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VIDEO VERSION
OF THE GAME RULES
"Mysterium" is a cooperative board game for 2-7 players. One player
acts the part of a Ghost who lives in a deserted mansion. The other
players are Psychics who have been specially invited by the owner
of this old manor. They have to unravel the secret of the mansion
and bring peace into its walls: at nights all people see very
strange dreams at this mysterious place.
According to the old legend the Ghost is a soul of the former owner
of the manor. Over 100 years ago he was punished for a committed
crime. There were rumors that the man had been charged by mistake.
Now getting into guests’ dreams, the Ghost is trying to tell people
the truth about what happened in the mansion then. The Psychics
have to recreate the events of that day. Thus, they will help ghost
to expose the real culprit. In the case of success, the Psychics
would have got another win. And of course they will get the
financial reward from the owner of the manor. And the Ghost, in its
turn, will gain peace forever and leave the mansion.
They have not much time to do this: only seven days...
 54 physics' cards 54 ghost's cards
84 dream cards • 18 character cards • 18 character cards
• 18 location cards • 18 location cards
• 18 item cards • 18 item cards

6 magic 12 psychics' Calendar board

balls tokens a day marker
 DIFFICULTY LEVEL
Depending on the number of players players easy normal difficult very difficult
and the chosen level of the game 2* 4 5 6 7
difficulty place the corresponding
3 5 6 7 8
number of random psychics' cards
(brown backs) of each type “item”, 4 6 7 8 9
“location”, “character” face- 5 7 8 9 10
up in the middle of the table in 6 8 9 10 11
accordance with the table below: 7 9 10 11 12
ITEMS, LOCATIONS, CHARACTERS

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more detail

For example: If there are four

players at easy level, you'll
need six cards of items, six
cards of locations and six cards
of characters. If there are five
players at difficult level,
you'll need nine cards of items,
ten cards of locations and ten
cards of characters.
Put the rest of the psychics' cards into The Ghost shuffles his/her cards of each
the box – they are not needed in this game. type separately and places them face down
Place the calendar board next to the psychics' randomly in groups under each psychic's
cards on the table. Put the day marker on the token including one character card, one
number 1 on the calendar board (Monday). location card, and one item card.

One of the players will act the part of Put the rest of the ghost's cards into the
box – they are not needed in this game.

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the Ghost, the other players will be the
Psychics. n such a way, the Ghost
Each Psychic gets a magic ball and a token generates combinations – who
of the corresponding color. Tokens are kept of the persons (characters)
in front of the players during the whole were in the mansion, their concrete
game; it will help the Ghost to identify whereabouts (locations), and what
each of Psychics more easily. they were doing (items) at the time
The Ghost gets the deck of the dream cards of commission the crime. Exactly
and tokens of the same colors as the these combinations is the answer to
Psychics got in this game. Tokens are placed the secret: who is the true culprit.
in front of the Ghost so as it is possible After familiarizing with his/her cards of
to put one character card, one location card characters, locations and items, the Ghost
and one item card under each token. keeps them in secret from the Psychics to
The Ghost takes from his/her cards (green the certain moment in the game. The Ghost
backs) the same character, location and item can look through these groups of cards at
cards as the psychics' cards which are laid any time during the game, but he/she can't
on the table. change their order.
Put the rest of the ghost's cards into the The Ghost gets the top seven cards from the
box – they are not needed in this game. deck of dreams.
The entire game lasts maximum seven turns and is determined the characters the Ghost will have to
divided into two steps: indicate to their whereabouts (locations). And
then the Ghost will indicate what the persons were
• EVENTS RECONSTRUCTION doing (items).
• EXPOSING THE TRUE CULPRIT
The Ghost analyzes cards in the groups under each
EVENTS RECONSTRUCTION token. Then he/she chooses one or several dream
cards from his/her hand which he/she associates
During the Events reconstruction step the players with this or that character (later location/item)
are trying to determine who of the persons and put them face up in front of the Psychic,
under whose token this character card is laid.

T
(characters) were in the mansion, where they were
(locations), and what they were doing (items) at he Ghost can’t point at the location or
the time of committing the crime. the item until the Psychic guess the
During the Events reconstruction step each turn character; and he/she can’t point at the
consists of the following phases: item until the Psychic guess the location.

• DREAM Note. Choosing dream cards, the Ghost shall not

• ONEIROMANCY look in them something that completely indicates
• MYSTERIOUS SIGNS to the certain character (later - location /
item). Any detail, any little thing or part of
the composition may serve as a tip. At the same
DREAM time, the selection of several dream cards as
At first, the Ghost indicates to the persons a rule simplifies the process of finding the
(characters) who were in the mansion at the time correct decision for Psychics. They just have to
of committing the crime. After the Psychics have detect something common in those cards.

Simultaneously, the same card together with the other

indicates to the character more clearly:
For example:
On this insect, brushes,
illustration pyramid –
the clew may the archaeologist
indicate to the
nanny, plates -
to the cook, an
insect – to the
archaeologist.

thread – the nanny dishes – the cook

After the Ghost laid out the
dream to one Psychic, he/she
refills his/her hand up to seven
cards from the deck of dream
cards. So, the Ghost can always
choose from seven cards for each
Psychic. Further in this turn the
Ghost can’t add dream cards to
the Psychic, who has already got
cards in this turn.
Then the Ghost chooses next
Psychic and lay out one or several
dreams in front of him/her.
The Ghost does not have to give
dreams to the Psychics in a
strict order (clockwise or any
other order).
Depending on the difficulty level
of the game, the Ghost can discard
all seven cards several times
during the game to the discard
pile of dreams and draw new
several cards in his/her hand:
easy – once per turn
normal – three times during
the game
difficult – once per game
very difficult – the Ghost
can't change dream cards in
his/her hand
When all Psychics have dreams,
the oneiromancy phase starts.
ONEIROMANCY cards. If this rule is broken, the
Note. As soon as one of the Psychics got a game immediately ends with players’
dream, Psychics can immediately start the defeat.
oneiromancy phase. After discussing each Psychic places his/her
magic ball on the character card which he/
Psychics are analyzing their dreams and she thinks the Ghost pointed at.
trying to understand what the Ghost wants
to point at. The Psychics make decisions Note. There may be several magic balls placed
together – discussing, giving advice to each on one card if some Psychics think that the
other, saying their guesses. Ghost points exactly at this card. But, as all

I
Psychics were thought of different cards, this
n this phase of the turn the situation involves in advance wrong decision
Ghost mustn't verbally or with for one of them.
gestures help Psychics. The only Once all Psychics have placed their magic
way of his communication with the balls on the cards laid on the table, the
rest of the players must be the dream mysterious signs phase starts.
MYSTERIOUS SIGNS
In this phase the Ghost announces Psychics about the If the Psychic has misinterpreted the dream and
rightness or wrongness of their decisions. If the identified the character wrongly, he/she doesn’t
dream is interpreted correctly, the Ghost reveals discard dream cards that are in front of him/her.
his/her character card that has been guessed.
In the next turn he/she will get new dream cards
If the required character is correctly identified,
pointing at the same character. Thus, the player
the Psychic takes the character card from the centre
can analyze more dream cards and look for something
of the table and places it into the box – this
similar in them; something that will help him/her
card is no longer needed in this game. Then he/she
to find right decision.
discards all the dream cards he/she received from
the Ghost to the discard pile. During the next turn The similar process happens later in the game with
in the dream phase this Psychics gets dream cards the location and item cards.
that point at the location (later – at the item),
After all Psychics got to know whether their
where the character was.
decisions are right or wrong, the turn ends.
The Psychics take back their magic balls.

New turn starts with the dream phase.

Move the day marker on the next position
of the calendar board.

The Psychic, who guessed all three

cards of his/her combination (item/
location/character), has completed
his/her task in the events
reconstruction step of the game.
So, the player helps the other
players interpret their dreams
till the exposing the true
culprit phase.

If all Psychics determined all cards

from their combinations (character,
location, item), remove psychics'
cards from the table to the box –
the players don’t need them any
longer. The game moves into the final
the exposing the true culprit step.
 EXPOSING THE TRUE CULPRIT point at that character to Psychics
correctly.
Restoring a full picture of the events of the
day when the crime has been committed, the During this turn all Psychics will have a
Psychics have to determine the guilty person. common dream which will point at the true

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culprit.
ow the Ghost is very close to
the coveted release – he/she Turn phases during the exposing the true
knows who actually committed culprit step are the following:
the crime, where he/she was and • COMMON DREAM
what he/she was doing. The only • ONEIROMANCY
thing the Ghost has to do now is to • EXPOSING THE CULPRIT

COMMON DREAM
The Ghost determines the personality of
the culprit. To do this, he chooses from
his/her hand three dream cards and puts
them before the Psychics. One of these
cards indicates to the character, other
two – to the location and to the subject.
The Ghost should not verbally or through
gestures inform the players what each of
these dream cards indicates to!
Note. The Ghost determines the
personality of the culprit themselves
according to his/her dream cards. In other
words, the guilty person is determined
by dreams cards the Ghost has and which
are the most appropriate for one of the
combinations "character, location, item".
Note. In order not to give out the
character-culprit while studying his/
her location and item, we recommend
the ghost-player explore carefully and
slowly all the locations and items of all
characters (the combinations that are
lying in front of the Psychics) and do
not focus on the culprit.
Then the Ghost takes tokens which are
lying in front of the Psychics. He/she
picks the culprit’s token secretly from
them and places it face up separately
from other tokens.
Note. The color of culprit’s token is the
same as the color of the token under which
the combination "character location, item"
indicated by the ghost is.
After this the oneiromancy phase starts.
ONEIROMANCY
During this phase the Psychics are
determining the personality of the
culprit all together. After making a
decision, each Psychic puts his/her magic
ball on the character which committed the
crime on his/her opinion.
If none of the characters is chosen
by the majority of Psychics, they
must continue discussion as long as it
happens.
The "Exposing the culprit" phase starts
only if one of the characters was chosen
by the most psychics.

EXPOSING THE CULPRIT

Then the Ghost says whether their
decision is right or wrong. If
the Psychics have determined the
personality of the true culprit,
the Ghost reveals the token of the
culprit and the game ends with a
victory of the players (see "The end
of the game").
If the Psychics have made wrong
decision, put the combination of
“character, location, item” which was
chosen by the Psychics wrongly into
the box. These cards are no longer
need in the game.
New turn starts with the oneiromancy phase.
Move the day marker on the following position on the calendar board.
Note. Note that the Ghost will not add new dream cards! The phase
Common dream is played only once during the game, then the game
continues with the oneiromancy phase. In other words, depending
on the number of days remained during the moving into the Exposing
the culprit step, the Psychics have the corresponding number of
attempts to determine the culprit.
 If the Psychics correctly determined the personality
of the culprit within their allotted time for this,
the game ends with the victory of the players.

T he Psychics receive financial reward from

the owner of the mansion, and the Ghost
gets rest for ever and leaves the mansion.
If after the completion of the turn the day marker is
on the position 7 (Sunday) on the calendar board, and
the Psychics haven't determined the personality of the
culprit, the players lose the game.

T he time is up! And you didn’t find out

the true culprit. Unfortunately, the owner
of the mansion has to invite a new team
of Psychics. But he is ready to give you the
second chance. Try again!

When there are two players in the game, one of

them acts the part of a Ghost, and the other acts
as a Psychic. The Psychic gets two magic balls and
two psychics' tokens of the corresponding colors.
The Ghost generates two combinations of character/
location/item.
Thus, in the Events reconstruction phase of the
game the Psychic has to determine two characters,
two locations, and two items.

Boardgame designers: Oleksandr Nevskiy and Oleg Sidorenko

The main artist: Igor «DartGarry» Burlakov
The artists: Igor «DartGarry» Burlakov, Karolina We cka, Mariush Ganzel
Special thanks to Nikolai Ambrozyak, Larysa Melnyk, and to all testers.
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