To this date, is there a game that includes real people and is accurate? For example, does it include Rickson and Royce Gracie, Anderson Silva, and other greats of all time?

Black Rose Wars really takes magic-themed board games to a whole new level!
The adrenaline-pumping gameplay keeps you on the edge of your seat.
The combination of strategy, magic, and competition is phenomenal.
Love how each character feels unique and powerful.
Have you played Black Rose Wars before? What did you think?
Which character or magic style do you prefer in the game?
Do you enjoy strategy-heavy board games or more casual ones?

I like this deck, but despite the fun double major/betrayal mechanic, my group can’t make it click. I think the issue, weirdly enough, is Fleet Admiral (FA).

I like FA: it’s a weaker Battlemind for a weaker character. However, Ozzel/Piett are squishy 9-HP majors, so you don’t want them to tank, and if the minors block (or attack), there’s fewer cards for FA. So either you sacrifice the minors for FA, or sacrifice FA for everything else. The second option seems to get better results, but this leaves Ozzel a mere meat-shield, and not a good one since his power defense (FA) isn’t powered up. At best he gets off two Clumsy and Stupids before he dies. (Hilarious card name.)

What if FA also said, “Return the topmost basic combat card in your discard pile to your hand?”

1. Your minors can freely block and attack, since you can recycle their cards.
2. You can’t get back *any* card like Obi’s Jedi Mind Trick; only basic combat cards, and you must plan ahead.
3. FA combos with itself. Maybe the first is only an A4, but the second will be an A5 and the third a D6.
4. Ozzel/Piett basic combat cards don’t power up FA, but you can use your final FA to get one back (likely for Piett to use.)

These are weak characters and their cards appropriately match their power level. Still, this deck has what it needs to win: direct damage to peck at enemies (its bread-and-butter cards), then Piett’s A7s and A8s to take things home. This FA tweak indirectly gives the group more staying power by letting Ozzel and the minors tank more, and gets Ozzel what he needs sooner so he can contribute more before he’s sacrificed. (It also gives him his own Path to Victory if Piett dies first.)

Smaller ideas:
— Swap “Cheap Shot” for a fourth FA.
— Make Cheap Shot an A4. (It *can* help get the minor cards FA needs, but with only one and it only doing A3, you can’t rely on it.)
— Make “Clumsy and Stupid” / “Betrayal” restore 2 HP if Ozzel or Piett are already dead when played. There’s still incentive to kill one for greater net gain (e.g. lose 2 Ozzel HP to gain 7 Piett), but the healing isn’t lost if he’s already dead.
— Swap “Cheap Shot” for a card both Ozzel and Piett can use to restore 2-3 HP if the other is dead.
— Swap “Cheap Shot” for a card that lets you search your discard pile (or draw pile?) for basic combat cards. Maybe named “It’s an older code.”

On the whole, no other Geektopia deck captures my imagination like this one. It takes planning (and a bit of luck), and I love that extra depth. Thanks for your patience reading this long post–don’t worry, I won’t do it again 🙂

My nephews *love* this deck and it sees play almost every session. After facing it many, MANY times, I vote Plo should have regular clone troopers (4 HP, weak ranged minor deck), like vanilla Obi, Mace, and Yoda. Often stronger generics are given to compensate for a more fragile major, like vanilla Palpatine or Geektopia Tarkin and Gunray. Plo, however, has more HP than vanilla Yoda, along with a blue deck, power defense, and action denial skills. He doesn’t need the extra beef the ARC troopers give him if the other Jedi don’t.

Plo himself is perfectly fine. Just like Obi, Mace, and Yoda, he’s got a good bag of tricks to wear down and outlast the enemy without being broken. Storm and Electric Judgment are annoying, but less so than the Fetts’ wrist cables. My group likes how Plo *plays* differently than the other Jedi. Good job designing him!

This is one of my favorite Geektopia decks. Ghost Obi is especially brilliant design.

While the description says it’s a strong deck, I’m worried it’s *too* strong: it’s Vader’s HP with a green deck, effectively two Bowcasters, a perfect block with huge potential heal, and better mobility than Jango.

It’s also got a few issues: Luke needs Obi to power up, but Obi’s *very* squishy; Obi has only two “attacks”; and some Luke cards are game-slowing.

Four suggestions:

1. Give Luke 18 HP and Obi 7 HP.

Total HP stays the same. Luke still has more than vanilla Luke, but 20 HP stays Vader’s thing. Obi’s harder to gimp with direct damage but only has the 7 HP of vanilla Greedo, not the 10 of “standard” personality minors like Padme or Zam.

2. Make all “Jedi Training” and “Use The Force” modifiers +1.
(Ex: +1 for each JT in discard, +1 for each UtF in discard, +1 if Obi is alive.)

This makes Luke’s offense closer to what you’d expect from a green deck. He can still throw out no-penalty A9s and A10s, which is better than vanilla Anakin’s Anger and about equal to vanilla Luke’s Justice despite those both being red decks who can’t tank as well.
This also helps game flow by simplifying things. Some players forget what modifiers are +2 vs. +1.

3. Change “The Future You See”: “Draw 2 cards. Look at the top 2 cards of another player’s draw pile and put them back in the same order. If Obi-Wan Force Spirit is alive, draw 3 and look at 3 instead.”
(Long description, I know.)

“The Future You See” takes a while in 3-4 player games while Luke looks through everybody’s decks. Thematically he should have *some* future-seeing, but maybe not *that* good. Gameplay-wise, restricting it to one player makes its use more strategic.

4. Swap 1 “Always In Motion” for 1 “A Certain Point of View” for three ACPOVs total.

AiM is better movement than many decks get. With *two,* Luke moves better than Jango, which doesn’t seem right. I like it as a reference to Luke doing front-flips with Yoda on his back, though.
This tweak frees up a card to give Obi one more “attack”. A personality minor with 4 specials breaks standard deck design, but Obi already does with his 0-attack basic combat cards.
Ghost Obi’s a brilliant concept: he can’t hurt you, but he can still penalize you for not blocking. The problem is once both ACPOVs are used, you can ignore him the rest of the game, making “I Cannot Interfere” useless. A third ACPOV makes it a coin flip Obi can “hurt” you during a round of attacks, making Obi more useful in combat.

The deck will mostly play the same, just drop to Tier 2 somewhere. I think that fits: *could* ESB Luke and Yoda have beaten Vader on Bespin, working together? I’m not sure.

As it stands, this is a great deck. Thanks for sharing it!

We bring Golden God out every now and then and it’s always a riot. I’ve actually seen it win a few games! My personal favorite was a 2v2 where an Ewok jumped in front of Threepio (via “Against My Programming”) to block my lethal Jedi Knight Anakin’s “Focus Your Anger”–which made Anakin die, too–then got resurrected with “Feast In My Honor” and killed Jedi Master Obi-Wan to win the game. I was laughing too hard to be upset.

One nice thing about this deck is it’s pretty obviously fragile, so people can’t be too mad if Threepio goes down fast. (Fighting Boba in particular is a bloodbath.) He’s still more dangerous than you’d think, though; Boom + Divine Influence is surprisingly strong without being broken. We also absolutely love how the only Geektopia deck that can pierce Yoda’s almighty Serenity defense is the silly Golden God. Great deck, good power level, and loads of fun.

Believe it or not, I actually prefer this deck over other versions. Sure, it’s not strong, but it’s got enough stuff going for it that I enjoy it, especially in 2v2s. “Administrator Of This Facility” is versatile and encourages jumping into action, and “Gambler’s Fallacy” uses the die (unique among the Geektopia decks we’ve printed) without being annoying.

One big reason I prefer this one, though, is Lobot. I’d rather Lando have a personality minor over a pair of generics. Lobot isn’t *that* interesting, but “Bespin Ambush” combos well with “I Just Made A Deal,” and “Send in the Ugnauts” puts vanilla Vader’s “Wrath” to shame.

On the whole, we don’t use Lando for “serious” games often, but he’s perfect when I’m playing with beginners or younger players and want to give myself a handicap. He’s also fun in our occasional “ranged majors only” matches, and trying to beat the odds against stronger Jedi decks is a good challenge.

For Olf Windhowl, what does the fate card do that he draws as the first action? Sounds like it effects casting empower, but then it states “if the spell fate…” which would mean I’d have drawn another fate card for a spell fate check. Theres no clarity in the rules, seems like wording may be off.

I made a great house rule for both Boba Fett and Jango Fett. Anytime a 5 is rolled they can move to any square with their jetpack. I then had dice made to match their colors and added an extra 5. We mainly play 2v2, 3v3, 4v4 type wars so it helps to buff them against the Jedi.

Is there anywhere to download the original 12 decks in a pdf. format?

What if Imperial Surge included “draw a card”?

Luke, tweaked Dooku, Grievous, and Tarkin have “move all + draw” specials. Surge moves all, but no draw. I guess it’s so players don’t potentially get to move, draw, AND attack multiple times in one turn by comboing Surge with Stomp. Still, the AT-ST has three Surges but only two Stomps, so the Surges often get passed up for attacks or draws.

My nephews wanted to try the AT-ST the instant they saw it. (“23 HP?! Wow!”) After watching five people win and lose with it multiple times, I decided its appeal is like Vader’s: the power fantasy of being big and tough. Even if it’s not tier 1A (and shouldn’t be), it at least shouldn’t feel *fragile* like vanilla Vader did.

Offensively, AT-ST is just right. Defensively, giving it power blocks or buffing Imperial Supplies would be overkill. Adding +1 draw to Surge gives it better odds to protect itself without changing any combat cards.

Other possibilities are swapping a Surge for a third Stomp, or adding to Surge something like “You may draw a card, but may not play a Stomp this turn if so.” Half the AT-ST’s cards already revolve around restricting actions, which excellently fits the theme of a huge machine with jerky, deliberate movements.

The deck is still fine as is. My nephews were delighted to discover that Stomp one-shots Golden God C-3PO’s Ewoks. Squish!

Hi I have a rule question that I couldn’t find explicitly stated in the rulebook. If your exploration phase does not result in combat, do you simply add the revealed realm cards to your hand?

Do you have to pull a Trickster fate card to activate the ability?

On most of the Avatars they have the Ability check. Do you have to pull a Trickster gate card to activate all the abilities or does it just have to not be a one?

When Luke becomes the major, does he get to use Old Ben cards or what is the point of him becoming the major?

Hi was wondering about thorns 2 defend card that lets him attack. Can he still attack if the damage he receives kills him when defending with that card? Thanks

[…] Lord of Apokolips is the Big Bad of the DC Universe. The main inspiration for this game was Geektopia’s set, which is balanced based on their interpretation of which Star Wars characters are the most […]

My nephews and I love this deck, but some questions about Attack Run came up last session:

1) This page says Wedge moves 7 spaces, but the .pdf says specifies he moves in a *straight line.* Which one is intended? The former is stronger, but the latter’s more interesting.

2) Wedge must stop his attack run on an empty space, right? So even though he moves 7, he can only hit 6 characters max, right? (42 damage still gives my man Wedge the best potential 1-turn output in the game, though. I love that.)

3) If Wedge COULD move a 6th space and attack an enemy, but there’d be no empty 7th space to move to after (due to obstacles, reaching a corner or edge, or it already being occupied), must Wedge end his run early at the 5th space and leave the enemy on space 6 unattacked? (This is a much bigger issue for the “straight line” variation of Attack Run.) Can Wedge stop at space 5 but hit the guy at space 6 like a normal attack, without passing over him?

Just curious to see if there was any original intent from this we should know about, or gut reactions on how to handle the question. My group settled on “Wedge ends the run early at space 5 and the guy in spot 6 goes unattacked” and it decided the game, so we are all curious 😛

Where can I find the figurines?

Hello, thank you for all your work. I can’t seem to get the LOTR Legends Expansion. How do I go about getting those?

I downloaded the vassal extension, but couldn’t find it in the window, so checked the file. It’s in x3150, y100, but I think you meant for it to be the other way around?

[…] blog, BRW is a game of intense, “royal rumble” style magic combat game, which did get a full review a while back.  You and the other mages are confined to a fairly small “lodge” and go […]

Hey, all.

Just started playing this with my son after having played with my friends years and years ago. I ended up printing them the cards out on basic card stock and sleeving in MTG sized sleeves. I printed the maps out on 11×17 paper and laminating. Then, we use Lego SW figures for the for the characters. It is a blast! Thanks to everyone who put in the effort for the custom decks and maps!

These are amazing! Thank you for what must be countless hours of dedication. Can’t wait to give this a go this weekend. Much appreciation to everyone involved.

The card titles in the vassal version are squished. Also do the effects on FREE SPIRIT stack? So if Sabine is adjacent to the target and has no cards the attack value is 12?