In June 2023 we presented the all-new Lex Arcana Bundle featuring Lex Arcana, the FRPG from Italian design team Quality Games (published by Acheron Games) of a magical Roman Empire that never fell. Travel the known world to study arcane lore, uncover conspiracies, and battle dangerous supernatural creatures. It’s Cthulhu Invictus meets The X-Files – the HBO Max Rome series meets The Witcher. Dive into the mysteries and dangers of ancient Rome. The Emperor commands!
In our world we would call it the year 476 CE; in the alternate history of Lex Arcana, the year is 1229 Ab Urbe Condita, “from the founding of the City.” Heeding powerful haruspices and oracles, the Romans have suppressed forbidden cults and maintained their conquests. The Empire reaches from the beautiful beaches of Italia to the Egyptian deserts, from misty Britannia to the rivers of Babilonia. Yet now, after 12 centuries, the augurs speak of sinister portents. Despite the Empire’s luxurious ostentation and military might, arcane threats eat at its foundations. In the great cities, cultists make converts among the poor and dispossessed. On the frontiers, enemy sorcerers unleash frightening monsters against Roman garrisons. Emperor Theodomirus commands the Cohors Auxiliaria Arcana to study inexplicable phenomena, uncover arcane secrets, infiltrate cults, and defeat dangerous supernatural creatures.
In Lex Arcana you are a Custos (warden) of the Cohors Auxiliaria Arcana. You left your former life to join a contubernium of 3-6 Custodes, warrior-scholars of high privilege and great skill. Taking the office of Augur, Diplomat, Explorer, Fighter, or Scholar (or perhaps the sixth, hidden office, Assassin), you gain a special talent and the protection of a tutelary deity such as Apollo Phoebus, Diana Opifera, or Minerva Ingeniosa. Your Virtutes (virtues) and Peritiae (skills) determine how many dice you can roll to accomplish a task. You choose the number and type (d4, d6, d20, etc.) of dice to roll: For instance, if you have 12 points available, you might decide to roll a d12, or 2d6, or 3d4. Rolling fewer or smaller dice increases your chance for a fate roll (critical success).
Your Pietas (piety) empowers magical divinations, or Indigitamenta (invocations), in one of six discplines: Precognition, Clairvoyance, Retrocognition, Omens, Dreams, or Favor of the Gods. If you fail to honor the gods, or invoke them in vain, you may lose Pietas. And your invocations may weaken as you travel further from Rome.
Co-designed by Francisco Nepitello (The One Ring), and funded in a big September 2018 Kickstarter campaign, the 310-page Lex Arcana Second Edition rulebook (2019) presents complete character creation rules, a 116-page section for the Demiurge (gamemaster), a bestiary of Greco-Roman monsters, and two linked full-length adventures. This Lex Arcana Bundle presented the rulebook, four gorgeous full-color setting guides, and ten scenarios for an unbeatable bargain price.
There were three titles in our Starter Collection (retail value $65) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks, including the complete Lex Arcana core rulebook (plus the free Quickstarter) and the setting sourcebooks Italia and Encyclopedia Arcana.
Those who paid more than the threshold (average) price also got our entire Bonus Collection with three more titles worth an additional $56, including the regional sourcebooks Dacia and Thracia and Aegyptus and the ten-scenario collection Mysteries of the Empire.
Ten percent of each payment (after gateway fees) went to this Lex Arcana offer’s designated charity, Direct Relief. Direct Relief sends protective gear and critical care medications to health workers, with emergency deliveries to medical facilities across the US and to regional response agencies across the world.
