Daniel (@dungeondive) unboxes the Darklight: Memento Mori Kickstarter, one of his three most-anticipated 2018 games, alongside both supplements — the Adventure Pack (eight extra accursed: Revenant, Assassin, Nephilim, Barbarian, Courtesan/Cavalier, Necromancer with four undead minions, each with twenty skill cards) and the all-important Exploration Pack (mimic, faceless ones, daughters of Libythea, a tiered loot deck, an encounter behaviour deck for boss rooms, and the 40-card environmental deck that scatters random non-combat events through dungeons).
The base box itself is the size of an old Twilight Imperium coffin and crammed to the brim: a quest book containing a 10-chapter narrative campaign (“end of Act 1”) and a stack of one-off random quest cards for the five objective rooms; a settlement-locations booklet covering hamlet/village/town with church, marketplace, healer, accursed guild, blacksmith, tattooist, dark enclave, crypt and castle; punchboards of huge dual-sided dungeon tiles and freestanding doors; chunky ~42mm minis (the proxy problem is real); dual male/female art on every hero sheet.
The back of the box says “inspired by the classics of the '80s and '90s” — which Daniel translates as inspired by old Games Workshop. Warhammer Quest plus Dark Souls, with hero progression, sanity, severe injuries and a persistent settlement layer.
First impressions of an indie crawl that aims squarely at the Warhammer Quest space rather than the Gloomhaven one. Which design choice excites you most — the 10-chapter narrative arc, the settlement phase, or that environmental encounter deck?