Actually looking over the starting equipment more, I see this is more an issue with sling builds than anything else. However it does make for a rough first impression if you go that route.
The -1 move penalty from the dying curse in Grim Coast feels really harsh because with the limited starting gear you have it can result in frequent cases where combat results in auto-fail. Basically unless you are using the axe (where you have to have dice roll where you can use a 4) you are limited to movement 1, so essentially you are inert. Meanwhile there isn’t a single fight that doesn’t have an enemy where the range is “same”, meaning they will try to move to the same tile as you. Since you don’t have any equipment that can do damage to same, this means you are dead without recourse. I think this is kind of exciting occasionally, but the problem is the curse distribution of 1-3 i.e. 50% chance of getting that penalty. I just went through a situation where I rolled a -1 move curse five times in a row, and it got pretty tedious not having much of a chance to succeed in combat, which is already pretty tricky even without the curse. I think it would be better to have a different distribution, where the move penalty only comes up on a 1 or a 1 and a 2 maybe.
