Mansions of Madness 2 - with the wife

[airboy]

We finished one of the shorter scenarios this weekend.  She had a very good time.  It is a fun, spooky, intense cooperative game.  She plays some "girl games" on her Ipad that have puzzles.  The easy puzzles in Mansions were similar to what she played.  The hard puzzles in Mansions were far, far harder than what she was used to.

If you spouse likes murder mystery shows or puzzle solving girl games - this may be something you can enjoy together.  My wife is familiar with the Cthulhu mythos from reading, some TV (like Supernatural) and some audio dramas we listen to on long car trips.

[Ubercat]

The last time I saw my best friend he came up here for a weekend visit a couple of weeks before moving to Cambodia. My wife and I played the 1st edition with him. I was the bad guy controller, DM, whatever it's called (no app), and they were the investigators. Tom was a bit frustrated because my wife kept solving the puzzles faster than he could.  Last game I ever played with him. 

I'm tempted to buy 2nd edition but so far there are too many other games demanding my money and time.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

We just played the boat scenario from the latest expansion, Horrific Journeys.  We didn’t know it was a hidden traitor mission so that threw us for a bit of a loop.  Ended in failure for both sides due to the mission timing out (we were one turn away from escaping in a lifeboat).  Interesting scenario but it’s was too easy for the traitor to win as they don’t suffer any penalties for not implementing their nefarious plans.  They just have to escape alongside the rest of the players to win.  Makes it too difficult to figure out who the traitor is.

[Ubercat]

My understanding is that most of the 1st edition scenarios were poorly balanced. I hope they learned their lesson and more vigorously playtested 2nd edition.

[airboy]

My understanding is that most of the 1st edition scenarios were poorly balanced. I hope they learned their lesson and more vigorously playtested 2nd edition.

I've only played one scenario in the 2nd edition and it is very well balanced.

[Nefaro]

My first experience with MoM 2e, with a friend, ended in our absolute failure.  Largely due to my long and absolutely terrible die roll streak (not unusual) mixed with my bright idea of being the monster decoy.   

First impression of it wasn't that great.  Probably due to being much more focused on my tablet, which I was running MoM's essential game software on, than the game components.  I can see how helpful and space-saving it can be, but we play tabletop games to get a break from the digital ones so that first impression was a bit negative.  Of course it didn't help that I lost the game for us rather quickly, too. 

I'll have to solo it next time, and get used to the idea. 

[airboy]

It is Cthulhu so it is not designed to be easy. 

From a design standpoint you have to press on hard to solve the mystery.  Formal tablet puzzles signal key points.  I run 4 characters in a session.  Two are combat oriented and two are investigator/spell oriented.  You can’t investigate every spot, you have to logically follow clue hints, and solving critical tablet puzzles will make or break you.

There is high suspense because you know failure, death and insanity are close by.

Enough bad die rolls will kill you.  But with a normal probability distribution you will not get an “easy win.”

Neither the wife nor I need to win as long as the game is good.  She has the added factor of only enjoying cooperative games.

I’ve just bought or am awaiting delivery of:
Buffy the vampire slayer
Fortune and glory
Elder sign
Descent
Big trouble in little China
Plus I have
Mansions of Madness
Eldritch horror

Over the next couple of years I should have a good set of play write ups on a large number of games in this genre.

I ended up not caring for Pathfinder adventure card game or the Lord of the Rings adventure card game.  LoTR was poorly written and overly complicated.

[airboy]

We just finished the 2nd scenario in Mansions of Madness: Beyond the Threshold Expansion with the wife.

It was very good.  The first scenario you are invited to a dinner party where the host informs you that one of the other 4 guests is trying to murder him - but you don't know which one.  We made a critical mistake trying to finish up all of the interaction when we knew who the murderer was - and ended up having to fight a ghost.  The difficulty at the end was due to player mistakes.

The second scenario is you are asked to help a police investigation of multiple missing persons at a home.  The home is of course haunted, has lots of monsters, and contains four gates to Yog-Sothoth.  We made no obvious errors.  Half the party went hopelessly insane and were eliminated.  The other two were grievously wounded or partly insane and almost out of the game from being crazy - when one of the two remaining characters closed the final gate.  The wife and I each run two characters when we play - and each of us had a fatality.  This was really close with a Star Spawn of Cthulhu doing a final beatdown on one scholar type while the other scholar type closed the last gate.  Both physical types were hopelessly crazy and out of the game by the end.  There was a lot of suspense and a real sense of accomplishment at the end.

[Nefaro]

Oh, it's a cool game.  Just didn't quite click in my 2-player experience due to how quickly we were beat.  Plus the tablet thing I mentioned.  Would probably enjoy it more on further plays.

Played Eldritch Horror with my same buddy a few months earlier.  After a very close loss after 4 or 5 hours, and more than a few drinks, we quite enjoyed it.   Been thinking of pulling out the Arkham Horror Card game and trying it 2-player but my To Play list is huge and causes indecision on my part.

Did you ever get Big Trouble In Little China?   We had a lot of fun with that one.

Another we enjoyed was Agents Of Smersh, which also has a (quite huge) storybook.  Although it's too easy unless you use the included optional rules to make it more difficult.  Nevertheless, we had some good laughs due to it's tongue-in-cheek James Bond '70s style spy/exploitation theme.  I specifically recall much joking about his spy character turning Honey Pot and attempting to seduce an evil dwarf villain.   

[airboy]

I have Big Trouble in Little China but have not played a game to conclusion yet.

[airboy]

We finished the first scenario in the Streets of Arkham expansion today.  Everyone survived - but everyone was wounded which meant if you hit your health total you were toast.

Oddly for us, I figured it out and my wife did not.  Fortunately, I was the one making the accusation (I had the tablet with the app) so it turned out ok.