Need Games / Fabula Ultima
Anyone know much about these guys? They’re an Italian company run by Emanuele Galletto and Nicola DeGobbis (both guys, Italians often have female-sounding names). Their best known game is ‘Fabula Ultima’ (‘Last Fable’) which is based on traditional JRPG videogames, especially Final Fantasy.
Having waited decades for a decent tabletop version of FF, I was very much looking forward to this one. The game seems fine and I haven’t seen any sign of anti-consumer behaviour from them yet.
My only red flag was how their emblem is ‘anti-fascist game designer’. Now, most people on the right hate Nazis (and being proudly and openly fascist will get you on the red list here), but we all know how many ‘anti-fascists’ are as bad as the people they purport to hate.
Having looked around at their output, I can’t see anything that seems troubling. The book itself doesn’t have any real-world identity politics, beyond the usual ‘lines and veils’ stuff about including content at your table. There’s a slight leaning towards the PCs being rebels or fighting an evil empire, but that’s a very common JRPG trope, and it’s usually presented like the Alliance in Star Wars, overthrowing the bad guys to put the rightful Queen back on the throne. JRPGs as a whole tend to engage with traditional or timeless themes like ‘how much should we trust organised religion?’ or ‘what makes someone human’? There doesn’t seem to be any openly ‘progressive’ elements, beyond JRPG characters generally being wacky, like robots, sentient animals or talking weapons.
Honestly they seem perfectly fine, but I guess the last few years have made me paranoid. Italy obviously had an infamous fascist government in WW2, so maybe modern Italians feel compelled to mention they are ‘anti-fascist’ or something, maybe there’s a cultural reason to it?
Anyone know anything about them?