Playing with hidden locks

By Junker2, in Mansions of Madness

Posted at

Ok..I havent been playing the game yet..

But as I have been trying to learn the game , I noticed you should place all the cards in diffrent rooms with lock cards on the top, this IMO spoils some of the investigating nature of this game if Investigators know that there is a lock in specific location they will head there..

This is strange since all the clues found is pointing them in the right direction, hence showing the locks is pointless and just to spoilng..

Can anyone tell me if they tried to play this game in some way that didnt show the locks on the gameboard

My idea is to have all the cards on an alternate gameboard (a piece of cardboard with corresponding squares for each room present) wich is hidden for the investigators..

Could this be possible or does it ruin the flow of gameplay to much ?

Im also thinking that the locks is sort of luring the players to go to diffrent rooms and keep them less observant to the clues read out loud

/junker

Posted at

Easiest would be to have a bunch of blank lock and barraged cards. Just simply put those on top of each stack to make it kinda harder to see where its obvious you should go.

Just my thought..

Bjerlk

Posted at

Imho it's a psychological thing. They see where treasure COULD be (that's why there's a ton of "Nothing of Interest" cards around!) by looking at how big the stack is. And then there's the lock or obstacle card on top... could mean it's even MORE useful treasure...

I guess the cards exist to lure players into visiting other rooms and/or tell them that there's nooo way they could enter (although all that happens is "light goes out" or "test strength" ;)

How to hide the backs of cards: Sleeves. Buy a pack of Cthulhu themed sleeves from FFG themselves, put all exploration + obstacle + lock cards in them, done! Easy, quite cheap, good for your cards and Cthulhu themed!

Posted at

In practice, this does not become a problem. For example, in story 1, there are 9 total lock and obstacle cards. Depending on how the story was configured, it may be that only two of those hide clues.

Posted at

Bjerlk said:

Easiest would be to have a bunch of blank lock and barraged cards. Just simply put those on top of each stack to make it kinda harder to see where its obvious you should go.

Just my thought..

Bjerlk

This is a good idea.!! Sleeves is also a good idea posted in this thread,,

The odd thing is that no one has come to this thread and said that this will ruin the game, wich is making me think that this actually is a problem with the game..

Wich in turn makes me think that, why did they design it this way !!

In Fury of Dracula there is a small mini board to help the Dracula player to hide his moves, why not something like this for this game aswell..

Posted at

junker said:

The odd thing is that no one has come to this thread and said that this will ruin the game, wich is making me think that this actually is a problem with the game..

Sorry, what? You expected someone to say that this will break the game?
Well, you see, first, I haven't played an investigator yet. I can only speak from what I see as the Keeper, and that's that the Clues are so plain obvious most of the time, that it doesn't matter whether there's a lock, an obstacle or exploration cards only in a room. "He invites others to stay" SCREAMS Guest Room, so the players get that within a few moments. Sure, they read it, read it again, look at the map, look at all the subject + objects on the clue card and get it. That's enough, imho. Even if you hide all cards, they still figure it out. It's not like it's hard.

On the other hand, I know how maps are constructed. Sure, you might THINK that all clues are under locks... until you find one under an obstacle card. Or find locks that aren't actually real locks, but more of "the light inside the rooms go out, otherwise nothing happens".

Players who try to meta game too much are penalized from what I've seen.

Besides, I noticed a fault in BOTH "place something on all card decks" AND my sleeve idea. So, say you sleeve all cards with the same type of sleeves. An investigator tries to enter a room. What do you do? Do you turn over the first card to see if it's a lock? What if it's not? Do you not turn over the card, but wait for him to explore to tell him that "Oh, wait, that's a lock, actually that's still your move action"?

It's broken OR a MAJOR annoyance to everyone. Players can't move freely, because every room must be checked for locks first, while the Keeper has to check all the time - whether in his super secret map or the first cards of all decks.
Besides, if there's only 1 card, one knows that it's never a lock card. But you'd still have to check. VERY "Meh" if you ask me. Never disturb the Flow.

The Keeper players already get enough to worry about, adding "check on a hidden map three times a turn" don't need to be added ;)

edit: Today, I had a game where a player had the chance to enter a small room with a lock, but decided not too. Afterward I asked him why he didn't want to look inside. He said he noticed there was only a few cards under the lock, most likely only one. He told me he expected it to be either a barred door or one that is opened with some kind of check. I told him it was a door he'd needed to Strength-Check open and that there was "Nothing" inside. He was very, very glad because of his meta-gaming skills. That's investigation for you! ;)

Posted at

Elbi said:

junker said:

The odd thing is that no one has come to this thread and said that this will ruin the game, wich is making me think that this actually is a problem with the game..

Sorry, what? You expected someone to say that this will break the game?
Well, you see, first, I haven't played an investigator yet. I can only speak from what I see as the Keeper, and that's that the Clues are so plain obvious most of the time, that it doesn't matter whether there's a lock, an obstacle or exploration cards only in a room. "He invites others to stay" SCREAMS Guest Room, so the players get that within a few moments. Sure, they read it, read it again, look at the map, look at all the subject + objects on the clue card and get it. That's enough, imho. Even if you hide all cards, they still figure it out. It's not like it's hard.

On the other hand, I know how maps are constructed. Sure, you might THINK that all clues are under locks... until you find one under an obstacle card. Or find locks that aren't actually real locks, but more of "the light inside the rooms go out, otherwise nothing happens".

Players who try to meta game too much are penalized from what I've seen.

Besides, I noticed a fault in BOTH "place something on all card decks" AND my sleeve idea. So, say you sleeve all cards with the same type of sleeves. An investigator tries to enter a room. What do you do? Do you turn over the first card to see if it's a lock? What if it's not? Do you not turn over the card, but wait for him to explore to tell him that "Oh, wait, that's a lock, actually that's still your move action"?

It's broken OR a MAJOR annoyance to everyone. Players can't move freely, because every room must be checked for locks first, while the Keeper has to check all the time - whether in his super secret map or the first cards of all decks.
Besides, if there's only 1 card, one knows that it's never a lock card. But you'd still have to check. VERY "Meh" if you ask me. Never disturb the Flow.

The Keeper players already get enough to worry about, adding "check on a hidden map three times a turn" don't need to be added ;)

edit: Today, I had a game where a player had the chance to enter a small room with a lock, but decided not too. Afterward I asked him why he didn't want to look inside. He said he noticed there was only a few cards under the lock, most likely only one. He told me he expected it to be either a barred door or one that is opened with some kind of check. I told him it was a door he'd needed to Strength-Check open and that there was "Nothing" inside. He was very, very glad because of his meta-gaming skills. That's investigation for you! ;)

I played my first game MoM today..

And yes you are right, The clues given to the players were far to obvious for the investigators, so I guess, If that's the same with every scenario In the game..There is really no need to change to a house rule..

/junker

Posted at

Making a lock card on each pile of cards dosent realy break the game.

It will be blank or something like the door opends with a loud creaking etc. And then its ignored.

As in life you cant say if a door is locked until you actually try to open it. Right?

So having a bland lock card on piles that dosent have a lock card on top sounds for me quite good realy. Once your in you see whats under if its a obstacle of a exploration card. YOu shouldnt be able from outside the room kinda see that there is a obstacle...

I am for sure going to make lock cards to have on each pile. At least I am going to try just to see how it plays out...

Edit: Now thinking ahead a bit. It kinda is stupid to have lock cards on the lawn and so on. Maybe just be indoor places. Hmm. Guess I need to think over it a few times more.. hmm

Bjerlk

Posted at

Someone a long time ago suggested playing with no cards on the board at all and he wrote up RPG style descriptions of each room that fit with the particular choices he had made as Keeper for that scenario. We played using those descriptions and only handing out cards when items were aquired and it was a much better game IMO.

There were no stacks of cards to show people where to go, no stacks of cards to cover up the very nice map... the descriptions he wrote did a good job of filling in some backstory. It was great. The only flaw is he did scenario 1 with a certain set of choices and that was it... we need those for every single scenario and combination of choices! I have pledged to start working on some when I have time but haven't been able to yet.