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Ring Side Report-Board Game Review of Mansions of Madness, 2nd ed.
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<blockquote data-quote="Imaculata" data-source="post: 6934567" data-attributes="member: 6801286"><p>I have played the 1st edition of Mansions of Madness, and one of the problems with that game, was the limited selection of scenarios, and the fact that one player has to be DM. Now the latter seems to have been solved with an app. But I still can't shake the feeling that this game just doesn't entire work. It tries to do a lot of computer-gamey things, which can work fine, as Arkham Horror shows us. But when you add an app, it literally becomes 50% computer game to me.</p><p></p><p>As a fellow game designer, I feel that the challenge is to design the game in such a way that a computer is not needed. By including an app, it feels to me like they simply gave up in trying to make it work. I do appreciate what the game is trying to do however. Telling a story is very difficult within the context of a board game. Various board games have tried, such as Betrayal at House on the Hill (which is mostly just a random scenario every time), and Tales of Arabian Nights (which is more story than game), and even Arkham Horror itself. But it usually just ends up being a series of disjointed random encounters via random cards drawn from a deck.</p><p></p><p>It is difficult to tell a compelling story, without turning the board game into basically a book. Tales of Arabian Nights has this problem, where it is basically just the players looking up paragraphs in a massive binder. And even with that game, the random encounters feel disjointed, and not part of a real story. </p><p></p><p>Mansions of Madness tries to solve this problem, by having an actual narrative within its scenarios. But it also shows the limits of this sort of storytelling. It's still very shallow, and it is very hard to build genuine suspense. In my opinion, Mansions of Madness fails where Arkham Horror succeeded. Arkham Horror is stressful and full of suspense. Every game feels like a race against the clock. With Mansions of Madness, the format of a limited number of story steps quickly becomes apparent. As players we quickly figured out what the DM needed to do to win, which is usually to get a number of monsters some where, kill a number of players, or to get a number of monsters somewhere. Yes, as you can see it didn't seem like there was much variety among the scenarios. It quickly became rather predictable. And it never felt like there was much weight behind any of the story steps. It felt like we were still drawing random encounters, but now placed in the context of a bare bones predictable story. Plus the stories themselves just were very shallow, which undermines the suspense.</p><p></p><p>Arkham Horror was balanced extremely well, and always suspenseful. It always feels like you could win, but barely. It is balanced extraordinary well, even if the rules are a bit complicated, and it is a bit clunky with all the tokens. This is a problem that a lot of board games struggle with when they try to introduce video game mechanics to the table: A lot of tokens, and a box filled with.... stuff. And Mansions of Madness has its share of tokens as well. The box is literally stuffed with miniatures and tokens. And that's not very good design in my opinion. I think a good board game should try to limit the amount of 'stuff', by deluding the computer game mechanics to their simplest essence. A good board game is elegant, and achieves a lot, with a little. And what I mean with that, is that these sort of games should stop giving you tokens to represent health points and sanity. This is not a computer game! There are easier ways to translate these concept to a board game, without the need to literally micro manage health tokens.</p><p></p><p>I appreciate the conversion kit, because it makes it feel like the 1st edition wasn't a complete waste of money. But with the hefty price tag, I think people who played the 1st edition should ask themselves if the game really was all that good. Because it doesn't sound like 2nd edition solves many of the game's core issues, apart from the need for a DM.</p><p></p><p>The price tag is also what has kept me from buying Eldritch Horror. I'm told that it plays like Arkham Horror, but better. But no doubt the box will once again be filled with stuff, and its just way too pricey for a board game. Then again, they are also shipping expansions by the bucket loads. So there's plenty of content to enjoy.</p><p></p><p>But meanwhile I still keep looking for that one board game that manages to tell a compelling story, AND also be a good board game.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Imaculata, post: 6934567, member: 6801286"] I have played the 1st edition of Mansions of Madness, and one of the problems with that game, was the limited selection of scenarios, and the fact that one player has to be DM. Now the latter seems to have been solved with an app. But I still can't shake the feeling that this game just doesn't entire work. It tries to do a lot of computer-gamey things, which can work fine, as Arkham Horror shows us. But when you add an app, it literally becomes 50% computer game to me. As a fellow game designer, I feel that the challenge is to design the game in such a way that a computer is not needed. By including an app, it feels to me like they simply gave up in trying to make it work. I do appreciate what the game is trying to do however. Telling a story is very difficult within the context of a board game. Various board games have tried, such as Betrayal at House on the Hill (which is mostly just a random scenario every time), and Tales of Arabian Nights (which is more story than game), and even Arkham Horror itself. But it usually just ends up being a series of disjointed random encounters via random cards drawn from a deck. It is difficult to tell a compelling story, without turning the board game into basically a book. Tales of Arabian Nights has this problem, where it is basically just the players looking up paragraphs in a massive binder. And even with that game, the random encounters feel disjointed, and not part of a real story. Mansions of Madness tries to solve this problem, by having an actual narrative within its scenarios. But it also shows the limits of this sort of storytelling. It's still very shallow, and it is very hard to build genuine suspense. In my opinion, Mansions of Madness fails where Arkham Horror succeeded. Arkham Horror is stressful and full of suspense. Every game feels like a race against the clock. With Mansions of Madness, the format of a limited number of story steps quickly becomes apparent. As players we quickly figured out what the DM needed to do to win, which is usually to get a number of monsters some where, kill a number of players, or to get a number of monsters somewhere. Yes, as you can see it didn't seem like there was much variety among the scenarios. It quickly became rather predictable. And it never felt like there was much weight behind any of the story steps. It felt like we were still drawing random encounters, but now placed in the context of a bare bones predictable story. Plus the stories themselves just were very shallow, which undermines the suspense. Arkham Horror was balanced extremely well, and always suspenseful. It always feels like you could win, but barely. It is balanced extraordinary well, even if the rules are a bit complicated, and it is a bit clunky with all the tokens. This is a problem that a lot of board games struggle with when they try to introduce video game mechanics to the table: A lot of tokens, and a box filled with.... stuff. And Mansions of Madness has its share of tokens as well. The box is literally stuffed with miniatures and tokens. And that's not very good design in my opinion. I think a good board game should try to limit the amount of 'stuff', by deluding the computer game mechanics to their simplest essence. A good board game is elegant, and achieves a lot, with a little. And what I mean with that, is that these sort of games should stop giving you tokens to represent health points and sanity. This is not a computer game! There are easier ways to translate these concept to a board game, without the need to literally micro manage health tokens. I appreciate the conversion kit, because it makes it feel like the 1st edition wasn't a complete waste of money. But with the hefty price tag, I think people who played the 1st edition should ask themselves if the game really was all that good. Because it doesn't sound like 2nd edition solves many of the game's core issues, apart from the need for a DM. The price tag is also what has kept me from buying Eldritch Horror. I'm told that it plays like Arkham Horror, but better. But no doubt the box will once again be filled with stuff, and its just way too pricey for a board game. Then again, they are also shipping expansions by the bucket loads. So there's plenty of content to enjoy. But meanwhile I still keep looking for that one board game that manages to tell a compelling story, AND also be a good board game. [/QUOTE]
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