Make sure to tune in tonight to see our brave adventures continue down the dark path of Kingdom Death. Twitch 6:30pm PST.
KINGDOM DEATH WEEK 2
To sum up Week 1 of our campaign in one statement…. Banging is bad.
We started out pretty strong by not losing a whole lot of survivors. Given that we are playing the 6 player version rather than the 4 player version, the monsters are much more deadly. It is also very difficult to gear out 6 players rather than the standard 4, especially when the monsters aren’t giving out any more loot to accommodate for more players.
To get down to it though, we had our first “Intimacy” story event after a couple of turns and a child was born. Turns out, the first child (now named Virgil) was also deemed a“Savior” per our rolls we had on the table. As a result, Virgil ended up with a bunch of cool abilities. However, this is where I think we made a big mistake. We chose to raise Virgil (and all future children) in the coolest fashion possible… by selecting the “Survival of the Fittest” principle. In essence, every time we make a child, it’s a badass. However, the odds of making a child are slim and when we try, there is a very good chance that either one or both parents die in the “effort” to produce a child. Just think about that for a second… and let’s move on.
We have tried producing more children a few times and the results have been mixed. We have lost 4 parents in the process and only produced 3 children. Tack on those 4 to the 4 we have lost in our showdowns, and that is why our Death Count looks high for only turn 3.
We are close to fighting our first nemesis (The Butcher), and I don’t think we have enough gear to really have a chance, but we will see. Hopefully the last hunt before the big fight yields enough resources to put us in a good place. If not, the Butcher might just end everyone’s journey early.
Below is some basic information pulled from the Settlement sheet to help everyone follow along and see where we are at!
Name of Settlement:Ballzakistan
Current Lantern Year/Turn: 3
Survival Limit: 4
Current Population: 11
Death Count: 8
Principles Chosen:
- New Child is Born – Survival of the Fittest
- First Death – Graves
- Population reached 15 – Accept Darkness
Innovations:
- Language
- Hovel
- Ammonia
- Blood Letting
Current Settlement Locations
- Lantern Hoard
- Bone Smith
- Skinnery
- Organ Grinder
- Catarium
Defeated Monsters
- White Lion (Lvl 1)
- White Lion (Lvl 1)
- Screaming Antelope (Lvl 1)
Dead Survivors (And who was controlling them!)
- Crixus (Cooper)
- Fabius (Cooper)
- Juanito (Pablo)
- Daquan (James)
- T&A (Frankie)
- !Ranga (Braulio)
- ‘Murica (Braulio)
- Candyfloss (Braulio)
Remaining Survivors
- Wanda
- Manuel
- Throbulous
- Beast
- Fabuloso
- Beth
- Big Bertha
- Virgil (Lantern Savior!!!)
- #16 (Not named yet)
- #18 (Not named yet)
- #19 (Not named yet)
This game is brutal!
Is this an rpg or a boardgame
Both. It’s ultra dark, very mature. Not for kids at all. But, it’s very fun. We got smoked though, our entire party and settlement got wiped out! haha
My brother and I have done the math on Survival of the Fittest, and you will new lose population with that principle. It’s about 50% of the time you will lose at least one parent with no child being born. It brings the death rate to ~6 dead for every 10 intimacy rolls. It is just a bad principle when you will also be losing people to showdowns.
Also, there is no downside to taking Protect the young. You get +1 Understanding and roll twice take which ever one you want on the intimacy table. For survival of the Fittest you get +1 survival limit, +1 Strength, and roll twice take the lowest on the intimacy table. I also think the protect the young event is better. Without house rules there is practically no reason to take Survival of the Fittest.
Yeah, we learned that one the hard way!
So did we. I have been through 4 games which ended around year 6 because of poor choices and another to year 21 which is still on going. To me it just feels a little too punishing for +1 strength, which is the easiest stat to get increased in the game. From a game design perspective it seems weird to make it a choice when one is clearly better than the other. If Survival of the Fittest did have the roll twice take the lowest and was just a single die it would fix it in my mind. You still get the same probability of getting a savior, the death rate goes from (its actually) 7 in 10 to 4 in 10. Compared to Protect the young which has a death rate of 1 in 10 and you still get the survival limit increase. In a game where death is already very common, Survival of the fittest just seems extra punishing.
Yeah, I agree. We certainly won’t be making that choice, again.
I apologize, Protect the Young gives +1 survival limit not +1 understanding.