LogFAQs > #933708690

52. Mysterium (2016)

Category: Cooperative
Genres: Clue-giving, limited communication
Rules complexity (0 to 7): 2
Game length: 40 minutes
Experience: 5-8 games (2015-2018)
Previous ranks: 32/100 (2016), 40/80 (2018)

Summary - One player is a recently murdered ghost while everyone else is a medium. Each medium is assigned a murderer, location, and weapon. The ghost, the only one who knows them, tries to clue the mediums in. They communicate by drawing cards from a deck with bizarre dream images on them, then assigning them to specific players. The players discuss and each place a guess at the same time, and if you are correct, you advance to the next tier.

Design - Mysterium is rather thin as an actual game. It's about interpreting pictures the way you hope the ghost intended, or vice versa choosing pictures as the ghost and hoping that the mediums discern your intent in what's essentially multiple choice game. It's not a "tight" game, with free redraws, the ability to dump your hand (as the ghost) just to redraw, and the ability to listen so closely to the mediums talking that you can communicate with them on almost an unfair basis.

As a result, it leans very heavily on its theme and components and the hope that players enjoy one another's company. For the most part, Mysterium succeeds big-time here. The game is absolutely gorgeous, starting from the box and large, eerie-bluish ghost screen. Cardboard ravens perch on the edge of the screen. Drawing obvious inspiration from Clue, it's got a motley crew of suspects, beautifully illustrated locales in an ominous manor, and some classic murder weapons to choose from. And the art on the dream/clue cards - if you like surreal, weird, fantasy-themed art, as you'll find in a game later on this list, you will love the images here. All the better that the game all about contemplating those images.

From there, it's up to you to adjust the difficulty level and try to have fun.

Experience - I was really excited for Mysterium. In fact, it was one of the early games that I discovered by my own research and was thrilled to have brought to the table. I was the first ghost and thoroughly enjoyed the toughness of interpretation.

Since then I've had both good and bad games. The replay in one sitting is very questionable; even in spread-out games with one group, the meta of "this card means that suspect" grows very quickly. It's a game that is perhaps most fun when players are failing and struggling; I think in an experienced group, playing with nine suspects (three dummies vs six true suspects) is way more enjoyable than with six or seven.

This game therefore seems incredibly dependent on enjoying the company. There's no objective puzzle to solve, so the game is much more fun with tabletalk among the mediums. The single best memory I had was in a game with four players, whom I like, but two of whom I barely get to play with at all due to living across the country. We spent most of the time doubting each other's options, trashing the cluegiver, and often making contradictory bets (i.e. picking the same location). Is that to the game's credit? Its detriment? All games are more fun with a fun crowd.

Future - Wanting to play Mysterium means desiring a raucous good time, whoch isn't always guaranteed. The risk is seemingly low, being short and relatively pleasant. Problem is, its setup and teardown are unfortunately rather comically cumbersome. I will typically opt for something else (in a way I won't for many games ranked this high), but I'm still willing to take the gamble on a good group, because it can be really fun when it's right.
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yet all sailors of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness