I just got finished playing the game at Labyrinth Games & Puzzles in D.C.

Thi s game was very fun, here are my initial thoughts:

1. No, the map pieces do not lay perfectly flat, but it did not affect game play at all.
2. Figures look great, as do the map and pieces.
3. We had 5 players. With this many investigators, the Keeper should not hold back. (Our Keeper killed our Nun, but we still won the game.)
4. For the first game, with 5 players, the game only took us 3 hours, so it seemed to play faster than Descent.
5. Even thought the game seems to not be combat heavy, due to our story and the Keepers objective, we were doing a lot of combat.
6. A few questions on rules:

• How does Darkness affect Fire and vice versa? We had a situation where a Zombie who was on fire ran into a room that was under Darkness. Is the room still dark? We then damaged it, and the room started on Fire, is it still Dark? If the Keeper implements Darkness on a room that is on Fire, does it cease to be on Fire?
• What are the limits and constraints on Uncontrollable Urge? Can the Keeper make an Investigator attack another Investigator? Can the Keeper make an Investigator heal a monster/minion? Drop an Item? Which items cannot be used?
• Is there a limit on how many tissue samples a monster/minion can take from a single investigator? Is there a limit to how many tissue samples a single minion/monster can carry?

Thanks to Kathleen at Labyrinth Games for setting this up, and to Steve, Andrew, Andy, Daniel, and Justin for playing.

Just got down with a game of Mansions of Madness in Del City, OKlahoma.  GREAT GAME, went right down to the wire and all five players had a great time.   I"m already looking forward to the expansions.  Gotta have this game.

Skip

I guess I should mention that the game took two hours and we did not lose a single investigator.  The Investigators won the game but literally on the last turn.  It was very exciting.  We did have one investigator (Harvey Walters) down to his last wound, but all survived.  The mechanics were easily picked up by all and we were having fun with it in a very short time.  Highly recommended.

Just Finished running some demo games in St. Catharines, Ontario and everyone had a blast. 

All of the games took less than 2 hours, and even players who'd never played arkham horror or any similar game picked up the rules with ease.  None of the tiles were warped at all, all the pieces were beautiful, definitely alot of "ooohs" and "aaahs" from the crowd.

Over all, only one investigator died - killed by an axe-wielding maniac in the basement, in a pitch black room that had caught fire!

This game is great, I'm certainly going to buy a copy when it becomes available.

 Finished the Demo game here in New York in about 3 hours or so. Two of us went insane, Kate Winthrop was killed by the most fearsome axe maniac ever, and the Shoggoth came THIS close to being killed, but it escaped. Was a really awesome, exciting game. I can't wait to get a copy for myself when it comes out and see things from the Keeper's perspective.

 Just got back from the demo in St. Louis at Game Nite, only had three players plus a keeper but it was a great time.  We also managed to beat the scenario, but literally on the last action of the last turn as Harvey Walters threw an axe through the head of the Master Zombie to finish him off.  Top notch, as said by others the rules were very easy to pick up and the game played fast, and the game dripped Lovecraftian atmosphere from the clues to the figures.

The only concern I'd have is our tiles were warping noticeable almost immediately - we were able to play with them, but I hope it doesn't become a widespread problem with the whole print run.  Even so, the game is definitely on my list to buy.

Played the demo at the FFG event center. It lived up to the hype. Like most games of this type, the rules and peices seem intimidating but once everyone got into the flow it was a breeze. We played a game with 4 investigators and took about 3 hours. Two investigators died but we still managed to kill the shuggoth. Divide and conquer seems to be a good strategy for the keeper.

Overall, the game is very good. I'd prefer that the map piece interlock somehow. If had to describe it to the average person I'd say it's a deadly version of Clue with a lot more depth to the story and the chance that you may not make it through the game with your life or sanity.

I also would like clarification on the sample tokens. In a game we played today I had back to back turns where the monster took a sample, moved, and the investigator followed it. So on the the next turn I took another sample, giving the monster two samples (and then a trauma played on the investigator moved it away). According to the card, when this monster then made it to the Altar space, by doing the passive ability on the card arguably both sample would be placed ont he altar, and the keeper gains an additional 10 threat. We decided that this was just too much, and the monster would only be able to place one sample per turn. I still got the full threat from both tokens, and it made the game incredibly fast. It seems like there should be a limit of some sort.

Also, the Witchcraft keeper card appears to create an infinite loop. The keeper spends two threat, discards 4 cards for 4 threat, uses the (can't remeber the name) keeper card that for 1 threat draws a trauma and mythos card twice, then uses the last 2 threat to trigger Withcraft, discard the 4 cards just drawn for 4 threat, lather, rinse, repeat. This can allow the keeper to keep using until all withces are on the board, or simply to burn through the decks until they get what they feel are the best cards at that time.

Thanks!

sabrjay said:

Hah! I like the sound of that.

Heard back from Corey that yes, monsters can collect mulitple samples (thoguh the card can only be used once per turn) and can them all off on the same turn. Which basically means, if a monster manages to snag a second sample, you better kill it fast or the Keeper is going to be swimming in threat! And don't put yourself in a position where that monster can snag a second sample from you and escape!