Arc Philosophy & Knowledge: Part 13 Dreamism (Patreon)

Spoilers for:

• People of the Dream Eater Campaign

• The Gambler Final Nemesis Showdown

• People of the Stars

• People of the Lantern

• People of the Sun

To start with, I do have to acknowledge the fun moment that is Part 13 of this series being the one that relates to the Dreamism Knowledges. The “unluckiest” number in the Western world (and Adam's favourite number) and it is for entry that covers the selection of knowledges all about manipulating and making your own luck. I wish I could claim I planned this in advance, but alas no, I guess it is just the Gambler reaching through the fourth wall to influence the order I put these in.

Guardian – Core Tenet

• Type: Rerolls

• Stages: 3

• Observations Required: 2/4/-

• Advancement: Use knowledge (limit once per showdown)

• Lumi Costs: 2/3/4

• Bonuses: +1 Reroll, +1 SP token when using this knowledge/+1 Reroll, +1 SP token when using this knowledge/+2 rerolls, +1 SP when using this knowledge

• Parallels: Infinite Lives Strain Fighting Art, Survival of the Fittest Principle

Our core tenet is a reflection of the survivor's perception of the Dream Keeper; and it is not even an incorrect one. The Gambler is not only the protector of the settlement, but at numerous times this Entity will reach out and impact the fortunes of the settlement directly. This is what Guardian does at a smaller scale, the survivor takes additional (temporary) strain onto themselves and reaches out to alter fate. This alteration is caused by breaking through the fourth wall and letting the player reroll the offending die, which is both a powerful mechanic, a really thematic one and significantly also foreshadowing the way that the Gambler's showdown will play out.

As an aside on this point; though I think I've written before just how much better the writing and design is in the Gambler's Chest (and other 2nd Generation pieces of content); I'd like to note it again here. This card is foreshadowing on the level of what happens in People of the Stars. By my understanding from chatting with Adam; this higher level of polish and better realised foreshadowing is because the process for design now often involves the steps of Adam doing the early draft work while Anna provides the writing and polish (at least that is what happened for the Killenium Butcher vignette and that has the same flair the Gambler's Chest has). I know that for a long time we've been somewhat stranded in a wilderness where the game's various expansions have been incredibly uneven, but with the 2nd Generation releases we have seen so far I think we'll not see such errors in the future. It is clear they were caused by inexperience of board game design as the Gamblers Chest Expansion shows a really bright future for the game. They've learnt from what we did with what they created and how we reacted to the various elements; the game has only grown and improved from that discourse in ways that make me seriously optimistic about all the coming expansion releases from the Kickstarter.

To get back to the mechanics of this one, it is simply a really well designed and elegant creation in all aspects. Limited Rerolls are a superb way of adding decision points to a game with dice, allowing players to curb the impact of chaos at certain key points. Replenish-able rerolls like this are also far more interesting than “once per lifetime” ones because once per lifetime might as well read “Spend in case of death”. When you only have the reroll available in a limited window and it will come back again the next time that window opens, you are encouraged to spend it on more trivial matters than 'don't die' without being denied that powerful option. Each roll you make while you have that token is a decision point now; is it worth the reroll? What are the odds of success? Will something better come along later? This and many more questions are constantly being asked of the player whether they realise it or not and I am here for this kind of decision space.
The +1 Systemic Pressure (SP) token is also a reasonable and intelligent downside to the spending of that token, if it was just +1 SP then this knowledge would be kind of trash due to providing a temporary benefit in exchange for a permanent detriment. This makes it a risk for a survivor to activate, but one that is temporary and manageable. Guardian is intrinsically better on non-Tank survivors, because they have a reduced frequency of severe injuries (and often have space for things like Dried Acanthus that can provide a little more protection), it is at its most powerful on a support or scout survivor, because they can stay further from the dangerous regions nearer the monster by playstyle.

This is a class core tenet, it has everything I want from a knowledge, powerful in a way that rewards skilled play, and balanced enough that it isn't just automatically better than other options.

Fingernail Door

• Type: Dice manipulation

• Stages: 3

• Observations Required: 5/3/-

• Advancement: Use this knowledge/Have 13+ insanity during the aftermath/-

• Lumi Costs: 1/2/7

• Bonuses: When you roll a lantern 10, rotated it to a 1 / When you roll a 10, rotate it to a 1 and gain +3 insanity / When another survivor rolls a lantern 10, rotate it to a 1 and gain +1 permanent luck

• Parallels: None really

There's a lot going on with Fingernail Door, first of all the art is just the most incredibly gross and uncomfortable piece in the game to date and while I don't love it, it is amazing and engaging art. This knowledge also provides us with a little insight into why the Gambler is at all interested in survivors in the first place, it appears that he leeches good fortune from others, perhaps as a food source. This is most noticeable on the third tier Fingernail Door where we can see the Gambler breathing in the luck eminating from the survivors fingertips. It seems that our Gambly Boi has a symbiotic relationship with survivors as opposed to being directly harmful to survivors in the way that other core campaign bosses like The Watcher or The Sun are.

The mechanics of this one are also a pure expression of that thematic story, with the first two levels involving the survivor having their dice roll pushed to being a 1 by the Gambler (via the player acting as a proxy for the Gambler) and the third level having the survivor take over the leeching role of the Gambler, preying on other survivors in the same manner.

This is one of those, work and you get a great pay off, knowledges, it is absolutely not a great knowledge by design for those first two levels, but the final result is worth all that journey because you unlock a knowledge that allows for permanent scaling of luck. There's not too much more to lean into in this one, you put in the work and it pays off. It is at its best when gained for free because that Lumi cost is big, but it is also a cost worth paying.

It's just really well designed, perfect in fact.

High Roller

• Type: Protection → Offense

• Stages: 2

• Observations Required: 5/-

• Advancement: Replace d10 with stolen d10

• Lumi Costs: 5/8

• Bonuses: +1 torment may steal 1d10 when attacked, negating the hit, then may later use that d10 to replace a wound roll result / +1 torment may steal 1d10 when attacked, negating the hit, then may later use that d10 to replace any roll result.

• Parallels: None

Every time I look at this card, I hear the line “High roller suite!” from Fallout: New Vegas' Tops Casino. Which right from the start made me very positively inclined to like this knowledge, but fortunately that irrational like is supported by this knowledge just being incredible in its showdown strength.

High Roller is, at its most basic, a super block/dodge that then gives you a guaranteed result on a dice roll, initially this result is just for wounding rolls, but that is not a negative because wounding rolls are the showdown dice roll that you not want to fail at. It is always better to draw a Hit Location with a Wound Reaction and wound it than it is to hit a Failure Reaction and Fail; one allows you to advance your game plan of killing the boss monster at a cost, the other simply advances the monster's game plan of killing all your units.

That means this one is just good even before you max it out, though the additional flexibility the fully upgraded knowledge offers is worth something I don't actually think it is as good a return on investment when compared to the earlier version. However, you will be maxing this out, just don't rush to do it if rushing would require risk.

The main survivor types who will get the best use out of this are Tanks, Bruisers and Off-Tanks; all survivor archtypes who regularly take hits, this is because they are first of all the most likely to be attacked, thereby stealing the die in the first place. Secondly they want a reliable wounding process, which this stolen die offers.

As for acquiring this, its high lumi cost, while fair, does mean this is a prime candidate for any scam methods you can scrounge up. Any time you can “scam” the game by not paying that lumi cost is great when the knowledge you gain is so expensive. As such watch out for any free offerings of High Roller and take them, especially if gained early in a survivor's lifespan, as you can more easily pivot them to some form of tanking role when they are younger – thereby getting the most mileage out of it.

Also, as noted before, this knowledge is again foreshadowing for the campaign's core monster fight mechanics.

Serial Code

• Type: Death protection

• Stages: 2

• Observations Required: 1/-

• Advancement: Depart post Core Final Nemesis fight

• Lumi Costs: 2/4

• Bonuses: None / when you die instead -1 luck, limit once per lifetime

• Parallels: Green Charm

You will gain this one via a timeline event, if you do, don't worry about keeping it at this time because this Knowledge does nothing until you are in the end game portion of the campaign (post-Final Nemesis, pre Final Final Nemesis) and it is so simple to upgrade from its inactive version, just requiring a departure.

What you get is, fine I guess? Death protection sounds really exciting, but competent play in KD:M is about not getting to that level of danger in the first place. There are so many tools that can either stop you getting near the death stage in the first place, or protect against it while also giving other benefits, that it is hard to get excited about this card beyond the lore snippets it contains.

If your survivors gain this, you can't complain, but you will likely replace it fairly quickly due to it doing nothing in most game circumstances. However, there is one edge case where I will keep it and that is when I want to take noisy gear on the hunt. My understanding of this Knowledge at the time of writing is that this would allow you to inexplicably survive being devoured exactly once in your lifetime (and I'll be honest, even if Team Death say otherwise, I will ignore them in my personal group plays. I like instruments, I want to use them and not be playing extremely suboptimally if I do use them, so having edge case death dodgers like this which are 100% reliable help a lot).

Adrenaline Junkie

• Type: Luck Token Generator

• Stages: 1

• Observations Required: -

• Advancement: -

• Lumi Costs: 2

• Bonuses: If you hit the trap when attacking with 3+ speed, gain +1 Luck Token

• Parallels: None

The main way one leverages as much advantage as possible with this one is by combining this Knowledge with a Spear Specialist and a spear with 3+ speed. Now 3+ speed is not common as a base speed for spears, which means one will be looking for ways to gain extra speed like Speed Powder (Screaming Antelope); Frenzy unfortunately isn't a great tool for this because it disables Spear Specialization. The other route is to use this with an active Blue Charm and any 3+ speed weapon (which could also be a spear if you want to double dip), which naturally becomes easier if you are using the Sunstalker's Cycloid Scale Armor, but can be achieved by a number of different methods. In addition, the Blue Charm is not disabled by Frenzy, so that offers another route to extra speed, though if you are not using a Spear it is probably better to just pivot into Paired weapons at that stage.

Outside of that, this is very much a 'set and forget' kind of Knowledge, by that I don't mean forget to use it, instead I mean most of the work in getting this knowledge to pay off is done in the build section of your departure step and only rarely requires any additional effort at the showdown stage (usually activating one gear card to get to 3+ speed). Once you are set up, it is in the hands of either fate or whomever is running Hit Location scouting/manipulation – you can do both yourself by packing a Blood Compass Lantern.

This is absolutely a knowledge for “speed freaks” (people who love to roll lots of dice) and it has a good pay-off for what is a somewhat uncontrollable occurrence. It's not the kind of play style I enjoy, but it is good that high speed builds are finally getting significant support at the level such a dangerous play style needs.

Dreamless Sleep

• Type: Disorder Control

• Stages: 1 (technically 2)

• Observations Required: 1

• Advancement: Departing with no Keeper of Dreams settlement location

• Lumi Costs: 0

• Bonuses: While the Gambler is in the settlement this provides immunity to disorders, after the Gambler has left this is +1 Torment when departing.

• Parallels: None

Another plot related knowledge, this one provides a variable benefit pre-Final Nemesis battle, one that gets better the more disorders you have. End Game it becomes something you have to remove (by getting more knowledges) before departing because that permanent +1 Torment is not something one wants. Fortunately by that stage we should have a bunch of options to filter through Knowledges via the Forum and can push it out through rotation.

On the whole I think the benefit from this one is marginal because disorders can be managed through the Barber Surgeon's trepanning endeavour and that is a settlement location that 100% of settlements want to build. So combine that with the inefficiency that this card offers for your knowledge deck post Gambler and I am just happy to not have this one enter the deck at all. As such, this is probably the worst knowledge overall.

Stone Architect

• Type: Metaplot

• Stages: 1

• Observations Required: -

• Advancement: -

• Lumi Costs: 2

• Bonuses: +1 Torment, when you are a returning survivor add +1 construction point to the dream project

• Parallels: None

Stone Architect is somewhat similar to Dreamless Sleep in that it provides a benefit pre-Final Nemesis and is just a detriment that bloats the knowledge deck afterwards. I do wish that this one was archived during the Perfect Punt story event (maybe it is, I couldn't find a rule that did that though). However, unlike Dreamless Sleep this Knowledge represents investing in your next Dream Keeper campaign, as such I find the cost here to be more palatable because this knowledge is both unique and asking you to spend a little now in exchange for extra strength next campaign. That's thematically and mechanically interesting in so many ways that Stone Architect gets a passing grade from me.

As for how many Stone Architects you want to send out per hunt; the earliest you can get this knowledge is lantern year 15, and you have until you get to lantern year 20's story phase to finish the job. Only one survivor can gain +1 construction 40% of the time through Dream Schematics. That represents 1 or 2 construction points total on average because you can't activate the Schematics with endeavours, you can also gain +4 points from 4 founding stones. So that means we want to be departing with 2 or 3 stone architects every hunt during that portion of the campaign – honestly I think due to potential survivor losses you should take out 4 or 5 if you have that many, because improving the quality of your next arc survivor campaign makes for a much smoother experience.

When it comes to deciding what to put in the box, I have a preference for sending in there gear cards which have become obsolete, but will help a starting settlement without overpowering the monsters too much. I want a smoother ride, but I don't want it handed to me on a platter, I've had enough campaign monster stomps thanks to Deja Vu and Clinging Mists already. But, of course, I don't think there is a wrong answer here, it depends what you want your next campaign to feel like!

Gambler's Grace

• Type: Stat boost, SP, Dice Manipulation

• Stages: 1

• Observations Required: -

• Advancement: -

• Lumi Costs: 8

• Bonuses: +1 strength token when brain trauma suffered (limit once)/+1 strength token when brain trauma suffered/+1 strength token when brain trauma suffered and first time you die in a showdown instead inflict 3 brain damage on all other survivors

• Parallels: None

Our final Knowledge, the Gambler's Grace is a simple and elegant package for 8 lumi, you get +2 SP, +1 Luck and whenever you roll a 1 during the hunt and showdown phases you lose 1 survival and reroll it. The sticky point here is that this is not worded as an optional ability and while you almost always want to reroll 1s on the Hunt due to how punishing the design is for hunt table low rolls, the showdown phase features a lot more dice being rolled and very few of those matter as much as the hunt phase ones. It is usually things like severe injuries that you want to reroll and unless the monster gets very fortunate in the opening rounds of the showdown, you're going to have run out of survival to fuel rerolls a lot of the time.

In addition, while the extra luck is something that damage dealers and tanks to a lesser degree want, the +2 SP is something that tanks do not want at all because of the higher pressure their well being naturally has, likewise tanks do not want something draining their survival that they cannot control.

As such, it is hard to find a spot where this knowledge does enough in order to justify that massive cost of 8 lumi and +2 SP, if you had control over when you could trigger it we would be in a different place of discussion, unfortunately that does not seem to be the case here and as such I find this knowledge to be just a smidge above average, that's not something one wants to be writing about an 8 cost knowledge. Unless you are Scrooge McDuck and have your own lumi bin to swim around in don't pay lumi for this one, scam it onto your survivors or go for knowledges that have more bang for your buck.

Summary

There is no doubt at all for me that Dreamism is a masterclass in knowledge design, there are a few duff knowledges on the mechanical front, but as a support in understanding more about the campaign and its face boss The Gambler, this is absolutely a show stopper.

Even when considering the weaker knowledges, the reason I am considering them to be weaker is thematically justified. Plus “weak” here is simply in comparison to the other options, outside of the intentional post-final nemesis mechanics I have been able to find good use for everything when I have had it on survivors. Instead it is more that I avoided certain cards when they were face up in the forum due to them having either a weak return on lumi investment or I found myself easily choosing them to “rotate” away when at the Knowledge camp.

The philosophy as a whole does a great job of providing interesting, intelligent mechanics that evoke the ethos and personality of the Dream Keeper/Gambler in a very evocative way and I can see myself seriously considering the Gambler for my core nemesis in order to get access to this extra layer of storytelling and mechanics. This contributes a lot towards making The Gambler a more interesting Core Monster than the other three options we have at the moment; it also makes me very excited for seeing what philosophies will come for Stars, Sun and hopefully Lantern.