Hi All,

I've been a long-time Arkham Horror owner, and last weekend purchased MoM.

I managed to have my first game on the weekend, with myself as the keeper and my wife running two characters - Sister Mary & Gloria Goldberg. I ran the first scenario, but there was a few things I didn't quite understand - if anyone could help clear them up for me, I'd really appreciate it;

1. The keeper action cards - are they supposed to be kept secret from the players, or are the characters allowed to know what I might do? Since they're double sided, I'm guessing the characters are allowed to know what keeper action cards the keeper has in each scenario - is that right?

2. The setup for scenario #1 says to include the "Command Monster" keeper action card, but I don't seem to have one of them. I have two identical keeper action cards called "Command Minion" which seem to relate to moving monsters. Is the "Command Monster" a misprint in the instructions, or did I not get that card in my box (possibly getting 2 "Command Minions" instead)?

3. I couldn't understand when the Objective Cards are meant to be used/revealed. In any case, for "The Fall of House Lynch", I have 2 x Objective 1A cards (with slightly different text on each), 1 x Objective 1B card and 2 x Objective 1C cards (again, both with slightly different text on each. I'm guessing the 1A/1B/1C depends on the story choice I made in the setup (I chose 1A), but why are there 2 different 1A cards? Which one am I supposed to use? And when do they get revealed?

4. Similar to point 3, with the event cards for "The Fall of House Lynch", there is 1 x card labelled I ( clock strikes 10), 2 x cards labeled II (clock strikes 11), 1 x card labelled III (clock strikes 12), 1 x card labelled IV (clock strikes 1) and 2 x cards labelled V (clock strikes 2). With the II and V cards, am I supposed to just put one of them randomly into the event deck?

Thanks in advance for any answers.

There should be a 1/4 sized errata sheet. It tells you to replace various cards. Also, go to the support page for MoM because the errata sheet has been updated to include more card and scenario fixes.

As for the question about the keeper cards, I'm not sure if they are common knowledge at the start of the game, but once one is played, then they investigators will know. Since the keeper action cards are the same for the scenario regardless of the objective chosen, any players who have gone through a scenario once will already know what possible actions might be taken.

1. Keeper Action cards are not secret, as you surmised.

2. It is a misprint. You should have gotten this sheet with your game instructing you on the mistakes and the replacement cards. Looks like it is a bit different online than in the box, but paired with the FAQ you should be fine. There are 7 cards with an 'R' in the bottom corner which you need to swap in in place of the original.

3. More misprints you need to replaced with the revised cards. You'll only have 1 of each. They get revealed by Event card 4 (most of the time) or if the Keeper fulfills his goal listed on the card.

4. More misprints. You should only have 1 of each, and they are stacked I - V in order, face-down.

Fantastic - thanks for the answers people.

We had another go at the same scenario tonight (albeit with different parameters in the setup), and things made a lot more sense.

Another question - has anyone every tried playing with more than 4 investigators? My gaming group generally has around 7-8 people turn up, and I was wondering if anyone has experience playing Mom with 6-7 investigators - do you need any custom rules to help the keeper out more than just the additional threat tokens that the extra investigators would give?

petszk said:

I've only played with up to 4 investigators, but I know with Descent, we've played with as many as 6 heroes against the Overlord. I'm sure you could make some adjustment in threat acquisition and change some once per turn action cards into twice per turn or other such house rules.

One thing though, is more investigators means covering more ground more quickly, which would tip the balance in their favor with the clues, which would probably reduce the effectiveness of the game clock. You might need to slow them down by increasing the number of lock/obstacle cards.

I played a 6 player game (Keeper + 5 investigators) and it played fine. The increased threat per turn was enough of a balance

My one concern would be the amount of threat available to the Keeper. I'd have the keeper try to 'spread the love' a little... if he used all the threat from so many players and focused it he could really lay some people out. If the group split up and each had a monster to contend with that would be much more fun and playable for all I'd guess.

You might need to reduce the time for each event by 1 as well as they'd have twice as many investigators as normal. Or... not have a player share his investigations until all the players had taken their turns... then you couldn't have people immediately finding the second clue the same turn the first clue was found becuase they knew they needed to be in the Freezer or whatever.

My greatest concern are things like the "Maniac Attack". There's a limit on the amount of monsters of the same type sometimes and you can spot unbalance issues already when you compare a game with 2 investigators and one with 4 investigators. Attack 4 people with a maniac, the maniac will be toast quickly. Attack 2 with a Maniac and there will be a lot of trouble.

So, what about 6? I don't think a single monster will survive more than 1 turn and there's not much into the fact that you can spawn one each turn. It just loses its "bite".
Therefore you might need to adjust numbers there as well. Maybe double the number, since the investigators are 2x three as well. (I tend to think of "3 investigators" as the most balanced team size)

The thing about a Maniac Attack against 6 investigators that immediately springs to mind, is that if 6 investigators are teaming up against 1 maniac, every turn you have the opportunity to make all of them, at once, roll horror checks (given that the maniac can spawn anywhere), and you'll never be short trauma cards gaining 6 terror a turn. I'm not saying there still wouldn't be balance issues, but just because monsters get killed quickly, doesn't mean there aren't ways to still make them work for you.

I'd have to actually play a large game before really weighing in, though; I've only played 2 or 5 player.

Cassive said:

Maniacs can only be spawned in a location with a single investigator. And despite gaining 6 threat a turn, it costs 4 threat to make a new maniac.

On the plus side, you could spend 4 threat to completely heal him up every turn.

Ah, ****, good point. I always seem to miss that lone investigator mention. I guess you could always combing Uncontrollable Urges and Maniac Attack if your investigators are killing the maniac literally every turn. It'd be expensive, but it's still gonna require horror checks every time. Hopefully it'd wear them down after a while to give you a chance to do something else. Just lay off one turn and use Evil Presence to fill up your mythos and trauma cards so you have something to add to the horror.

Again, I'll actually have to play a 6 or 7 player game to see how feasible this is.

After saw the post how the game actually works it really help me =) i will try it tomorow evening with my friends hopefully 3 of them will show up and i just got this game yesterday hopefully everything will goes well.

If 6+ of the investigators are used at the same time, chances are very high that there are a lot of guns on the table. Guns kill monsters! Sometimes even w/o any horror checks involved

Additionally, if you talk about "spawn a Maniac, attack the investigators once, die, respawn", you should watch out for the total amount of health and sanity the investigators - as a team - field. Say, there are 6 investigators with an average of 10 HP each, then they field a total of 60 HP and 60 Sanity! A Maniac deals 1-3 damage each turn, which means it'd take a loooong time to kill the investigators.

Okay, this might not mean much right now. But watch out for Keeper objectives! If the objective is "Kill 2 investigators", the total pool of HP is not important AT ALL. But think about other objectives, like "Stop the investigators from escaping" - you'd have to kill or slow down ALL investigators. This might not be possible in several cases, depending on their spread and/or HP left.

I don't post this to tell anyone that, no, 5+ investigators ain't feasible. Just watch out for all aspects if you want to increase your active player count!
(Or, better yet, create own stories for more players! I'd love to see those! )

I haven't (yet) had the gaming group over for a > 5 player game, but we did play scenarios #2 & #3 with 5 and 4 players (including the keeper) respectively. MoM is rapidly rising in the "favourite game" charts, and is already closing in on Arkham Horror's long-held number 1 position.

Scenario #2 finished with a win to the players as the Cthonian died in a fire while being withered by the sole surviving investigator. The game went right down to the wire and was a fantastic finish.

Scenario #3 was excellent fun with Michael McGlen gunning down Zombies on the grounds as they spawned while the other players frantically hunted for clues. This game would have been as good as the previous, except that it ended rather anti-climatically when the objectives were revealed. The keeper needed 3 samples on the altar, and as luck would have it, I already had 2 on the altar. I was then gifted another because the blood relative had accepted a soul pact (from memory), so it was a rather abrupt "Game Over, you lose, I win". Not complaining - it was great up until that point.

Anyway, the games did throw up a couple of further questions I need to clarify;

1. Is the keeper allowed to read the objectives beforehand? When setting up scenario #3, I didn't read the objectives card, but did see the word "samples" on it, so had decided to get the Zombies to grab samples rather than just attacking the players.

2. Does it count as a move for a player to find out what the lock is on a room? So if a player can make 2 moves (+ an action), and they start next to a locked room, does it "cost" them a move to flip the lock card and see why the door is locked, or not? We've been playing that it doesn't, so a player can find out why an adjacent room is locked and still make 2 moves.

3. When a player searches a room for their action, and finds a lock puzzle, can they also work on the lock puzzle in the same action phase, or do they need to wait until next turn to attempt to solve the puzzle?

4. When a player successfully solves a lock puzzle, can they then flip the object cards beneath it, or do they have to wait until the next turn (ie they spent their action phase on the lock puzzle and the next turn they can search to find what the lock was hiding)?

Thanks in advance.

edit: 5. Is there any reason why an investigator cannot use a ranged weapon when he/she is on the same space as the monster he/she is attacking?

1. yes- the Keeper always get to know the objective.

2. yes- it costs a movement to try the door lock

3. yes- attempting a puzzle counts as part of the explore/move action.

4. yes- if you solve the puzzle, you may immediately finish that move/explore action.

#5 - No, you CAN use a ranged weapon while in the same space as a monster.

Additional stuff:

1) Yes, the Keeper is allowed to look at the objective card at all time during the game. However, it would be nice if s/he didn't select a specific objective during the setup phase, when the Keeper has to answer certain questions. It's not forbidden, but... really, why would they ask you if they want you to select a card?

2) "Uncovering" the lock costs a move, but if you manage to open the lock, you already step into the room. So "opening the door" is part of the move action, no matter if the door is locked or not.

Excellent - thanks alot for your help guys.

Hopefully within the next month or so I'll be running a game with 5+ investigators. I'll let you know how that goes.

We played with The Green Eyed Boy with 5 investigators and it wasn't bad. Two had never played and that combines with 5 players made it a longer game, but everyone had a great time. Players lost, but they really got into the spirit of the story... I won't go into too many details for spoilage, but Joe Diamnond used his lucky shot ability on Michael McGlenn and rolled a '1'. The dialogue between the players was awesome... but also means the game takes longer. Totally worth it IMO.