Black Rose Wars: Rebirth

The End is Near!
over 3 years ago – Sat, Sep 04, 2021 at 01:48:07 PM

“And power was given to him over the four parts of the earth, to kill with sword, with famine, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.”  

                                                                                                                                                       Apocalisse 6,1-8 

Turin, December 31st, 1557

Since the early morning, a cold wind blows over the city, the inhabitants are intent on their activities, children chase each other in the streets, in the elegant Piazza Palazzo, there are those who discuss politics, those about trade agreements, and those about nocturnal conquests. Life flows slowly, quietly, almost following the rhythm of the river that flows through the city.

Suddenly everything stops. The inhabitants, the animals, the machines. No sound. Everyone looks high in the sky. Right above the Piazza, the clouds formed a huge vortex, the sky is tinged with purple, then red, then… black. Suddenly a violent light cuts the clouds, envelops everything and everyone. Four figures appear in the sky, impossible to distinguish them, the light burns the eyes, forcing everyone to protect their eyes. A few seconds of silence, then a roar. The shock wave hits the city, many fall to the ground, windows explode. Now it is panic, everyone flees, looking for shelter, in search of loved ones.

Another flash, the four vanish from the sky, some hear an explosion in front of the old destroyed tower, that mysterious building now in ruins just outside the city.

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse enter the Lodge!

Nobody seems to know what they want, why they arrived right now. Some think they were evoked by a Magister in the grip of delirium of omnipotence, unleashing a new disaster on the Lodge, others think more disturbing origins.

Only one thing is certain, they don't seem interested in conquering the power of the Black Rose... they seem more interested in the souls of the Magisters called back by the Black Rose to rebuild the Lodge...

We are delighted to finally introduce you to this new epic expansion!

Here are the main features:

•  4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse, playable as powerful Mages! Four spectacular models are added to your collection: Bellum, Mortem, Fames, Pestilentia.

•  4 new Schools of Magic that can be used in any game: War, Death, Plague, and Famine! Each school is highly themed, with unique and unreleased mechanics in line with its Horseman.

•  4 new Forgotten Spells, will allow you to summon the Four Horsemen in any game!

• "Apocalypse" game mode. A deadly challenge where the Horsemen will face each other in their legendary version, each one using the deck of their own School of Magic!

•  Constructed game mode! Create your Mage by deciding stats and feats, build your deck (your personal Library) before the game, following simple rules. A totally new way to play, perfect for more strategic games and tournaments!

As with all expansions, this one is also playable with both BRW: Rebirth and BRW.

In tomorrow’s update, we will go into more detail on this apocalyptic expansion, stay tuned!

That's all for now but don't forget the new Social Stretch Goal: Help us spread the word, once we will reach 1000 shares on this Facebook post, Maelice will be unlocked and added to Rebirth as a mage! We will reveal some more about her as soon as you will unlock it!

Apocalyptic Fireball!                                                        

Introducing Avatars...and news about Stretch Goals!
over 3 years ago – Sat, Sep 04, 2021 at 01:36:10 PM

Hello, Magisters!

Here we are with the long-awaited Avatars update, one of the great innovations introduced with Rebirth!

We waited until we revealed a good number of them, including the mighty Gaea, before telling you in detail how they work.

Avatars allow both to play solo and to increase the level of difficulty and variability in games with multiple players, they can be played in both chapters of the Saga, in Black Rose Wars, and in Black Rose Wars: Rebirth.

The behavior of each Avatar is managed by a deck of cards (a different deck for each Avatar) that will outline the personality, as each Avatar has its own peculiarities.

For example, Odin plays with his trusty Starkaðr; He will leave a special trophy to those who kill him, the trophy is able to cure the owner, who will become the new champion of Odin, but at the same time it will also bring negative effects with him.

Gaea will try to bring the Lodge back to nature, suffocating it with her powerful Roots capable of blocking the rooms built by the mages.

Let's see more in detail how they work: an Avatar is considered like a Mage and it shares both the power points and the cubes with the Black Rose.

Setup

Place the Avatar sheet adjacent to the Rooms of the Lodge, the position will determine the moment of its activation. On the Avatar board, place the deck of Command Cards of the First Moon (10 cards) in the dedicated space, this deck will be replaced at each change of Moon Phase, with the deck of 10 Command Cards related to the new Moon Phase.

For example, Odin's Avatar card shows on one side the instructions for its setup, where it is said to remove from the Forgotten Spells deck the card that allows you to summon Fenrir since this evocation will be used by Odin during the game.

On the other side of Odin's Avatar card, we find the characteristics, special rules, and its main effect, which will be applied every time the symbol of the crown of thorns appears on a command card.

Place a cube (or the unlocked cute Skull miniature!) on its board to indicate the limit of his Health Points, different for each Avatar. Also place his Avatar card, which indicates his characteristics and special powers.

Avatar Activation

During the Action Phase, when it's time to make the Avatar act, reveal its first Command Card from the deck and apply its effects. There are 3 different types of Command cards and their layout is similar to Spell cards, to maintain a familiarity in understanding the effects.

Almost all the cards indicate performing a Physical action before or after a Magical effect, while others simply allow the Avatar to perform only the Magical effect.

Some of these cards allow you to summon creatures or activate them. Other cards have a symbol that indicates the activation of the Avatar's special power.

For example, Odin draws the Command card "Strength of Jotunheim", the first action to be performed is the Physical action, Odin moves by its movement score towards the target Mage. The target Mage is chosen following the Priority Rule, which lists the values ​​to be checked in order of priority. In this case, Odin will choose the Mage with the most Trophies, in case of a tie between more Mages it will choose the one with the most damage suffered, and so on.

Once all the movement is done, following the shortest path to get to the target, the second action is performed, this is a Spell that deals damage to a Mage in the same room with Odin. If there are more Mages in its Room, the target is always chosen following the Priority Rule.

We don't want to give you too many spoilers about Odin's strategy, but we can tell you that in every different Moon Phase its strategy will change considerably and that being its Champion will not always be good!

Some Avatars may have personal tokens, to indicate in-game special effects that are unleashed and not related to the normal flow of the game, such as the Roots of Gaea.

Thanks to their actions, Avatars will also be able to complete Quests and undergo the effects of Events, like any normal player.

Being able to collect both Trophies and Quests, Avatars participate in all rankings for the calculation of Power Points at the end of the game.

The Avatars can be used for solo mode, for exciting multiplayer games, and they can be used without problems in the original BRW game.

Whichever way they are played, they will add new depth to the two Black Rose Wars chapters and force players to develop new strategies and handle situations that are difficult to predict.

New Stretch Goals

After reading and taking into consideration your comments and suggestions, we discussed and worked on SGs and we have decided to "restyle" their dedicated section.

We made 2 main changes:

The first is a graphic restyling, to present the SGs in a more similar way to the first Black Rose Wars project, in order to maintain a better consistency between the two projects.

More interesting for all the participants in the campaign is the second change: we have added a good number of SGs, some were planned to appear later in the Campaign, others have been added taking into account your feedback, always valuable to us. This has been done to increase the variety of the SGs and to immediately increase the global value of what has been achieved so far. One among many: the ability to play ALL Avatars as Evocations through Forgotten Spells.

The best news is that... all of these new SGs are already unlocked!

We are sure that you will be happy with this news and you will appreciate the efforts we make to deliver a product that is as similar to your expectations as possible.

Stretch Goal boxes!

Over the past few years, we have been trying to figure out how to optimize the big boxes we deliver with SGs, we know how hard it could be to bring a Sator box to friends or, worse, on holiday!

As many of you have noticed, there are some common themes for all the SGs, exactly 6 common themes. We decided to pack SGs in 6 different boxes, one for each theme, the boxes can be combined together in your bookshelf (bonus: they recreate the Rebirth logo!).

What do you think of it? But know right away that it doesn't end there: breaking the Black Rose Wars result will add another extra special feature related to these boxes…

Now it’s time for you to go back to the campaign page and see all the changes!

Fireball!

PS: we also have an idea for the backers of the original game, about the Sator box, we will continue to refine it and the idea will then be proposed on a survey in the original Black Rose Wars campaign, after the Essen Spiel fair scheduled for mid-October.

PPS: our very best wishes to Peio and Sofia (Andrea’s children), unfortunately, this afternoon they had a car accident. Luckily they ended up just with a fright a few scars.

Put the book back!
over 3 years ago – Sat, Sep 04, 2021 at 01:17:33 PM

The voice inside you, which helped you to survive until now, suggests that the thief probably used that very secret passage. The area around the book is clean, free of dust and cobwebs, a clear sign that someone must have used it recently.

Dai Jin, a true gentleman, asks you to wait, he wants to check that there are no traps, but the bookcase suddenly rotates around his axis again, blocking your friend in the middle. After a moment of fear, you see the deformed face of the old mage, who looks at you out of the corner of his eye and says: "put the candle back ... er ... the book, but the book back!"

Trying to hold back the laughter, you do what he asked you to do, the bookcase rotates in reverse, making Dai Jin disappear behind it.

"Remove the book" he says.

You do it, the bookcase rotates again and you throw yourself on the other side of the passage.

The passage closes behind you, two veils of light, created from Dai Jin, illuminate the room, he looks at you "Are you laughing?"

You wave your hand carelessly like it's a silly question that isn't worth answering, then you pass in front of him so that he can't see you smiling.

The room is empty, there are no tapestries or furniture on the walls. The humidity is palpable, in the center of the room a staircase descends, in the depth. You remember the Lodge dungeons, a place where as a child you never dared to venture ...

It is dark all around, the stones that form the rough steps seem carved directly into the lava stone, the narrow walls greedily absorb any hint of light.

At the bottom of the staircase, you enter a corridor with several openings, in the first on your right, you see a crypt. You approach to inspect the tomb.

The inlaid black stone on the top of the sarcophagus represents an austere-looking man, with a long, richly embroidered robe. On his chest, he holds a book. You look around, you see numerous sculptures in the semi-darkness, knights with unrecognizable features seem to guard the tomb. You keep looking around, trying to figure out who the man buried in the center of the small room might be.

You move closer, on the cover of the book he holds in his hands you read: Chaos.

You suddenly realize that the book is not part of the sculpture, it is only held firmly by hands of stone. You try to grab it and with strange ease you pull it out of his cold embrace.

You read the first two pages, then flip through it by jumping here and there between the various chapters.

It is magic, dark magic, unheard of before.

You read a name: "Landolfo II di Capua", you know who he is: the first Black Mage.

Only now you understand what you did, the statues weren't there to protect the tomb from thieves, but they were there to protect the world from the Black Mage. The stone cover of the sarcophagus begins to move slowly and noisily... dense darkness comes out of the tomb, swallowing the surrounding area.

"Come on Jin, run!!"

You rush out of the room, looking for a place to take refuge.

Your choice made you discover a new School of Magic: Chaos.

This new school will let you explore the dark depths of the human mind.

Some of its spells are focused on doing damage over time thanks to Ongoing effects, some other, like Dispel Magic, are defense capable of nullifying opposing spells.

School of Chaos development has been a really good challenge, it always took us in directions hard to manage, with truly bizarre effects!

Before giving you more details, we are curious to know what you expect from this school! What spells do you imagine it can hide?

Running in the darkness, followed by your floating friend, you come to a crossroads.

On the one hand, an unnatural silence, accompanied by scents of wild nature, attracts and repels you at the same time (Scent).

On the other hand, a tinkling of bells attracts your attention, a dark shadow seems to move in your direction (Bells).

You don't have time to think, darkness is devouring the corridor behind you, choose your destiny.

The Blood of Gaea
over 3 years ago – Sat, Sep 04, 2021 at 07:33:07 AM

Hello Magister!

Today, let's take a closer look at the new Gaea Reborn expansion.

We obviously start from its titanic protagonist: Gaea!

Since the very first Nova Aetas, Gaea has somehow appeared in all LMS games (even multiple times than Jukas... amazing!), She is a powerful deity worshiped by Fauns.

Gaea has been dormant for millennia and now she has decided to manifest herself in all her power, perhaps following the awakening of other powerful Titans such as Crono and Hyperion.

The author of this awakening is her prophetess Talia, a powerful Primaeval sorceress. After recovering and awakening the power of the Blood of Gaea, an ancient artifact that contains the power of the Titan, Talia was able to restore her power to Gaea: the crystals that form the Blood of Gaea, placed in her womb, favor her regeneration. To return to life, Gaea will have to bury the Lodge and the Black Rose, making them disappear forever.

Gaea is the mother of creation and nature, and as she can be benevolent or cruel, she can create and destroy ... and that's exactly what she will do during a game.

Gaea is an Epic Avatar, her basic rules are similar to those of the Avatars already arrived in the Lodge, and is therefore perfect for both solo mode and multiplayer games. Gaea adds 15 new Event cards and 15 new Quest cards, which must be added to those in the Core Box when playing against Gaea.

In the expansion, you will also find 4 new Rooms, including the alternative Black Rose Room (!). For example, Gaea will be able to unleash her powers by filling the rooms of the Lodge with Roots, thus preventing Mages from placing Instability until the roots are eliminated.

The gigantic miniature of Gaea, at 130mm tall, towers over every other miniature in the Lodge. Crystals and rebirth are emphasized by a transparent green insert that makes it even more epic!

Talia will be the champion of Gaea and will take her side during the battle, but she can also be used as a Mage in normal Rebirth games: the expansion therefore also includes her Mage card and 3 copies of her Personal Spell "Blood of the Earth".

Gaea Reborn also adds a new School of Magic: Geomancy!

The mechanics of this new school are closely tied to the Gaea theme! Spells will trigger powerful effects based on the type of room (color) the target of the spell or the Mage casting them are in. Spells of Geomancy focus on controlling the playing field, with powerful natural effects that can block and slow down enemies, and on rebuilding or destroying Rooms.

Nova Aetas Renaissance players will also be able to use this expansion in their adventures in Renaissance Italy! Gaea can be faced with a hunting mission totally dedicated to her. Gaea Reborn therefore also contains all the material to be able to face Gaea: 1 Prey card, 16 prey action cards, plus new equipment and reagents!

Everything described so far makes Gaea Reborn an unmissable expansion for all Rebirth players who want to increase replayability and variability in their games and add two amazing new miniatures to the Rebirth collection!

That is all for now! We remind you to go to the Rebirth BGG page to become a fan and help the community unlock the first Social Stretch Goals of this campaign!

Less than 200 fans are missing to add Venticello, an amazing new Mage, to your collection!

See you later to discover a new stage of Irene's journey!

Fireball!

A monkey on my shoulder!
over 3 years ago – Tue, Aug 31, 2021 at 03:56:07 AM

Your sixth sense suggests you to follow Dai Jin. Through the dark corridor you reach a crossroads, two doors open on its sides, the one on your left is severely damaged, while on the opposite side a refined door with splendid inlaid columns, a clear sign that the room in front of you it must have belonged to some prominent exponent of the Lodge, perhaps the Great Magister.

It looks you read your friend's mind when you put your hand on the luxurious door handle: in the role of the thief you would have gone into that room, the best place to find something precious to steal.

You cautiously enter followed by your new friend. In the dark you catch a glimpse of large bookcases, columns that cut the huge hall into three aisles and at the back the shape of a desk overflowing with books. Your eyes are slowly getting used to the darkness, you don't want to use lights to try to surprise the thief. You move slowly, you look in amazement at your new friend as he is literally levitating on the floor.

Dai Jin greedily heads to the library, hoping to find something useful. You continue down the central aisle towards the desk.

Suddenly a creak stops you. The chair behind the large desk rotates to reveal two red eyes. Immediately the books fly away in an explosion of pages, while something hits you in the stomach throwing you to the ground. 

Your scream of pain calls Dai Jin.

A long stick quickly goes back towards the table, a large humanoid-looking monkey jumps on you.

He looks at you curiously, keeping you on the ground, he looks fierce, you try to cast a spell when a greenish light envelops the big monkey and lifts it.

Sun Wukong, the Monkey King. 

This beautiful miniature will appear on your game table as a Forgotten Spell. One of its characteristics is being able to hit enemy models even at long distances, it is very difficult to hit but has a relatively low number of hit points.

Dai Jin starts reciting spells, moving his hands in bizarre, unnatural positions. 

A veil of light tightens on the Monkey King, who begins to scream and curse at the old mage. The veil tightens more and more, incorporating parts of the monkey, which after a few seconds disappears in a flash of light.

"This was one of my spells, the thief passed through here, but where did she go?"

You raise your hand and a sphere illuminates the entire room. 

While inspecting the various bookshelves for something useful, a tome catches your attention. You touch it with your fingertips, you realize it is... marble! 

You try to take it out, but as it resists your grip you hear a metallic noise, like a lock being clicked. Suddenly the bookshelf rotates revealing a secret passage.

It's time to choose, do you want to go back to inspect the second room of the corridor (corridor) or do you want to continue in the secret passage (passage)?