Hi all!

I just bought Mansions of Madness and I'm eager to start. I'll be the Keeper, since I'm the most experienced gamer, already being game master in Call of Cthulhu RPG. Note: I still haven't tried the game, I'm reading the rules, so if my question is obvious I am sorry.

Since being a Keeper here is much more easier than in RPG, there is a debate in my play group that we should rotate the role so I can play as an investigator myself.

However, in the rulebook, it states that investigators are not to read the Keepers Guide, which is somewhat obvious in order to not know the stories.

How does that cope with rotating Keeper role? Is that rotation possible in the same players group or should the Keeper always be the same person? If rotation is possible, any advices on how to do it the best way possible to not spoil gameplay?

Thanks in advance

Well, each scenarios have 3 fairly different objectives and card placement. So playing objective 1A would be different then 1B or 1C.

The only thing is that if you play 1A as a Keeper, let another Keeper choose from 1B or 1C to keep the exploration interesting.

BTW, first Scenario, objective 1B is really fun!

Thanks. So it would be like all players to take the Keepers role in the rotation read the Keeper's manual, but do not read the scenarios part of it. The specific scenario to be played is only to be read in the fame setup, right?

Looking forward to that funny scenario, ehheheh

Any more knowledge and/or gaming experience that anyone want to add on this matter?

Toturi said:

Yep. Keeper's role could not be as easy as it seems, because the game requires a certain attention. There were long debates about this, brilliantly summed up by MaddockKrug in a comprehensive thread (shouldn't that difficult to find out, if you're interested). Technically, the point is that if the Keeper plays aggressively (hitting the investigators as hard as he could, everytime he could) then the odds for him to loose are very, very low. The games are still very tense (I prefer this kind of games, I'm not interested in winning or losing a game, but in the challenge. Clearly, this POV is absolutely personal) - in fact, even more tense! - but some players can find this frustrating. So, my suggestion is: be careful while doing the Keeper, and try to tune to your buddies likenings (maybe discuss with them about this) in order your gaming experience is the best possible.

As for rotating the Keeper, I don't think it's a problem. The game per se is very rich, 5 scenarios with 3 plots each means you have 15 different games only in the core set. Plus, if you start adding POD and Forbidden Alchemy, the variety increases a lot. This implies that even in case they have to replay the same game (still difficult, because there are lot of things you have to decide that are able to change the items on the board, so technically every Scenario can be played more than three times) they won't probably recall their previous adventure, if you mix the Scenarios a little.

Hope you could enjoy the game, it's a great experience :-)

Thanks Julia, very enlightening.