Mansions of Madness, Roleplaying Style Fantasy Boardgaming

Mansions of Madness was made by Fantasy Flight Games and was released in 2011.  It is a game for 2-5 players, though the more players, the better.  One player takes the role of the Dungeon Master, and the other players are investigators.  The Dungeon Master will need to take some time to prepare one of the six scenarios available in the game, though each scenario can play in many different ways.  The Dungeon Master sets up the board and places items and events as prescribed by the scenario.

When the investigators come in, they will be trying to take solve a mystery.  There will be clues scattered around the map.  Some are hidden behind puzzles.  When an investigator encounters one of these puzzles they actually get a puzzle that they will have to solve.  Each investigator has health and sanity, and the Dungeon Master will try to get these to zero by using monsters, traps, and other nasty surprises at their disposal, such as trauma cards, for example, the broken leg limits the number of spaces an investigator can move per turn.

Combat is resolved using cards.  Depending on what the card says, that is how much damage the attack does.  So a creature or investigator could do quite a bit more damage than they thought they would, miss entirely, do damage to themselves, or even drop the weapon they’re carrying.

One of the most interesting aspects of this game to me was the fact that it actually is a mystery that the investigators need to cooperate to solve.  Each time they discover a clue, it drops a subtle hint as to where the next clue is and how to eventually defeat the Dungeon Master, whose plans they don’t know.  For example, in one scenario, the butler takes their coats in the beginning and then a scream is heard.  The first clue is in the coat closet.

This game can get really intense, really fast.  As the investigators get deeper into the mystery and the Dungeon Master is able to bring out more nasty surprises, things come to a head.  The clock is always ticking away towards midnight when one of the two parties will win.  As long as you can get together a group of people who are willing to commit and actually play this game, (it can take a while) I would recommend it.  You will have a wonderful time playing as both the Dungeon Master or an investigator.  But don’t try and play this game if you don’t have people who are willing to put in the time or who are half-hearted about playing.  It’s a very complicated game and is hard to just set up and play.  It takes preparation and planning, which will just go to waste if you don’t have the right group of people.

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