Another RPG Bundle - Lex Arcana

[ffutures]

This is an RPG based on a magical version of the Roman empire, still strong after more than 1200 years. Various cults (such as Christianity) were ruthlessly suppressed on the advice of various oracles, and 1229 years after its founding (which a non-existent calendar might call 476 AD) is as strong and united as ever and still controls most of the known world. Unfortunately the cults and the creatures they worship are staging a comeback...

Lex Arcana

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/LexArcana

This all-new Lex Arcana Bundle presents 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, cults 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 presents the rulebook, four gorgeous full-color setting guides, and ten scenarios for an unbeatable bargain price.

We provide each title complete in .PDF. Like all Bundle of Holding titles, these ebooks have NO DRM (Digital Restrictions Management), and our customers are entitled to move them freely among all their devices. (By publisher request, the DriveThruRPG versions of these files are inobtrusively watermarked.)

Ten percent of each purchase (after gateway fees) goes 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.

The total retail value of the titles in this Lex Arcana Bundle is US$121. Customers who pay just US$17.95 get all three titles in our Starter Collection (retail value $65) as DRM-free ebooks, including the complete Lex Arcana core rulebook (retail price $25), plus the free Quickstarter; the setting sourcebook Italia (retail $20); and a guide to the entire Empire, Encyclopedia Arcana (retail $20).

Those who pay more than the threshold (average) price, which is set at $29.95 to start, also get our entire Bonus Collection with three more supplements worth an additional $56, including the campaign sourcebooks Dacia and Thracia and Aegyptus (retail $20 each), and the scenario collection Mysteries of the Empire (retail $16).

It's an interesting idea but as is often the case there doesn't seem to be much for players to do in this setting if they DON'T want to follow the official line and fight cultists and monsters; for example, some players might like the idea of building a trading empire, becoming gladiators, or even spreading the word of one of the prohibited cults. There doesn't seem to be much about the lives of player characters between adventures, which narrows the focus even more.

This also seems to be the only game setting for this system, which may make it difficult to get players interested. It also doesn't seem to be especially cheap, but that's mostly me being a mean git.

I'll be honest, if I wanted to run adventures in a setting like this my first port of call would probably be GURPS Ancient Rome or Cthulhu Invictus, both of which have vast resources available in the systems they're based on, and would support something like this, something like the Falco mysteries with occasional monsters, time travellers trying to uncover the mysteries of the Empire, or whatever else I wanted to run, rather than hemming me in so much.

The bottom line, it probably isn't for me, but as usual your mileage may vary.