Choosing Your Approach¶
Operation LAPIS offers three approaches to running the curriculum. They share the same story arc, the same 28-mission structure, and the same CODEX backbone. What differs is how students participate in the narrative and what role Latin plays in that participation.
You choose one approach and run it. They are not layers to be combined.
The Three Approaches¶
The Latin RPG
Students play as the Recentii in Latin. Each team controls one of eight personas and engages with immersion prompts written in a mix of English and Latin, with Latin density increasing across the 28 missions.
Latin is the medium of participation. Students read in Latin from Mission 1; how much Latin they produce in responses is a teacher decision (see below).
The English RPG
Same role-playing structure as the Latin RPG (teams, personas, Recentii, agent responses) but the immersion episodes and character responses run entirely in English. Latin acquisition is carried by the CODEX: the KEY-TEXTs, GRAMMATICA, VERBA, and ATTUNEMENT sections do the linguistic work.
English is the medium of immersion; Latin is the medium of reference and reading.
Fabula Lapidis (CYOP)
Students follow the story of Octāviāna and Bellātor through a branching Latin narrative, making choices that influence how the events unfold. No character teams or agent responses. The teacher's role is discussion facilitator rather than game narrator.
Latin is the medium of the story. Students read Latin; composition is lighter and more structured.
The Latin RPG: Response Language Flexibility¶
The Latin RPG's immersion prompts are in Latin, but student responses do not have to be exclusively in Latin. Teachers running this approach have several options:
- Full Latin responses: teams compose their character's reply entirely in Latin
- English responses to Latin prompts: teams read and interpret the Latin immersion, then respond in English
- Hybrid responses: students include key Latin phrases or sentences within an English response, scaling composition to current proficiency
All of these are legitimate implementations of the Latin RPG. The NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements for Intercultural Communication explicitly recognize that deep reflection and cultural reasoning typically happen in a learner's first language, especially at lower proficiency levels. Allowing English responses does not diminish the intercultural work; it often deepens it by removing the linguistic bottleneck that can block fuller engagement with the Roman world.
The choice of response language can also shift across the year: English responses early, moving toward hybrid or full Latin as proficiency grows.
The English RPG: A Closer Look¶
The English RPG is intentionally positioned as a bridge between the Latin RPG and no immersive curriculum at all. By running the role-playing in English (the students' comfortable language), it removes the linguistic barrier that can block access to the deeper work of the course: intercultural understanding, historical reasoning, and engagement with the Roman world.
This design reflects a well-documented principle in intercultural language education. The NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements for Intercultural Communication (2026) put it plainly: the lack of sufficient language proficiency does not prevent the internalization of cultural perspectives; it only hinders the ability to communicate them in the new language. In the early stages of language learning, students can develop genuine understanding of Roman products and practices, including the perspectives behind them, even before they have the Latin to express that understanding in the target language.
The English RPG takes this seriously. Students engage fully with the narrative, inhabit their characters, and reason about the Roman world through discussion and collaborative writing in English. The CODEX then carries the Latin load: the KEY-TEXT provides graded Latin reading practice, GRAMMATICA and VERBA build linguistic knowledge, and ATTUNEMENT scaffolds comprehension. Latin acquisition happens through reference and reading rather than through composition under pressure.
The practical effect is a lower affective threshold for entry. Classes that might find the Latin RPG overwhelming (due to proficiency level, instructional context, or limited prior Latin exposure) can run the full practomimetic experience without the language becoming a barrier to participation. As proficiency grows across the year, the Latin can gradually be foregrounded.
Choosing Between Approaches¶
| Latin RPG | English RPG | Fabula Lapidis | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Immersion language | Latin | English | Latin (reading) |
| Latin composition | Flexible (see above) | Minimal (CODEX-focused) | Light, scaffolded |
| Teacher's in-world role | Active narrator/Agent | Active narrator/Agent | Discussion facilitator |
| Character management | Required | Required | Not applicable |
| Setup complexity | Higher | Higher | Lower |
| Starting Latin level | Novice Mid | Any level | Novice Mid |
| ICC focus | Integrated | Foregrounded | Integrated |
A note on the starting level: the Latin RPG and Fabula Lapidis both begin at Novice Mid, because that is where a language can start doing something worth reading. Materials pinned to absolute-beginner Novice Low tend to read like "It is a tree. Spot sees the tree. Spot runs." The opening missions assume no prior Latin, but they move quickly into compelling Latin rather than dwelling on isolated words. The English RPG carries its Latin entirely in the CODEX, so it can start a class at any level.
Choose the Latin RPG if...¶
- You want the immersion prompts delivered in Latin regardless of response language
- You enjoy inhabiting the game world in character with your students
- You want robust individual and team tracking through Mission Control
- You plan to scale Latin composition over the course of the year
Choose the English RPG if...¶
- Your students are newer to Latin or need a lower entry point
- You want the full RPG experience with English as the scaffolding language throughout
- You are using LAPIS alongside a traditional textbook, with LAPIS providing the cultural and narrative strand
- You want to foreground intercultural competence development before demanding Latin production
- You plan to transition to the Latin RPG in a later year
Choose Fabula Lapidis if...¶
- You want a single shared reading experience to anchor class discussion
- You prefer a more structured facilitation role with less improvisational demand
- Your class is mixed-level and you want everyone following the same narrative
- You are running LAPIS as a supplementary reading strand
Proficiency and Intercultural Standards¶
All three approaches are designed to develop Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) as described in the NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements for Intercultural Communication. The Can-Do framework identifies two complementary activities at every proficiency level: Investigate (building cultural knowledge) and Interact (using that knowledge communicatively). Operation LAPIS builds both into every mission through the CODEX's CULTURALIA and Informational Texts (Investigate) and the immersion episodes and character responses (Interact).
The framework also explicitly supports the use of a learner's first language for deeper intercultural reflection, with the target language used for in-class communicative activity. This is precisely the structure the English RPG formalizes, and the Latin RPG can mirror it when English responses or hybrid responses are used.
The NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements for Intercultural Communication are publicly available from ACTFL and are useful when planning instruction and designing assessments.
Next: An Episode at a Glance