Introduction & Tutorials¶
Before Mission 1 begins, students need a reason to care about the world they are entering, and enough familiarity with the format to participate from the first day. The opening sequence handles both. It runs in roughly one to two class periods depending on how much discussion time you give the Demiurge transmission.
Selling the Framing¶
Operation LAPIS is an alternate reality game. That means students are not just reading about Rome -- they are performing as young Romans inside a narrative that treats their choices as real. Getting that buy-in on Day 1 is worth the time it takes. This applies to both the RPG and LAPIS Fabulae.
The primary vehicle is the Demiurge Transmission: a recruitment address delivered in character by the Demiurge (the voice of Mission Control) through a purpose-built terminal screen. It introduces the Lapis Saeculorum, the TSTT, the stakes of the operation, and the students' role in it.
Open the Demiurge Opening Terminal -- project this for the class and run it as a dramatic reading or let students read along.
How to run the transmission¶
The transmission is structured in seven content blocks with two embedded pauses where you step in as Agent to run a brief class discussion. The pauses are marked in the script.
Pause 1 (after Block 3, the TSTT explanation): "Before I tell you the rest, consider this. The traces I've described are faint. They are old. They are written in a language none of you yet speak. To read them, you will have to become the kind of person who can. Talk it over. Decide whether that is a thing you are willing to become."
Let students respond. The question is genuine: are they willing to do the work? Most will say yes; a few will hedge. Both responses are fine and useful. The point is to establish that this is a course about becoming something, not just learning something.
Pause 2 (after Block 5, the stakes): "I've told you what the stone is, what the machine is, and what is at stake. I'll ask one thing of you before I go further. Do you understand why I am asking you, and not someone else?"
This one usually generates good discussion. The answer students are working toward -- whether they get there on Day 1 or not -- is because we are the ones who can learn it now. That framing seeds the arc of the whole operation.
Tone and character¶
The Demiurge speaks in first person, measured but direct. This is not a dramatic villain's monologue; it is a recruitment. The voice is calm, honest about the difficulty ahead, and clear about what is being asked. Play it straight.
Sign every out-of-character communication to students as MC (Mission Control). Reserve the full Demiurge register (and all-caps formatting in the terminal) for rare in-fiction moments. The distinction matters: MC is the teacher managing the operation; the Demiurge is the fiction.
The single most important thing: your buy-in¶
An ARG only works if the people running it treat the fiction as real, at least inside the space of the classroom and the TSTT. The teacher's level of commitment to the ARG layer is the ceiling for the students' level of commitment. A teacher who signs every response as MC, stays in character through agent exchanges, and treats the Recentii's choices as genuinely consequential will run a fundamentally different class than one who keeps stepping outside the fiction to explain what is happening.
This does not mean performing. It means deciding to take the narrative seriously and letting that decision show in small, consistent ways: using the right terminology (operative rather than student, immersion rather than assignment, MC rather than I), responding to team posts with the same care you would give a piece of writing you respect, and holding the frame even when students test it.
Students, especially older ones, will probe the edges of the fiction early. That is not resistance; it is how they find out whether you mean it. The teachers who get the best results from Operation LAPIS are not necessarily the most theatrical; they are the ones who are clearly, consistently invested. That investment is contagious.
The ARG layer rewards compounding interest
Buy-in builds on itself. A class that takes the fiction seriously in Tutorial 001 will take it more seriously in Mission 1. By Mission 3 or 4, the narrative has its own momentum and the teacher's job shifts from maintaining the frame to managing a world the students have genuinely entered. The early investment pays dividends across the full two-year arc.
The Tutorials¶
Tutorial 001
Set in the TSTT staging room, narrated by Lūsūra (the Demiurge's owl and in-world guide). Three objects are materializing: an olive tree, a Roman temple, and the Augustus of Prima Porta. All three glow.
What it teaches:
- The basic mechanics of composing a TSTT response: narrate an action for your Recentius in the third person
- Latin verb + prepositional phrase (ambulat ad arborem, currit ad templum, etc.)
- The hybrid English-Latin format: an English framing sentence followed by a Latin action is acceptable and encouraged
Prompt: Move your Recentius toward one of the three objects. Teams may wish to rotate, with each member moving the Recentius in turn to get comfortable with the format.
Agent notes: There is no wrong answer here -- the point is to get teams writing in the format. If a team produces pure English, use it as an occasion to introduce the hybrid model. If a team jumps straight into complex Latin, affirm it. Lūsūra's role in this tutorial is to model the tone of the operation: warm, brisk, and never condescending.
Tutorial 002
The staging room shifts. Lūsūra introduces herself -- "mihi nōmen est Lūsūra" -- and sends students to do the same with each other as their Recentiī begin to materialize.
What it teaches:
- The mihi nōmen est formula, carried forward into Mission 1.1.a
- Persona phrases: each Recentius persona has a unique identifying phrase on the character sheet; this is the first occasion to use it
- The Lead Operative role: the tutorial prompt explicitly asks the team to choose their first Lead Operative
Prompt: Introduce your Recentius to the other Recentiī using mihi nōmen est and your persona phrase. Designate a Lead Operative.
Agent notes: A brief Lūsūra reply after the introductions -- welcoming them as operatives rather than recruits -- closes the tutorial and hands off to Mission 1. Keep it short. The transition to Mission 1.1.a should feel like stepping through a door, not completing a worksheet.
Setup checklist before running the tutorials
- Cohort, characters, and operatives are created in Mission Control
- Every student has their operative code and character sheet access
- Teams know who their first Lead Operative is (confirmed in Tutorial 002 if not before)
- You have read the Mission 1 · Agent Craft section so you are ready to run 1.1.a immediately after
For LAPIS Fabulae, the setup is lighter: there are no character sheets, no lead operative rotation, and no TSTT composition. Students read rather than write.
Tutorial 001 (optional)
The TSTT staging room and movement mechanics don't carry forward into the branching narrative. Tutorial 001 is optional -- skip it unless you want students to experience the Lūsūra introduction and the immersion space atmosphere before the story begins.
Tutorial 002
The mihi nōmen est formula introduced here appears in Episode 1.1 of the branching narrative. Students who have encountered it in the tutorial will recognize it in context.
Tutorial 002 runs as a short class reading and discussion rather than a character response:
- Read the tutorial text together. Students follow Lūsūra's introduction.
- Discuss: what does mihi nōmen est Lūsūra mean? How would students say their own names using this formula?
- Brief practice round -- each student says their name in Latin using the formula. No posting or character sheets required.
- Move directly to Episode 1.1.
Setup checklist for CYOP
- Students have access to the LAPIS site
- Students can navigate to the CODEX
- No Mission Control setup is required at this time