Cooperative Co-Ed Games: Kingdom Death Monster

The Kickstarter crowdfunding platform isn't just for vanity reprints of old rpg games and derivative hacks of same.  It also supports the development of innovative new games, like Kingdom Death Monster.

This crowdfunding effort finished up a day or two ago and raised over 2 million dollars.  I participated in the Kingdom Death Monster kickstarter because it is a cooperative, co-ed fantasy role-playing game designed for up to six players.  I'm always looking for co-ed games because my social circle is dominated by married couples, and any cooperative game I can find that allows equal participation by females and males facilitates game-night.

In the case of Kingdom Death Monster, the game includes three beginning female and three male characters.  It is a cooperative game, without a dungeon master, and all of the game mechanics are governed by various sets of cards.

You begin the game with nothing but stone weapons, and as you explore and defeat monsters, you upgrade your group's equipment and initial settlement.  And as you upgrade your equipment, you build new miniature figures to represent your character.  I love this facet of the game, as you can customize your miniature figure to represent your character with the specific weapons and armor you possess at any particular point in the game.

I also love the cooperative nature of the game.  Because there is no DM, you are cooperating with the other players, against the game mechanics.  I have several friends who dislike competitive games, so owning cooperative games allows us to include them on game-nights.

Here's artwork for four of the starting characters in Kingdom Death Monster along with the miniature prototypes.

  

 

My only complaint about this and other Kickstarters is the long lead-times between the conclusion of the crowd-funding effort and release of the final product.  This is not slated to release until November 2013.

 

Let's hope this one bucks the recent trend and actually ships on time.