• Mysterium
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Portal Games

Mysterium

Out of stock
$58.00
$58.00 RRP $80.00

Mysterium is a cooperative murder-mystery game for 2–7 players, aged 10 and up, playable in about 30–45 minutes. One silent ghost sends dreamlike vision cards to a team of mediums, who must interpret the imagery to identify a suspect, location and weapon before the seventh hour ends. Medium-light in complexity, it blends deduction, limited communication and voting.

Players
2–7 players
Play time
1h
Age
All ages
Complexity
Medium
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About the Game

In Mysterium, one player takes the role of an amnesiac ghost who cannot speak, while everyone else plays a medium gathered for a séance in 1920s Scotland. Across seven hours, the ghost deals out dreamlike vision cards, and the mediums must interpret the imagery to name their suspect, location and weapon — then vote together to unmask the true culprit. A typical game runs 30–45 minutes with 2–7 players, at a medium-light complexity suited to ages 10 and up, built on cooperative deduction, limited communication and voting.

Mysterium is a reworking of the game system first seen in Tajemnicze Domostwo, an earlier title built on the same premise of a silent ghost guiding investigators through illustrated visions. It revisits that foundation rather than continuing a storyline, so no knowledge of the earlier game is needed — everything required to solve Mr. MacDowell's mystery is in this box.

History

Mysterium reworks the game system introduced in Tajemnicze Domostwo, carrying over its central idea of a voiceless ghost communicating through illustrated vision cards. The action is framed as a 1920s séance in Scotland, where the astrologer Mr. MacDowell gathers eminent mediums to solve the ghost's murder within seven hours.

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Watch: How to play

Rules of Mysterium

  • Setup: choose one player as the silent ghost; everyone else is a medium. Set the difficulty, then give each medium an intuition token, marker and starting clairvoyance tokens.
  • The ghost secretly assigns each medium one suspect, one location and one weapon card, then lays out the public card pool for each category used this game.
  • Objective: every medium must identify their own suspect, then location, then weapon before the seventh hour ends.
  • Each hour: the ghost draws back to seven vision cards and silently places one or more into each medium's sleeve for that medium's current category.
  • Mediums may discuss the artwork openly, but the ghost cannot speak, point or confirm; each medium then puts their intuition token on one public card in the category they are solving.
  • Before reveals, mediums may spend clairvoyance tokens to back or doubt another medium's choice; accurate calls raise clairvoyance for the finale.
  • The ghost reveals who was correct: correct mediums advance to the next category next hour, while incorrect mediums stay put and receive new visions.
  • Ending: if anyone is unfinished after hour seven, the table loses. If all finish, the ghost secretly marks one completed trio as the culprit and gives a shared final vision; mediums vote, and a correct majority wins.

Strategy

  • Ghost: pick vision cards with one dominant link to the target, such as a colour, object, mood or repeated figure, rather than cards that match several options.
  • Plan across the three categories: a card that would be perfect for a later weapon can mislead while a medium is still choosing a suspect.
  • If your ghost has redraw or crow tokens, save them for a genuinely unusable hand rather than merely an imperfect one.
  • Mediums: say what you actually see and rank two or three plausible cards aloud so the table can test the link, not just announce a final answer.
  • Do not force a story onto the art; prefer the option sharing the clearest concrete detail with all vision cards in your sleeve.
  • If you miss, treat the next vision as a correction and be willing to abandon your first theory.
  • Spend clairvoyance tokens where you have real confidence, especially on close calls, because better clairvoyance helps in the final vote.
  • In the finale, compare the final vision with every completed trio and vote for the best overall fit across suspect, location and weapon; no single hunch is certain.