How I Backed Kingdom Death

Simply put:  I spent a stupid amount of money on a game that I'd never played.  In the intervening months, I've never really regretted it.  Kingdom Death hits a lot of my buttons, and although my backing of the Kickstarter to obscene amounts perhaps seems impulsive to an external viewer, it makes sense (ok, SOME sense) in the context of the journey that I've been on the past few years.

The Black Knight. One of the models that caught my attention at GenCon16.

This is the story of how I ended up backing Kingdom Death.  If you want the short version, it's basically this:  There was wine involved, I pledged huge, and then never looked back.


Here's the longer version, starting at the beginning:

GenCon 2016:

I encountered Kingdom Death: Monster (KDM) for the first time at GenCon 2016.  

It was one of those moments where I literally stopped in my tracks and gawked.  I had no idea what I was looking at, but the art and figures just struck such a chord with me and I was instantly hooked.  Now, there's a TON of things at GenCon to geek out about.  There's a TON of games and figures to lust after.  My first encounter with KDM was a notch above all that.  All weekend, I kept steering us back to the booth to look and soak it all in.  

Now, for some context - At the time, I was working slowly through my Brimstone figures, learning to paint.  The KDM booth was full of highly detailed figures - far more detailed than the SoB minis - and most of the KDM content was painted in a minimalist / statue technique that I wanted to understand.  I knew enough about composing a painted mini that I could start to mentally pick apart the technique, and because the results were so simple and yet so well executed I thought it was a method I could use in future projects.  (Link to the studio that did the KDM figures is here.)

The core game, painted like stone statues.

I didn't demo the game in 2016, but did lurk around the tables enough to get a sense for the showdown phase - coop fights with a monster AI deck, and enough dice rolling to look fun.  So even then the thought of "buying in" was already a consideration.

Now, at that first exposure, I REALLY didn't want to get into another game system. When I first walked into the KDM both, I had on my person probably $500 worth of Brimstone and other GenCon Loot in various bags, and the additional expense of a sprawling new title made my wallet tremble in fear.  But by GenCon Sunday, I reluctantly asked at the cash register about a core box, and was surprised that the staff all but laughed at me.  Apparently the game was sold out?  Not knowing the backstory, I walked away a little confused - but relieved at not having to make an expensive decision.

KDM: Wild and crazy models.

Interim:

In the interim months between GenCon and the 1.5 Kickstarter, I checked out the website and began to understand the "phenomenon" that KDM had become, the hugeness of the game, and the reasons why core sets were so hard to come by.

Kickstarter 1.5:

In November, the Shadows of Brimstone: Forbidden Fortress Kickstarter wrapped up.  I could talk about that KS campaign, but that's a whole 'nother story.  But it's that campaign that had me checking the Kickstarter tabletop category, and I stumbled into the KDM 1.5 Kickstarter.

I found the 1.5 campaign on perhaps day 2, and it had already exploded.  It brought pledges of $4.3M in less than 24 hours, and of course it continued to climb from there.  I was of course interested, but similar to GenCon, I had just spent a fair amount the Brimstone campaign, and there was no way around the fact that KDM is as expensive as it is huge.

But I began lurking, and watching Poots' updates, and trying to wrap my head around what exactly it was that I was watching.  In parallel with the campaign's evolution, I did my nerd research and got a crash course in the details of the game.  Videos. Reviews. Reading - lots of reading.  

The Plunge:

At the end of the first week, I was still debating what exactly to do.  I knew I wanted in.  I knew I was watching something different, something special, take place.  But what I was struggling with was what pledge level to jump in at.  

Logic said to pledge minimally, get the core game, and then go from there down the road.  That sounded great, except for two things:

1. KDM expansions are notoriously out of stock. There was a sense that if I didn't get exactly what I wanted during the campaign, I may never see it again, and that hurt my competionist sensibilities.
2. I missed the original Brimstone Kickstarter, and was buying the expansions at MSRP and Amazon prices.  The amount of cash I'd put down for that game made me wince; I was reluctant to repeat that history. If it made sense to front more cash initially to offset future purchases at MSRP, it might be worth the risk to go in big.  

Even then, I still hesitated.  Doing what I wanted to do meant an initial investment north of $1k.

About a week into the campaign, we were home on a Saturday night.  It was December, we had the fireplace roaring, and I was on the laptop while we watched a few movies.  I was debating initiating a pledge.  A bottle of wine was opened with dinner.  Wine-fueled nerd debate erupted.  

The most expensive bottle of wine I've ever opened.

Another cork was popped and more wine flowed - this time a sweet Port wine that I'd been saving for a special day.  My fingers hovered over the Satan's level, the $1666 "all-in" pledge level that got me the core game, every old expansion, and every new expansion, and many other odds and ends.  It was so much money, and still I hesitated.

More wine flowed.  Mrs. Zoxe helped me over the hump, "Just pledge, you can drop it later."

And so I pledged.  

It turned out to be a very expensive bottle of wine.  I learned later that Mrs. Zoxe didn't actually drink any of the second bottle, that was all me.  

But I was a backer, or "bakcer" as Poots calls it.

The Aftermath:

The pledge level I got into was the Final Form Satan's Lantern.  When I went in, Poots was opening these "all in" levels 666 spots at a time.  But within about 48 hrs of my pledge, he realized that he'd be losing money if he let many more folks in on that deal.  And so the FFSL became the last $1666 tier, and was locked at 321 places.  As the campaign progressed, I became more entrenched in my positioning, more and more things were added to it, and it became clear what a good deal the investment was becoming.  After the first few days, I stopped questioning whether I was going to stay in the campaign, and simply braced myself for a large Visa bill.

The last few days of the campaign were especially wild, and like many I cheered when KDM knocked Exploding Kittens off the #1 tabletop game spot, and then on the final day I watched the clock wind down on what became a historic kickstarter.  In addition to my base pledge, I added on Crossovers, the Board, and a few other things to bring my total north of $2k.  

GenCon2017 Lion encounter. He ripped my arms off and beat me to death with them. :)

We returned to GenCon 2017, and I spent a large amount of time at the KDM booth.  It had only been a year, but my understanding of the game had changed so much.  I chatted with other KDM fans while waiting for the doors to open, and held my own.  I talked with Poots and got my picture taken like a fanboy.  I demo'd the scenarios offered, and in some cases died horribly but in others emerged triumphant.

Waiting for GenCon to open. Many of these folks were KDM fans strategically placed at the entrance nearest the KD booth.

Time will tell if dropping a mortgage payment on a silly board game will be a wise investment, but as the core box delivery is imminent, I have very little apprehension.