I've read through both guides a few times, and given that I'm running my first game tomorrow with a few friends, I have a general question. Is it correct to say that the scenarios for summoning/encountering monsters in MoM are very limited? That is, they're available largely (or only?) in the Keeper Action cards, and for the larger creatures it generally involves a sacrifice?

Seems to me that a few stories (in particular, story 4) are rather light on the "critters." As far as I can tell, investigators will spend about 2/3 of their run on this map simply exploring, with the keeper's role relegated to "springer of Scooby-Doo traps" via his regular abilities and the potential use of mythos/trauma cards. This might shift somewhat depending on which story choice you made, but it seems that it's only when the two mi-go escape their vents near the end that the investigators will encounter them (and possible Helen Detaigne).

That's all well and good; combat is more involved in MoM than Arkham, and the creatures seem a bit harder to kill. I just wanted to make sure I'm not missing some crucial mechanic in the game. Do any of the mythos cards involve the appearance of a creature, or is it always limited to the Keeper Action cards available at the beginning?

Also, this is just an aside, but I'm sure a number of Arkham players will be eager to transfer Arkham creatures to MoM for custom scenarios. Very curious to see how those stats and attacks will turn out.

Just played #1 for the first time some hours ago. While preparing the cards I told them that unlike Arkham or Descent, MoM doesn't have a main focus on combat because I estimated that I'd maybe spawn a Maniac every 3rd round or so. Mind you, I didn't read the events beforehand, so I didn't know whether there will be more minions around or not.

Turns out there was a Monster on the board almost all the time, mainly because they were AWEFUL when it came to killing them. Sure, a blow with the shotgun kills some zombies and maniacs, but a) they didn't have the shotgun until the game was nearly over and b) they have to make their rolls at the right time.

So, although I expected to basically play cards and not monsters, I DID run around with some. It was really balanced out between using mythos + trauma and monsters, really. don't know about the other stories though, yet

From what I have seen of the game so far (3 Stories played at least twice each) I am afraid you just picked the one with less monsters on the table. This one is more about Darkness hamperong and scooby do traps as you point out, than combat, for sure.

If you want to fight, go for Story 2. You will have plenty of Cultist there to shoot at, and combat with them is quite fun. They can even summon a Shoggoth on top of you! (one more way to summon monsters, some Cultists Special attack)

Story 3, although I haven´t played it yet, seems full of monsters as well.