Black Rose Wars

Call to Arms report and...Pets!
almost 4 years ago – Wed, Jun 24, 2020 at 11:28:15 PM

Hello Magister!

The main phase of the Call to Arms is over and we want to thank you all for your participation and for the support you have given us!

I am waiting for a complete report from BackerKit and Stripe to have precise numbers on this first phase, but from the data in my possession, The backers who participated are 3080, therefore about 35% of the total.

As I anticipated, despite this first phase has ended, it will still be possible to join the Call to Arms even during the fulfillment, so as many of you are already doing, you can contact me at any time using this link, to access the call to arms and help us complete the wave 2 fulfillment in the shortest time possible for everyone!

For those who have already joined, I inform you that Stripe will proceed to charge the amounts within 2/3 days.

At the risk of sounding too sentimental, I really want to thank you all for the support, affection, and patience you are showing towards us and towards BRW. In the last weeks, we have solved many problems thanks to your advice, feedback, and even the most heated criticisms, which are helping us to improve and fix the mistakes that we have made in managing this project. Surely, when the last wave 2 has been delivered, we can say that we have learned a lot, and if in the future we should ever manage a large-scale project like this again, we could be more prepared to face it.

Thank you very much, everyone!

But now, after many updates dedicated to the Call to Arms, let's start again with the spoilers of the wave 2, and as promised today we talk about Pets!

A Familiar for each Mage!

Four types of pets await their new owners in the Lodge! Each type of Familiar (Hydrae, Cerberus, Dragons, and Griffon) have 3 different specimens each with unique skills and statistics.

If you decide to use one or more types of pets in your games you will have to replace one of the original rooms of the color corresponding to the lair of the type of Familiar selected. Once the game has started, a Mage who will activate the power of a lair can choose from the 3 available specimens and add it to his Evocations (the Familiar will occupy one of the spaces designated for Evocation). Familiars are limited and unique, so as long as a Familiar has a Master, it cannot be chosen by any other Mage, so if a second Magister activates the same lair he can only choose between the two remaining specimens, and so on. If all the specimens of a lair are already in play, activating the power of the Room will have no effect, but can still count for Events or Quests. So a Mage who activates one of the lairs for first will have the advantage of being able to choose between all 3 specimens and take the one that best suits his strategy.

Each Familiar has its own card on which a special Action Token will be placed.

When you have tamed a Familiar you can decide to use it in Guard or Hunting position.

A just summoned Familiar will be in the Guard position and it is "hooked" to its Master, forming a single model. In this position, the Familiar cannot be directly targeted by attacks or Spell but when its Master will suffer damages, he can decide to distribute them between himself and the pet as he likes.  In this position, you can turn the pet's Action token to activate its special skill or change its position to Hunting's.

A Hunting pet will detach itself from its Master and behave like an Evocation using its movement and attack statistics, acting as a model in its own right. In this position, it can move freely and be targeted normally. When a Hunting pet is in the same room as its Master, it can return to the Guard position for free.

When a Familiar is defeated, it will return to its lair and can be summoned again by any Mage who will activate the room's power. A Mage defeated while controlling a pet will not lose control of it (as is the case with a normal summons).

Familiars have Skills for all tastes and for all situations! Let's see some of them!

Polpetta (a Cerberus), when in Guard position, can attack inflicting 2 damages to all enemies in its room, or when it is in Hunting it can be useful to his Master who can use it as a point of origin for all his Attack Spells. If you are playing with many Destruction or Elementalism cards, you will love this pet!

The Griffin Leeroy, on the other hand, while in Hunting will be able to convert your damage into Instability to be placed in its room, or when it is on Guard it will be able to convert one damage of all models in its room into its Master damage. It will be very useful if your favorite schools are Necromancy or Transmutation!

What do you think? Are you eager to try to tame some Familiars? Very soon you can do it! In the meantime, you can read the complete Familiars rules in all languages ​​by clicking on this link:

Familiars rulebooks

And now before concluding this update a little advertising!

Sherwood Bandits!

As you may know, LMS recently founded a small studio called Ludus Magnus Lite, a younger brother of LMS that will create lighter games than those normally produced by the Major Company. This small studio will take care of creating games with a medium-low price range, intended primarily for the retail market, completely independently of LMS.

The first game of this new line is Sherwood Bandits, a fun positioning, gambling and management (and luck!) game that will put you in the shoes of the followers of the legendary Robin Hood, intent on getting the best booty in the realm, being careful not to get caught by the fearsome Sherwood Sheriff!

Sherwood Bandits was developed and prepared during 2019 and was expected to be launched on the retail market in 2020. Unfortunately, the Covid-19 crisis and the consequent cancellation of all the conventions for this year did not allow us to prepare for its presentation as we would have liked and that's why we decided to promote it with a short KS campaign, to present it to both players and possible interested distributors. The campaign was conceived without FOMO and since the game is ready for printing, it can count on very fast shipping times.

If you are interested in a game that is beautiful to look at and fun to play (in pure LMS style in short) take a look at it!

That's all for today! See you in a couple of weeks for new spoilers and updates on production and shipping!

Fireball!

Call to Arms is coming!
almost 4 years ago – Tue, Jun 09, 2020 at 04:00:29 AM

Hello, Magisters!

As anticipated in the last weeks we arrived at the time to join the Call to Arms!

From today Monday 8 June 2020, the emails that will allow you to access your Pledge Manager and join, if you wish, to the Call to Arms that will allow us to complete the fulfillment of the BRW wave 2 will start.

For technical reasons internal to BackerKit the procedure to join the Call to Arms is slightly different depending on whether you are a Backer or a Late-Backer, you will, therefore, receive a different email depending on your status. Regardless of what type of backer you are, you will find all the detailed instructions to join the Call to Arms directly in the Email you will receive.

Again for reasons of internal Backerkit procedures, PayPal cannot be used to make payments in this case, which will, therefore, be entirely managed with Stripe. If you have some issue with this procedure contact me here:

https://ludusmagnusstudio.com/contact-us/

As announced, you can change your shipping address if you need it!

I remind you that participation in the Call to Arms is OPTIONAL and that not participating will not result in the loss of your wave 2, which will be sent to all of you anyway, but you will only have to be a little patient to allow us to amortize these extra expenses.

The minimum participation fee for the Call to Arms is $15 but if you want to help us further you can join with a greater amount, which will give you our eternal gratitude but will not entail further advantages compared to those who join with $15.

The Pledge Manager will remain open until 11:59 pm (EST) on June 22, 2020, if you cannot join the Call to Arms during this period, you can also do it later by contacting us directly!

The emails will be sent in groups, so they will all be sent out within a couple of days, so don't worry if you don't receive them immediately and check the spam folder!

If you do not receive anything within 2 or 3 days or for any other problem you can always write to me here:

https://ludusmagnusstudio.com/contact-us/

Important note: since the PM is currently open, you can also use one of the links that we have sent you in the past if you have kept it, but I suggest you wait for the email for precise instructions and to avoid mistakes, especially the Late-backers.

We thank you with all our heart for this additional support you are giving us, we really hope that when you receive your wave 2 you will feel proud to have supported us in these months and even now, in such difficult times! Thanks, thanks thanks!

English cards revised

Following the spoiler I did a few days ago on the board, I officially confirm that in the Sator Box in English you will also find the revised cards of the Core Box (spells, tarots, quest, and event) and Hidden Thorn.

This was possible thanks to Ares Games which granted us the use of its molds made for the Retail version of BRW. This allowed us to be able to insert this reprint quickly without incurring further delays (which was one of the reasons why we initially decided not to do this reprint).

This reprint will not include the Crono's cards, as there is no revised version for these cards, and creating it right now would cost us too much in terms of time and budget. It is not great damage since the school of Myth does not present particular problems or errors that could affect a game in which it is used.

I apologize if in my spoiler I had announced that all the cards of wave 1 would be reprinted, I had not thought about this problem with Crono and my excessive enthusiasm has betrayed me again.

Even without Crono, reprinting all the other wave 1 cards is a great way to relaunch BRW with the arrival of wave 2 and make you appreciate this game in full! 

We really thank you for the feedback you have given us in these days that have allowed us to achieve this great result!

That's all for now! Thank you again for all your support!

Fireball!

Call to Arms ep. 2 - Clarifications, F.A.Q. and...Pets!
almost 4 years ago – Wed, May 27, 2020 at 01:40:17 AM

As expected, the latest update created a lot of turmoil in the community. I have tried to read all the messages that have arrived here, and on our social networks. Apart from perhaps a few that were a little "exaggerated" comments, many of the criticisms and suggestions you have given us are clear, and as always we have accepted them with great critical sense.

Many of you have pointed out to me that asking for $15 without offering an alternative or a guarantee that the pledge would still be delivered might seem like paying a ransom. It is our fault that we inaccurately conveyed the message. We have not been able to pass the request for help properly. We would ask for help, not for a ransom.

This is why I want to reassure you. The payment of the $15 will be optional, and even those who do not participate in the Call to Arms will still receive their pledge. This will entail additional costs for LMS which we will have to accept over time, therefore the fulfillment of wave 2 will be completed dividing deliveries in the months after the fulfillment starts.

The backers who participate in the Call to Arms will be the first to receive their pledge, and all those who do not want or cannot participate will receive it in the months following the start of the fulfillment. It will, however, be possible to pay the $15 at any time after the closing of the PM and this will involve a more rapid shipment of your pledge without further waiting (after the closing of the PM a new update will update you in this regard).

We would like to clarify that a large part of our request is due to the current situation worldwide and that it will only cover part of the additional expenses that we will incur. The delay for the development of a game like BRW is attributable to us but we are sure that having an excellent game is better than having it in time but with fewer new ideas and more defects or with an inadequate playtest. This is our policy and we will accept that delays may happen in future Kickstarters, defending the quality of our games.

I believe that this explanation helps us to better understand and respond to your feedback that has been very useful and has helped us to face a completely new situation.

Having said that, I will now answer some of the questions I have been asked; let's continue with the FAQ:

Q - Why should I participate in the call to arms?

A - To help us! Participation is optional but in addition to giving the advantage of receiving wave 2 without further delays, each contribution will help us complete the fulfillment for all backers in short times. So join the Call to Arms will help everyone!

Q - How can I participate in the Call to Arms?

A - Between this and next week all backers will receive an email that will allow access to the Pledge Manager. Inside you will find a new option for shipping costs with which you can add your contribution. The PM will remain open until mid-June.

Q - What happens if I don't join the Call to Arms?

A - You will receive wave 2 like all the other backers. You just have to be more patient. All shipments of those who did not participate in the Call to Arms will be deferred in the months following the start of the Fulfillment. Currently, we have no precise idea of ​​the timing, it will all depend on the number of backers who will join the Call to Arms which influences our ability to financially fulfill the final shipment.

Q - Will I be able to pay my contribution even after the closing of the PM in June?

A - Yes, just contact us by email that we will provide you after the closing of the PM. This will immediately unlock the delivery of your wave 2 for a faster Fulfillment.

Q - As your customer, can I ask and get a full refund of my pledge?

A - A Backer is not a Customer in the same way that Kickstarter is not a Shop. By participating in a KS a backer contributes to the realization of a project that would otherwise never see light, sharing a part of the risks with the creator of the project. In the face of these risks, a backer obtains great advantages such as a cheaper price and numerous exclusive bonuses that increase the value of the investment. Speaking specifically of BRW with a pledge of $ 99 you could get the base box of the game at a reduced price compared to retail (120 €) plus the Sator Box which alone is worth double (at least) the pledge. With wave 1 delivered to all backers, and wave 2 now produced a full refund is not possible since the funds raised during the KS have already been used for production. If we fail to complete the fulfillment then refunds can be made as described in our policies, but we are sure that the fulfillment will be completed despite the current difficulties.

Q - Can you explain exactly how these $ 15 will be used?

A - After Backerkit has withheld its fundraising fee, the remainder will be used to pay for the transport by ship from China and the payment of the various Fulfillment Companies that take care of preparing your orders and making the final shipment to your home.

Q - I have already paid the shipping costs, don't you think that with these additional $ 15 you will pay a too high cost?

A - It may seem this way at first glance but let's analyze how much has been paid so far. If we take as an example a Backer from the USA who chose only the Magister pledge he paid on average about $ 27 for shipping. If you add the $ 15 of the Call to Arms we get to $ 42 (add $ 11 if you chose the double wave from the beginning). If you compare these prices with the shipping prices of the big projects in the last year (with the same amount of material as BRW), you will find that there is not much difference, considering that normally the big companies have a very large number of backers. Having more units shipped allows a company to obtain better prices for shipments. Add to all this the damage caused by Covid-19 to the transport sector.

Q - Why did you add extras to the Sator box if you already had a weight/volume problem?

A - Asymmetric Mages were added following the introduction of the new Mage Sheets which actually allowed us to save a lot of weight and volume (had we retained the original design, the shipping shortfall would have been even higher). The Asymmetric Mages are on the back of the new Mage Cards and therefore in terms of size they have not added additional weight. Summoner Wars is inside Inferno and takes advantage of unused spaces on punchboards. In terms of costs, it was only time to create and test this expansion.

Q - Is it true that with the funds raised by KS you produced the retail version of BRW, taking away resources from the project that could now be used?

A - No it's not true. The retail version of BRW for the American market was produced and distributed by ARES games. Our role was marginal and related only to the adaptation of the KS version and this new retail version. The retail version will not contain MIniatures for Evocations by the publisher's (ARES) choice. The models will be sold separately in 3 different boxes (this makes the KS version even more convenient.)

Q - I am a KS veteran but this is the first project in which something like this happened to me, why do you have these problems?

A - In reality many projects, even from bigger companies than LMS, over the years have had to ask for backers' support to cover additional shipping costs. We don't want to name them, and obviously we don't want to justify our situation by saying that since others have already done it, we can do it too, but only let you notice that this kind of unexpected event on KS can happen and that nobody is immune from it. The unforeseen events that a project brings with it are many and of a different nature, it is not possible to foresee all of them, and this risk is assumed by both parties, the creator of the project and the backer. A project proposed through KS is often ambitious and cost-effective for the SGs that are unlocked, for the exclusive material and for many other reasons. This convenience has a price, the unpredictability of risk. A risk we share by consuming our earnings when is needed. KS is not a shop and this is valid for us too.

Q - If you had delivered the wave 2 in the times indicated we would not be in this situation, why do we have to pay for your delays?

A - The delay of wave 2 is due to various factors. BRW is a huge project for a small company like LMS but we have tried to manage it in the best way to give you a final product that could compete with the bigger KS. Wave 2 required a lot of work on all fields: game design, graphics, artwork, and 3d sculpting with the sole purpose of giving you an excellent product, the two years since the end of the KS have been used entirely for this purpose. We could give you a decent product in the times indicated, but having delivered the wave 1 we preferred to take our time and give you something fantastic. Having said that, here too the Covid-19 had its part to play and probably further lengthened the delay that we had already accumulated, since in fact factories in China first and then we in Italy experienced a lockdown regime, even at this moment we continue to work from home, without the possibility of efficient playtesting.

Q - Which wave 1 material did you correct with wave 2?

A - Inside the Sator box you will find: the 3 miniatures of Andromeda with the holes for the rose pins, 3 Abomination Evocation cards, and all School of Magic tarot summary cards. Clarifications and FAQs have been proposed in the past, leading to new publications of both the Rulebook and the Codex Arcanum, we imagine that this will happen even after the delivery of the second wave. For this reason we will continue to update all the game files, thanks also to Ares Games and to fantastic backers that we have chosen to help with development. As for Spell Cards, reviewing them together with the author we found that they did not present serious errors but that had to be better explained within the Codex Arcanum, and now with the new downloadable version you will have no problems interpreting them. In addition, some basic game rules have been updated directly in the Sator box manual (which you will find inside the box in your chosen language). In the coming weeks we will start uploading all the new rulebooks in all languages ​​to our site so that you can start studying the new rules and be ready for the arrival of the new stuff.

That's all for now. I hope I managed to reassure all of you and to have remedied a communication that since the last update could have been more precise and that had to take into account several factors. As always I will be available on the Board for your comments.

Yes I know I promised some more information about Pets but this update was very important and I preferred not to have distractions, we will talk about the fantastic Familiars in the next weekly update, but we greet you with some spoiler images ;).

Thanks again to everyone for the support and affection for BRW!

Fireball!

Call to Arms Magisters!
almost 4 years ago – Wed, May 20, 2020 at 12:40:53 AM

Hello Magisters

As promised, here is the update to give you more detailed information on the upcoming shipment of Wave 2. There is good news and less good news, but please carefully read this whole update because it is really important.

In the last few weeks, we have started to contact our partners to organize the shipment of the highly anticipated wave 2 and we immediately discovered that we would need to face changes.

We have ascertained that the amount requested by us about a year ago for the shipment of all the material of wave 2 is insufficient given an increase in shipping costs of about 80% compared to what we have budgeted. The reasons for this increase are as follows:

1 - The weight and volume of the Sator Box are much higher than those estimated by us at the end of the KS. Despite our precautions to reduce the weight and volume of the Sator box to a minimum (such as the new Mage Sheets which we told you about months ago), we have a box with a considerable volumetric weight given the huge amount of material it contains. To give you some data, we are talking about a box measuring 295x500x170mm and containing 73 miniatures (many of which are especially large, including the huge and wonderful Necrodragon), 639 cards for the ENG and FRA version, 1198 cards for the ESP, GER and ITA versions, as well as 13 new rooms, new punchboards and so on. Folks, Sator is a massive box!

2 - In addition to the systemic increase in costs that the transport and shipping sector undergoes every year, this year the sector has been hit hard by the Covid-19 crisis, which has led to a higher surge in costs than we expected about a year ago.

3 - Many of our partners for fulfillment in the various areas of the world have changed since the shipment of Wave 1, as we search for better partners. Having received negative feedback after the fulfillment of wave 1, we took steps to find a better service. To give an example now, for the USA and Canada, we will collaborate with Quartermaster Logistics, which has confirmed its excellent reputation with the management of Dungeonology wave 1. An increase in the quality of the service you can expect was matched by an increase in costs. As they say, “you get what you pay for.”

The good news is that as in the past, Ludus Magnus Studio will be happy to cover 50% of these new costs, but given the big difference with the amount requested in 2019 (which was still relatively low by the standards of shipments for large projects such as BRW) we are forced, despite ourselves, to ask you for help to cover these new costs. 

We like to think we have created a great community and it is thanks to you that BRW has become a game appreciated and loved all over the world and there are many people who write to us regretting not having participated in this KS and who ask us for a way to buy the wonders unlocked during the campaign. For this reason, appealing to the entire community, and for the fact that the main problem concerns the Sator Box (which all backers will receive), we have decided to distribute this new commitment equally among all the backers, and therefore we will ask each backer to pay an additional $15 to help us complete the shipments of wave 2. We deeply regret asking this of you.

On a positive note, this $15 will be easily absorbed by the extras that we added to wave 2 that were not advertised in the KS campaign. These are extras that had not been unlocked during the KS and that we have added as a bonus and as a sincere thank you for your support and patience. So, in light of this news, your pledge acquires even more value than you expected. I'm talking about the 24 new Mage Card(board)s that add Asymmetric Mages to the gameplay (which will be partially marketed in a series of retail expansions with some miniatures with an RPP $30 for each); the Summoner Wars mini-expansion (included in Inferno) which adds new Activation Tokens for the rooms of the core game and a completely new game mode; and finally new activation tokens for the rooms which, in addition to Solo play, can also be used in standard games to add new variability to the gameplay. The commercial value of all these extras abundantly exceeds $15 and we are really happy to have been able to insert them into your pledge to protect your investment even more, and to offset the added shipping costs that we are asking for.

In addition, all BRW backers who will join the Nova Aetas Renaissance Kickstarter (late summer 2020) will receive the  Hyperion conversion kit for free, a terrible and huge new Titan (and its minions ... ops spoiler). With this kit, you will be able to play the Crono's brother also in BRW by adding a new Legendary Event and new Forgotten Spells!

Within the next 2 weeks, you will receive an email that will allow you access to the Pledge Manager. Once inside, you can add only the $15 for additional shipping, and you will also be able to change your delivery address if you need to. No further additions to your order will be possible, since the production of the expansions has ended and we cannot add new goods, without risking overselling some items. The PM will remain open for two weeks (until about mid-June) to allow you to complete your shipping. If anyone fails to complete this step during this open period, do not worry … it can be carried out after the start of fulfillment (but not between the time the PM closes and when fulfillment starts). For deliveries, priority will be given to backers who made the payment at the right time (during the open PM).

For us, it was not an easy decision to make, and we are well aware of the effort we are asking of you, but the intersection of all the circumstances that I have listed above has left us no other choice.

As for the shipping timeline: at the moment we have no reason to believe that the timeline will suffer further delays, and therefore we hope that between July and August 2020 you will all have wave 2 on your tables.

That's all for this update, and as always, for any questions or comments you can contact me on the board or using this link:

https://ludusmagnusstudio.com/contact-us/

Thank you very much to all of you, from Luca and all the LMS Staff.

 FIREBALL!

An Assassin in the Lodge
almost 4 years ago – Thu, Apr 30, 2020 at 11:54:28 AM

Hello, Magisters!

How are you guys? We hope all is fine. Here in Italy, things are starting to settle but the time for a return to normality is still long. But we do not lose heart and even among many difficulties, we are continuing to work carrying on all our projects. In this new update at the time of the Coronavirus we will talk about various things, so make yourself comfortable and let's start!

Wave 2 Production Update

On the production front, there is good news! Production is likely to be completed between late May and early June! We have already started organizing transport by contacting our partners and for next week we should have precise estimates of costs and times. But we are confident that the delivery date for July 2020 can be respected (always considering the different timings depending on your area).

For more precise information, we refer you to a new update next week when we have more precise data in hand on all fronts, but we are cautiously optimistic that wave 2 should not be further delayed, which considering the crazy period we are experiencing it's a great thing!

"Requiescat in Pace"

As promised, despite the difficulties, from this update we will start again with the spoilers of wave 2 and for this time we decided to delight you by showing the material of one of the most loved and talked about Stretch goals unlocked during the KS campaign, we are talking about Ezio Auditore from Florence, the protagonist of some of the most beloved episodes of the Assassin's Creed saga!

As you will remember, during the BRW campaign, with a gesture of great generosity, Ubisoft (which we thank again for all the support) allowed us to use one of its most famous characters to make it part of the cast of our game.

Given his background, Ezio would have been perfect for BRW's Fantasy-Renaissance setting, and for us, it was a great opportunity to study the perfect rules for him and create an amazing miniature that will enrich your collection!

But how can you use this badass in your games?

Ezio's set also includes a new red room, the "Assassin's Brotherhood". Like all the Sator box new rooms, in the setup when you are asked to "build" the Lodge, you can replace this Room with another of the same color, the important thing is that the number of Rooms of a certain color always remains the same.

The power of the Assassin's Brotherhood will allow you to summon Ezio under your control. Ezio will, therefore, count as one of your 3 Evocations but his rules are very different from those of a "normal" Evocation.

The moment you summon it, you must choose one of the opposing Mages as Ezio's target. From now on, every time the target Mage any action (move, attack or throw a Spell) Ezio will move one step towards him. When Ezio enters the same room as his target, he will automatically defeat him, giving the defeated Mage trophy to the Mage who controls it, after which Ezio will also leave the Lodge and can again be Summoned through his room.

Ezio is, therefore, an unstoppable (he cannot be wounded in any way) death machine inside the Lodge and we are sure that many Magisters will fight to own his services.

What do you think? Will you use Ezio in your games? Or are you too afraid of making a bad end?

Before saying goodbye, we are pleased to report an all-Italian project currently on KS: Brancalonia!

Acheron Books has created a magnificent historical-fantasy setting to be used with the rules of the 5th Edition of the most famous role-playing game of all time, set in a really picturesque and engaging Fantasy version of the Italian Middle Ages!

Given the similarities with the Nova Aetas Chronicles universe, together with the Acheron Books guys, we thought it would be fantastic to set an entire adventure of their game inside the Lodge of the Black Rose! And so this Stretch Goal (already unlocked) was born where I and the other LMS authors will write a complete adventure set inside your favorite lodge!

If you are interested, take a look at the project ... you will not regret it!

And that's all for today! See you next week for new updates on production and shipping!

Fireball! (and stay safe)