Hi,

We played Mansions of Madness for the first time the other night, and we had loads of fun! There were a couple of things that wasn't really clear though, both related to the keeper actions.

1. Since the keeper action cards are double sided, are they supposed to be completely open, i.e. should I read and explain them to the investigators at the beginning of the scenario? The reason I ask this is because I didn't, and I used the "take sample" action quite early, which lead to a merry chase because the investigators feared what I might do with it. If I had explained it beforehand, they would probably just go "eh, whatever".

2.Can you perform the same keeper action several times each turn? The rules state that I can perform them in any order I like, which to me sort of implies that they have a maximum of one use each for each turn, since it wouldn't be an ordering of the cards if it contained repetitions. But this interpretation lead to me having more threat than I could spend. I know some cards have text that states that I can use them once per monster per turn, but I do not know if this is a restriction or an expansion of the keeper action possibilites, i.e. is the norm once per turn but these cards allows more actions, or is the norm any number of times per turn, but these cards allow fewer actions?

Zylo said:

#1: They are open info. Though with Take Sample, they would only see you get 5 Threat for getting that sample to an altar, but not anything that relates to your Objective requiring samples.

#2: Unless limited by the card text (Take Sample is for example "once per turn"), only your Threat is your limit. You can spend 4 Threat on Evil Presence to draw 4+4 cards if you want.

Thanks for the clarifications, that's great! I have one more question, though.

When I place random cards i empty rooms (oh and btw, the investigator start room is also "empty" for this purpose, right?), which exploration cards should I remove? It seems obvious that I should remove the clue cards from the other scenarios and especially the unused clue cards from the current one, but I cannot find anywhere that actually STATES this. And what is less obvious is the unused Key exploration cards, it is pretty boring to find those. I didn't remove them the first time we played, but I felt I should have (I actually let an investigator draw a new random card when he found one though). What do you guys think?

Edit: And also, for the Take Sample card, could I carry four samples at once and then claim 20 threat in one turn? When the investigators chased the monster that took a sample, I had plenty of opportunities (they rolled poorly on their attacks) to use the card again and both get a new sample AND get to move the monster an extra step that turn, but I didn't since I was unsure and it felt kind of cheap.

Zylo said:

Look. Every scenario instructs you to claim a fixed amount of exploration cards. Then you must place them in order with your scenario answers. And then there is something like 6 unused exploration cards. Most of them is "Nothing of Interest", but there is always atleast 2(in my practice) useful cards. So you shuffle remaining unused cards claimed for this scenario and place them at random in empty rooms. All rooms work for this, if not stated otherwise in keepers guide. You don't take exploration cards that wasn't stated in keeper guide for your current scenario. I also recommend you to separate your clue deck from exploration deck.

Also, laughed hard at sample chase, thanks.

Zylo said:

Rule book says (page 12): "When a monster with sample tokens is killed, all it samples tokens are discarded". So, since there is plural, in my understanding, a monster can carry multiple sample tokens.

As for the threat gain on the altar, the Take Sample card says "Once per turn, choose a monster in an investigator's space. Place 1 sample token on the monster and move it 1 space". I'm just using common sense here, but I believe you must release 1 sample token per turn, getting 5 threat per turn you stay in the altar. That way, you probably won't feel so cheap.

Cheers!

Henry McCaster said:

MyNeighbourTrololo said:

It's actually easier than it looks... in the heat of the combat (with 2 or more monsters), and when players think you're only taking samples to get threat, they don't usually give up their investigation to chase a maniac who pulled some teeth off their mouths (that's how we describe the sample taking here). More experienced players though, they actually know that samples are usually useful for the keeper objective and might give the tooth thief a hard time.

I managed to get 3 samples on my first game, and that's all the keeper needed to win the first scenario when we played it.

Henry McCaster said:

Lol, why dont you assault your first time playing investigators with 2 shoggoths and chtholians at first game turn then?

MyNeighbourTrololo said:

Sure.

Our first game was Blood Ties, and at some point there was a Mi-Go and 2 zombies at the garden. One of the zombies just got the samples while the players were busy with the other 2 creatures. Since sample taking doesn't give any damage, and no one knew that samples could be used for the keeper objective, no one bothered chasing the zombie.

But, as I said, it was our first game. Plenty of things were probably done the wrong way anyway..