OBJECTIVE OF MYSTERIUM: The objective of Mysterium is to deduce the correct answer for the murder using the ghost’s clues.
NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 2 – 7 Players
MATERIALS: 6 character sleeves, 6 character markers, 6 player clairvoyance markers, 36 clairvoyance tokens, 1 clock board,4 progress boards, 54 psychic cards (location, character, and objects),1 minute hourglass, 1 clairvoyance tracker, 54 ghost cards (location, character, and objects), 1 game screen, 6 ghost tokens, 6 culprit tokens, 3 crow tokens, and 84 vision cards.
TYPE OF GAME: Deduction Murder Mystery
AUDIENCE: 10+
OVERVIEW OF MYSTERIUM
There are two types of players in Mysterium, you are either a physic trying to solve the murder, or you are a ghost helping the psychic to solve the crime. The goal for the ghost is to use strange visions to lead the players to pick their correct suspects, locations and murder weapons and then to lead all players to correctly guess the correct solution. The goal as the physics is to cooperatively find your solutions and the final solution before time runs out.
SETUP
Phase one
A player will be picked as the ghost and will do most of the setup. The other players will take a character sleeve, marker and clairvoyance marker and a number of clairvoyance tokens stated in the rules dependent on players.
Meanwhile, the ghost will set down all the boards as illustrated below, shuffle all separated decks, and deal out cards as specified in the directions. Psychic cards will be dealt out in accordance with players and then matching ghost cards will be secretly assigned by the ghost in their game screen. The vision cards will be shuffled and placed next to the ghost. A number of crow tokens will be set aside for the ghost according to the difficulty chosen by players. Once phase 1 gameplay is complete, phase 2 set up can begin.
Phase two
After all players have correctly guessed their character, location, and object, the second phase of the game begins. Here is the set up for that.
Remove all unused cards along with the location, character, and object progress markers. Then the ghost will set out the ghost tokens. The players will assign their solutions to one of the ghost markers, then the ghost will decide which solution will be the correct one secretly. They will take the corresponding culprit marker and place it facedown on the epilogue progress marker. You are ready for Phase two gameplay.
GAMEPLAY
Phase One
The ghost after setting up will draw the top 7 cards from the vision deck, and the players will place their character markers on the character progress marker. The game then begins. The ghost will look at their vision cards and will try to pick cards that can elude to one of the character cards associated with a player’s solution. The ghost can give multiple cards or just one but must give all cards to the player at one time, once a player is given cards, they may not get more clue cards this round. After giving out cards the ghost will refill tier hand to seven and continue doing this till all players have vision cards to decipher. Once the last player receives their vision cards the timer starts and they have a minute to cooperatively decode their clues and choose a character to accuse by placing their character marker on it.
Once the minute is up and all players have chosen their characters the ghost will then go player by player and announce if they are correct or incorrect. If correct that player advances to the location progress marker, and they take the character cards and place it in their sleeve. They also return all their vision cards to the ghost for discard. If a player is incorrect then they do not advance and instead go back to the character progress marker. They know that the character chosen is not part of their solution and keep all their vision cards for the next round.
This is how the game will continue; the ghost will give visions and the players decipher and pick their respected choices based on these clues. Once all players have advanced past the object progress markers and have their full individual solutions Phase two may start.
Clairvoyance Tokens and Tracker
The clairvoyance tokens are used by players to vote on other players’ guesses. A checkmark means you agree, and an X means you disagree. If you are correct in your vote you will move one up on the Clairvoyance tracker for each correct vote.
Everyone starts at zero on the clairvoyance tracker and the amount you reach on the track can determine how many cards you will see for the final solution and who can break ties.
Clairvoyance tokens are used up once they are used to vote after they are resolved they are placed on the clock board. They refresh when the clock strikes 4, and you will receive all used tokens back.
Ravens
The ghost may use a raven at any time to discard their entire 7 card hand of vision cards to draw a new hand of 7 vision cards. They can do this as many times as they have available ravens, once a raven is used it cannot be used again for the remainder of the game.
Clock Board
The clock board is used to signify the passage of time. Players have until the clock strikes 7 to complete phase one. The clock is advanced at the end of every round. If you do not complete phase one by the end of the 7th round, the game is over, and all players have lost.
Phase Two
Once all players have their solutions and Phase Two set up has been completed, the ghost will use their hand of cards to determine which solution they will be giving clues for. They will only get three cards to point towards the solution. One card to indicate character, one card to indicate location, and one card to indicate object.
Once these are chosen the ghost will shuffle them, and randomly show each player secretly and individually the number of cards associated with their clairvoyance marker. Players may not discuss the clues given to them. One all players have seen their number of clues they are allowed, they have as much time as they would like to look and deduce the correct solution. Lal players will be given their clairvoyance tokens back and secretly, using the number side vote for which solution they think is correct. Once all players have a guess, they will be revealed at the same time. Votes are counted up and the solution with the most votes is guessed. In the case of a tie, the player with the highest clairvoyance involved in the tie is the tiebreaker.
The ghost reveals the culprit token and if they are the same, the players have won.
END OF GAME
The game ends either when time runs out and all players have not completed their solutions, or when phase two is completed and players have determined which solution is correct.
The game is lost if either all players did not complete phase one or if the correct solution to phase tow was not guessed by the majority.
The game is won if at the end of phase two the majority vote indicated the correct solution.
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