To me it looks like the designers really looked at one of the criticisms of Arkham Horror, the inconsistent storyline, and created a system for that. They may have decided to make it mostly cooperative (Descent/Dracula) because they either couldn't find a card based system that worked as well as a live opponent, or they just plain wanted to make it a little more competitive.

From the early previews and designer diaries, Mansions seems to borrow a little mechanically from different games. The Overlord/Keeper player and the scaling based on the number of investigators (similar to the threat tokens in Descent), the buildable mansion like Betrayal (except not random), the title from the Call of Cthulhu RPG, and mooching characters from Arkham.

I would imagine the investigator figures are unpainted versions from the painted figure line. Similar to FFGs re-using Descent and Runebound figures. The monster figures with the slot in the base would seem to hold the Arkham Horror monster chit. This would also make sense, FFG could re-use the monster tiles and AH fans could use the figures for both games.

Woot! I've seen the demo game at SPIEL '10 today! Awesome!

Photos will follow, now I need sleep!

Here you go:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/el_igore/sets/72157625223227032/with/5107502500/

The game was a prototype worth $300 because the monster figs were made of resin. This will be changed to normal figure plastic in the commercial version. It looks like the AH monster tokens will fit into the slots of the bases, but the holes at the topside won't correspond with the layout of the AH tokens.

I saw a puzzle in which the investigators had to assemble a map or document from 8 cardboard pieces. They had to follow some rules how they could swap pieces. The + shaped piece on one of the photos looks like a part of a puzzle too.

All in all it looked like a really fun game! Can't wait to get it!

Sadly the demonstrator said the release date was again postponed to February.

i am not a big fan of those plastic minis :-/ but it looks like in MoM they may be easier to distinguish from each other with the stats shown on each. and it looks like they are easier to distinguish from the player characters (one thing i hate about MEQ). also, the stands look like they are stable, and don't warp alot like about 50 % of my Descent monsters. but still, all in all i would prefer the AH monsters material and game price. i really like to see colors(!) on the players and monsters, even if that means they are cardboards instead of mins.

any info on a box inlay yet? something serious like AH, or just a big nothing like MEQ and Descent?

letsdance said:

They said, the monsters will have different stats (even if they are of the same type) and you won't know how strong a specific monster is until you look on the bottom side of the token in the base. Which you can't do apparently until you decide to fight with it. So it's more risky to fight with a monster than in AH.

The inlay of the demo box was just folded cardboard. You can see it here: www.flickr.com/photos/el_igore/5107317334/

I don't know if this will be changed in the commercial version.

Looks ike the standard FFG Insert of late.Cadwallon however did come with a nice Plastic insert.

OD

Nice looking board and those monsters are huge. Looks like a really neat game and a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to it.

el Igore said:

that sounds good =)

el Igore said:

Thanks for the link; the pictures look awesome. February, though? Ugh. I hope that doesn't turn out to be the case. I'll wait, but I won't be happy about it.

February is kind of a let down but then again it will allow us to break in Cadwallon & Wardens of the North(which I hope will make in Nov./Dec.)

OD

el Igore said:

Thank you for sharing your photosession! It was lovely to see detailed pictures of a game

el Igore said:

I was at Essen and managed to play in one of the demos (around the table your photos show).

I was very impressed with the game and it's now number 1 in my list of games to own+play... I would describe it as a mix of Arkham Horror and Descent, with many small and big improvements to the mechanics of those two great games. It clearly shows that, by now, FFG and Corey Konieczka have a lot of experience designing this kind of games, because many of the details that don't work so well with Arkham Horror and Descent have been polished.

The minis are awesome, the rules make for very fast play, the components top quality. I was specially impressed with the puzzles and the mechanics to solve them (I won't go into more details as I don't want to spoil the fun for anyone).

Also, the game seems very easy to expand, both with new official FFG expansions and by creating your own scenarios (similar to Descent in this sense) and it sometimes felt very close to a session of Call of Cthulhu RPG (which for me is a big plus)... Probably the demonstrator played an important role in this sense, and I found him funny and creepy at the same time, and he made the demo very enjoyable for everybody involved.

As for the release date postponed to February, I was a bit disappointed because I wanted to buy the game at Essen, but with so many new games in my gaming club (we go to Essen each year to fill the cupboards) I'm sure I'll be able to find something interesting to play/do in the meantime.

This game looks absolutely amazing!

I'm sure comparisons will inevitably be drawn with MoM and "Betrayal at House on the Hill" and "Castle Ravenloft" but after seeing what this game offers this will be the one that gamers will return to again and again.

Definitely can't wait for this one!!!

Tarot Mage said:

Based on impressions I've heard here and on BBG, I'd have to say that this game stands to offer a lot more than I initially anticipated.