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Adventures - Lex Arcana

Lex Arcana is a historical-fantasy roleplaying game in a Roman Empire that never fell.

In Lex Arcana, you are a Custos (warden) of the Cohors Auxiliaria Arcana, sent by the Emperor to the four corners of the world to further the study of arcane lore, investigate forbidden cults, and face the threat posed by dangerous supernatural creatures.

ADVENTURES IN THE ANCIENT WORLD
1229 AB URBE CONDITA:
AN ALTERNATE WORLD

In the fifth century CE, the final collapse of the Western Roman Empire closes a chapter of history that lasted more than one thousand years. Gods and heroes are forgotten, and with them the dream of a nation unifying the known world…

Lex Arcana is a historical fantasy role-playing game, set in an alternative fifth century CE where magic exists.
In the thirteenth century since the foundation of Rome, an Emperor still watches over twenty provinces and the different peoples inhabiting them. Ruling with the help of divinatory powers, the Emperor grants stability to a world threatened by supernatural phenomena and dark omens.

In this divergent timeline, the Roman Empire managed to steer away from the course of events which led to its historical collapse, thanks to the mastery of the arts of Divination. By being able to see beyond the barriers of time, the Roman Emperors have kept their enemies at bay for centuries, outside the borders of the Empire and within them.

Lex Arcana - Core Rulebook
Lex Arcana - Core Rulebook Cover

Lex Arcana - Core Rulebook

Join the Cohors Auxiliaria Arcana, enter the world of Lex Arcana and dive into the mysteries and dangers of ancient Rome.
You and the other Custodes will travel to the four corners of the land, investigate terrifying threats, recover lost relics, unearth forgotten secrets and fight legendary supernatural creatures.

The Core Rulebook includes:

    From misty Britannia to the immense rivers of Babilonia, from the Egyptian deserts to the beautiful beaches of Italia, the adventures awaiting the Custodes are as numerous as the Empire the Cohors Arcana must defend is large. For the glory of Rome and the Empire without end!

      Lex Arcana - a roman empire which did not fall

      Enter the world of Lex Arcana and dive into the mysteries and dangers of ancient Rome.

      The Roman Empire in which we live the adventures of the role-playing game Lex Arcana is a Rome that is very different from the one we studied in school.

      Our story begins in what for us
      would have been the year 476 CE

      The year in which the Western Roman Empire fell. Counting the years from 753 BC, when Romulus conventionally founded his village, we’re in the year 1129 ab Urbe condita.

      In Lex Arcana, though, the Empire never fell, never divided into Eastern and Western, and is far from declining. The time­line we know was changed in 212 CE, the year in which Ca­racalla granted Roman citizenship to the whole Empire. From that moment on, a new history has begun, a history essentially based on magic. In this alternate Rome there are magic forces at work that helped the Empire remain strong and stable. An attentive assimilation policy allowed the Empire to learn from every culture it came into contact with during the expansion, making the most of each peoples’ knowledge of magic.

      Despite this, in 1129 aUc new hostile magical forces threaten the Empire. Emperor Theodomirus therefore promulgates the Lex Arcana, a law that establishes a unit of explorers of the supernatural, the Cohors Arcana.

      From misty Britannia to the immense rivers of Babilonia, from the Egyptian deserts to the beautiful beaches of Italia, the adventures awaiting the Custodes are as numerous as the Empire the Cohors Arcana must defend is large. For the glory of Rome and the Empire without end!

      Lex Arcana - Encyclopaedia Arcana
      Lex Arcana - Encyclopaedia Arcana

      Lex Arcana - Encyclopaedia Arcana

      This book describes the Empire in which the Lex Arcana role-playing game adventures are set. A Rome very different from that taught in school, in which magic, the supernatural and the gods coexist with the usual army legions, hordes of barbarians and wild beasts.

      The Encyclopaedia Arcana is the definitive Lex Arcana setting compendium, with innumerable ideas for players.

      Encyclopaedia Arcana includes:

        The Encyclopaedia Arcana is the shortest path to bring your adventures to a whole new level of detail, for the glory of Rome and our Empire without end!

          Custodes - Lex Arcana

          In Lex Arcana, the player characters are Custodes of the Cohors Auxiliaria Arcana, a special chapter of the Praetorian Guard.

          The Cohors Auxiliaria Arcana numbers a few hundred highly specialized and gifted individuals, soldiers and civilians alike.

          Art - Lex Arcana - RPG - Acheron

          The Cohors Auxiliaria Arcana

          In Lex Arcana, players take the role of Custodes of the Cohors Auxiliaria Arcana, a special chapter of the Praetorian Guard appointed by Imperial decree to search out and study any supernatural phenomena. Its mission is even more specific: to identify and possibly stop any occult and magical activity. For behind the façade of luxurious ostentation and military might of the Roman Empire, many threats of an arcane nature are constantly gnawing away at its foundations: forbidden cults make converts among the poor and dispossessed denizens of the great cities, while enemy sorcerers unleash frightening monsters against the legions stationed at the frontiers.

          The Custodes are not just soldiers enlisted to fight or march: they count among their number mages, warriors, explorers, scholars, and diplomats, coming from the most distant provinces of the mpire and assigned with very special tasks.
          They are selected from among the citizens of the Empire by officers
          appointed to the role of recruiters by the Praetorian Prefects. Upon selection, each recruit is evaluated by a commission and then assigned to one of five training courses.

          To accomplish their task, the Custodes of the Cohors Arcana travel the four corners of the known world and investigate unusual occurrences among hostile populations, or unveil mysteries hidden behind foreign incantations.

          Lex Arcana - AEGYPTUS
          Lex Arcana - Aegyptus

          Lex Arcana - Aegyptus

          This volume is the first official setting module for Lex Arcana, describing the beautiful and mysterious Province of Aegyptus. In the land of the ancient pharaohs, descendants of the gods themselves, the Cohors Auxiliaria Arcana must face intrigue and conspirations, curses from times forgotten, sand demons and secrets so dangerous they could break the wisest of minds.

          Aegyptus contains:

            Are you ready for the sands of time and gold?

              The Game Mechanics

              A game that will appeal to veteran players and newcomers to Lex Arcana alike

              Lex Arcana was first developed 25 years ago, but its core rules and mechanics are still fresh and elegant: depending on your character’s skill level, roll a die or a combination of dice. To succeed, you must beat the difficulty rating, named difficulty threshold.

              The truly unique part, however, is that players get to decide what combination of dice to roll. For each roll players make, they decide how a big a risk they want to take. The difficulty rating is provided by the Demiurge, including in the fast and lethal combat phase.

              Dacia and Thracia and Italia
              Dacia and Thracia
              Dacia and Thrace

              Lex Arcana - Dacia and Thracia

              Dacia and Thracia, two among the darkest and most dangerous provinces of the limes danubianus, dark and wild Dacia on one hand and Thracia and its barbarian hordes on the other. Here, Roman conquest is but a pale light staving off darkness and turmoil, fittings of civilization to tame a recalcitrant, bloodthirsty and violent beast. Here, ancestral secrets, nameless horrors and armies of raiders pushing on the border are but a grim daily event, filling both locals and agents of the Capital with dread.

              In this module players can find:

              Lex Arcana - Demiurge Screen

              As Lex Arcana Masters, you can extend your game experience with this fantastic tool : The Demiurge Screen

              DM_screen_lexarcana_001
              Lex Arcana - Italia

              Lex Arcana - Italia

              Italia, the most sacred land of the Empire, realm of ancient Gods and cradle of Rome, nurtures in her heart monstrous creatures, ancient traditions shrouded in mystery and civilizations even older than the very Urbs. Many are the dangers the Cohors Auxiliaria Arcana will be called to avert right on the doorstep of the Eternal City!

              Here the Cohors Auxiliaria Arcana (the Player Characters)  can find:

              The land where Rome itself was born, Italia is the very heart of the Empire and the home to its most ancient Gods…

              The Demiurge performs a delicate task, as they have to manage the entire game world.

              The Demiurge plays a very delicate role with respect to the other players, who simply need to interpret their own characters. The Demiurge must in factmanage the entire world of play: describe the places visited, control the actions of non-playercharacters (NPCs) and make the events in the adventure occur.

              When preparing for an adventure to be played, the Demiurgecan be compared to a screenplay writer: they select and arrangethe elements of the ‘stage’ on which the characters will recite inthe next game session. Most of the time, the Demiurge will play the role of narrator, using words to describe what happens to the group of Custodes: the Demiurge in fact represents the eyes and ears of the playersin the world of play, the primary source of information for the group’s collective imagination. Their descriptions focus the attention of all players and encourage their interaction.

              The Demiurge is responsible for supervising all game sessions. Over the course of the adventure, the Demiurge requests the pertinent die rolls, describes the results of the Custodes’ actions, and slowly evolves the plot of the adventure based on what the characters do, discover, and understand.

               

              Lex Arcana Britannia

              Lex Arcana - Britannia

              This official setting module for Lex Arcana explores the mysterious and cryptic Province of Britannia. Britannia is a fierce land of warrior people, illusions, and inexplicable magic – the only Province where Rome was forced to build a Vallum to protect its borders. Here, the Cohors Arcana will face primordial forces, blood rites, and otherworldly powers whose nature the Empire yet ignores.

              Britannia contains:

              Are you ready to face Britannia’s grim mysteries and illusions?

              Magic

              The Demiurge performs a delicate task, as they have to manage the entire game world.

              Since its foundation, Rome has focused its interest in magic upon the study of Divination—ritual practices committed to foretell the future, descry past events, read portents,and interpret the favor of the gods.

              The Art of Divination is divided into six disciplines: each discipline allows the Custodes to access a specific field of divinatory magic.

              • Precognition – predicting the future.
              • Clairvoyance– seeing, or locating, places or individuals far away.
              • Retrocognition– knowing the past.
              • Interpretation of Omens– interpreting the meaning of signsand omens.
              • Interpretation of Dreams– interpreting the hidden meaningof dreams.
              • Favor of the Gods– perceiving the favor or disfavor of thegods themselves.

              Each discipline is associated with one or more ritualsof Div-ination; The Custodes do not take magic lightly and perform a ritual only when they have a clear goal in mind.

              When performing a ritual, a Custos glimpses what lies behind the veil between the material and supernatural worlds. But the divine world containsthe past, the present, and the future mixed together: to make sense of any response, the officiant must look for something specific among the immense vastness of possibilities, focusing on a place, a particular event, awell-known person, and so on…

              Art - Lex Arcana - RPG - Acheron

              Mysteries of the Empire I & II

              This two volumes collects several official adventures for Lex Arcana, second edition, until now only available digitally, plus exciting special content!

              From the western beaches of Hispania to the frozen lands of the north, the Custodes will face the perils and pitfalls of the ancient world amid dark prophecies, monsters of myth, and shadowy powers aiming to overturn the fate of our Empire without end!

              Lex Arcana – Mysteries of the Empire I and II: the fastest route to adventure!