#143: Massive Darkness, Mansions of Madness Second Edition and Nostalgia in Board Games

Opening Banter and Reviews

Feature Review: Massive Darkness

Massive Darkness brings the classic fantasy RPG experience to modern board gaming, with an action-packed campaign chock full of gorgeous miniatures and a streamlined system that keeps the focus on the heroes' actions, with no need for a game master to control the enemies. Using the popular Zombicide system as a starting point, Massive Darkness adds all the richness of a dungeon crawl RPG. Pick your hero, choose a class, decide on which skills to spend your XP, and get loot by searching the dungeon or killing special enemies that can use the equipment against you! Face a multitude of different enemy types, coming in all shapes and sizes, whose behavior is resolved automatically...or you can try to sneak around enemies by taking advantage of dark areas of the map. Players begin their adventure in Massive Darkness by picking a Hero – each with two special starting skills – and pair them with a Class of their choosing. Depending on the combination, another skill can be unlocked, giving players a wide range of choices and play styles. In Massive Darkness, the created Heroes go on Quests, killing monsters, collecting loot, and gaining XP. Players spend their XP to unlock new Skills, growing more powerful as the Quest progresses. Throughout the game, players encounter different monsters, including Minions, Agents, Roaming Monsters, and Bosses. An unique mechanism of the game is the Guardian. Any of the monster types have a chance of spawning as a Guardian, meaning it will use a random piece of equipment in the fight against Heroes. However, if players are able to overcome this difficult encounter, they will acquire that piece of loot!

Designed by Raphaël Guiton, Jean-Baptiste Lullien and Nicolas Raoult

Published by CMON

BoardGameGeek.com Entry

Lookback Review: Mansions of Madness Second Edition

Mansions of Madness: Second Edition is a fully cooperative, app-driven board game of horror and mystery for one to five players that takes place in the same universe as Eldritch Horror and Elder Sign. Let the immersive app guide you through the veiled streets of Innsmouth and the haunted corridors of Arkham's cursed mansions as you search for answers and respite. Eight brave investigators stand ready to confront four scenarios of fear and mystery, collecting weapons, tools, and information, solving complex puzzles, and fighting monsters, insanity, and death. Open the door and step inside these hair-raising Mansions of Madness: Second Edition. It will take more than just survival to conquer the evils terrorizing this town.

Designed by Nikki Valens

Published by Fantasy Flight Games

BoardGameGeek.com Entry

Gaming News by Tony T

Available Now

Community Info

Crowd Funded Projects

Upcoming Product

Our Sponsor Stronghold Games!

The Secret Cabal Gaming Podcast couldn't be happier to be sponsored by a great publisher and close personal friend Stephen Buonocore of Stronghold Games. We have been partnered with Stronghold games for over 4 years and we continue because we respect their the quality and integrity and feel good about promoting their products. Please take some time to check out their website at StrongholdGames.com.

Previous
Previous

#144: Viral, Trickerion and a Short Topic Extravaganza

Next
Next

#142: Fate of the Elder Gods, Cry Havoc, Gen Con 2017 Post-Show and a Short Topic Extravaganza