Nova Aetas: Renaissance

A General Overview
almost 2 years ago – Sun, Jul 31, 2022 at 02:12:54 PM

Update Contents:

• Global Situation
• LMS Strategy
• LMS Projects status

Hello, guys!

This will be a slightly different update than usual since its content 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, and 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 our usual NAR update!

As always, thank you for your support and love!

#Fireball! #Firewall!

Hiding in the shadow
almost 2 years ago – Tue, Jul 19, 2022 at 12:11:04 AM

Update contents:

• Hero Spotlight: Sofia
• New Hero Sheets

Hello, guys!

In the middle of summer, we continue our roundup about the Heroes of Wave 1. Now there are only two Heroes left to complete this series of updates, and today it's Sofia's turn!

Valerio's sister has always had a rebellious character and a great aversion to respect for the rules. She has shown a great talent for stealth thanks to her agility and dexterity. After saving her from yet another trouble, Valerio realized that the best way to control her was to work with her and that's how your Free Company was born, thanks also to the addition of Rebecca and Vincenzo.

Sofia begins the campaign as Scum, a young criminal. She is surely the most mobile Hero in the Core box, thanks also to the Grappling Hook that allows her to climb buildings without using the stairs. But Sofia is also a great Damage Dealer, and she gives her best when she attacks enemies from a distance with her Throwing Knives. While she may seem physically weak, some of her Defense skills will help her survive by providing great bonuses during Defense Tests. By dealing a lot of damage, her Threat Value will rise quickly, so you'll have to be very careful to unleash her offensive potential and use her field and skills to make very tactical moves to stay away from the most dangerous Enemies.

When her skills are honed enough, Sofia will be contacted by two powerful guilds who offer her to join their ranks: The Guild of Rogues and the Guild of Slayers. Sofia's choice will determine what her Advanced Class will be.

As a Rogue, she will remain an excellent ranged damage dealer and will enhance her movement skills. But beyond that, with a Rogue in the group, it will be much easier for you to retrieve Popolini and Reagents, and therefore the Crafting activities to obtain new and powerful equipment will be much easier.

Becoming a Slayer, Sofia will greatly increase her offensive abilities thanks to the Combo Points mechanics. By moving through the shadows and cunning placements, she can perform spectacular "alpha strikes" against the most dangerous enemies. In addition, you will gain a good knowledge of poisons, which will be useful to all members of the Company.

Do you think that Sofia is conceptually too similar to Altair? Don't worry, we have developed the two Heroes so that their roles do not overlap. They both can inflict a lot of damage, but they will do it so differently and their roles can coexist even within the same party!

In this update, we officially present the final look of the Hero Sheets and Skill Sheets. We have improved the graphic design and readability of these sheets, also creating a new "booklet" case (like the one presented during the KS) to accommodate them. The "Skill Pins" that were used to indicate which Skills are equipped for a Mission have been replaced by transparent acrylic cubes, which will always show the color and therefore the category of a Skill (eg. Red for the Attack Skills).

The same cubes will also be used to mark the increases of the characteristics and for the counting of the Hero Points.

We are very happy with the final result, which we have achieved thanks to the feedback received in recent months. The new sheets are more readable and will help you immerse yourself in the fantastic world of NAR.

But we are curious to know what you think! Leave us your feedback as always!

That's all for today! See you at the end of July for the spotlight of the last Wave 1 Hero, where we will finally show you the first spoilers from the Magister Pledge! So, Black Rose Magisters get ready for a lot of juicy news!!

Fireball!

A Prayer for every occasion
almost 2 years ago – Thu, Jun 30, 2022 at 01:13:30 AM

Update Contents:

• Hero Spotlight: Vincenzo the Novice
• 2 new booklets in the Core Box

Hello Guys!

A new update and a new Hero to discover! Today is the turn of the wise and erudite Vincenzo!

This enterprising Novice has one of the most important roles within your Free Company: "Support".

The design of this Hero was certainly the most difficult. In many fantasy boardgames the Support Heroes are often relegated to a role of Healer, fundamental for the group but minority in terms of fun, usually forced to stay focused on maintaining powers and energies only to heal their allies, while the rest of the group enjoys killing tons of enemies. Vincenzo was instead created with the idea of ​​making him a multifaceted character, who always has many different options and things to do.

His supporting role is characterized by the use of Prayers, skills that normally have a low cost in Action Points and that become more powerful based on the successes obtained from a Mind Test.

The Prayers will be of great help to Vincenzo and his companions, providing positive statuses, healing and eliminating negative statuses. Vincenzo is a decent fighter, even if he won't be able to inflict damage like Sofia or Rebecca, he will be able to be effective in combat. 

Vincenzo also has many ways to increase his Threat Value (healing always increases your TV) and can help Valerio keep enemies at bay.

When the time comes to choose his Advanced Class, you can choose between two very different paths:

The Hospitaller will enhance his support and healing skills even more, at the expense of his offensive abilities. This class (one of the most tactical of all) bases its strength on managing your resources to use the right Prayers at the right time, healing and casting powerful buffs that will prove very useful, especially in the last Missions of the Campaign.

The Preacher, on the other hand, is a sort of Priest-Warrior, he will give Vincenzo a more aggressive build. The Preacher is an excellent fighter, able to support Valerio in the front line (especially if Valerio has decided to become a Mercenary). In addition to powerful support Prayers, this Class also features offensive prayers that inflict heavy debuffs on Enemies.

Vincenzo will offer many possibilities during the missions! We are confident that we have created a truly intriguing character to play, which will give you great fun in all its possible variations!

Let us know what you think of Vincenzo and what you think of the support heroes in general! Do you like playing them? In which games did you find Support Heroes that are really fun to play?

The pre-production phase of Wave 1 is proceeding in the times we have announced in this update, a lot of the material is in the finalization phase. Today we are also able to give you a spoiler on the configuration of the core box manuals: in addition to the already announced Rulebook and Plotbook, we have decided to add two additional booklets! 

The first is the Handbook, a handy booklet that will contain all the rules of the skills, legend of all tokens, list of traits and other valuable information. We used an early version of this handbook to facilitate our playtests, all players have found it very useful to be able to access these information quickly and conveniently. We have therefore decided to provide this valuable tool to all players.

The second is the "Start Here" book, which will guide you step by step in the Prologue Mission! This booklet will allow you to play your first game without reading the Rulebook, giving you the opportunity to learn how to play NAR in a simple and fun way!

We are confident that these additions will improve the gaming experience with NAR even more, as always we are eager to receive your feedback!

That's all for today! See you mid July with a new update!

You have my Sword!
almost 2 years ago – Mon, Jun 13, 2022 at 10:33:59 PM

Hello all!

We continue our journey to discover the Heroes of Nova Aetas Renaissance and today is the time of the most daring, reckless, and rude Squire in our history: Valerio!

Our proud Valerio was born and raised in Rome with his sister Sofia. Despite being very close, they immediately took very different paths. Always fascinated by the stories of knights and damsels in distress, Valerio has made his dream come true and began his journey as a squire of a Roman nobleman. Unfortunately, the noble was accused of treason by the Vatican state and was executed before finishing the training of his squire. Valerio, with his sister and two other friends, decided to start a small Free Company, taking advantage of the stormy political situation in Italy. Valerio never abandoned his dream of becoming a Knight, but he understood that even the Mercenary's way could give him the glory he was seeking ... as well as a bag full of Fiorini!

Valerio starts the NAR campaign as a Squire to take the role of the Group Tank. His abilities, and his Physical value of 4, will allow him to take hits, but also to attack with great effectiveness.

The Squire's skills perfectly embody Valerio's bold spirit. For example "Witness me!" gives him a reroll token (called Fortune Token) if, at the beginning of his activation, he is within 3 squares from any other Hero. With "Insult" he increases his Perilium by 1 point, attracting Enemies to himself more easily, to protect the weakest Heroes.

Valerio has a strong link with his Equipment. Those armors which provide additional Healt points, are really important to Valerio.

when a Hero suffers Wounds, if he has one of those Armor, he can place one wound on an Equipment for each "heart" symbol on the item card. This gives another advantage against attacks that also inflict Negative Statuses (Poison, Burn, etc): to suffer these statuses, the Hero must suffer at least one Wound on their Hero Sheet.

When Valerio has acquired at least 3 Squire skills, he can choose whether to take one of the two Advanced Classes: Knight or Mercenary.

The Knight will improve the Tank role, giving him additional Defensive skills at the expense of those of Movement and Attack. With this class Valerio will become a real bastion, able to withstand numerous attacks and attract many enemies to himself.

On the contrary, the Mercenary sacrifices defensive skills to become more offensive and agile. This class is a real challenge to master, because Valerio will inflict a lot of damage, often increasing his Perilium, but he will need to be very careful to survive the attacks of all the enemies he will attract attention to!

What do you think about Valerio? Will you be ready to play one of the most fundamental characters of the group? And how do you plan to play with him? Will you sacrifice yourself to protect the other heroes, or will you unleash your aggressive spirit and join the fray?

Tell us what you think!

See you in two weeks with a new hero of the first wave and updates on the production of wave 1!

Each Magister was an Apprentice
almost 2 years ago – Sun, May 29, 2022 at 05:39:18 AM

Hello all

We have arrived at the second update of May, and we continue to increase our knowledge of the Heroes of Wave 1.

Today is the turn for the most attractive Magister who has ever walked the magical corridors of the Black Rose Lodge: Rebecca!

Well, in the period when NAR is set, Rebecca is still a young Apprentice, unaware of the dark fate that awaits her.

To finish the last phase of her training, her Venerable Master has ordered her to travel the world to hone her arts, trying to survive in a land that harbors no love for those who frequently use the power of Magic.

After greeting her twin, Arianna, Rebecca embarked on her own journey that led her to reunite with 3 childhood friends. They formed a small Free Company. The rest, as they say, is history.

On the battlefield, Rebecca will be able to use her magical abilities to unleash the most diverse effects. Her role in the group could be defined as "Control & Destroy".

Spells in NAR are not skills, but rather, are more like Equipment (scrolls to be precise) and will occupy the Encumbrance slots dedicated to Trinkets. So, Rebecca will be able to equip herself for a Mission with a maximum of 3 Spells.

In the NAR Core Box, you will find 3 unique Spells for each of the 3 Schools of Magic: Omnia, Necromancy, and Chronomancy. At the beginning of the Campaign, Rebecca will only be able to use the Omnia school. But when she chooses whether she will become a Necromancer or a Chronomant, she will also be able to draw from the Spells of the chosen respective School.

Before a Mission, Rebecca will be able to choose which Spells to take with her. This will give her many options. But remember that Spells, like all Equipment in NAR, will first need to be crafted. This will test the management skills of the group of players because they will need to measure the expenditure of Reagents collected during the missions and allocate them efficiently.

As an Apprentice, Rebecca will be able to learn useful skills that will allow her to prepare for the advanced class she will eventually take. Her abilities will obviously focus on the use of magic and will help her better manage her abilities. But some of them, such as "Know your enemy", will also support the other Heroes.

If you choose the advanced Necromancer class (as many will know this is definitely the "canonical" choice) her role will turn more towards the damage dealer and debuffer, with the excellent possibility of summoning an Undead minion when an Enemy Troop rank is eliminated.

If, on the other hand, you want to write your own story for Rebecca, you can choose the advanced Chronomant class. With this class, you will increase your game control skills, which will also extend to the manipulation of the Horologium … a Skill that can be very handy to have.

And you? How will you decide to play Rebecca? Will you follow our canon, or will you rewrite her story to suit your needs? The choice is in your hands!

Before saying goodbye, we want to share with you a small report from the Modena Play fair which took place last weekend.

NAR was present at one of our demo tables, where it was possible to play the entire Prologue mission of the campaign.

During the three days of the convention, we let dozens of people try NAR and we were pleasantly surprised to find on social networks, in the various groups of Italian tabletop players, phrases like "NAR is the new Gloomheaven-Killer" (LOL) or "NAR is a work of art ".

We are obviously very happy to have received so much positive feedback and we are proud to share with you the enthusiasm that is rising around our/your beloved game.

On our part, there is even more desire to finish the work on NAR and get it to your tables as soon as possible!

As always, thank you for all your support!

See you in two weeks!