Written By: James S
Fabula Ultima made a splash when it was published in 2023. It was amongst the year’s most popular tabletop RPGs, winning gold for Best Game at the Ennies and nabbing silver for Product Of The Year. The game proudly labels itself a TTJRPG – that’s a tabletop Japanese role-playing game – so if you’re wondering what are the best maps to use for Fabula Ultima, there are particular touchstones you can draw on to get a feel for the game.
The Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest series, Vagrant Story, Chrono Trigger, and practically countless other games convey a cloud-strewn, soaring kind of aesthetic. It's a light, hopeful, epic genre of fantasy that contains both the sublime struggle of good against evil and the cosiness of a warm hearth come evening.
To achieve the right feeling, here are 10 Czepeku maps to use with Fabula Ultima.
Village Hunting Guild: Original Night
It always starts in a tavern, doesn’t it? Old and grizzled hunters at this lodge are complaining, as the elderly are wont to do. They’re lamenting the heavy taxes levied on their villages by the local landowner who, stories say, is as corrupt as they come. If only someone would go and give him a piece of their mind, someone whose knees didn’t ache all the time.
Riverwood Toll Castle: Autumn
Fabula Ultima has an intriguing rules section on villains, detailing how the GM can employ them as recurring thorns in the players’ sides. Those thorns can become more powerful and escalate over time as the villains pursue their own goals. Think how, in the Legend Of Zelda series, Ganon comes back time and time again in ever more powerful forms. That’s not the case for all villains, though. Sometimes, it’s important to give your players an easy win by letting them put a cruel aristocrat in their place at the start of a longer campaign.
Monster Genealogy Lab: Original Day
After garnering something of a reputation, the players might receive an invitation from a scholar in a nearby city. A feud between magical practitioners has caused a stir recently. He, a wizard of some renown, and she, a witch of the far swamps, have come to a disagreement. A new and mysterious magical phenomenon demands study, but should the magic be contained and nullified, or should nature be allowed to take its course?
Hidden Witch’s Hut: Original Day
Wisdom hides in unexpected forms. Perhaps the inhabitant of this old hut in the woods could be more than a simple enemy. Through her oracular skill, she has unique insight into the possible destinies of this world and issues a dark warning to the players. Whether they choose to help her or not, this world needs saving. But where do the players need to go to save it? More importantly, how will they even get there?
Airships!: Original Deck Storm
What is a JRPG without airships? Not only do these wonders of aerial engineering serve as a thrilling way to get around, but they can also be the stage for a gripping encounter. What assails the heroes as they sail across the skies? A storm? Pirates? A dragon? Some parties might even want to make a ship like this their home away from home, their base of operations, and live a nomadic lifestyle of exploration. To where will fate draw them next?
Tomb Of Sand Interior: Sunset
One of the best things about Fabula Ultima is that the responsibility for worldbuilding doesn’t fall solely on the shoulders of the GM. The world belongs to the players as well, and the tone or genre decided on by the table can (and indeed should) influence the trajectory of the campaign’s arc. What is important to the players? In this map, after a race to the finale, the players see time itself running out before their very eyes. Can they defeat their arch-enemy before the sands dwindle to nothing?
Grand Cathedral Interior: Original Day
Or perhaps their foe harbours delusions on a more divine scale. The finale of this campaign could take place at the moment of ascension, when an ambitious and ruthless villain intends to reach into the heavens and claim a seat amongst the gods. With their new power, they could inflict all manner of ills upon the undeserving world. But the players turn up just in time to dash those hopes, bringing this would-be demigod down to earth with an unceremonious thud.
Winter Fortress Bridge: Night
A darker and more chilling alternative. The players must brave the inhospitable wastes of the frozen North, where a forbidden castle lies. In that desolate stronghold, a sorcerer enacts a ritual to plunge the world into an endless Winter. As the heroes approach the castle, a blizzard howls overhead, and the stars begin to fall from the sky.
Fortified Dam: Sunset
Perhaps this campaign calls for a last-ditch defence against an invading army. Where better to make your stand than this fortified dam? As the foe’s forces slam into the walls of this massive structure, the players feel the stones rumble beneath them. Cannons spew fire and thunder, and somewhere across the horizon, distant footsteps echo their roll. What monster comes?
Village Wainwright Shop: Autumn
It’s important to remember your roots. After all, once you come down from the giddy heights and dire perils of adventure, where else is there to go? Home, of course. Go home and see that things here are still just as they always have been. Shopkeepers grumble about the weather and sweep the stoop outside their stores, children tumble and laugh across the village green, and merchants guide their wagons rumbling down the track, swapping stories and rumours of far places and fell deeds. Perhaps some of those stories are about younow.
Bonus Content: Czepeku Scenes
You might recognise one of these images. I used a variation of the Grand Cathedral scene for this article’s header image. I think some of these are perfect for capturing the grandeur and scope of Fabula Ultima and absolutely beg to be included in a campaign. Also, I’m a sucker for an autumnal colour palette. Handily, each of Czepeu’s Scenes corresponds to an accompanying battlemap. In my games, I like to swap between these cinematic backdrops and battlemaps as required, very much like random encounters in JRPGs themselves – admiring the landscape one minute, and fighting for your life the next!
If this snapshot has piqued your interest, you should know that Czepeku have a catalogue of over 5,000 of these maps on their website, where you can browse them all at your leisure. Consider subscribing to their Patreon. There, you can download all of their maps in beautiful, high-resolution detail, along with animated versions. Check out their map companion project, Czepeku Scenes, too!
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