74 lines
3.0 KiB
HTML
74 lines
3.0 KiB
HTML
<!doctype html>
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<html lang="en">
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<head>
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<meta charset="UTF-8" />
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<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
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<title>Beasts and Monsters: A Guide</title>
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<link rel="stylesheet" href="book-page.css" />
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</head>
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<h1>BEASTS AND MONSTERS</h1>
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<p>
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The protagonists of Fabula Ultima are positive, heroic figures, who fight
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against the twisted ideologies and egotistic machination of the Villains.
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This premise is strictly linked to the idea that the antagonists are aware
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and in control of their actions, even when they don’t fully understand the
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consequences.
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</p>
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<p>
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What happens when the antagonists are little more than animals or monstrous
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creatures that, acting on instinct or according to their life cycle,
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threaten the region or the protagonists’ community? In such a case, it’s
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legitimate to question how “heroic” it is to fight creatures who are just
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following their instincts or needs.
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</p>
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<p>
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The works that inspired this Atlas approach this subject in a number of
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ways:
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li>
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<strong>Survival.</strong> This is the easiest approach, albeit a bit
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superficial and questionable, and it simply reassures the Players that
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their actions are justified: in these settings, humans are far less
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numerous than beasts and monsters, hence it’s sometimes necessary to fight
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and kill them.
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</li>
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<li>
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<strong>Conservation.</strong> In this approach, slightly more complex and
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thoughtful, it is legitimate to eliminate specific creatures that can
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cause massive damage to the entire ecosystem, making those specific
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creatures play the role of Villains.
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</li>
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<li>
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<strong>Exorcism.</strong> This approach is based upon the idea of
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fighting only creatures that are corrupted or infected by a magical
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influence or parasite, to purify them once they are weakened (in Fabula
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Ultima one can choose the fate of an enemy reduced to 0 Hit Points – death
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is not the rule). The source of such corruption is often an environmental
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antagonist (see page 174).
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</li>
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<li>
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<strong>Revenge.</strong> In this variant of the previous approaches, the
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heroes discover, often through the ability to communicate with beasts,
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that the terrible fury or corrupting influence was spawned from human
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atrocities, creating an age-old grudge that might take the shape of a
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major (or even supreme) Villain… and to make matters worse, our
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protagonists’ early actions might have contributed to such a disaster.
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</li>
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</ul>
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<p>
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This Atlas cannot tell you which approach, or what relationship between
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humanity and nature, you should adopt. This is something your group should
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decide together. Nevertheless, remember that the nature of the struggle
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between humans and the world is a precise thematic choice that should never
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be trivialized.
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</p>
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<div class="meta-data"></div>
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</html>
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