Nova Aetas: Renaissance

The Spiel is coming!
over 3 years ago – Tue, Oct 04, 2022 at 03:14:02 AM

• Update Contents:
• Wave 1 timeline
• Road to the Spiel 2022
• Ashes Special Issue
• Chimera preview (NAR/BRW)

Hello, Guys!

This update came out a little later than expected, because we waited for more certain information and a better level of detail, in order to give you a complete timeline for the delivery of Wave 1.

Let's start with a surprise: in the original plan, we announced that in wave 1 we would only send the "crossover" Stretch Goals between Nova Aetas: Renaissance and Black Rose Wars, which means those included within the Magister pledge. After analyzing the working plan and actual status, we decided to expand the announced content of Wave 1, including all the Stretch Goals unlocked during the Campaign. In the last few months of development, we realized that a lot of the Stretch Goals material had already been developed and tested and that we would be able to get it all done in a relatively short extra time. Including all the Stretch Goals in Wave 1 means being able to deliver the complete Kickstarter version to all of you, thus giving you the complete gaming experience right away. The amount of material you will receive with Wave 1 will keep you busy for a long time!

So let's re-list what Wave 1 will contain:

• Nova Aetas Renaissance Core box
• Hyperion Expansion
• Draco Expansion
• Mediceo Expansion
• Minotaur Expansion

All Unlocked Stretch Goals

• 4 Additional Heroes
• 4 Bonus Mission
• 2 Additional Hunt encounter
• 20 Event cards
• 20 Random Encounter cards
• 12 Zodiac cards
• 9 City cards
• 10 Nightmare cards
• 10 Divine cards
• 5&6th Players components
• 2 additional Map tiles
• A lot of other stuff but this list is becoming too long!
• Ok, ok, ok, of course in this list you have to add all the material for the crossover stretch goals with BRW.

We are dedicating a lot of energy to editing and translations since the narrative part of NAR is a fundamental element of the game and we want it to be carried out in the best way for all 5 languages. The quantity of text to be translated, combined with the quality that we want to achieve for the final product, does not allow us great room for maneuver to try to speed up this phase.

With a work team that has involved more than 20 people, with more than 2 years spent on this project, certainly underestimated by us at the time of the Kickstarter campaign, Nova Aetas: Renaissance is an unprecedented productive effort for us, far beyond all previous and actual projects! Know that our ambition is to make NAR a new benchmark in our industry!

In the image, we have indicated the whole timeline with the various phases of the project, as you can see the fulfillment operations will begin in April 2023. Wave 2 will contain only 3 expansions: Catacombs, Vesuvio, and Under Siege. Wave 2 will be completed and delivered by the end of 2023.

A little more patience and you will enjoy the fruits of all this work... We will continue to keep you updated regularly with our updates!

Essen Spiel '22  (6th-9th Oct)

As usual, LMS will be present again at the most important European Convention of our sector, with a bigger booth and with many demo tables. Obviously, we will bring NAR and dedicate to it a fantastic demo table. We will let you try the prologue mission, with the help of the "Quick Start" booklet that we added to the core box. We invite you all to come and try this new feature, which will let you start to play and enjoy the game without the need to dive deeply into the entire rulebook at the beginning of your experience! 

We will also bring with us lots of the final material: miniatures, cards, the new Hero sheets with the beautiful Hero boards just received from the factory! So you have lots of good reasons to come visit us, we look forward to seeing you at Booth 2E112!

Ashes Special Issue

As per our tradition, we have created a new issue of our magazine Ashes for the Spiel. This year Ashes will include a fantastic new promo miniature, Helblindi, directly from our upcoming project: RUNAR! 

This ice giant shaman with its Promo Miniature can be also played as an Enemy in NAR, with its special Enemy card. It can be also played in BRW and BRW: Rebirth as a new Mage, with its personal spells and its Mage card! You will also find a new promo 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 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 Nova Aetas Renaissance 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 NAR's items, without additional shipping costs! Simply enter the "BACKERSNAR" coupon at checkout.

Choose the way that works best for you and get ready to fight this icy Giant!

Chimera Spotlight!

And now we want to present you the Chimera, the protagonist of one of the Hunts present in the main campaign of NAR. These Side Missions can be undertaken in two ways: as random events as you move up and down Italy, activated by the Event Cards; or you can decide to face them by visiting the Inn during a Rest Phase between one Mission of the Campaign and the other.

In both cases, you will find yourself facing a very different mission from those of the Campaign! Well ... considering that every single mission of the Campaign is unique and completely different from the others, it should be already clear to you that in NAR the concept of "different" is practically the norm! This mission will put you in front of a mighty opponent, even quite angry, that you will have to beat to recover Reagent and Formulae (Recipes) to create new and powerful equipment!

As with all Hunts, the Chimera has its own Prey Card (tarot size) which lists all of its stats and special abilities, and a deck of 18 Action Cards that will determine its behavior during the battle. Each Action Card drawn from its deck reveals a move that the Chimera will perform during its activation. Each Chimera Action will have an Action Points cost that will cause its Activation Token to move on the Horologium, just like any other model in the game. Also for the Chimera, the management of the Horologium and the artificial intelligence for the choice of its target will add more tactical elements to a game mechanics well known by lovers of the Dungeon Crawler genre.

The deck of Action Cards can be played keeping the cards in the original order, or you can decide to mix it to add more unpredictability, especially if you want to play again against a Prey to try to recover all its loot ... especially when among its rewards there's a weapon called Flail of the Ages!

The Chimera will use its agility and power to attack the Heroes, with fast and savage attacks. In addition, its 3 heads will be able to inflict specific effects, thanks to the use of the Astra Symbols present in the NAR dice. For example, if a "Star" is added to an attack, you can be sure that Goat's head will deliver a good blow to its target, giving it the "Stunned" status.

Also, the Magisters of the Black Rose will meet this mythical beast in the Lodge, thanks to the new Forgotten Spell included also in the Magister Pledge called Spawn of Echidna!

What do you think of this terrible monster? Let us know what you think of the hunting rules!

We give you an appointment in mid-October for a new update with a complete report of Spiel'22 and new spoilers, but we left to you a (long) gallery of images with the print-proofs of the final paper material of the core box! Enjoy it and give us your feedback!

Necromantic Power!
almost 4 years ago – Sat, Aug 27, 2022 at 08:53:55 PM

Update Contents:

• Onamor preview (NAR/BRW)
• Boogeyman preview (NAR/BRW)

Summer is ending, and we return to talk about the Wave 1 content! We continue the overview of the "crossover" materials for the Magister Pledge! Today we will get to know better two disturbing characters who will appear during your adventures in Renaissance Italy.

Onamor is one of the characters from other games that we hosted during the KS campaign.

Directly from the world of Sword & Sorcery, created by Simone Romano and Nunzio Surace, Onamor is a powerful necromancer. It will appear as the protagonist in the Secondary Mission (unlocked during the KS), written for you by his "dad" Simone Romano.

But Onamor miniature is truly wonderful, and we would use it in more than "only" one mission! So we created a new generic enemy who can be encountered in many missions as a random enemy, generated by an Enemy Draft.

Dark Druid is part of the Faun faction, it is in fact a druid that has tightened pacts with the Priamevi to discover the darkest secrets of their magic. In return, he committed to helping them defend their territories from other humans. A truly fearful enemy able to combine the powers of death with those of nature, incorporating it will make a mission much harder than expected!

But Onamor is also a new Mage who can be used in your Black Rose Wars and Rebirth games!

Do you love necromancers, but have you tired of Rebecca or Arianna? Then Onamor will be able to give you a new sprint to guide your undead horde!

His personal spell "Undeath and Fire" definitely keeps faith with its title. The "light" side allows you to summon any Undead with a Health value of 3 or less, and then you can also immediately activate any of your Undead!

The "dark" side has a more direct effect, which inflicts 3 wounds to all models in a Room within range 2 and then places 2 Instability in the same Room.

It is easy to say that this Spell is perfect to enter a deck built with cards from the schools of Necromancy and/or Technomancy!

But Onamor is not the only necromancer in the city. An ancient and terrible figure lives in the damp sewers of Venice, an old enemy of the human race from a far past!

Somehow the Boogeyman managed to follow Genesis's crew on Earth to take revenge after the defeat suffered by him and Andromeda 1.0 on the Silicio planet (you should know this story if you have played the Silicio expansion for Sine Tempore). He remained dormant for millennia, but now he has recovered his strength and has become the master of the underground kingdom under the city of Venice. Using his magical skills (or rather psionics) he has subjugated powerful personalities of the city (perhaps also the Doge!) And took control of the Venetian underworld. 

When the fog rises on Venetian nights, and a masked black-cloaked figure wanders in the canals, many tremble with fear.

Boogeyman (with his faithful Dolls) will appear on a Secondary Mission dedicated to him. Also for Boogeyman, a generic profile has been created for the Venice faction. In this case, his model will represent a Necromancer, a Mage transformed by the Boogeyman into a being similar to him.

For sure, the Boogeyman is the oldest "living" Mage on Earth, and obviously, he has some kind of link with the Black Rose. So he can join the wars of the Black Rose as a Mage!

The "light" side of his personal spell "Necrotic Technology" allows him to summon 3 Dolls in one swoop and immediately activate one of them. The "dark" side allows you to use Dolls not only to inflict damage but also to convert damage to opponents. You can Convert 2 damage on each Mage who is in the same Room as one of your Evocations.

The Dolls are an exclusive Evocation for the Boogeyman, and they can be very dangerous if you mass launch them against an enemy model. Using them individually, their offensive potential is very reduced but they will still allow the Boogeyman to convert 1 damage to the Mage they attacks.

That's all for today! As always let us know what you think of these 2 bad guys!

As you can see from the material that we have been showing you in the updates for about 2 months, the work on wave 1 is proceeding toward its conclusion and we are very happy that each update keeps high your hype!

As always thanks for your support!

See you in 2 weeks with other Magister Pledge-related spoilers!

Fireball!

Born to be Wild
almost 4 years ago – Mon, Aug 08, 2022 at 01:26:29 AM

Update contents:

• Hero Spotlight: Agorix
• Agorix in Black Rose Wars & Rebirth

Hello, guys!

A new Spotlight on the NAR Heroes but different from the usual! Today's protagonist is also part of the Magister Pledge, and therefore for the first time, we will show you the material dedicated to BRW and Rebirth!

Agorix is ​​a young Magister of the Black Rose Lodge and has dedicated his life to studying the schools of magic that most depend on the power of nature and on Gaea herself.

He begins his career with the Druid class, a very atypical class which, to use gamer slang, can be defined as "Tank-Caster". Like Rebecca, Agorix will be able to use various Spells depending on his class, but unlike the charming sorceress, he will be able to count on skills that will make him very resistant so as to be able to replace Valerio in the role of protector of the group. As a Druid, he will be able to count on 3 spells from the Transmutation School, which will unleash the fury of nature on the battlefield. Another peculiarity of Agorix is his Familiar Eracleto. This grumpy owl will help its master in various ways, distracting his enemies and interacting with many of Agorix's abilities.

As he progresses through the campaign he can choose to become a Geomancer or an Animist.

The Geomancer will shift his play style towards the role of a real caster. Thanks to the use of the Geomantic Die (his Bond Equipment), he will be able to place up 3 Geopod tokens on the map that can be used as a launch point for his spells, or they can be removed to trigger additional effects to spells and skills.

The Animist, on the other hand, will aim to improve Agorix's "punch" qualities, giving him powerful Physical Attacks and Boosts to his offensive and defensive skills. The Animism school will also aim to fortify and heal Agorix, until his Heroic Skill transforms him into a mighty Owl Bear (merging with Eracleto), a huge arcane beast capable of shattering even the toughest enemies.

If you are wondering what Bond Equipment is, it's easy to say! When a Hero switches to an Advanced Class they will automatically receive one new piece of equipment, which is essential for using the mechanics of the new class. All Advanced Classes have one of these gears that adds an extra layer of depth to each Hero's play style.

But as we said, Agorix can also be used as a new Magister in your BRW and Rebirth games!

The light/straight side of his Personal Spell "Naturalis Invocation" will allow him to summon Eracleto, and to place himself in any Green Room of the Lodge. The dark/reverse side will maintain the link with the Green Rooms. You may place 2 of your Instabilities in a Green Room of your choice, healing a wound for each Instability you fail to place! A truly versatile effect that can be used in different ways depending on whether you need to destroy/build rooms or to take advantage of an emergency cure to prevent an opponent from taking your Trophy!

Eracleto is Agorix's exclusive pet and once summoned, it will follow the classic BRW Pet rules, with the only exception that only Agorix will be able to use it. When in a hunting position, he will be a decent damage dealer (Eracleto has a bad temper!) While in guard position he will prove very useful for removing and placing Instability in the Lodge!

We have come to the end of this spotlight! We are curious to know what you think of this new hero for both NAR and BRW/Rebirth!

That's all for today, see you in about two weeks!

#Fireball!!

A General Overview
almost 4 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 4 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!