Black Rose Wars is a competitive fantasy game of deck-building, strategy, and combat set in the hectic universe of Nova Aetas in Italy. Each player is one of powerful mages of the Black Rose Order who aspires to become the new Supreme Magister in order to acquire the mighty power of the Black Rose Artifact and the Forgotten Magic. Mages must fight, fulfill Black Rose desires, and gain strength with their spells until their power reaches the containment threshold of the prison where they are exiled, finally freeing themselves. Each mage has at their disposal six schools of magic, each one with its own strategy to annihilate their opponents and increase their power.
At the start of the battle, mages start with a grimoire of six cards; as mages study more spells during play, their grimoire will increase. Every spell in Black Rose Wars has two different effects, increasing a player's adaptability during a fight.
Mages fight each other in a modular arena of hexagons called "rooms". They summon powerful creatures, cast destructive spells, or devise dark deceptions with their enchantments. The game system is divided into different phases. Each turn, after choosing new spells from the six schools of magic, players plan their strategy in advance, placing cards face down. Later, they reveal the played cards to kill each other, solve missions, summon creatures, or destroy the prison rooms, one against each other and against the Black Rose (the playing system).
After being killed, mages are reborn immediately, allowing them to re-enter the fight without delay — although their death still fed energy to those mages who caused it.
The mage with the most power at the end of the battle will be crowned Supreme Magister of the Order by the Black Rose itself.
- faction warfare and spellcasting
- Fantasy city with magical factions
- asymmetric, tactical combat with card-driven elements
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Okay, this game is called Black Rose Wars. You know what? I actually randomly have black roses.
- Oh, Black Rose Wars
- start off by putting the box right in the center of the frame
- That way it helps accentuate that red in the middle of the box
References (from this video)
- interesting mage progression and ascendancy concept
- mages and ascendancy progression with combat
- fantasy mage arena with dungeon-like themes
- story-driven with progression mechanics
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Asymmetric abilities — Different mage factions have unique powers and paths.
- card/spell-casting combat — Spell cards and combat interactions drive the magical duels.
- Combat: Deck/Hand — Spell cards and combat interactions drive the magical duels.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- planning is the key to making the best game days.
- So, next time you're picking games, definitely think about these three categories and how you want to structure your game day.
- Put your ideas in the comments because you all come up with some freaking amazing ideas so far
References (from this video)
- More spell cards in this edition increase strategic variety.
- Magic school deck provides thematic flavor and structure.
- Event cards and redesigned quest cards add depth.
- Avatar mechanics and activation tokens add tactical layers.
- Upgraded components with refreshed graphics improve presentation.
- Modular rooms and room destruction mechanics support dynamic play.
- Magic duels, room control, quests, and moon-driven events.
- Fantasy duel among mages within a modular board of rooms (Black Rose Wars lodge).
- Descriptive overview of components and core mechanics with light narrative context.
- Black Rose Wars Rebirth
- Legos Wars Rebirth
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Activation tokens and flipping — Activation tokens on rooms are flipped once a room’s effect is used, marking it inactive.
- Card-driven spell system — Spells come from dual-part spell cards drawn from magic school decks and revealed during actions.
- Evocation combat and bases — Miniatures and bases track evocations and mage control during combat.
- Modular board — A modular map built from rooms that provide unique room abilities and capacity.
- Modular board with rooms — A modular map built from rooms that provide unique room abilities and capacity.
- Moon-phase event deck — Event cards drawn according to the moon phase, affecting the track and quests.
- Power board integration — Power board connects event, evocation, and upgrade decks into a shared progression system.
- Quest and reward system — Quest cards provide tasks with rewards; incomplete quests still influence points toward a Black Rose.
- Room destruction progress track — Cubes placed on a track at the bottom of each room to destroy it and gain points.
- Upgrade and avatar decks — Upgrade cards deck and avatar command cards introduce new states and actions.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- In this board game, players take on the role of mages.
- The miniatures are in a color that distinguishes them for the other miniatures in this board game.
- The more cubes a player place there, the more points they will earn.
- The only difference is the size of the base.
- What will appear on the new event board is a space for discarded quest cards.
- Now take a look at Slenderman's card.
- This card comes as a avatar's greenmore and avatar hand.
- That's slot for avatar activation tokens.
- Finally, the power board, which looks the same as in Legos Wars Rebirth.
- Upgrade cards are attached to evocations.
- So, this is what the prototype version of Black Rose Wars revised edition looks like.
References (from this video)
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- sick kids hospital saved my life I wouldn't be here to give you these games if it wasn't for Saint Kitts hospital
- most of them are projects yes this is our Shelf of haven't put away yet
- we have a lot of prototypes we have some prototypes of games that were never released
- you're probably not even supposed to mention some of these but you know what we never said an NDA let's do this
- we can't do this I'm working all the time and I just can't get them done seven days a week 24 hours a day
- I was very upset with that because it was confusing it was because yeah I didn't read the all in
- he's like I'm done I'm gonna walk away you tell me what happens at the end
- it's a turntable yeah it will use the Lazy Susan and we did one of those like uh That 70s Show
- the loudest thing on the planet like it was a big Hollow 10 year old the dice
References (from this video)
- Neat game with many different versions
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- This is easily on this shelf. The most checked out game. Wonderlands War I see played every time.
- Foundations of Rome despite how big this game is. It gets checked out all the time.
- Everyone's really upset with Grimlord Games cuz they never delivered their last Kickstarter, but another company has picked it up.
- I don't I still don't understand why companies can't put names on the sides of their boxes. Come on now.
- Frostpunk, the board game if you're ready to have a depressing day.
- I think Mosaic is a fantastic civilization game. So fast and easy to play.
- People love Smashup. I have almost everything for Smashup, but it just barely gets played.
- Probably Twilight Imperium is my favorite of all these here, even though I don't play it that much.
- Last Kingdom is a kind of a really fun game from Games based on said TV series. Uh but pretty good. Think Game of Thrones style.