Fable is, essentially, about being a Hero (Or rather, a figure in Heroic Fantasy, removing the necessarily positive connotations of the word "hero", since the option to be King Shit is very much open). Starting in childhood, you rapidly progress through your training in a guild before being released into a standard, if cleverly and gloriously skewed, fantasy land to find your destiny and save the world or something. This involves standard RPG mechanics of taking quests - accepted from the Hero guild itself - and so earning gold and spending experience points across the available skillsets (Strength, Skill and magic related ones, basically, with the player being able to pick and choose which areas interest them, getting experience both for sole spending in each based on how much they use each, as well as general experience to be assigned to anything they fancy). As you complete missions, you open up more of the map which you can then explore using teleporters as blessed shortcuts.