Welcome to Legio Aeterna

Ave, Frits here. Welcome so much to the world of Legio Aeterna. Whether you are a history buff who knows (insert obscure Roman event involving an even more obscure individual), a fan of RPGs, or just enjoy good stories, this is the place for you. Legio Aeterna is, at its core, a text game set in the Roman Empire in 4 CE. You create a character, pick a background, choose what drives you, and start your adventure. Legio Aeterna is built in such a way that no matter what choice you make, down the road it will come back to you. As an example, say you start as a legionary in Gallia. You get the fun task of escorting grain wagons because of food riots taking place in Rome (this happened a lot, and happens a lot in the game as well). Vagabonds and other malicious individuals might try to rob the convoy. You fight them off, and the merchants of the town remember you. Next time you meet the merchant, he offers better prices. And your capo, the centurion whose orders you ignored during the fight, has marked you as unreliable, reducing your standing with one of the many factions in the game, in this case the legions. Was it worth it? Not even I know. And I wanted this to be more than just typing and getting a response. And more than just "the game remembers you." Because from an engineering perspective, that's not even that hard. I write about that in one of the dev diaries. What was a lot harder was getting a map of the empire that you can travel to, having the player's position update in real time, quests that aren't vague or left to the discretion of the game master. But I like to think I pulled it off. There's even a faithful recreation of a board game that was widely played throughout the empire, one I'm particularly proud of. It's like ancient checkers. And if that's not your cup of tea, we've got a strategy game within our game. There's something for everyone. I also wanted the game to be somewhat historically accurate. Yes, I know, you can be a fisherman from Judea and fight in the arena as a gladiator in the game. But guess what, it's a game. That said, a lot of effort went into historical accuracy: the naming of weapons, the sprinkling of Latin terms, but also the interaction between your character and others. For example, historically, freedmen setting up in competition with their former patrons was common enough that Roman law had specific rules against it. The obsequium owed to a patron could be invoked to quash a rival business, and I had to bribe a magistrate to get out of it. And the game does this, so you have to lean into it. Legio Aeterna runs on traditional tabletop mechanics. A twenty-sided die to test the fates, six stats, skill checks, inventory and equipped items. Even mounts. But instead of just rolling numbers, we built mini-games for combat. Melee has a timing bar. Ranged has an aiming target. The reckless option rolls physical dice. More on that in the combat diary. And all great stories must come to an end, even yours. Whether by death, retirement, or just deciding to stop for whatever bizarre reason, you can export everything as a chronicle. A formatted PDF with images from the run, every major event recorded. It's one of my favourite features. Again, thank you so much for being here. I really hope you enjoy the game. And if you do, please let me know, and I'll even throw in a voucher, a free month of Centurion. By reading this, you are already one of the most committed players. Looking forward to hearing you regale your adventures. Until next time, Frits.