A Review of Pillar Survivor Fade | Kingdom Death: Monster (Patreon)

Fade violated the White Speakers' oath against childbearing. Expecting no mercy, she fled the cult with her child and the Sword of Silence stolen from the Sword Hunters' armory.

Out of the older “White Box” releases that have come in and out of Print Fade has been in my opinion one of the better ones, while looking back through the various reviews I've written over the years I have found some references to Fade, but I couldn't find an exclusive review just for Fade. I suspect this is mostly because of how limited availability has been for this White Box and as such it's not been easy to review it. So with a new updated version of this expansion being released there is no time better than now to give it a thorough going over.

Before we get into what's in the box, let us briefly consider what doesn't. Fade's return to the store was originally pitched to also include some tight linkage to the Red Witches Expansion, it is my understanding that this is no longer the case. Finding the exact text has eluded me however, searching through the older kickstarter updates and various emails is never an easy task. So if someone has the specific text, please do post it in a comment at the bottom of this with a link to the kickstarter update if possible. Thanks!

Anyhow, I am not too upset about this, I'd rather that the design team move onto unreleased content rather than trying to retrofit something outside of the kickstarter if it isn't working. I do want more of these shorter narrative campaigns for sure because they give players other ways to experience the game, but if it isn't working then pushing other belated projects aside to try and hammer something into shape is a fool's errand.

Instead Fade has now been integrated into the Pillar system that has been partially deployed in the Gambler's Chest and should get a full implementation once Campaigns of Death arrives (CoD is one of the three unreleased elements that top my “most anticipated” list along with the Inverted Mountain and the Abyssal Woods). The heart of this update remains very similar to the original release, but there are a few updated changes that I think help smooth out some of the rough edges surrounding all the various “Hunt Event” additions that have piled up over the years.

The Miniature

Fade is one of the all time greats as it depicts a post partum woman, that's not something which is very commonly depicted in art let alone miniatures. So it is very welcome to see here. In addition to that Fade represents a stark contrast to the Red Witches/White Speakers. She has not only broken their rules, but it seems that she's also changed the colour of her garb to a deep black. It isn't clear if this is for camouflage or ritualistic reasons, but regardless it is a striking change and it gives us a look into another part of the world.

However, the miniature itself has very little to no real use when you are playing in game and want it to represent a specific character. If you are playing the “A White Speaker's Sojourn.” campaign then you could use the miniature there, but the other White Speaker miniatures would be more appropriate due to the fact that they are forbidden to take part in Intimacy. So ultimately this is a nice miniature with no WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) functionality, but you could still use it to represent a leyline walker or similar.

The Gameplay

The current way to use this card is without Campaigns of Death Volume I and what it does is give players an automatic milestone that triggers when Storytelling is innovated. That means for the moment we don't use the Pillar card that comes with this box, though you can keep it around as a reminder if you use a settlement folder like I do. It's good that this has been future proofed to work in the new system, I wouldn't want there to be a Fade 3.0 release further down the line.

What happens when this innovation occurs is one of the basic hunt events is taken out of the basic hunt deck and replaced with a basic hunt event titled “The Baby and The Sword.” This is that hunt event:

The key differences between this version and the older version is that originally the survivors had the option to choose if they would “Grab & Dash” or not, if they did not take the risk then a random hunt event was rolled. The second major change is this new version self archives after it has resolved once, turning back into a random Basic Hunt Event card again.

This change is an important and good one because it stops the oddity of running into this event over and over, and it also doesn't inflate the size of the basic hunt deck which matters when the deck is so small to start with. There are two main issues that have plagued the hunt deck over the years, the first is the number of white box/promotional/beta basic hunt event cards that inflate the size of the deck permanently and the second is the issue of the card backs being wildly inconsistent colours. The way that this card swaps in and out over a basic hunt event solves the first issue and I was already using something similar with all the promotional hunt events.

The second issue needs Adam Poots Games to print a bunch of hunt event sized card sleeves with an opaque back that has the hunt deck design on it. There are no opaque backed sleeves available in the correct size at the moment, you can get close with some sleeves, but really this is something that hasn't been solved at this time.

Back to the card text, we're rolling on a table here and there's a fair chance that the Harvester (Hunt Event 10) can be triggered. In fact 60% of the time that is going to happen, so this means that going on the hunt with noisy gear and/or zero survival is a very risky proposition, even more so than normal. It's not a deal breaker, but it is important to bare in mind. As long as this is here, you've got a card in your basic hunt deck that is 60% Harvester, because that massively increases the odds of encountering this phase defining event one should not overlook it until after this event has ended. Of course, if somehow Hunt Event 10 is blank due to, I don't know, a correction fluid based “accident” or an act of dog then this may not apply to you. I'm not saying anything should happen to it, but there is a spot down the back of the sofa calling out for the harvester entry.

All of the 3+ results give us access to a choice between gaining the sword of silence or a newborn. But in the case of the 3 to 6 roll it is the event revealer who gains the gear card (it's weird calling a newborn a gear card, but here we are) or the 7+ result lets you choose who gains the gear in exchange for the punishment of all survivors suffering 5 brain event damage and an automatic Harvester. It's hard to have a free slot as campaigns progress and Storytelling is a fairly high tier innovation that isn't a high priority to rush crafting, so generally you'll be in a world where most gear grids are full, however there is still a fair chance that survivors may have “filler” gear cards.

In respect to which is the better choice, here they both are side-by-side:

Choosing between these two has always been an interesting dilemma, while this is just a game, there's still a lot of roleplaying-like elements that bleed into the game experience. You are being asked to choose between rescuing a newborn child or a powerful sword and you may make this decision based on personal morals or even the principles selected by the settlement.

The Harvester being involved is more of a lore based element (in addition to its high level of punishment), this is not the only time we've seen rituals of some form (the patterns in the blood) call these deadly creatures. Fade's body, her child and the sword have all been left by the Red Witches who hunted her down because of the protective seal she drew in blood, it wasn't enough to save her from arrows but it did protect her child and the three speakers who left her body did not recover something that one would assume the Sword Hunter would have wanted to recover (The White Speaker Sword Hunter is a separate white box expansion).

There is no real correct choice here, the moral and ethical one would be to recover the child, but of course if the settlement is in need of a powerful weapon to help put them back on track the Sword of Silence is a hard one to pass up on. The Sword itself is also well balanced, it's got a great stat profile, some excellent affinities and it even scales itself up when a survivor has 6+ understanding via that Sharp bonus. It is sentient, meaning that you need to be able to maintain at least 3 Insanity while using it lest it become a lodestone in your gear grid. It is also irreplaceable, but the big drag on this weapon is that you have to ignore both White Speaker and White Secret events.

White Secret in particular is quite a large loss, that has some really great abilities tied to it, especially Ageless which has massive strategic implications (while also giving you a clean way to no-sell the Phoenix's time nonsense). You can potentially get rid of it when your settlement no longer needs it, but that requires a survivor to equip the weapon and perish while holding it, which may be difficult if you don't have an easy plan to handle this (such as a nemesis showdown you were planning to tank).

Also, there's one other thing to note, the Newborn is; of course, fragile, that can result in some tragic situations, especially if you encounter the wee bab right before fighting Smog Singers. Those pernicious prawns wouldn't hesitate to harm fragile things with their voices even if the "thing" in question is a newborn.

As a quick aside, I'd love to see there be some actual interplay between the Sword of Silence and the White Speaker Sword Hunter, as this sword is listed as one that came from her armory, but we don't have that interplay in either of the two releases. It's delightful when separate elements have interactions and this is one spot where I would have loved to see it happen.

Summary

I do not think this is an essential purchase, certainly if you already own Fade it is hard to justify picking up a new copy right now because all of the changes can easily be integrated without the need for owning the newer cards. The core of the content is the same, excellent design and you only need to add the card at the correct time with the basic hunt event swap, make the event compulsory, then make the swap back afterwards.

For those of us who already own this box there is not so much incentive to pick it up right now as there is enough present to remember what the changes are, but once Campaigns of Death comes out that situation will change and we're not sure at this time when/if an update pack will come that provides all the game content for players who have the older versions of the content. We've had that in the past with the 1.6 Card Pack, so I imagine it will happen, but when and how is a question that isn't answered at this point.

If you don't own this one already I can recommend picking it up, it is a piece of content that I've never taken out of my games because of how interesting it is. I think this new version is a cleaner and superior version of the old edition and I'll be adopting the new rules for how this is added and removed from a campaign on a permanent basis. I'm not sure if I will pick up a copy of this updated version, I don't know if Fade's miniature has had a scaling remaster or not. If someone can share a picture of the new miniature next to some new scale survivor models like the Indomitable ones that would be very helpful.

You can purchase this here: https://shop.kingdomdeath.com/products/fade-pillar-survivor

I also hard recommend against picking up Fade on the secondary market, you certainly do not want the older version if you are getting a copy (You can identify the older copy because the box is white and has an illustrated depiction of Fade on it, the new box is black with an image of the miniature).

Of course you should always pick up your copies direct from the online shop, as that provides direct support to seeing more content, but it is especially true here.