Black Rose Wars: Rebirth

Fireball!
over 4 years ago – Tue, Sep 07, 2021 at 03:42:00 AM

Voices in your head whisper you to move to the room on your left, you can't resist to this sort of supernatural force.

You enter the dark and silent room, but you stop immediately, the floor is missing! Probably the force that previously was making the walls tremble must have caused the floor to collapse.

Nearly nothing remains of what you remember was a beautiful library, just a few ruined shelves on small portions of the floor around the perimeter of the room.

A sudden blast of wind whirls yellowed sheets of paper in the air. You grab one as it dances in front of your face. It's a scroll, you read the ancient formula and you recognize the spell... Fireball!

When the voice of the community speaks loudly, it's hard for us not to listen to it.

We are pleased to finally show you the famous... FIREBALL!

One of the most beloved and feared spells ever, by all players on the planet, has now become the new First Player Token!

Wearing an elegant crown, this sentient fireball will pass from player to player to mark the turn order.

“This can be useful!” you say to your fellow adventurers, Alisha and Pyotr, as they examine the scroll with you.

You put it back in the pages of your book and, together with your companions, you now look at the only available direction: the entrance to the Ordalia is in front of you.

You remember when, as a child, you tried to spy on the guests who approached that room, all looking brave and full of hope. You remember how the old Giulio scolded you, telling you that it was forbidden to go down there, as well as very dangerous.

Beyond the room, almost like arms that surround it, the corridors leading to the balcony, which could lead you to get out of the Lodge.

Alisha asks you to come down to help her find her father (Descent), while Pyotr insists to go out and think about what to do (Balcony). Who will you listen to?

Before saying goodbye, we want to thank the whole community once again! Even if you missed the last Social Stretch Goal announced yesterday (we said EXACTLY 1503,2 Shares!), because of your incredible and unexpected rush for the 30K messages we decided anyway to unlock the new Skull Room and the legendary scenario dedicated to Hogwartz!

Well done! You are a fantastic community, let’s have fun with those last 70 hours!

Fireball!

Dancing with death!
over 4 years ago – Sun, Sep 05, 2021 at 05:47:06 AM

Your instincts push you towards the stairs, you see Pyotr entering the purple vortex.

The mage stretches his hand to you from the portal, but it's too late... the vortex suddenly disappears in a flash of light, blinding you for a few moments. You need several seconds to recover, you immediately realize that the only way out is the stairs. 

You raise your hand, a sphere of light begins shine. 

You run up the stairs until you lose your breath and finally get to the end of the corridor.

In a pile of rubble you recognize what remains of a library, probably another entry point, similar to the one you found the day before, to go down into the dungeons. It's day outside, sunset light enters through a colored glass window. The red and ocher of the glass cast a warm light on the floor of the room.

You look around and immediately recognize the dining room, you are not far from the kitchens you have already visited. Three rows of long tables, many are overturned to the ground, as if swept away on the opposite side of the great hall.

You immediately think what brute force was needed to make such a gesture, those are tables for at least twenty people, made of solid wood. 

Now you notice with horror piles of skulls, but there seems to be no trace of the corpses. You move closer and inspect them, you notice one apparently more recent, considering its state of putrefaction. The head lies on a fine inlaid silver and gold plate, richly decorated with precious stones. 

You smell a scent of flowers, very similar to what you felt when you were robbed.

While you are still looking at the head, you see a shadow projecting on you, slowly and silently.

You're sure, she's the thief again! Maybe she didn't recognize you yet, or maybe she is attracted to the precious plate. You whirl around armed with a small dagger, but what you see is not quite what you expected.

A huge female figure stands between the window and you, the light behind her leaves her body in shadow, you recognize four arms. 

Suddenly the room falls into darkness, as if the sun had gone out. 

A monstrous grin is revealed, the figure approaches you.

This Avatar has a very special artificial intelligence, her only purpose, guided by an insatiable bloodlust, is to accumulate trophies for the Black Rose, but on some occasions she can be commanded by mages at the cost of some sacrifice.

For example, some command cards will indicate a target, however the target can redirect the fury of the Goddess on a new target, paying a cost in Power Points. In addition, the Goddess Kali can recall special Cadavers as personal evocations of her.

As you recall spells to face the Goddess, she throws her huge sword at you. the blade passes close to your side, cutting a bag of herbs tied to your belt. 

A voice exclaims "Hey! Watch out, you could have hit me!".

You turn back and see the thief perched on top of a table, the blade stuck in the wood between her feet. You realize you weren't Kali's target.

Quickly she jumps behind the large table, and begins to blow up objects in the air, looking for something. "Distract her!" she yells at you.

You grab the silver and gold plate, you throw it at her with all your strength. The impact is noisy, but it does not seem to have had any effect, the Goddess continues to advance ignoring you.

You start reciting an ancient spell, Kali retrieves her sword, then a roar followed by a flash of light comes out of your body, shattering everything glass in the room, old bottles, glasses, and the stained glass window. The red setting sun floods the room. 

"Found... Run!" the thief shouting at you.

The Goddess seems almost slowed down by the sun's rays, you see three ways out.

To the east you remember a large library, where apprentices used to study (Library), to the south you return to the kitchens, crossing some common rooms (South), to the west you would go towards the main corridor, towards the Ordalia rooms (Ordalia), where the mages used to fight to become the new Great Magister.

Here the Sunday’s programme:
- Miniature's Den on his Twitch Channel will do another full day painting session, tomorrow it will be on Angela’s model, from Deadly Masks expansion! Starts at around 11:00 GMT and it goes on for about 6 hours (!!)

- Social Stretch Goal will be launched in tomorrow’s update, “pre-launch” on our BRW Rebirth Facebook page

Let’s take some rest, you need fresh energies for the last days!

Apocalypse - New Schools
over 4 years ago – Sun, Sep 05, 2021 at 04:31:53 AM

Hello, Magisters!

Yesterday we described how the new Constructed Mode works, today we present more in detail the 4 New Apocalyptic Schools of Magic, we will do it with the direct help of the author Marco Montanaro!

The Great Magister himself will describe below the new schools, as we said those are closely linked to each of the 4 Horsemen. Let's now Marco speak!

Death School aims to end everything, it will bring your enemies to their final destination. With the Traps and Protections, mages from the Death school can shape the game in different ways reacting to everything that is happening. Killing your opponents is just a small part of the strategy; death cards will play with Quests, Events, and Power Points. Thanks to Death School you will also be able to change the end-game mechanics and be part of everything that your opponents are doing. Spells will also reduce the stats of your opponents and take advantage of their drawn energy.

Famine School aims to starve your opponents. Reduce their resources and use them against them. The new Starve mechanic of the school will allow you to place opponents' cube in a special pool outside the board and then trigger them in a powerful explosion. The school will also aim at Instability and how natural events can destroy your opponent's expectations of victory.

War uses the strategies of famous military commanders of all time, and the strength of the legendary weapons to annihilate his opponents. Thanks to ware you will be either summoning equipment that will add new actions to your Actions token or playing strategically with the Black Rose and the evocation to win the battle. War strategy focuses on destroying the other mages or taking advantage of the numerous combats of the Arena. At the end of the day who does not want to summon the William Wallace Bastard sword to crash their opponents?

Pestilence will infect your opponents. It plays on 2 main mechanics, the summoning of Plague Rats on the board that carries your damage and Infection Cubes that will pile up on the board of your opponents to trigger powerful effects and explode in a purulent mess.

There is no limit on how many Rats you can summon, those little sneaky creatures will go around the arena under your control and bite the feet of your opponents or just explode in infection if hit by any of the other mages spells, whoops! Infection tokens can pile up to 3 on the mage board and will make your opponents lose Power Points if not healed on time. If you die before the removal of the infections, you will carry them with you and be back in the arena infected!

We thank Marco, the Great Magister, for his words of wisdom! He gave us all a taste of the new mechanics of these Apocalyptic Schools!

After reading Marco's words, what is your favorite School? Give us your feedback!

Fireball!

Red pill, red light, red mage...
over 4 years ago – Sat, Sep 04, 2021 at 08:44:11 PM

You no longer understand what is driving you, instinct or madness, you choose to go down. 

You walk fast through the long tunnel, illuminated just by very few torches on the walls. You turn back after each step, fearing that the terrifying entity may reach you again. 

Dai Jin sacrificed himself for you, now you have to honor his sacrifice by getting out of here alive.

After the descent you find yourself in a large, dimly lit room. As you approach you hear someone speaking, with a strange hard accent. You observe the room from the corner of the entrance, your eyes move on the various objects you can see, until a tall and massive figure appears in front of you.

You jump back in fear, then his broad smile "Pyotr, nice to meet you", with a rapid movement he holds out his hand to you. Still frightened you stare at him, trying to figure out whether or not he is a threat. 

Slowly you raise your arm to shake his hand ... "Irene" you whisper.

"Finally a good face ... you are good, right?" he says.

As you try to figure out if he's thinking of eating you, he asks if you're hungry, pointing to a nice little fire behind a pile of rubble.

While eating dried meat with some bread, Pyotr tells you that he too is a Perceiver, that he too has heard the call of the Black Rose coming from the ruined Lodge. The winds carried the feeble voice of Magic to his home in the far East.

While with open eyes you dream of distant places, accompanied by the words of Pyotr, you fall asleep.

Pyotr is a new mage, hailing from the cold Russian steppes. 

Proud representative of the Cossack people, like his brothers he is a brave warrior. 

With his austere aspect, Pyotr is an imposing but good-natured man. In addition to his physical prowess, Pyotr is one of the most feared and respected Magisters of his lands. 

Thanks to an innate predisposition to the School of Chaos and Alchemy, despite his good-natured appearance, he is capable to twist the minds of his opponents, dragging them into a world of madness and devastation ... always with a smile on his lips!

Pyotr wakes you up, you haven't slept very well and finding yourself still alive almost surprises you.

You don't understand what time it is, it's been too long now since you last saw the sky. 

It seems you are in a room with no way out, you start to look around, hoping to find a passage in the wall, maybe a crack, like the one in Rubedo's room.

You find old books on rotting shelves, a few bottles covered with dust, worn tables and racks with rusty weapons.

Pyotr impatiently intones a spell and suddenly a portal opens before you,  he too wants to go back to the surface. As a purple light begins to swirl, revealing a richly decorated room, you find a secret passage similar to the one that led you here.

Do you follow Pyotr into the purple vortex (Teleport) or go up the dark stairs of the secret passage (Stairs)?

In this update we are happy to celebrate with you the new LMS record, today we broke the result achieved by the KS Campaign of the first Black Rose Wars chapter!

To thanks you for your support, as promised the fantastic Rotas box becomes reality. 

This box will not just allow you to organize the 6 SGs boxes inside, but, thanks to the beautiful drawings by Cristian Casado Otazu and the UV spot decorations applied by our Graphic Designers, it is also a fantastic decorative element, to be well displayed in your bookshelf!

Another great news to share with all our backers today! 

We are very pleased to announce that we signed a new partnership with... Pegasus Spiele, one of the largest Companies in our industry!

Pegasus Spiele deeply cherishes their partnerships with other companies, and so they are happy and excited to start a new cooperation with Ludus Magnus Studio as the German partner for Black Rose Wars, Black Rose Wars: Rebirth as well as other projects in the future.

We are particularly proud of this new partnership, this will help us improve the quality of the German version of our products, and it will help to expand the LMS community in Germany, Austria and Switzerland!

We can anticipate you that we are already working to close other solid partnership all over the world.

Tomorrow we will talk more in detail about the four new schools of magic included in the Apocalypse expansion... and now some new pictures about the first BRW:R tournament at Modena PLAY!

Apocalypse - Constructed mode
over 4 years ago – Sat, Sep 04, 2021 at 08:41:10 PM

Hello Magister!

We've been pleased to see all your enthusiasm for Apocalypse expansion, you repaid all the effort we spent to develop it!

One of the most innovative features of Apocalypse is definitely the Constructed mode, today we are going to explain it in more detail.

Create your Mage

The first thing to do when playing a Constructed game is to choose between the Mages at your disposal, take their 3 Personal Spells, one of the customizable Mage Cards from the pad included in this box, and take a pen.

On the Mage Card, you write your name (especially in Tournaments), the name of the Mage you have chosen, and the basic characteristics from which all mages start. To create your custom mage you have 14 experience points (XP), you can use them to add Talents and give additional points to the Characteristics, following specific tables.

For example, you can bring your Mage's Health stat from a base value of 9 to 12 by spending 4 XP points, a good choice if your Mage will go a lot on physical combat, or if you just hate going back to your Cell too often!

You can change all Health, Physical attack, Hand, and Movement values, and also increase the maximum number of Quest cards you can keep, or increase the maximum number of Schools of Magic to use in your deck.

Be careful! Spending too many XP points on stats will leave you few XP points to add one or more Talents (each mage can have up to 5), which are just as important!

Talents are special abilities that will enhance your mage an additional level of customization and better planning of your Strategy for the game.

There are 3 types of Talents:

•  Passive Talents - These talents activate automatically or depending on specific conditions. For example, the "Enhanced Undeads" talent provides +1 to the Physical Attack of all your evocations with the Undead trait.
•  Library Talents - By adding these talents you will be able to modify or cancel some of the deckbuilding restrictions imposed by the Constructed mode rules, more on that later.
•  Action Talents - These talents are activated by flipping the Physical Action token in place of the normal actions. For example, the “Teleport” talent allows you to place yourself in any room in the Lodge instead of making a normal movement.

Once you have chosen your Talents, your Mage is ready to fight!

Constructed Library

Using this game mode you create a Spell deck that will be your personal Library. So in the Study Phase, you don't have to draw cards from the School of Magic decks that normally make up the library, but you will draw 4 cards directly from this custom deck. As usual, you can only keep 2 cards to add to your hand, while the other cards go back to the bottom of the deck.

After that you build your Grimoire as in normal games, from the custom Library you have just built, you will be able to manage your strategy in a more direct and effective way, limiting the element of luck.

What rules do you need to follow to build your Library?

Simply follow the restrictions provided by the rules of this mode, which you will find well detailed in the Apocalypse manual. For example, your Library must be composed of Spells from 2 different Schools of Magic, must contain a maximum of 5 Attack Spells and 5 Contingencies, at least one Trap and one Protection must be composed of a maximum of 36 Spells (excluding Personal Spells of your mage, which must be kept aside and added as usual); for each Spell, you choose you to need to add all of its 3 cards to your deck.

By following these and some other simple rules, you can build your Library quickly and easily. As already mentioned, thanks to the Library Talents you can override or modify some of the restrictions. For example, the “Aggressive” talent will let you include up to 9 Attack Spells, the “No Traps” Talent will let you ignore the rule to include at least 1 Trap to your deck.

Once you have created your Mage and your Library, shuffle the Library, draw 6 cards and add a Personal Spell to create your Grimoire, shuffle it and you are now ready for the challenge of the Black Rose!

And the Four Horsemen?

The Horsemen have a special double-sided Mage Card. On one side you have their Standard version, while on the other you have their Constructed version, ready to be used with Constructed mode games. Each Horsemen is therefore a Preconstructed mage, optimized to use its School as a personal Library in Constructed and Apocalypse mode.

Playing the Apocalypse mode with the 4 Horsemen is a great way to familiarize yourself with this new model... using epic overpowered Mages! What do you think? Do you already have in mind how to build YOURS?

The most important Italian game convention is taking place today in Modena (Italy), LMS has a fantastic stand where we are running the very first tournament using the Constructed mode rules! It is also possible to try Rebirth in advance, we hope to meet those of you who will participate in the convention. For all the others we will be happy to tell you everything about the event!

Fireball!