Spoiler alert: I’m afraid I do spoil mildly bringing my point across.

Not a review, but...

This is not a review! That being said KCD is a quirky game, quirky to the point of frustration. And yet I loved it... most of the time. It’s not yet another open-world RPG. It’s original and a great example of storytelling and world building. So I decided to take some notes.

A village worth saving:

Your journey starts in a village called Skalitz. Where Henry is young, has friends and petty fights. It’s a village worth saving. And then it immediately needs saving.

“Something worth saving” is technique where the storyteller makes you fall in love with something and then takes it from you, preferably using the main conflict of your world. Skalitz being destroyed by the rising tide of war is a very good example of this.

A word of caution:

Conflict:

A village worth saving is boring place to live in. Saving or avenging it is the adventure. Worldbuilding consists of 3 elements; location, character and conflict. Leave out conflict and there’s nothing to do. So kill their darlings! If you told the story right your players will hate the NPC who did the killing and love you for the adventure.

It’s a lesson we already learned from Brandon Mull: Let your world be cruel to your characters/players.

Disbelief & trope:

Do be careful. You need your players invested. Having to bury Henry’s parents felt really annoying to me. Why? They were just some NPCs I ran errands for. There was no investment and luckily no recognition. Furthermore the “dying parents” trope is used so often in RPGs its rotten taste lingers in many a player’s mouth.

So make sure you’ve got buy-in and be careful of RPG tropes.

The story of a bloodied shirt:

One of those petty fights I got into was with Skalitz’s town drunk. I like to think I put up a good fight but having to run to mommy made it painfully clear, I was no hero. A fact of which I would be reminded for a long time by the bloodstains on my shirt.

I loved to hate that shirt. It told a story, always be telling a story.





The open world fetish:

We already touched the subject in “Building a railroad through an open world”. Open worlds became an RPG prerequisite. We all love the concept and yet all we do is select a quest and run after its marker. And that’s fine. The feeling you don’t have to complete those quests even if that’s the only thing there’s really to do might already be enough.

Well scripted:

Players do enjoy a sequence of well thought-out scenes. Better a well scripted then a boring open world. Just make sure your players want to go there. And of that KCD did a wonderful job:

Run from the army buring your village? Well dying is no option.

Greeting the local lord who took you in? Sure I already wondered why he was so kind and who he is.

A midnight visit from a noble lady? Who doesn’t want to know?

Called to the battlements? Where’s my helmet!

….

Absence of the marker

Quest markers are, much like fast travel often blamed for spoiling immersion. And I still often wonder if this is true. So when KCD hinted there wouldn't be any I grew really curious. First I was disappointed because there were quest markers. Then I was frustrated as they are often inaccurate, pointing to very large areas. What I want is childish. I want the satisfaction of figuring it out and not pay too much effort doing so.

Luckily there is a way you can do that as a gamemaster. Setup a challenge for your players without coming up with a solution. When they come up with a clever enough answer run with it instead of matching it with your expectation.

Realistically built medieval world.

KCD promised a realistic medieval setting and they delivered. I'm betting the background story will someday be told as actual history :) Cities, NPCs, combat all feel real. And that did have some influence in how I saw the game;

It felt like I might have actually learned something while playing. Not actual history but insights in how things might have worked. How I could use that as a baseline when designing a more fantastic world. For ex. I know now that "charcoaler" were a thing and that they needed lots of water therefor setting up camp near rivers.

while playing. Not actual history but insights in how things might have worked. How I could use that as a baseline when designing a more fantastic world. For ex. I know now that "charcoaler" were a thing and that they needed lots of water therefor setting up camp near rivers. The more realism the less disbelief is required. And that might have its advantages it's also really hard to shake when it becomes to much. Like riding into Skalitz passing rotting corpses of befriended NPCs.

is required. And that might have its advantages it's also really hard to shake when it becomes to much. Like riding into Skalitz passing rotting corpses of befriended NPCs. They season the story line with consequences of other mayor events in the world. Like ripples in a pond. Making it feel more real. For ex. Skaliz refugees begging in the streets of neighboring cities.

Finally

I don't know if I'm going to finish lovable quirky KCD (and with that if there will be more of these posts) but I full heartily recommend it. Especially if you're a world builder and/or fantasy writer.