Wrath & Glory's Lex Imperialis: The Wordforge Review
Don't live in fear, live in Dredd
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What is it about law enforcement and ambushes, am I right? Speed traps, 5 AM bangs on the door, twenty-page Wrath & Glory supplements showing up out of nowhere…
Okay, so maybe one of those things is not quite like the others. This week saw the unannounced drop of Lex Imperialis, the Adeptus Arbites-themed supplement that brings the long arm of the Emperor to your Wrath & Glory table. Today we’ll be taking a look at what lies within, and see if it’s all we’d have hoped for.
Law & Order
As I talked about a bit in the most recent Warhammer RPG Weekly column, the Arbites have been having a bit of a moment for themselves lately. While the last time the Black Library took a sizable walk in their boots was with Matthew Farrer’s Shira Calpurnia trilogy (2003-2006)1, they did play an important role in Dan Abnett’s recent blockbuster, Hive. They’ve also been playable on the tabletop with Kill Team’s Exaction Squad, as well as in the video game realm in both Warhammer 40,000: Darktide from Fatshark and Owlcat’s Rogue Trader CRPG.
While this isn’t the first time that the Protectors of the Tithe have been playable in the world of Warhammer role-playing (they were a core career path in Fantasy Flight Games’ Dark Heresy in 2008), this is their welcome into the worlds of Cubicle 7 Games.
The new Lex Imperialis is one of the publisher’s digital-only mini-supplements, coming in at twenty pages of content with a sticker price of USD $5.
Let’s dive in.
Scarin’ the Nation
Lex Imperialis includes a lot more than just “guns and ammunition,2” offering a wealth of new toys for players to try out during their career in law enforcement.
Six New Archetypes
Players get a half-dozen new classes that represent the various forces of the Adeptus Arbites. Five of them are Tier 2, while for higher-power campaigns there’s the option of the Tier 4 Proctor-Exactant.
While this seems like a gap for Tier 3, remember that Wrath & Glory allows players to “upscale” their Tier 2 characters into Tier 3 “veteran” versions, so this isn’t the oversight it may appear. Let’s start by taking a look at the Tier 2 options:
Arbitrator. Sort of your generalist lawman, their special ability The Eye of the Lex allows them to mark a single enemy, granting the entire team bonus dice to attack rolls against it. Unlike the others, whose special abilities are largely self-benefitting, the Arbitrator is a natural support and combat leader for the entire party.
Castigator. Those badass Arbites you’ve seen with the riot shields and mauls? That’s these guys, the melee specialists. Whenever they take out a foe with a melee weapon, they can do it with an added flash of unbridled sadism that can destroy the will to fight of any foes still upright.
Chirurgant. Your medicae. They get a bonus to healing when ministering to Arbites characters, but can also quite happily use their powers in the other direction when interrogating a suspect. When doing so, not only do they get a bonus to any such Test but if they’re successful, the group also gets 1 point of Glory.
Leashmaster. Just like Solomorne Anthar in Rogue Trader, the Leashmaster is seldom seen without his trusty Cyber-mastiff sidekick. Their special ability is fairly tepid- they’re more intimidating when their buddy is nearby- but c’mon, it’s a pet class, and the pet itself is usually the cool. And this one delivers, with the Cyber-mastiff having a BATTLECRY ability (Go for the Throat!) that can take an enemy right off their feet at the jump).
Revelatum. This one’s your scout and tracker class, they start with a new piece of equipment called the Soulguilt Scanner, a kind of Auspex that picks up on the presence of the guilty through detection of elevated biosigns associated with anxiety and deception. When used in combat, the Revelatum can deny a target the ability to use Cover or Stealth, and they also gain bonuses to Tests associated with tracking and scouting.
Meanwhile, the Tier 4 Proctor-Exactant- in addition to the usual upgraded stats and starting gear- also has the cool ability once per combat to command another Arbites to make a free movement or extra combat attack. These are leaders amongst the Arbites, typically seen commanding an Exaction Squad.
Ten New Talents
Serving as the “cold, dispassionate instruments of the Emperor’s law,” Lex Imperials puts an interesting twist on the roster of talents available to Arbites characters by shifting them away from Wrath and steering them to Glory. This is intended to reflect the more collective-minded orientation of the lawmen, where expressions of individual emotion are held in check.
Consequently, a number of the new Talents require the expenditure of Glory to activate- a fact which may require careful consideration of the feelings of others at the table.
But what you get for doing so may well be worth it, helping turn the tide of battle. Burn a point to trigger Break the Line, for example, and not only will you get a significant bonus to attack, but any enemies you damage with a melee weapon will also be Staggered for a turn.
It’s important to note, though, that just like police in the real world, Arbites typically don’t like to act without support and backup. A number of these Talents are parasitic, meaning they only work well when you’re playing alongside other Arbites characters.
For example, Fury of the Lawbringer is very powerful, converting a point of Glory into immunity to Pinned, Staggered, and Fear conditions- but it only shields those with the ADEPTUS ARBITES keyword. If you’re the only one standing to benefit in your party, not only is the power of the ability substantially lessened, but you’ll risk a bit of side-eye for expending that point of Glory.
One New Framework
Towards that end, Lex Imperialis offers you the oops, all cops option of creating an Exaction Squad together. Unlike a number of other Frameworks, this one locks every player into a single faction, and grants each Arbites in the party a Symbol of Authority (as well as a bonus to Intimidation when wielding it).
Of course, perhaps the largest bonus you’ll get from this Framework is an unstated one. With all of your party comprised of Arbites, every other member of the team will benefit from the Arbites-limited benefits from many of the abilities and Talents. Imagine that Fury of the Lawbringer rendering your entire squad immune to those status conditions. The Emperor Protects, indeed!
Other Goodies
As you’d hope to see, there’s plenty of Arbites lore and character creation tools in Lex Imperialis, and the supplement even has a random name generator if you’re stuck for inspiration.
I also comment the writers for preemptively solving the “Paladin Problem,” where a rigid and inflexible dogma-based character can risk derailing party dynamics. They did so by injecting just the right whiff of pragmatism into the character of the Arbites, a nice little offramp here:
“It should be noted that the Arbites will often tolerate their fellow party members’ actions if it means they can prosecute a more serious target in the long-term.”
Lex Imperialis also brings with it a small armory’s worth of wargear, and unfortunately here’s where the spartan design of the supplement hurts it a little. Take, for instance, the Arbites Combat Shotgun. It’s a little different than the stock-standard Combat Shotgun in Wrath & Glory, which has a Damage of 9 with the Assault and Spread traits. The Arbites model deals slightly less Damage (8), losing both Assault and Spread- but gaining Brutal and Rapid Fire.
Those are important distinctions that might get lost in the sauce, and that’s where “fluff” can play an important role. Consider the following passage from Imperium Maledictum’s Inquisition’s Player’s Guide:
“The combat shotguns of the Adeptus Arbites are a cut above others, combining stopping power, intimidating form, and reliability into a brutally effective weapon. Despite appearing as an imposing large-bore shotgun with a smaller ammo capacity than a regular combat shotgun, these weapons have been painstakingly engineered for versatility and use a greater variety of ammunition than normal. The design also inflicts psychological intimidation: from the sound of chambering ammo or the pump action reload, all exaggerated and loud to emphasise a deadly threat.”
That goes a long way towards making a weapon feel like a tool with a purpose, rather than just a collection of numbers on a stat block.
Overall Thoughts
That brings me to the final section, where we talk about some of the ways the product might be improved. Lex Imperialis overall does a terrific job of presenting the Adeptus Arbites, and I find it well worth the fiver. But if I was king for a day…
Surprise drops are a waste of good anticipation.
As you may notice from the Warhammer Wordforge here, I generate a ton of content around the Black Library. And yet even now, I still get that little jolt of excitement when I pop open the Sunday Preview on the mothership and see what new books are headed our way. The buildup of anticipation is a powerful thing, getting folks excited to buy a new product well in advance of its arrival.
By simply dropping Lex Imperialis into being, all of that opportunity is wasted. Sure, a 20-page PDF isn’t in the same league as, say, the 5th Edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay or the lost-in-the-warp Horus Heresy RPG. But it’s definitely something, easily worth a teaser piece a week in advance to whet the appetite.
Add three more pages.
As I noted above with regards to the wargear, take some time to expand upon the list of weapons and armor. Don’t just give us stat tables, tell us why these items are they way they are. Why would a player choose one shotgun over another? How do they fall into the different roles each character can take on the battlefield?
Give it one more read.
Editing issues tend to be a common complaint about Cubicle 7’s offerings, but Lex Imperialis only had a few oversights that would probably have been caught with one more pass. These include:
An extraneous word (“who”) in one line: “Conspiracies that stretch across different worlds, or which are perpetrated by those few others who have the authority to persecute, are all within their remit.”
Word duplication: “the Leashmaster unleashes their metallic beast, issuing metallic-sounding orders”
A typo in the Proctor-Exactant’s skills (“3m” instead of “3,”)
A redundant Requirement (“IMPERIUM”) in the Break the Line Talent
The wrong section is highlighted on page 17 (the margin is highlighting FRAMEWORK but should be highlighting WARGEAR instead).
Most significantly, confusing and ambiguous wording on the description for Vasov’s Auto-Oppressor’s mechanical effect (one target or many?)
Make no mistake, aside from the last one these are very minor, even trivial matters- but should Lex Imperialis make it into print one day, why not give them the chance to be corrected?
Overall, I think this is a great supplement, and as noted above well worth its modest cost. It gives players who have wanted to run Arbites (either individually or as a party) the tools to do so, offers a nice variety of Archetypes that don’t feel ‘forced,’ and is nicely laid out and organized.
Shira Calpurnia would approve.
The lead book of the three, Crossfire, was inducted into the Black Library Readers’ Hall of Fame for having “historical, cultural, and/or aesthetic significance to the Black Library” as part of the Class of 2003. A high honor, and a terrific recognition of the enduring appeal of a faction that’s generally somewhat marginal.
Clash fans, I see you.