Lex Arcana - Ancient Rome versus the paranormal
A full 26 years after the first edition, the second edition of Lex Arcana is published — a roleplaying game conceived in 1993 by Leo Colovini, Dario de Toffoli, Marco Maggi and Francesco Nepitello.
In early January 2018, following a successful Kickstarter campaign, Quality Games announced a publishing contract for a new version in English and Italian, coordinated and supervised by Andrea Angiolino, Creative Director of Quality Games. Need Games is the publisher chosen to bring this updated work to the Italian market.
Inde lupae fulvo nutricis tegmine laetus Romulus excipient gentem, et mavortia condet moenia, Romanosque suo de nomine dicet. His ego nec metas rerum nec tempora pono; imperium sine fine dedi.
Virgil, Aeneid
Suppose the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD never happened. The Empire managed to stay united. Thanks to whom?
Powerful mages help the Emperor maintain stability, threatened by supernatural entities that have gained ground in the world. To eradicate these entities the Cohors Auxiliaria Arcana was created — and the player characters belong to it, on a mission for the homeland to defeat evil.
How are the characters of the Cohors Auxiliaria Arcana created?
The legionaries’ sheets contain Virtutes and Peritiæ.
Innate capabilities are represented by the Virtutes: Vigor, Coordinatio, Ingenium, Auctoritas, Ratio, Sensibilitas.
The abilities the character gained through study and training are represented by the Peritiæ: De Bello, De Corpore, De Natura, De Magia, De Scientia, De Societate.
The rank corresponds to the training path and determines the character’s “class”.
The character has attributes tied to their origin — the region of the Empire they come from — as well as specific proficiencies linked to the school where they trained.
Characters fall into five ranks:
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Augur - specialised in the use of the magical arts.
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Diplomat - skilled with words and socially refined.
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Explorer - a connoisseur of nature and a skilled hunter.
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Warrior - the brawler par excellence, or a seasoned veteran.
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Sage - an eclectic person with an insatiable thirst for knowledge.
To these, the new edition adds the rank of Assassin. During character creation you consult specific tables to calculate the skill scores on the character sheet.
How are challenges handled?
A test is faced using the total score given by the abilities needed to resolve it. The player rolls a number of dice of their choosing, whose maximum sum equals the score of the required Peritia.
For example, a player is trying to read the sortes with a difficulty of 6 (to read them correctly they must total at least 6 on the dice). They roll dice of their choice adding up to their De Magia score: suppose it is 12 — so one twelve-sided die, or two d6s, or a d4 plus a d8, or three d4s, as they prefer. Any character, being part of the Cohors Arcana, also has extra tools available, such as the Roll of Fate (rerolling a maximum roll).
This system changes the odds of obtaining certain values on the dice, leaving the decision of how many and which dice to roll to the player.
Magic is a special matter, tied to divination — a gift that connects you to the gods to gain in-game advantages. The magical abilities available to characters are thus aimed more at investigation than at combat use. Particular attention is paid to the legionaries’ relationship with the Roman gods and the traditions of their ancestors, a mechanism handled through Pietas points.
The adversaries and monsters the legionaries of the Cohors Auxiliaria Arcana are called to face often have supernatural abilities or powers, so Lex Arcana could be classed as a low-magic alternate history.
Where to find inspiration for monsters?
The manual contains a bestiary of supernatural entities the players may face during their missions, which have a rather investigative character. We always recommend planning fights in advance so that encounters are balanced. Usually, a confrontation between one or more monsters and the party comes after due research into a case of worrying significance for the Empire. The characters, however skilled and well trained, are still ordinary mortals clashing with superhuman entities.
The manual contains two introductory adventures, letting the play group — especially a novice one — settle into the ancient world of Lex Arcana.
Our first session
Our first session made us realise that Lex Arcana leans more strongly into Romanity than another game we know well and which is in some ways comparable: Cthulhu Invictus. In Lex Arcana there is far more care for the vocabulary and culture of ancient Rome.
The Cohors Auxiliaria Arcana we belonged to carried out a short investigation at a Castrum near the limes in Germania. The interplay of relationships, observations and reconstructions of inexplicable events led us into thick woods where mysterious fauns, hungry for sweet puellae, had been sighted. What we found surprised us.
We were pleasantly entertained by the setting and the mechanics. As investigation enthusiasts, we couldn’t help but throw ourselves into unveiling a mystery. We fought for the salvation and eternal glory of the Roman Empire.
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