Update 83 Thoughts (Patreon)

So Black Friday came, and with it arrived the traditional huge pile of text which seems to be the only guaranteed communication one can ever expect from Adam Poots Games (APG).

Before we get into the meat of this, I think it's very important that we talk about unnecessary bloat. Because that is the core theme of this kickstarter, and I am tired of the disingenuous comments that come from people who say statements like "Adam always adds things, I expected this." (Not true, the first kickstarter demonstrated a level of restraint and self awareness that is sorely missed in this second one, you think we'd see Lantern Festival cancelled because it was too large, unwieldy and at risk of being unsatisfying if it had been in the second kickstarter?) So no, Adam did not have the track record you think he did, yes KD:Monster was more than anyone expected when it arrived, but that was not because of excessive bloat.

The Gambler's Chest was pitched to us as a box for the KS Minis and a few extra bits and pieces. This, this is what was promised, this is what we backed for:

A modest, decent sized collection of additional content plus some really nice looking sculpts (which were almost all completed by the time that the campaign started and still haven't seen the light of day). I have spoken to quite a few people who are like myself, we backed for the stuff listed in Wave 4, the Inverted Mountain, the Frog Dog, the Abyssal Woods, the Ivory Dragon. Not this huge, bloated core game sized pile of things which should have been either in a third kickstarter or released via the online store as quarterly expansions.

This unnecessary, over-bloated mess of a 'bonus box' is bad for the company, bad for the kickstarter and most importantly of all, bad for the customers. It might well turn out to be good for the game, eventually, but it is not the content I have a problem with, it is the way it is being delivered, to the cost of the kickstarter's actual promised content. Yes things are subject to change, it's only a pitch etc etc. But this is beyond the pale now.

I'm not taking discussion on this matter in the comments either, you are welcome to feel however you want to on this matter, but this is the bottom line on this here in this community. As someone who has personally known more than one backer who has passed away while waiting for this content, I am taking a stand on the matter. I am also not impressed with APG's attempts to 'co-opt' the criticism of Scope Creep and try and spin it as anything other than a negative, henceforth why what is happening here will be referred to as 'Unnecessary Bloat' by myself. I've had enough of marketing spin from toxic Triple A video game companies like Activision, Bethesda, EA, Konami and Ubisoft, I'm not swallowing it in the world of board games without a fight. 

I will also be skipping some sections, because this update was stuffed with recycled content from previous updates. We'll talk about that near the end of this post. 

Now that this is out of the way and I have cleared the air for myself; I feel I can look at the content presented in the update with a a hopefully more open approach. 

Patterns - Rawhide Headband -> Rawhide Bandana

Let us be completely honest here, unless the Rawhide Headband itself is getting a huge nerf ahead of release, you are just not going to be crafting this piece of armor. This requires a Dagger specialist (Still not enough good early game daggers to justify that) and an endeavor to downgrade a single headband from being one of the best pieces of head armor in the game into a poor version of Katar specialization. 

The real issue here is that not only are you losing the incredible AI control that the original Headband provides, but the replacement ability has not one, not two, not three, but four conditions attached to it being useful. You need that pattern connected (so wearing Rawhide), you need to be insane, you have to spend 1 survival on something which is NOT a survival action (so no refund here) and you need to be attacking (and hitting) to make use of this. On top of all of that, you need to make damn sure that you wound, otherwise you've spent that survival for no benefit. 

I cannot see anyone turning Rawhide Headband #1 or #2 into this early on, so at best this is for the third set of Rawhide, as long as they are using a weapon that has a high chance of wounding (not critical wounding) in the first place. If you want to bypass reactions, just build luck. 

So overall, this is an interesting idea, but it's been regulated with so many conditions that I am not sure I could justify crafting it.

Pattern - Bone Axe -> Mighty Bone Axe

This pattern is a little better, you get to turn a (2/6+/3/Savage) weapon into a (2/5+/4) weapon. However, the recipe requires an extra bone, a broken lantern, an axe specialist, a rawhide whip, ammonia and bandages. That means you're not looking at making this until (typically) Lantern Year 5. By which time you could already have access to the Counter-weighted Axe if you really wanted to upgrade your axe options. This weapon is strictly weaker than the both of the most common early/mid game axe options; the Greater Gaxe and Counter-Weighted Axe. So you're not going to be considering it in campaigns where the Gorm is available (one assumes the CW-Axe is getting a nerf in the card pack, if it doesn't this weapon becomes completely defunct).

The frail downside is a little problematic (and bizarre considering it's now reinforced with metal) because of how expensive this weapon is to build, but it can be worked around. In truth the main issue I have here is how limited the weapon's bonus is, your survivor has to have other Perfect hit abilities before they can take real advantage of this axe. It's an interesting ability, but because axe specialisation/mastery doesn't have a Perfect hit ability and there are no armor sets/gear cards currently available that grant useful Perfect hit abilities, this is a situational bonus left hanging waiting for support from other things.

Pattern - Imitation Butcher Mask

This leather/lantern/butcher armor piece still has a lot of questions hanging over its head, we're not fully aware of how the scout system will work, nor do we know what Torment does. It is also not clear if you need the Sacrifice innovation to build this and if the scout who is 'sacrified' dies. One would assume they do, but remember that you can make a Forsaker Mask by having a survivor peel off their own face and they do not die (L3 Butcher victory conditions).

Assuming that the loss of the scout isn't too punishing (if you can vary, rotate scouts) then the pricing on this item is pretty reasonable for what is a good mid to late game helmet that will have bonus synergies with cleavers. It is likely that this one will mostly be used with the Imitation Butcher Armor set, but situational gear cards like this one, which are powerful when used in their limited situations, are always welcome. 

We'll have to revisit it when we know more about the missing pieces of information.

Pattern - Hypersight Visor (Crimson Crocodile)

Listed as being an item that requires suspension of disbelief to include in the campaign. The Hypersight Visor is a genuinely interesting, powerful and unique piece of support gear which will probably be a regular addition to players tables when the Crimson Crocodile is an available quarry. 

Information is the lifeblood of a successful hunt, and this "Resource Deck Wisdom Potion" gives that in spades. You get one single shuffle for these decks per lantern year, so a small amount of control. But it is the synergy with Founding Stones (and other critical wound options) which really pays off big time. This item can go a long way towards helping deal with the woes that come in this game (where you just cannot get what you need).

This is the kind of design that should be applauded.

Scouts

We get a little more information on how the scout system is intended to work. The scout has their own gear grid.

They also generate scout reports which we know give access to some new gear cards like the Imitation Butcher Mask, but also provide additional insights into the various monsters in the world. 

They also have their own specific gear, we've seen two examples of this in the update:

First of all here, we're seeing a mechanic that means if the hunt party is ambushed, the scout is on the board with everyone else and at risk. I am very concerned that the Scout's gear is always heavy because of that Pack, heavy keywords are exceptionally nasty and delete a lot of survivors/gear without any counterplay (apart from rerolls/not usimg them). We'll have to see if the Scout system mitigates or circumvents this when we see the full picture.

The Disguise Kit is a neat little bit of gear, giving an extra life for an important survivor, but in trade for that, you lose your scout and have all the risks that involves. It's a nice idea, though you really shouldn't think too hard about the narrative justification as to why a survivor would need to disguise themselves for a dramatic reveal in this fashion. It's just a game, this is a trope reference to that silly moment when people think someone is dead, only for them to reveal they've been in disguise and a the dead person is an unimportant character instead. Weird, but OK. 

The Jury is still out on this, and on the Scout system as a whole. We'll see.

Encounters

The Encounter material is heavily recycled content with few new images. It's basically a Kickstarter style initial pitch for the system and I'm not going to go into details on it here as we're not learning much new here.

Overall one is not very keen on the idea of the Encounters, as it feels they are going to enlarge/drag out the hunt phase quite a bit. Which makes the average session of KD:M take longer, and that's not great because of how unwieldy and long the later years become already. 

Also, the Encounters are likely going to be marked cards in the Basic Hunt Deck because there is zero consistent printing for those cards. I already have 4 or 5 different coloured card backs to deal with on the hunt, I can't see these blending in well with that rainbow. The whole Basic Hunt Deck needs a full reprint with consistency in mind.

Wanderer System

Finally the Wanderers promised in the First Kickstarter turn up. It is looking like a more robust and interesting design that the original one (which was abandoned as a bunch of scenarios), but we have no idea if IP specific characters like the original Candy & Cola or Kara Black are going to be supported in this system.

Here's Luck's stuff:

Luck is the Wanderer Linked to the Gambler's campaign and he turns up in Lantern Year 22, which is why his weapon is so powerful. 

This is an interesting concept, we'll need to see more details further down the line. But it also opens up a nice avenue for simple, single figure expansions appearing on the store as content. 

I am a little saddened by the 'no more than one Wanderer' per campaign statement however, this means that many players will not experience more than a couple of Wanderers in all their games at most, because KD:M games are long, lengthy experiences and those people who play multiple campaigns to completion are already in the smallest section of the player base.

Still, this is one of the most promising concepts since Patterns (and it's WAY better than Strains).

It will be interesting to meet all these new characters.

Crimson Crocodile

We get very few new details about the Crimson Crocodile itself, most of that was released before. However there are some additional bits of gear (and the very disconcerting note that the gear is only NEARLY finished, not completed). 

Still the new art style is significantly better than the previous ones, and overall the gear is looking very interesting.

Unless that scab keyword pays off, the Bloodglass Dagger is not a great weapon, but it is fine if you can avoid Super Dense/Parry, which will be a little tricky due to that 3 speed. The other weapons are all interesting, though the Longsword is probably the best of the bunch because it can repair its edge, and this entire 'honed' gimmick is likely to be very dependent on the monsters you are fighting. If you can avoid/scrub the Super Dense/Parry locations, these weapons are significantly stronger than the usual Lantern Year 1 weapons. But if you can't do that, they're terrible.

Typically, designs like this tend to be nice ideas, but problematic, because either they turn out to be worthless to the players, or they are abused as heavily as possible. That's why the Sword is the best of the pieces here, because it sits in a nice middle ground, where if it gets ruined, you can spend a little time and blood to get it working again. The rest however, they are very all in. Even the axe, because getting 3+ bleed tokens could be quite a challenge. A lot depends on the other Crimson Crocodile gear, but one would assume that it has a lot of bleeding based abilities.

Overall the Crimson Crocodile remains the best part of the Gambler's Chest we've seen so far. It is a real shame it was not released as a separate expansion monster. 

Smog Singers

We've seen a lot of them in the past, and most of what we see here is recycled content from previous updates. It is however, very interesting to see the few new pieces we do get, because they promise a potentially different showdown experience along with one of the best looking armor sets in the game.

There are a lot of ??? still left to understand these pieces of gear properly. But what we are seeing here (based on the previous APG claim that there is some way to mitigate the Harvester deleting noisy gear from the game) seems very interesting. The Saxe hands out the Weapon Crafter ability to all weapons until you attack with it, and due to its very interesting and powerful statline, that's a nice balance (Depending on what that (8) means). The Hamfluter on the other hand doesn't seem to be a rewarding weapon to repeatedly attack with, but it is a solid support item, especially for Perfect hit settlements.

The Singing Cap is super interesting, having a way to cut down on Insanity is a good thing, you don't want an entirely insane party, and that ignore hit ability is really neat. Having it require a puzzle requirement also makes the armor a lot stronger, because you are not forced to always have that required/forced survival spend online if you don't want it for a particular hunt.

Overall, it is a shame that the Smog Singers were moved from an Encounter to a Quarry, but they are shaping up to be the best of the current Node 2 options (not hard when you consider how broken both the Screaming Antelope and Spidicules are).

Atnas

There's only really a few teasers here, and while they are new, they miss a lot of details in order to be able to fully review them. The main thing is we know that Atnas gets his own special 'sword craft' deck and we're now seeing Range attacks as a part of regular monster AI. 

One to just wait and see what happens on, but typically APG monsters who don't get a lot of details spoiled are in the weaker portion of their designs. (Remember this going ahead).

The King

Still the monster that I have the least hype or expectations for, the King entry mostly existed to demonstrate how many, superior, armor designs were discarded before the very underwhelming final design of 'I'm a walking music speaker for a death metal band' was settled on. While they are blurry, just look at the incredible pieces I've selected here.

These last two in particular are incredible, they really evoke the feeling and imagery of the monster. Fortunately the weapons do not suffer as much as the armor set has.

We're seeing a bunch of new mechanics slotted in here, there is the King's Rule (connect to Rebel tokens). The ability to retaliate, the faint ability and the death metal keyword. All of this gear is heavy, so it is already on the 'be cautious about it' list. But the numbers on the gear are impressive enough that it's worth the risk.

The interesting thing here is, this is a Node 4 Quarry monster, so anything coming after this has to be able to withstand this kind of damage, and dish out sufficient punishment in order to justify its existence. There are almost no current Gen I quarries which can hold their ground against these pieces of gear, and while we see that monsters apparently can go up to level 6 now (see later), the end game monsters we have right now wouldn't stand a chance against this power.

The Gambler & God Hand

Quick note here just to say I'm not painting this model for anyone except once for myself. I've painted the Dreadworm  & Colossal Dreadworm for Darkest Dungeon. I'm very aware of how time consuming and challenging things made out of bodies are.

All we know about the Gambler is it's a Watcher node monster. Plus the Godhand is the final nemesis of the Dream Keeper campaign. Outside of that, we're getting almost zero details about either one. Which is always a concern.

Philosophy System

Sorry, I still have zero interest with the Philosophy system. So I'm going to be skipping on it. I reserve final judgement until it's released and I can play with it, but nothing I have seen here or in previous updates makes me think I'm going to do anything with it other than keep it in a box. We'll see if it can prove me wrong, but if it does, it's been terribly marketed.

So, skip.

People of the Dream Keeper

Likely the only place where I'll play the above Philosophy system, the People of the Dream Keeper is the campaign for the Gambler's Chest and the timeline in particular holds a lot of teasers.

What we can pull from this is:

Crimson Croc node 1 + two story events based around Arc Survivors and Food.

Smog Singers node 2

Missing Statue, Unwanted Gift, My Future Self, Suspicious Regal Visit, The Gambler's Chest, The Awaited (The King introduction event), Luck The Wanderer as story events.

The Gambler is being confronted in LY 20. Which suggests some change in the settlement post LY20 because the Gambler is the source of innovation for the survivors here.

Atnas is the King's Man equivalent. 

No Phoenix Feather event, so My Future Self is probably the new Phoenix introduction.

Conviction still hasn't been replaced. RIP. 

No Hands of Heat, possibly no free Lantern Oven?

There is also the Lamplighter trigger on the first defeat result. Society, New Life and Death seem to be unchanged. And the Death Pact (Scout) plus True Craftsmanship (Patterns) triggers are present.

The Back of the sheet is where we can see the Quarry Monsters apparently go up to level 6 now.

We'll have to see what/how things go with that one, but without additional content this does automatically exclude the ability to put old quarries into the campaign's late game.

Notable for the addition of 'Bloody Cloth' we'll have to see how different that is from normal cloth.

Remaining on design for the 'survivors can only come up with new ideas because the monster they're gathered around gives them to them'. The notable thing here is the grooming ability.

Here are the loadouts for the Dark Flower (Slenderman/Flower Knight) armor set.

There's a Whip here, which is PogChamp. But most notable of all are the first, in game, appearance of the scissor weapons. Which is finally a link between the Scissor Knights and the Flower Knight (beyond just being a Knight). The question now is are the Scissor Knights also within the category of 'Elemental Knight' the same as the GSK/FK? It seems very likely given their described roles. But we'll have to wait for the Scissor Bros expansion from APG before we get to understand how they really link to the Inverted Mountain.

Finally we have a new version of the showdown. For some reason the White Lion in the Alpha is an even higher resolution sculpt than the previous version. Which is a bit weird considering all the song and dance over the low resolution re-sculpts which were talked about in previous updates. Especially weird considering what certain members of the community elsewhere have been doing... 

Summary

So, overall I think I can firmly place this second KD:M kickstarter in the bottom three kickstarters I have ever backed. The content in this is interesting, and has potential to be very engaging, but none of it is Inverted Mountain/Abyssal Woods/Ivory Dragon stuff, which is what was due to be coming out around this time. We're still years away from the content which I backed for, and honestly given Adam's advancing years, that is a concern. He will get this kickstarter done, but the length of time, bloat and procrastination which has occurred has scrubbed an entire kickstarter cycle (or two) from his lifespan. That sucks.

Whether or not the Gambler's Chest in its entirety will hold up remains to be seen, but for people who have already backed it (especially pre-2019), there will at least be some elements which are very welcome (Crimson Crocodile and Smog Singers in particular). But it cannot be ignored that this updated contained a vast amount of recycled content from previous updates along with a lot of 'I'm not revealing anything about this thing moments'. Which are serious red flags that shouldn't be ignored, curb your enthusiasm here.

Still, I did LOVE the rather hilarious Flight of the Kingblebees art from Nat.

BZZ BZZ GIVE US UR HONEY. 

This art alone was worth the journey.