Revisiting Constructing a Kingdom Death: Monster Campaign: Part 4 The Campaign Configurations I Use (Patreon)

So this is the final part; I am going to write about each of the campaign configurations I have found the most enjoyable; with explanations of why each element is included. In respect to the white box/beta/promotional content; I will not list all of it, but any notable inclusions will be listed.

The format will be:

Title:[Fun nickname]

Campaign:[People of (Lantern/Sun/Stars) or Any]

Nemesis Inclusions: [Name, Name, etc]

Quarry Expansion Inclusions as Main targets: [Name, Name, etc]

Expansion Inclusions as Optional targets: [Name, Name, etc]

Notable Small Box Inclusions: [Name, Name, etc]

[Body of text explaining reasoning in one or two paragraphs]

Generic Notes before we get into it:

• Lonely Tree is an auto-include in every campaign if you own it.
• Main targets are quarries included for multiple hunts with many pieces of gear as options
• Optional targets are either quarries hunted just once for specific options, or there in case the players get bored and/or want a challenge
• In People of the Stars, where you have choice over what nemesis monster you face at times, I will list the core game nemesis monsters I recommend
• I am going to start with People of the Sun, then move on to People of the Stars before ending with People of the Lantern. The reason for this is that People of the Sun and Stars have additional restrictions/requirements/milestones so they have a tighter and more selective bunch of expansions that work well with them.
• I am not going to include the Green Armor; that's a pre-built configuration and you can run it in any campaign; but it has clashes in Stars and because it requires two nemesis monsters it also increases the difficulty in Sun (also in Sun only Hellfire Secret Fighting Art survivors can wear Green Armor because the boots are heavy).
• Again I am treating the core trio of monsters as 'expansions' and wherever I write the White Lion you should consider it White Lion & Gigalion unless I specifically call out just one version of it.
• Always include the Ringtail Vixen Bookmark, promotional basic hunt events, promotional settlement events, strains and patterns, they're too good to miss out on.

Title: Expanded People of the Sun

Campaign:People of the Sun

Nemesis Inclusions: Lonely Tree as terrain

Quarry Expansion Inclusions as Main targets: White Lion, Screaming Antelope, Gorm, Dragon King,

Expansion Inclusions as Optional targets: Lion God, Phoenix, Dung Beetle Knight

Notable Small Box Inclusions: Screaming Oni Armor; White Sunlion Armor (I include both the original and the beta because the beta version is different and it allows cloth on the waist which the updated version doesn't (boo). Reapokratis Gloomleather, Vagabond Armor

This is the set up I now use as my People of the Sun default; with the early game revolving around crafting the two White Sunlion Armors and the two Screaming Antelope armors before graduating towards the three leather options. Gloomleather is notable because it has an alternative generic crafting cost of 1x perfect organ, 1xleather, 1xscrap for the Gloom Cowl. Finally in the late game I will aim for Dragon Armor as my main end game set because once I've experienced Phoenix Armor vs. a Sunstalker once, I don't really need to repeat that.

Because People of the Sun can have such powerful survivors the Lion God and Dung Beetle Knight can make for great 'hard mode' challenges if things are getting a bit rote. However it is worth highlighting that without Surge the Dung Beetle Knight fight is a real test of endurance and patience. Someone's got to push that ball each turn and that's all they're doing. The “armor” not having the armor keyword makes it all worthwhile though, high armor point protection that circumvents the campaign's limitations without needing Hellfire? Yes please.

Title: All Boss Rush, All the Time

Campaign:People of the Sun

Nemesis Inclusions: Manhunter, Slender Man, Lion Knight, Lonely Tree

Quarry Expansion Inclusions as Main targets: As above

Expansion Inclusions as Optional targets: As above

Notable Small Box Inclusions: As above

A variation for players who like to live on the edge and are fine with their campaign ending suddenly a lot sooner than expected, this campaign has multiple Nemesis fights along the entire timeline and losing a single one of this is game over, which adds an extra challenge into the Lion Knight showdowns because of the punishment delivered for winning. The Slender Man additionally turns up in the ending boss rush instead of the King's Man and the L3 version of that beast can be campaign ending all on its own. Not for the feint of heart, but something for veterans who like to live on a knife's edge.

I'd also like to highlight that the sub-theme campaigns of People of the Skull and People of the Bloom are a lot of fun in People of the Sun. So you can freely add those into the mix if you want to.

Title: Expanded People of the Stars

Campaign:People of the Stars

Nemesis Inclusions: Manhunter, Lonely Tree

Quarry Expansion Inclusions as Main targets: White Lion, Screaming Antelope, Gorm, Sunstalker, Dung Beetle Knight

Expansion Inclusions as Optional targets: Lion God, Phoenix

Notable Small Box Inclusions: None

You can be a lot freer with your decisions in People of the Stars; however there should be some caution surrounding the Slender Man, Lion God and the Phoenix. The Slender Man is notable because its inclusion removes access to The Hand; and the Hand is a source of +1 accuracy for unlocking constellations. In the case of the Phoenix; because you are looking to improve and preserve key survivors for the final battle you can't really go after it without having access to a lot of ageless. The Lion God is something of low risk addition, you do not have to go after it if you do not feel confident of a win, however Stars survivors are powerful.

Because of mechanical survivor punishment in the Lion Knight and Spidicules I do not recommend them for your first expanded game, but if you want an extra challenge then having the Lion Knight, Spidicules and Slender Man is going to rack up the difficulty and force you to figure out alternative ways to get constellations and keep them alive.

In the case of the additions, I want 4+ main quarry targets in all my campaigns and the Sunstalker has fun synergy with Stars specific gear; the Gorm can help mix up the early game once you have your Whisker Harp (plus Baby Rage Elephand is just good content). The Dung Beetle Knight provides a challenging fight along with good gear and the Manhunter has synergy with many of the other choices.

For the remaining campaigns they are all going to be People of the Lantern variants I like to play.

Title:Expanded People of the Lantern

Campaign:People of the Lantern

Nemesis Inclusions: Manhunter

Quarry Expansion Inclusions as Main targets: Gorm, White Lion, Screaming Antelope, Sunstalker, Dragon King

Expansion Inclusions as Optional targets: Phoenix (because you have to), optional Dung Beetle Knight

Notable Small Box Inclusions: Allison of course; but pretty much whatever you want.

This is my default choice for playing people of the Lantern. Experience has made it very clear that just having three quarries results in an experience that can become monotonous and rote; this is not aided by rough design and the imbalances in both the Screaming Antelope & Phoenix. Work has been done on them with each update; but they both remain below the average standard for quarry monsters.

The Gorm adds an excellent alternative target to the White Lion; while also supplementing it with a lot of complementary elements. It's interesting how the Gorm complements both the White Lion and the Screaming Antelope, but Spidicules clashes with the White Lion (due to redundant gear) and of course replaces the antelope.

At the top end; the Sunstalker and Dragon King represent the best pairing of big monsters and will remain that way until we get Node 4+ monsters like The King or Screaming God. There are so many synergies and exciting interactions between these two that it is hard to pass up on using them as a pair; especially because of the previously mentioned awkwardness that comes both mechanically and thematically from stuffing them into the campaign that comes in their box.

One can also add in the DBK here if they desire, but I find that for the most part 5 quarries is enough for 30 lantern years unless there are some very fortunate resource drops that speed up the grind.

Title: The Extinguished Swords

Campaign:People of the Lantern

Nemesis Inclusions: Slender Man, Manhunter (but not in the way you think)

Quarry Expansion Inclusions as Main targets: Gorm, Spidicules, Sunstalker, Dung Beetle Knight, Phoenix, The Flower Knight

Expansion Inclusions as Optional targets: White Gigalion (White Lion will be faced only during the Prologue, after that its banned except for Gigalions)

Notable Small Box Inclusions: Anything to do with Swords, including the sword based Strain Fighting Art.

So this one requires a little bit of house ruling; during this campaign you will be adding the Manhunter timeline event Lottery to the timeline on the following lantern years (5, 9, 13, 17, 21, 26) . What this represents is a settlement that's very near to the Holy Lands and is being constantly raided by the slavers. Note that if you lose a showdown against the Manhunter when resisting this will create more Lotteries because the defeat mechanism results in a Lottery also happening in the following year. There's so much pressure and if you want to make it even harder you can rule that resisting is not allowed at all, this is just life for the survivors.

In addition to that; the monsters included are, with the exception of the Flower Knight, all particularly nasty foes to face either due to their respective strengths or pressures they put on the population. The Flower Knight is included because it is also a sword themed monster; but in addition to that it also offers a way to replace population losses if you are desperate. However, I'd recommend just using the showdown for those moments where your population is heavily depleted, otherwise stick to the L3 showdown, it's really cool and has some great rewards.

Title: People of the Bloom Expanded

Campaign:People of the Lantern

Nemesis Inclusions: Lion Knight

Quarry Expansion Inclusions as Main targets: White Lion, Spidicules, Screaming Antelope, Phoenix, Dung Beetle Knight

Expansion Inclusions as Optional targets: None

Notable Small Box Inclusions: Halloween Flower Knight Pattern

Until we get a proper People of the Bloom in approximately 2045; when the Abyssal Woods campaign arrives, this is what I play when I want a relatively balanced People of the Bloom experience; People of the Bloom has wacky interactions with the Sunstalker, so I tend to leave that for People of the Blooming Sun (where Warriors of the Sun can enjoy the power), I also deliberately keep both the Spidicules and the Screaming Antelope in for this one. It's not strictly correct according to the rules, but it is interesting and mixes things up.

Title: People of the Skull Expanded

Campaign: People of the Lantern

Nemesis Inclusions: Normal selection, though you can add the Lion Knight if you want some extra head gear.

Quarry Expansion Inclusions as Main targets: Gorm, Screaming Antelope, Dung Beetle Knight, Dragon King, White Gigalion/White Lion, Phoenix and Sunstalker

Expansion Inclusions as Optional targets: None

Notable Small Box Inclusions: Grimmory. Pasha,

This campaign tends to start off quite difficult, but once you get rolling the survivors can become very powerful, also there's only one shield option with bone, the Scrap Shield and it's really interesting to be forced to use it over the normal selection of Knuckle Shield → Leather Shield → Bacon Shield

I do not craft full Rolling Armor for everyone during this campaign as that can make the latter part of the campaign just feel like easy mode; instead I tend to try and avoid using it too much; mostly just crafting the shoulder pads.

There are so many quarries in this list because bone weapons are spread far and wide between them; this allows the Skull settlement to go after just about any type of weapon apart from Whip (because while we have concept art for a bone whip, it was not released so far).

Going Further

So what about building your own campaign construct? Well given that in the official rules all the innovations, disorders, fighting arts and similar are put into the decks regardless of what monsters are available (enjoy the trepanning survivors who get Flower Addiction without an Owl Spirit to punch) the important things to pay attention to are the available weapons and armor sets. You want to make sure that the weapon types you want to play with are in the mix; either because you have a specific group playstyle you want to pay attention to, or you want as many different options available as possible.

With armor it's a little different; because the core game armor progression of Rawhide → Leather is so strong; you don't really need to lean on anything early on; but you might want to if you're planning to construct hybrid armors or you have a friend who dresses up as a cat at conventions and that's their fursona or they're super into the rubber gimp look. In those cases if you are a gracious host; you might want to make sure that armor options from the White Lion and Gorm are options. It's a silly board game where anime people flog to death a big kitty who's ancestors used to rule the land; fun should be something you're always trying to promote. Which is of course subjective, some people find fun in overcoming challenges, others find fun in feeling powerful, that's why being intimately knowledgable of the various monsters nemesis or quarry and the other plethora of options helps a great deal. You can craft a fun experience for novice players and cater to their expectations.

We'll look at an example in respect to the different weapon types looking at which monsters one would hunt in order to create decent progression for a given weapon. Please excuse the Whip and Thrown weapon situation; I've been asking for it to be rectified for what? Over half a decade now and we get nothing.

Anything in italics is a Pattern gear. Again I'm ignoring Green Armor as it is a pre-baked in campaign package.

Axe

• Bone Smith
• Gorm
• Spidicules
• Weapon Crafter
• 10th Anniversary Survivors
• Phoenix
• Sunstalker
• Blacksmith
• Lantern Armor Aya

Bow

• White Lion
• Flower Knight
• Phoenix
• Sunstalker
• Dragon King – Arrow & Quiver
• Slender Man – Arrow
• Echoes of Death 2 and 3

Club

• Bonesmith
• Gorm
• Weaponsmith
• Valentine's Day Twilight Knight
• Halloween Ringtail
• Slender Man
• Echoes of Death 2

Dagger

• Bonesmith
• Novice Beta
• Gorm
• White Lion (the original version is horribly overcosted, use the Gigalion one)
• Hellebore Beta
• Phoenix (very good in People of the Skull who don't break them)
• Grimmory Beta
• Screaming Oni Armor Lucy Beta
• 10th Anniversary Survivors
• White Speaker box
• Dragon King
• Blacksmith
• Sunlion Armor Erza White Box (PotSun only)
• Halloween White Speaker (requires Dung Beetle Knight and Slender Man)
• Echoes of Death 1

You can see how much love Daggers have received through additional content. #JusticeForWhipsAndThrownWeapons

Grand Weapon

• Gorm
• Weapon Crafter
• Sunstalker
• Dung Beetle Knight
• Blacksmith
• People of the Bloom

Instrument

• Winter Solstice Lucy (Essential imo)
• Echoes of Death II (Fighting Art)
• White Lion
• Gorm
• Skinnery
• Flower Knight

Katana

• People of the Sun (sort of, but not really without the Phoenix)
• Slender Man
• Phoenix

Note: This is currently a very weak weapon category; the weapons we do have are mid → late game in power, but the mastery suffers from the same 'lose the survivor' issue that the Twilight Sword has.

Katar

• White Lion
• Screaming Antelope
• Spidicules
• Dung Beetle Knight
• Lion Knight
• Dragon King
• Blacksmith (Lantern + Gigalion Only)

Scimitar

• Spidicules
• Badar

Note: There is no mastery for Scimitar at this time.

Scythe

• Dragon King
• Erza of Dedheim

Scissors

• Pasha – snip snip snip, Pasha's coming for those White Lion testes!

Note: No mastery at this time.

Shield

• Gorm
• Leather Worker
• Dragon King
• Phoenix
• Blacksmith
• 10th Anniversary Survivors
• Echoes of Death 2

Spears

• White Lion
• Spidicules
• Weapon Crafter
• 10th Anniversary Survivors
• Sunstalker
• Phoenix
• King's Man
• Blacksmith
• Devil Satan

Swords

• Bonesmith
• Weapon Crafter
• Phoenix (especially in People of the Skull)
• Gorm
• Spidicules
• Flower Knight
• People of the Bloom
• Vagabond Armor
• Dragon King
• Sunstalker
• Blacksmith
• Fade
• Doll
• Oktoberfest Aya (Needs a Savior and Screaming Antelope)
• White Speaker Sword Hunter
• Echoes of Death 3

Tactics

• Flower Knight
• Lion Knight
• Dung Beetle Knight

You just need one of these three to get rolling with tactics.

Thrown

• Bonesmith
• Spidicules
• Sunstalker
• Dragon King
• Dung Beetle Knight (I guess bombs count; at least this is a good bomb)

Tools

• Bonesmith
• Manhunter
• Sunstalker
• Dung Beetle Knight
• Valentine's Day Twilight Knight

Twilight Sword

• People of the Lantern (Hooded Stranger)
• Random gain during a hunt event
• White Box Allison

Note: The Twilight Sword is essentially a Chekhov's Gun/Gift or Sword of Plot Advancement that exists to help the settlement overcome its first main antagonist while also providing a little mechanical world building about the Twilight Order, their motivations. It also gives the Gold Smoke Knight a small amount of characterisation in one hunt event (#73 – Golden Ember → Explore the Crater).

Fist & Tooth

• Gorm (L2 Version Only)
• Spidicules (Fighting Art – Females only)
• White Speaker
• Echoes of Death 3
• Dragon King (Introductory Event)

Quick set of notes here for this category; most of these are not gear cards, but are instead abilities or fighting arts. The most useful overall is the Dragon King which will give you Acid Palms at the cost of losing one slot to a cursed item (something you can live with because with Acid Palms you do not need anything other than your fists).

Additionally the overall best Fist & Tooth fighters are exclusively female because once you open the Spidicules expansion you are adding in a Secret Fighting Art that can only be used by female survivors and an innovation that can either give female survivors that SFA (at the cost of a male survivor, MMMmmmmm nom nom crunch) or male survivors Harvestman. This along with quite a few other factors is why I advise female hunters over males, with the exception of male Harvestman survivors in Phoenix Armor. Females in KDM have a few mechanical advantages over the males.

Last of all, survivors training the Fist & Tooth Mastery are great places to use Scimitars, Thrown Weapons and Scissors as they currently have no intrinsic Weapon Mastery of their own. The other option is to stack as much luck as possible on your F&T survivor; which the Death Mask from The Butcher's Mask Maker excels at.

Whips

• Skinnery
• Spidicules
• Leather Worker
• Blacksmith

Other Notes

If you want to assess how robust a weapon type is; you can also figure it out from these lists; if it appears on some early game, mid game and late game content you know you can invest into it early on and develop the Weapon Mastery naturally over time; if it is lacking early game options then it tends to be something you'll have to rush/force later on if you want the Mastery and if it lacks late game options then there's little point in pursuing it because the Mastery will fall off.

Whips suffer a great deal because we have a tricky to craft early game whip (Rawhide) which would be good except it requires ammonia and when you have ammonia you can already craft the Hunter Whip. The Spidicules Silk Whip is just a superior Hunter Whip, so these clashes make progression for the weapon type really disjointed early on. Also, in late game you have only one option (Ring Whip) and you are going to need to use that option alongside either a Rainbow Belt or Polishing Lantern to overcome the Early Iron drawback (at least until you oxidise it, but that is People of the Lantern only).

So you can just look at the weapons you are interested in and you'll get a good set of nemesis/quarry monsters fairly fast. This doesn't even lean into all the various synergies you'll find; it leaves your group to discover them along the way. I have an idea about how this could be pushed further, but it will take some time to execute and as such I'll only start work on it if there's a fairly large amount of requests for it.