Mysterium

Mysterium is a cooperative board game designed by Oleksandr Nevskiy and Oleg Sidorenko. It blends aspects of murder mystery games and card-based guessing games. One person plays a murdered ghost who can communicate with the other players only through a series of visions in the form of illustrated cards. The other players, who take the role of psychic mediums, must interpret these cards to identify a suspect, location, and murder weapon.

Thirty years ago, a man was murdered in his mansion. A group of mediums organize a séance to solve the mystery. The ultimate goal of the ghost is to indicate who killed him, where, and with what weapon. A series of illustrated cards are laid out for each of three stages: one for suspects, one for locations, and one for murder weapons. One person plays as the ghost. This player may not directly communicate with the other players, who play the mediums; however, the mediums may collaborate. The ghost secretly selects a suspect, location, and murder weapon for each medium to guess. Each round, the ghost hands out one or more illustrated cards to each medium. Mediums progress through the stages by correctly guessing their respective suspect, location, and murder weapon. Players may indicate whether they believe guesses to be correct or not through tokens. If all players have advanced past the third stage by round seven, the ghost gives a final clue as to which medium holds the true identity of the ghost's murderer. Depending on how quickly players advanced through the stages and how many correct tokens they have placed, they may see one, two, or three cards from the ghost. Players may again collaborate on interpretation of the cards, but their final vote must be secret. If the majority guesses correctly, the players win and the ghost is set free to enjoy the afterlife.

Awards
2016 As d'Or - Jeu de l'Année Winner
2015 Tric Trac d'Argent Winner
2015 Jocul Anului în România Beginners Finalist
2015 Golden Geek Most Innovative Board Game Nominee
2015 Golden Geek Board Game of the Year Nominee
2015 Golden Geek Best Thematic Board Game Nominee
2015 Golden Geek Best Party Board Game Nominee
2015 Golden Geek Best Family Board Game Nominee
2015 Golden Geek Best Board Game Artwork/Presentation Winner

Check out the BoardGameGeek review for MYSTERIUM (2015)

*Complexity Rating refers to how difficult a game is to understand. The score is taken from BGG's vast community's rating. The lower the score (out of five) the easier it is to learn & play.