PC/Mac •
Mansions of Madness 2nd Edition began life as a digital marvel, removing the not-very-fun role of game master and putting it in the hands of an iPad or whatever other digital device you had sitting at the table. Thus, up to four players could play as a team while the mystery, map, and whatnot were held under wraps by a GM that didn’t care if you took a break to eat or talked about the latest baseball game while exposition was divvied out. It even allowed for friendless losers, like myself, to play Mansions of Madness solo, which worked better than I could have ever expected.
Since its release, there have been many updates to the companion app, adding new mysteries and expansion packs. Today we learned that Mansions of Madness is getting a new digital form. It has nothing to do with the current board game+app configuration, instead it’s a completely new game that will drop you into the Mansions of Madness world in glorious 3D.
The game is called Mansions of Madness: Mothers’ Embrace and it’s a 3rd person adventure/mystery game from LUCKYHAMMERS, the same developers who are currently designing Terraforming Mars for Asmodee Digital.
Mother’s Embrace is a third-person title in which you’ll play a group of adventurers tasked with uncovering the secrets of a mansion in the wilds of Louisiana. If it goes anything like that X-Files episode where the mom is on a scooter and shoved under a bed, I’m out of here.
In Mansions of Madness: Mother’s Embrace, players will lead a team of investigators through an eerie mansion while uncovering its dark secrets. Everything is not what it seems as the investigators encounter traps, monsters, and other Lovecraftian horrors, and descend deeper into the depths of madness. Will your team solve the mystery and make it out alive?
So, it sounds pretty great, actually. It’s like playing the game by literally being in the game rather than just rolling dice and flipping cards. The only thing we’re not sure of at this point is the content. Will it be a one-and-done, like an adventure game, or will it randomize content and allow you to bring in different investigators making it a game you can replay over and over? Either way is valid. I wouldn’t expect a point-and-click style adventure game to have lasting replayability, so if that’s what this ends up being, so be it. The point is that, right now, we just aren’t sure exactly what Mother’s Embrace actually is.
We’ll have to wait a bit to find out. Mansions of Madness: Mother’s Embrace is set to release in Q1 of 2019 and will only be available on Steam for PC and Mac. I’m sure we’ll track down more info before then, but 2019 seems a long ways off.
Heresy. I own the first edition and the expansions. Second edition took away the scheming volition of the Keeper, who could orchestrate all sorts of evil shenanigans, and replaced it with an app.
True. I never minded playing the game keeper, to be honest, but I didn’t like the fact that FFG couldn’t just make it a “your job is to ensure that everyone has fun”, like a DM in D&D. Instead it was you against them thing, which I didn’t care for. Whenever we played, I ended up playing it like a DM and just pushing the players to their limits, but not trying to outright “win”.
I don’t remember if MoM was as bad as Descent in this manner. Maybe not. I do like 2nd edition better, however, as no one in my game group is interesting in “story” games and I can’t get my kids to want to be the keeper. This allows me to play the game as an investigator and solo it, which means it gets more play than 1st edition ever did.
I own MM2E and still play as GM only most of the time. I teach the game to any new players, run the app, look up the rules when needed, and basically as @Neumannium mentions, I help ensure that everyone has fun. Still having one person doing the app stuff definitely speeds up the game, and it makes a difference when you have casual/first time players in the group. With a group of veteran players though, it’s probably fine for them to run the app themselves.
If I’m not playing solo, it’s with my kids and there’s no way they aren’t the ones doing app stuff on their turns. Having one person do it all would definitely make the game flow better, but they don’t care about flow, only who can get the most crusty smears on my iPad screen.