A Review of Male Survivor - Lionel | Kingdom Death: Monster (Patreon)

Vain yet surefooted, Lionel always knew he was born with an abundance of luck. Surely it was an innate trait epitomized by his natural aesthetic appeal. Confident in his great fortune, he tempts fate again and again, daring it to give way under the weight of repeated risk.

1 x Lionel photoresin miniature and flat plastic base

1 Beta Gear Card

2x Glossary Cards

1x Large Matte Art Print

1x Character Art Card 

For a long time, I've wondered if there is a Thundercats portion to the influences that inspired Kingdom Death. Adam is around the right age, the White Lions have always evoked that kind of feel and now we have Lionel, a survivor who makes me think of Griffith from Berserk smashed into Lion-O from the Thundercats. I'm not going to definitively call it at this point, but if we get a Mumm-Ra equivalent in the Silver City then I think we might have to.

The Miniature

Lionel is an absolutely perfect sculpt despite looking a lot like one of the most despicable characters in fiction. I've always loved the design of the White Lion Armor (one of the reasons why I push back and try to argue it should be better) and this miniature exemplifies everything I like about it. In particular the hair, cape and lantern design are beautiful. I'm fairly vocal about how little I like the “S” lantern design because of how awkward it is to paint on miniatures, the design doesn't translate well to the sculpt. This lantern on the other hand is incredible, the wrought ironwork on it is chunky while also looking elegant and stylish.

Yeah, while I'm not going to use this miniature on the table because of the Katana's overhang I am tempted due to its excellent sculpt.

The Gameplay

Crafting Costs: 1x Elder Cat Teeth, 1x Perfect Bone, 2x Bone, 1x Scrap

A Pride Katana released at the start of Pride Month is just too perfect. Sure the primary reference is of course a Pride of Lions, but given how measured Adam Poots Games are with their monthly releases this cannot be an accident. So I will attribute it to them and clap accordingly. Well done, as Kingdom Death itself teaches us, diversity matters.

This weapon itself is a curiosity, it is in essence an alternative L3 White Lion option instead of the Cat Fang Knife and has a better attack profile in exchange for slightly worse affinities and a weak weapon type. We also have a new ability in Sunder – Toughness and a second one in Trick Roll – Ricochet. Here's the glossary text for each one.

Sunder – Toughness – A gear special rule. When you critically wound with this gear, the monster gains -1 toughness token. Limit once per round.

I'm going to post the glossary card text rather than write it out in full for Trick Shot because this is a lengthy one.

Like the Gambler this is a second mechanic that expects you to roll your dice on the showdown board, that's a little awkward because many of us use dice trays, it's become more awkward because rolling dice on the plastic showdown board isn't practical, even more so if it is painted. This Trick Roll is even worse than that because you're being expected to in essence throw the dice onto the board, have it hit another dice, stay on the board and be flat enough to have one face as the definitive result. This just isn't something I can do with my set up so I had to switch to the standard board for the experience and it's pretty whatever. This is something you can easily game in a “legitimate” fashion, have multiple sets, always roll on the board and only pick up a die from the board when you have run out. Or keep the dice on the board in a big pile.

Whatever, ultimately this isn't something that holds up to any kind of attempts to abuse the rules because KDM is not a dexterity game, it doesn't have a robust set of rules based around its pieces in the way that Men At Work, Pitchcar or Meeple Circus have. This is why Chaos Orb in Magic: The Gathering was put on a blanket ban list, Magic really doesn't want to police cards like this and leaves them in casual formats. That's something KDM is also, it's a casual game, spirit of the rules, author intent, rule of death and just “this will do” all are large parts of how you navigate the game rules. Trick Roll is inherently silly and should be engaged in the same fashion.

If we succeed at this trick roll then we get +3 luck for that wound attempt only, if we fail we get an automatic failure. At least the trick roll is optional, so if there is no beneficial result you don't have to make it and you can even function the Katana without trick rolling at all. Though you are encouraged by the Sunder – Toughness to make those trick rolls for sure.

This is all cute, but not something I want to engage in again, you may feel differently.

Final Thoughts

Personally I do not like it when games introduce timer, visual, code or dexterity based mechanics into games that are not focused around it. I play with both people who have visible and non-visible disabilities and these mechanics are things that always concern me because they can put others in awkward positions where they may have to disclose disabilities that they don't want to or perhaps risk feeling embarrassed or concerned.

In short, I don't think this is a very good, wise or fair mechanic, but I do think that putting it on beta content is about the best place it could be positioned. This is very much like the negative seed patterns, it is something you want to exclude from the game if it is not going to work for you and being Beta content gives you express permission to do that. As such, while I personally do not like this design at all, if it is going to be only in the Beta content and not pushed into main content it's fine.

This is one of the most skippable pieces of skippable content there has been released to date, if you like it, more power to you, but I am classifying this as firmly unessential.