Nova Aetas Renaissance

Nova Aetas Renaissance is another magnificent flood of plastic from Ludus Magnus, this time a revised edition of Nova Aetas with a campaign, bling, and all the requisite noise. I have not seen the original game, so I cannot say whether the story and scenarios are the same, but this edition has not disappointed me in the slightest. It is a highly polished box, with miniatures, a storybook, and hundreds of cards for equipment, loot, and craftables: precisely the kind of excess I want spread across the table in a dungeon crawl.

We play cooperative scenarios as part of a campaign, moving the story forward from mission to mission. After two scenarios, and later five plays in total, the group remained eager to come back and see where the story would go. It has a lavish table presence, yet setup remains relatively quick for everything the box brings.

At its core, it sits close to Sword & Sorcery, but its differences make it noticeably preferable for my tastes. The group faces a relatively simple AI, which works well enough without really earning the label “advanced.” The rules system cuts down on dice rolling, with a feel that reminded me of Jagged Alliance. The rules are a little fiddly, mostly because they make a not entirely successful attempt to imitate FFG’s playbook/glossary style without actually having it, but it is not an issue that overshadows the experience.

For us, the commonly cited drawback of the campaign’s short length is a virtue. We do not have the energy for a Gloomhaven-sized commitment—not even to finish the excellent The Hunters, which we left halfway through—so the prospect of completing the main story over the summer is ideal. So far, we have not encountered anything irritating and, if you enjoy dungeon crawls with a generous production garnish, I recommend it without reservation.

Updated session

The later sessions did not change the impression; they simply reinforced it. Five plays in, the game continued to dominate our table without revealing any new annoyance, while the campaign’s short scope remained exactly why we want to see it through.