Playtesting begins for THE NINTH LEGION, a setting book for REIGN

The Ninth Legion is a setting sourcebook by Paul Mitchener (Age of Arthur, Blood of the Gods) for Greg Stolze’s roleplaying game Reign: A Game of Lords and Leaders. It needs playtesters!

The Ninth Legion brings imperial Rome into a Celtic faerie otherworld. If you like the sound of that and you have experience with Reign, please email shane.ivey@gmail.com to sign up. The manuscript includes everything you need to make up characters and an adventure ready to play. We need playtest reports by May 3, 2015.

In the meantime, here’s a little more from Paul Mitchener:

What is Ninth Legion?

Ninth Legion is a fantasy setting for the Reign roleplaying game.

Early in the first century AD, a Roman legion vanished from the records. This legion, the Legio IX Hispana, took part in the invasion of Britain. Later it suffered a serious defeat when Boudicea revolted against Roman rule, and was reinforced by troops from the German frontier. Its last recorded presence in the historical records was in 108AD in Eboracum (modern day York). It was not present in the complete list of active legions recorded by Marcus Aurelius in 180AD.

In the popular version of history, the legion vanished when it went north to put down an uprising of Picts in Scotland. Many modern historians believe the legion was simply reposted or disbanded, but for a historical fantasy RPG setting, there are much more fun things we can do!

In the Ninth Legion setting, the entire legion found itself transported to another world. They called it Arcadia.

In Arcadia, magic and monsters are real, geography is sometimes fluid, and cursing an enemy is a dangerous thing to do. And the Romans were not the first group to cross over. Celtic tribes had already settled there.

There was no way back, so the Romans did their best both to continue their lives and impose their values in this strange place.

In the Ninth Legion setting, a hundred years have passed since the Romans first arrived. The city of New Rome rules a province of the Empire on another world.

The player characters are ‘Agents of the Ninth,’ secret imperial intelligence operatives with the duty to confront threats to New Rome that the army can’t overcome. Some of these threats are open, some covert, some external, some internal. Agents of the Ninth include people from throughout Arcadia, not just the Roman parts. Relations between New Rome and the people of Arcadia are often strained or hostile, but they share powerful enemies in this deadly world. The Agents of the Ninth must find and face those enemies.

The People of Arcadia

Several human groups make their home in Arcadia. These groups resemble certain peoples of the old world but have no memory of it. They have been in Arcadia for centuries longer than the Romans. The New Romans consider them to be natives of Arcadia and refer to them as the Arcadian Tribes.

Broadly speaking, these people come in three tribal groups: the Belgae, the Iverni and the Picts. The Belgae are nomadic warriors with shapechanging powers. The Iverni are the most settled of the Arcadian groups, and many of them are either allied to New Rome or under its rule. Finally there are the Picts, who have both differences and similarities to the Picts of the old world. On Arcadia, they worship and gain power from the Fae.

There are signs of older vanished civilisations on Arcadia. The stone circles and monoliths which dot parts of the land are zones of stability, and as mysterious to the Arcadian tribes as they are to the New Romans. Pyramids as magnificent as those of Egypt are present in the southern plains. Even in New Roman territory, the Library of Athena was not created by them, it was discovered.

But the only true natives of Arcadia are the Fae. The Fae are magical beings, and include the nature spirits and genii loci acknowledged by the Romans even in the old world; great savage beasts who are all the more frightening because of the signs of intelligence they sometimes show; goblins, ogres, and the cruel Fomori who rule over the lesser Fae. The Romans fear and hate the Fae, who are capricious creatures and fiercely oppose civilisation. Worse, they hold an entire race of people in inhuman servitude, exacting bloody sacrifices from them.

The Fae hate stability and value only the temporary order they impose themselves. The Fae despise the Romans as invaders and despoilers of Arcadia, enemies who must be wiped out. After all, the Romans have already forced the Iverni to follow their ways. For the other human allies of the Fae, chiefly the Picts, the price of Roman order is too high. Freedom is more important.

The New Roman state needs to impose its virtues, and above all order and stability, not just on the people of Arcadia but upon the very land. If it can’t, New Rome will be swept away.

Into that struggle step the soldiers, informers, and agents of the Ninth Legion.

Playtesting is Open

To playtest Ninth Legion, please contact shane.ivey@gmail.com.