a four, five, or six, the Soldier is ‘Exposed’. What this means that is a Soldier on Duty can still succeed—that is, roll a five or six—and still be ‘Exposed’. When ‘Exposed’, a roll is made on the ‘Gamble’s Outcome’ table. The result might be that a Soldier cannot use any further ‘Gamble’ attempts in the mission or that the Soldier is wounded and infected by a Revenant! Whatever the result, the outcome is narrated by the player.

What is important here is there is an economy to a player’s use of his Soldier’s five core traits. If they can be used all in one go whilst a Soldier is the Soldier on Duty, then they can be refreshed to be used on subsequent turns. Whilst a Soldier can use them to help another Soldier who is the current Soldier on Duty, it will mean that he will have fewer to use when it is his turn to be Soldier on Duty. Running out of traits and having none to confront a situation when a Soldier is Soldier on Duty means that he will automatically fail. This forces a player to husband the use of those traits from turn to turn.

The aim in Píaga 1348, and thus the Píaga 1348 Quickdeath, is to tell a choral story of life and death in the Middle Ages. This need not be a wholly accurate treatment of the Middle Ages and the Ludi Magister is free to add whatever anachronistic elements fits her campaign. For example, one of the pre-generated Soldiers is a Plague Doctor, a decidedly seventeenth century figure, but still feeling appropriate to the secret world of Píaga 1348. The basic elements driving a story are the Mission itself and ‘What I Want’ and ‘What I Don’t Want’ for each Soldier. The Ludi Magister is provided with decent advice for what is a quick-start, a set of prompts to set up her Missions, and three ready-play scenarios. They include investigating a haunted villa where several nobles fled to avoid the plague, tracking down a strange group of knights in rusted armour, and even ascending into the Carpathians to confront Count Vlad III who is said to have survived the Plague and become something more. All three come with detailed backgrounds, locations, secondaries (as NPCs are termed), and rumours. Lastly, there are four pre-generated Soldiers ready to play. They include an actual knight, a noble nun, an ex-assassin, and a plague doctor!

Physically, Píaga 1348 Quickdeath is fantastically presented. The woodcut style artwork and the use of a Gothic fount very gives it a singular look and conveys a lot of atmosphere to the Ludi Magister.

Píaga 1348 Quickdeath is simple to play and easy to grasp. After all, it could be described as just another zombie apocalypse roleplaying game, but the setting is different and the inclusion of the Black Death makes it even grimmer than most zombie apocalypse roleplaying games. As does the need for secrecy, which might result in the Soldiers going to deadly lengths to carry out this part of their duty. Overall, the Píaga 1348 Quickdeath provides a thoroughly engaging introduction to the setting of Píaga 1348 and purpose of the Ordo Mortis, as well as a gaming group with three good sessions of play.

Paradoxical Penetration

Citizen, congratulations on your appointment as a WATCHER. You will be continuing the work of the whole of BASTION which since 1943 has been studying the continuing effects of THE BREACH which occurred following THE COLLISION as a result of the experiments conducted by the Ministry of Culture and Science of The Enlightened Confederacy to test the theory of Space-Time Flows, developed by Möbius-Higgs. As a WATCHER you will continue your service as a Citizen of BASTION by conducting regular mandated and moderated penetrations of THE BREACH and explore the PARADOX known to exist on the other side. Adherence to the R.A.C.E. Protocol (Research, Analyse, Collect, and Eradicate) is mandatory at all times. You will be equipped with a CLOAK to protect you from any one of the identified and unidentified alien environments known to exist in the PARADOX and a modified DISINTEGRATOR and GUTTER to protect the Citizens of BASTION and The Enlightened Confederacy from any potential emergent incursion from the PARADOX via THE BREACH. Beware that penetrations of THE BREACH for reasons yet to be determined by previous penetrations and study of THE BREACH and the PARADOX are time limited assignments. All PARADOXES are subject to MELTDOWN. Loss of a WATCHER, CLOAK, DISINTEGRATOR, GUTTER, and all samples and data collected is an impediment to the continued study of THE BREACH and the PARADOX and progress by your fellow WATCHERS, the entirety of BASTION, the Ministry of Culture and Science, and The Enlightened Confederacy. Upon return from a penetration, you will report to the WARDENS who will collect and analyse all data from the penetration, including oral, aural, physical, and emotional. Remember your loyalty and safety as a WATCHER to BASTION, the Ministry of Culture and Science, and The Enlightened Confederacy is appreciated at all times. Thank you for your service.

—oOo—

The Breach is a roleplaying game published by Need Games!, best known for the roleplaying game inspired by Japanese console roleplaying games, Fabula Ultima. It is a bleak, dystopian Science Fiction roleplaying game of exploration and survival set in Bastion, a city-sized bunker dedicated to the exploration and examination of the consequences of an experiment that went wrong decades before. The experiment connected the world via The Breach, a portal to other dimensions and planets, which the programme within the bunker sends dedicated teams through to study and collect samples. Contact with the world outside of the bunker is extremely limited and knowledge of its current status and history since the experiment and establishment of the bunker and the programme to study the other worlds and dimensions is known only to the highest echelons of the bunker. It is set some time in and inspired by the Science Fiction of the sixties and seventies, as well as range of other influences, including the television series, Chernobyl and Loki—right down to having Miss Goldie, a Miss Minutes-like figure dispense advice to the Operator, and the films, 12 Monkeys and Brazil. One other influence is the book, Roadside Picnic, though via the computer game, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. In overall terms of setting, The Breach is ahistorical as the location of The Enlightened Confederacy is never identified.

Players take the role of Watchers who are assigned to perform a series of missions through The Breach and into the Paradox, randomly generated by the Operator, as the Game Master is known. This includes the Briefing—what the mission objective is, the Paradox Danger Level—how long before it suffers meltdown, the layout of the area to be explored—six such layout maps are provided as Paradoxes frequently exhibit repeating structures, and then what is found within the layouts. Missions are intended to last a single session or so’s worth of play.

A Watcher is defined by four Approaches—Aware, Mighty, Quick, and Sneaky—which represent different means of overcoming challenges, whilst Stamina is a measure of a Watcher’s mental and physical resources. He has two Traits, which can be used to gain an Advantage or Disadvantage when facing a dangerous situation. He also has a call sign, name, a backpack, and two tools. A Watcher is protected whilst in a Paradox by a sealed suit known as a Cloak and carries a Disintegrator for ranged combat and a Gutter for close-in combat. The Cloak also collects data for the Watcher to monitor his health and external readings, which is then analysed by the Wardens when he returns to Bastion. To create a Watcher, a player assigns a d10, a d8, a d8, and a d6 to the four Approaches, and chooses his Watcher’s pronouns and the colour of his Watcher’s Cloak. Everything else is randomly determined. Throughout the process, the player is posed a number of questions which develop his Watcher.

Name: Banca
Call Sign: Supernova

APPROACHES
Aware d10 Mighty d6 Quick d8 Sneaky d8
Stamina d12

Traits: Cunning, Artistic

Disintegrator d10 (Bayonet)
Gutter d8 (Versatile)
Cloak (yellow) (Clock: 4 3 2 1)
Shield Generator d6 Motion Detector d10

Mechanically, when a Watcher faces a difficult problem or dangerous situation, a Reaction roll is required. This requires the player to select a suitable Approach and both describe how his Watcher deals with the problem or situation and what his desired objective is. The Breach uses a dice pool system with the dice being drawn from the Watcher’s Approaches, equipment or weapon, Stamina if extra effort is required, and help from another Watcher in the form of his Stamina die. All of the dice are rolled and the highest counted. A roll of six or more is a success, a roll of four or five is a success, but with consequences, and a roll of one, two, or three is a failure. Essentially then, a ‘Yes’, ‘Yes, but…’, and a ‘No’ result. A Trait can be invoked to gain an Advantage or a Disadvantage. If an Advantage, the player can reroll any dice, but if a Disadvantage, results of one, two, three, four, and five, are treated as failure.

If the result is a success, the player achieves his Watcher’s desired outcome. On failure, a complication might occur or an opportunity is lost, or the Watcher suffer a Harm or a Condition. A Watcher’s Cloak will automatically resist both Harm and a Condition, but is limited in the number of times it will do this. If a Watcher does suffer Harm, the player rolls his Watcher’s Stamina die equal to the number of points of Harm suffered and suffers the lowest and worst result on the die. This ranges from instant death or severed limb to dazed or bruised, and even nothing happens. The latter is unlikely. A Watcher can only suffer five Harm before dying.

Combat in The Breach is intended to be swift and brutal. It uses the same Reaction mechanics, but allows the Watchers to take the initiative and whatever plant, creature, and other alien species that the Watchers might encounter in a Paradox to react to the Watchers rather than always attack first. When a player rolls five or less on a Reaction roll, then the Operator can counterattack with an action by the plant, creature, or other alien species. Each enemy has its own table to roll on in terms of what attacks it can make, Traits that will grant it Advantage or Disadvantage, and a single die rolled for actions and which also serves as its Harm, being reduced one step for each point suffered.

What is important about the Reaction rolls made by the players is that any time the dice are rolled, all of those dice rolled, are stepped down. Apart from items, a die cannot be stepped down below a d4. Items either break or become exhausted. However, at this stage it means that a Watcher will fail most of the time and at best hope for a success, but with consequences. What the dice are is resources and what they represent is not so much what the Watcher can do, but both what the Watcher can do and for how long.

The other key mechanic to The Breach is the Clock. These represent the danger level of a Paradox, the lower the number of segments in the Clock, the greater the danger. It is filled up during the Operator’s turn when she rolls low on the danger die. As it fills up, the conditions in the Paradox will worsen and if it ever fills up completely, the Paradox suffers Meltdown and is destroyed along with everyone and everything in it.

Play of The Breach is to an extent procedural. It begins with the Briefing, which outlines the mission and its objectives. Movement within the Paradox is handled as pointcrawl with movement in the passages between the points, or areas to explore, played out as a montage. Within the areas, play switches back and forth between a turn when the players and their Watchers act and a turn when the Operator acts. During their turn, the players and their Watchers investigate and explore, to which the Operator will respond with answers to the players’ questions, whilst on her turn, the Operator will introduce and handle dangerous obstacles, roll the Danger Die, and so on. If the Watchers are finding a mission challenging, they can take a respite, put up a shelter and conduct actions such as long rests, repair items, analysis, and others.

Besides the six regular layouts for the Paradoxes, the Operator and exploration of the Paradoxes is supported with tables to determine their essence and keywords (essentially their theme), landmarks within an area, and twelve creatures that the Watchers might encounter. These provide some variety in terms of missions.

However, there is a limited description of Bastion, one which focuses on what the Watchers do when they return from a mission. This includes gaining Experience Points for making discoveries in a Paradox, undertaking training, maintenance, research and development, and even hit the bar. Of course, this gives room for the Operator to develop and describe the Bastion of her design in keeping with its period feel and tone. Without this information though, it renders Bastion as a nebulous place without the Operator knowing what its objectives are and to what purpose the leaders of Bastion are putting the discoveries made by the Watchers to. Of course, the Watchers are not meant to know, but that does not stop them asking questions or at least wondering. Thus, there is no greater story to tell, the play of The Breach being all about the short termism of one mission after another. The nearest that The Breach gets to the idea of playing a campaign is playing through a limited number of missions and successfully completing three quarters of them. It feels inadequate.

Physically, The Breach is a great looking book. The artwork is mysterious and has a half-glimpsed look as if viewed through a screen with a poor signal. The manuals and documentation issued by the Ministry of Culture and Science that litter the pages of The Breach are brilliant and develop the weird, near-dystopian tone of Bastion and life as a Watcher. The book is also well written and is packed with good advice for the player and the Operator.

There is a lot to like about The Breach. It has a weird desperation to it, a strangely orderly ‘do what we must to survive’ drive to it, and undertones of authoritarianism, both within Bastion and outside it. Yet whilst it handles the exploration and examination of Paradoxes well, the efforts of the Watchers never seems to have any effect beyond themselves so that they cannot affect any change or create any change to react to. If this is disheartening to the Watchers, it is equally as disheartening to the players. If so, why would the Watchers want to continue exploring the Paradoxes and why would the players want to continue playing? Ultimately The Breach feels like its should be a bigger game with bigger aims, but currently limits itself to one aspect of play without any consequences or change.

[Free RPG Day 2024] Rojo: A Kurosawa Inspired Bloodshed

Now in its seventeenth year, Free RPG Day for 2024 took place on Saturday, June 22nd. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Thanks to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day.

—oOo—

Initially it is difficult to work out whether Rojo: A Kurosawa Inspired Bloodshed is a comic book or something actually RPG-related. It is in fact, an adventure for the Terror Target Gemini RPG, an anthropomorphic anime Wild West-Noir action roleplaying game. Published by Need! Games, best known for the Fabula Ultima TTRPG, this is game in which the Player Characters—or Runners, professional adventurers—undertake dangerous missions in the savage lands known as the Maju. It is designed to be hyperviolent, anachronistic, and wacky, a setting which demonic gunslingers, martial arts witches, and more. The scenario itself comes with six pre-generated Player Characters and each of these comes the ‘Quick Rulez for Terror Target Gemini’ on the back. In fact, these six inclusions of the ‘Quick Rulez for Terror Target Gemini’ are the only explanation of the rules for the Terror Target Gemini RPG, even if only in a much-shortened form. So the Narrator will have to copy one for herself as reference during to play.

The scenario itself, ‘Rojo’, is based upon Akira Kurosawa’s film, Yojimbo, in which a rōnin wanders into a town and gets himself involved in a feud between two rival yakuza gangs over control of the local gambling den. In ‘Rojo’, the town of Dorobnōno Machi is dominated by the Rojo, a family of mobsters which controls liquor in town, and the rival Mengusu, a Yakuza clan which wants to destroy the Rojo. Add into this, rumours of an Imperial convoy having been hijacked and a powerful weapon stolen, bounties having been placed on the heads of both the Rojo and the Mengusu, and the Mengusu not only hoarding gold, but planning to make a big action movie, and what you have is a febrile situation in Dorobnōno Machi. With the sheriff dead and the town run down, there seems to be no hope for Dorobnōno Machi. Even without the intervention of the Runners, the situation is going to escalate. There are even more dire rumours! One is that Dziga Rojo, the son of the Rojo boss who everyone thinks is an arsehole, is missing and has been kidnapped by the Mengusu Clan. The other is that Pa-Lach, the hired killer known as ‘The Hangman of Menaparavda’, reputably unkillable, will be arriving today, sent from the Capital to recover the missing weapon.

The Runners will arrive in Dorobnōno Machi and get the lay of the land in the bar before exploring what remains of the town. This includes getting involved in the film being shot in the streets by the Mengusu Clan, hanging out at the gambling den, and even searching for the location of the stolen weapon. And that really is it to the plot of Rojo: A Kurosawa Inspired Bloodshed. This is all set-up rather than a scenario with a beginning, a middle, and an end. The action will be primarily player-driven with the Narrator adding events here and there in response.

Mechanically, Rojo: A Kurosawa Inspired Bloodshed is straightforward. To have his Runner undertake an action, a player rolls a twenty-sided die and adds his Runner’s Stat and Skill to roll higher than a Target Number. This is either twelve or Simple, fourteen or Standard, eighteen or Tough, and twenty-two or Gruelling. An Edge allows a reroll and the highest value kept, whilst a Snag forces a reroll and the lowest value kept. If the Runner is responding to unexpected event—such as a trap or ambush—then the player only adds his Runner’s Stat. Combat uses the same mechanic, with a Runner having two different actions per Round. Attack rolls are made versus an Enemy’s Defence, whilst rolls to evade are made versus the Enemy’s Attack. Armour reduces damage suffered, a Runner fainting when his Hit Points are reduced to zero, and then dying if more damage is suffered. Magic and the casting of spells requires the expenditure of Ki points.

A Runner in the Terror Target Gemini RPG and thus Rojo: A Kurosawa Inspired Bloodshed has four Stats and four Skills. The Stats are Power, Co-ordination, Intellect, and Charisma, whilst the Skills are Training, Handcraft, Arcane, and Communication. In Rojo: A Kurosawa Inspired Bloodshed, these range between zero and three. They also have a Bloodline and a Class and Feats. The six Runners in Rojo: A Kurosawa Inspired Bloodshed consist of a Felid Hare who is a good Pilot or driver, a Human Hunter who has a Falcon Hunting Partner, an Elf Merchant who is good at Bargaining, a Kru Berserk who can protect others and can attack with his beak, an Imp Martial Artist who is also lucky, and a Human Witch who can drawn an eye on an object to see through it and has a Charm spell.

Physically, Rojo: A Kurosawa Inspired Bloodshed is very bright and colourful. The comic book look is carried out from start to finish, which means that it does look busy and its content is not an easy to grasp as if the layout was more traditional. The style is definitely anime-like, with just a little bit of a nod to the ‘cel-shading’ style of the Borderlands computer games.

Rojo: A Kurosawa Inspired Bloodshed is bright and colourful, but it is deceptive. It is not a fully fleshed out quick-start or explanation of the Terror Target Gemini RPG, and anyone expecting that will be disappointed. It is also not really suitable for anyone who has not run a roleplaying game before—it is just too underwritten for that. However, an experienced Narrator can pick up Rojo: A Kurosawa Inspired Bloodshed, read through in ten minutes and so quickly bring it to the table for single session of hyperviolent action in a Wild West action-fantasy.

From Console To Table

This is a world of high fantasy where a princess has lost her kingdom to the antagonist’s army, a veteran soldier has pledged to protect the people with his life, and a dark knight seeks redemption for his crimes. A silver palace orbits the moon, golems, airships, and elementally infused weapons are commonplace, but knowledge of the greatest of the world’s magic has been lost and lies ready to be rediscovered in sunken ruins or guarded by centuries old monsters. The enemies of this world—many the antagonist counterparts to it heroes—wield mighty magics and lead vast armies, but often turn to divine or the demonic for ultimate power. This is a world of natural magic where the daughter of the village chief seeks to prove her worth, the young hermit has discovered an entrance to a magical ruin in the forest, and the witch knows the prophecies that have been foretold all the way back to the ancestors. Great beasts populate the forests of this world and deep within lie forbidden places holding alien and magical secrets best left forgotten. The magic of the forest brims with life and energy whilst that of the ruins runs dark and cold, ready to power machinery that has laid dormant for centuries or more. The enemies of this world are disasters waiting to happen and technology waiting to take it place in the world once again, perhaps championed by the misguided, but always something greater and more powerful lurks, biding its time. This is a world of techno-fantasy where a scarred hero has had everything taken away from him, the magic-user is the last survivor from a long line of wizards who sought harmony with the world, and a failed experiment survives despite having been abandoned by his cold-hearted creator. Gleaming palaces stand over the squalor of the slums where most of the population are forced to live in cities that stand amidst barren landscapes. Magic has been drained from the world, seen as a source of wealth and power, and means of war, whilst the art and knowledge of magic has been lost or suppressed. The enemies of this world are industrialists who threaten to drain the world of all its magic in pursuit of their power and so bring about a cataclysm or drive the world into war.

These worlds are not one world, but the possible worlds seen in Japanese console and computer roleplaying games such as Ni No Kuni and the Final Fantasy series. It is these worlds that Fabula Ultima TTJRPG—short for ‘Table Talk Japanese Roleplaying Game’—published by Need Games!, brings to the table from the computer screen. Like those console roleplaying games, the worlds which the Game Master and her players roleplay in will be ones of heroic fantasy and action, heroes and villains, heroic destiny, challenging battles, and ultimately, their world. The latter is important because there is no default world in Fabula Ultima TTJRPG. Instead, the Game Master and her players decide upon a subgenre—high fantasy, natural magic, or techno-fantasy—and then combine it with the Eight Pillars of Fabula Ultima TTJRPG that are its core elements. These are ‘Ancient Ruins and Harsh Lands’, ‘A World in Peril’, ‘Clashing Communities’, ‘Everything Has A Soul’, ‘Magic and Technology’, ‘Heroes of Many Sizes and Shapes’, ‘It’s All About The Heroes’, and ‘Mystery, Discovery, and Growth’. Both players and Game Master need to keep these in mind as they create world during Session Zero, mapping it, deciding on the role of magic and technology, creating kingdoms and nations, and adding historical events, enigmas and mysteries, and lastly, the threats that cast a shadow over the world. There are tables to roll on, but these are still only prompt. Ultimately, the process is intended to be collaborative throughout and the result be a world that everyone wants to play in.

A Player Character in the Fabula Ultima TTJRPG is defined by his Identity, Theme, Origin, Classes, and four Attributes. His Identity neatly summarises who the character sees himself as; his Theme is a strong emotion or feeling that heavily influences his actions, and his Origins is where he is from. A Player Character in Fabula Ultima TTJRPG does not have one Class, but several. Fabula Ultima TTJRPG gives fifteen Classes. These are Arcanist, Chimerist, Darkblade, Elementalist, Entropist, Fury, Guardian, Loremaster, Orator, Rogue, Sharpshooter, Spiritualist, Tinkerer, Wayfarer, and Weaponmaster. Each Class asks the player where his character’s powers come from, what his past experiences are, and how the Class and its abilities define his behaviour. Each provides a list of free benefits as well as Class Skills, some of which can be selected multiple times. This includes the various spellcasting Classes, each of which is given its own list of spells, so that each time the player selects the appropriate skill, he chooses a new spell. For example, the Orator can be an ambassador, diplomat, or entertainer, and the player is asked if his character thinks everyone can be persuaded or has a price? Who betrayed the character? How does he feel about manipulating people, even if it is for a good cause? What happened when his words landed him in trouble? The Orator gains a bonus to his Mind Points and his skills include ‘Condemn’, ‘Encourage’, ‘My Trust In You’, ‘Persuasive’, and ‘Unexpected Ally’. The four Attributes are Dexterity, Insight, Might, and Willpower. These are rated by die type, from six-sided die to twelve-sided die.

To create a character, a player decides upon his character’s Identity, Theme, and Origin. There are again, tables to choose from, roll on, or use as inspiration. He chooses not one Class, but two or three, and assigns five Levels between them. The idea is not to create a one-note character, but one more rounded and flexible in terms of abilities and skills. Again, Fabula Ultima TTJRPG suggests options and combinations to create classic character types. For example, a Gunslinger combines Sharpshooter and Tinkerer, a Pugilist combines Fury and Weaponmaster, and Red Sorcerer combines Elementalist, Spiritualist, and Weaponmaster. Lastly, the player equips his character, and once everyone has created their characters, they prepare for a prologue, the first session of play, in which the players decide how their characters come together. Again, there are tables provided as suggestions.

Name: Shaw
Identity: Tomb robbing archaeologist
Theme: Ambition
Origin: Kuthage Empire
Classes: Rogue (Two Levels): Dodge, See You Later
Loremaster (Two Levels): Flash of Insight, Trained Memory
Orator (One Level): Persuasive
Dexterity d8 Insight d10 Might d6 Willpower d8
Hit Points: 35 (Crisis 17) Mind Points: 55
Defence: d8 Magic Defence: d10 Initiative Modifier: 0
Inventory (Maximum 8): Chain Whip, Travel Garb, Tome

Each time a Player Character acquires a new Level, he selects a Level in one of the Classes that he already has or a new one, up to a maximum of ten Levels in a Class. When this is reached, the Class is mastered and the character gains a Heroic skill, for example ‘Ambidextrous’ or ‘Extra Spells’. Other Heroic Skills are particular to a Class, like ‘Unbreakable’ for the Guardian which allows the character to survive a fatal hit once per scene or ‘Predictable!’ for the Loremaster which forces an enemy to spend Mind Points to undertake specific actions. In addition, when a Player Character reaches twentieth and fortieth Level, he can increase the die type of one of his Attributes.

Mechanically, in Fabula Ultima TTJRPG, a player always rolls two of his character’s attribute dice and adds the results together. For example, a pistol attack requires the player to roll his character’s Dexterity and Insight, Insight and Willpower to cast a spell, and Insight and Insight to recall information. Typical Difficulty Levels are seven for Easy, ten for Average, thirteen for Hard, and sixteen for Very Hard. A roll of one on both dice is a fumble, whilst rolls of doubles—of sixes and above—is a critical and automatic success. It also creates an Opportunity, for example, ‘Bonding’ with an NPC, ‘Unmask’ a creature or villain, or make ‘Progress’ on a Clock, the timing mechanism in Fabula Ultima TTJRPG. A player can also reroll the dice, but this requires the player to expend a Fabula Point and invoke either Identity, Theme, or Origin, or even invoke a Bond with another character to add the value of that Bond to the result.

Conflict—which includes combat—is described in Fabula Ultima TTJRPG as “back and forth exchanges at a rapid pace”. This can be a chase, an attempt to break into a castle before the guards notice, or an attempt to persuade a tribal chief to let you gain access to his lands, as well as fights. Initiative is handled as a group roll, with everyone else rolling to gain a bonus to the roll made by the player whose character is taking the lead. Then the Player Characters and the NPCs act in alternate order, one by one, but the order in which the Player Characters act is decided by the players. This models the play of Japanese console roleplaying games where the player can decide which of his characters is going to act rather than it be decided randomly. Should a Player Character’s Hit Points be reduced to zero, typically through combat, his player has two choices. The Player Character can surrender and suffer the consequences, but not actually die, or sacrifice himself to achieve a seemingly impossible deed. This has to be in front of a villain, benefit a Bond with an NPC, or improve the world.

The Fabula Ultima TTJRPG has two pools of points with which Player Characters and Villains can further their aims—Fabula Points and Ultima Points. Fabula Points are gained at the start of a session, when a Fumble is rolled, when a Villain makes a grand entrance, the Player Character surrenders after being reduced to zero Hit Points, and by invoking a Bond or Trait to fail a check. They are used to alter the story, invoke a Bond or Trait, or use certain skills. Spending Fabula Points also increases the amount of Experience Points the Player Characters receive at the end of a session, so the players are encouraged to use them rather than keep them. Obviously, Ultima Points are the province of Villains, but have fewer options in terms of what they can be spent on. The most notable is to ‘Escape’, safely leave a scene in true “I shall return!” style, to invoke a Trait, or to recover from a current status. Every Villain has another major ability and that is ‘Escalation’, the Villain transforming into a new, greater, and more villainous version of themselves, from minor Villain to major Villain, major Villain to supreme Villain. This means the Villain is effectively a new Villain and restores him to full powers again. The design and play of Villains is given its own section for the Game Master, covering goals, putting pressure on the Player Characters via the Clock mechanic, giving them hidden depth rather than making them one-dimensional, and even making the Villains mirror the Player Characters.

The rules of Fabula Ultima TTJRPG also covers the use of Inventory Points to abstractly represent useful items of equipment and consumable items like potions to recover Hit Points and Mind Points, travel, dungeons, equipment, projects, and more. Dungeons, which can be complex location that needs to be explored, can be handled as a series of scenes rather than a room-by-room crawl or a simple interlude, but a room-by-room crawl is also included as an option. Equipment can be basic or rare and each item is represented by a pixelated image, which feels very proper. There is good advice for the Game Master—specifically aimed at the neophyte Game Master—which also discusses how each of the Classes work and their roles in play, and how to design battles and Villains. This is backed up with some decent examples and the book is rounded out with a good bestiary.

Physically, the Fabula Ultima TTJRPG is cleanly and tidily laid out, the artwork is excellent, ranging from fully painted pieces to little scenes and encounters done in the Chibi style. The book well written and easy to read and engage with.

The Fabula Ultima TTJRPG combines elements of traditional roleplaying in its core mechanics and storytelling mechanics—or at least methods—in its set-up guidelines for the scenarios and campaigns. As written, it is aimed at newer players and Game Masters, and successfully supports both in getting them to play. This does not mean that it holds their collective hands, but rather recommends them as to what to do and warns them that mistakes will be made and that they can be learned from. More experienced players and Game Masters will pick up how to play and run Fabula Ultima TTJRPG with ease and be off and running with a campaign very quickly. Ultimately, the Fabula Ultima TTJRPG brings the drama, conflict, and action seen on the screen of the Japanese console roleplaying game to the table and not only makes all three exciting and accessible, but lets the players and the Game Master make the world their own.