Mansions of Madness

Letting an app handle the monsters, events, puzzles, and storytelling means everyone at the table can focus on actually surviving the mansion. A great companion to the board game - although no amount of technology will save your group from terrible decisions.

Mansions of Madness is a really peculiar game. It's definitely a must-have for Lovecraft fans and tabletop addicts, but I warmly recommend it to all curious gamers too. Tiles and miniatures builds up onto your table as you play, crossing the line between board and video game. You play through interactions with the environment, mediated by a Dungeon Master-like interface that describes places and reacts to your actions. You'll find yourself building the setting of your story one tile after the other, deciding the fate of your characters with your choices, and possibly even that of the entire world! The base game already provides plenty of scenarios, with a few tile and plot variations, and some DLC are available at a small price to expand the experience further. Physical expansions are a true game changer: they introduce new scenarios, but above all lots of new and exotic foes and tiles (a whole city, a jungle, a train, an airship...). Be warned, though: both the base game and the expansions are very costly, but well worth the price! Unfortunately, Fantasy Flight/Asmodee has progressively stopped releasing new scenarios, and the existing ones tend to get repetitive, also b…

Why is there no Chinese in the DLC? It has been 10 years without an update. Is it because they think there are very few Chinese players?

Great accompany app to the Mansions of Madness Board game. Significant improvement over 1st edition.

Mansions of Madness is a dark and atmospheric investigation experience that brings the tension of Lovecraft-inspired horror into a digital format. Developed and published by Fantasy Flight Games, it serves as a companion application for the second edition tabletop experience, transforming the traditional board game structure into a guided adventure filled with exploration, mystery, puzzles, and supernatural threats. Instead of focusing on direct action, the game emphasizes careful investigation, teamwork, and decision-making as players uncover hidden secrets while attempting to survive encounters with terrifying forces. The core appeal comes from its ability to create a strong feeling of discovery. Players take the role of investigators exploring haunted locations, searching for clues, collecting useful items, interacting with characters, and piecing together mysteries. Every scenario is designed to create uncertainty, with hidden information and unexpected events keeping players engaged throughout the investigation. The slow buildup of tension is one of the game’s greatest achievements, as the fear comes not only from the monsters themselves but also from the constant feeling tha…

Mansions of Madness is a strange mix of a board game and a digital game, and I actually think that is what makes it work so well. The Steam version is not a standalone horror game in the usual sense. It is the companion app for the second edition board game, and it handles the story, map setup, encounters, monsters and other things that would normally need to be managed manually. I can use it with the physical game while investigating Lovecraftian mysteries around Arkham, and the whole thing is built around exploring locations, finding clues and trying to work out what is actually happening. The atmosphere is easily my favourite part. The app does a good job of making the scenarios feel like proper horror stories instead of just a collection of board game rules. I can explore a room, discover something strange, hear a bit of narration and then have to decide whether I want to investigate further or get myself out of trouble. There are monsters, NPCs, puzzles, sanity effects and different events that can completely change how a scenario feels. I really like the fact that I do not know everything that is going on from the start. The mystery is much more enjoyable when I am slowly pu…