BoardGameArchiveMansions of Madness Second Edition
Mansions of Madness Second Edition explained: app-driven cooperative exploration, investigators, puzzles, skill tests, combat, horror and scenario objectives.
Investigators confronting supernatural mysteries in Arkham Horror settings
Investigate a haunted location cooperatively while a companion app controls the scenario, reveals map tiles, presents encounters and manages hidden information.
Investigators search rooms, solve puzzles, fight monsters and manage damage and horror while trying to complete a scenario-specific objective before the situation collapses.
Why it stands out
The app handles much of the scenario bookkeeping, letting the table focus on investigation and cooperation. Each room reveal can change the group’s plan without requiring a player to act as game master.
About Mansions of Madness Second Edition
One to five investigators cooperate through a scenario selected in the required companion app. The app reveals rooms, clues, encounters and monsters as the group explores; no player needs to run a hidden Keeper role. The physical map, cards and figures still carry the action at the table.
The scenario objective is not always known at the start. Search and interact to learn what matters, then shift from open exploration to completing the revealed goal. This guide covers the Second Edition core game; additional physical expansions and digital scenarios have their own content requirements.
Game at a Glance
Explore
Reveal rooms and points of interest through the companion app.
Investigate
Search for clues and resolve narrative encounters.
Survive Threats
Fight monsters and endure damage, horror and conditions.
Solve the Scenario
Work out the objective before escalating events overwhelm the team.
Who Mansions of Madness Second Edition suits
Choose this for a story-led cooperative mystery when everyone wants to play an investigator and is comfortable using a screen at the table. Publisher play time is about two to three hours, and a scenario can take longer while players learn. If your group wants a largely analog haunted-house game with a possible traitor, see Betrayal at House on the Hill.
Rules overview: investigator and Mythos phases
Choose a scenario and investigators in the app, place the starting tiles it requests, and follow its setup. In each round, investigators take turns in any order. Each gets up to two actions: move, explore an adjacent area, search, interact, attack, trade or use a component action. A move action covers up to two spaces and can be interrupted by another action.
After everyone acts, the Mythos phase has an event step, monster activations and horror checks. The app gives instructions, but players move figures, roll tests, apply damage or horror and update the physical board. Leaving a monster alive may cause another attack; fighting every monster can also consume the actions needed to finish the objective.
Tests use an investigator’s printed skill and dice. Clues can help with tests and puzzles; watch which resource an app prompt actually calls for. Damage and horror may lead to wounded or insane conditions. The app reveals scenario objectives and ending instructions, so a room’s apparent importance is provisional until new information arrives.
Decisions that change your odds
Editorial analysis: Spend an early action on information when it can distinguish the objective route from optional searches. Once the objective is revealed, ask whether each move, puzzle attempt or fight helps reach it before another Mythos phase. Two actions per investigator make an unnecessary detour expensive.
Use investigator strengths deliberately. An investigator with the right skill or equipment can take a risky test while another opens a route or handles a monster. Keep someone close enough to support a partner carrying key items; splitting too far can cost several move actions when the app reveals a new task.
Example: when a monster blocks a corridor, compare the cost of an attack with an evade and move. If the objective lies beyond the corridor, surviving the monster for a round may be worth more than defeating it. If it threatens multiple investigators in the next Mythos phase, removing it may save more actions and health.
Common questions
Is the app required?
Yes. Second Edition uses its companion app for scenario selection, reveals and hidden information. Have a compatible device ready before buying or scheduling a game.
Can one person play?
Yes, the publisher lists 1–5 players. The app runs the scenario without a Keeper. Follow the app’s setup for the chosen investigator count.
How do you win or lose?
Follow the objective and ending the app reveals. The group can lose through scenario events or a failure to complete the objective in time; the rules reference also covers investigator elimination. There is no universal “clear every room” win condition.
Can you save a long scenario?
The app offers Save & Quit. The rules ask players to record figure and possession positions, damage and horror before resuming; the app records tiles and tokens and keeps only one saved game at a time.
Core box, physical expansions and digital scenarios
The base box is sufficient to play its included app scenarios. A physical expansion such as Streets of Arkham adds tiles, investigators and other components as well as app content, and requires the core set. The publisher also lists separate digital scenarios. Check the scenario’s required products and enable only the physical sets you own in the app’s collection manager before play; a digital scenario does not replace physical components when it calls for an expansion.
For detail after this overview, see our turn guide and win and loss guide.
Related games
Learn Mansions of Madness 2nd Edition in depth
Upcoming campaign-horror game
Nemesis: Legacy is an upcoming 1–5 player survival-horror campaign from Awaken Realms. Its main Legacy story is fully cooperative, while a reusable Infinity Mode can also restore semi-cooperative objectives.
Sources and edition notes
- Fantasy Flight Games: Second Edition product and expansion list
- Fantasy Flight Games: Second Edition rules reference (PDF)
Facts checked October 2, 2026. Core rules and expansion examples are identified separately. Strategy and action priorities are editorial analysis.