Mysterium

Overview

Mysterium is a cooperative deduction game where one player is a Ghost guiding Psychics to solve a murder. The Ghost communicates solely through illustrated Vision Cards, directing each Psychic to discover their assigned suspect, location, and object. Players must solve all leads before dawn (7 rounds) and then collectively identify the true culprit in a final vote.

Components

• 1 Ghost screen
• 84 Vision cards
• 6 Ghost tokens, 6 Culprit tokens
• 3 Crow tokens
• 6 Intuition pawns, 6 Sleeves
• 6 Clairvoyancy Level tokens, 36 Clairvoyancy tokens
• 1 Clock board, 1 Hourglass
• 3 Progress boards (Character, Location, Object)
• 1 Clairvoyancy Track / Final Progress board
• 18 Character Psychic cards, 18 Location Psychic cards, 18 Object Psychic cards
• 18 Character Ghost cards, 18 Location Ghost cards, 18 Object Ghost cards

Setup

1. One player becomes the Ghost, sets up the screen, takes Vision cards and Ghost tokens.
2. Psychics choose characters and take matching sleeves and Clairvoyancy tokens.
3. Based on difficulty and player count, draw Character, Location, and Object Psychic cards and display them on the Progress boards.
4. The Ghost secretly assigns one suspect, location, and object to each Psychic using Ghost cards behind the screen.
5. Set up the Clock board at hour 1.

Turn Structure

Each round (hour) has two phases:

Phase 1: Vision

1. The Ghost distributes Vision cards face down to each Psychic who has not yet solved their current clue type (suspect/location/object).
2. Psychics simultaneously examine their Vision cards and discuss amongst themselves.
3. Each Psychic places their Intuition pawn on the card they believe matches their clue.
4. Other Psychics may place Clairvoyancy tokens (approve/reject) on each guess.

Phase 2: Revelation

1. The Ghost reveals whether each Psychic’s guess is correct or incorrect.
2. Correct: The Psychic advances to the next clue type (suspect -> location -> object).
3. Incorrect: The Psychic stays on the same clue type. The Ghost may spend a Crow token to give an extra Vision card.
4. Advance the clock 1 hour.

Actions

Ghost Actions

• Distribute 1+ Vision cards to each active Psychic (trying to hint at the correct suspect/location/object).
• Spend Crow tokens to give additional Vision cards to struggling Psychics.
• Cannot speak or gesture; communication is only through Vision cards.

Psychic Actions

• Examine Vision cards and discuss interpretations with other Psychics.
• Place Intuition pawn on suspected card.
• Place Clairvoyancy tokens on other Psychics’ guesses (approve or reject).

Clairvoyancy Track

Correct approve/reject votes advance a Psychic’s Clairvoyancy Level, which determines how many cards they can see during the final vote.

Scoring / Victory Conditions

Phase 1-3 (Hours 1-7)

All Psychics must correctly identify their suspect, location, and object within 7 hours. If any Psychic has not completed all 3 by hour 7, all players lose.

Final Phase: Shared Vision

1. The Ghost selects one set of suspect+location+object as the true culprit.
2. The Ghost places 3 Vision cards (representing the true culprit) face down.
3. Based on Clairvoyancy Level, Psychics can see 1, 2, or all 3 of these cards.
4. Each Psychic secretly votes for which suspect group they believe is the true culprit.
5. Majority vote wins. If correct, all players win. If incorrect, all players lose.

Special Rules & Edge Cases

• Difficulty levels: Easy (more Crow tokens, fewer suspect cards), Medium, Hard (fewer Crow tokens, more suspect cards).
• The Ghost may use the hourglass to limit discussion time.
• Vision cards used are discarded; the Ghost draws replacements.
• If the Vision card deck runs out, reshuffle discards.
• In 2-3 player games, the Clairvoyancy system is not used.

Player Reference

Phase	Action
Vision	Ghost distributes Vision cards; Psychics discuss and guess
Revelation	Ghost confirms correct/incorrect; advance or stay
Clock	Advance 1 hour per round; 7 hours maximum
Final	Ghost plays 3 cards for true culprit; Psychics vote
Win	All Psychics solve their 3 clues AND majority identifies true culprit
Lose	Any Psychic unsolved after 7 hours, or wrong final vote