Mansions of Madness: The Laboratory
Mansions of Madness: The Laboratory Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Laboratory Icon and Requirements
The Laboratory requires Forbidden Alchemy to play.
All cards in this expansion are marked with a special icon (the Laboratory icon). When setting up this scenario, use the Research, Lock and Obstacle cards from the expansion, not from the base game.
Two-Player Scenario
This expansion is best played with 2–4 investigators. When you play this scenario with two players (one investigator and the Keeper), the investigator player controls two different characters. This player makes all decisions for both investigators.
Keeper Setup
- Keeper actions: Other World, Outside, Strange Energies.
- Portal cards: take all the Portal cards and place them face up.
- Mythos deck: assemble it using the Mythos cards that carry the words Ascent, Weapon, Mystic, or the following icons. The icons are printed in the guide in that same order: the first is the Ascent icon (stairs with an arrow), the second is the Weapon icon (revolver), the third is the Mystic icon (bat).
- Goal card: place it face up, Goal side up.
- Research cards: take the following Research cards: False Clue, Whisky, Bandages, Sledgehammer, Pale Mask, .38 Colt, Gregory, Tillinghast's Notes, Alien Device, Control Key, Lightning Rifle, Sharpened Machete, Unstable Rift, Hunting Creature, Stradivarius Violin, Modern Medicine, Strange Elixir, Geiger Counter, Forbidden Knowledge, Family Pocket Watch, Flashlight, Gate Box.
- Clue cards: take all the Clue cards.
- Obstacles (?): Suitcase with a Secret, Veil's Disturbance, Machine, Dangerous Chemicals. (The guide prints a question mark after the heading "Obstacles" in this step; it is transcribed as printed.)
- Locks: Electrified Door, Doctor Tillinghast, Strange Shadows, Stuck Door.
- Starting resources: take one threat for each investigator. If there are more than two investigators, also take a Mythos card and a Trauma card.
Dealing
- Shuffle the Research cards together and place 1 random card in each room except the Control Room.
- Additionally, place a random card in Foyer 1.
- Place the Machine obstacle card face up in the Control Room.
- Look at all the remaining Research, Lock and Obstacle cards and place one card of your choice face down in each room except Foyer 1 and the Control Room.
- Open a Portal of your choice in Foyer 4 and resolve its effect associated with opening a Portal.
Special Rules
Adjacent rooms: One room is considered adjacent to another if there is a door or an open tile edge between them (excluding walls).
Never Give Up: If an investigator belonging to a player dies, the player chooses a new investigator and places them in the starting space. The player then continues the game and begins acting from their next turn.
Portals: When an effect opens a Portal, the Keeper chooses a Portal card from the Portal deck and places it face up in that room. When a Portal lies face up in a room, its effect begins. Some Portals have a one-time effect when they are opened. The effect of others acts on the game until the Portal is closed. When an effect closes a Portal, return it to the Portal deck. Investigators may try to close a Portal in the room with them by performing the action indicated on the Portal card.
Until the end: This scenario does not end when the last Event card is read. The game continues until the investigators or the Keeper complete the Goal.
Goal
Translated from the Goal card (Russian card scan of the same pack).
During setup this card is placed face up so that all players can read it. In the beginning of the Keeper's turn, the Keeper places one damage on this card for each open Portal. When an investigator dies, the Keeper also places one damage on this card.
The Keeper wins if the amount of damage on this card is five times the number of investigators in the game.
The investigators win if they solve Puzzle #2A on the Machine obstacle card. The investigators receive a number of action points for solving the puzzle equal to the number of Clue cards they have found, and cannot receive additional action points.
At the end of the game, flip this card over to its Epilogue side and read the corresponding ending.
Epilogue
Translated from the Epilogue side of the Goal card (Russian card scan).
If the Keeper wins: All the problems you have experienced because of Tillinghast disappeared after reality cracked and split around you. A moment before you lost your mind, you realized that your failure doomed not only you but the whole world.
If the investigators win: Electricity forms an arc in the air when the machine shudders and stops. The strange visions fade; you no longer feel the prickling on your skin, and a numbness washes over you. Although you feel grief over the loss of your friend, you assure yourself that this was the only way.
Contents
This expansion contains:
- 27 Research cards.
- 4 Lock cards.
- 7 Portal cards.
- 5 Event cards.
- 1 Goal/Epilogue card.
- 3 Keeper action cards.
Prologue
Translated from the printed guide's Prologue section.
Crawford Tillinghast stands before you, half hidden in the shadows of the attic stairs. The last two months have clearly taken a toll on his health and his mind. Once a strong man with thick dark hair and a great attachment to cleanliness, your old friend is now very thin and repulsively unkempt, with thinning hair going white at the roots. His yellowed skin hangs loosely on his bones, and his reddened eyes stare at you intently with hatred and madness.
"You doubted my machine, but now you will see. Now you too will look beyond the frame of this worldly parody. You will see such wonders, such beings, as you cannot even imagine! In the last moment of your small, sweet life you will learn that I was right all this time!"
Gregory steps forward, probably in an attempt to calm his employer, but at that moment the air between you and Tillinghast begins to crack and shake, opening with a pale luminescence into a swirling mix of colours. You are ready to swear that they should not exist. In horror you watch as blinding little lights devour Gregory and darken the room. Somewhere beyond the glare you hear Tillinghast's insane laughter.
After his laughter fades, all that remains is the terrible humming of the machine above you and a whirl of nauseating visions ahead. You are sure that this repulsive machine has swallowed your friend, and you swear that you will not leave this place until you have saved him from it. One way or another.