Originally Posted by
Raimun
Don't know about Betrayal but in Mansions, each playable character has something like over 9 stats, a special ability and equipment (one you start with, others you find during the game). You generally resolve stuff with the roll of a ten sided die (e.g. if you have Marksmanship of 6, you must roll six or lower to hit a monster).
The game is about exploration and investigation. You need to find clues to know what exaxtly you are doing and your path gets blocked many times by obstacles. Sometimes, you need to find the correct "key"-type item for them and sometimes you need to solve a minigame puzzle to unlock the obstacle. Along the way comes monsters, burning rooms, darkness, trauma, insanity and other kinds of nasty hindrances.
The mansions are pregenerated but the scenarios can still vary between games. In every game, the Keeper picks one of the scenarios in secret and that is the one which is played. If you have already played one map, the experience will be different with a different Keeper and a different scenario. Even in the same scenario, the keeper is able to try out different tactics against the players. Needless to say, playing the keeper is a different game than exploring the mansions.
The game is one of the more comlex boardgames but it works to its advantage.