Have you ever dreamed of playing a real tabletop movie with your friends? To darkness, creaky floors, “let’s split up” and a final twist at the end? So you can lunge at the monster with your bare hands or a guitar without knowing what’s going to happen? So that rats rustled in the walls, ominous whispers drove you crazy, and injuries were reflected in more than just “red hearts”. So that a character’s mental health requires as much attention as their physical health? That it wouldn’t be clear until the very end what to do, and when you did, it would be almost too late? To struggle on the edge, to win a second before collapse, or to suffer crushing, hopeless defeats in the style of Dark Souls?

Suffer from blindness, rotting wounds, claustrophobia, and paranoia? Wade through darkness, fire, and – damn them – tricky riddles and puzzles? Not knowing what’s going to happen in the next second – will your evil twin splinter off of you, or will the head of a blasphemous cult drag you to the sacrificial altar? Looking around, not even trusting your fellow travelers ( especially them)? Then – welcome to Mansions of Madness!

This series of games I can sing dithyrambs endlessly. Probably the best board games ever. In this post we will talk about the second edition, the difference between the first and second edition is huge, and I will explain later what it is.

The game is FULLY inspired by the works of Lovecraft and his followers. All scenarios take place in the United States in the 1920s – bootlegging, the Great Depression on the doorstep, World War I just died down, numerous secret societies and mystical cults swarming underground, while most people are pushing the unknown into the background and science, still perceived by the less enlightened as magic, comes first.

The original edition scripts average the canonical stories in the vein of Lumley, Bloch, and Derleth. There’s “Night of the Reanimator,” which is originally a detective story that suddenly turns into a violent action story in the vein of “Zombicide.”

There is also “The Fall of the House of Lynch”, telling us depending on the initial choice of “settings” either the story of a mad maniac, or much more twisted – a cultist, who tries to bring back his dead son from oblivion, and causes…spoilers.

The game has a VERY large amount of artistic text, people who do not know English will find it difficult to perceive long introductions and artistic text, however, on Russian sites dedicated to boardgames have long had translations.

Hardest of all is the Guardian (in the second edition this player is replaced by an application for phone and tablet), because he, in fact, has to perform the function of a bulky and complex mechanism of game control. Countdown time, nasty events like a shadow, accidentally seen in the mirror, a lamp that went out or an unexpected fire, movement and interaction between players and monsters – all on it. However, the Guardian has an undeniable advantage – he is the only one at the gaming table knows what the conditions of victory for both sides (detectives find out only after finding the last clue, and this usually happens towards the end), it is the Guardian knows, it is he who decides whether the wall will not collapse, whether the corpse, which the detectives forgot to burn, will not come to life, whether the Shoggoth will not come out from around the corner, whether the detective will not want to give in to an unknown impulse to hit a colleague with a sledgehammer on the back of the head.

Detectives are under constant pressure. Mental trauma is a separate issue. You can become a pyromaniac, which in a wooden mansion means big problems, you can become a kleptomaniac and your companions will be missing some necessary items or worse…you can change sides. An accidental (or not?) fallen step can break your leg, a swarm of bats can give you nyctophobia, a blow with a slimy tentacle on your head can make you deaf, and mild insanity can make you avoid your companions. And for good reason – it is in the power of the Guardian to draw one of the Searchers to his side at his own whim, making him a “sleeper agent” who, in the service of the dark forces, can throw dynamite under the feet of his companions. The Guardian offers a last resort to the desperate sleuths….

The detectives are usually opposed by either another player (first edition) or an appendix (second edition). Darkness, the unknown, grim visions, injuries and traumas await the brave detectives on their way…most often still to defeat. Because the game is not going to forgive your mistakes, lost precious time and aimless wandering around the location. Every monster here is a work of art, every battle is an epic, as the combat is realized in a very interesting way.

First you decide what you attack (slashing, crushing, firearms, spells or bare hands), what monster – beast-like, humanoid or indescribable, and then you open a card, which briefly describes what is happening. Something like “You’re bringing your weapon over the creature’s head, preparing to crush its skull – check the Force”. And then, if you don’t screw up, the monster takes damage. This is where funny situations arise, when gangster McGlen, who has one and a half twists in his head, tries to glamorize a shovel, using his almost zero characteristic Knowledge. The most amusing attacks, by the way, take place with your bare hands – you squeeze out your eyes, try to outsmart, throw objects, push down the stairs.

I can’t help but say a few words about the detectives – they are a variety of people – for example, the vagabond Pete with his faithful dog Duke and a guitar, who have seen more than a man should. An elderly Jewish writer Gloria Goldberg, that in her literary research has reached the terrible truth and is now ready to stick typewriter any cephalopod creature on the tentacles, if they encroach on the throne of the lords of the earth. This and rich bitch Jenny Barnes – analog of local Paris Hilton, that armed with a faithful “derringer” and daddy’s inheritance went in search of her lost sister. And, of course, the unsociable William Yorick – a red-haired cemetery keeper who encountered hungry ghouls in the line of duty and redefined the function of the shovel. In the first edition, the detectives could be balanced for better teamwork by selecting starting items and abilities. In the second edition, the tablet will do it for you.

Now Fantasy Flight Games has closed the production of add-ons for the first edition and completely switched to the second edition, which, frankly speaking, is for the best. The presence of a tablet, contrary to expectations, does not deprive the game of its “soul”, on the contrary, adding facets to it. On the contrary, it adds facets to it. For example, with characters now you can have full dialogues, read diaries, listen to the radio, solve even more sophisticated puzzles, and the field can be rearranged several times during the game, atmospheric Music and sounds will only enhance immersion. Among other things, you won’t be able to forget or skip any elements, and the 40-minute set-up is reduced to ten minutes and later divided into small, 30-second “tweaks” that don’t distract from the process at all. But, the main advantage of the second edition is that the owner of the board game will no longer be a “slave to the box” ( and I’m oh so familiar with that! I might even get bored with the game, if I didn’t like playing as villains). In addition, the application unlike some inexperienced Guardians observes complete conspiracy regarding game information, and increases the number of options for room layout, player goals, dialog and events .

So, this game I can recommend to almost everyone without exception, my personal score is 10 out of 10.

Speaking of the minuses, I can, perhaps, mention only a fairly high cost and excessive complexity of puzzles that drag out the gameplay.

And, what is important – very easy to master by new players – in fact, at the table should be only one person who knows the rules well.

The threshold of entry is below average – all you need to know a newcomer who wants to join the game is how to manage your character. Everything else will be done for you by the app. This is, of course, if you decide in favor of the second edition. If you prefer the first edition (and it has a lot of advantages, starting with the possibility to be a villain and ending with more elegant design of maps and miniatures) – get ready to break your head and read the rules.

What follows is a little dry report about my last game :

Played the Broken Shackles scenario with my wife yesterday. A certain acquaintance asked us to come and get her from the mansion, because there is some “evil” living there. While the acquaintance panics and gathers her belongings and relatives, we search the house and find out that the head of the family has brought a green statue from a vacation somewhere in Oceania.

Attracted by the noise, the monster, an endless darkness with tentacles, attacks the family members one by one, killing them one by one as we try to pick up the statue piece by piece, fighting off the monster’s smaller servants while trying to distract the creature from the household by turning on the radio or pounding the gong. Along the way, the servants set the house on fire, my character (Gravedigger) breaks his leg and limps to the attic, where we manage to pick up the statue piece by piece. The Star Creature materializes in front of us, driving us both crazy. And if my character – William Yorick steadfastly endured the madness, and now with his OCD simply could not ignore the lying around objects, constantly distracted by them, the Holy Father, played by my wife went cuckoo capitally. At the last moment, as I was digging my machete into a pile of green ichor oozing flesh, Father Matteo, the exorcist who had gone exorcist, cast desiccation on me, cast krit, and poor William Yorick just splattered his flesh on the walls. The detectives lost. The world is doomed. Again.