What have I done? (Mansions of Madness 2nd E. All-In)

[Raynor]

So I had a friend who Looooooooved Mansions of Madness. He was a huge fan of the 1st e back in the day, ignoring our complaints about setup for that edition of the game. As 2nd edition came out, he got it and every expansion as it came out, some of which have since gone out of print. It was the first game he painted in its entirety, and he had the entire thing in a Feldherr organization system. It was his favorite game until Gloomhaven came out and even then it remained in his top 3 for as long as I can remember. We often argued about how short sighted the other person was for liking/not liking A Touch of Evil or Mansions of Madness more.

Well... times change. AH3E and the AHLCG came out, which he loves, and he's slowly come to resent having to pull out the app. Finally, the unthinkable happened and he decided to sell the entire lot.

Well, maybe I'm sentimental... because I panicked when he went from talking about it to posting it to ebay, and offered to swap him an old EDH project with a bunch of valuable magic cards for the set. Now I have literally everything for the game.

Since the behemoth collection actually arrived in a Feldherr duffel bag I've begun having second thoughts. It's a ridiculous amount of stuff.

I had often considered picking up just the core set but relied on him to just play the game when the mood struck up until now, which hasn't actually been that many times. We have a lot of games and live pretty far away from one another.

I know I've seen a few folks on here talk about enjoying different versions of the game, so I was wondering what you all might think. Did I make a good decision here, or am I victim of poor impulse control? I usually do a lot of research into a game and its expansions before diving in anywhere near this level, but skipped that step in this case to save the game from ebay, so I don't know much about how the expansions were received.

So, if you've played it, what are your thoughts on this game? Is it a game worth having everything for? Or was it a mistake to pick up this much of it?

Where should I start playing the scenarios and is there a recommended order to play them in? Also, any experience organizing or pulling pieces to set up? The Feldherr is hardly storage friendly. Seems to be geared a lot more towards transport safety with tons of foam bloating the footprint massively. Reminds me a lot of what I had to deal with Last Night on Earth before the 10th Anniversary box came out, and I had a lot of experience keeping that game organized through playing the game as it came out.

phew... sorry for the long post. Just questioning my judgement as I stare at a giant pile of Cthulu stuff. This thing takes up more space than everything for A Touch of Evil and Last Night on Earth put together!! I'm having flashbacks to when Shadows of Brimstone showed up.

[Old Dwarf]

Well..........I have MoM #1 & every Expansion so I know the feeling
The Expansions still haven't made it to the Table,but I like the fact that I have
them.

You have a Gold Mine of play experience but it depends on how you like
playing with the APP. Personally I hate APPS in Games but it will help
you handle the boat load of material you now have.(Which is more than
I can say about my SoB Minecart Pledge,which I still haven"t digested.)

So you did well & truthfully the Game probably plays better with the APP.
MoM itself is a cool Game & I think the best exploring a Location Game going.

MoM 2 plays Solo so you can poke around all that material a lot easier than
MoM 1.Plus if you decide it's not for you it would be an easy sell on ebay or BGG.

OD

[Raynor]

That make me feel better At least I'm not alone haha. I'm generally not a fan of Apps in my games. MoM2E was the first time I thought the app really added to the experience, but I've cooled on it over time even here. That being said, I can't deny that Mansions of Madness delivers a very unique experience in what it tries to do. I probably will end up playing a lot of it solo, before introducing it to the family to see if they enjoy it.

[Old Dwarf]

LoL- Your post got me to choose my next Game play.I'm doing MoM1 the Silver Tablet Expansion.
I haven't played MoM in years so your post got me to thinking about it & I was up in the air as to
which Game to play next.

I have some House Rules that AI the Keeper that worked well in previous Games so I just need to
review the Rules & go through the set up (no small task) to get going.

OD

[Old Dwarf]

Well I blew the afternoon reading the Rules & I also combined the allowable Cards from the
Forbidden Alchemy & Call of the Wild Expansion into the Core Game Cards. Forbidden Alchemy also
had Replacement Cards for some of the Core Game misprinted Cards so I was able to sort them out.

I was able to set up the Game Board Tiles but still need to Seed the Tiles.My Investigators will be Joe Diamond
& Ashcan Pete. I also did the opening Fluff for the Session Report tied into the Silver Tablet Expansion.

Tomorrow I'll seed the Tiles & wait a couple of Days which with my Short Term Memory will allow me to forget
where everything is at.

OD

[Raynor]

That's exciting! I was going through all the components last night and I was actually getting pretty excited seeing minis for all the classic Arkham horror characters.

I'd been subbing in Cthulu Death May die minis when the mood took me, but getting some actual minis for some iconic characters is pretty fun

[Old Dwarf]

I decided to Seed the Tiles tonight so I just need to pull the Cards from the Core Game I'll need.
The Game really looks great on the Table but it's a bear & a half to get it set up.

I use the FFG prepainted Inv.Figs & use the Monster Counters rather than the Monster Figs due to
those Clunky Bases.

OD

[Raynor]

The copy I have, my friend actually debased every mini and glued them onto transparent circular bases. I'd almost forgotten about those original thick square ones till I was looking at the back of the box.

Lol... De-based. But not debased if you know what I mean haha. I think it's a pretty good improvement actually.

[Old Dwarf]

I've see pictures of Figs. Like that & it's a great improvement. I always intended to do that but never have.
I'll check out the some clear bases,I have all the prepainted Monster Figs so it would be a project.

I just discovered that the unpainted Monster Figs from the Core Game are missing.I'm sure I had them in a box
but I can't locate them.I think I had them after the great move it's not a big deal as I just use the counters but I
hate to miss things.

I also discovered in Setting up The Silver Tablet Expansion that I'm missing 3 "C" Clues.This is the first time I've
opened the Expansion so they were shorted during FFG assembly (so C Objective is debased).Not much chance
now of getting them at this late date but again no big deal as the A & B Clues are there so I can Play those 2 Objectives.

So I'm off to Set up all the Card Decks I need.

OD

[Old Dwarf]

Everything is set up & I'm 3 Turns in.A little slow going as I'm checking the Rules as I go-it's been a long time since
I played MoM.I think 3 Turns is a good place to pause & write up a session report.

OD