Kingdom Death: Monster's kickstarter project recently ended and was a HUGE success, bringing in over 2 million dollars! I've known about Kingdom Death's miniatures (many of which are NSFW) for quit awhile now, but they have always sold out at such an alarming rate that I had never been able to pick any up! Hence, why for the 1st time, I chose to back a project on Kickstarter. While I imagine that production numbers would be greatly increased when the game is released, especially given the success of the KS campaign, I still did not want to take the chance on missing out on the game.
For those that missed the KS campaign, or are unfamiliar of what exactly is Kingdom Death: Monster, I'm posting a little bit of what I know of the game, along with a healthy dose of speculation and opinion on what it will/may entail. Needless to say, I'm extremely excited for what could easily turn out to be my top game of 2013!
Without further ado, let me introduce you to the "Survivors" of KDM. You'll be getting to know them very well...
The story:
Each player plays a "Survivor". You awake to a world surrounded in darkness, whose ground is covered with small stone faces. You are naked, unarmed, know no history of yourself, no language, no nothing, when suddenly you and your fellow survivors are attacked by monster from somewhere in the dark. You've been alive for seconds, and already they may be your last! Even if you survive your 1st encounter, what will you do? How will you survive? That is the story you'll be crafting for yourself when you play this game...
 |
| The Survivors: A sheet, a lantern, and broken rock is what you start with... |
The game:
As stated, players will be playing a Survivor, one of the few people to recently awaken to this nightmare world. In a nutshell, players will be fighting of monsters, establishing their own unique village/civilization, and exploring the world of darkness around them. Players will use the resources they gather from defeating monsters to craft new weapons, armor, and in other ways affect their growing civilization. The game itself seems to blend several genres of gaming into one. It's a miniatures game, a co-op board game, a civilization-crafting game, and blends in several RPG aspects as well. thus it should appeal to wide variety of gamers. Another interesting bit is that the monsters themselves are more or less AI controlled, leaving to wonder exactly how many players will be needed for the game. I could potentially see it even being single player, with that lone player controlling multiple survivors, and the deck controlling the monsters as normal, which means I'd be able to get a lot more play out it by myself when I'm bored at home. I think time will tell if this assumption is true. Finally, there is a pretty large random factor to the game, so the degree of difficulty can vary as well.
 |
| Kind of creepy when you look closely at what is actually going on with this miniature... |
The Miniatures:
 |
| Example of the "Phoenix Armor" set. I plan to magnetize everything for some quick gear swapping so my survivors can visually grow within the game. |
As stated, one of the main aspects of the game will be killing monsters and gathering resources they leave behind. The crafted items are monster/type specific, so the headpiece gained from a lion monster will not be the same as a headpiece from a phoenix monster. Each of these items will also have a corresponding miniatures piece, so you can either build your survivor's model to be accurate to what he/she is carrying (through magnetizing, I guess) or just build your survivor to be kitted out in whatever armor you think is the coolest. The miniature line accompanying the game is really well done, and the monsters are definitely creepy, while avoiding the cliche' of the normal horror genre. At this time, I'm unsure if the monsters and their associated armor comes together in a single box, or if they'll need to be purchased separately. It seems like the larger boxes (the Dragon King, and Gorm) will actually come with their respective, unique armor sets. I should also add, I do believe that the base game will come with the armor sets associated with the base game's monsters, no need to pick up additional sets for those unless you want to for more modeling options. (I'm assuming anyways) Finally, price wise (if the MSRP's listed on KS stay the same) they are not all that expensive, especially when compared to say, GW. the larger boxes (Dragon King & Gorm) are listed with an MSRP of $65, but come with the large models, armor sets, and associated cards. The single, special models look to have an MSRP $18, and the majority of the monsters fall in the $30-$35 and come with their respective cards as well.
 |
| The Dragon King... |
 |
| Armor crafted FROM the Dragon King... |
Well, that is about all the info I've got for now. If you are interested, the game designer has made some fantastic videos detailing the current iteration of the game. The 1st video sets up a bit of the story, and goes into the Survivor's 1st combat. The 2nd video dives deeper into the other phases of the game, when players work to build up their civilization, and send survivors out for resources. Keep in mind, he's using prototypes for these videos, so things may not be up to snuff in regards to the final design.
Part 1
Part 2
All in all, I couldn't be more excited to get this game in my hands. It has an estimated release date of November, and it cannot come quickly enough! The miniatures all look great, and I cannot wait to name and paint up one of the survivors after myself. (i.e. all covered in tattoos) It seems like a truly unique gaming experience, combining miniatures, co-op civilization-crafting gameplay, and story driven elements akin to an RPG. As I said before, this could easily be my top game of 2013, and I've only gotten a glimpse of it so far! For more info on the game, and the Kingdom Death miniature range (again, just to warn you, many are NSFW) check out kingdomdeath.com.
I'm really looking forward to keeping everyone updated on the progress of the game, and bringing you what ever new info I can along the way...
No comments:
Post a Comment