Mansions of Madness (1st ed)

I’ve played this game twice so far, and it has opened my eyes to the world of role-playing. It isn’t really necessary to role play, but the game just seems to bring that out. I haven’t laughed this much playing a game in a very long time.

Today, we ended with an epic battle against a seemingly impossible foe. The room was on fire, there were zombies all around us, and we were all acting out various Matrix-style moves. The Keeper broke my leg (in the game) and I found myself falling to the floor (for real), firing my duel .45’s. The win came down to a single die role. Our final possible turn led to one lady landing a sweep kick, and my character who was laying on the floor with a broken leg (and also deaf) firing the final shot that took out “Uncle Artie”.

I’ve played Arkham Horror a couple times (which by the way, uses the same core characters), but I find it much easier to get immersed in Mansions of Madness, and for the players (i.e. investigators) it is actually a very simple game to learn and play. Most of the fun seems to come from the stories and the players’ reaction to the story as it unfolds. You learn your objective as you go, you get to explore rooms, hide from monsters in chests, drag corpses into fires, and whack monsters with crowbars and fire extinguishers. The players don’t need to know all the rules at first, because the story tells you what to do.

I mark this as “Easy To Learn” from the point of view of a new player being taught. The first time playing the Keeper is actually a pretty steep learning curve.

Oh … and the puzzles are great … to unlock some doors and chests you have to solve real puzzles (tiles that you need to arrange in various patterns using a limited number of moves based on your character’s intellect).

This is an absolutely brilliant game to play. I have yet to see what is like to play with non-avid gamers, but it is definitely going to be among my top choices when I want to have some real fun.

Mansions of Madness is an intimidating game to unbox and to set up. There are a million chits, plenty of obscure, conditional rules, and a confusing array of choices that the Keeper (aka dungeon master) must make before play begins.

But the game is also awesome.

When we first started setting it up for our “learn the rules as we play” sessions last weekend, I was pretty overwhelmed. I was the Keeper, I bought the game, but suddenly was getting dizzy with set up. The various decks aren’t labeled very well, and I continuously had to refer back to the contents pages of the rule book to see what I had to grab next. Thankfully, my veteran Arkham Horror friend, @Jason P, was there to walk me through the confusing parts of the setup process.

Once everyone chose their characters, and I made the various story choices for the first mission, everything settled down. Fantasy Flight’s mechanics work extremely well, taking a lot of the events out of the hands of the keeper and placing them in the various decks of cards used in the game. Unlike HeroQuest or something, where the keeper is guiding characters through a story, Mansions has the keeper actively playing along as well. He doesn’t hold THAT many secrets, or know of very many traps. They all come out in the cards, and the events that play out as time progresses (it’s especially fun if you didn’t read the event cards ahead of time).

The investigator characters are propelled forward by the story and the clock. It’s a much more linear game than Arkham, requiring everyone to keep moving, and keep discussing the clues they discover, in order to win before the game destroys itself. Everyone spends the first act wandering around the mansion, armed mainly with the various clues tucked into the story read at the beginning of the game. As turns progress, time markers are placed on event cards, and usually after 3-4 turns, the next card is flipped and a new “chapter,” of sorts, begins. Eventually you discover your game-winning objective (along with the keeper’s objective) and it’s a race to get it done.

Combat is a big part of the game, as investigators are fighting off various monsters controlled and summoned by the keeper. I loved that the combat is driven by a deck of cards, with flavor text and conditions on how each fight plays out. If you’re using a shotgun, for example, you keep drawing cards until you find one with “Ranged weapon” on it. You read what it says, you roll for whatever skill check it asks, and then you read the pass or fail text. It’s a lot of fun. There’s also a good bit of strategy involved in regards to the weapons you use, and also the attack order (each round, the investigators decide who goes first).

Another important aspect of the game are the puzzles. Similar to the videogame Bioshock, in order to search some rooms or open specific doors, players have to complete a simple tile puzzle. Everyone we were playing with really enjoying figuring out the puzzles, which involve spinning and swapping tiles to match symbols or to connect colored lines. They are a good side-project in the game, and can encourage teamwork (but not cheating) as various players use the “action” phase of their turn to take a crack at completing the thing.

Okay, so this game is probably too big to review like this, and with only one play sessions under my belt I’m sure there will be more to say later. As far as playtime went, setup took unusually long: over an hour. This was mainly because of all the learning involved with the various decks, chits, and occasional vague rule (like how to position item cards in rooms). The game itself took close to three hours, which was shorter than expected.

Overall, everyone seemed to really enjoy the game and we look forward to more sessions. It was a very detailed, realistic game with lots of rules and conditions to sort through. It’s also very satisfying from a theme perspective, and even though I (the keeper) won, it never felt unbalanced.

Basic Idea: Your team of investigators has been brought to a mysterious location to try and solve a mystery. You’re given a story and a prologue and thrown into the depths of Lovcraftian horror. You work with your team mates to explore the location, solve the mystery and survive the horror. All the while the evil “Keeper” is throwing obstacles, monsters and insanity your way at every step. It’s everything you always wanted Clue to be, but didn’t know it until right now.

Game Play: This game is mostly cooperative. The whole team of investigators work together to solve the mystery set before you. There is, however, the element of the Keeper (or as I like to call it, “The Evil DM”). While your group together can pick the story, the Keeper sets up the scenario and has his/her own turn at game play where they can add monsters, make investigators crazy and basically stir up the plot. An investigator’s turn is simple: you may move two spaces and do an action. Your action can include exploring the room (picking up the cards placed there by the keeper), working on a puzzle, attacking a monster, using a unique item or moving an extra spot (running). On the Keeper’s turn, he/she gain “threat” (points they can spend on actions), play action cards, attack players with monsters and move the clock forward in the game. While the play itself is simple, there are A LOT of components to this game. Each room has cards that the Keeper has placed at the beginning of the game. Some rooms are locked and the appropriate keys must be found before you can enter. Some rooms have locked suitcases and fried electrical circuits that translate into logic puzzles that players must solve to continue exploring. There are monsters, items, spells, clues and a series of time cards that create an air of suspense and will end the game if the investigators aren’t fast enough.

Thoughts: Start setting up this game AT LEAST 30 minutes prior to when you plan on playing. The set up is intense and the Keeper must do almost all of it by him/herself. While there is already an expansion out (Season of the Witch), there’s still only a limited number of scenarios available right now, so your gaming group might go through the available plot rather quickly. But I LOVE this game. I’m a huge mystery and role-playing fan and this game satisfies both of those parts of me perfectly. I love the puzzles and the locked rooms and the cooperative play. And if you’re a horror game fan, this game really manages to bring on the suspense and over all creepiness. With the exception of the set up time, I love every aspect of this game and can’t wait for more expansions!

The first time I saw Mansions of Madness on a game store shelf, I drooled. Set in the Cthulhu mythos-drenched world of Arkham Horror and even using a handful of the exact same protagonist player characters, it looked amazing. I didn’t purchase it that day, though, opting for a game with a lower price tag.

About a year later I eagerly sat down to play with some friends and discovered that this wasn’t quite the game I was expecting.

Setup Time

The first thing to note in this massive game is that there are a finite number of scenarios, and one of the players becomes the storyteller, game master, or whatever moniker this game uses to describe the player that controls the monsters and non-player actions in this game (The Keeper, apparently). This, to me, is a black mark on Mansions of Madness–I have a score of roleplaying games on my shelf that allow that, and I sit down to play board games for the shared player experience, whether it’s cooperative or competitive.

That said, there are cards and tiles and tokens to be set up in a specific arrangement for each game scenario, and the storyteller is burdened with 100% of this work. In our single play-through, it took over 45 minutes.

Learning the Rules

It’s a Fantasy Flight Games game. I love FFG, but what can I say? Their rule books are absurdly long and detailed. We passed the rules around from turn to turn, stumbling through the storyteller’s chosen scenario and backpedaling several times when we discovered we’d done something very, very wrong. And this was with two experienced players out of five people sitting at the table.

I don’t want to sound like I’m burying this game–there were moments of fun sandwiched in the complexity, and I believe that, much like Arkham Horror, if this game is played often enough the rules will come much more naturally. Unfortunately, I believe the difference is that Arkham Horror is a fun, cooperative game with completely random elements throughout and has infinite replayability–especially with all of the expansions available! As far as I know there are no Mansions of Madness expansions, and the booklet of scenarios included is all she wrote.

Components

The game is beautiful. The miniatures, mansion tiles, cards, etc. are all of the incredible quality that many FFG fans take for granted these days. Certainly worth the price tag on the product.

A number of actual, physical puzzles are included with the game and must be solved during the scenarios. However: if your group is the kind that groans when the game master breaks out a puzzle during any other roleplaying game and spends an hour or two complaining about it, they are not going to like this element.

Ultimately, I suppose I was hoping for Betrayal At House On the Hill with the Arkham Horror characters and elements, and with FFG quality. That expectation, much like a highly anticipated horror film, probably contributed to my disappointment in this game.

Should You Try It?

If you’re looking for a game in the horror genre or Cthulhu mythos, especially if you like Arkham Horror, Elder Sign, and the whole slew of games in that franchise, and you’re down with having one of your group run the game and everyone else playing through a storyline RPG style–then yes, you’ll totally dig this game!

But if you’re looking for the unified group play style (rather than having an adversary in The Keeper) that comes with other games in this franchise, there’s a few other dungeon crawl board games I’d steer you in the direction of first.

You’re in a middle of nowhere, your car broke down, the rain is starting to come down and the humongous mansion looms over you – only sign of civilization around. As you enter, the house groans, boards creaking, invisible gust of air stirring the curtains and the door slams shut behind you. Coming here was a terrible mistake.

Mansions of Madness is a horror-themed investigation adventure based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft set in 1920s US. One player is the Keeper, acting as a Game Master running the scenario, introducing complications and obstacles for investigators to overcome. 1-4 additional players each have one character that they are responsible for who try to achieve their goals (which mostly modestly consist of getting the **** out of there alive).

Game comes with a set of gorgeous double-sided tiles that create the maps of the mansions with all the creepy cellars, studies and nurseries that you would expect. There are five scenarios that come with the base box (more are available through expansions), each with a unique mansion set-up. Furthermore each of the five scenarios has a little multiple-choice customization that tweaks certain aspects of each adventure, introducing some limited replayability. For example – did the owner of the house commit suicide or was he murdered? The customization affects placement of clues that gently direct the flow of the story as players explore the dark corners and echoing corridors.

The setup should be mentioned separately and is a burden. The Keeper is responsible for picking out only the cards related to the scenario in play and populating the board with these in a very specific order. Given the fact that the flow of the game is thrown off significantly if you mess something up – this takes a while. A Keeper would be well-advised to prepare all the cards in sequence in advance so that these could be laid out quickly. Otherwise players are in for an unpleasant wait before the fun starts.

Adventures provide the Keeper with some colourful descriptions that can be read aloud to set the mood. Once the action is under way – characters can start exploring, picking up items and clues, encountering monsters and attempting to keep their sanity. Keeper on the other hands triggers all of this unpleasantness using his own limited resources.

Combat is handled in an interesting way – for every attack a card is randomly drawn that determines what kind of a check would need to succeed in order to damage the monster. There are different sub-sets of these attack cards so you’d be looking for a different type depending if you are bashing that witch’s head in with an axe or blasting it off with a shotgun. Monsters, likewise, draw their cards on their attack, introducing a variety of ways in which they can mangle you.

The Keeper doesn’t have to physically kill the players though – insanity from finding chopped-up body parts in the cupboards or visions of bawling children in mirrors will render your character insane shortly and when that happens characters are susceptible to the worst things that the Keeper can throw at them.

Each character has a basic set of RPG-like attributes that govern how well they do in shooting/fighting/avoiding attacks/keeping their wits. All actions are resolved with a roll of a d10 with low being best. Sometimes character need to solve spatial puzzles like restoring an old painting or re-connecting old wiring in an old room. These are very nifty but fit poorly into the gameplay and break up the flow.

As time ticks away, event cards introduce new complications that ultimately result in the revelation of victory condition for both the keeper and the players – at that point the race to the finish starts with each side trying to pull of a win. A cataclysmic “everyone loses” is also possible.

All in all the game offers an extremely rich experience with many interesting mechanics and a tense atmosphere. The Keeper and their level of preparedness and ability to lead a game plays a huge role in the ultimate enjoyment of the game. The game design is anything but elegant with the many systems not interacting particularly well, so that makes rulebook checks frequent. The heavy impact of luck – if you roll really really well the threat may never materialize is a bit offputting.

This game works great as RPG-lite. It’s a one-shot adventure that lasts about ~2-3 hours that accommodates rich storytelling and building up the sense of dread. However, those looking for a more compact and streamlined experience will be disappointed by the disjointed nature of the game’s many sub-systems. It’s a shame, since there are many truly original aspects of the game that deserved better integration. As it is – the target audience for Mansions of Madness is narrow and those looking for a more manageable and compact experience fighting Cthulhu’s minions should look to Elder Sign as an option.

In this foray into H.P. Lovecraft’s universe, all the players except one play as a party against a Keeper, who is the other player. The Keeper chooses from one of 5 scenarios, and then makes several story choices about that scenario.

Each choice affects victory conditions or the layout of the house or items or monsters in play and so on. What is fascinating is that the players (other than the Keeper) do not know what the victory conditions are at first.

They learn the conditions by finding clues, solving puzzles and defeating monsters thrown at them. The Keeper can also trigger random events that can hurt players and can inflict injured players with physical or mental maladies.

The game components are excellent and colorful. Game play is simple once you understand the rules (which does take some doing), and the game is typically well balanced. I have had several games come right down to the wire. It is not unusual for all players (keeper included) to lose.

This is a boardgame that feels like an RPG, and the mysteries within it make it very satisfying.

It does take a while to set up, and it could use more scenarios, but otherwise this is an excellent game.

Mansions of Madness, is exactly that it is constant madness from all of the components to the rules and to the extensive amount of time it takes to set up, play, and then put away. First I’d like to start with the components, THERE ARE TO MANY PIECES FOR MoM. Don’t get me wrong I love miniatures, its just the amount of pieces that come for this game are ridiculous. I’ve misplaced so many pieces for this game because there are again too many pieces; there are really small pieces, really big pieces and pieces that just don’t fit right into a storage container. Next lets talk about packaging, the game comes in a nice sturdy box but once you get all the pieces out you have no way of keeping them together, the game doesn’t come with any baggies or containers for the pieces so you must go out and buy them. Third, the rules are a tad over complicated to explain to a group of people, the stories seem to work but getting into the rules of the game are ridiculous. Lastly this gam has very little replay value, once you get through the stories that come with the game you have nothing else to do with the game unless you buy expansions and buy another expansion. So to summarize not enough replay value, to many pieces, not easy to teach, and takes up an enormous amount of time. But besides these flaws somehow I still enjoyed this game.

This review and all of its nifty images can be found at http://www.nerdbloggers.com

Mansions of Madness is fairly unique in the board game space, where it positions itself as a storytelling game. This started me thinking about story in board games, and how it impacts the play experience. Because Mansions of Madness is so closely tied to the concept of story, I want to give my take on story in games before I start in on my review of the game.

Story in games:

I enjoy a wide gamut of game genres, but when it comes down to it, I have a special affinity with those that are story driven. The game sessions that I fondly remember, and excitedly describe to my friends, always have a strong and compelling emotional element. This makes sense, because without an emotional component there would be no story to tell. When the human element is removed, what remains is no longer a story, but a series of empty machinations. People innately realize that there is a difference between abstract movement and meaningful movement – between description and story. This idea often manifests itself in discussion of board games as “Mechanics vs. Theme”. Mechanics are the movement of the pieces, and the rules that must be followed during play, whereas the theme consists of the art, player motivations, and the real or imaginary ideas that the pieces in the game represent. Many abstract games are accused of having a “pasted on” theme, which is often used as a thinly veiled way of saying the game does not deliver a story. This is where my opinion of story may differ from the mainstream.

Story can appear under many different guises outside of the typical cut-scenes in video games, or back-story narrative in board games, and is much more pervasive than may be immediately apparent. Even games like the epitomic abstract “Chess” can tell a compelling story through the give and take of positional advantage. In these instances, however, the story isn’t found on the board, or in the pieces, but instead manifests from the interaction between the players, and is facilitated by the mechanics of the game. Even when completely devoid of theme, games can tell stories of loss and victory; clever cunning and missed opportunity; and can hide within their simple interactions the gamut of human emotion. After all, most sports are abstract games that are watched and loved by millions, not for their mechanics, but for the inherent story that is created through the interaction of the players.

When refined into its essence, a game’s story comes from its ability to elicit this emotional response. Theme is often a key ingredient in facilitating these feelings, and does so by enhancing the player’s immersion in the game world, but in the end, theme is still only a tool to help develop the story. The players themselves fill the role of characters within the story of a game, and the emotion that makes the game’s mechanics meaningful must come from within the players. With this in mind, story becomes a non-corporeal concept that rises above simple mechanics and theme, and lives on its own as a separate idea. Story is the brass ring that game designers are reaching to grab, because story is synonymous with player engagement.

There is an ongoing discussion about what makes a good game. The term “Balance” is bandied about a lot in these dialogues. Balance is the perceived fairness in a game; the potential for all players to achieve victory, given the same amount of effort. Some go so far as to say that a game which is unbalanced is fundamentally broken. Unbalanced gameplay can elicit strong emotional response just like a good story, but in many contexts this response can be negative, and directed towards the game itself. The player who experiences this will still relate his gameplay story to others, but this story may very well consist of a string of colorful expletives, and end with the words “never playing again”.

It’s in this situation, however, that theme can actually turn a negative game experience into a positive one. An unbalanced abstract game gives the player no frame of reference as to why the game is unbalanced, and as a result, the player has nowhere to channel his emotional response. But when theme is added to the same game, the player gains a frame of reference which allows him to justify the difference in difficulty; and what was a negative aspect of the abstract game, can become a positive aspect of a themed game. If one player is representing a ragtag band of rebels, and another controlling an oppressive dictatorship, it would make little sense for both sides to be equally balanced from a theme perspective. In fact, by adding that element of skewed odds, the game experience is often made much more emotionally compelling for the players involved.

That’s not to say that theme fixes everything, though. The theme of a game is still just a tool to justify the game mechanics. The choices that the player makes must be interesting, and empower him to feel that he is driving the direction of his play experience. There is a term used in film study: “Suspension of Disbelief”. This describes the ability of a film to immerse the viewer so much that he doesn’t notice the limitations of the medium, or discontinuities in the story. This idea can be applied to games as well: A player has a very limited number of decisions that he can make during most games, and he must play within the confines of the game rules and components offered. What amounts to moving bits around a board, and generating random numbers transforms into something much more engrossing during play, because the player looks past the limitations of the cardboard and plastic that make up the game components, and instead becomes immersed within the confines of the game mechanics and theme. If those mechanics become too dull, or are overly complicated, that suspension of disbelief is broken, the game components revert back to being bits of cardboard and plastic, and the player can no longer justify his emotional reaction within the confines of the game.

Getting that perfect mixture of theme and mechanics can be a difficult proposition. There is no magical formula for creating a good game, yet there are a multitude of different paths to achieve compelling gameplay. Not every game hits that mark, but when a game does hit that sweet spot, the experience is sublime.

The Game:

Mansions of Madness is a game designed by Corey Konieczka, and published by Fantasy Flight Games. When it comes to theme, Mansions of Madness has it in spades, even more so than the typical Fantasy Flight fare – and that is saying a lot. Its story-driven design aspires to take that step beyond pure theme, and strives to deliver a marriage of balanced mechanics and story through a uniquely focused gameplay experience.

In Mansions of Madness, players take on the role of individuals who find themselves investigating strange, supernatural events in a creepy mansion. The investigators must struggle to combat creatures, explore the mansion, search for clues, and solve puzzles to ultimately put an end to the unspeakable horror that confronts them. Like several other Fantasy Flight games, Mansions of Madness takes place in the world of the Cthulu Mythos, modeled after writer H.P. Lovecraft’s early 20th century short stories and novels.

Mansions of Madness shares many similarities with some other popular games on the market; most notable are Fantasy Flight’s own Arkham Horror, and Wizards of the Coast’s Betrayal at House on the Hill. Despite these similarities, however, Mansions of Madness manages to find its own unique identity, and any does not feel derivative. Like some other games in the genre, Mansions of Madness uses modular tiles to build its vivid game board, but unlike most games with tile based boards, the tiles are not arranged randomly. In fact, the random elements found in Mansions of Madness are mostly relegated to combat, and skill tests alone. The majority of the game is tightly moderated, and in some ways resembles a roleplaying module more than a board game.

Like a role-playing game, Mansions of Madness is mostly a cooperative experience. All the players, except for a single player called the “Keeper” are working together towards a common goal. The “Keeper” is a bit different; he fills a role similar to the Game Master in a roleplaying game. Unlike roleplaying games, however, this “Keeper” player is actually in competition with the other players, and has his own set of conditions to win the game. Before the game even starts, one of the 5 possible scenarios in the rulebook is chosen, and the modular game board is arranged as indicated by that particular scenario. Although there are only 5 scenarios, each scenario contains a handful of different possible variations from which the keeper can choose. Each scenario has detailed instructions about which of the game’s many cards will be used, as well as how they are arranged and placed. These cards contain clues, puzzles, and items that the investigators will encounter, and also act as a way to control the tempo of the game.

Although this merging of role-playing concepts with board games is unique and refreshing, I did find that there were some implementation issues that lessened the experience for me. Because the game relies so much on its back story and theme to drive the game forward, it is paramount that the story itself is compelling. Unfortunately, if that story never really coalesces, the game can feel flat. The first scenario in Mansions of Madness never really clicked for my group, and as a result, created some apathy towards the game. Much of the problem revolved around the fact that this introductory scenario didn’t build on what players were familiar with. When confronted with monsters, the players sought combat, instead of the strategic exploration and evasion which is really at the core of Mansions of Madness. The first scenario really doesn’t do much to anticipate this behavior, or guide the players back on track. A bit more direct instruction in the first scenario would have properly set the stage for more subtlety in later scenarios, and solved the issue of new players wandering around aimlessly.

Another area that could have been improved was the delivery of the backstory itself. Aside from a few detailed paragraphs setting up the scenario, all other plot based information is relayed through tiny cards that are roughly the size of business cards. This limits the amount of prose in the game, and turns the plot into a vague outline. Adding more detailed and lengthy text in the game manual, or in a small per-scenario booklet would have added some needed depth to the various plots. Normally, in less directed games, it is up to the players to create their own story, and vague flavor text is more of a snippet to spark the imagination, and in that context brief flavor text is perfectly enjoyable. Mansions of Madness however, structures it’s scenarios in a way that dissuades players from free-form movement. In fact, the placement of cards in each scenario is explicitly designed to limit player progression. Players literally cannot move into certain areas without having met specific prerequisites in the game; and there are from three to six of these chokepoints in each scenario. Players instinctually look to the theme to justify these roadblocks, and with only a smattering of text to explain each one, the story ends up feeling empty. Limiting player movement isn’t a bad thing though, it is important to maintain the pacing of the game; there is just a lot of missed opportunity regarding storytelling that could have been harnessed with this decidedly linear progression.

Mansions of Madness supports from 2-5 players, but really plays best at the high end of that range. With more players in the game, more things are happening due to the increased number of actions that the keeper can take with a higher player count. In the relative starkness of the plot, more actions mean more potential for the players to do interesting things. This dynamic turns Mansions of Madness into more of a social game, just like the roleplaying games that it loosely models. The players’ success or failure in the game really hinges on their ability to work well together, and it’s this interaction that fuels the fun-factor in the game. With a length of 2-3 hours per session, it is important that players stay engaged, or else the game can start to drag.

While Fantasy Flight suggests a minimum player age of 13, this is due more to the theme and content of the game than the mechanics. Mansions of Madness has a horror theme that takes itself very seriously, with gory illustrations on the components, some grisly descriptions on the cards, and foreign, insect-like creatures found in the box. In addition to the general horror aspects of the theme, Mansions of Madness also assumes a bit of knowledge about the Cthulu Mythos, as it gives no explanations about what the strange creatures the investigators encounter are, or where they came from. This can lead to questions from players such as “Is this a Cthulu?”, while pointing at the large Shoggoth miniature; or incredulous looks when they are told that the Shoggoth CAN fit through the narrow passage because he is an inter-dimensional being, and doesn’t have to follow the same physical laws as we do. This doesn’t mean that the players won’t enjoy the game, but it does break a bit of the suspension of disbelief that Mansions of Madness relies on.

Components:

The artwork that graces the mountain of components in Mansions of Madness is visually stunning. Cards make up a good majority of the content, and are used to depict character statistics, to represent items and obstacles, and to represent player and creature actions, among other things. The cards come in two sizes: a smaller business card size that represents items, obstacles, and other things that can be found on the game board; and a larger playing card size that represents actions the keeper can take, character sheets, combat actions, events, and anything else manipulated outside the confines of the game board.

There are a ton of tokens in the Mansions of Madness box as well. These represent different game concepts, such as threat (The keeper’s form of currency), damage, insanity, time, and various environmental and status effects. The game also contains a handful of jigsaw-puzzle-like tokens used for solving the various conundrums the investigators will encounter during the game. The tokens are nice and thick, vibrantly colored, and a pleasure to handle.

The board itself is very interesting; it is put together for each scenario, by arranging double-sided modular tiles into a predetermined configuration that is described in the investigator manual. Each tile depicts one or more rooms, and each room is further subdivided into individual spaces (usually one or two per room, but more for larger rooms and outdoor areas). While the room divisions are bold and well defined, it can be easy to forget about the individual spaces sometimes, especially when there are a large number of miniatures in the room.

The plastic figures that come with the game are truly spectacular. They look amazing and some of them are truly massive in size. Each monster has unique information about it printed on a small square token; with public information on the front, and secret information on the back. Each figure attaches to an ingenious black base that has a slot in the side which allows a monster token to slide into it. The base also has cutouts on the top to allow the public information to show through, and another on the bottom to allow easy access to the secret information. If this wasn’t cool enough, each base also has a small hook to which wound tokens can be attached, making all the required information about a creature available at a glance, during play. With so many components in the game, the ability to keep all the monster information in one place without the need to cross-reference a separate character sheet is fantastic. The only issue with these clever miniature stands is the tendency of the miniatures to fall off of the little pegs that hold them on, but a dab of glue easily solves that issue.

Mansions of Madness comes with three rulebooks (although two of these are combined into a single physical booklet): The Rules of Play, which is nicely illustrated with large, full color pictures, and describes the rules of the game in a very clear and concise manner; the investigator’s book that contains the tile placement, room layout, and a small backstory for each scenario; and the keeper’s book, which contains the placement of all of the item cards, clue cards, puzzles, and obstacles for each of the different variations of the scenarios. All of these manuals are full of theme, great artwork, and clear instructions. A better index, or reference sheet could have made looking up rules questions during the game much more streamlined, but the manual is arranged in a manner that makes it easy to flip through it and answer that pesky rules question.

Setup:

Setup in Mansions of Madness takes quite a while, and can be very confusing at first. Setup can easily take thirty minutes. The nature of the game requires that the components are meticulously sorted, ordered, and placed in very specific spots in the play area. This process is delegated between the keeper and the investigators, with the investigators setting up the game board, and the keeper collecting, sorting, and ordering the appropriate cards for the scenario. This division of labor helps cut down on the setup time, and gives the players an opportunity to better learn the components they are about to use during the game.

The investigator setup involves building the game board, by placing tiles according to the illustration in the manual. Because the investigators set up the board, they get a better idea of how rooms are laid out, and can plan routes through the mansion in their head. There is a negative side to this, however; players do not truly get that sense of exploration and discovery of the mansion during the game. From a tactical standpoint, it is really necessary for the players to know the layout of the entire game board up front, but this necessity works against the exploration theme that Mansions of Madness tries so hard to cultivate.

Setting up the board correctly is imperative. Many tiles look similar to other tiles, and can be unintentionally rotated, making it easy to accidentally place a tile in the wrong configuration. This can have significant gameplay impact, sometimes moving doors so that portions of the mansion are made inaccessible. It is worthwhile to make a second pass across the board to make sure that everything is placed correctly.

After the investigators have set up the board, they select characters. There are a handful of different characters to choose from, each with a different backstory, and different stats. The distribution of characters allows for a good variety, and the backstories are entertaining to read, and help players to get into character. Investigators further customize their characters by choosing from a selection of traits and special abilities that have been tailored for each. Some of these traits allow characters to start the game with specific items, which they receive after selecting the appropriate trait.

At the end up setup, the players read the scenario’s backstory from the investigator’s manual. This is usually half of a page of text, setting the mood, and giving the players a motivation for being in the mansion. This text is easily the most detailed piece of fiction in the game, and it would have been nice to see this level of detail in other text found in the game.

While the players are performing their half of the setup, the keeper is tasked with setting up the plot points in the game. The keeper is able to select some variations of the story by answering questions from the keeper manual. For each answer he will place a corresponding, numbered tile onto the table. These questions usually consist of one who’s answer determines the goal of the particular scenario, and a handful of other questions that determine where in the mansion particular events will occur. While the first question can fundamentally change the scenario, the other questions just determine where particular events occur so that there is some replayability in the scenarios.

Based on the choices that the keeper made, he will refer to a table in the keeper’s manual, which will tell him what cards he will be using for the scenario, how to order them, and where to put them on the board. In order to correctly drive the game plot forward, certain cards must be placed in certain rooms. Any cards that do not belong in a specific room are randomly distributed in the remaining, empty rooms. This is a very lengthy process that is prone to error, and if the keeper accidentally looks at the card setup for answer “3a” when he answered “3b”, the game can become unwinnable. If you are easily distracted, like me, conversation during the setup process can cause it to take much longer than it normally would. In fact, for this reason, I prefer to privately set up the scenario ahead of time, before the game starts.

After the setup is complete, the keeper reads the flavor text from the keeper manual aloud. This narrative is just more than simple flavor text, and the keeper should probably reiterate this fact to new players. The text on the clue cards, and in the opening story actually tell the players where they need to explore. If it mentions incontinence (it doesn’t), then the investigators should probably make their way to the bathroom, or risk wandering around aimlessly.

Mechanics:

Mansions of Madness has quite a few rules, although some of them never come into play unless you are tackling certain scenarios. The core rules are fairly simple, however, and can be taught fairly quickly. In fact, if the keeper sets up the game ahead of time, Mansions of Madness is a good candidate for a game that can be taught while playing.

For the investigators, the core concept in Mansions of Madness is exploration. The investigators start the game without knowing their objective, and they must explore, and find clues to reveal it. This forces the player to listen to the clues, and plot points that are revealed throughout the game. These hidden objectives and secret clues add an exciting mystery to the game if you are willing to immerse yourself in the story, but players who ignore this information are at a disadvantage, and will find themselves frustrated, and feeling like they don’t know what to do next.

When exploring the mansion, there are two phases to the game: the investigator phase, and the keeper phase. During the investigator phase, each of the investigator players can take two movements, and one action, in any order. For each movement, a player can move his miniature to an adjacent or diagonal space, as long as there is not a wall in the way. Sometimes, when moving into a new room, it will contain a lock card. When this happens, all movement stops, and the player must successfully resolve the lock card before moving forward.

These lock cards are a mechanic that Mansions of Madness uses to control the tempo of the game, and ensure that the plot unfolds properly. In order to enter the room, the player has to use a specific item that is associated with the type of lock, or solve a puzzle to open the door; the requirements are printed on the card. If the player succeeds, he can continue his movement, but if he does not, he must end his movement, and cannot enter the room.

Sometimes, the player will enter a room with a monster, or other environmental effect, and will have to test for horror. Horror and insanity are prevalent in the Cthulu Mythos. The creatures in Lovecraft’s writings are so horrible, that just looking at them can cause insanity in mortal men. This idea is presented in Mansions of Madness as a player statistic called “sanity”. As the player encounters things in the mansion, he will have to test his will against the horrors that he finds. If he fails this test, he will find that his psyche takes damage in the form of horror tokens. If the investigator takes too many horror tokens, he goes insane, which allows the keeper to do some pretty nasty stuff to them.

Checking for horror is done using a simple “skill check”. This “skill check” process is performed during horror checks, combat, and in response to certain game events that require a player to test his skill. The player rolls a 10 sided die, and if the result is equal to, or less than the skill he is testing, he passes, otherwise he fails, and received a horror token. Some tasks are harder than others though, and may modify the number that the player must roll to succeed. The players also have a small number of “skill point” tokens that they can expend before rolling to add their luck statistic to the skill they are testing. These skill points are a limited resource though, and must be used wisely.

Aside from the two movements, an investigator player can take one action per turn. These actions are all very intuitive, and it isn’t difficult to remember them. The most common action used is the “Explore” action which allows a player to look at, and take the cards that are face down in the room, as long as there are no obstacles in the way. If players find themselves with nothing useful to do, they can take the “run” action, which allows for an additional movement. Players can also use items and spells as an action, pick up and drop items, as well as hide, and barricade doors. Of course, the investigators can also choose to attack as their action, and engage a monster in combat.

Sometimes, when exploring a room the investigator will come across a puzzle. This is one of the more unique aspects of Mansions of Madness, because it represents character intelligence in a very intuitive manner. It is hard to separate the player’s intelligence from the character’s intelligence in games; if a character is stupid, but the player is a genius, then giving the player a puzzle doesn’t realistically depict the character’s abilities. On the flip side, just rolling a die for an intellect test wouldn’t isn’t very interesting, and doesn’t give the player a feeling of accomplishment. Mansions of Madness addresses this dilemma by giving players actual puzzles made of tiles that must be manipulated in different ways to achieve a proper arrangement. The players must actually solve the puzzle with his own brain, but the number of times he can manipulate the puzzle is determined by his character’s intelligence. This means that a player with a character that has a high intelligence will have more than enough turns to solve a puzzle, whereas a character with a low intelligence will give a very limited number of turns, making the puzzle difficult for the player. Puzzles that haven’t been solved are left as-is in the play area, which allows a player to finish the puzzle on a later turn, or let another player to try his hand at the puzzle. Not only does this puzzle mechanic keep the game thematically solid, it engages the player at an intellectual level as well.

To complete the game, the players continue the process of searching rooms, fighting, evading monsters, and following clues until they discover and complete the objective. Of course, the investigators aren’t the only players trying to win, the keeper will try to stop them at every turn, and he has quite a deadly selection of tricks up his sleeve. The keeper has his own secret objective that will bring the game to an end in his favor. Both the keeper and the investigators are both limited by the inevitable march of time, and if neither has completed his objective before time runs out, everyone loses.

After all the investigators have taken their turns, the keeper gets his chance to terrorize the investigators. While investigators have a fixed number of actions each turn, the keeper has a kind of currency that he spends to perform actions. This currency is called “threat”, and is gained by the keeper at the start of his turn. Depending on the scenario, the keeper will have a different set of actions that he purchase with his threat. Each action is represented by an action card that the keeper player keeps in front of him. Actions can cost differing amounts of threat to use, and allow the keeper to do things like spawn monsters, move monsters, and perform other story specific deeds (such as taking tissue samples from the players). Each scenario uses a different subset of these cards, so not all actions are available in all games, which requires the keeper to stay nimble, and change his strategy from game to game.

Aside from the action cards, which are always available for the keeper to purchase, there is also a small deck of “mythos” cards. These are cards that the keeper can acquire throughout the game, and activate using his threat. Unlike the keeper’s action cards, these mythos cards are discarded as soon as the keeper uses them. Mythos cards often have prerequisites for use, such as requiring investigators be in certain rooms, or be carrying weapons of a certain type. These mythos cards can be very powerful, and the keeper may find himself building strategies around these cards in order to leverage their effects.

The last type of card that the keeper utilizes is the “trauma” card. These cards can be used on a player when he takes damage (either physical or mental). The effects of these cards are usually permanent, and persist until another trauma card of the same type takes it’s place. I really like the depth of theme that these cards add; in most games the character takes damage, but has no permanent effect on the player’s abilities. The trauma cards in Mansions of Madness are different, and can simulate a potentially debilitating condition as a result of damage.

At the end of the keeper’s turn, creatures that are in the same space as an investigator character can attack. The combat system is an aspect of Mansions of Madness that really shines. This was actually very surprising to me, as I’ve never been a fan of the card driven combat in many of Fantasy Flight’s games. I may be more accepting of the combat in Mansions of Madness because there is still a die-rolling element in the combat, but it is the card driven portion of combat that elevates it. Combat is separated into several types: melee, ranged, unarmed, etc, and each monster type (humanoid, beast, and eldrich) has it’s own deck of cards used for combat. When a player attacks a creature, cards from the deck of the applicable monster type are turned over until a card with the appropriate combat type is drawn. For example, if I am unarmed, I would draw cards until I find one with the “unarmed” heading. That card will have a bit of flavor text on it about the attack being made, and then tell the player what attribute to make a skill check against. Based on the text of the card, the player may have to test against different abilities. This mechanic makes combat more interesting, because the cards don’t stand as a simple replacement for dice, but instead impart story into the game, and turn combat from a potentially dull act of number crunching, into a meaningful narrative experience.

After all investigators and the keeper have taken their turns, a time token is placed on top of the event deck. This deck is built to introduce plot events at certain intervals during the game; when the number of time tokens on the deck equals a number printed on the back of the top card, it is flipped over and the events described on the card are performed. If the last card in this deck is flipped over, it usually means global failure, both for the investigator players, and the keeper. The inclusion of this event deck serves to convey interesting plot events, limit the time a game is played, and keep all players on target. Without a ticking doomsday clock, players may feel motivated to leisurely explore the mansion; the event deck keeps impending failure breathing down everyone’s neck, and motivates them to stick to their objective.

Conclusion:

I have a generally positive impression of Mansions of Madness. It is enjoyable to play and has a nice depth to it’s mechanics, without being completely overwhelming. The rules are intuitive, and although they may seem intimidating at first, it is not hard to remember how things work, and there aren’t a lot of exceptions in the rules to be forgotten. The mechanics themselves are well-balanced, and the tempo of gameplay is moderated in a way that drives the plot forward, as long as players pay attention to the clues.

Combat is easy to understand, and the card driven, die-rolling mechanic really works to make the combat itself interesting and relevant to the theme, and should appease players who like both card driven and dice controlled combat mechanics. Because different attack types use different cards, and each monster type uses a different deck, the combat experience is really tailored to the situation at hand, which makes combat feel more cinematic. The design put into the miniature bases, are also worth noting, as they simplify what could be a complicated combat process otherwise.

Mansions of Madness is bursting with theme, and the unique, directed scenarios make for an interesting, almost episodic feeling experience. For the first few plays, the excitement of not knowing what is about to be encountered motivates replay, and keeps players coming back for more. The artwork on the components, and the detail put into the sculpted miniatures really tie everything together, and deliver an exquisitely themed package.

Despite the wonderful theme, dazzling components, and balanced gameplay, Mansions of Madness does have some drawbacks. In many ways, it appears that the game attempts to do too much in it’s marriage between theme and game balance, and may end up diluting the gameplay experience. Even though Mansions of Madness is dripping with theme, It fails to deliver a deep, compelling story. While the game is enjoyable, and the attempt to tell a story is admirable, it only really gives a taste of story, delivering what ends up being more of an outline that is never really fleshed out by gameplay. More detailed clues and events could have really helped the game in this area, and by moving fiction from the small cards to the larger manual, the delivery of story could have been fleshed out much more. This may have added a bit of complexity and made the gameplay a bit less streamlined, but I think that it would have made the game more immersive and enjoyable.

I’m sure it’s this perceived emptiness in the story that makes the game feel a bit sterile, but the theme itself adds to this feeling as well; H.P. Lovecraft’s stories often gave the feeling of isolation and desperation, and tended to be more about plot than character development. Mansions of Madness reflects this theme well, but as a social, cooperative game, it really needs to facilitate player interaction, and character development a bit more.

Although the game is well paced, and balanced, this doesn’t necessarily make for the best story. Due to the inherent balance, the players never really feel outclassed or outnumbered, which lessens the visceral horror impact. In this instance, a bit of imbalance in gameplay may have helped invest the players in the story more. There are also very few opportunities for the players to heal in game, which makes the progression towards the endgame very linear. With little opportunity to regain health, progression can feel like a slow burn towards the inevitable end. Empowering the players through success, and allowing them more opportunity to heal, or gain a leg up, would have created a game full of more ups and downs, and explored a wider range of player emotion.

It may seen like I am focusing on story a lot, and holding Mansions of Madness to a different standard than most games, but unlike most games, Mansions of Madness is built around a linear, story like progression. With only five scenarios that come with the game, story becomes even more important, because it has to hold up after multiple replays.

The final issue I have with the game is that there are “nobody wins” situations. The game can end in a draw, or more accurately, situations where everyone loses. These endings are extremely unsatisfying, and sometimes don’t really even make sense with the narrative given. Not only does this leave the players unfulfilled, it causes players to make decisions that do not make thematic sense, motivating players to behave in an uncharacteristic, suicidal manner to ensure that nobody can win the game.

Despite my criticisms, I still think that Mansions of Madness is a fun game, and worth playing, and it has a definite place in my collection. But, when it comes to the exploration based horror game, I find myself leaning more to the often grossly unbalanced, less sterile, and more interesting stories and scenarios of Betrayal at House on the Hill. I’m not sure that gameplay balance trumps theme when a game is built to tell a story. Stories are interesting due to the inherent imbalance, and in this case I think the balance of Mansions of Madness is actually a shortcoming. It has a lot of promise, though, and is built with expansion in mind, so I will certainly be bringing it to the table again. But, I hope that Fantasy Flight can bring some more personality to the game through expansions in the coming years.

Of all of the modular “dungeon crawler” style games (Dungeon Twister, Betrayal at House on the Hill, Zombie In My Pocket, etc.), Mansions of Madness is definitely the best. The Lovecraft theme is no different than any other Cthulhu-type game, but it feels more involved this time. If you’ve read Lovecraft, you’ll feel like your in one of his untold stories which harken to other published works. Very nicely done.

As for the mechanics, adding puzzles and a plethora of attack types has really made the game have more depth than others like it. Castle Ravenloft is paper thin compared to this game and that’s why you should play Mansions. It’s great, you’ll enjoy it.

After purchasing Arkham horror and many of its expansions Fantasy Flight released this game.I have played it almost as much as I have played my copy of Arkham and prefer setting this one up and playing it. It sets up faster and plays in the same to less time(especially with experienced players.) I find this game gives many of the same experiences that arkham horror gives but puts an intellect behind the spooky stuff that is happening.