Mystery (game)
| Mystery | |
|---|---|
| Game data | |
| author | Oleksandr Nevskiy , Oleg Sidorenko |
| graphic | Xavier Colletta , Igor Burlakov |
| publishing company | Libellud |
| Publishing year | 2015 |
| Art | Deduction game, cooperation game |
| Teammates | 2 to 7 |
| Duration | 42 minutes |
| Age | from 10 years on
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| Awards | |
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Mysterium (from ancient Greek μυστήριον mystērion "secret cult") is a cooperative deduction game by the Ukrainian authors Oleksandr Nevskiy and Oleg Sidorenko . It was first published in 2013 under the name Tajemnicze Domostwo by the Polish publisher Pórtal. In 2015 the French publisher Libellud , who called the game Mysterium , published a German translation. Asmodee took over the distribution . The game was illustrated by Xavier Colletta and Igor Burlakov .
Course of the game
Game idea
The players take part in a nightly séance in the form of spiritualists to get in touch with the spirit of the house, embodied by one of the players. He was murdered many years ago in an as yet unexplained manner in the house in which the game takes place. During these séances, they receive visions from him, with which he helps them to investigate his murderer and the course of the murder.
equipment
The game consists of 4 progress boards, a point display, an adjustable clock and an hourglass. In addition, 6 game figures in the form of glass balls in 6 different colors are included, each with a matching cover with the portrait of the character and various markers and plates. It also contains 54 ghost cards and matching spirit cards, 84 vision cards, 3 raven pins and a screen.
All cards and many accessories are very artistically designed, with mostly fantastic images and many details that stimulate the imagination.
procedure
Before the start of the game, it is decided who will take on the role of the spirit, the rest will play as a spiritist. Then possible perpetrators, crime scenes and weapons are drawn from a total of 18 possible cards and spread out on the table. The number of cards drawn indicates the difficulty. To do this, the various progress boards are placed and each player takes the game material in the color of his choice. Meanwhile, the player, who embodies the spirit, shuffles the vision cards and draws out an individual case composition for each player, which he can only see on his screen. The aim is for each player to find out their personal case composition with the help of the vision cards received from the ghost.
The ghost draws seven picture cards from the vision card pile and in the first round gives any number of these cards to each player in order to give him clues about his perpetrator. In between he can draw on seven cards. As soon as the last player has received cards, he turns the hourglass to show the time limit. Meanwhile, the players consider together which perpetrator the respective clues point to. Each player places his pawn on a perpetrator card; all players can also guess whether the other players are right or wrong, and thus receive additional points for the last round. After the time has elapsed, the ghost places all the correct pawns on the next level; from now on they can tap the crime scene and then the murder weapon. Anyone who was wrong is reset and must continue to identify the perpetrator. At the same time he distributes the additional points. In the whole game it is important that communication between the spirit and the spiritualists takes place exclusively through handing over the cards and moving the markers and pieces.
This procedure is repeated for seven rounds, ideally afterwards all players have determined their complete, three-part case. The final round begins, for which the various cases are spread out on the table. The ghost now triggers a correct case among the spread cases and gives the players three more clue cards, one each for the correct perpetrator, crime scene and the murder weapon. Depending on the number of additional points, players may see one, two or three of these cards, at the end of which everyone gives up a secret suspicion. The sequence of events with the most votes is considered final. If it is the one drawn by the ghost, the players all win the game together, otherwise the game is considered lost.
The spirit has ravens available to help (depending on the difficulty). They act like jokers: if he uses them, he can exchange his hand cards for new ones.
Slightly modified rules for two players are given in the rulebook.
Extensions
Two expansions have been released for the game.
Hidden signs
This expansion appeared in October 2015. It does not contain any technical innovations, only new cards to bring more variety to the game. It contains 42 new vision cards and 6 person, place and object cards each. The first edition was also delivered together with the promo card set, which contains a further, additional person, location and property card.
Lies and secrets
The second expansion was released in 2017 and receives 42 new vision cards and 18 story cards (plus a promo card in the first edition). The objects can now be exchanged by a sequence of events. It doesn't change the game mechanics, but it does create new possibilities.
Awards
The game won numerous awards, primarily in France, as well as several international prizes. A selection is listed here.
- As d'Or 2016
- Golden Geek 2015, Artwork & Presentation, Nominated for Family Game and Party Game
- Count Ludo 2016
- Lys Grand Public 2016
- La Cup D'or, Jeux Familiaux
- The dice tower, seal of excellence
- Tric Trac D'Argent 2015
Web links
- Mystery on the Libellud website
- Mystery at Asmodée
- Mystery in the game database BoardGameGeek (English)
- Mystery in the Luding games database