Mansions of Madness

I used to play D&D 5e, but could never hone the necessary DM skills to put a game together, so I figured I'd give Mansions of Madness 2nd Edition a try--I just love an immersive RPG /dungeon crawl experience, and this game pulls it off BEAUTIFULLY! While I am a huge fan of This War of Mine, Waste Knights 2nd Edition, Fallout and similar rpg games, this is the first app driven rpg which I've had the pleasure of experiencing, and I keep wanting to play it again. While the game is intuitive in many respects, you'll definitely need to study the rules and do a few playthroughs during which you write down questions you have, so you can keep notes on what you'll have to share with other players. For me, I needed straightforward notes on: 1) which skill checks are needed for various actions (Strength Test for Heavy Weapons, Agility for Bladed Weapons, etc) 2)How to use the app during the Mythos Phase when Monsters will spawn and attack you/how Horror Checks are done 3)how to attack monsters using various levels of weapons and spells 4)Understand how Damage and Horror cards function. Once you understand these elements, you're ready to play--Remember, the app times you, and if you're taking too long when taking actions/making decisions, you will risk losing the game--so learn the rules! Mansions of Madness second Edition is worth the money spent on it, worth the time you invest learning to play it--it is a solid, well crafted story experience which will challenge you and entertain you. If you're unable to read the app text on your phone because it displays too small, download Steam on your laptop, and download the app for free there. My one complaint about this boardgame, it is that the app doesn't really allow you to go back to look up certain things--if you don't pay attention to some text, don't try to go back or the game will at times restart, asking once again for the investigators being used, while new starting items will be generated. Other than this, I'm loving this game, and can't wait to play it with friends!

Fantastic game. A total blast to play. Dying horribly has never felt so fun! Be forewarned -- the shortest scenario is going to take you close to three hours the first time you play it, because it takes a few playthroughs to get a firm grasp of the rules. Once you get a feel for the game, play times will be closer to the estimates. It's absolutely worth sticking it out, because this game is beautiful, smooth, engaging and entertaining. It's the closest feeling yet to being inside an RPG. There are several scenarios included with the basic game itself, five or six I think, and each scenario has TONS of elements that change randomly, so you could play the same scenario in back to back games and have entirely different plots, antagonists, layouts, items and conditions of victory. There's no rush to buy any of the expansions; you're not going to run out of game for a long time. The game CAN be played on a smartphone, but a tablet will make the experience significantly better. Everything is easier to see, and having more room to manipulate the various puzzles is a good thing. I do wish the game came with a hard-copy book of different scenarios to allow play without a smartphone or tablet (like Betrayal at House on the Hill), but I suppose there are just too many variables to properly reproduce in a booklet, and letting the device handle the crunching of numbers and variables does let everyone focus more on the Star Spawn plowing through a wall instead of the effect of two successes on trying to pick the lock on a safe. As such, I'm not docking this game a star, because I think the tradeoff of ease of use vs. offline playability is acceptable and likely for the best. Very happy with this game, as is my gaming group. It makes for a fun night when nobody has an adventure ready to run, and everybody still gets an RPG experience!

Love love love this game. So much fun, and a complex game that’s very simple to explain. The app feature is really cool and gives an immersive experience. It’s also a game you can play solo (and keep yourself entertained for hours!). Price point is high but the board game itself is great quality, and I know I’ll play a lot so it’s worth the money. If I could give only one suggestion, I’d love to see different editions with different genres outside of Lovecraft. Don’t get me wrong, love the Lovecraft theme, but would love to try this same concept with a different setting :)

If you aren't familiar with Lovecraft this may be more like a 4 out of 5, but still really good. The thing to keep in mind is the scenario structure. You're going through all the scenarios (20+ in this box I believe) and trying to "beat" each scenario. In other words it's not like a traditional board game where you're playing against each other using the same boards and the same pieces every time. The map, enemies, items, etc. are all different depending on the scenario. This is a cooperative game as well so the players work as a team trying to solve a mystery. The rules aren't easy but they're by no means hard to learn either. A large chunk of it is just learning to use the companion app, which does half of the work for you honestly. There are definitely some weird situation where you won't be sure what the ruling is but I don't mind looking these up on the internet occasionally and the rulebook often has them covered. The structure kind of reminds me of a video game in how you can sometimes get stuck on a scenario but then eventually beat it and move on to the next one. Don't worry if you don't like video games though. It's just a comparison I drew because the progression is similar. You don't have to be stuck either. You can play whatever scenario you want. Overall the game takes a little bit of dedication but it's not intimidating to play by any stretch, and you'll have even more fun if you've read a few Lovecraft stories but it's not required.

High quality game pieces, companion app helps a lot and gives a real feeling to the game. Scenarios in the companion app are a bit limited but still the game allows you to play for hours for each scenario. We even could play as 2 people and it was very fun. 10/10 would recommend.

Wer Mansion of Madness kennt, wird wissen, dass es sich um ein Spiel handelt, was Geschichten erzählt... Damals durch einen Spielbegleiter den "Bewahrer". Nun wird das Spiel nicht durch Menschenhand geleitet sondern durch eine App. Das heißt man benötigt ein Handy mit Ausreichend Speicherplatz oder ein Tablet oder ein Laptop bzw. PC. Wir schlüpfen in die Rolle von Ermittlern die unterschiedlich nicht sein könnten und versuchen Mysterien auf die Schliche zu kommen und das durchlebte Abenteuer lebendig und an besten nicht wahnsinnig zu überstehen. Es gibt derzeit vier Geschichten die alle gut unterschiedlich sind, jedoch an H.P.Lovecrafts Werke verknüpft sind. Wenn man diese nicht kennt ist es aber auch nicht schlimm. Wenn man Sie kennt freut man sich, dass man die Personen kennt sowie die Kreaturen. Die App hat Sound und das trägt gut zur Horrorstimmung bei. Der Vorteil ist, dass man so auch die Hinweise erhält. z.B wenn es hinter einer Tür schäppert, dann will man eventuell sich das anschauen und die Tür öffnen oder man hat Angst und barrikadiert diese. Das besondere ist nähmlich man kann nicht sehen wie groß das Spielfeld ist und die App wird erst Bescheid geben, wenn man auf die Tür klickt, was für ein Raum mit welchen Kreaturen oder Menschen sich dahinter verbirgt. Die Geschichten selber ändern sich nicht großartig. Jedoch benötigt man bestimmte Sachen um weiter zukommen und muss als Beispiel Rätsel über die App lösen. Die App gibt auch an wie die Kreaturen sowie die Personen in den Geschichten reagieren und das tuen diese nicht immer gleich, genauso sind die Gegenstände immer unterschiedlich. Für mich ist Mansion of Madness 2.Edition das beste Brettspiel was derzeit verfügbar ist. Ich habe es mit Leuten gespielt die nicht oft Spiele spielen und sie waren begeistert. Gerade zu Halloween kommen nun noch zwei weitere Geschichten raus (Hierfür gibt es dann 2 Erweiterungen mit Inhalten alten Erweiterungen für die Erste Edition) und darauf freue ich mich besonders. Wichtig zu wissen: Die Sprache ist zur Zeit Englisch! Aber es ist gut zuverstehen, man sollte geringe Englischkenntnisse haben. Die App selber hat eine Spracheinstellung. Man kann, sobald der Heidelberger Spieleverlag sicherlich die Deutsche Version herausbringt, die Einstellung auf deutsch ändern. In Großen und Ganzen gefällt mir das Spiel sehr gut, es macht noch mehr Spaß und erzeugt mehr Flair wenn man die ganzen Miniaturen anmalt. Volle Punktzahl und eine super Kaufempfehlung! Jeder Euro ist es Wert, da das Material sehr hochwertig ist!

Excelente jogo.

Played a few games since I bought this, and I'm quite in love with it. There's a bit of story-driven investigation as you explore a manor, some puzzles to solve, some combat and some looting. The game is quite atmospheric and I think succeeds beautifully at building up some tension. The presentation is quite nice, the game comes with a bunch of decent-quality miniatures I'm excited to butcher with my absence of painting skills. It comes with a rules booklet and a "learn to play" booklet - I feel like every game needs one of those. Unfortunately, the latter lacks some fairly basic information in places. It's not awful by any means, but it will leave you searching around for stuff as you scramble to learn the basics of the game. Still, I suppose it's not too bad: after 2 games played, we all felt like we had a good grip on the rules. I was a bit averse to buying a game this expensive not having played it before or knowing anyone who did, but I'm loving it!

Un juego top de mesa y divertido para compartir con amigos y familia. Es otra generación de juegos.