Stalemate?

By EvilTekno, in Mansions of Madness

This was partially covered in the FAQ. Just a follow up question.

If the investigator's goal is to all escape the mansion, and I kill one during the finale before they escape so it keeps them from winning. But does this mean the keeper also loses and the game ends in a stalemate?

The goal of our game was for the investigator's to escape, as the keeper I needed the final event card to be played. 3 of the 4 investigator's where able to escape but I killed the 4th one before he could get out. So is that a stalemate or in theory, does time still pass and the keeper wins?

You need to either kill them all after opbjective revealed for a Standard Keeper Victory or in this particular case, slow them down enough for the last event to happen. So I would say you got a stalemate, yes.

IMO if the last event said you win, you would win.

Not that I think it is that important... everyone should be trying to win but either way the game is over and hopefully every had fun. Keeper winning or no one winning not that big of a deal unless you are playing for money!

IMHO (since there isn't anything about it in the rules):

  • Every player who escaped DID win (on a personal basis)
  • Every player who did NOT escape lost the game
  • If at least one investigator did not succeed, the Keeper gets a partial win. How big that part is is up to debate, I'd start with "investigators successful vs. investigators dead" to get a certain % ;-)

The way I'd read it is that neither group managed to get their win condition satisfied - Not all the investigators escaped, but the event card was not resolved - and so everyone lost.

Sucks, sure, but that's lovecraftian gaming for you.

The game doesn't technically end until the win condition has occurred or the last event card has been drawn. So in the case of all investigators needing to escape, if one is killed the investigators have lost, if the rest escape before the last event card is drawn the keeper keeps on playing until either they win or the last event card is drawn. Per the rules, escaping doesn't end the game, it just prevents investigators from acting for the rest of the game, and can fulfill objectives.

I don't have the rules with me, but surely it's common sense that if there are no investigators left, the game ends. Otherwise, you're playing through several rounds where the Keeper performs some pointless actions, just so you can reveal an event.

OJSmith said:

I don't have the rules with me, but surely it's common sense that if there are no investigators left, the game ends. Otherwise, you're playing through several rounds where the Keeper performs some pointless actions, just so you can reveal an event.

If the keeper cannot win through their objective with the rest of the investigators escaped, I think at that point the players could easily agree that the last few turns don't need to be 'played' and instead, that you can go ahead and draw the last event card.

That is why I said just look at the bottom event. Not all of them will lead to a win for the keeper, but if it does... then it did.

If the players are all that anal that they think you'd have to play through turns.... flee and run directly to somewhere with friendlier gamers!

If you were handcuffed to the table and that wasn't an option... the keepers turn can consist of - take threat, put out time token... I'm guessing I can go through about 10 turns a minute.... maybe more. He isn't required to use any of his actions.