Mysterium

It takes courage to enter the manor of Mysterium… and yet, here you are. How brave of you. Take a seat at the table, open your mind, and keep your sixth sense awake: you are about to take part in a unique séance, using spiritism to try to calm a tormented soul.

Oleksandr Nevskiy & Oleg Sidorenko
Xavier Collette & Igor Burlakov

At Samhain night (Halloween), worlds of the visible and of the invisible merge, allowing the living to establish a link with ‘the other world’. Conrad MacDowell chose that very night to gather his psychic friends for a unique séance. Using spiritism, they’ll try to communicate with the dead…

A ghost has been haunting the Warwick Manor for years. Little is known about them, other than that they were murdered in dark circumstances. Who was there? Where did it happen? How were they killed? Conrad and his team decided to meet to try to resolve the crime once and for all, following different leads, but working together.

Unfortunately, the ghost cannot talk. They can only communicate through visions. All suspects need to be identified so that the ghost remembers the culprit. Only then will the psychics discover the truth, and free the ghost from their torments. They have until dawn to do that, and not one minute more – if they fail, the ghost will wander in limbo for eternity…

Game Overview

Mysterium is a cooperative game: all players win or lose together. They share a common objective: interpret the ghost’s visions, and discover what happened and how the ghost was killed. Before starting the game, players should first select their role: either the Ghost or a Psychic. Depending on their role, they will each play differently.

• The Ghost (one player) must guide the Psychics throughout their investigation. The Ghost knows the suspect, location and object that each Psychic must find (see below). To communicate with them, the Ghost uses only illustrated cards: the Vision Cards.
• The Psychics (all other players) must follow a lead to their personal objective: each one must find the suspect, location and object that were assigned to them. They work together to interpret the Vision Cards given by the Ghost.

Playing Tips

• For a better experience, a player already familiar with the game should play as the Ghost for your first game.
• For a more immersive game, the Ghost may choose to knock on the table (rather than saying yes or no) when they want to tell the Psychics whether their choices are correct or not: one knock for yes, two knocks for no.
• For an even more immersive game, make sure to download the official atmospheric soundtrack available on our website (Mysterium page) or via this QR code.

The Ghost

• 1 Screen
• 84 Vision Cards
• 6 Ghost Tokens (1 in each color, back numbered 1 to 6)
• 6 Culprit Tokens (back numbered 1 to 6)
• 3 Crow Tokens
• 18 Character Ghost Cards (1 to 18)
• 18 Location Ghost Cards (19 to 36)
• 18 Object Ghost Cards (37 to 54)

The Psychics

• 6 Intuition Pawns (1 in each color)
• 6 Sleeves (1 in each color)
• 6 Clairvoyancy Level Tokens (1 in each color)
• 36 Clairvoyancy Tokens (6 in each color, incl. 3 and 3 , and numbered 1 to 6)
• 18 Character Psychic Cards (1 to 18)
• 18 Location Psychic Cards (19 to 36)
• 18 Object Psychic Cards (37 to 54)

Other Game Components

• 1 Clock Board (to assemble)
• 1 Hourglass
• 3 Progress Boards (Character, Location and Object)
• 1 Clairvoyancy Track and Final Progress Board

Setup Steps

1. Decide who will be the Ghost for the game. That player takes the Screen (1) and places it in front of them so that no other player can see the inside. Then they place the Vision Cards (2) and the Ghost Tokens (3) behind the Screen. The Culprit Tokens (4) are placed next to the Ghost. The Ghost receives as many Crow Tokens (5) as instructed, depending on the difficulty level (see table).
2. The Psychics choose a character (associated to a color) and take the matching Sleeve (6). They receive Clairvoyancy Tokens (7) depending on the total number of Psychics:
   • 1-2 Psychics ⇒ none
   • 3-4 Psychics ⇒ 4 tokens (numbered 1 to 4)
   • 5-6 Psychics ⇒ 6 tokens (numbered 1 to 6)
3. If you are more than 3 players, place the Clairvoyancy Track (8) in front of the Screen. Make sure you use the proper side of the track, depending on the number of players (4-5 players / 6-7 players).
4. Place all Clairvoyancy Level Tokens (9) on 0 on the Clairvoyancy Track.
5. Place the Hourglass (10) next to the Screen and the Clairvoyancy Track, within easy reach of the Ghost.
6. Assemble the Clock Board (11) and place it within easy reach of the Psychics.
7. Shuffle the 18 Character Psychic Cards (12). Draw as many cards as instructed on the table below, depending on the difficulty level and the number of players. Unused cards are placed back in the box.
8. Check the cards and announce their numbers to the Ghost. The Ghost then takes the matching cards (with the matching numbers) from their own Character Ghost Cards deck (13). Unused cards are placed back in the box.
9. Place the Character Psychic Cards that you drew on the table (14) and place the Character Progress Board as instructed (15).
10. The Ghost now keeps as many Character Ghost Cards as there are Psychics in play and places these cards in the top line of their Screen (16), assigning one character to each Psychic. Extra cards are secretly discarded: the Psychics must not see them!
11. Repeat that process with the Location and Object Psychic Cards, and the Location and Object Ghost Cards (middle and bottom line). Once the Screen is complete, you should have one character, one location, and one object for each Psychic, arranged in a column of their color.
    Reminder: Only the Ghost can see the inside of the Screen!
12. Place the Intuition Pawns on the Character Progress Board (17).
13. The Ghost draws 7 Vision Cards to form their starting hand.

You are now ready to play Mysterium!

Difficulty and Card Count Table

Goal of this phase: during setup, the Ghost assigned a Character, a Location and an Object to each Psychic, forming different columns in the Screen. Each Psychic has a personal objective: finding their Character, their Location and their Object.

This phase lasts 7 turns. By the end of the 7 turns:

• if all Psychics completed their personal objective, move to Phase 2.
• if one or several Psychics did not complete their objective, the game ends up in a defeat for everybody.

Step 1: Interpreting the Visions

During this step, the Ghost creates visions and send them to the Psychics. The Psychics can (and should) discuss them to find their hidden meaning.

1. First, the Ghost chooses one of the Psychics. Depending on the position of the Psychic’s Intuition Pawn (Character, Location or Object Progress Track), the Ghost knows whether or not the Psychic made any progress towards their personal objective, and which type of card they should guess. The card that the Psychic has to guess appears in the Ghost’s Screen.
2. The Ghost then creates a vision so that the Psychic finds the correct card among the cards of the table (i.e. the one that matches the card hidden behind the Screen). To create a vision, the Ghost may use one or several Vision Cards from their hand.
3. Once the Ghost has created their vision, they give the chosen Vision Card(s) to that Psychic face up, and push the Ghost Token matching that Psychic’s color against the Screen to mark that this Psychic now received their vision. A Psychic cannot receive more than one vision on each turn.
4. Then, the Ghost immediately draws new Vision Cards until they have 7 cards in hand. If the drawing pile runs out, shuffle the discarded Vision Cards to create a new pile.

Example: Alexandre’s Intuition Pawn (yellow) is on the Location Progress Track. The Ghost checks the middle line of their Screen and notes that Alexandre is supposed to find the Location Card “Attic” on this turn.

Example of vision: The Ghost wants Alexandre to find the “Attic”. This card features a white wedding dress. The Ghost chooses the card A from their hand (because of the woman in a white dress) and completes the vision with the card B (because of its strange, bluish atmosphere) and the card C (spider webs and dust).

Discarding Vision Cards

Creating a vision might be difficult. As the Ghost, you may want to discard your hand to replace it with more inspiring cards. If you want to do so, place one of your Crow Tokens on your Screen. Discard up to 7 cards and draw the same number of cards to replace them.

You can discard cards at any time; however, you can only use the Crow a limited number of times, depending on the difficulty level that you chose. If you run out of Crow Tokens, then you can no longer discard your Vision Cards to replace them.

Once the Ghost has drawn their new cards, they choose another Psychic and repeat this process, until all Psychics have received their Vision Cards for this turn.

As soon as the last Psychic has received a vision, the Ghost turns over the Hourglass (time: 2 minutes).

As soon a Psychic receives their Vision Cards, they can look at them and show them to the other Psychics. Together, they can try to interpret the cards to deduce which card (Character, Location or Object, depending on their Progress Track and Intuition Pawn) they are supposed to identify. Psychics can talk to each other without restriction – they simply cannot talk to the Ghost.

Note: Psychics may start to discuss and even place their pawns and tokens as soon as they receive their cards, even if the Hourglass has not yet been turned over.

Important: As the Ghost, you may listen to the Psychics, but you may not comment on their choices, nor gesture, nor try to communicate hints in any way.

When a Psychic thinks that they have identified the correct Character, Location or Object Card, they place their Intuition Pawn on that card. Even if you remain free to discuss with the others, placing your pawn is your own decision. You may listen to your partners, but you may also ignore them if you think they are wrong.

All Psychics try to resolve the vision that they received. They must place their Intuition Pawn before the time runs out. As long as there is time remaining, Psychics may change their mind and move their Intuition Pawn; their decision is final once the time is up.

Note: Several Psychics may place their Intuition Pawn on the same card. However, this means that at least one of them is wrong, because each Psychic has a unique combination of cards (Character, Location, Object).

Example: Alexandre received three Vision Cards from the Ghost to identify a Location. Most of the Psychics want to go for the attic, but Alexandre is convinced that the correct card is the bedroom. He decides to ignore the other Psychics and place his pawn on the bedroom card.

Using the Clairvoyancy Tokens (3 to 6 Psychics)

As a Psychic, you have a set of Clairvoyancy Tokens ( and ) in your color. Use these tokens when you agree or disagree with another Psychic about the choice that they made when placing their Intuition Pawn on a card.

To express that you agree with another Psychic about their choice, place one of your Clairvoyancy Tokens next to the Intuition Pawn of that Psychic. The Clairvoyancy Token must point to the chosen Intuition Pawn (because there can be several Intuition Pawns on the same card). If on the other hand, you want to express that you disagree with another Psychic, use a Clairvoyancy Token instead.

• You cannot place a Clairvoyancy Token on your own Intuition Pawn.
• You cannot place several Clairvoyancy Tokens on the same Intuition Pawn. You may however place several Clairvoyancy Tokens on several Intuition Pawns on the same card.
• You may use, move and withdraw your Clairvoyancy Tokens until the time runs out.
• You may use as many Clairvoyancy Tokens as you want in a turn (including none, if you don’t want to play them).

Example: Mathieu agrees with Alexandre and places one of his Clairvoyancy Token next to Alexandre’s Intuition Pawn. Léa does not agree with Alexandre and places one of her Clairvoyancy Tokens instead.

Important: any Clairvoyancy Token should be discarded on the Clock Board upon use. As a Psychic, make sure to use your tokens wisely, as you do not have an unlimited amount of tokens. All Clairvoyancy Tokens are recovered at the beginning of the fourth turn, though.

Agreeing with the correct intuitions and disagreeing with the wrong intuitions allow you to progress on the Clairvoyancy Track. A high level of clairvoyancy is very useful in Phase 2. The more a Psychic progresses on the Clairvoyancy Track, the easier that phase will be.

When the Hourglass runs out, Step 1 is over. Proceed to Step 2 of the current turn.

Step 2: Spectral Manifestation

During this step, the Ghost let the Psychics know whether or not they correctly interpreted their visions.

The Ghost chooses one of the Psychics. They check the Intuition Pawn of that Psychic and let them know whether or not they chose the correct card, without commenting further. To check if the card is correct, the Ghost should compare it with the card hidden behind their Screen.

If, as a Psychic, you chose the correct card:

• Each Psychic that placed a Clairvoyancy Token next to your Intuition Pawn move their Clairvoyancy Level Token one space forward.
• For Psychics that placed a Clairvoyancy Token, nothing happens.
• All used Clairvoyancy Tokens are discarded to the Clock Board on the matching colored spots.
• Move your Intuition Pawn to the next Progress Board. In every game of Mysterium, you’ll always need to find your Character first, then your Location, then your Object.
• Take the card that you correctly identified and slide it into your Sleeve, while the Ghost flips the matching Ghost Card in their screen to keep track of your progress.
• Discard all of your Vision Cards.
• The Ghost moves your Ghost Token back from the Screen.

If, as a Psychic, you chose any other card:

• Each Psychic that placed a Clairvoyancy Token next to your Intuition Pawn move their Clairvoyancy Level Token one space forward.
• For Psychics that placed a Clairvoyancy Token, nothing happens.
• All used Clairvoyancy Tokens are discarded to the Clock Board on the matching colored spots.
• Move your Intuition Pawn back to the Progress Board where it was at the beginning of your turn.
• Keep all of your Vision Cards. The Ghost will complete your vision with new cards on the next turn.
• The Ghost moves your Ghost Token back from the Screen.

Example: The Ghost lets Alexandre know that he chose the wrong card. Mathieu had placed a Clairvoyancy Token on Alexandre’s Intuition Pawn because he believed he was correct; as a result he simply discards that token. Léa however suspected that Alexandre was wrong and had placed a Clairvoyancy Token. Léa discards that token too, but since she correctly predicted Alexandre’s mistake, she moves her Clairvoyancy Level Token one space forward on the Clairvoyancy Track.

Alexandre was wrong; as a result, his Intuition Pawn goes back to the Location Progress Board where it already was at the beginning of his turn. He also keeps his Vision Cards, hoping that the next ones will help him to find the right Location.

The Ghost then moves Alexandre’s Ghost Token back from the Screen. On the next turn, the Ghost will give new cards so that Alexandre can find the attic.

Completing a Personal Objective

If a Psychic finds their assigned Object, after finding their Character and their Location, they completed their personal objective.

When you complete your personal objective:

• Move your Intuition Pawn on the final Progress Board to indicate that you completed your personal objective.
• Move forward your Clairvoyancy Level Token as many spaces as there are turns remaining (check the number of remaining hours on the Clock Board). If you completed your objective on the last turn, then you don’t move.
• On future turns, if any, you may help the other Psychics, but you don’t receive any more visions from the Ghost.
• You may still place Clairvoyancy Tokens to progress on the Clairvoyancy Track.
• The Ghost should set aside your Ghost Token. It won’t be needed until the end of the game.

Example: On the fourth turn, Alexandre finds his Object. He puts the matching card into his Sleeve and places his Intuition Pawn on the final Progress Board. Since there are 3 turns remaining before the end of the game (7 turns), Alexandre moves his Clairvoyancy Level Token 3 spaces forward on the Clairvoyancy Track.

End of the Turn

Then, the Ghost chooses another Psychic and lets them know whether or not they found the correct card, and so on until all Psychics have been addressed. Since each Psychic moves at their own rhythm, they may be on different Progress Boards: some will advance, others will stall. Then, the turn ends. When the turn ends:

• If one or several Psychics have not yet completed their personal objectives, a new turn begins. Move the clock hand one hour forward. If the hand was on the last hour (end of the 7th turn), then the game is lost for everyone.
• If all Psychics have completed their personal objective, move to Step 2.

Note: Psychics should not forget to recover all Clairvoyancy Tokens at the beginning of the fourth turn!

Goal of this phase: each Psychic’s personal objective is a possible scenario: a culprit (Character), a Location and an Object. Thanks to this reconstruction, the Ghost now remembers what happened during the night of the murder, and send a last vision to the group so that the Psychics can identify the culprit, location and object of the crime. They have only one chance to find the correct answer.

Important: This phase only takes place if all Psychics managed to complete their personal objectives before the end of the 7th turn.

Step 1: Suspect Line-Up

During this step, you need to prepare a new setup for this phase.

1. Set aside the Progress Boards as they are no longer needed. Also set aside the Psychic Cards that are still on the table (which were not assigned to any Psychic).
2. Each Psychic removes the cards from their Sleeve to form a group of three cards: Character, Location, and Object.
3. Each Psychic receives a Ghost Token and places it next to their group of 3 cards with its numbered side facing up.
4. The Ghost takes as many numbered Culprit Tokens as there are groups on the table (4 groups = 4 tokens numbered 1 to 4).
5. The Ghost flips back all the Ghost Cards in their Screen (as the Ghost, you need to see all of these cards).
6. The Psychics recover all of their Clairvoyancy Tokens.

Step 2: Shared Vision

During this step, the Ghost sends their last vision of the game. Their goal is to make sure that the Psychics find the Culprit’s group among those available on the table.

• The Ghost secretly chooses a numbered group. Psychics will need to find that group to win the game.
• The Ghost now takes the matching Culprit Token and places it face down on the appropriated spot of the Clairvoyancy Track.
• Then, the Ghost creates a vision with 3 Vision Cards. One of the cards must be a hint to the group’s Character, another one to the group’s Location, and another one to the group’s Object.
• The Ghost shuffles these 3 Vision Cards and places them face down in front of the Psychics. The Psychics cannot know which cards refer to which element (Character, Location or Object).

Note: if the Ghost still has any Crow Tokens during this step, they are allowed to discard up to 7 cards to replace their hand, as usual.

Step 3: Straw Poll

During this Step, the Psychics vote for the group which they identified as the Culprit’s group, using the shared vision sent by the Ghost. However, they are not allowed to communicate, and each vote must remain secret.

The vote is subdivided in 3 steps, depending on each Psychic’s Clairvoyancy Level. The more that a Psychic has advanced on the Clairvoyancy Track, the more Vision Cards they are allowed to see before voting.

1. First, reveal one of the three cards of the Shared Vision. Once it is revealed, Psychics with a low Clairvoyancy Level vote. They interpret the revealed card as best as they can, without communicating, and associate it to one of the available groups. To do so, they take the Clairvoyancy Token that matches the number of the group that they want to choose, and place that token in their Sleeve. Then, they give the Sleeve to the Psychic with the highest Clairvoyancy Level (or to the eldest Psychic if there is a tie). Once a Psychic voted, they cannot change their vote. Votes are kept secret until the end – you are not allowed to check other players’ votes before deciding!
2. Then, reveal a second card of the Shared Vision. Once it is revealed, Psychics with an intermediate Clairvoyancy Level vote. The voting procedure remains unchanged.
3. Finally, reveal the last card of the vision. Psychics with a high Clairvoyancy Level vote, following the same rules.

Once all Psychics have voted, the game is over.

The Psychic with the highest Clairvoyancy Level opens all Sleeves and reveals the Clairvoyancy Token of each Psychic (numbered side up). They place each Clairvoyancy Token on the group with the matching number.

• If a group has more Clairvoyancy Tokens than any other, then that group is chosen as the suspected Culprit’s group.
• If there is no majority on a given group, then the vote of the Psychic with the highest Clairvoyance Level (or the eldest Psychic if there is a tie) determines which group (amongst the tied groups) is the suspected Culprit’s group.

You may now reveal the Culprit Token. If the Psychics chose the correct group (the one with the same number), then you all win: the culprit is exposed! If, however, you chose the wrong group, then you all lose, and the Ghost’s soul keeps wandering in limbo…

For 2- or 3-player games, use the following adjustments.

Phase 1: Reconstruction of Events

• The Clairvoyancy Track, the Clairvoyancy Level Tokens and the Clairvoyancy Tokens are not used.
• Each player (except the Ghost) plays two Psychics.

Phase 2: Revealing the Culprit

• During Step 2, Shared Vision, the Ghost places the 3 Vision Cards face up, and not face down.
• 2 players: during Step 1, create 2 extra groups of cards, using Psychic Cards that you discarded during the game (Character, Location and Object). There will be 4 groups to choose from, and not just 2. The player(s) who play the Psychics must choose one single group, using their Intuition Pawn.
• 3 players: Psychics vote openly and may discuss to identify the correct group (they do not vote in secret). Once they think that they have found the correct group, they place one of their Intuition Pawns on it.