FenPaints

Hunting for Success: Hunt Events #21 to 30 (Patreon)

Published:

2020-07-24 09:00:02

Imported:

2024-02

Tags:

Hunt Event

Content

From Drawings to Rotten Faces it's time to continue our journey through the Hunt Event Phase, and I hope that this look has begun to help one appreciate the elegance and simplicity of the thematic design of the Hunt Phase.

Honestly, the more I work into this series, the more I 'get' the place of the hunt phase in the cycle of the game. While the balance of some of the individual events is still not right, the overall design just works really well for a healthy game session. While I do have an alternative 'hunt' design fully developed, KDM is not the right place for something like that, the official system is the bee's knees.

Let us continue the journey!

21. Drawings

One of a batch of things based around the 'hidden' benefit of Pictographs. This event provides a great example of why Pictographs just is not worth the innovation slot most of the time (exceptions when you are playing cheese strats that involve some of the hunt party running away). Here having Pictographs lets all survivors roll on the table, but without Pictographs any survivor with 3+ understanding can roll anyway.

Now if Pictographs was an early innovation, that might be a benefit of some note, but it is a Paint tier 2 (requires 2 previous innovations) innovation. Which means by the time you will typically be innovating this, most of your hunting survivors will be 3+ understanding already. Super marginal benefit even when you consider they also get a +4 bonus to the table roll.

The other compounding factor is the table itself, this is a big pile of "who cares?" with (avoidable) punishment for a 1-3, a super small benefit for 4-7 and a decent, but nothing to write home about bonus for the 8+.

I will typically roll on this table if I have the option to do so, because the benefits outweigh the worst result considerably, but I'm not going to be thinking 'ooh I should innovate Pictographs because it gives me a bonus to this table'.

22. Acid Rain

This event is a big oof when it hits. That scaling * event damage to all locations is an absolute beating no matter where you are in the campaign (unless you're deliberately hunting weak monsters with gear that's too good). In contrast to the previous entry; the Sculpture benefit here is good trigger because Sculpture good. (It is also a fun reference to the Sculptor entity).

The worst part of this one apart from stripping most of your armor points away, is when you have to add acid rain to the following lantern year. That means you could lose gear 10% of the time (I hope you follow the 'carry a piece of cheap, disposable gear in your grid' strategy. But Acid Storm also has some positive effects, so it's not a huge deal (and it's also a cool mechanical touch).

23. Clean Water

Always consume. Simple as.

Trading a risk of gaining a disorder for +1 courage, +1 survival and a chance fo removing disorder(s) or gaining insanity is good. This is nothing more than a positive event that also shows (again) that the plain of stone faces was once the land of the Silver City/White Lions before their breaking and devolution.

24. Food from the Mouths of Others

Like 23 above, this is an always roll table. You are gaining +1 courage for a chance to get a new founding stone (30%) or a random basic resource +1 insanity (20%) and the only risk is a 20% chance of suffering monster level event brain damage and damage to the arms. That is a good deal.

You might reconsider if the event revealer is your main tank and you are facing a very powerful L3 monster, but that's a rare situation that breaks the normal rules.

25. Titans in the Dark

Man this event is a real beating most of the time, it's hammering everyone with brain event damage and then the straggler(s) suffer something between death or damage most of the time. Without Survival of the Fittest this can be an absolute disaster of a situation.

It is however, one of the few places where a survivor can gain the exceptionally powerful movement stat. So, another argument for slamming Otherworldly Luck onto everyone I guess?

26. Pit

"Pit, I fell in the pit.

You fell in the pit.

We all fell into the Pit."

-- The Pit by Mouse Rat

This card is one of the reasons why I say that a Protect the Young settlement should run 2x whips in its hunt party (SotF can get away with just one if it has rerolls spare). This event is an absolute beast that can crush a survivor's build if they have a lot of fragile things in there, and you'd be surprised just what is counted as fragile once you begin to look into it.

So if you get a broken leg from this one and you have fragile gear in your grid, perhaps you should accept that one as a fair trade. Or instead, you could, you know, use whips.

27. Man-Stealers

If you are following the optimal power strategy of never taking any men out on hunts, then this event does nothing. Bam!

However, if you do have 1 or more men in your party (say you have a Phoenix Armor Harvestman male hunter) then this event has a 50% chance of removing their ability to ever pass on their weapon proficiency via Family. Which sucks hard. So, avoid using men if you can, and value Unconcious Fighter on the ones who you do use.

The world of Kingdom Death is no place for a man, it is safer to be a woman.

28. Trollbird

A silly reference to the old internet adage 'don't feed the trolls', here you are encouraged to feed the trollbird, otherwise it may help the monster ambush the survivors. Honestly, I don't bother feeding the trollbird at all, because the table is a straight 50/50 roll and the 'bad' result of being ambushed is not a big deal because you are compensated with +1 understanding.

Being forced to feed the trollbird if you are insane can suck hard sometimes though!

29. Dark Blacksmith

Hey look, it's the Cyclops Knight!

What a bro!

He's cooler than his analog the Skull Knight.

This event is another reason why you should always carry a piece of disposable gear (especially early on), the Cyclops Knight gives you a 20% shot of getting a Steel Sword. Which is a really powerful weapon.

However, that's just a 20% chance, you also have a 20% chance of losing the item entirely or getting a Steel Shield. The Steel Shield can feel particularly crippling for a survivor who doesn't have either Arithmopilia (which fixes their movement to a set number) or Harvestman as part of their build. But it is a very, very powerful shield and has builds that revolve around it, so...

Good event all round, offer up gear if you want the steel sword. Especially if you are honorable.

30. Rotten Faces.

This event has some absolutely massive swings, at the bottom end it's either lose 3 survival or your leg armor, but at the top end it can give you a random basic resource. On the whole this event trends towards survival loss (the way a lot of hunt events do), and there's not much more to say about it except this event trends towards the negative.