The townspeople say it is just another haunted house you and your fellow investigators are approaching. But you know the Elder Gods are stirring. You are one of the few who understand what is happening, and what is ultimately at stake. You enter looking for clues to solve the riddle of this house and how it ties into the greater horror. The things you have seen have already touched your mind, and there are times when you’re not sure what you are seeing is real anymore.
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Tower of Madness, by Curt Covert is a semi-cooperative game based on the Cthulhu mythos. As with other games designed by Curt Covert, there is the possibility of one of the players being or becoming a traitor who works for the demise of the rest of the group, and in this case the rest of the sane world.
I had the opportunity of playing a four person game of Tower of Madness at SaltCon End of Summer Event (website and Facebookpage) 2018.
Setting
Arkham is the easiest way to describe the setting you’re in. This is based on H.P. Lovecraft’s creations of Cthulhu and the rest of the Elder Gods. The look is for the early 1900s. This provides the theme of the game, but you don’t have to worry about getting into the actual horror aspects presented by Lovecraft’s works.
Mechanics
Tower of Madness has several levels of play that players work through.Investigators search through a series of settings attempting to solve the mystery associated with it. This is done by a random series for the game, and a game doesn’t include all of them. To solve the investigation a variation of the dice game Ship, captain, crew (Wikipedia explanation) is used. If the investigation is successful, then play passes. If more than one investigator is successful, then the high score collects the location for points. If an investor fails, that player pulls a horror.
When a player is unsuccessful in solving the investigation, they pull a horror from the tower. The tower is hollow and the horrors are long “pins” pushed through the tower holding up marbles. This is where the game received a quick nickname of Cthulhu Ker Plunk (here’s a link about Ker Plunk). Unlike Ker Plunk you can’t see the marbles inside the tower. The marbles are different colors representing different affects for the player.
There are four different colors of marbles. One is worth victory points, another grants spell cards to be drawn, the third drives the player’s character insane, and the final one works as a countdown for the unleashing of Cthulhu. The players win if all of the locations are investigated and the three green countdown marbles haven’t all been released. Scores are tallied for the highest score.
However, this is a game from Smirk and Dagger. And, Covert likes to add a traitor aspect.
In Tower of Horror, a traitor is a player whose character goes insane. They are now working to release the Elder God and bring insanity to the world. If they can get the green marbles to drop, they win. If the locations are completely investigated, they automatically lose.
Art
Multiple artists are given credit on Tower of Madness. All of it works together to maintain the Eldritch them. It is age appropriate.
Overall
Tower of Madness is designed to be a lighthearted game based in a horror setting without the horror.
I played a five person game. It was light and we had fun. This doesn’t require developing strategy. You roll the dice, determine the outcome, then, if you have to, you pull a horror. In our case we were moving right along and nearing the end of investigations, one of us went mad. He used his spell cards as soon as another person had to pull a horror and won the game.The spell cards had their own twist. Each card had two spells, one for when the character is sane, and the other for when the character is insane.
For the fans of the style of play of earlier games from Smirk and Dagger, Tower of Madness will fit right into your game shelf.
Tower of Madness is designed by Curt Covert and distributed by Smirk and Dagger (web page). It is designed for 3–5 players of ages 10+ for 40–60 minutes.
Tower of Madness is available from Amazon (link).
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You follow behind the Reginald as he makes his way through the darkness. His flashlight shows a narrow path down the hall when you hear a giggle coming from in front of you. You don’t see anything unusual until Reginald turns to face the group.
His giggling continues and his shoulders shake. You reach out to shake him back to reality when he smiles and his right eye rolls in his socket while his left one focuses on you.
“Reginald what have you done?”
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