Black Rose Wars: Rebirth

Returning from the German Lodge
over 3 years ago – Sun, Oct 30, 2022 at 07:10:55 AM

Update contents:

• Pre-production Report
• Spiel'22 Report
• Deadly Mask Spotlight

Hello, Magisters!

Welcome to a new update full of interesting stuff!

First of all, we update you on the progress of the pre-production work. The work of Marco and the developers on Apocalypse and Rotas Box is progressing and soon we will be able to show you some spoilers about the material we are producing.

The art department is also working to create artworks that will enrich the cards of the new Schools of Magic. Here you have the fantastic art of the 4 Apocalypse Schools of Magic, which we previewed at Spiel '22. In our opinion, they are the best created so far, but tell us what you think about them!

On the production front, we are working with the factory on the final optimizations of the last batch of Miniatures, in preparation for mass production.

Translations, an area on which we are particularly focused, given the amount of material to be produced in 5 languages: at the moment the Core box is in an advanced stage of translation. The expansions (with the exception of Apocalypse and Rotas) are complete for English and Italian. They will start to be translated in the other languages ​​as soon as the translators will complete the work on the Core Box.

That's all for now!

ESSEN SPIEL 2022

We are back from another fantastic Spiel edition! Our Booth, set in the magical and icy land of RUNAR, hosted many fans of our games, and of course, Rebirth was one of the most played games by old and new Magisters! Great Magister Marco Montanaro led the demos for two days of uninterrupted battles in the Lodge by discovering new schools and previewing the Apocalypse expansion.

We also brought many of the miniature PU Samples which showed the final quality of the models ready for mass production.

Among the super positive news, Pegasus Spiele presented the Black Rose Wars retail version in German, attracting enormous interest from players who did not yet know him, demonstrating that even after 4 years from the original KS, the world of BRW is still super active! And the arrival of Rebirth in 2023 will add new life to our most beloved game. The Lodge is being populated with new Magisters and the community is growing more and more!

On the Rebirth demo table, we alternated games of the Core Game and Apocalypse, so that those who did not know either BRW or Rebirth could play games by trying out the mechanics of the core game and appreciate it better. The demo games with Apocalypse were also very useful for us and Marco to evaluate the final tuning of the expansion, thanks to the much direct feedback we collected during the days of the convention.

The special issue of Ashes magazine, with Helblindi, the ice giant shaman, has been a great success!

We remember with its Promo Miniature it can be used in BRW and BRW:Rebirth as a new Mage, with its personal spells and its Mage card. In the previous updateyou can find the full description and instructions on how to buy it from our online shop (shipped now or added to your Rebirth pledge with no extra shipping costs).

To conclude, this year the Spiel'22 was a success for BRW and Rebirth, and we can't wait for the next edition! In the meantime, we thank all of you who came to visit to support us in person!

DEADLY MASK

We continue with the Rebirth expansions spoilers, and today we show you a preview of Deadly Mask's final materials, which will allow you to play Rebirth up to 6 players.

In addition to all material needed to add fifth/sixth player (2 Mage Sheets, cubes, 2 Mage Cells, and bases; all in two new colors), this expansion sees the entry of two new Mages into the Lodge: Angela and Sefu.

Sefu is a Magister of the Shamanic School, one of the most multifaceted schools in Rebirth, and his Custom Spell, called "Mask of the World", is perfect to create a Grimoire composed mainly of Spells coming from this School.

The light side effect of "Mask of the World", once activated and until the end of the current turn, will allow you to obtain additional Power Points from the solved Quests and to draw a Quest as soon as you have solved one. An effect that, if programmed in the right way (combining it with effects from other Spells or the Lodge Rooms), can earn you a fair amount of additional points!

The dark side has a very direct effect, making you place Instability and gain PP. In this way "Mask of the World" can always be used in a useful way, using the dark side while you wait for the right moment to make the most of the light side!

Angela, Magister of the Alchemy School, will be able to count on "Emet-Met", which embodies the spirit of her School. 

The light side will make her summon a Nigredo, which thanks to the Enhancement effect, can be activated immediately (and with tasty bonuses). In Rebirth, Enhancement is a new keyword that allows you to add effects to a spell if in the current turn you have already used a specific Element (earth, fire, etc.). Alchemy has a large number of Spells that have a "*" in place of the Element; which means that the Mage may decide the Element of a Spell, which obviously helps a lot in activating the Enhancements!

The dark side allows Angela to sacrifice a Construct of hers to inflict damage and placeInstability in the Room she was in, effectively turning her Constructs into powerful alchemical bombs!

These Magisters have enormous potential and perfectly complement the core box content. We remind you also that the Core box has been designed to store all the Deadly Mask material, so that you can keep everything you need to play up to 6 players (or simply 2 more Magisters) in one box.

That's all for today! Let us know what you think of these two new Magisters. Looking for November for a new update!

Fireball!

Road to Essen Spiel '22
over 3 years ago – Sat, Sep 24, 2022 at 02:07:22 AM

Update Contents:

•     Project update
•     Spiel '22
•     Ashes Special Issue
•     Irene's Preview

Hello, Magisters!

Welcome to this rich September update, we are going to tell you several things, so we recommend that you read it carefully to the end!

Let's start with the best topic: the progress of Rebirth development.

To give you better clarity, we prepared an image to show you the timeline with the various steps and the timing for the next months, in order to reach the goal of shipping Rebirth by the first half of 2023.

The development of the game and all its expansions is progressing very well. The Core Box and the expansions of Jukas, Irene the Wanderer, Dread Forge, Deadly Masks, and Gaea Reborn are completed and being translated into different languages. The two most complex expansions are still under development: Apocalypse and the Rotas Box.

Apocalypse not just "only" 4 new Schools of Magic, but also includes the Tournament Mode and the Custom Mages; these are very important and complex additions, to which we are dedicating a lot of energy to ensure that the final result is up to the expectations of the players' community. Rotas Box, the huge stretch goal box, is the other giant still under development. With its mass of extremely varied material (new Mages, Schools of Magic, Avatars, Evocations, and much more!) it also requires a lot of effort to complete it properly.

To ensure that the timeline is respected while maintaining a high level of quality, we have further expanded our development team and our group of playtesters. Consider that there is a dedicated group of playtesters working ONLY on Apocalypse. The tireless Great Magister Marco Montanaro is constantly assisting the whole team, churning out new and fantastic ideas that will bring lots of news to the universe of BRW. We will keep you constantly updated on the progress of the work We know it is a very tight action plan, and the amount of translations in the various languages is what makes us a bit more nervous, but we are confident of succeeding.

Essen Spiel '22  (6th-9th Oct)

This year LMS will be present again at the most important European Convention of our sector, with a bigger booth and with many demo tables. Obviously, our beloved Rebirth will be there! For the occasion, we decided to surprise you: in an absolute preview, you will be able to try all the Apocalypse material! At the demo table, you will find the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse with their 4 Schools of Magic. 

Guided by Marco Montanaro you will be able to give life to the definitive battle for the throne of the Black Rose! We hope to meet many of you, to show you lots of new material and lots of PU Samples of Rebirth miniatures coming directly from the factory! We look forward to seeing you at Booth 2E112!

Ashes Special Issue

As per our tradition, for the Spiel we have created a new issue of our magazine Ashes. This year Ashes will include an extra sweet tooth for BRW and BRW: Rebirth players: a fantastic new miniature, Helblindi, directly from our new project: RUNAR ! 

This ice giant shaman with its Promo Miniature can be used in BRW and BRW: Rebirth as a new Mage, with its personal spells and its Mage card! You will also find promo cards to play Helblindi in Runar, in Nova Aetas Renaissance as a new enemy, and a new Mission for D.E.I.!

Here you have all the options to buy the new issue of Ashes with Helblindi:

1 - You can pre-order Ashes at our shop and pick them up directly at our booth during the convention days. Alternatively, you can also buy it directly at the booth, but remember the quantities will be limited, so if you are interested we suggest you pre-order it!

2 - You can pre-order Ashes on our shop and have it shipped directly to your home, shipments will start from 6 October.

3 - If you have a Rebirth pledge or late pledge, you can pre-order Ashes on our shop and have it added to your order, along with all the rest of the BRW:R items, without additional shipping costs! Simply enter the "BACKERSREBIRTH" coupon at checkout.

Choose the method that works best for you and get ready to welcome this icy Mage into the Lodge!

Irene the Wanderer

New spoiler on the material produced, today it is the turn of Irene the wanderer, the Mage who guided you through the ruins of the lodge during the KS!

Let's have a look at her Personal Spell: "Notes of the Magisters"! The "light-side" effect allows excellent control of your deck or alternatively allows you to draw a Forgotten Spell without the need to activate the Black Rose Room! If you liked this side, wait now to see the "Dark-side" effect! It is a powerful trap, when another Mage draws a Forgotten Spell you can draw a Forgotten spell too, choosing it from the first two cards of the deck! Both effects are very powerful but mainly useful in the late game, so be careful because opponents can prepare themselves before Irene will be able to fully exploit them. To get the most out of "Note of the Magisters" you will require a Grimoire based on Schools of Magic that allows you to draw many cards, such as Geomancy.

Don't forget Irene is the main character of the novel "Secret of the Lodge", which will let you immerse into the magic atmosphere of the Black Rose Wars. The translation of the novel has been completed, and proofreading is nearly done. We're sure it will add great value to those of you that consider Black Rose Wars, not just a boardgame!

Before saying goodbye, we renew the invitation to come and visit us at Spiel'22!

See you again in mid-October for a report on the convention and lots of new previews!

#Fireball!!

Pledge Manager officially Closed!
over 3 years ago – Fri, Sep 02, 2022 at 04:43:26 AM

Hello, Magisters!

A quick update about Rebirth's Pledge Manager!

As announced in Update #43, the Pledge Manager officially closed yesterday (31st August).

Anyway don't worry! The official closure of the PM will not prevent latecomers from completing their survey for the next period. In the next few days we will confirm the final quantities to be produced to the factory  and start with the mass production. Those quantities will be based on actual orders received, plus a small extra quantity to cover potential additional orders and replacements.

This means that we will have extra availability for each item, which can be used to cover some late orders that will arrive from now on. Once this extra quantity is over, that item will no longer be available (basically it is a "while stocks last" policy).

So if you have not yet completed your survey, you can still do it. We suggest you to do it as soon as possible, to avoid potential stock issues.

For any problem or question, as always, please contact our support service at this link: LMS SUPPORT CENTER

For those who have already completed their order, we remind you that you can make changes to it by contacting our Customer Service.

That's all for today, next week we will come back to you with a new update, with more spoilers about expansions contents and a report about the state of the work!

Fireball!

From the Ashes
over 3 years ago – Thu, Aug 11, 2022 at 02:31:27 PM

Update Contents:

• Expansion Spotlight: Seal of Fire 

Hello, Magisters!

After the spoilers-tsunami that the Great Magister gave us in Update #44, we begin to take a closer look at the work we have done in recent months, showing you the materials from the expansions that we consider finalized and which are about to be translated.

Let's start with the latest of the BRW:R expansions, but certainly the hottest one: Seal of Fire!

This box will add to your Lodge a new Magister, a new Forgotten Spell and its (epic) Evocation, plus 3 Pets, all linked by a common theme: Fire & Rebirth!

Prospero is the young son of Nero, one of the legendary Magisters who faced Lucifer before the fall of the Lodge. From his father, he inherited an unbridled ambition and a true talent for Destruction, which guided him on his path to becoming a Magister and which has already earned him a bad reputation... as they say: like father, like son!

His Personal Spell "Alchemical Fireball" perfectly shows his thirst for devastation and will make you shout "FIREBALL!!" with even more emphasis than before!

The effect on the light side of this spell has a "vintage" flavor and if activated after playing other spells with a "fire" element, it will allow you to inflict an impressive amount of damage, and your unfortunate target will not be able to activate any Defense spell. The dark side effect instead aims to inflict damage on as many targets as possible within a Room, in order to fill it with your Instability.

This spell can be easily integrated into decks created to inflict damage or to place Instability and therefore based on the schools of Agony, Alchemy, or Shamanic.

Let's move on to the (big) protagonist of this expansion, the magnificent Phoenix, a symbol of rebirth and therefore the perfect addition to the theme of this new chapter of BRW! This majestic Evocation can be summoned in the Lodge thanks to the new Forgotten Spell "Ancient Rebirth".

Both sides of this spell will summon the Phoenix of Rebirth under your command but will also add an additional effect. The light side deals 4 damage to all Mages within 2 Rooms from where you will summon the Phoenix, while the dark side will deal 4 damage to all models in the room where the Phoenix is ​​summoned and will also place 3 Instabilities there! WOW!

The Phoenix of Rebirth is a very powerful Evocation, capable of dealing 3 damage to all models in her room but has only 4 life. But don't despair! Each time she is eliminated, you can spend 2 of your Power Points to summon her again and keep her fire burning!

Finally, we have the 3 tender Phoenix puppies who, through a special Red Room, can be summoned by the Magisters in order to take advantage of their useful skills. The veteran Magisters of BRW already know the potential of these particular Evocations called Pets that use different abilities depending on whether they are hooked to their Mage or if they go around on their own in the Lodge.

In particular Cinder, Pyre, and Rebirth (aka the weird-pup-phoenix), will stay in theme with the rest of the material in this expansion by dealing damage and placing Instability in various ways.

What do you think? Don't you feel a searing heat spreading through the cold ruins of the Lodge?

Let us know in the comments if this Seal of Fire spotlight has warmed you up enough!

That's all for today! See you in early September for a new update and a complete review of project status, and of course new spoilers!

(Alchemic) Fireball!!!

A General Overview
over 3 years ago – Fri, Jul 29, 2022 at 06:55:07 AM

Update Contents:

• Global Situation
• LMS Strategy
• LMS Project status

Hello, guys!

This will be a slightly different update than usual since its contents will be shared on our 3 ongoing projects: Nova Aetas: Renaissance, Black Rose Wars: Rebirth, and The Breach.

As we all know by now, it is a difficult moment for boardgame projects on Kickstarter and for those who love to support them, certainly, the most complex period experienced to date.

Many publishers, who operate here on Kickstarter and other crowdfunding platforms, have had and are having problems in the realization and delivery of their projects due to the various global crises that have hit hard, directly or indirectly, the entire boardgame industry in the last two years.

In recent days we have received several messages of concern, many of you have asked us if this situation will also have direct repercussions on the production of our games, possibly leading to further delays in deliveries, or, worse, additional costs due to increases in the prices of raw materials and shipments.

We, therefore, want to give you some more visibility on our current and future strategy, and have a look more in detail at our ongoing projects, to give all of you who support our projects more information and reassure you about the actual situation. 

For our major projects, the risks essentially come from two factors, we will analyze both down here.

1. Projects that do not achieve the desired results during Crowdfunding.

We believe it is strategically too risky to entrust the solidity of our business solely to the results of the Crowdfunding platforms. For this reason, over a year ago we started new commercial policies, aimed at establishing long-term strategic partnerships with various publishers around the world, in order to increasingly reduce the risks dictated by factors beyond our direct control. We will continue to include elements in the campaigns that will not be distributed, in this way we aim to always give an excellent value for money ratio to thank those who support us during the crowdfunding campaign.

2. Conditions that change in the time span between the collection of funds and the delivery of the games.

To reduce the lead time (between the end of the campaign and delivery) we have included new people both in the graphic team and in the game design team, changed internal processes, and enhanced playtesting. However, we want to keep the possibility of interacting with you during the creation phase of projects, so we will aim to share information with you and ask for opinions and suggestions well before the start of the Crowdfunding campaigns, so that the journey together is divided into two parts, before and after the Crowdfunding campaign.

To further reduce the risks, it is our standard procedure to proceed to block costs with the factory, paying an advance on future production, in order to avoid unpleasant surprises when starting mass production. Unfortunately, we are unable to implement the same practice for shipments, and it has already happened with projects that have just been delivered or are in the final phase of delivery (D.E.I. and wave 2 of Dungeonology) that the cost differences are therefore over at our expense, going to significantly reduce project margins, but still allow us to manage the situation by avoiding asking you for extra contributions.

It is possible that extra funds may be needed in the future beyond what was budgeted and collected, as game creators we believe that the best way to remedy this is through the creation of new products to offer our fans.

A brief mention of the status of the individual projects.

Nova Aetas: Renaissance

It is our most ambitious project, a game with many elements and a strong narrative component, which is taking more time than expected to be able to deliver a solid and high-quality product.

From a production standpoint, we are pleased to inform you that the Kickstarter production has already been paid for in full to the factory. We have chosen to divide the project into two waves, the extra costs will be absorbed by us. The production of NAR Wave 1 will be finalized by the end of the year and includes the Core Box, most of the Stretch Goals, and 4 expansions (Hyperion, The Mediceo, Minotaur, Draco) in the 5 languages ​​provided. Wave 2, which includes the 3 expansions Vesuvio, Under Siege, Catacombs, and the remaining SGs, will be finalized in the first half of 2023.

Black Rose Wars: Rebirth

The second chapter of our most successful game is in development and testing, as announced we are aiming to ship it by the first half of 2023. With more than 15 new Schools of Magic, and many new Mages and Avatars, the tuning and playtesting for a card game like Rebirth is long but necessary to deliver a game that is both fun and well playable. A first advance payment has been made for Rebirth to fix the production price, and we have already paid in full for all steel molds for miniatures.

The Breach

Our latest project, the campaign ended just over a month ago, at the moment we are working on its development. In September the production of the steel molds for the miniatures will start, we are now closing the final agreements on the production costs, in order to block the costs before the end of August. This is one of the first projects to have received much greater processing before the Crowdfunding campaign, also given the more "compact" nature of this project, we aim to respect the delivery times given during the Kickstarter campaign and deliver all the material within the summer of 2023.

Projects in Fulfillment

In addition to the 3 projects we have just talked about, Divide et Impera and Wave 2 of Dungeonology are currently in the final phase of delivery, by August the shipments of Chambers of Wonders, the second game of our Lite line will begin. These 3 projects have suffered significant delays for various causes, both dependent and independent of us, but after so many vicissitudes we are proud and happy to bring them to our backers' tables.

We hope that this information can reassure all our backers of the work we are doing, on the commitment and passion with which we are carrying out our projects!

Next week we will come back to you with a more usual Rebirth update!

As always, thank you for your support and love!

#Fireball!#Firewall!