Haven’t got a clue about Mysterium?

Blog post by John Barker

With the recent absence of these blog posts perhaps you have been fearing such a mystery disappearance was the result of my untimely demise. Fear not dear friends and intrigued consumers, no séance will be required to hear from me once again, but it may be necessary to emerge victorious in this week’s game pick. It’s Mysterium by Oleksandr Nevskiy and Oleg Sidorenko.

Mysterium is a game of fairly short to medium length, that can play anywhere between 2-7 players, though like many games not specifically designed for 2 it may be preferable to have at least 3 if possible. The box advertises a very precise 42 minutes, though in my experience it tends more towards the hour mark.

It plays fully co-operatively albeit with 2 very distinct roles for the players to fight over. Whilst most players will take on the position of spiritually attuned individuals attempting to solve a murder by contacting the ghost of the deceased for information, one player will in fact take on the role of that ghost who must decide from limited options, the best way to communicate the necessary information through the medium of dreams.

These dreams take the form of all manner of abstract art printed on a large deck of cards. Keeping in mind the ghost is otherwise unable to communicate throughout the game, the ghost must present one to each of the players each round, from which they must attempt to draw some sort of connection between that and a selection of suspects, possible murder locations, and weapons. Each player will have their own separate set of to collect, and once all players have managed to do so, the ghost must attempt to communicate which of the previously communicated sets of culprit/location/murder weapon were actually responsible with a final set of dreams. Depending on their performance in the first part of the game the players will get to see additional clues, and if they then guess the correct selection they have solved the murder and everyone is victorious!

Mysterium is a game I adore. I have played it many times thus far and will without a doubt play many times more in the future. Despite the amount of dream cards, you will inevitably start seeing repeats during replays, but generally given the nature of the game and especially if you play with different people, the game should stay more than fresh enough for a very long time, especially with the depth of little hidden details within these cards.

So if you’re looking for something perhaps a little thematic for Halloween to fall in love with and carry on playing throughout the year, then why not pop down to Toyville where you can pick yourself up a copy of Mysterium this week for the discounted price of £34.99!