1. This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Learn More.

Kingdom Death: Monster group campaign

Discussion in 'General Hobby/Tabletop Chat' started by Silverbolt, Mar 16, 2016.

  1. Silverbolt
    Temple Guard

    Silverbolt Active Member

    Messages:
    220
    Likes Received:
    64
    Trophy Points:
    28
    Hi everyone! This will be my battle report for my group campaign of Kindgom Death: Monster. I will probably be doing a solo campaign thread as well which will allow me to give more detail. This is an amazing board game. It is a cooperative campaign game. There are elements of civilization building, role playing, boss fights, and more in a Cthullu-esque grimdark world.

    If you would like to see the amazing models that @neveroddoreven painted, check out this thread: http://www.lustria-online.com/threads/kingdom-death-monster.17564/

    For this thread, I will be writing the narrative in a red font with game explanations in a blue font.
     
  2. Silverbolt
    Temple Guard

    Silverbolt Active Member

    Messages:
    220
    Likes Received:
    64
    Trophy Points:
    28
    The game begins in the Prologue: a specialized version of a Showdown with the Lion Phase. While the White Lion has been adjusted (number of wounds, which attacks are in its AI Deck) it is still entirely capable of wiping the entire party if poor decisions are made and poor rolls are made.

    IMG_0699.JPG
    I controlled two characters. I named them Rand and Egwene. Rand is the blonde male, and Egwene the raven-haired female.
    IMG_0700.JPG
    My friend Paul controlled the other two. Adam was the bearded man, and Eve was the redhead female.

    Four humans awake in the darkness. They have no language, no sense of identity. The floor appears to be made of stone carved into endless faces. Masks, or something more sinister? Suddenly, they here a savage roar. They look at each other in fear. A savage White Lion charges towards them from the night. The survivors scatter. Each pulls a shard of stone from the floor as a makeshift weapon. They all knew: they must fight, or the beast would feed on them all. Paul and I thought it would be best to setup the board up surrounding the White Lion. Each of us takes turns rolling dice and flipping cards for the White Lion.

    IMG_0701.JPG

    The White Lion charges towards one of the women. He claws at her twice, tearing her cloth wrap. The nimble woman dodges a massive paw that would have surely knocked her down. The White Lion hit with both attacks: one to the waist and one to the head. Eve's waist armor is reduced from 1 to 0 (so much for that!) so Paul decides to spend his 1 point of survival to dodge the head attack (where we don't have any default armor at all). Damage to the head would have also resulted in a knockdown and we did not want to start off with a survivor on the ground.

    The bearded man rushes forward towards the beast. Desperate to help his fellow human, he flings his Founding Stone. The stone shard strikes the beast's knee. The White Lion's knee twists unnaturally and shatters. The special ability of the Foundling Stone is to be thrown from anywhere on the board and get an automatic critical wound. We wanted to see what would happen so Paul had Adam throw his. We drew a card (Beast's Knee) from the Hit Location Deck. The critical wound bonus was a -1 movement penalty for the White Lion. Now it has the same movement as our survivors. Unfortunately, Adam now has to fight without a weapon, which will need some luckier rolls.

    IMG_0703.JPG

    Emboldened by the daring of their fellow, the other two humans rush towards the beast to aid the woman. Both send their Founding Stones soaring through the darkness. The White Lion roars in agony. One Founding Stone whallops the White Lion's head, causing shockwaves of blinding pain. The other lodges in its soft belly, causing intestines to hang from the wound on its guy and drag on the floor. After seeing that there are Persisting Wounds (the movement penalty), Paul and I quickly agreed we should use our Founding Stone's autocrit ability to get a couple more critical wounds. We hoped for more modifiers and got lucky with the Hit Location draws. Now, with dragging intestines, we roll a D10 a the beginning of each monster's turn. If the monster rolls a 1, he suffers a 1 wound. With the temple injury, the monster rolls a D10 whenever it draws an AI card to attack. On a 1 or 2, the attack is discarded and the monster's turn ends immediately. Sweet! But, Rand and Egwene are also unarmed now.

    While the White Lion is distracted by two sudden injuries, the woman in the torn cloth throws her stone weapon deep into the beast's fleshy gut. The White Lion spasms and vomits all over the woman. Covered in gore, clothing shredded, and faced with the jaws of the monster, the woman begins screaming hysterically. Another tossed Founding Stone for an autocrit. Paul moved Eve into the White Lion's blindspot (two spaces directly behind the monster's model). No persistent wound, but Paul gained 1 random basic resource (loot) for Eve. But Eve gains +3 insanity (think of it as armor for the brain). One or two insanity is ok, but when you hit the 3+ point your survivor gains the Insanity trait. And she's unarmed now. Also, check out that card text. I guess there will be some humor in this game!

    IMG_0704.JPG

    The White Lion turns and sights the bearded man still closing on it. The beast lunges forward to chomp the man. However, at the last moment, he suddenly ducks beneath the mighty jaws. Paul spends Adam's one Survival point for a dodge since Chomp, if it hits on a 2+, automatically targets the survivor's head. Twice now Paul has dodged head attacks. Apparently I'm pretty lucky when rolling dice for the monster.

    After dodging the beast, the bearded man moves behind the White Lion to bite and claw at it. Unfortunately, the beast's hide is too tough. Still screaming, the woman also moves behind the White Lion and sinks her teeth into its leg. So Adam missed on both of his unarmed attacks, but Eve was able to get a wound in with one of hers. Not a crit, so no spiffy bonuses, but it's another wound done! The remaining two humans continue their dash towards the monster.

    IMG_0705.JPG

    With another wound dealt, the White Lion becomes enraged. It shakes its mane and sniffs for new prey to suffer its wrath. So we drew Enrage, which makes the White Lion deal additional damage on successful wounds to our survivors. It immediately draws another card for attack. Fortunately, the attack drawn didn't have any valid targets (we've been very fortunate keeping Paul's two survivors in the blindspot) so it defaulted to the White Lion's basic ability, Sniff. Now all of the survivors are eligible targets on its next attack if within range.

    The two humans continued dancing in the beast's blindspot, but were unable to cause anymore harm with the bare hands. The White Lion sighted a new target, the blonde man, and charged forward. However, with his intestines dragging beneath it, the monster could not reach him before the other three humans converged from all sides. So, we had a couple lame turns. The survivors all missed. The White Lion drew an attack that caused it to charge Rand but it could not reach him. While we haven't gotten any succesful dice rolls for those persistent wounds, the reduced movement has definitely made a difference.

    IMG_0706.JPG

    The crazy woman throws herselft at the White Lion, but is too unfocused to cause any harm noticeable by the White Lion. From behind, the bearded man leaps atop the beast and entangles himself with its main. Eve missed, but you know, she's crazy. Adam, rolls a critical wound on the White Lion's Glorious Mane....but it's an invulnerable hit location! Damn. If he was insane, he would have gotten a permanent +1 strength bonus. Damn it, Eve, why couldn't you have rolled that!

    The other woman, her hair as black as the night they found themselves in, flanked the White Lion. Ferociously, she bit down on the beast's tail, severing it completely and ruining its finely-tuned balance. Then, finding the shattered knee within her grasp, she threw all of her weight at the leg. The beast's leg buckled, causing its femur to snap under its own weight. The White Lion fell, incapacitated, and bled out. The blonde man watched. Egwene finally reached the White Lion and I got to throw some dice for her. She hits both times. A critical wound on the tail gives Egwene a White Lion Tail resource card and the beast a -1 accuracy token. Then, she causes a regular wound to the femur to kill the White Lion! Oh, and Rand stood there and watched.

    IMG_0707.JPG

    So, having defeated the White Lion, we received 4 basic resources and 4 White Lion resources. Add this to our bonus loot from the Showdown itself, and we are walking away with 12 resources! Amazingly, no one died. I'm shocked to be honest. I've read a lot of battle reps and watched a lot of videos on the Prologue, and this doesn't happen too often. The Prologue complete, Paul and I moved on to our very first Settlement Phase.
     
    n810, Crowsfoot and Bowser like this.
  3. Crowsfoot
    Slann

    Crowsfoot Guardian of Paints Staff Member

    Messages:
    8,344
    Likes Received:
    14,489
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Sounds like this could be a very good game, I love stuff like this.
     
    Bowser likes this.
  4. Bowser
    Slann

    Bowser Third Spawning

    Messages:
    5,581
    Likes Received:
    8,452
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Yep this sounds like a blast. Almost reminiscent of castle ravenloft board game. Which was quite a bit of fun and extremely challenging!
     
  5. Crowsfoot
    Slann

    Crowsfoot Guardian of Paints Staff Member

    Messages:
    8,344
    Likes Received:
    14,489
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Ohh what was that?
     
  6. neveroddoreven
    Temple Guard

    neveroddoreven Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    210
    Likes Received:
    1,074
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Wow, that was awesome! Nice to see these characters come to life from the models I grew to know intimately.
    Egwene was my favourite model to paint, cool to see her kick ass. Also, she can bite clean through a lion's tail, I like that in a woman.
     
    Bowser likes this.
  7. Fhanados
    Terradon

    Fhanados Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    576
    Likes Received:
    737
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Wow that was really brutal and horrific. I love it! I've always liked the Kingdom Death stuff but it gets me in trouble with my wife :(
     
    Bowser likes this.
  8. Caprasauridae
    Stegadon

    Caprasauridae Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    978
    Likes Received:
    557
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Wow, cool report, thanks for sharing! I, too, have read some other reviews and reports, and in none of them the group got out of it with so few wounds. So good job and keep 'em coming!
     
    Bowser likes this.
  9. Silverbolt
    Temple Guard

    Silverbolt Active Member

    Messages:
    220
    Likes Received:
    64
    Trophy Points:
    28
    Ok, so we played a couple several-hour sessions over the weekend. It amounted to about 4 lantern years (12 phases). I tried to write the story as we went, but it was slowing things down so much everyone was getting annoyed with me. So, I'm gonna try to remember things and get them posted in here. I'm thinking a solo campaign will be the best way to go for a more in-depth story log.
     
  10. Silverbolt
    Temple Guard

    Silverbolt Active Member

    Messages:
    220
    Likes Received:
    64
    Trophy Points:
    28
    The four survivors looked down at the slain beast. "We should take what we can use," said Rand. They looked at each other. They remembered language. They remembered who they were. Eve ceased her screaming, but something still shone behind her eyes. With the trauma of awakening and the showdown over, they began thinking more clearly. As they harvested what they could, they saw light shining in the distance. They gathered their spoils and forged ahead, through the darkness, towards the light.

    They came upon ten others who looked dazed and confused. They had gathered a mound of shining lanterns. At first, these ten shied away from the newcomers, for they strode boldly. Rand, Eve, Adam, and Egwene went among them, speaking softly. Soon they, too, overcame their shock. They decided to band together, with the Lantern Hoard providing a beacon of hope. They named their new settlement Andor.

    IMG_0708.JPG

    "What will we do if something attacks us," one of the other asked.

    "We'll kill it, like the Lion," said Egwene.

    "But what if it kills some of us?"

    "That is a worry for another day. Now, we arm ourselves. We prepare to defend." Adam began pulling fangs from a jawbone.

    "We should explore the darkness of this world and make it our own!" Eve placed a dismembered paw atop her head.

    "You should take that off. And wipe the puke off yourself. And put some clothes on." Rand noticed several of the others stepping away from her.

    The survivors gathered about the Lantern Hoard and the beast's remains. Some began skinning the beast. Others joined Adam in collecting the bones, teeth, and claws. Others separated meat from offal. Nobody spoke the words, but all knew busy hands would keep their minds busy. A task at hand, shared company, and lantern light would keep the darkness at bay. Only Eve sat alone, her back to the lantern light, listening to what no one else could hear.


    So our 4 (4!) survivors all received an Endeavor Point for naming the new settlement. Endeavor Points are used in the settlement to build new Locations, Innovate, and various other special actions. We rolled a D10 to determine how many extra characters would join them. A roll of 9 netted us an extra 10 bodies. We did the "First Day" story event to establish our settlement. With 4 Endeavor Points to spend, we followed the book's recommendation of building a Skinnery, a Bone Smith, and an Organ Grinder. We could craft gear from each of these locations. The Skinnery could make some basic armor. The Bone Smith had some bone weapon options. The Organ Grinder could make consumables to be used by the survivors during the Hunt and the Showdown Phases.

    Again, following the book's recommendation, we spent our remaining Endeavor Point (with a bone, organ, and skin resource) to draw from the Innovation Deck. Innovations are permanent buffs to our settlement. Our current Innovation of Language gave us six more possibilities in our Innovation Deck. We drew two: Paint and Ammonia. Each Innovation also adds more possible Innovations to the Innovation Deck. We discussed the merits of both and settled on Ammonia for the crafting possibilities and the free Survival Point when leaving for a Hunt.

    We looked at what kind of gear we could craft. We only had 2 bones now, so we could make 2 weapons. Two survivors would be going into battle unarmed. Adam received a bone blade, a sword a little better than the Founding Stone from the Prologue, for scoring first blood against the White Lion. Egwene, despite engaging late in the Showdown, did the final two killing blows in her single turn of attacking. So, we spent a bone and an organ to craft her the bone axe, a fierce weapon with great wounding potential. Next, we crafted an array of rawhide armor pieces to give our survivors some armor. It doesn't do much, but it's better than what we had before.
     
    n810 and Bowser like this.
  11. Silverbolt
    Temple Guard

    Silverbolt Active Member

    Messages:
    220
    Likes Received:
    64
    Trophy Points:
    28
    THE HUNT, Lantern Year 1

    “The beast was large, and we are doing our best to use every scrap of it-”

    “But it's not enough, is it?” Rand looked down at the woman as she wrung her hands.

    “No, it won't. Some of us were thinking, that is, maybe we could slay another?”

    “You don't know what you ask!” Adam approached the two, holding a long bone blade. “You weren't there. We didn't go looking for it. It hunted us. It only thought to feed upon us while we were desperate prey.”

    “And we are desperate again! We will starve if we don't find food. We do not have enough equipment to defend ourselves if a pack of them were to come sniffing about.”

    “Rebecca is right. Adam, it's up to us. Go find Egwene and Eve. Pick through the camp's gear. We'll should take the best with us.”

    Rand, Egwene, Eve, and Adam left Andor. The other 10 remained behind to defend.

    IMG_0718.JPG


    At this point, our friend Colby joined us. He took over control of Adam. Paul kept Eve. I played Rand and Egwene. We only had one choice of Quarry Monster: the White Lion. So, we removed the Settlement cards and stuff to a side table. The Settlement Board flips over to be the Hunt Board. With a level 1 White Lion, we deployed the Lion 4 spaces away from our party with three Hunt Events between us. The first two were White Lion Hunt Events with the third being a Basic Hunt Event.

    The glow of Andor's Lantern Hoard faded into the darkness. The travelers crested a hill to find a sea of tall grass spanning the horizon. Egwene carried her bone axe in two hands at the ready. Rand and Adam strained their eyes to scan the tall grass for any movement. Eve, laughing like a child, ran into the tall grass.

    “After her now, before the twit gets herself killed!” Rand charged after her. Egwene raised an eyebrow, but Adam merely shrugged and followed after Rand. After a few moments, the three caught up to Eve, standing still and staring up towards the sky. “Eve, what were you thinking? You can't run off like that. We need to stick together or the beast may-”

    “There is no White Lion nearby, not for several hours. It went that way.” With her eyes closed, Eve pointed off to the east.

    “And how do you know that, Eve,” asked Egwene.

    “I smelled its vomit. I'm quite familiar with that fragrance. I miss it, sometimes. It's over there, mostly dried. There are tracks heading east.” Rand glared at the woman. Adam nudged Egwene. The four set off through the grass.


    The first White Lion Hunt Event found us encountering a sea of tall grass. We could explore it. If we did, we would roll and get one of three results from a D10 table. If we did not, we would have to do two random Basic Hunt Events from the rulebook (there's a 100 of those). We decided to explore since there was a 30% chance of the White Lion ambushing us, 50% chance of nothing happening, and 20% chance of tracking the White Lion. Lucky roll, we tracked the beast. We were allowed to move the White Lion one space closer or further on the Hunt Board. We chose to move the White Lion closer to us, hoping to only have to deal with one more Hunt Event before the Showdown.

    IMG_0719.JPG


    Within the endless tall grass, the survivors came upon a craggy area. The grass gave way to dried clay with boulders about. Claw marks from the beast's Strange Hands marked many of the boulders. Several pits were dug.

    “Look, there!” Egwene dashed forward and leaned her axe against a boulder. She reached into a gouge in the rock and pulled out a long claw. “What a find! This could make an excellent throwing dart. I saw the bonesmith sharpening some before we left.”

    “Maybe there are more. Let's search.” Rand and Eve went to another boulder and began feeling about. Finding no crevices like Egwene found, they began digging at its base amongst the claw marks. Suddenly, the boulder shifted. Both fell back, clutching their hands.

    “Let's not break our hands digging around. Don't forget, you two don't have weapons.” Adam moved through the boulders. “Perhaps its den is nearby.”


    Our next White Lion Hunt Event brought us to the Scratching Grounds. Here, each survivor could choose to explore or not. If no one explored, then we would have to do a random Basic Hunt Event from the rulebook. Similar to the previous event, there was a good roll, a “nothing” roll, and a bad roll. I rolled well for Egwene and she gained a Long Claw Resource Card. Rand and Eve both rolled poorly and took one event damage to their hand. Not having any hand armor, both of them marked the “light damage” box for the arms. Colby thought we were stupid and decided Adam would not risk it.

    After completing that hunt event, we moved onto the same space as the White Lion and entered the Showdown Phase. We removed the Hunt Board to a side table and setup the Showdown Board.
     
    n810 and Bowser like this.
  12. Bowser
    Slann

    Bowser Third Spawning

    Messages:
    5,581
    Likes Received:
    8,452
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Very cool! I think the crafting system is a brilliant addition to the game, and of course city building is right up my alley! Can't wait for the next installment!
     

Share This Page