Questions before buying

By tjmk, in Mansions of Madness

Hey, all. I've been doing a little bit of research into this game (as I often do before committing to buy and play a new game) and I'm mainly wondering about the replay value. I know that there are a limited number of scenarios or storylines for the investigators to, well, investigate. My concern is that, after playing through all the different scenarios, the players will know how all the clues fit together for each investigation and the thrill of the mystery and intrigue will be lost.

Is this an actual possibility? And, if so, does it in any way diminish the enjoyment of the game?

Also, to note, I haven't ever played Arkham Horror, but I understand that it is somewhat similar to this game. Could you maybe give a comparison between the two?

Thank you in advance.

Some people on the forums have expressed both opinions I believe.

IMO there is unlimited replay value with the game. There are tons of combinations of scenarios and options in the game... if you just play each of the different major (not minor) combinations there are so many that you will have way gotten your moneys worth out of it... I'd guess more than 60 hours of gameplay. Knowing them is not a dealbreaker though as so much is driven by cards drawn, dice rolled, etc... as somone pointed out earlier does knowing what the map to Risk looks like or where the properties are in Monopoly ruin it? It will be kewler the first time through but will still be a fun game with unlimited replays.

Also with the parts provided you can make up your own scenarios (there have been a couple posted already) so there really is no limit to the amount of entertainment possible.

We actually played a scenario twice back to back since we had the board set up already, we swapped keepers and the new keeper made his own choices that affected the game and it wasn't any less fun.

I got my copy from coolstuffinc for $50ish and have gotten more than 50-player-hours of use out of it already and would like to play more. We just play too many different things to pull the same thing out more than once every 2-3 weeks.

To be more specific, each of the five scenarios has a choice of 3 different end goals, and each of the other clues in the scenario have two possible locations each. So you'll get at least 3 different end goals for each scenario, and the clues leading up to that can shift around.

tjmk said:

Also, to note, I haven't ever played Arkham Horror, but I understand that it is somewhat similar to this game. Could you maybe give a comparison between the two?

Thank you in advance.

Other than sharing some terminology and characters, they are significantly different games. Arkham Horror is a cooperative game, where it's the game vs. the players. MoM has one person playing the roll of the keeper, who determines the "mystery", vs. the investigators, who are trying to solve the mystery.

There plenty of info on both in the forums here and much much more at boardgamegeek.com.

I need to get this game.

Alex

Played this game with my new gaming group last night. Seems to me that while you have a finite number of puzzles, you can build any scenario you want, including completely original ones as well.