Anybody home?

[ororo]

I've been invited to try Kingdom Death: Monster this weekend and the reviews I've read haven't really given me an idea of the game play. The questions I don't see answering:

1. How long does a turn take?
2. Will I be bored when other people are taking their turns?
3. How challenging is it playing a civilization vs playing a single character in other games?
4. How much crap do I need to keep track of?
5. Is it truly cooperative or is it cooperative until it gets competitive?
6. If I fall behind, is it possible to catch up or am I genuinely and totally fucked?

Anyone played? Bueller? Bueller.......

Comments

[jewelfox]

So, I haven't played it but I've read and watched actual play accounts, and studied this game with morbid fascination off and on for awhile.

My understanding is that it's truly cooperative, and you all run the civilization part together. The one who has the most to keep track of is the GM / Banker equivalent, because there are a ton of cards and books and things to generate and run the environmental challenges. Individual turns in combat don't seem to take very long.

Also, you are genuinely and totally fucked from the get-go. It's basically a tabletop roguelike. There are a lot of things that you learn about only by dying to them, from hazards to monster abilities, and you can still be gruesomely murdered if the dice dislike you. I don't remember if there are any provisions for people whose characters die; maybe you can adopt a different person in your settlement, but you probably have to start over with a bunch of stuff.

On the other hand, you could probably shortcut some of that if anyone's posted a strategy guide online.

Godspeed, you brave, mad soul.

[lassarina]

^ agreeing with this. I have not played, but periodically exist in a space where my husband is playing it, and. Well. There sure is a lot of math and things you can randomly die to and some very mean dice, and it's fucking great for my husband because he LOVES intricate resource management (a friend of ours described it as "KDM is the most [husband's full name] game I can conceive of" and having watched bits, I concur).

Turns are pretty long, but they're collaborative; nobody seemed bored when I poked my nose up out of Persona 5.