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That's a pretty good endorsement!

Yeah, I've started seeing potential flaws in the game, particularly relating to that it isn't perfectly balanced and is a bit random, but I'd easily put it in the top 10 games I've played for substance; top 5 for fun; unquestionably my favorite co-op.

Again, not perfect, but I think it's living up to the hype. Strong replay value based on modes of play and how long it takes, alone.

The game really has it out for the players, which while that is the general theme, can lead to many a point of frustration where you lose one or more characters due to a simple roll of the die during an encounter or event. Hell, even when there is a rule dispute that you can't easily resolve, always rule against the survivors.

As I mentioned before, we botched some things, but the game is still fun to play and that's all that matters. So far though, we're simply having a blast with fighting the lion. The AI deck ensures that each fight is completely different and ensures that we can't just switch on auto-pilot and power through it without any thought or care. Hopefully we'll be able to progress to the goat this Sunday and fight something new.

Plus, I've worked on more minis in the last few days than I have in months. While they may not be Golden Daemon, Crystal Brush or whatever else passes for top marks these days, I'm liking how they turn out.

Aside from it being very long, some things really drawn out, certain phases of the game being more tedious than others, everything stacked against you, some rules very vague and hard to understand. My group wants to keep playing all the time!

We house rule a ton of stuff, we are a group of younger adults with wife's, kids, and jobs, so game time is precious and the nature of this game I do not feel is intended for people with little available gaming time. When we dont understand a rule we tend to side in favor of what keeps the survivor alive. We dont fudge dice rolls though, so when they die on the severe injury table so be it.

We add more resources per victory, I think the butcher fight was pretty lame, when your struggling to create gear and armor to progress and the butcher I felt really halted that progress.

Also if you try and play two or more campaigns at the same time, prepare yourself for alot of documenting. I started out trying to write everything down and put all the cards back in their place after each game, since my game table is also my painting station. It got old real fast so now everything goes in ziplock bags.

Glad to see I'm not the only one who has trouble with some of the rules and the way it is described in the book. At first I thought it may have been the language barrier, but as I read the book more, I think it's down to inexperience in designing these things. As gorgeous as the book is, it's not exactly a great help.

The only thing we're leaving out is the part where you play that mini-game where you chase the monster and end up having a lot of bad gak happening to you. Instead we simply jump from the settlement into the fight itself. Heresy I know, but we prefer a good monster fight over losing survivors to random rolls.

YES! and I am glad im not the only one who does not like the Hunt phase. 9/10 its just 2 cards because we see no reason to fight anything above lvl 1. Should the monster run away and your forced to move through the darkness, kiss all your survival goodbye...

Feels lame, and that hunt phase board eats up alot of space for us, so we gotta move stuff around to lay it down, and the phase is so short and pointless and then we gotta move it again. Lol


As for the rules, ya, I wish the glossary was an actual glossary.. Like when I looked up a weapons special trait and the glossary said "Its a special trait" GAAHHH I knew that, whats it do...

 BrookM wrote:
The only thing we're leaving out is the part where you play that mini-game where you chase the monster and end up having a lot of bad gak happening to you. Instead we simply jump from the settlement into the fight itself. Heresy I know, but we prefer a good monster fight over losing survivors to random rolls.

There's actually some very good stuff that happens. You can get some epic gear or healing or some unusual abilities.

Yeah, I actually found the hunt phase to be my favorite part of the game. Although there's some bad stuff that happens (when doesn't it in the game), overall I found the hunts were where my survivors got some of their best buffs.

I do wish Poots had created a separate book for the events and damage tables as there's definitely more flipping than necessary, especially when still trying to make sense of the rules.

Chopxsticks wrote:As for the rules, ya, I wish the glossary was an actual glossary.. Like when I looked up a weapons special trait and the glossary said "Its a special trait" GAAHHH I knew that, whats it do...

The glossary is indeed something of a smart arse about things. Though some of the actual rule segments also has its moments. I wanted to look up Innovations in the settlement section and twice it gave me a short description of what it does followed by "This will be explained later in this chapter", you tease, give me what I want already!

We may also have to look into either house-ruling slightly upped resource rewards or implement two hunts per year. I get that we're supposed to have a hard time, but dangit, at this rate we'll never get those set bonuses!

spiralingcadaver wrote:There's actually some very good stuff that happens. You can get some epic gear or healing or some unusual abilities.

I'll give it another read-through when we break out the game again, but as is, we're probably going to leave it out for now. We'll probably start using it for the second playthrough, which will be more proper and less of a botchamania than the current campaign.

On resources, well, that's kinda' what fighting tougher guys is about. It really starts rolling once you begin to get stuff, harder guys drop more stuff, and some is in the hunts you've been skipping (I believe every monster has at least one item drop chance, and the harder ones give you more chances to hit one of those drops).

At the point we're at, if we'd done anything close to 2 hunts/year, we'd be juggernauts. It'd hugely imbalance the game to do that. For instance, two basic lions would drop more than one level 3 lion, and be pretty easy for a mid-level party to chump, vs. be a tough fight. A ton of the game is about risk-reward. I think the second and third tier guys could drop more, but the first ones' drops are definitely balanced for the challenge.

An hour long review of the game here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qAFUjHDjdc

Is it only the people who backed during the kickstarter that are receiving their stuff right now? I didn't place my order until the gen con pre-order was up on their site. Not sure wether i should expect it to come in the coming days or if the wait for me is a bit longer?

It looks like poots and co. are shipping to South America which is the final piece of the kickstarter. Once they get wave 1 and wave 2 en route to our friendly southern neighbors I believe the preorders start moving. Don't quote me on that though!

 Mymearan wrote:
So is the game fun, does it have longevity? What do you think so far? Does it go beyond awesome miniatures?

Full disclosure- I did not get in on the Kickstarter. I followed it very closely, and two of my friends basically got everything for the game (and one of them got pretty much all of the extra minis as well).

Adam Poots had done plenty of brilliant minis before, but I didn't know what to expect from a game from him. I had no idea that it would be any good. From the talk during the kickstarter, I wondered if the game was going to be overly complex in ways that don't really add.

It turns out, Poots is terrific at game design. The game plays very fluidly and the mechanics are intuitive. It doesn't feel complex at all, even though there's a ton of variety going on. And it is tons of fun.


The game isn't easy, and the only real format for it is campaign mode. You really can't do the whole campaign in one evening- I'd say it'd take at least five reasonable sessions to complete (unless your settlement gets wiped out) and probably more than that.

- The longevity actually reminds me of my favorite JRPG videogames- I like ones that are very hard, and where I need to really struggle to defeat the boss fights- always hoping the boss doesn't use that crazy powerful attack on me at the wrong moment (Digital Devil is a good example). This game does that very well. And yes, you'll be thinking about strategy while you aren't playing.

- Your characters gain gear and level up and really become epic- but they pretty much always feel desperate against the monsters they battle (even though you'll probably win more often than you'll lose). You'll be sad when you get a party wipe with some of your favorite characters, and that's entirely appropriate.

- KDM also doesn't fill a niche that I already have a game for. It is a very different feeling to battle four heroes against one powerful (and somewhat unpredictable) monster than fighting hordes of enemies like you get from Journey, Zombicide or Super Dungeon Explore, or any head to head game I own.

Really, this is a five star game. I wish it didn't cost so much, but I guess that's what I get for not having confidence in it during the Kickstarter.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

anab0lic wrote:

Is it only the people who backed during the kickstarter that are receiving their stuff right now? I didn't place my order until the gen con pre-order was up on their site. Not sure wether i should expect it to come in the coming days or if the wait for me is a bit longer?

The website stated that the pre-orders would ship right after the Kickstarter orders were fulfilled. So, right now, it is just the Kickstarter people who are getting their stuff.

I'm really liking the game so far, but it is a bit confusing. In the antelope fight it kept running my character into the corner over and over, and we weren't sure exactly how to resolve that - can you be knocked off the board?

We played through Endless screams and then did a screaming antelope hunt afterwards, and thus far the only deaths have been from events (mother during childbirth, then the prey in the hunt re-enactment). It's been close though, and all of the characters returning from the hunt are out of Survival except one.

I wish a few of the bits were sturdier. The monster AI/hunt/settlement board is pretty flimsy. I kind of wish they had just been incorporated on the main board. The insanity mechanic is kind of awkward from a narrative perspective - so seeing crazy stuff can add to your insanity, or deplete it (which somehow makes you more sane and vulnerable?!)

Bossk_Hogg wrote:
I'm really liking the game so far, but it is a bit confusing. In the antelope fight it kept running my character into the corner over and over, and we weren't sure exactly how to resolve that - can you be knocked off the board?

If you're at the board edge and are hit again, you go along the edge. Sticking a Toppled Pillar with a chute for your survivor to get blasted into and then cornered in would be about the only way to get locked in to a corner that I can think of.

Bossk_Hogg wrote:
so seeing crazy stuff can add to your insanity, or deplete it (which somehow makes you more sane and vulnerable?!)

Think about it this way. Sometimes you're running around having fun and completely oblivious to the world around you. Then you see something, stop, and you have a moment of clarity and go "Oh..sh-"

Or the stereotypical movie scene where someone is running around and freaking out and someone slaps them and suddenly their fine. Those insanity depleting attacks are slaps that make them stop for a second and actually think.

Fought against a level 2 Lion and the Butcher today, the lion in particular was a nice challenge that gave our one-armed pugilist a broken back and almost did in my Twilight Knight in training due to some very lucky rolls. The Butcher on the other hand, we got really lucky with wounding the fether, his special AI cards did not get triggered, however we did manage to get one of his cleavers. Sadly the only person with enough insanity for it is my Twilight Knight, who already has a weapon she's BBF's with.

 spiralingcadaver wrote:

Bossk_Hogg wrote:
I'm really liking the game so far, but it is a bit confusing. In the antelope fight it kept running my character into the corner over and over, and we weren't sure exactly how to resolve that - can you be knocked off the board?

If you're at the board edge and are hit again, you go along the edge. Sticking a Toppled Pillar with a chute for your survivor to get blasted into and then cornered in would be about the only way to get locked in to a corner that I can think of.

I guess it would help to think of the map in cardinal directions. So I'm in the SW corner spot, the antelope is facing me along the Southern wall edge. It moves into the SW corner, and I am then pushed North along the board edge?

Incidentally, my character ended up with Anxiety in the first hunt, which made her the primary target. We loaded her up with all the armor, since she was the guaranteed tank. It worked pretty well until she also developed Vestiphobia, tore off her torso gear, and wont wear any more lol.

Played my first game tonight, the first showdown with the Lion. Got a couple of questions that I'm sure someone who'd played a few will know the answer to:

1. Knockdown. Understand if Survivor suffers knockdown, they stand backup at the end of the next Lion Phase. We managed to cause knockdown on the Lion. When does he get back up. We assumed it would have been at the start of his phase???
2. You cause a hit on the Lion, roll to wound. If you wound, move an AI card to the wound pile. If you cause a Critical, the book says move an AI card to wound. Is this in addition to the first one?
3. When Survivors return, they all heal. We had one with a burst lung and 2 blood tokens. What happens to him? The Burst Lung is this a permenant injury? And what do the blood tokens mean?

Overall, interesting game. Just a little confusing as I've never played anything like this before. Lots of card piles to shuffle through!

1. correct, you dont get to stand until the end of the next monsters phase. and the monster always stands back up at the start of his phase. Its miserable when the last person who attacks knocks the monster down and no one gets that juicy 3+ to hit =/
2. Just the one, but criticals do great things
3. Yes they heal and lose bleeding tokens, now if Burst Lung says its permenant I dont know, I have not seen that one. But any disorders, or trauma's or imparements you keep. Like we lost an arm and an eye once. Those are forever and you write them down.

Triple9 wrote:
Yeah, I actually found the hunt phase to be my favorite part of the game. Although there's some bad stuff that happens (when doesn't it in the game), overall I found the hunts were where my survivors got some of their best buffs.

I do wish Poots had created a separate book for the events and damage tables as there's definitely more flipping than necessary, especially when still trying to make sense of the rules.

I'd actually prefer if the hunt events were on cards. Yeah, I know, there's enough cards, but if they were on cards you could just shuffle them up and lay them down on the hunt board directly never having to reference the book. Also, expansions would be able to add new hunt events, if 100 wasn't quite enough.

I had a total party wipe due to hunt events. That table can be brutal sometimes.

That is an awesomely tragic way to die there Odinsgrandson.

Makes me want to finish building my figures so I can play the damned thing.

Has anyone played with the 5 and 6 person variant? I am curious if it works out. +1 speed token, +2 damage tokens and life = 2+ monster level seems brutal for adding 1 or 2 more survivors with no extra resources. Are there alternates to those rules that seem more reasonable?

 LordRogalDorn wrote:
Has anyone played with the 5 and 6 person variant? I am curious if it works out. +1 speed token, +2 damage tokens and life = 2+ monster level seems brutal for adding 1 or 2 more survivors with no extra resources. Are there alternates to those rules that seem more reasonable?

One word. PAIN!

I dont think its particularly viable without adding some extra stats to the Survivors. The one time we attempted it was on the butcher fight (Ok, so that particular fight can be a bit rough in general...) but we simply could not touch this guy. One shotted 2 survivors right off the bat (supplies were thin, even 4 or 5 years into the game), and then slowly just cut down everyone who even looked at him wrong. I dont even think we got past his bonus health.

 LordRogalDorn wrote:
Has anyone played with the 5 and 6 person variant? I am curious if it works out. +1 speed token, +2 damage tokens and life = 2+ monster level seems brutal for adding 1 or 2 more survivors with no extra resources. Are there alternates to those rules that seem more reasonable?

The way this game plays, the extra Survivors should be separated from the tougher monster. You could "easy mode" the extra Survivors balance with "hard mode" monsters.

Thought I'd share some terrain plaster tests from my KD plog.

My box arrived out of the blue, will check it a bit later though.

Has anyone got any idea where the holiday event cards and cards for the special models (eg Karas big rock) are? Can't seem to find mine. Also to those who were following it, asked a week ago about expanding my w3 pledge to get more kits, as yet no response.

The promo characters' rules haven't been released yet (they'll be with wave 3), so I think the only extras in the wild are the xmaxe, the pinup, and the promo lanterns without rules.