Mysterium - Tips & Strategies

For the first one or two games with a new group it’s helpful (and entertaining) for the ghost to break down the logic of its vision card selections following a correct guess by a psychic at the end of an hour. I’ve found that this helps prime the players imaginations a bit and allows them look at the vision cards in ways they had previously not considered. For example, if you point out that the color and tone of the first vision card you presented matches the color and tone of the location you were trying to point them to, there’s often an ‘aha’ moment where suddenly everyone understands that they need to look beyond the illustration on the card to find clues. The players become more engaged and the conversations and debates become far more interesting and helpful. Of course this also leads to over-analyzing visions, but that only makes for a richer and more enjoyable experience for everyone. After 1 or 2 games it’s not necessary to do this anymore but sometimes this can be an entertaining part of the game for everyone and has no observable effect on the outcome of the game.

Has Mysterium grown a bit stale in your group as it has with mine? Well here is a variant to push a little more life in the game as we wait for the expansion.

Necessary items needed for this variant
A Copy of Codenames…
or a set of tokens of three colors (two team colors, and a neutral color)
A Sand Timer (if you only have the Polish Mysterium)
Codenames Helper App from Google Play or the App store to replace the Answer Key Cards.

Summary
Those unfamiliar with Codenames, its a word game where in the players divide themselves up into teams and attempt to identify their “Agents” from a 5×5 grid of words. This variant attempts to make a language independent version of that game using Mysterium Cards.

Set up
To begin, divide the players into to teams. Each team chooses a “Ghost” for their respected teams. Next, players will lay out a 5×5 grid of vision cards. The “Ghosts” are the only players allowed to view the Answer Key Card/or App.

Play
Teams take turns. On a turn, the Ghost must give a clue to the team. The clue consists of a single word and a number. The Ghost may not communicate except through the clue. The clue word relates to the meaning of Vision Cards on the table, and the number identifies how many words the Ghost thinks fit the clue.

Players on the team “make contact” with agents by touching them, and once the team has touched a vision card, the Ghost covers that card with an identity placard/or token according to the key. If the team made contact with one of their agents, they may keep guessing up to the number the Ghost gave plus one. If the team made contact with any other agent, their turn is over and the opposing Ghost gives a clue. If the team made contact with the assassin, they lose the game immediately.

Ending
Play continues until one team has made contact with all their agents or has made contact with the assassin. In the first case, the guessing team wins. In the second, the other team does.

Note: This Variant is highly recommended with 4+ and not bellow.

The set-up for this game can be intimidating. With an experienced group the labor is split up evenly and it goes faster. Unfortunately, when you are teaching many new players, the complicated preparation in the beginning can put off newcomers from this otherwise simple game.

My suggestion for teaching new players is to prepare as much as you can in advance. This includes pulling out all the needed cards and matches on your own and packing all extraneous components away to avoid confusion. Doing this will be a lot of work, but it will avoid scaring players before the game even starts. Recruiting return gamers will make set-up easier for the NEXT game.