For Halloween, or at least All Saints', a friend hosted a session of
Mansions of Madness,
a game I'd heard about but never played. All images are
cc-by-sa.
Setup is apparently quite a time-consuming task, but it was all done
by the time I arrived. Lots of cards, tokens, and so on to be selected
and sorted out. I ended up, as has become something of a trend in
these Fantasy Flight Cthulhu games, with Amanda Sharpe the librarian.
We gathered on the front steps of the old manor house… yeah, sorry
about the blur, I really hate using coaxial flash.
One interesting thing in this game is that many items are hidden
behind puzzles. In this one, each square has symbols of one or more
colours on it, and one has to align matching symbols on the edges
(with a sand-timer, and with limited moves based on the character's
intelligence). This is an enjoyable mechanic, so it's a shame that
what we actually should have been doing is abandoning any puzzle
that we couldn't solve instantly and pressing on with the main quest.
(In
Arkham Horror,
which is the first of these I played, it's vital to gather resources
before going after major plot points. Here there's much more time
pressure.)
Still, we pressed past the fire into the operating room.
This is apparently a Hound of Tindalos. (Slightly wounded, because it
was spawned on the far side of the fire from where we were.)
The gun-totin' socialite went after the cultist and disposed of him
with ease.
She had more trouble with the Crawling One. Mind you, by this point
I'd acquired a time machine, which was good for getting rid of
monsters… up to a point, because they could come back later.
Sudden Byakhees make Amanda jump.
So we ended up being chased by a zombie and another Hound towards the
operating theatre…
…only to find a Final Boss Shoggoth.
And the other monsters caught up from behind (and were joined by a
Chief Cultist).
I was still sane when I died, which is more than I can say for the
other two.
It's an interesting game. Going by the time limits that the scenario
imposes, it's pretty much essential to ignore everything in favour of
following the story-based clues, and even they can be pretty cryptic.
Enjoyable to play from time to time, but I wouldn't make it a regular
thing.
We finished off the day with
Love Letter,
Coup, and
Forbidden Island
(the latter a cooperative win, and an enjoyable lightweight game even
if it probably won't find a place in my collection). I seem to be
gravitating towards boardgames that offer a good experience whether or
not one wins them.
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