08/5/18
MM2 SPLASH2

GrogHeads Reviews Mansions of Madness 2

The second part of our Weekend of Madness ~

Avery Abernethy, 5 August 2018

I’ve played Mansions of Madness 2 (MM2) with a group of five random people at a MACE gaming convention and solo at home.  MM2 provides a unique board game experience.  At $90 retail at Amazon, it is also the most expensive board game I’ve ever purchased.

In MM2 you are playing a character with a set of skills.  Each player (up to 8) has an investigator avatar.  If you play solo, the manual suggests picking two investigators to run.  My solo game used only the core MM2 set playing “Cycle of Eternity.”  My convention game with random strangers had five characters and used an expansion.

MM2  provided one of the best solo board game experiences I’ve had.

Players cooperatively attempt to solve the mystery.  The investigator’s goal is unknown at the start of the game.  You begin with limited information in a single room with closed doors and potential clues.  Game setup requires starting the computer app, selecting the scenario, and indicating to the app which investigators are playing. After this information is inputted, the app displays the initial room setup and provides starting information.

The core Mansions of Madness 2 game comes with four scenarios of varying difficulty.  MM2  provided one of the best solo board game experiences I’ve had.  The app provided background sounds.  I had no idea what would happen when I opened a closed door or made a game choice.  Because the app ran the mystery, monsters, puzzles and other aspects of the game, it was a very immersive experience. Continue reading →

08/4/18
MM2 SPLASH1

Mansions of Madness 2 – First Look!

The first part of our Weekend of Madness ~

Avery Abernethy, 4 August 2018

I bought a copy of Mansions of Madness 2 after playing it at MACE in late Fall of 2017.  Mansions of Madness 2 is a cooperative horror, puzzle, exploration and combat game from Fantasy Flight Games.  A groundbreaking aspect of the game is that a computer app (which can be run on a smart phone or a tablet) is an essential game component.

Mansions of Madness 2 (MM2) comes in a large box

MM2 Box
The MM2 Box

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08/1/18
ODD SPLASH2

GrogHeads Reviews One Deck Dungeon

Small stature. Big fun? ~

Avery Abernethy, 1 August 2018

One Deck Dungeon is a simple one or two character dungeon exploration game.  The two character game can be played either cooperatively with another person or both run by the same individual.  The game centers around rolling a handful of color coded die to overcome encounters.  The more experience your character has the more dice they obtain and the more ways they have to increase die values, swap dice of different colors, or gain additional dice.

The game mechanics are simple.  You pick either one or two characters from five choices (Fighter; Mage; Thief; Paladin; Archer).   Each character has different starting attributes on four different variables (melee, magic, nimbleness and health).  Different colored dice represent each attribute.  Next you pick an opponent as the “boss” of the dungeon out of a set of choices.  Bosses are rated at different difficulty levels and each changes the characteristics of the overall dungeon challenges.

click images to enlarge

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