Arc Philosophy & Knowledge: Part 3 Survivalism Tenet, Neurosis & Booklet (Patreon)

• Spoilers and discussion around the Survivalism Booklet and Knowledges
• Mention of the Crimson Crocodile CC6 Milestone

Our first core philosophy for Arc Survivors builds upon the core theme of survival and it is always going to be present in every campaign that is using this system. This means along with the Starting Knowledges; Survivalism is something you want to become very familiar with so you can take advantage of the various opportunities and strengths it offers. This is also the single largest philosophy as it has 11 Knowledges that can be gained via its booklet. It also offers a really interesting “challenge based” extra unlock via a mechanism called “Divergent Rank”.

This philosophy is so large that to properly explore it will likely take multiple articles, I try to avoid splitting topics across multiple posts, but sometimes there's so much that it can take 2+ articles to get them put out. Normally I don't know in advance it that is going to be the case, but here I am absolutely certain that I'll be writing at least as twice as much as normal and I can foresee getting to possibly a third part (based on how much time it took to explore/write about just the Starting Knowledges). So I apologise in advance if it looks like I'm milking it, however I want to really do this justice because it's something I'm going to be referring back to a lot when writing (eventually talking) about this element of the Gambler's Chest Expansion (GCE).

What is the Thesis of Survivalism?

One of the core themes in KD:M is the concept of humanity surviving against terrible odds; the human analogues even hold the in game label of “Survivors”. Now KD:M survivors are quite different from humans on our world; they are genetically malleable with mutations occurringduring their own lifespans, they have super-human durability (surviving a disembowelment during a fight and recovering despite a low technology level with poor understanding of infection) and most of all they have Adonis like physiques, the pinnacle of which is of course the GCE's Tough Guy.

In short, they are fictional, idealised humans, inspired by religious figures, Anime/Manga and Western legends. In this world, they struggle, they strive, they fight and most of all they survive. This is the core thesis of Kingdom Death: Monster. The triumph of humanity against overwhelming odds, a celebration of a species which thrives not through tooth, claw, fang and stinger, but through brainpower, sweat and tools. We are currently in a period where we've certainly gone too far, to the point where we might implode as a species and become extinct through our own hubris and greed. Or we might triumph over our own nature and move to the stars, becoming a lineage of creatures that survive until the end of the universe (or the end of our own Galaxy long after it merged with the Andromeda Galaxy). It's incredible that we are here and also that we have sapience.

In short, whether it was intended or not, KD:M is a tribute to the strength and power of human spirit, about how with tool use we can overcome truly terrifying obstacles. It's a really wonderful game if one can look at it and get this perspective from the design (other perspectives are also valid, board games are art and art is subjective). I wanted to write all this to highlight just how much pleasure and joy I can get from this game; but now we'll dive into the Survivalism booklet!

Live at all Costs

To start with, as this is the first time we've looked at the Philosophy booklets; let us just explore the basic framework without getting into the All philosophies have the same core structure to them in their booklet; one will gain a set of milestones to add to their Hunt XP track, a Neurosis, a Tenant and as they reach each Hunt XP milestone they'll have an Age Milestone specific to their adopted philosophical viewpoint of the world. I've written in the first part of this series about how great this system is; still I think it is once again worth highlighting how superb the way this system has adopted the original Age mechanics and spun them into something new. This means the system is familiar – one reaches a milestone and rolls on a table, however when you roll, what table you roll on and what those tables do is very different.

For Survivalism our Hunt XP milestones are 2, 4, 7 and 10. Leaving 6 more open spaces before reaching retirement. This is also the pattern for most of the Tier 1 Philosophies and the Dreamism Core Philosophy. It's the currently fastest route we see for getting to the fourth Milestone and to be honest there's only two reasonable patterns that would be faster (2,4,7,9 and 2,4,6,8 – technically we could see 2,3,4,5 but that would be a serious mould breaker requiring very careful balancing). Overall what this faster track means is more Survival Knowledges will on average be unlocked per Survivalists than the later tiers (and Deadism, which is super slow to get to Age 3 & 4).

Our core Neurosis; as in the negative which one pays for having this particular Philosophy is Selfish. This impacts upon Encourage, in that half the time if you encourage another survivor, it is canceled and you can't encourage for the rest of the round (you do not lose the survival). This is a mild negative, another survivor can encourage instead as long as they have the survival available. The main place it impacts is with encourage synergies like Rawhide Drum, Raptor-Worm Collar and the Leader Fighting Art (for example). Also in People of the Dream Keeper, survivors can “Fist Pump” as long as the knocked down survivor is not blind.The second element to this Neurosis is if your survivor has[K] Meat Shield , they must use it. This isn't a huge deal because one is control over who has a given Knowledge, you get to can overwrite them with new ones if you reach max capacity.  While I find these two negatives very thematic, I think it is worth noting that they are incredibly verbose, which is a minor issue, but it does make them difficult to record on the survivor sheet and internalise. It's hard to figure out how this Neurosis could be cut down any further, and it's an issue that can be solved with third party references plus familiarity.

Tenacity (Core Tenant)

Before we get into it, I'd like to quickly say I LOVE the survivor depicted on this card, she's so cool. She reminds me of Allison but with shorter hair. I felt awful cropping her image, but I don't want to just post the GCE cards here directly, that's why it was edited down.

Tenacity

• Type: Extra Survival
• Stages: 3
• Observations Required: 2/6/-
• Advancement: Spend Survival Token/Spend Survival Token/-
• Lumi Costs: 1/2/4
• Bonuses: Gain survival token when departing/Gain 2 survival tokens when departing/Gain 3 survival tokens when departing

Note: Survival tokens can be spent to gain +1 survival at all stages.

Also where you see [K] Name means this is a Knowledge.

The core tenant is [K] Tenacity; a Knowledge that provides additional survival in the form of survival tokens (I wish we had official tokens for this kind of thing, but the lantern tokens suffice); it's in essence a bank of extra departing survival that doesn't count against the limit. Very simple, very thematic and very powerful because of the strength of Survival in this game. Each point of survival can represent so many different things, movement, attack, activation, dodging, block, deflect and so on. It's incredibly versatile and that's reflected in the cost to pick this one up from the forum.

It also levels up in a simple fashion, short of dying during the process, the first survivor to gain this can have it completed within a maximum of 5 showdowns. This is an old reliable workhorse, it doesn't do anything that makes you go “WOW”, but it is very powerful and useful. I think you could do a lot worse for a core tenet.

Age Milestone 1 – 2 Hunt XP

We'll look at the Divergent Rank last of all in this article, because I want to give people who haven't seen it yet the option to stop reading early. It's not an additional spoiler that it exists, you get it splashed right into your eyes with the first Arc Survivor Philosophy gained. That's because the introductory event always has a survivor gain Survivalism and the divergent rank notification is plastered right before Age 1.

Age 1 is a very simple table, the survivor gains +1 lumi and then either [K] Accuracy Training, [K] Desperate Strike or [K] Strength Training (while losing all your survival, which isn't a huge problem when you have [K] Tenacity). We'll look at them in detail later on. There's also a few Collective Cognition bonuses, the first is [K] Strength Training including +1 courage at CC5. The second one is an additional bonus for CC11+ where the survivor will always gain a random disorder, a random Knowledge and an extra +2 Lumi. That's a good trade, especially as the Barber Surgeon is so much easier to unlock these days.

This is a very straightforward table; of the three Knowledges there [K] Accuracy Training and Strength Training do exactly what it says on the tin. [K] Desperate Strike is the only one that's slightly complicated and that's just giving your weapons Barbed X. This is all exactly what you want to see in core, early Knowledges. Simple, effective and easy to internalise.

Age Milestone 2 – 4 Hunt XP

At the second milestone the survivor gains another +1 Lumi and then a wide range of different advances, many of which come with attached negatives. 1 results in +1 movement and +1 systemic pressure; movement is immensely powerful, so this is a reasonable trade.

The next 2 to 5 is [K] Meat Shield and 3 to 5 of that includes [K] Tumble at CC9+. [K] Meat Shield is excellent for non-tank survivors, and Tumble is just an all-round solid option because of how it can potentially negate so many bad situations. It was good when it was just a fighting art, as a knowledge it's not much more powerful due to being only 10% more likely to work at max level.

Next we have 6 to 8 gaining [K] Death Sense and at CC16 this also includes +1 evasion at the cost of the blind severe head injury. That's not a major issue if you return to the settlement with Dried Acanthus the showdown before triggering the second Age Milestone, however Blind is not a small trifling thing. Even one Blind injury can cause issues for a survivor and of course a second one means retirement.

9 to 10 gives you [K] Rolling Dive and a bleeding token when departing. That Bleeding token can be turned to your advantage if you are using Crimson Crocodile Armor or trying to complete [K] Blood Dancer (Crimson Crocodile CC6 Milestone Knowledge). You can also gain [K] Tumble when at CC8+. More on [K] Rolling Dive in the future, but it's a somewhat situational Knowledge with a negative which is a bit excessive.

Age Milestone 3 – 7 Hunt XP

This one is +1 Lumi and another +1 Lumi for Meat Shield. Which is a nice little “hidden” bonus for the knowledge.

1 is basically death via exile turning you into a bone witch. Obviously that's an awful result and something to hold against Survivalism quite strongly. The 2-7 result is [K] Demagogue with 4-7 also giving +1 lumi and +1 insanity to all other survivors who depart with you when you next depart on CC11. Man writing these tables into descriptions is not great, I really hope you're looking at the book alongside these, because I'm making a meal of them.

8 to 10 is +3 lumi and at CC18+ it's also a free observation in any knowledge. I think these are both really solid gains, especially if you have a knowledge that's tricky to gain observations in for some reason. In addition at CC23+ you also get the option of an intimacy, which is always nice because it doesn't force the intimacy, it's optional.

Age Milestone 4 – 10 Hunt XP

Here we get +1 lumi and in addition with both Family and Hovel you get a +2 onto your roll, something which isn't exactly a bonus as we'll see when we look at the 1 to 3 result. Which is +1 luck at the cost of skipping the next hunt. That's probably the best result on the table because of how strong luck is against critical wound hit locations.

The 4 to 8 results give you the Mentor ability (see above) if there is at least one survivor with less hunt XP than you. Otherwise you get +1 strength. At CC14+ the 5 to 8 result also gives you both [K] Evasion Training (if you do not have the Mentor ability you're alone and you gain +1 torment in addition).

Finally we get the 9-10 result allowing any number of survivors without a philosophy to adopt Survivalism. If you choose three (or more) they also get to adopt knowledges from the forum without spending Lumi. If adopting this, one should choose at most the same number as the amount of Knowledges that you want to gain from the Forum. This is not a powerful enough Philosophy to have survivors adopt it without some kind of extra bonus.

Also at CC21, the 9-10 result has our old “friend” the Twilight Order turn up, but this time they don't foist a magic and overly heavy sword on the hapless survivor like someone offloading spare tat. Instead they teach [K] Death's Edge to the survivor, which is an interesting form of glass cannon ability, ish. More on that next time.

Divergent Rank

Stop here if you do not want to learn what the Divergent Rank does.

So if you get all the way to maximum age without departing (something you can do with a Perfect Organ and a fortunate roll) then you will gain the Shadow Caesar ability.

This ability means that for as long as you're alive, you get to ignore Retired, Skip Next Hunt and anything else that would stop a survivor from departing. This is of course a good ability for a survivor who doesn't leave the settlement themselves – so it's super thematic in addition to being powerful.

Summary

We'll look at the rest of the pieces with Survival Knowledge dissection in next week, but even without getting into what the Knowledges do; Survivalism is a really interesting and solid second step into the system as it gives players more of what the game already does, more survival, more stats and even some knowledges which are basically Fighting Arts in a new, outfit, one with power shoulder pads.

Things will get wild with some of the future Philosophies, but for now we've arrived with a big old tasty bang, even if the explosion is a somewhat familiar, fantastic flavour