Publisher: Libellud
Designers: Oleksnadr Nevskiy and Oleg Sidorenko
Players: 2-7
Time: 45 – 60 Minutes
Ages: 10+
Who hasn’t played Clue, right? Who hasn’t played Clue to the point of being sick and tired of playing Clue, right? Now, I am not saying there is anything wrong with Clue. It is a good game. Solving a mystery, deducting who did it, where, with what? We all loved it!
Mysterium is a modern version of Clue. One huge difference from Mysterium and Clue is that Mysterium is a fully cooperative game. You are all working together to find the killer, where he did it and with what weapon.
In Mysterium, one player plays as the ghost of a person who has just been murdered and the rest of the players are psychics who have come to hold seances trying to communicate with the ghost to find its killer. The key is the ghost CANNOT talk the entire game!!
The ghost has the information on different suspects, locations and weapons for each psychic to figure out. He has this information in an awesome folder that they play behind.
The psychics are then given options about who their suspects, locations and weapons are in the middle of the table. Each psychic has their own information that they need to figure out. They all start on the suspect. At the end of each day they will make a guess by putting their crystal ball on who they think their suspect is. If they are right, then they get to move forward and start guessing their location. If they are wrong they go back and try their suspect again the next round.
The game lasts 7 nights….that’s it! The ghosts job is to get the psychics to get ALL the suspects, locations and weapons right…..but cannot talk. the only way they can communicate to the psychics is through “dreams” or “visions”. These dreams and visions come in the version of large, beautiful, abstract paintings, or cards. The ghost will give each psychic a card or two trying to get them to match their dream to a certain suspect, location or weapon depending on what they are trying to figure out. It could be a specific detail that they both share, or the color of the card, or a shape that they both have on them. You are just trying to figure out what the ghost wants you to know. All the psychics work together. So, you can talk to one another and give help to others.
You continue doing this until the seventh night has happened or ALL psychics get all their clues right. If the seventh night happens, the psychics and the ghost lose and the killer gets off scott’s free. IF they all have guessed the right clues a final round begins. The psychics then take all their clues that they were given through out the game and places them in front of the ghost. The killer is among these suspects. The ghost then picks one of them that is the real killer, any one he wants, and then chooses 3 dream cards that will help the psychics find the killer. the problem is not all the psychics will see all three dreams. Some will see one, or two or all three. This is determined based on their guesses in previous rounds. Each psychic has these tokens that they can vote on other players guesses on whether they think it is a good guess or not.
They can put a check mark for, yes I think they are right or an x mark for no that is wrong. If they are right then they can move up on a track. Where they end on this track is what will tell them how many of the final cards they can see.
In the final round…..if the majority of the psychics have guessed the right killer….you WIN.
Mysterium is a fantastic game for the family of all ages. DO NOT believe the age restrictions on the box. This game can easily be played by 4 year olds. They might need to be a bit older to be the ghost because they have a hard time not talking and giving away clues but they can absolutely be a psychic. Our family played this 4 times straight and the kids wanted to play even more. It is a beautiful game that the kids just love to play.
Until next time, find those killers!!
-Tim
The Players' Aid 