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About Fabula Lapidis

Fabula Lapidis 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, Fabula Lapidis puts them in the author's seat: they read what Octāviāna and Bellātor encounter, then decide what happens next.

How the Narrative Works

Each episode in Fabula Lapidis 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 an episode eventually converge on the same story beat before the next 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 Fabula Lapidis

The CODEX functions the same way in Fabula Lapidis as in the RPG: it is the reference backbone for each 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 Fabula Lapidis, 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 episode, and attunement questions scaffold comprehension

Your Role as Agent

In Fabula Lapidis 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
  • Assessing each student's per-episode Memorātiō entry, along with their attunement and key-text checks

There are no character teams, dēnāriī, Arma, or PV in Fabula Lapidis: students play individually rather than in Recentius teams. Latinity Points and Mission Control are available, though. Create the cohort as Operation LAPIS (CYOP) and each student gets their own operative dossier with a per-episode LP grid, attunement and key-text checks, and a personal Memorātiō grid. See the Mission Control App guide for the CYOP cohort details.

Latinity Points and the Memorātiō

In a Fabula Lapidis cohort the natural record of each student's work is the Memorātiō: a short Latin retelling of what Octāviāna and Bellātor experienced in the episode and the choice that was made. Each student keeps a personal Memorātiō grid on their dossier, one entry per episode.

Base each episode's LP on that Memorātiō entry. After an episode, read each student's retelling and award the episode's LP for it, through the operative manage page or the Bulk-award grid. The LP scale and color bands are the same ones used across LAPIS, and the response rubric is a good starting point for judging a retelling; see Latinity Points & Grading. Attunement and key-text checks (150 LP each) work exactly as in the RPG, giving a complete per-episode LP picture with no team or character mechanics.

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 Fabula Lapidis will be added to the Curricular Materials section as they are written.