A board game you say?

On an impulse I bought Mansions of Madness from Mightyape. I have wanted to get a decent 'board game' for a while but didn't want something too involved so that the women folk might not want to play too. I watched the youtube vid Mightypae had posted from Fantasy Flight Games and thought it sounded like fun.

It arrived Friday afternoon and four of us were playing it that night. The first game I admit was a little clunky as they tend to go in the initial play but other than a couple minor mistakes we got the hang of it pretty quick. I took the role of Keeper the GM equivalent whose goal it is to actually stop the investigators/players. My wife Ali, Stu/Tiros and his partner Jardine played the Investigators and even though neither side accomplished their goals it was bloody fun and left me wanting to play more.

Yesterday Ali and I had a couple more games alternating roles as Keeper and Investigator and worked out all the rules quite well though I think at least 2 investigator players makes for a better game.

The product itself is the usual high standard the FFG is known for. Very nice map tiles depict a variety of rooms, caves and garden areas which would also be very useful for a modern RPG. The miniatures themselves are pretty cool with the Investigators being a variety of characters from the 1920's and the monsters being Cthulu goodness or cultists and zombies. The rules are fairly easy to pick up and after utilising a dozen resealable plastic bags for the shite load of cards and tokens included I am very happy with my purchase.

Ali found on the FFG website an expansion which is interestingly print on demand so I may order that yet as I can see the game getting some mileage for sure.

I was however missing a zombie! Even though I can just grab one from the hundreds of prepainted D&D minis I have I will mention it to FFG in an email though I'm not too concerned of the outcome.

So if you want to play a very story driven board game full of investigation and creepy monsters go get a copy or for those who can come over and have a game ;) Hopefully means I wont always have to play Keeper as its not like I don't GM enough =P