Let’s Play: Mansions of Madness Second Edition

This week's Let's Play feature sees us creeping around the houses of Arkham and Innsmouth in search of clues to the heinous events occurring, as we play Mansions of Madness the Second Edition.

Mansions of Madness is the cooperative revision of the first edition that carried the same name. As per the first edition players will be attempting to solve the mystery by following the clues and exploring their surroundings. As in any Cthulu based game however, your character's mental state will slowly deteriorate as you are subjected to more mind-unravelling secrets of the universe, and there will of course be plenty of monsters who will do more than unravel your faculties.

The core difference between editions with Mansions of Madness is the ever controversial introduction of an app to take the role of the Keeper. Previously one player would take this role, pitting them against the other players, and whilst this was quite interesting I always felt that they could quite easily overpower the party if they so wished.

In addition to this they had to set up the board in a very particular way, meaning it was not only very time consuming, but a single mistake during set up could jeopardise the entire game. The introduction of the app not only reduces the set up time to a mere few minutes but allows all the players to play cooperatively and believe me its still no walk in the park. If you owned the first edition you can also add in all your monsters and tile sets to the game.

Components

As with all modern Fantasy Flight Games, Mansions of Madness comes with two rule books. One of these is a rule reference whilst the other is the "learn to play" booklet and I must say that I love the fact that FFG continues to use this two book set up, it really makes learning and playing the game that much simpler. Due to the use of the app in this game the rules take a back seat role here.

Mansions of Madness comes with 32 miniatures, eight of these being investigators and the rest being monsters. There are some great sculpts here including two giant star spawn and some very dynamic investigators, however they are cast in a soft plastic so some bending may be required if you would like them to stand appropriately. Another small caveat about the miniatures is the huge bases for the monsters, this is mostly because of the carry over from first edition, however some are so large they take up entire room spaces, which does damage the atmosphere some what.

The game also includes 24 map tiles, and these will be placed down when required to create the board. The tiles come in two varieties, large or small, and in stark contrast to first edition they will be placed as you explore the area rather than the entire board being laid our before play commences. For me this was a huge positive as it helps to create the feeling of mystery and exploration. Furthermore when the app generates the board it will do so with a degree of randomness, allowing for an even greater level of replay-ability.

The other components consist of tokens and cards which will be drawn and placed when instructed by the app. These represent individuals, items and interact markers throughout the mission. The game comes with a first edition conversion kit which I very much appreciated and was a really great inclusion. This instructs you on how to integrate all your tiles, monsters and investigators from the first edition into this version, which is exceptionally easy as you literally just add the components into this set. These components will then be added into the map generator and will crop up from time to time.

The app is certainly the most important asset to this game and it's compulsory. It can be downloaded for free and drives the entire narrative, presenting the story along with sound effects whilst explaining the placing of new tiles and tokens. Within the gaming community I know there is a bit of hesitation when it comes to the introduction of technology to board games and in some instances it's a gimmick, however within Mansions Of Madness I find it entirely appropriate as it adds to the idea of a struggle against unseen forces. If you played first edition I think you will also find the huge reduction in set up time a bonus.

Setting up

As I've alluded to previously, set-up is short and sweet. All the cards are separated into their respective types, be these items, conditions, spells or the two ill effect decks, horror and damage. The last two being the only ones that are shuffled and placed face down. During the game the app will tell you when to draw or place these on to the board. Following this you pile up all the tiles and create pools for all the tokens.

Now comes your first decision of the game as you need to choose the scenario. To do this you need to open up the app and click on start a new game. The base game comes with four missions with quite varying difficulty but for your first game I would most certainly heed the game's instructions and play the Cycle of Eternity map, this will certainly be challenging enough. If you have integrated the first edition components you may have a few more options when choosing the scenarios, but I would not recommend any of them until you have played your first game. There is also an estimated playing time for each scenario and these can differ greatly from 60- 90 minutes to 300+.

Now we have the scenario it's time to choose your investigators. The game comes with eight and each player should choose one unless you are playing solo, in which case you should take two. Each of these will have an ability, as well as a set of attributes including their horror and damage threshold. Character abilities differ widely with investigators who have weaker special effects having better traits or more hit points.

In lower player counts you certainly want the more balanced characters as though some actions such as unarmed combat rely primarily on strength and agility this is not always the case and you cannot afford to specialise. Once characters are chosen the game will generate a pool of starting items for you. These are distributed as you wish amongst the party with some items always coming in to play when certain investigators are present. These items range from machetes or crowbars, which have very obvious effects, to spells and even a dog. After completing this step you are ready for the prologue.

This involves the app reading the story for the scenario. This is important, as it will not only set the mood but it also contains some hints as to what you will be looking for. Having a smart TV or tablet comes in handy as you can play it through their speakers. After hearing the prologue you'll be instructed to place the starting tile and any associated tokens, each will be given a description as you place the token so it is also worth listening out for clues here.