Interest Check: Fabula Ultima: Pirates of Spira

[Angie]

If you're at all familiar with Final Fantasy X, the one with legally distinct Godzilla, you'll find the world a bit familiar, but if you haven't, don't worry, no game knowledge is required. This game is intended to be set 100 years after the events of the game, so it's been 100 years since any giant monster attacks that murderize whole cities. With aerial exploration and ships that can sail for quite some time, new lands have been discovered, colonized, and trade between cities has become an important factor in life.

Enter the party: The term "pirates" typically conjures up no-good devils on the high seas, but in Spira, the term has seen quite a bit of romanticism. In general, any crew that takes to adventuring on the high seas is referred to as a pirate crew, with those who engage in crimes referred to as "rogues" instead. For whatever reason, you've chosen to embark on the high seas of Spira-for fame, for fortune, for reasons only you know, doesn't matter. You're here, and we're going to hunt some monsters, find strange new lands, and maybe even resolve a lingering plot thread or two.

We'll be using the Fabula Ultima system, and fair warning: this will be my first time running it. I'll probably make a few mistakes. Newbies as well as people more familiar with the system welcome!

So come along, and join the pirate crew of the ship (NAME TO BE DECIDED)! Under Captain (REDACTED)! Help me write this by the seat of my pants!

Sheets Thread: https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=364380.0

[Rashol]

Yes!
Yes please.
What books are available?

[AndyZ]

Interested

[Metraxa]

I would also potentially be interested in some sky pirate and derring-do.

[AndyZ]

Angie, how do you feel about changing stuff so that the rules remain the same but it looks different?

Instead of a backpack full of IP, perhaps a pouch of conjurdust that summons up what we need and can be bought and sold for standard prices?  Things like that.

I also have ideas for Commander and hope to go Captain if that’s okay with everyone.

[Angie]

I should probably clarify then, the intent is for us to start as sea pirates, though going sky pirate is not out of the realm of possibility (Balthier, my beloved).

Angie, how do you feel about changing stuff so that the rules remain the same but it looks different?

Instead of a backpack full of IP, perhaps a pouch of conjurdust that summons up what we need and can be bought and sold for standard prices?  Things like that.

I also have ideas for Commander and hope to go Captain if that’s okay with everyone.

Eh, potentially? I'll consider it. As far as what books, I'm mostly working off core since it's what I have access to, there's probably one of the other books that would be a good fit but I mostly wanna see who all's invested first.

[Metraxa]

I should probably clarify then, the intent is for us to start as sea pirates, though going sky pirate is not out of the realm of possibility (Balthier, my beloved).

It wouldn't be Final Fantasy if you didn't have a boat that could sprout propellers and just fly away whenever you wanted

[c0i9z]

I would definitely be interested in some Fabula fun!

[Rashol]

It wouldn't be Final Fantasy if you didn't have a boat that could sprout propellers and just fly away whenever you wanted

Play a tinker and make it your life's mission to make the ship fly

Also.. I just want to start biting the world and see what squeaks.

[c0i9z]

With Projects, that's not farfetched.

[CurvyKitten]

It wouldn't be Final Fantasy if you didn't have a boat that could sprout propellers and just fly away whenever you wanted

Play a tinker and make it your life's mission to make the ship fly

Also.. I just want to start biting the world and see what squeaks.

I so wasn't planning on a mad scientist tinker with wild ideas with limitless possibly. That never malfunction. Lol 

Book looks easy enough to follow once setting stuff is set up I think?

[Angie]

Setting should be easy since half of it already exists. I'll just be adding a "New World" sort of deal and everything's good. 

[Rashol]

Setting should be easy since half of it already exists. I'll just be adding a "New World" sort of deal and everything's good.

I'm guessing Yuna is a saint or well known historical figure. After being a world famous summoner, world famous pop star world famous adventurer and having saved the world twice. so there's probably statues to her all over the place, and songs inspired by her story and novels written about her, and films and cheesy holodramas

[Angie]

I'm guessing Yuna is a saint or well known historical figure. After being a world famous summoner, world famous pop star world famous adventurer and having saved the world twice. so there's probably statues to her all over the place, and songs inspired by her story and novels written about her, and films and cheesy holodramas

With the passing of at least 100 years, the stories only got bigger. Which is impressive because if you're me, she was already an archmage capable of doublecasting Ultima that casually hit the damage cap  I hadn't yet considered how tech might advance but considering they already have TV and Spheres seem capable of video recording...good thinking.

[Rashol]

Definitely not you. The only thing I ever did that was that good was equipping quistis with 99 dark matter for 100% death on basic attacks.

[AndyZ]

I’m thinking Sharpshooter with a little bit of Spiritist to help with healing.  Yuna double pistolling stuck with me as awesome even if I don’t remember most of the game that well.  I imagine it’s not overly uncommon later.

[Angie]

Alright, we've gotten enough interest, so I have a few questions: How do we feel about the nature of technology, specifically machina? Tech is in a bit of a blurry spot in game, and airships are at least known if not actively being constructed. Do the old ways taught by Yevon still exist or are people more open minded? Also, do we want to go with a "thrown together by fate" thing for our crew, or would you all prefer starting knowing each other? Finally, when it comes to threats to battle, do we want more of fighting monsters while exploring lost lands, fighting other rival (and probably evil) pirate crews, or a mix of both? 

[AndyZ]

I don’t remember FFX perfectly, but I remember the Yevon stuff coming across as pretty one dimensional, and suggest moving past it.

I’m all for technology even if we may see obvious gaps in what they have.  Everyone having radios would be good, for example, but maybe not the internet yet.

One thing I’ve seen done well is “rumors” for knowing each other.  We only just met but we all have heard stories about each other, maybe.  But I suggest thrown together by fate over already knowing each other.

I like fighting stuff that is 100% evil and not having to worry about “maybe these are people with families” and all such.  I don’t think Fabula Ultima has KO rules.

[c0i9z]

" Whoever defeated them gets the right to determine their fate: they may be captured, forced to flee, knocked unconscious, or even slain."

" When reduced to 0 Hit Points, a Villain must choose one of two options: escaping or surrendering."

So you can easily never kill anyone by just not killing them.

[AndyZ]

Thank you.

Even so, I recommend leaving such moral quandaries to a minimum.  Trying to deal with it can be easy if rogue pirates get a death sentence like in the Old West for horse thieves and the like, but nobody feels like we have to spare true monsters.

Edit: we’re all familiar with the goblin baby dilemma, right?

[Rashol]

There were three evolved factions in X2.

New Yevon which was trying to marry the traditions of Yevon with the fact that everyone knows they were responsible for sin in the first place, so a lot of people turned their backs on it.

The Machinists: comprising of a majority of al bhed and several new companies and corporations and is the the progress and tech faction.

And there was the third faction that essentially was the middle ground. "Humanist" not weapons or religion just spirit of adventure type thing.

Then you had adventurers and mercenary companies off to one side a bit, exploring the world now that the threat of sin was gone.

So how did these evolve next is question 1.

Question 2 is have other nations and powers emerged or taken an interest.

Question 3: the farplane still exists. And fiend monsters still exist. But how connected is it to the "modern" Spira.

[Angie]

My thinking is to have what was left of the Yevonites end up sort of joining the more humanist faction and eventually the two of them combining into a faction that promotes simple living in harmony with nature, but they're not against taking out big fiends if they become a problem. Or maybe they're the ones promoting more exploration of older ruins, maybe in an effort to uncover lost artifacts and history that the church of Yevon covered up. On the other hand, other nations and powers could provide a more interesting conflict. 

I do like the idea of more monsters, and less stressing about morality. Note: If human enemies included, make them real bastards.

As for the Farplane, oh that's a good one. Souls still go there, but how often do the living go there? I remember Lulu not wanting to go in during the brief stint you go there in X, for her own reasons. Maybe people figure, leave the dead alone?

[Rashol]

Taking a leaf from the Sha in Pandaria, (which copied the fiends in FFX) the fiends will never go away because they form when someone does with unfinished business, so therefore there will always be fiends.. and some force for controlling them or combating them.

[Angie]

I think we may have enough to at least start accepting character sheets. Anyone still interested, see about writing one up. Bare minimum, I'd like a name, a look (drawn preferred), and a brief backstory about why you're interested in finding fortune and fighting fiends on the high seas.

[c0i9z]

Would one of these work?