I know MoM has its own forum but i was wondering if any of you people who play regular Arkham Horror feel about the game... interested? not interested? played it yet? I was watching a components breakdown from Drakkenstrike boardgamegeek.com/video/5486/mansions-of-madness/drakkenstrikes-mansions-of-madness-components-brea and it got me pretty excited about the components..the monster models look excellent and the character models are unpainted versions of the already released AH minis .i'm a little let down by the amount of stories included with the game (but im sure there will be plenty of expansions to come) and the fact that there seems to be alot recycled from the original AH but overall it looks solid to me... soooo... sound off!

I won't get it right away. I want to wait to see how the game is received in the longer term, i.e. after everyone who got the game has played all of the five stories. I'm unconvinced the game has sufficient replayability. I'd also like to see a couple of fan-created stories first - to see if it's possible to create original, fresh content using the available game components.

It was on my watchlist initially, then with each preview it fell lower and lower. I think the puzzle preview finally killed most of the interest I had left. Jeremy's videos reawaked interest, but reading threads here and on BGG, seems it came with quite a bit of misprints to the scenarios, some people have mentioned bad warping on tiles (though FFG has great CS) and there are tons of rules questions even though it hasn't been out for that long. Replayability is my main concern as well, but I'm of the easily bored type, can't even play the same investigator in Arkham two games in a row, because it's boring.

I'm very interested, and will probably be getting it soon. Unfortunately, I moved a while back, and my playing circle shrank down to two. I'm hoping to figure out some way to jury rig the game so my girlfriend and I can play co-op together, though it seems unlikely from the forums over there. Playing against your girlfriend in a two player game is not ideal. If you lose, you lose, but if you win, you still lose. That's why Arkham Horror is so ideal.

I have it. I love it! VERY different sort of game, but keeps the Lovecraft theme well intact.

It is obviously a new game, with people saying wildly different things about it depending upon what their expectations were. I'm not the kind of player who weighs the pros and cons of every little game mechanic, I just want to play insurmountable, non-euclidean odds, and have a lot of fun - and this game delivers that in spades.

People have raised queries of re-playability, but it's unclear if those concerns have any real basis. Time will tell. But you'll still have lots of fun before you begin to exhaust what's in the box.

K xx

We're loving it. Even after we've replayed sceanrios, they are not the same. Each scenario has a series of questions which determine the layout of the items ont he board, as well as the objective for the Keeper. So although it may seem you are playing a certain way, you can't be to sure.

The puzzles are meant to slow down the investigators, and they work well. Skill points (think clues) are few and far between, and the investigators will often spend one trying to get past a puzzle sooner. Which is good for the Keeper. The game has the adversarial feel to it, as it is the Keeper vs. the Investigators. And because it does recycle parts from Arkham Horror, it really does carry over that shared universe feel.

I don't see why people can't create their own scenarios. I'm waiting until I get a better grasp of all the mechanics before I attempt to make one. As for FFG's scenarios, it seems the only one with issues is #5, which is the most complex of them all. One of the issues involves a Keeper card which either wasn't corrected in printing when it was found to be overpowered, or else missed in playtesting (in our game, the Keeper "broke" the card almost immediately).

As for the warped boards issue, I thought one or two of our boards was warped, but either I was wrong or they have straightened out from having the other components pressing down on them.

All in all a fun game, though it may not be to everyone's tastes.

JerusalemJones said:

Heh... I'll do my best to try it with someone else someday (but I'm still not buying it, too much of a solo gamer).

I have it and every game I play I like it better. I don't think replayability will be an issue at all. Each scenario has 15 or so different clue cards that can be chosen. And like AH, there will be a different mix of equipment. Each monster is individually statted ie, each zombie is different from every other zombie to a slight degree.

I've replayed some of the scenarios and they are different enough and the decisions made by the Keeper and players are different enough to make a new game.

Favorite features:

Spells, there are only 4 but each spell has a card outcome that is not known until you try to pass it. The card outcomes are not shuffled, so after the fifth time you use your spell you can almost predict how it will works, but five times is a lot in a 15 turn game. Spells are more important than in AH.

Madness: Insanity (Zero Sanity) doesn't kill you, you just wish it did. The Keeper can push you around at will. A very good idea. Wish it were in AH.

Monsters are tougher. Very few monsters can be killed with a single attack. You can't evade monsters when they attack (but you can hide in a trunksometimes.) The big monsters aren't tough enough in AH. They can and often are killed in a single attack.

Combined Combat. Several or all characters can attack a single monster. If all characters attack a Shoggoth (biggest baddy that hits the table), they can often defeat it in a single turn.

Wearing you down: Its very difficult to recover from attacks on your Sanity and Health. But you start with more than in AH. Most of the attacks I've seen so far on your Sanity (which I also like). The wearing down without an fixit hosptal/asylum to go to is more Lovecraftian, I think.

Things I don't like:

The clues are numbered backwards. The first clue you find is the highest number, so you know how many clues you have to find after that.

Michael McGlen (or somebody) runs out of ammo with his machine gun nearly every game. You won't see that in the movies or in AH very often. He's still my favorite.

Other friends: Jennie starts with a pair of .45s. Harvey is a great and powerful spellcaster. Sister can use her holy water over and over again. Gloria: The pen is mightier than the sword. Or in Gloria's case the same thing. (That would be a typewriter case with which to swings with lethal effectiveness. Joe is OK and also has .45s. Ashcan's duke is great or he has one good swing with his guitar before it breaks. Kate's there too.

Seems more and more people are complaining (on BGG) that many of the scenarios are downright unbeatable by the investigators, Keeper should be a DM and not in competition with the investigators, etc., very discouraging comments of late. Game needs to work out of the box or it's just an expensive houserule kit.

Too soon to tell for me. I would expect MoM to be VERY difficult for the investigators or I would be disappointed. Maybe the impossible just takes longer?

The investigators don't know much, not even how to win. That comes later in the game. They get to choose their characters but they may not be the optimum characters for that particular scenario. Like AH there are a bunch of distractions strewn around, but the advice in the game itself says to stay focused on finding the clues. There's a very fast timer mechanism that again says "stay focused". I would hope that playing against an experienced keeper that an investigation team, even an optimized one, would have less than 50% chance of winning.

Avi_dreader said:

This is my main reason I am not getting, besides the fact it's too pricey for me. Also my group has hard time finding places to play.

I was bought this as a gift from a friend who thought I would be interested given my years of playing AH. The first game was set up last night and is still out on the table. I played as Keeper. Here are my thoughts:

- solo play is almost possible. If you have someone around during set up they can make choices and seed cards for you and then leave you to play. You then would have to play both sides with the Keepers mythos and trauma cards revealed, assuming the stance of "do your worst" in Keeper mode.

- minis are very detailed, but not sturdy, migo wings especially have fragile joins and may arrive broken. But they are grey and look as dull as John Major did on Spitting Image when placed on the board. If you like painting, this is a big plus because you will get hours of fun in this box.

- game play is very thematic. Probably the most thematic game I have played, bar an rpg.

- repeat play potential is dictated by personal qualities: if you are an actor, speaker or someone else who has a developed memory, you may find yourself remembering where all important clues are. However, an experienced keeper could offset this by moving you away and messing with your plan. If your memory sucks, repeat play love goes way up.

- mechanically its a fun game, with fast moving turns. Spells and combat are fluid and unpredictable (fun) but also integrated into the story narrative.

- rules are ok, only 1 question remains unanswered by rules, and i set up the first game without reading the keeper guide instructions, just dived into the setup for the story and followed steps there. This was fairly intuitive.

- The big question? Does it topple AH from my no1 gamespot? No. Not yet. And it probably wont. I prefer co-op and solo options. But MoM is still a very unique game dripping with theme and so I recommend you try it if you like AH. But be prepared for an expensive ride if you happen to love it. This game could go on forever.

Dam said:

Is it difficult to win because the obstacles have high target values to beat and the monsters do lots of damage, or is it difficult to win because the Keeper can easily go all out to shut down the investigators early? Does the Keeper need to do so to have a reasonable shot at winning himself?

If it's the former situation, where bad luck can cripple the investigators but average to good luck is still easy enough to win, then I'm fine with that. The Mythos is a horror setting and nothing makes a board game scary like difficult rolls and the threat of impending and immediate death. (That's a big part of the reason why Doom was so great, IMHO.)

However, if it's the latter, where the good guys have a hard time primarily because the Keeper can/needs to crush them quickly if he wants to win himself, and letting the get by too long means they'll wipe the floor with him, then I'm somewhat more disappointed. In a well-constructed game, all players should be able to go all out for their respective goals and the odds of any one player/group coming out on top should remain even throughout the game. (The fact that Descent has this kind of flaw is probably one of my biggest concerns with that game. Still love it, just wish that early OL victories weren't so easy/encouraged by the rules.)

For our games, they are so far 50-50. I think that groups with greater Keeper wins are because of lack of player experience. So far only three people have played as keeper in our group, myself the most. The hardest part for the players is learning what my Objective is. If the players cannot learn the objective soon enough it can really hurt them.

I have also found that in many games, they come down to the wire. One side or the other is often one turn away from winning when the other side wins. This has happened in over half of the games we have played.

I've been a long-time keeper for my Call of Cthulhu group and am looking forward to this. I've been waiting for a game like this for a while, as I love the "rpg in a box" idea. With this, I can switch around who the keeper is, so I can get the chance to play.Lol Also, I can't wait to churn out my own scenarios and content. It's like a big box of legos for a keeper.

I did not hear about MoM until a friend showed me the preview video a week ago.
No idea how I could miss this one, maybe because I was still too busy playing AH .
The video raised my interest in the game so i bough it yesterday.

I haven't played it yet but I hope to find some time during the weekend.
I will get back to post my first impressions on the game.

volckaert.jelle said:

Sure, sure, stoke our envy ;')

Picked up my copy of MoM today, hopefully get a game in later today or over the weekend at the latest.

Dam said:

Wait—why did you get MoM? There are no unstable locations in that mansion!

Oh, I don't know. First story has an option where a portal to an ancient city causes the house owner's mind to get taken over.

And it's got Sister Mary but no Vincent Lee .

And because you can go "Shoggoth riding"

Got MoM.

I doubt it will take the place of AH in my heart, but daaaaang it is a good game. I've played through five objectives across two maps, and every time am thrilled. I heartily reccomend it to any fan of the mythos, though it may not be for all fans of AH.

It's perhaps even better than AH at setting up really creepy, personal scenes for the investigators. Whether it's when Joe Diamond stood in a dark room, the flickering of his torch illuminating the Hound of Tindalos as it smashed down the bookcase he threw in front of the door; Jenny Barnes kicking open a door and firing a bullet into the face of a cult leader, blowing off the top of his head only to see it sickeningly regenerate in front of her eyes; or Harvey Walters desperately hiding in a large case while an axe-wielding maniac searches the room for him MoM is unbelievably good at setting up awesome events.

I can't wait to play the other three maps as soon as possible. It gets my hearty thumbs-up.

Had the chance to get MoM today. Looked at the price.....got Munchkin Cthulhu instead

Veet said:

Shoulda shelled out the extra bucks. Munchkin Cthulhu is awful.

Good luck actually pinning down rules about timing, trading, equipping, etc.

Oh, I love Munchkin Cthulhu. It's just Munchkin plus a Lovecraftian theme and a new Cultist mechanic, so if you don't like Munchkin, you're not going to like it and Munchkin is an RPG-parody party game. The Cultist mechanic is a tremendous addition to the game, though, and has made Cthulhu by far my favorite of all the Munchkin versions. Of course, Munchkin has deliberately confusing rules, which seems to be what annoys Tibs about it.