Mysterium

(For the TL;DR crowd, here is a link to a video describing the basic instructions on how to play. Click HERE)

Mysterium is a cooperative mystery solving game, in which everyone wins or loses together. All players share the same goal of uncovering the truth behind the death of the ghost that haunts the manor, thereby putting his soul to rest!

Player Roles Mysterium is an asymmetric card game in which players take on one of two different roles but share a common purpose. Players play differently according to their role: The ghost distributes cards to guide the psychics, helping them to make the right choices that will allow the investigation to make progress. The psychics receive cards from the ghost and use their intuition to try to correctly interpret his messages. Before beginning the game, the players decide which role to play: the ghost or a psychic. Example: Laura, Stephanie, Paul, Carl and Alex are beginning a five-player game. Laura decides to play the role of the ghost. The remaining four players play as psychics. Stephanie chooses Alphonse de Belcour (blue), Paul picks Ardhashir (white), Carl selects Madam Wang (red) and Alex opts for Alma Salvador (yellow). 

WHAT TO EXPECT DURING THE SÉANCE… The game is set in the 1920s. In your role as psychics you have been invited to a nighttime séance on Samhain (Halloween), when the visible and invisible worlds meet. This is the day of the year when the living are most easily able to contact the "other side". You will have only seven hours before the spiritual connection with the ghost is lost. Upon making contact, you quickly realize that the ghost is unable to communicate his killer’s identity directly. Clearly still in severe shock, the ghost has only vague memories of his death. With his help, your task is to reconstruct the events of the fateful evening: who was present at the scene? Where might the crime have taken place? What objects may have been used as weapons? To save precious time, each psychic will follow a different line of inquiry, with the aim of identifying and reconstructing the activities of one of the suspects.

Exhausted by his or her years wandering the astral plane, the ghost has become too weak to speak. Instead, he will communicate with the psychics individually, sending them visions in the form of "flashes", which the psychics will then share and interpret to the best of their ability with their partners. Guided by their intuition, they will then indicate their preferred hypothesis to the ghost, beginning by identifying the suspects. In return, the ghost will inform each psychic whether or not their intuitions were accurate, enabling the most perceptive among them to move forward with their investigation. When the suspect has been unmasked, the psychic’s next task is to determine where the crime took place and what object may have served as the murder weapon. If all the psychics successfully complete their tasks within the allotted seven hours, the ghost will be able to recall the culprit’s identity.

Summoning his or her remaining strength, he or she will send the whole group one final vision identifying the culprit. The more clear-sighted the psychics have been during the séance, the more unequivocal this final vision will be… Finally, the psychics hold a straw poll to formally identify the culprit, winning the game if the majority pick the right suspect. This frees the ghost’s soul to rest in eternal peace. If you fail, the ghost’s spirit will continue to roam the netherworld and you will have to wait another year before reattempting to solve the mystery of the manor… Now you know how the séance will unfold, you are ready to play! The ghost may choose to play the game without uttering a single word. For example, he might confirm the psychics’ intuitions by knocking on the table: one knock for «yes», two knocks for «no».

At the start of the game, the ghost draws a hand of 7 cards from the top of the pile.  After sorting his cards, he passes the character ghost cards numbered. The ghost shuffles the received cards and draws as many cards as there are psychics in the game. The ghost then places these cards in the character spaces on the inside of the game screen, in the columns representing the colours of the various psychics.Example: Laura (as the ghost) receives 7 cards and shuffles them. She draws the first card (number 10) and places it in the game screen, in Alex’s column. She then repeats the operation for the other psychics. Repeat steps 1 , 2 and 3 for the location cards and then the object cards. During this setup phase, the ghost generates a combination of three cards (i.e. a character, a location and an object) for each psychic. 

The game is played in two phases: Phase 1 - Reconstruction of events This phase lasts a maximum of 7 game turns, represented as hours on the clock (I, II, III, IV, V, VI et VII). Phase 2 - Revealing the culprit This phase takes place if all psychics successfully complete the Reconstruction of events phase before the end of the seventh game turn.

 Phase 1 - Reconstruction of events 
During this phase, the psychics attempt to identify which characters are crime suspects, determine where the foul deed might have been committed, and establish what objects might have served as the murder weapon. To visually represent the progress achieved by the psychics during their investigations, each psychic will move their intuition token along the 4 progress boards which have the people, places and things represented on the table. Each investigation is conducted in a particular order: the psychics must first identify their character (suspect) before attempting to discover their location and finally their object.

The reconstruction of events phase takes place in two steps: Step 1 - Vision interpretation Step 2 - Spectral manifestation
Step 1 - Vision interpretation During the first turn, each psychic’s intuition token is placed on the character progress board. This means that the ghost’s task is to help the psychics to guess the character card assigned to them behind the game screen. He does this by projecting a vision to each psychic, consisting of one or more vision cards. To project a vision, the ghost: 1 chooses a psychic and places one or more vision cards face up in front of him or her; 2 pushes the ghost token matching the psychic’s colour against the game screen. This reminds the ghost that he has already given vision cards to that psychic and cannot give him or her any more cards during the current turn; 3 draws vision cards to make up his hand to 7 cards. If the vision cards draw pile is empty, the ghost shuffles the vision cards discard pile to form a new draw pile; 4 picks another psychic and repeats the same procedure until all psychics have received at least one vision card. Upon receiving a vision, each psychic attempts to interpret it and discover the character/location/object to which it refers (depending which progress board their intuition token is currently on). To this end, psychics may freely examine their vision cards and psychic cards, and discuss hypotheses with the other psychics.

When the ghost has projected visions to all psychics, he starts the sand timer. Each psychic must place his intuition token on the psychic card to which he believes the ghost is guiding him before the sand timer runs out. The other psychics may help with decision-making by analyzing cards and giving their opinions. Psychics may change the positions of their intuition tokens at any time until the sand timer expires. Note: several psychics may place their intuition token on the same psychic card. However, as each psychic has to find a unique combination (consisting of a character, a location and an object), the intuition of at least one of the psychics must be wrong! Important: although the ghost may listen to discussions between psychics, he should NEVER make comments or gestures that could serve as clues, as this would disrupt the gameplay experience.
EX. Laura (as the ghost) wants to help Alex to guess the "governess" character. The character’s card features a ball of red wool. Laura (as the ghost) browses the cards in her hand and picks card A (in which a ball and a strand of red wool are visible), but also card b (which shows other cords and ropes) and card C (which shows a woman with a hat) to enhance this vision. Laura must also steer Stephanie’s choice towards the "cook" character. Card A shows some plates. Laura might also have chosen this card for Stephanie’s vision. To enhance this vision, she might also have added card D (on which some cakes appear). Sample visions A A D B C 

Discarding vision cards: At the start of the game, the ghost collects the number of crow markers corresponding to the chosen difficulty level. At any point in the game (including during the Revealing the culprit phase), the ghost may discard any or all of his vision cards and draw new cards to make up his hand to 7 cards (subject to the limit on the number of such discard operations determined by the difficulty level).
At the EASY difficulty level: the ghost may discard his cards once per turn, in which case, he places a crow on the game screen, removing it at the end of the turn.
At the MEDIUM difficulty level: the ghost may discard his cards up to three times during the game, each time placing a crow on the game screen.
At the HARD difficulty level: the ghost may discard his cards once during the game, placing a crow on the game screen.

 Using clairvoyancy tokens Players may add clairvoyancy tokens to the intuition tokens played by the other psychics, at any time until the sand timer expires. When played successfully, these tokens enable psychics to progress on the clairvoyancy track, potentially unlocking extra clues when attempting to identify the culprit in the final phase of the game. There are two types of clairvoyancy tokens: tokens bearing the symbol, indicating that the player agrees with the psychic’s intuition, and those bearing the symbol, indicating the opposite. A psychic may not play more than one clairvoyancy token per intuition token or add a clairvoyancy token to his own intuition token; a psychic may play as many clairvoyancy tokens as he wants during a turn, but is not obliged to use any at all; as multiple intuition tokens may be placed on the same psychic card, each clairvoyancy token should clearly point to the token with which it is associated; players may move or remove clairvoyancy tokens at any time until the sand timer expires.
Important: after use, all clairvoyancy tokens ( and ) must be discarded to the designated space on the clock board. They will be retrieved at the start of the fourth game turn. When the sand timer runs out, the Vision interpretation step ends and the ghost manifests itself.

Step 2 - Spectral manifestation During this step, the ghost manifests itself to let the psychics know whether or not they have correctly interpreted their visions. The ghost may reveal this information in any order he pleases. He informs each psychic that his intuition was correct (if the psychic’s token was placed on the right card) or incorrect (if the token was not placed on the correct card). After manifesting to a psychic, the ghost moves the ghost token of the corresponding colour away from the game screen. If the psychic picked the correct psychic card The ghost flips the corresponding ghost card in the game screen; any psychics who played an clairvoyancy token move their markers forward one space on the clairvoyancy track; the psychic collects the correct psychic card and slides it into his sleeve; the psychic discards all his vision cards; the psychic collects his intuition token and places it on the next progress board. Example: Stephanie has successfully identified her character. During the next turn, Laura (as the ghost) will help her to guess a location. Stephanie therefore places her intuition token on the location progress board. 

If the psychic has not picked the correct psychic card Any psychics who played an clairvoyancy token move their marker forward one space on the clairvoyancy track; the psychic returns his intuition token to the same progress board from which it was taken (Step 1); the psychic retains his vision cards in front of him. In each subsequent turn, the ghost will provide one or more additional cards to enhance the vision, until either the correct psychic card is picked or the game ends. Example showing the use of clairvoyancy tokens The ghost indicates that Carl‘s intuition was correct. Stephanie and Alex had both added a clairvoyancy token to Carl’s intuition token. As a result, they move their clairvoyancy level marker forward one space on the clairvoyancy track. Paul, who had played a token, does not move his marker.

 If a psychic has just obtained his three psychic cards When a psychic has successfully identified his combination of psychic cards, he places his intuition token on the mission accomplished space on the epilogue progress board. On the clairvoyancy track, he moves his marker forward one space for each hour remaining on the clock. Thereafter, he continues to take part by helping the other psychics to interpret their visions, and may still play any remaining clairvoyancy tokens. Example: Paul discovers his combination during the fourth hour and therefore moves his marker forward 3 spaces on the clairvoyancy track.

At the end of this step, move the hour hand forward one hour on the clock. If one or more psychics have not yet identified their character, location and object, a new reconstruction of events phase begins. If the clock was already showing the 7th hour (VII), the game ends and all players lose. If all the psychics have successfully identified their character, location and object combinations, move on to the final phase of the game: revealing the culprit. Note: At the end of this step, the psychics’ intuition tokens may be located on different progress boards.

Phase 2 - Revealing the culprit This phase only takes place if all the psychics have successfully identified their character, location and object combinations before the clock strikes 8.

The culprit’s identity is revealed in three steps: Step 1 - Suspect line-up Step 2 - Shared vision Step 3 - Straw poll

Step 1 – Suspect line-up: During this step, the psychics arrange their combinations of cards into groups, in order to compare the suspects and enable the ghost to identify the culprit. Collect any psychic cards that were not placed in sleeves and put them back in the game box, together with the character, location and object progress boards; Place one ghost token per psychic in the centre of the table, numbered side up. Example: in our five-player game (with 4 psychics), 4 groups of cards are required and the psychics, therefore, lay out the ghost tokens numbered 1 to 4. Replace the unused ghost tokens in the box. The psychics remove their combinations of three cards from their sleeves and associate them with the numbered tokens. Several groups of cards are thus formed at the center of the table, each containing one suspect.

 Step 2 – Shared vision: During this step, the ghost attempts to guide the psychics towards the group of cards in the middle of the table that contains the culprit. To this end: The ghost picks three vision cards from his hand. These cards form a shared vision and must all point to the same group. One of the three cards must point to the character in the target group, another to the location, and the final card to the object. The ghost then shuffles the shared vision cards and places them face down in the middle of the table. This group is designated as the culprit’s group. The ghost secretly collects the culprit token with the number matching that group and places it face down in the culprit space on the epilogue progress board.

Step 3 – Straw poll: During the straw poll, the psychics hold a majority vote to designate the group containing the suspected culprit. The ghost must not indicate which card in the shared vision relates to which element of the combination. The true culprit is revealed at the end of this step.

Voting by the psychics: The psychics vote in secret, and must not communicate with each other during the voting procedure. Psychics vote at different times, depending on their clairvoyancy level, as determined by the position of their clairvoyancy level marker on the clairvoyancy track. psychics with a low clairvoyancy level will see only one card from the shared vision before voting to identify the culprit’s group; psychics with an intermediate clairvoyancy level will see two cards; psychics with a high clairvoyancy level will see all three cards.

Put differently, the further a psychic has progressed along the clairvoyancy track, the more clues he will see when the psychics have to identify the group that contains the true culprit. Psychics vote using the numbered sides of their clairvoyancy tokens. Each psychic takes the token bearing the number of the group that he thinks contains the culprit and slides it into his sleeve. Ex. The first shared vision card is revealed. Stephanie, who reached space 4 (Low level) on the clairvoyancy track, votes now.The second shared vision card is revealed. Alex and Carl, who reached spaces 5 and 6 (Intermediate level) on the clairvoyancy track, vote now.  The final shared vision card is revealed. Paul, who reached space 11 (High level) on the clairvoyancy track, votes now. 

When all psychics have voted, the votes are revealed. Pass all the sleeves to the psychic with the highest score on the clairvoyancy track (or in the event of a tie, to the eldest of the tied players). This player reveals each clairvoyancy token in turn, placing it on the card group matching the number on the ghost token. When all tokens have been placed, proceed as follows: if one of the groups has received more votes than the others, it is chosen as the suspected culprit’s group; if no single group has a clear majority, the tie is broken in favor of the group chosen by the player who progressed furthest along the clairvoyancy track. That group is considered to represent the psychics’ verdict on the culprit. If a tie persists, it is broken in favour of the group for which the eldest player voted.

Now reveal the culprit token placed on the culprit space!

 End of the Game: If the group chosen by the psychics contains the true culprit, all players win the game together and the ghost’s spirit is laid to rest! Otherwise, the game is lost and the players must wait until Samhain comes round again before reattempting to solve the mystery of the manor.