What Is Mansions of Madness?

Written by Charlie Pettit

Mansions of Madness (Second Edition) is a beast of a box. Its serious-looking artwork offers just the right amount of impending doom, with a Mansion just looming enough to poke at that Scooby Doo instinct within all of us – the one that makes us want to buddy up and solve the mystery. Of course, being Arkham-themed, it’s more likely that you’ll lose your sanity before you unmask the janitor, and it’s probably more likely a monster of the mythos than anything you can unmask, but you get the gist.

Many people talking about Mansions of Madness (Second Edition – and the second edition does make a difference) will talk about the digital incursion into analogue games. At its heart, Mansions needs the app that comes with it to work as it does. However, arguably it does a fantastic job of being a prompt and an aide, rather than stealing the show.

What is Mansions of Madness (Second Edition)?

For the uninitiated, you’ll select your players and characters (there’s plenty to choose from) and put these into the app. Depending on what you’re playing, you’ll be prompted to lay out map tiles in a specific order to form your board, and you’ll move your minis around, taking movement and investigative actions as the situation dictates. When you speak to someone, or enter somewhere new, or a number of other actions where you would normally seek out some kind of rulebook, the app fills in the information you need – perhaps giving you the conversation, uncovering something new, or adding a twist to the tale. It’ll also spit out a monster every now and again, and you’ll be tasked with trying to ensure your own survival. All the while, there’s some spooky music, a few puzzles, and maybe a few character deaths.

Mansions of Madness App

Rather than an obstruction, or an app attempting to steal the limelight of it, Mansions excels with the app. There’s been no less attention paid to the game itself, not the story, nor the brilliant miniatures that accompany it. There are a number of expansions offering more tales, more monsters, and if you’ve ever seen those storage solutions on sale at events, I maintain Mansions is one where it’s needed.

The hybrid combination, being neither entirely tabletop nor entirely digital, works beautifully for my favourite aspect of this game – survival isn’t guaranteed.

Dying in Mansions of Madness

Now, that’s pretty normal for a Cthulhu game, you may die, you may lose your sanity, and plot armour doesn’t help you in the slightest. The combination though – of potential death – with atmospheric music, genuinely no way to predict what’s coming up (no accidental flicks through the rule book, or recognising cards, etc.), along with significant accountability, whereby the perils are real because there’s no option to cheat (we all know someone who would). I’ve never considered cheating in a game like this (Monopoly of course, as is expected, is another matter), but knowing that I can’t do anything at all to change the course I’m on if the ship starts sinking, is thematic storytelling gaming at its finest – and it’s that that always brings me back to it.

Interactive Board Game

Add to that the endings, of which there are multiple depending on the decisions you make and the outcomes you have. You can’t be sure, even if you try your very best, that it’ll be enough. I still don’t know what happened in The Sanctum of the Twilight. We seemed to do it right, seemed to beat the monsters and find what we needed and yet… the ending seemed suspicious. Did we do it wrong? Oh dear, we’ll just have to play it again…

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