Black Rose Wars: Rebirth

The Great Magister has spoken!
almost 4 years ago – Fri, Jul 01, 2022 at 11:07:11 PM

Update Contents

• Design Update by the Author
• New Schools of Magic Roundup
• More Miniature PU Samples

Hello, Magisters!

As promised, this new update will be entirely dedicated to a  BRW: Rebirth design report, written directly by the Great Magister Marco Montanaro, who will show us his progress in creating the new schools!

However,  we couldn't miss the opportunity to even show you some new PU Samples from the factory!

But let's not waste time and immediately leave the floor to Marco, with 2 words of recommendation: Spoilers Alert!!!!

"Hello, my dear scholars! At the library of the Black Rose, after a considerable amount of instability to repair it, we are working tirelessly on new spells and formulas. As we proceed with the numerous tests, the powerful mages of the Italian Lodge (Black Rose Wars Rebirth Academy ed.) are eager to test the new spells. Death, destruction, and power are the lodge specialties. Once in a while, a special guest enters the lodge, bringing pain and suffering to the mages or just to suffer their powerful spells. 

 Enough with the chit-chat, let's start digging deep into what's cooking and what's cooked. I'm delighted to announce that all the schools of magic are done and are undergoing tests to balance their effects!
Well... except for one... the Chaos school (Nomen Omen) is proving to be a real challenge. I'm working on its 7th revision! The incarnation of Chaos, the Vastum, shreds several lodges, opponents, and other evocations. Thanks to the Magister Daniele (aka Furt) there has been no rest on re-shaping the school to give enough of the "Chaos" experience.

 It is pleasant to see the Apocalypse schools fighting in the lodge and releasing that end-of-the-world taste. When War it's on the battlefield damage is the keyword. The school mechanic aims to arm the Mage with Weapons. Those Weapons allow the Magister to spend Physical Actions Tokens for a different purpose than just activate, attack, or explore. The Claymore of William Wallace, i.e., allows to target a model within a range of 0 and inflict them damage equal to the strength of the wearer +2!

 All of this while Famine starves its opponents... How you are asking?
What's more precious than stealing your opponents' cubes and storing them where they cannot be used? But do not worry you will be more than willing to satiate your opponents..at a price obviously. The school contains 3 new key mechanics: Starve, Satiate and Distribute. Starving your opponents removes from their reserve as many cubes as indicated by the Starve number. Those cubes go on the Famine Card for later use (there are ways to take back cubes if you are out of them! e.d.).

 Death in the meantime counts your destiny, literally! The mechanic of the school allows the mage to assign special tokens that mark your death clock. Death is the cancellation of effects and appropriation of the others' defeats. Each Destiny Token assigned will convert damage on the mage.  If 4 tokens are assigned, during the Clean-up Phase, the mage is defeated... no matter how many life points he had left. Oh, I forgot to mention it can be used to kill evocations...

 While War beats their opponents, Famine starves them and death makes sure it claims their death... Pestilence sprawls the lodge with filthy Rats, those miniatures come with a little one of your Instability in it. When accidentally killed (watch out with those fireballs ed.) or removed on purpose, they either drop the Instability in their Room or release the Infectio to all Mages in the Room. Those infections will be assigned to the Mage and during the Clean-up Phase will assign damage and make the opponents lose precious power points (2 Infectio = 1 Power Point, 3 Infection = Power Points). The rats also allow winning Room Instability count, in fact, the Instability they carry counts when you are deciding who is the biggest contributor to the room's reconstruction (Destruction for BRW ed.)
 

 But the lodge has not been only an Apocalypse. Geomancy became one of the most used and preferred schools in the Lodge. Maurizio (aka Akira.1974) nicknamed it the parsley school, just because it fits with every dish! A bit of Geomancy gives more taste to any of your strategies.
Geomancy brings the mechanic of Geoform: depending on the color of the Rooms where you are casting the Spell becomes more powerful.  The double cards half Trap and half Contingency or Combat are another nice addition to the school.

 All of this while helped by Alberto (Aka Velys) we brought Classical Egypt into the Lodge (Alberto is our historical expert). The Heka school with its famous Pharaohs and jinxes unleashes the rage of the desert. It is always great to summon Tuthankamon in the Lodge and shift the mages on your Traps that unleash new Jinxes on your opponents. Probably one of the best matches so far was a 1:1 between Gramigna and Seba, Hex vs Heka.

 From Egypt, we move to Greece-Delphi with the Oracle school. The "school breaker" Alessandro (aka King of Jokes) had enough Spells to foresee the future and complete 11 Quests in a single match!
If I'm planning to find some broken combos, he is the man.
Oracle itself brings 2 new mechanics to the Lodge: customized Oracle Events that you can place on the event boards and the Oracle's Tarots, a set of custom triggers that you can apply at your traps as you predict what the future will look like in the Lodge.

From Greece back to Italy, at the forge of Etna where we find another Equipment school: Forge. The school brings new powerful Artifacts like its older brother Enchantment (Black Rose Wars e.d.). Furthermore, you can summons little cuties, the Pupae, that can be boosted with new Upgrades coming nothing more than from the gods. Thanks to the spells you can either arm yourself and beath your opponents to the death, or have an army of upgraded Pupae to do that. 

 At last, the Druidic school. A concentrate of power and arena control. In the 2 builds of the Druidic school, you summon Bears or Crocodiles and can become either of those!
The new mechanic of the school is the Transformations: thanks to these Spells your Mage will transform into either a black Bear or a vicious Crocodile, a favorite of Paolo (aka CrocodileDundee-Pollondon). The transformation card gives you an additional Physical Action token and some more powers that you can use to spend your Physical Action tokens. At the end of the turn you can choose to remain in the current form by simply keeping the spell in position 4 of your board and reducing your Spells' playability to 3... but who cares, now you have 3 Physical Actions and plenty of new ways to use them."

 -----------------------------------------------
     *Someone knocks at the door*
      M: I wonder who disturb me during my studies...
     *The magister walks slowly to the door*
     M: Who is there? I'm busy, so if you are here for new spells...Go away!
     L: It's Landolfo here... we have something to discuss dear magister...
     M: I was not waiting for you, but since you are here... let's see what the Chaos school can bring again...
 -----------------------------------------------

"Dear scholars, I think it's enough information about the tests. Next time will reveal more of the created Avatars: Odin, Gaea, Magma, Jukas, Rubedo... and more!
Well, we need to talk also about the Scenarios...the additional Forgotten Spells..."
 

We thank Marco for this amazing journey into the new Schools of Magic, and we can't wait to read what his evil mind has given birth to for all the Rebirth Avatars!

In the meantime, tell us if his words have exalted you as they have exalted us! See you in July for a new update!

As usual, stay safe and Fireball!

PU Sample and Pledge Manager update
almost 4 years ago – Fri, Jun 03, 2022 at 09:43:16 PM

Hello, Magisters!

Quick update to show you some cool stuff and information about the Pledge Manager.

Today we show you the first PU Samples received from the factory. These miniatures samples are shipped from the factory to allow us to check the quality of the molds, therefore they match exactly the final quality and level of detail. Let's go to see the first 3 models!

We start with Kormac, the Magister of the new Druidic school, included in the North Winds box! His model, rich in details, perfectly embodies the imagery of a Druid. The grim and determined face leaves little doubt about his intentions... personally one of my favorite Magisters!

 We continue with two models from the Madness box: Albedo. With its imposing appearance, it will intimidate your opponents, and summoning it will surely guarantee you a lot of Trophies! The friezes on its armor will look great on anyone who likes painting.

 We end this first roundup with another oversized miniature: Nocturnus!

The Umbras King really looks like something from our worst nightmares. The miniature details enhance his primal-horror appearance, and painting lovers can have fun painting them to make Nocturnus even scarier!

We are really satisfied with the quality of these first samples, did you like them?

About the Pledge Manager, as mentioned in the last update, mass production should start in September, so we have decided to postpone the official closure of the Rebirth Pledge Manager to August 31st, 2022. We hope the news will please those who have yet to complete their Survey. For those who have already completed it, it can be an opportunity to add more to their order; in this case, we remind you that you can make changes to an already closed order by contacting our Customer Service.

We take this opportunity to remind you that The Breach Kickstarter Campaign is online and that it contains some tributes coming directly from the Lodge! For this new Kickstarter, we have decided not to include crossover game material with BRW, but we just enjoyed adding some old friends.

At the moment Nero, Arianna, and Rebecca have appeared, with their virtual version, to bring some of the magic of the Lodge into the Gene.sys Database! Very soon another old friend will be appearing in The Breach! 

As mentioned, these models have no rules to be played in Rebirth, but obviously, no one will be able to stop you from using them as alternative "skins" for your beloved Magisters! :)

If you want to take a look at the project... you are welcome!

Let us know if you have tried playing The Possessed (released in the last update) in the first chapter of Black Rose Wars, and what are your first impressions about this first Avatar!!

See you soon for the second update of June, where we will give you news about game design directly with the Great Magister Marco!

Fireball!

#Firewall! #SaveJukas #TheBreach

The Possessed is waiting for you!
almost 4 years ago – Sat, May 21, 2022 at 12:24:32 PM

Hello, Magisters!

Here we are with the little surprise we promised you!

Have you followed our advice and read the Possessed rules in the new Rulebook? Because we have just created for all of you a Print & Play version with all the material concerning the first Avatar that you will face in the Lodge: The Possessed!

FROM THIS LINK you can download the pdf file with all the material to play it immediately using the core box of the first chapter of BRW (you remember that the two chapters are compatible with each other, do you??), using the rules contained in the new BRW:R Rulebook which we released last week.

Talking about the new Rulebook, we want to thank all the Backers who jumped into the new Rulebook, leaving us a lot of helpful feedback. Your participation has been great and we are proud of a community that loves this project so much!

Going back to The Possessed P&P: download the file we have prepared, get a pair of scissors and some sleeves, choose the miniature of one of the Mages in your collection to represent it, and you will be ready to try one of the most important innovations introduced by BRW:Rebirth!

Remember that Avatars are excellent for playing solo, but also very fun in multiplayer games, to create asymmetries and unpredictable situations, where everyone must be ready to react to be able to win the game.

Regarding the development of the game, as we wrote to you last week, the last external playtests on the Apocalypse material are underway, it is the most delicate of the expansions, being linked to the tournament mode. 

Here is a quick summary of the state of the work of the entire project:

•  In Development: Rotas Box
•  Internal Playtesting Phase: Gaea Reborn, Dreadforge, Jukas, Irene the wanderer
•  External Playtesting Phase: Apocalypse
•  Completed: Core Box, Seal of Fire, Deadly Masks

The Great Magister Marco is currently working on the Rotas Box material, which thanks to all the material we have unlocked together represents a considerable part of the project. The 4 new schools of Magic and the 7 Avatars present in the various boxes that make up the Rotas, in order to be qualitatively equal to all the rest of the material, require careful design and tuning. We think we will be able to complete our work by the end of October 2022, in order to start mass production of all paper material immediately afterward. To optimize time, the translations will be carried forward as the various expansions are completed.

As for the development of the miniatures, we are completing the final review of the models with the factory and the approval of the PU samples, so that we can start mass production by the beginning of September.

Given the quantity of material involved, we are quite satisfied with the progress of the work.

We are pleased to share with you the first photos from the Play 2022 fair in Modena! We are attending the most important Italian games convention, and of course, Rebirth is present with the latest (and definitive) version of the Core Box. New and old Magisters are already in the Lodge dueling to death!

Those of you who are at the convention can come and visit us at booth A23, to try out Rebirth, Nova Aetas Renaissance, D.E.I., and the brand new: The Breach!

As many of you already know, The Breach Kickstarter campaign will start on Tuesday (May 24th). Set in the Nova Aetas: Chronicles universe, The Breach takes place in the near future, just before the climate catastrophe in which D.E.I. is set.

In this future, you play the role of the Breachers. These digital rebels will compete with each other, infiltrating the Gene.sys, a mysterious and super-protected database controlled by the Achab Corporation, in search of precious information and secrets capable of changing the world...

The Breach is a competitive Net Crawler that will test your strategic, tactical, and resource management skills, in a fast-paced scenario with constant reversals in front of you. Will you be able to become the best Breacher ever?

If you are intrigued and want to follow us in this new adventure and discover a new piece of the history of our setting, click on Follow in the preview of the Kickstarter campaign. If you want to know more you can read the dedicated page on our website or follow the updates on The Breach Facebook group.

In the next update, around mid-June, we will show you photos of the PU samples received (the quality is really stunning!), And spoilers on the completed materials of the expansions!

And now we leave you in the clutches of the Possessed! We look forward to receiving your feedback!

Fireball!

A new (Rule)book in the Library
almost 4 years ago – Sat, May 14, 2022 at 09:19:37 PM

Hello, Magisters!

The last time we anticipated this updated an overview on Apocalypse, starting with the 4 new schools of magic contained in this expansion, but we decided to change the program, given that the tuning work is still in progress and we would like to show you the new cards when they are final.

The 4 schools of Magic included in Apocalypse are now all revised/rewritten, a playtesting phase is underway with the Great Magister Marco and his acolytes to make sure that they are balanced with all the material of BRW:R and BRW.

The Rulebook is Online!

By following this link, you can access the Rebirth rulebook (English) and immediately start studying the new rules, and why not, try to play them using the BRW material that you already have.

We are happy to actively involve you in the development of this project, so if you want to help us make BRW:R even better, you can comment directly on the pdf document and leave your feedback!

In the rulebook, you will find also the new artwork of the Possessed (veery creeepy!!). We've given the Possessed a form of his own, although as you know you can use any Mage to represent him. The image represents the spirit of the Black Rose who controls the Mage in the lodge. Do you like it?

We suggest you read the rules of the Possessed (which will then be applied to all Avatars), very soon we will have another surprise for you all...

The most attentive of you will notice that the bases to tag your Evocations no longer have Roses but Gems. We had to reluctantly give up the roses, because in the printing tests carried out with the factory unfortunately their aesthetics, given the size, was really poor for our standards. The Gems, thanks to their very clean design, will allow easy reading during the game while keeping intact the atmosphere and elegance of the game material.

That's all for today! See you next week for a new update!

Fireball!

Easter in the Lodge!
almost 4 years ago – Sat, Apr 16, 2022 at 01:21:46 AM

Hello, Magister!

A quick update before Easter. After the overview about Core Box new features (in the previous update), we've been happy to receive a lot of positive feedback! The Avatars rules have aroused a lot of interest, so we will give you more details about the other Avatars included in the Rotas box in the future updates!

At the moment we're working hard on Apocalypse, as you know this expansion introduces the long-awaited Constructed/Tournament Mode, one of the great news of Rebirth. After some accurate playtesting sessions managed directly with the Great Magister Marco Montanaro, 2 schools of magic (War and Famine) were working really well, the 2 other schools (Death and Pestilence) need to be re-worked to make sure they will result well balanced and fun to play with. Marco is reviewing and changing the 2 schools, so we can start very soon to run new playtest sessions and complete as soon as possible the work on Apocalypse. Anyway beginning of May we will write a first update dedicated to Apocalypse!

BRWR Core Box files will be ready for translations into the other languages beginning of May.

Before saying goodbye, we post you the final render for a couple of miniatures that we didn't show here yet, hope you will like them!

In the meantime, we wish you a happy Easter!

 Fireball!