I went all in on Middara also, I looooove KDM but its too rough for a lot of my friends/wife, and I bought Gloomhaven but its too tactical for my wife and the 2 friends I tried it with (I have other friends I think will love it, at some point). It seems from the reviews to kind of be a light mode of both these games. Combat is dice rolling and a lot more simple\swingy. There are very few death/lose the entire game mechanics. I'm hoping it hits the right spot with a few of the people I really enjoy playing with, but don't want something as tactical as I'm good with.
Another big selling point is the setting. For some reason my wife hates Tolkien style fantasy. She hears the word orc, elf, or goblin and immediately loses interest. Any other setting she is great with, for some reason its just some regular D&D style classic shit she can't stand. Hopefully hypersexualized anime bullshit is the thing that gets her going? haha
We just got our 7th Continent Kickstarter in a few weeks and have been playing that. It's very slow and mellow, but we've been digging it. I feel like we are doing really well so far, maybe 6 or 7 hours in to the first mission, but I can definitely see how losing 20 hours in or something could kill the enthusiasm. There doesn't seem to be much in the way of randomization, some for sure, but not much, so playing the same mission more than once seems like it might just not be fun unless you waited a couple of years so it was like new. Anyway, happy with the purchase but I can see how it might not be for everyone is what I'm saying.
I don't even want to look at those other Kickstarters you guys are linking >_< My wallet wants a break.