Arc Philosophy & Knowledge: Part 14 Romanticism (Patreon)

The Romantic Principle has, for myself, been the de-facto choice when selecting which conviction principle I use, this has been the case since 1.5 updated the principle card. This was because 1.5 Romanticism gave a choice of one from three options when gaining a fighting arts, card selection from a deck is a very powerful and engaging tool, because it increases the overall odds of getting something synergistic while also giving players some agency in their developmental routes for their survivors. Once that happened, Barbaric and its +1 strength just fell off entirely to becoming virtually a non-choice, +1 strength is good, but it is fundamentally uninteresting when compared to more options for fighting arts (as the latter just facilitates more unique build options).

When I saw that we had some replacement principles and principle linked Philosophies in the Gambler's Chest Expansion (GCE) I was particularly excited because this meant we had the potential for a philosophy that was introduced with each new principle. That was not the case in the end, we got one for Romantic and one for Cannibalize (though the latter doesn't turn up all the time) and while the Cannibalize one now brings that principle up to being an interesting choice against the previously superior Graves, Romantic was already ahead of Barbaric and now pulls even further ahead.

All of this does not impact directly on Romanticism, except to highlight that its unlock method of the Romantic Principle means the Barbaric Principle, which does not have a linked Philosophy, has essentially been retired to the box almost permanently (outside of self imposed challenges and lack of player knowledge). That is a shame, and I hope that Campaigns of Death gives us Philosophies for each separate principle choice one can make as that can do a lot to increase variance, explore the impact of the principle and increase world building through mechanics.

What is Romanticism?

Romanticism is an artistic/intellectual movement that started in the late 1700s that came into existence as a counterbalance for and criticism of the impact that the Age of Enlightenment plus Industrial Revolution had. Some of the ideas that Romanticism put forward were an appreciation of nature, celebrating sublime and heroic concepts, engaging with supernatural themes and idealisation of the past as noble times (especially the Middle Ages). This movement is where we get our modern concept of romanticising things.

Robert Burns is often considered to be one of the earliest people to give impetus to this movement, he passed away in 1796, but the sincere nature of his lyricing influenced many who followed on and some of his pieces like “Auld Lang Syne” have resonated through history with them still remaining relevant to this day. William Blake is another name from this early period who has had enduring appeal; with poetry like Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience that contrasted the creativity and innocence of children against the unimaginative and corrupted life that adults of the period faced across Great Britain. Other major names include Samuel Coleridge (Rime of the Ancient Mariner), William Wordsworth, John Keats, Lord Byron and many others – most notable of whom I'd like to note are the philosophers Edmund Burke, who's book A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origins of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful gave rise to the concept of The Sublime, and Emmanuel Kant's Criticism of Judgment.

This movement also gave rise to a genre that has had an impact upon Kingdom Death's aesthetic directly with Gothic fiction pieces like Mary Shelly's Frankenstein and Polidori's The Vampyre. It also later gave us the prolific and influential Jane Austen. Over on the art side of Romanticism; William Blake once again makes an appearance and also names like Franciso Goya, John Constable, J.M.W. Turner, Thomas Cole, all of whom have names and works that ring out through the ages.

So while the period may have faded and given way to the Realism movement, it has remained influential and its popularity while diminished has never been extinguished in Western culture.

At its core then KDM's Romanticism philosophy is a reflection of the historical version from beyond the 4th wall, and you will see throughout the book and the knowledges that Romantic survivors engage with beauty, imagination and spiritual well-being as something of a rejection towards the harshness of daily life in the world of Kingdom Death. Like all philosophy designs, this is reflected in the art, writing and mechanics of this philosophy at every stage, even in the miniatures, where we get more than one Romantic Narrative sculpt in the box (Romantic Adventurer & Leyline Walker).

One of the mechanical themes which has carried across (somewhat) from the core game version of Romantic is that Romanticism is about Knowledges in general (core game Romantic Principle is about fighting arts), and there are a number of mechanics built into this philosophy which deal not just with Romantic Knowledges but also with the concept and management of Knowledges overall.

This makes Romanticism a very powerful philosophy, because it is supporting and enhancing the core of Arc Survivors – in essence, as I wrote near the beginning, Barbaric is dead and buried for Arc Survivors until we get a Barbaric philosophy as a counterbalance.

The age of Barbarism is over, long live the Romantic Period.

Hunt XP and Neurosis

Our Hunt XP table has a delayed set of triggers, ranking up at 2, 6, 10 and 14. However, as we will see, there is a certain amount of cushioning built into this philosophy which means that survivors with this Philosophy have a higher chance than most at getting Ageless. Romanticism takes a long time to power up for a survivor, but it also has a great deal of staying power.

The Neurosis Dilettante is a mild downside, forcing Romantic survivors to have a slot that constantly rotates from hunt to hunt; but because of Romantic's knowledge design, this is not as large a deal as it could be. It's also a fun experience for players who enjoy a loot box/gambling experience to their game while also letting players get extra ways of curating their knowledges or scamming the knowledge system (cheating the expensive lumi knowledges by getting them for 'free).

Many Neurosis are nothing but downsides, Dilettante does have a downside, but it is both manageable and has potential exploits as a part of it. This is a space where Romantic pulls ahead of many other Philosophies and it being present as a core part of the philosophy which is gained at Rank 1 is a huge headstart to have.

Rank 1 – Painted in Red

Our first rank has Romantic survivors see the beauty in spilled blood; giving our survivor +2 courage, a forced departure (if able), +1 lumi and a roll. Before getting to the table, I would like to briefly praise this art piece, which is incredibly well composed, beautiful and evocative. I'm still not entirely clear what the subject that Allister is looking at is exactly, it appears to be a settlement constructed around a tree that reaches into the sky (evocative of Yggdrasil)? I'd love any thoughts you guys have on that, but it does make me think about a settlement that grows up around a particularly large Lonely Tree and I'm now hopeful we'll see that as a surprise in Campaigns of Death.

The table itself is a bit of a mixed bag, with a 3/3/4 split between: 1-3 gaining no settlement departing bonuses (survival etc), which is extra harsh when combined with the forced departure, but can be played around by use of gear and knowledges in order to minimise the overall impact.

4 to 6 gives the survivor +3 insanity, +2 lumi and +1 accuracy; all of which are welcome and I am in particular surprised to see the permanent accuracy boost. Accuracy is probably the least important survivor statistic because of how the survivor attacking system is designed (it is better mechanically to miss than hit and fail to wound), but that does not mean it is a bad stat, it has virtually no downside in itself.

Finally on a 7 to 10 we get our first knowledge unlock; “Fortune Favours the Brave” aka [K] Fortis Fortuna; a knowledge which is a lumi generator and providing a solid foundation to support the philosophy's theme of gaining knowledges. At CC:19 you also gain +1 evasion, and that is always a powerful statistical increase.

This is a solid start to the ranks and I think it is fairly well-balanced, this is a powerful philosophy and a 30% chance of a bad roll is already fairly compensated in your base package and the fixed extra courage gain before the table roll.

Rank 2 – Life is an Adventure

We have an interesting spin on the tables here, where there are two separate tables, the first one is rolled on if no survivors died during the hunt or showdown phases and the second one is for when one or more survivors died (but no total party kill, because that wouldn't have a returning Romantic survivor). +1 Lumi is gained in both cases as per the standard progression.

Triumph - No survivors died

A 1 to 2 roll has the Romantic survivor decide to enhance their tale of the triumph by gaining +1 Lumi and being required to mutilate themself by either choosing a severe injury or endeavouring at [I] Scarification. The wording here is a tad sloppy, this is because severe injuries include all of the severe injury roll results, some of which have no permanent damage.

Severe Injury Tables

Contains sections of possible severe injuries to hit locations. Each hit that causes a severe injury prompts a roll on that location's severe injury table.

The intent to me is, one is supposed to choose a severe injury that leads to an impairment, such as Blind or Dismembered Arm, because otherwise you could simply choose one of the options that causes bleeding tokens and suffer no ill effects. That's the assumption under which I've operated this roll when I've played with it. It also makes it quite a tricky and engaging decision; Ruptured Muscle is probably one of the easiest impairments to live with because Arc Survivors rarely get Fighting Arts (It would suck if you got a Secret Fighting Art though for sure); Broken Rib can be another solid choice as long as you are using weapons that don't care about speed. In fact the best choices are the ones which can be cured by [I] Bed (Broken arm, Broken Hip, Broken Rip & Ruptured Muscle), because this not only gives impairments that can be fixed at the cost of an endeavor, a roll and skipping the next hunt; it also adds value to innovating Bed.

However, with all that written; a severe injury does not equal a permanent injury, so I am at this date unsure if the system can be gamed by taking non-permanent severe injuries. (Also I want to briefly acknowledge the funny situation that technically you can have a Romantic survivor choose a Death roll result here if it what must be selected is not permanent severe injuries and is instead severe injury table results).

The 3 to 8 result is a simple +1 strength and +1 courage, both good rewards and also getting to Courage 3 during the settlement phase provides Matchmaker, which is the best of the three Courage abilities.

Last of all, on a 9+ we get +3 lumi and +1 understanding; while the Lumi gain is weaker than the +1 strength (there's a lot of lumi sloshing about in an arc survivor campaign, so it is less valuable than a straight strength boost), getting a chance at hitting 3 understanding during the settlement phase is fantastic because the insight ability Tinker is another great hit.

I straight up really love this table, it is thematic and the punishment roll is something that the player has agency in deciding on. You can grab a severe injury impairment that has minimal downside for your particular survivor showdown role (or go for something cool). There's even some situations where taking Blind would be an excellent choice because the Eyepatch from the Sunstalker expansion has an extra bonus for Blind survivors.

Tribulations - At least one survivor died

One should expect the Tribulations table to be stronger than the Triumph table because most of the time, deaths on the hunt/showdown are large negatives for a settlement (as normally the survivors on the hunt are among the most valuable members of the community). So let us see if that is the case.

The 1 to 2 result is simply another +1 lumi, and the 6 to 9 result is +3 lumi, and the 10+ result is +4 lumi. All of these are fine, but as mentioned above Lumi has a bit less value than permanent attribute increases.

The 3 to 5 result on the other hand is really good, in exchange for being forced to Depart this lantern year (if able); the Romantic survivor gains +1 understanding and +1 movement. The Understanding during the settlement phase we've discussed above; so let us instead turn our attention to the +1 movement.

Movement is the Queen statistic in KDM (Queen stat because Queens have more hustle than Kings on a chess board); the move movement you have the more options for your position on the board you gain. It becomes harder for the monster to get out of reach of you and thereby isolate one survivor (and also deny you meaningful activations); it also increases the amount of monsters you can “Dash-Cancel.” A Dash-Cancel is when a survivor is targeted, but Dashes during the flow step to end up beyond the range of the monster's movement + attack; this “blanks” the monster's attack and gives advantage to the survivors in a similar way to the monster moving outside of the range/reach of multiple survivor units.

So for my money, this 3 to 5 result is the best one on both tables and it is fair compensation for survivor(s) dying while on the hunt; however the rest of the results are a bit tame and underpowered in comparison.

Rank 3 – Sweet Perception

This is such a fun piece of art 

There's an interesting additional interaction on this table, on top of the +1 lumi, Romantic survivors with a permanent injury suffer a -2 on the roll. Which means you should be trying to avoid severe injuries on Romantic survivors through options like Dried Acanthus, Gorment Armor and similar; and you should also be looking for ways to cure injuries if this rank is coming up.

That is because the 1 to 2 result inflicts [B] Fear of the Dark onto the Romantic survivor, meaning they are retired until you can remove it with something like the Trepanning endeavor on the Barber Surgeon settlement location.

The 3 to 5 result forces a skip next hunt; but with CC 21 the survivor is forced to spend all their Lumi, gaining +1 movement if they spent 3+ lumi. Because of how strong movement is; I tend to hold my “about to rank up from 2 to 3” romantic survivors on 3 lumi just before they head out on the hunt that will age them up.

The 6 to 10 result provides the [P] Bone Chibouk pattern and the knowledge [K] Potentia Est. And at CC 15+ the Romantic survivor gains a knowledge from any other returning survivor. That can be a lot of value because scamming (gaining for free) knowledges is a huge place where you can generate value. We'll look at Potentia Est next week, but let us take a look at the Bone Chibouk now.

Bone Chibouk

Crafting Cost: 3x lumi, 1x perfect bone, 1x Black Lichen

The crafting cost here means that this gear card is gated away until you are at the stage where you can slay Level 3 Node 1 monsters; making this is a reasonable and well priced piece of gear. The affinities are also fine, down blue is something that tends to have a lot of viable connectors on other gear, but a right green isn't great due to it being the third best orientation (Left and Up are most of the time stronger). We also have the fragile and stinky keywords, these are both mildly negative, and something you need to be cognisant of; still, they are not deal breakers.

The ability is very interesting, it is providing a return on investment for the Lumi; you can activate it just once during the showdown and you gain Monster Level lumi in exchange for a -1 movement token and 1 bleeding token (that's the results of Collapsed Lung, very gentle tbh). That's a reasonably thematic and power level appropriate negative. It also gives the controlling player a fun little game of chicken where they do not want to take a toke until the monster is just about to drop. There are also bleed and token based builds that might want to have a cheeky puff earlier in the showdown because they can leverage one or the other tokens for other benefits.

Rank 4 – The Brightest Star

There is an interesting switch in art styles for the final rank of Romanticism, I'm not 100% sure what that change from sketched to full art is stating to the viewer, but I do love the character depicted here.

Our final destination on the Romantic Rank climb has us gain +1 lumi and roll one final time on a table.

1 to 3 is the incredibly mild [D] Weak Spot – Waist; there are survivors where this can be an issue, such as Crystaline Skin, Acanthus Doctors or Leyline Walker survivors; but even there those issues are temporary thanks to the Barber Surgeon. With CC 17+ on the other hand the survivor instead gains +1 courage and [K] Eudaimonia. I very much like the way that the CC threshold is used here. It provides a 'levelling up' feeling for the Philosophy and that is great in changing the texture and feel of returning to the same Philosophy at different points in a campaign.

With the 4 to 7 result you get to experience the White Secret story event. As this is a separate instance of White Secret my understanding here is that this does not interfere with the Max Understanding milestone trigger. Please let me know in the comments if I've understood that incorrectly. It's a chance to get Ageless on a 1 to 4, Peerless on a 5 to 8 and Leyline Walker on a roll of a 9 or 10. Ageless is usually the best hit here because it gives “unlimited” time to a survivor for them to max out knowledges and weapon proficiencies; it also makes life fighting the Phoenix a lot smoother.

We even get an extra change of hitting Ageless on this table at CC 26+; as our Lumi score is subtracted from the table roll; 6 Lumi stored on your survivor is a guaranteed Ageless hit. Something that should not be too challenging for one to engineer in advance of that final Rank increase.

The 8 to 10 result is also really sweet and thematic, it gives completion of two Knowledges your survivor has on them, rewarding you for carrying difficult to complete knowledges by offering a scam. This is good, but only if you have knowledges with observations to complete.

Summary

Romantic's biggest negative is how much it muscles the Barbaric principle out of the game's play space. This is not so much a fault of Romantic however, it is a fault of Barbaric not getting its own Philosophy. I am hopeful this will change in the near future, but until then if you are playing with Arc survivors it is clear that choosing Barbaric is straight up eliminating options for interesting play patterns from your settlement.

The theming of this Philosophy is excellent, the subtle (and not so subtle) ways that it ties not just to knowledges but also to the White Speakers (who have a heavy knowledge/memory theme themselves) are awesome in every way. In truth, there's nothing I find at fault with these tables beyond slightly unclear wording (and that may just be a problem between keyboard and chair).

We'll get into the Knowledges next time, and I am SO excited to be diving into them because they are rich, thematic and powerful.