As I understand it, Mansions of Madness is the stand-alone version of the upgradeable Arkham Horror game.
Arkham Horror is a mess of fun on its own, but the expansion packs are a mess of fun as well and can get rather spendy. I think it's all going to depend on the time/space/money investment you're willing to make which one you get.
Seconding Arkham Horror. I have not played it, but I observed part of a game and the players (board game junkies) were having a hell of a lot of fun with it.
Mansions of Madness is in the world of HP lovecraft and uses characters and themes from arkham horror, but is not an upgraded version of arkham horror. Arkham Horror is a great great game. You can even play it solo controlling multiple investigators yourself.
Yes. Have a look at Board Game Geek. You can do searches for board games and they have rankings, reviews and forums. I remember the first time I played a different board game and it was an eye opener! I've played a lot since then and haven't lost my love for them. If you're completely new to them, then they can be a bit overwhelming at first, but don't let that put you off, I couldn't go back to Monopoly for the world
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So. Yes, Arkham Horror is a fun game. BUT. It's kind of a huge time investment and may well be overwhelming to a novice boardgamer; I'd recommend trying playing it before buying it. Your friendly local game shop is likely going to be a good resource for you -- they may have play test copies of a wide variety of games, or host game nights, or at least be willing to discuss the gameplay of various games with you in detail and match one with your interests/playstyles/etc. Failing that, Board Game Geek (that's a link; LJ's new formatting does not make that clear in the least) is a fantastic resource.
Personally, I'd recommend starting gaming with something a bit lighter, but it's up to you. How many people are you looking to play with regularly? How long do you want to play an individual game? Do you like a lot of complexity or something simpler? Do you prefer games that are luck-based or strategy-based?
Thank you for some sound advice. Personally we're bound to play with at least 2-3 persons per game, and it doesn't really matter how long the games take. The more crazy it gets the better. We're bound to play it when we have time, which is quite often nowadays.
If you think that Arkham Horror is too much for a beginner, can you suggest something else? And yes, if I do purchase Arkham I probably won't be buying the expansion sets.
Unfortunately, I don't have anyone near me who has these games, and the stores which carry these games don't really have sets for play testing. So I really have to make sure of my choice.
Edit: I've just checked the website and I got all the more confused o.O I didn't know where or how to start looking
My first non-standard board game was Settlers of Catan, which is an excellent game - it created the genre "awesome board games from Germany" (yes, that's a genre ;P). It's designed to be relatively simple when you first play, then can have some increased complexity by adding/changing various elements. There are also expansion sets for it, like with Arkham Horror, but it's a fine game without them (like Arkham Horror ;P).
To your original question, one thing I really like about Arkham Horror that distinguishes it from most board games is it's cooperative rather than competitive. The players are all working toward the same goal, rather than trying to best each other (in MMO terms, it's PvE rather than PvP). My biggest beef with AH is how much physical space is required to set it up - this is the main reason we don't play it more often, we don't have a nice large table to play it on.
Seconding all the comments to go to boardgamegeek or to your local gamestore. Try out Arkham Horror first, or at leaast read the rules -- if you're mostly used to classic family boardgames, Arkham Horror may be overly complex.
Settlers of Catan is a good "stepping stone" boardgame for people who are not used to the modern boardgames available, as is Carcassone. Neither of those is horror-genre, however. There's a "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" boardgame that is a little simpler than Arkham Horror, although still fairly complex. It's out of print but is available on eBay and so forth for cheaper than Arkham Horror.
For darker, but fun simple card games, you might try Cheapass Games' "Give Me the Brain," Lunch Money/Beer Money, or Gother than Thou. Again most of those are out of print, but GMTBrain should still be widely available (although perhaps not as cheap as it was before Cheapass licensed it to Steve Jackson Games).
I'm actually not a huge fan of Arkham Horror because the end of the game turns into a big dicefest if the monster wakes up. Also, like other people said - it's pretty rules heavy for someone who is new to more complicated board games
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Arkham Horror is a mess of fun on its own, but the expansion packs are a mess of fun as well and can get rather spendy. I think it's all going to depend on the time/space/money investment you're willing to make which one you get.
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Arkham Horror is a great great game. You can even play it solo controlling multiple investigators yourself.
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Personally, I'd recommend starting gaming with something a bit lighter, but it's up to you. How many people are you looking to play with regularly? How long do you want to play an individual game? Do you like a lot of complexity or something simpler? Do you prefer games that are luck-based or strategy-based?
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If you think that Arkham Horror is too much for a beginner, can you suggest something else? And yes, if I do purchase Arkham I probably won't be buying the expansion sets.
Unfortunately, I don't have anyone near me who has these games, and the stores which carry these games don't really have sets for play testing. So I really have to make sure of my choice.
Edit: I've just checked the website and I got all the more confused o.O I didn't know where or how to start looking
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To your original question, one thing I really like about Arkham Horror that distinguishes it from most board games is it's cooperative rather than competitive. The players are all working toward the same goal, rather than trying to best each other (in MMO terms, it's PvE rather than PvP). My biggest beef with AH is how much physical space is required to set it up - this is the main reason we don't play it more often, we don't have a nice large table to play it on.
Reply
Settlers of Catan is a good "stepping stone" boardgame for people who are not used to the modern boardgames available, as is Carcassone. Neither of those is horror-genre, however. There's a "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" boardgame that is a little simpler than Arkham Horror, although still fairly complex. It's out of print but is available on eBay and so forth for cheaper than Arkham Horror.
For darker, but fun simple card games, you might try Cheapass Games' "Give Me the Brain," Lunch Money/Beer Money, or Gother than Thou. Again most of those are out of print, but GMTBrain should still be widely available (although perhaps not as cheap as it was before Cheapass licensed it to Steve Jackson Games).
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