Foggy Mountain Communication Breakdown Madness

Communication breakdown

It's always the same

I'm having a nervous breakdown

Drive me insane!

- "Communication Breakdown" by Led Zeppelin

One of the cool gifts I received for my birthday was the Mountains of Madness boardgame, by Rob Daviau (Risk 2210, Risk Legacy, Seafall). It's a co-operative game based on a Cthulhuverse novella by H.P. Lovecraft, in which an Antarctic expedition in 1931 encounters strange creatures and disorienting phenomenon before discovering ruins from an ancient and malevolent prehuman civilization, the knowledge of which begins to drive the party insane. (My apologies if you thought this post was going to be about some kind of Earl Scruggs/Jimmy Page mashup.)

I've never come across a Lovecraft-inspired game that didn't reference sanity (or its lack thereof) in some fashion. In many games (Cthulhu Dice, for instance) it is effectively treated like currency. In role-playing games, it is another form of health, similar to hit points, but which players are encouraged to act out. Mountains of Madness is the first game I've played where sanity/insanity is not simply treated as a score, but has increasingly chaotic and entertaining impacts on the game as it progresses.

Each turn, 3-5 players make their way up and across the mountain, from the Coast, to the slopes of the Mountain itself, through the ancient City and eventually, to the Edge of Madness itself. 

Each space contains a tile which, when flipped over, tells the players the requirements for passing that tile's challenge, as well as the reward for success: a relic, an arcane weapon, or perhaps a chance to heal or refresh the party. The challenges start out as numeric ranges in a number of categories, e.g. 7-10 in Weapons plus 9-12 in Books. Players then have only 30 seconds to discuss how they are going to share the numbered equipment cards they have in order to meet those goals. They are not permitted to discuss their hands outside of this 30 second window.

This would be challenging enough on its own, but inevitably (and right from the start in a 5-player game), madness begins to take its toll.

Madness cards compel the player to act in a specifically peculiar fashion, but only during the Encounter Phase, while the timer is going. The rest of the time they have to pretend that they have no recollection of acting peculiarly. You can't ask questions to clarify what someone else's deal is, or try to come up with a workaround. You simply have to do the best you can before time runs out.

Glory was the first to succumb, and Fenya found it a bit disorienting when her sister started stroking her face while she was trying to determine how many crate cards she might be able to contribute to the cause. A few turns later, Fenya began scratching her head frantically during the Encounter Phase, which was not only distracting, but also impeded her ability to handle her cards effectively.

There are three levels of madness cards, and higher levels replace the lower ones (thank goodness!), but when I got to level 2's 'Dashing' card, I not only had to hold a finger to my lip like an ersatz mustache, but I wouldn't communicate with anyone who was not doing the same! Thankfully Glory caught on fairly quickly, but Fenya found it hard to remember this once she became 'tired', and had to spend the entire Encounter Phase seated on the floor.

We enjoyed tremendous success on the Coast portion of the board, but things quickly came apart on the Mountain portion, as we dealt with increasing levels of madness, and had challenges that no longer permitted a numeric range, but a specific value or values; instead of 9-12 Tools, you might need 13 or 15 (but not 14).

The relics we acquired also made things more complicated. In addition to increasing our madness (yes, that's right: every single item you get that you require in order to win the game makes you a little crazier), some of them introduced other restrictions. Soon certain players couldn't cash in Leadership tokens in order to get another 30 seconds on the timer, or take a re-roll on the penalty dice. When Fenya was party leader, she was required to discard the lowest value Crate submitted for the challenge, necessitating an additional, low value Crate card be submitted on her turn.

On the other hand, Arcane Equipment we found, like the Elder Sign (Weapon 10) and Necronomicon (Book 10), had very high values which made it easier to reach some of the harder goals as we approached the summit. Except, you know, when it made it harder to stick the landing on a specific number.

In the end, our attempt to take the 4 relics we had collected and power through to the Escape tiles left us too injured to win, but at least we made it back. More importantly, we had a wonderful time trying to meet our challenges while overcoming the limitations imposed by our lack of sanity.

Which, now that I think of it, is not just an apt description of family game night, but family life in general.

We will definitely be returning to this Mountain of Madness again, and even though it can only accommodate 5 players, I dearly hope this gets played at G&G XIII later this month. Not too many boardgames have this much potential for spectator entertainment, especially when the game comes with some blank Madness cards so you can create your own bizarre behaviors.