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About LAPIS Fabulae

LAPIS Fabulae is the Choose Your Own Path (CYOP) approach to Operation LAPIS. Students follow the story of Recentia Octāviāna and Gāius Recentius Bellātor directly, reading branching Latin passages and making choices that determine how the narrative unfolds.

Where the Latin RPG puts students inside the world as Recentius team-characters, LAPIS Fabulae puts them in the author's seat: they read what Octāviāna and Bellātor encounter, then decide what happens next.

How the Narrative Works

Each sub-episode in LAPIS Fabulae is a Latin passage that ends at a decision point. Students read together, discuss what the protagonists should do, and choose a path. The choice leads to a different passage, which leads to another decision -- and so on through the episode.

The branching structure is bounded: all paths within a sub-episode eventually converge on the same story beat before the next sub-episode begins. Students cannot permanently derail the narrative, but their choices shape what Octāviāna and Bellātor experience along the way.

The LAPIS site hosts all branching passages. Links at the end of each passage lead directly to the next, so students follow the story without navigating the site independently.

The CODEX in LAPIS Fabulae

The CODEX functions the same way in LAPIS Fabulae as in the RPG: it is the reference backbone for each sub-episode, organized around the same six sections (KEY-TEXT, Informational Texts A/B, GRAMMATICA, VERBA, CULTURALIA, ATTUNEMENT).

The primary difference is how students encounter it. In the RPG, students activate the CODEX because they need it to compose a response. In LAPIS Fabulae, students activate it because they need it to read with understanding and make an informed choice.

In practice:

  • VERBA and GRAMMATICA support reading comprehension of the branching passages
  • CULTURALIA and the Informational Texts give students the context to make meaningful choices -- a student who understands Roman social hierarchy will choose differently than one who does not
  • KEY-TEXT and ATTUNEMENT work identically to the RPG: the key text is the Latin-only reading for each sub-episode, and attunement questions scaffold comprehension and earn 150 LP

Your Role as Agent

In LAPIS Fabulae your role is closer to a discussion facilitator than a game narrator. You are not improvising in-character responses or managing character sheets. Your primary tasks are:

  • Presenting the branching passages (projected or distributed)
  • Facilitating class discussion about what Octāviāna and Bellātor should do and why
  • Guiding students through the CODEX sections as needed
  • Marking attunement and key-text completion in Mission Control
  • Awarding LP per operative based on engagement with the reading and discussion

There are no character teams, dēnāriī, Arma, or PV in LAPIS Fabulae. Mission Control is used only for operative tracking (LP, attunement, key-text, Custom Entries).

Choosing Between Paths in Class

When a branching passage ends at a decision point, you have options for how to handle it:

  • Class vote -- students vote on the path; the majority wins
  • Discussion and consensus -- students argue for a choice using evidence from the CULTURALIA and their reading
  • Small group divergence -- different groups follow different paths and compare experiences afterward

There is no single right method. The discussion around the choice is often more valuable than the choice itself -- it is where cultural reasoning and Latin comprehension get tested and applied.

Curricular materials

Mission-by-mission CYOP entry points and passage IDs are documented in the CYOP Index. Full episode guide pages for LAPIS Fabulae will be added to the Curricular Materials section as they are written.