I don’t know if anyone is familiar with the board game Mansions of Madness. It’s a couple years old, and it’s a quasi-cooperative game (1 vs. many) that’s scenario-based. The one is The Keeper, who tries to bring his occult evil to fruition and the remaining players are the team of investigators who have to deduce the plan and stop the horror from . . . er. . . horroring.
I liked the co-op and game mechanics, but find that the one-vs was a weakness, like Fury of Dracula. The team wins or the singleton wins, which isn’t what I want in a co-op game.
Anyway, reason for the post: I am now seeing there is Mansions of Madness: 2nd Edition, which alleges to make the Keeper role a non-player. How, thinks I, can this mechanic be done without a person?
Apparently there’s an app for that. As I gather, the new version will have a smartphone app that acts as the Keeper and the game is now truly a co-op.
Before I plunk down + $120 (again) I am looking for anyone who already has, and has feedback.
While I’m not familiar with MoM specifically, it’s not the only boardgame to get the app treatment. The X-Com board game is specifically built around its app (which features dynamic turn orders, timed turns for humans etc…) but I’ve also played *Descent *(a dungeon delving/turn by turn tactics game) with the app they created to relieve one human from playing Dungeon Master. It’s quite all right, even though the app is obviously a little worse at it than our own usual fiendish DM who used to *really *stack the deck against us with every trick and unfair combo he could think off. The AI is competent at the game (i.e. it tries to focus down weakened players, sometimes opts to sacrifice one of its own monsters for a chance at a good shot or killing blow etc…) but after a while you can predict its moves.
On top of the app playing the monsters and such, it’s kinda cool in that it also hides unexplored rooms from the players while still managing what happens in them (i.e. new spawns) ; so whereas in regular Descent the players knew from the start where to go and more or less what to expect in new rooms, the app switches it up. This compensates for its unimaginative monster play.
I was thinking I had played this game a few times and was going to offer my opinions on it. Then I realized the game I was thinking of is Betrayal at House on the Hill. Sorry.
Itself a great game, and it somewhat softens the “us against him” dynamic by starting everyone out together and you never know which of you will become the bad guy.
It’s like Battlestar Galactica. You don’t want your team to do too well early in the game because halfway through you might find yourself on the other side.
My understanding is that MoM 2E is essentially the same as the first edition except with the app as keeper. If you liked 1E, you’ll like 2E.
2E is also reputed to fix what I see as the critical flaw in 1E which is that if the Keeper (the 1 in 1 versus all) screws up the placement of a single card, the whole game is screwed up and can have impossible win conditions. I understand the app fixed that issue.
I have 2nd Ed. MoM, and can recommend it unreservedly. I played 1st edition twice (IIRC) and it was great, but the Keeper app really makes the 2nd edition stand out. Full co-op (at least at the start - going mad can potentially introduce a “traitor” mechanic if you pull the right card) is fantastic, so there’s no fight over who “has” (or “gets,” depending on your taste) to run the game. A big reduction on the fiddly little bits you have to manage to play the game, and a consequent HUGE reduction in set-up time to get started. The app tells you what room tiles to add as you explore, so you genuinely don’t know what’s going to be behind any given door. There’s also a degree of randomness in the scenarios, which I don’t believe existed in the original game, down to different map layouts for the same scenario. (I might be wrong, I never played 1st ed. as a Keeper.) Plus, some nice details like atmospheric sound effects and spooky music, and fully voiced intros to all the scenarios.
It’s also 100% backwards compatible with the earlier sets.
I’ve also run a game where one player (me) was just managing the app and reading instructions to people, and helping with the general group strategy. Not quite as fun as controlling a player, but it did let us get five players in one game.
Highly recommended to everyone, regardless of whether they have the original or not.
Also, the 2nd edition doesn’t duplicate anything from the original - it’s all new monsters, investigators, and room tiles. If you’ve already got the first edition, you aren’t rebuying anything. And the scenarios from the original are included in the new app, so you can play them using the new system.
