Art and gifs in this post is from Atlus' Shin Megami Tensei series.
Howdy y'all, here's just a little random thing I came up with while working on a bigger announcement (yes yes you'll see more soon!)
So you know by now that I'm a bit of a Shin Megami Tensei/Persona fan, and recently I've been playing some OSR dungeon crawling with a group of friends.
Part of me has always felt like there were several points in common between SMT and OSR - starting with...
2020-07-15 20:38:20 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone!
This is a post I've been meaning to write for quite a while. It's gonna get somewhat long, I think, and it's okay if you don't want to read through all of it. In fact, have a TL;DR:
I have come to the conclusion that the adventure module "Grudge Immortal" no longer represents who I am and who I want to be as an author. Regardless of my design intentions when I wrote it back in 2017, its contents now strike me as problematic and as enabling racially-charged, co...
2020-06-22 14:34:51 +0000 UTC
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Hi!
These days we're all pretty much stuck inside our homes, and due to this my roleplaying schedule dramatically increased. Specifically, I've been running a Fabula Ultima campaign for three players in my area, seizing this opportunity to test the limits of the system in the long run (we even use the level boost rule to quicken character advancement and see whether certain combinations break the game).
Not only that, but I believe it's a genuinely exciting story ...
2020-04-11 15:20:45 +0000 UTC
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Update: Obviously enough, this was an April's Fools post!
Hello everyone!
Emanuele here with an extremely important announcement to make: it's done!
After extended months of playtest, and having gathered a vast amount of feedback and comments, I am ready to bring Fabula Ultima to its ultimate iteration.
The following ...
2020-04-01 11:29:04 +0000 UTC
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Are you ready for some silly, heartwarming and slightly supernatural slice-of-life anime action? Then I guess this minigame might suit your needs!
... and yes, this is a direct homage to Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid.
Anyway, the game is derived from John Harper's excellent Lasers & Feelings
2020-03-14 15:09:03 +0000 UTC
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Greetings, you doomed souls!
Death Spiral here is a little thing I've been working on during the past few weeks. It is a profoundly hopeless dungeon crawl game (some would perhaps call it a deconstruction?) about doomed explorers and their inevitable demise in the dark depths of the abyss below.
It's a mix of Darkest Dungeon, Made in Abyss, Torchbearer, Maze Rats and more; a minigame that takes the usua...
2020-02-25 17:29:12 +0000 UTC
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Here we are for another non-core class: the Dancer!
This one's been in the works for a while, and while its appeal might seem a bit narrow at first, you shouldn't let yourself be fooled by the name - it's a great choice for performers, swashbucklers and other "showy" heroes!
The core mechanic this time is dances (duh), which can only ...
2020-01-24 15:53:47 +0000 UTC
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Important note: these rules are kept here as a piece of development history, but do not really work well with Fabula Ultima. They tend to kill the action and make the game extremely slow, and do not take into account the many additional classes released over the years.
Hooray hooray! A few of you have been waiting for this since... almost a year, I'd say, and I've finally decided to throw it together!
Also, please enjoy the many gifs from Final Fantasy Tactics scatter...
2020-01-15 17:58:01 +0000 UTC
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Artwork by Akihiko Yoshida for Final Fantasy III
Hi everyone, and welcome to yet another Fabula Ultima experiment! <cackles madly> Today we're looking at something I've been toying with in my mind for a while: Signature Skills.
Strictly speaking, these skills are an optional rule, a thematic flourish that can be added to a character. Generally speaking, you can only have one signature skill, and if you use signature skills in you...
2019-12-02 04:00:00 +0000 UTC
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Artwork: Gustave Doré, Death on a Pale Horse
You might be wondering: what the #@*! does a Gustave Doré piece have to do with Fabula Ultima? That's easy: today I'm gonna try my hand at a level 100 champion (the kind of adversary that can threaten an entire group by themselves) and I wanted a badass artwork. Let's face it, most "final bosses" in JRPGs are nothing short of apocalyptic visions such as the one showed in this breathtaking engraving.
But enoug...
2019-11-12 19:41:05 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone!
Here we are with another hypothetical class for Fabula Ultima: the merchant! I know I know, this is a bit of a weird one - it's not that common in JRPGs, and the main examples are the Merchant crown in Four Heroes of Light (that's where the picture above comes from) and the Merchant asterisk in Bravely Default and Bravely Second.
.....
2019-10-23 18:15:44 +0000 UTC
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So, I've been tinkering with Fabula Ultima's alternative XP options and I'd love to know about your favorite advancement/xp systems.
This is a really short post, I know, but that's because I want you people to talk - well, write actually, but you get what I mean!!!
If you feel like it, drop a comment here (ENG or ITA are a both fine) or post your thoughts on Discord!
2019-09-21 14:11:42 +0000 UTC
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Howdy!
Today I have a bit of a work-in-progress post for you - just like the previous post on the Blood Knight, these are not finalized designs.
We're talking heroic class skills! This addition has been the subject of discussion for quite a while, and now I can finally show you some of the ideas I came up with.
HOW DO HEROIC CLASS SKILLS WORK?
Normally, whenever you master a class - that is to say, you bring it to level 10...
2019-08-26 00:00:01 +0000 UTC
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Hello everyone! I'm writing this post for those of you who might not be familiar with my Tabletop Role Playing Game, Fabula Ultima!
The Latin title Fabula Ultima could roughly be translated as "Last Fable" or "Ultimate Story". Most of you have probably realized where this title comes from already: indeed, the game is my homage to Japanese Role Playin...
2019-07-08 14:30:19 +0000 UTC
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Ever since I played Final Fantasy IV and met its protagonist Cecil, I've been fascinated by the Dark Knight. I've always liked any risk-reward classes, and the ability to trade health for damage is right up my alley.
It's also the perfect amount of edgy, if you ask me.
As of now, Fabula Ultima doesn't allow for a "proper" Dark Knight build, but I've been toying w...
2019-05-31 15:26:44 +0000 UTC
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Yesterday, the Italian RPG journalist duo MorgenGabe published a Facebook post and an associated YouTube video dealing with how to create a Villain for your tabletop RPG campaign. I'm a big fan of theirs (and also support their Patreon page), and too...
2019-05-20 11:34:10 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone!
The following is a link to a Discord Server for Rooster Games: https://discord.gg/fMfV8Ty
If you are a patron of mine and join the server, please send me your username - this way, I can upgrade you to a Patron role and grant you access to special Patron-only chats!
2019-03-08 19:09:12 +0000 UTC
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Similarly to what I did for Fabula Ultima, here's a comprehensive post that will include all Zodiac Echoes updates and files. I have also changed the fonts in order to improve readability!
2019-02-20 23:54:35 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone! This is a quick public poll concerning Zodiac Echoes, specifically the city that this game will be set in. I am curious:
When it comes to the contemporary city the game is set in, would you prefer for it to be...?
2019-01-22 18:22:45 +0000 UTC
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I finally managed to make one!
Looks sweet as a mobile wallpaper, just sayin' ;D
2019-01-12 14:27:42 +0000 UTC
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Ho ho ho!
Just wanted to wish all of you a happy holiday and new year's beginning. I myself will mostly spend these days setting up OBS for Twitch streaming, translating a bunch of chapters from Italian to English for The Silence of Hollowind, and hopefully running some playtests - assuming I can find some people who haven't been knocked out eating like ogres!
One thing I am glad to say is that the new PC seems to be working fine - which means I can go back to a more stea...
2018-12-24 19:00:02 +0000 UTC
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Hi! If you'd like to get constant updates on my work, consider joining my Telegram channel:
https://t.me/roostergamesnews
This will allow me to do more frequent updates, while also making sure that the Patreon posts don't become a total mess. Major updates will still appear here (and the same applies to Patron-only contents, obviously), but for pics and short news I will stick to the Telegram ...
2018-12-14 09:00:02 +0000 UTC
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As promised in Monday's update post, I want to talk a bit about Zodiac Echoes, specifically what is going to change about it and why. You could say I simply want to share a bit of my creative process, but I feel like my musings go a bit beyond that - they have more to do with the tabletop role-playing medium as a whole, in fact. Treat this as a "stream of consciousness" that ties together my last two weeks of reflections.
As you might know, I spent the past weekend playing the...
2018-12-13 09:00:01 +0000 UTC
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Anche se completamente slegato dai contenuti del Patreon, volevo condividere anche con voi le schede per Shinobigami che ho tradotto in italiano.
Trovate qui il link a google drive per scaricarle!
Se non conoscete Shinobigami, vi consiglio caldamente di darci un’occhiata - è un gioco di ruolo PVP estremamente interessante, nonché la maggiore ispirazione pe...
2018-12-03 13:18:46 +0000 UTC
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Hello everyone!
Just a quick post to show you a bit of progress I've been making when it comes to Zodiac Echoes: XII Before Silence.
While the game runs fairly well during playtests, I have realized some of its aspects are lacking. It's actually not that much of a "rules" problem - it's about the way characters are built, what their options are, and how much time it takes to create the group and their Echoes before actually getting to play.
Because of this...
2018-11-30 00:05:06 +0000 UTC
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As some of you may have noticed, the google drive doc for Zodiac Echoes is undergoing continuous changes these days; once I get my hands back on InDesign I’ll also begin work on the rulebook layout - if possible, I want to make it really pocket sized and easy to carry around, perhaps even A6 or something like that.
When it comes to the presentation of enemies, however, I have been wondering: would you prefer each creature to have its own reference card, or would you rather h...
2018-11-21 20:18:02 +0000 UTC
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Hello everyone! I hope you're all having a wonderful day.
Yesterday night I came back from a convention in Milan (managed to play some kick-ass Broken Binary and had a great time with Cyberpunk 2020). As soon as I touched the bed I fell asleep and woke up this morning at 11 a.m. ... only to discover I had missed #ThankYouPatronsDay.
So, let me begin by telling you this: thank you for your support. When I started this patreon I didn't kno...
2018-11-20 14:06:26 +0000 UTC
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Here’s a link to Ron Edwards’ post concerning Blood Red Blossoms on his website Adept Play, for those of you who might be interested in our little chat that took place at Lucca Comics & Games 2018.
Again, Ron’s enthusiasm towards the game fills me with joy. He also managed to immediately pinpoint the two big conceptual inspirationa for the game: Dogs in the Vineyard and Ryuutama!
2018-11-14 15:38:54 +0000 UTC
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Hi!
It’s now eleven in the morning here in Italy, and I’ve finally been able to enjoy a full night of sleep - that had not been possible ever since last Monday.
This Lucca Comic convention has been great, as well as exceptionally tiring. In no particular order:
- Ron Edwards ran a game of Blood Red Blossoms and really liked it. He also invited me to record a talk about it, which I will no doubt share with you once the recording goes public. I am very emotional about this, b...
2018-11-06 11:19:18 +0000 UTC
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Hello everyone! Sorry for not posting much these days, but between preparations for Lucca Comics & Games and gathering info about the new PC (BTW, I can confirm the previous one is 120% dead) I really haven't had much time for writing posts.
I am, however, working on Fabula Ultima (specifically, a page-long list of fixes that I'll implement once I get my hands back on InDesign) and writing the rules for Zodiac Echoes!!!
As of now, you can find them here: 2018-10-24 20:59:31 +0000 UTC
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