Black Rose Wars: Rebirth

The Blood of Gaea
over 4 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 4 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)?

Winds of Change!
over 4 years ago – Tue, Aug 31, 2021 at 03:29:05 AM

Hello, Magisters!

Did you have a good weekend? Relaxed? Now it's time to play hard!

Here are 2 new add-ons for you: Deadly Masks and Gaea Reborn.

Deadly Masks is the expansion that will allow you to play Rebirth with 5 or 6 players!

In this expansion you will find 2 new Mages and the complete set of components needed to add 2 players to your games: 2 Cells, 2 Mage Sheets, 6 Personal Spell cards, 2 sets of all tokens and rings for the Evocations; The mages will use 2 new colors: Green and Yellow.

Sefu and Angela will join those already present in the Core Box and, in addition to their two beautiful miniatures, they will have their Mage Card and 3 copies of their Personal Spell. Let's get acquainted with these two new contenders for the title of Great Magister!

Sefu comes from the remote and unspoiled lands of the African continent, beyond the great desert. In these lands, where the spirits of nature are still powerful, the Shamanic School was born. Sefu is the last of an ancient lineage of Magisters of this school. He and his ancestors dedicated their lives to their tribe and to the control of the primeval spirits who rule all things. Although the influence of the Lodge is weaker in these distant lands, Sefu 25 years ago sensed the fall of the Black Rose, and he now is hearing the call, he knows that a new war is about to begin. The time has come for a Shaman to bring order to the chaos in which the Lodge is, once and for all!

His personal spell “Spiritual Totems” will allow him to move each Totem in the Lodge as he likes and place huge amounts of Instability!

Angela inherited the natural talent of her family, her grandmother was Caterina Sforza, one of the most celebrated magisters of the Alchemy School. From her, Angela inherited powers and a passion for alchemical arts. Despite her young age, many of the other wizards fear her innate talent, her growing thirst for knowledge ... and power. Her use of Alchemical wisdom is revolutionizing decades of tradition, even the oldest and most traditionalists among alchemists are surrendering to the discoveries that this young woman is making, tracing a golden future for this school long overshadowed by the others. What better opportunity to consolidate her power than to answer the call of the Black Rose, rebuild the Lodge, and become the new Great Magister? 

Her personal spell “Alchemic Summoning” will let her combine 3 alchemical elements to add Albedo's Forgotten Spell directly from the deck to her hand! But be careful, your opponents will know about your terrible weapon and will prepare themselves to face it in the following rounds!

Listening to your feedback, some of you will have already noticed that we have designed the plastic trays of the Core Box to also contain all the Deadly Masks material, so you can store all the material in a single box to be ready to play up to 6 players!

Besides Deadly Masks, today we are also announcing the expansion Gaea Reborn!

This rich expansion contains Gaea, a huge new Titan (130mm!!!), her prophetess Talia, a new Mage, and a new School of Magic: Geomancy!

You will also find 4 new Rooms, new event cards, specific Quests & Events playable in the games that will see her as the protagonist. Tomorrow we will reveal all the details about this expansion, we just anticipate that Gaea is an Epic Avatar and that the expansion can also be played in Nova Aetas Renaissance!

As always, all add-ons can be added now or later, after the end of the campaign, during the Pledge Manager. Adding add-ons (or their value) during the campaign helps unlock new stretch goals and thus enrich the value of your pledge.

Last but not least, today we are launching the first Social Stretch Goal: the challenge is to help us make Rebirth known by reaching 1500 likes on the BoardGameGeek page dedicated to Black Rose Wars: Rebirth! 

If we achieve this Venticello, a new Mage will be added to all the backers! Don't waste time, go to the BoardGameGeek Rebirth page and click on the heart icon! Did you recognize him? His name could also be familiar to some backers :)

This new mage has come from a parallel dimension, he was traveling through space and time on a giant turtle, trying to escape from angry mobs, after he accidentally set a fire that destroyed an entire city! The Black Rose call reached him and now he seems ready to join the challenge!

See you later for the new chapter of Irene's fate.

Fireball!!!

A new friend.
over 4 years ago – Sun, Aug 29, 2021 at 11:55:40 PM

The noise you hear coming from the room beyond the main entrance scares you, after yesterday you may think it is not the best choice you can make. Something in your head tells you that the crack in the wall is the right way to go. You gather your things and slip into the crack in the wall, attracted by those strange lights.

You are now in a completely dark room, illuminated at times by ghostly lights that seem to dance suspended in the air. Absorbed in contemplating the beauty of this vision, you are distracted by a hum. A male voice with an exotic pronunciation, it almost seems to be complaining about something.

You search in the dark hoping that the lights will come to your aid. Your instinct guides you until, through a green dancing light, you see an old face with a nice mustache staring at you.

"I found you little thief!" he says sternly to you with a strange accent never heard before. You don't have the time to answer, the light expands, wraps you like a sheet, covering you completely. You are now blocked.

The old man approaches you, he starts looking at you through the veil of light, then mumbles some other strange and incomprehensible words, and the light vanishes letting you go.

"Uff ... it's not you" he continues annoyed "a girl, very skilled to tell the truth, surprised me and robbed me of my possessions". The thief struck again, you immediately think.

"All junk for pity's sake, nothing of value, my money is well hidden", then throwing his shoulders and arms down he lets out a sigh "but I have to find it, the monkey's magic is too precious and I can't risk it ending in the wrong hands”.

A new character from the far east just joined the Black Rose Wars: Dai Jin, a new powerful mage. His personal spell is based on the Nightmare and Alchemy schools. The Nightmare School gives him the possibility to leave veils of light in the rooms, represented by tokens, which can be used in two ways:

1 - As an obstacle for opposing models, as they will end their movement when entering a room where this token is present.

2 - As one of the alchemical symbols of earth, water, air or fire to enhance, when you enter that room, any Alchemy spell, including your personal spell.

The Alchemy school allows him to convert damage on opposing mages, with a secondary effect based on the alchemical symbols on his mage board and/or in the room where he is.

After explaining to Dai Jin that you are also looking for the thief, the old mage offers to accompany you.

He is convinced that he saw her flee south. He also tells you very frightened that he has no intention of going to the room to the north, the room where that deafening din continues to come from.

Do you decide to follow Dai Jin (South) or do you want to know what is the source of the noise (North)?

We are entering the sixth day of the campaign, the initial sprint has been great, the best since we started creating projects on Kickstarter. We have already unlocked 12 new great models (6 Mages, 3 Avatars and 3 Forgotten Spell Evocations), new miniature tokens, one new school of magic, another school is coming. We have 10 more daily stretch goals and many other to to reveal!

Now we have an iconic milestone in front of us, to surpass the result obtained with the first Black Rose Wars project (€ 1,112K / $ 1,311K). We are definitely confident that you will help us achieve this record in the coming days, so we want to let you know that we have prepared a very nice surprise and that we will reveal it soon!

Get ready because in tomorrow's update Mastro Peio will announce two new items for sale in his shop, two new game addons!

And here another beautiful spoiler 

Saturday "alchemical" night fever
over 4 years ago – Sun, Aug 29, 2021 at 11:50:55 PM

The fog seems to move around the room, as if it was hunting you. 

Once again that voice in your mind sends out a warning...

"Mirror now!" You decide to hurry up and cross your fingers, you squint… your eyes dazzled by the reflection of light on the mirror surface, you reach out and the sensation of a frozen liquid envelops your hand. The mirror now seems to pull you towards itself, with more and more force.

Your head is still spinning, and you don't have the strength to resist, you decide to let yourself go.

You get sucked through the mirror, into a vortex of frozen liquid, nothing to hold on to.

Images of places you've never visited intermix with familiar places, swirling before your eyes. Dozens of strangers pass in front of you in a few seconds, ignoring you. You see them as if through a deformed lens, they look distorted – something known but at the same time foreign. Suddenly, a strange apparition, a pink hog, takes notice of you and tries to grab you, but like any other figure it deforms and melts in the distance.

You fall to your knees; you feel as if awakened from a nightmare. You look around, it's evening now.

You don't remember this room, maybe it was one of the rooms you were forbidden from, one of those you always wanted to enter, but never dared. The ceiling has given way to the starry sky. It looks like an old museum, weapons and armor are placed on special supports, many ruined by time, some swallowed by clinging vines. Many lie on the ground, dented and rusted.

You move around in wonder, attracted by the many details, until a beautiful and massive armor catches your attention. It is located in front of the main entrance, it's all red with precious inserts, but the strangest thing is that it looks new, as if time had never touched it.

At its feet is a case with a paper inside. The paper looks alive, and the image inside seems to come to life.

Your foot hits something under the pedestal of the case, you bend down and observe several bodies, now reduced to little more than skeletons, piled at the foot of the armor. You open the case to take the card, but at that precise moment the armor animates, trying to hit you. You lean back, avoiding the long blade by a whisper, grab the paper and try to jump away.

According to the Magnum Opus, Nigredo and Albedo represent black and white, decay and purification.

Nigredo is the knight within the Core box, an Evocation linked with the alchemical school.

Albedo is the Forgotten Spell, represented for now by a token inside the base box.

Rubedo represents the final state of matter, the alchemical marriage between white and black that generate the philosopher's stone, red.

Rubedo is a new Avatar for Black Rose Wars. Its strength is impressive, managing to withstand the impact of magic, the same with which it was created. Instead of a heart it has a philosopher's stone, imbued with a strong magical power. One of his unique characteristics is the ability to summon and command Nigredo and Albedo, using them as his own Evocations. 

Rubedo doesn't have long-range attacks, but if you get in his way, that's probably your end.

You keep running and leaping all over the room, avoiding slashes as best you can. The armor presses you, any magic you cast at it seems to be absorbed, causing very little effect. You try to bring down objects and furniture to slow it down. You finally see a fairly large hole in a dark corner, after distracting the armor with a sphere of light thrown towards its helmet you rush inside the hole, crouching like a frightened mouse.

The armor is searching for you and the metallic sound of its footsteps in the cold silence of the night makes you shiver. You see his leggings pass in front of you, you wait for him to walk away, trying to formulate an escape plan.

Unfortunately, the armor keeps moving around the room, it seems to be sure of your presence. Then you feel something moving within your hands… you remember, the paper taken from the case.

In the dark you can't read anything that is written on it, but you feel an enormous arcane power spring from it, the same one that the knight probably also perceives.

You decide to take a risk, allow some magic words slip from your lips. The magical light immediately attracts the attention of the armor, which strides towards you. You don't waste time, you try to quickly read the formula written on the paper, but a hard and cold hand grabs you and throws you against the opposite wall. The impact is tremendous and takes away your breath. The knight reaches you again, takes you by the neck and lifts you off the ground, the grip is very strong, and you cannot free yourself.

Before losing consciousness, you whisper a few words, with the little air left in your lungs:

"Iosis, the sunset, Sun and Moon together, fusion of masculine and feminine, marriage between soul and spirit, Prometheus."

The armor freezes for a moment, then drops you to the ground. A moment later the armor begins to crumble into a pile of burning ashes, the wind blowing in from the ceiling scatters it all over the room. You sit on the ground, catching your breath, and securing that card.

You are too tired to continue, you prepare a makeshift bed near the hole that saved your life. You eat a piece of dried meat and take a sip from your water bottle. You fall asleep thinking that the next day, with the coming sunlight, you will try to recover your belongings keeping a lookout for the thief.

The morning sun hits your face, almost envious, waking you up from a restless night. You still feel sore, but you have regained your energy. In the room you now notice that next to the main exit there is a large crack in the wall...  Where might it lead?

A deafening noise seems to come from the room in front of you, everything seems to vibrate, as if an earthquake was concentrating only on that room, while from the crack in the wall you can see only halos of light, like small ghostly northern lights.

Make your choice wisely: Do you enter the room right in front (Front) or do you explore what's in that crack (Crack)?

Below you find a comparative scale between some of our models, to make you better understand Rubedo's size, and to give you a couple of small clues about what will come later in the Campaign.