Do you want to learn how to play Mysterium Park? It’s a new game by the creators of the supernaturally intriguing board game Mysterium, so of course you do. The setting is a fun fair in the United States in the 1950s. The fair director has been murdered, and the ghost of the director sends visions to the psychic players to help them determine who did it and where. Player roles are either psychic investigators or the ghost of the director, and this is a cooperative board game where players win together or lose together. It sounds fun? Let’s get started then.
Object of the Game
Who murdered the fair director and where did the murderer do it? In order to win the game, players work together to solve the mystery. The ghost of the fair director, played by one of the players, uses visions and dreams to help the psychic investigators, played by the other players, select the correct suspect and location.
What’s in the Box
You’ll find the following when you open the box:
- Playing board
- Suspect cards
- Location cards
- Vision cards
- Plot cards with a plastic card stand to hold one of the plot cards facing the ghost
- Lightbulb marker to keep track of which round players are on
- Three cardboard tickets; these give the ghost three chances to exchange vision cards
- Five plastic crystal ball tokens in different colors
- Five cardboard crystal ball markers in different colors
- Cardboard witness marker
Setting Up the Game
Before setting up, players need to decide who will be the ghost. Then place the game board in the center of the table and put the lightbulb marker next to the number one on the game board. This helps players keeps track of which round they’re on.
Shuffle the suspect cards and place nine cards faceup on the grid on the game board and return the remainder to the box. Now, shuffle the location cards and set them aside for now. Shuffle the vision cards; the ghost selects seven cards and keeps them hidden from other players. The remainder of the vision cards stay on the table next to the ghost. Shuffle the plot cards; the ghost selects one and places it facing the ghost in the plastic card stand. Return the rest of the plot cards to the box.
Each of the psychic investigator players selects a colored crystal ball token and its matching cardboard marker. Everything is now ready for play to begin.
How to Play Mysterium Park
Number of Players & Play Time
Two to six people can play and it lasts roughly 30 to 45 minutes.
Gameplay
The player in the ghost role sits across from the players in the role of psychic investigators. As with all ghosts, the ghost of the fair director can’t communicate directly so must use dreams, premonitions and visions to try to get messages across to the psychics.
The plot card, which only the ghost can see, tells the ghost which suspects are innocent and who the witness is. Colored dots on the plot card grid, which matches the grid on the game board, indicate which player needs to identify which suspect as innocent. The ghost needs to somehow give this information to the psychics without using words, facial expressions or body language.
The ghost gives one or two vision cards to each psychic and psychics try to interpret their visions to determine which suspects the visions refer to. Psychics can interact with and help each other, and the ghost can listen while they talk.
When the psychics have finished interpreting their visions, they place their crystal ball tokens on the suspects they think are innocent. If they are correct, the ghost removes those cards as well as the witness card. If any of the psychics are not correct, their suspect cards remain on the board and players begin another round.
The ghost continues to give vision cards to the psychics until you find all the innocent suspects. After you have identified all the innocents, the players will be left with three suspects.
Locations are eliminated next with play proceeding in much the same way. Nine locations are placed on the grid, and the ghost uses visions to help players identify which locations are not the setting for the murder. Players must identify three suspects and three possible locations before the sixth round is over or they lose the game.
If you can identify three suspects and three locations by the sixth round, then the final phase of the game begins. The ghost chooses one vision to help identify the murderer and one vision to help identify the murder location. Players have one chance to get it right.
If you need more help learning how to play Mysterium Park, check out this video by Watch it Played.
Player Interaction
Players in the role of psychics may communicate with each other throughout the game. The player in the role of the ghost may listen to the psychics but can only use the vision cards to communicate with them.
Scoring and Winning
This is a win-win or lose-lose game. If psychics correctly identify the person who killed the director and where the crime occurred, everyone wins. If players can’t do this within the number of rounds allowed, everyone loses.
History of Mysterium Park
Mysterium Park is very similar to Mysterium, the popular board game set in Scotland in the 1920s where psychics decipher visions to try to solve a murder mystery. The Mysterium Park board game is simpler than Mysterium and gameplay is shorter, so it’s an accessible way to enter the realm of cooperative psychic crime solving.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Mysterium Park an expansion to the Mysterium board game?
Mysterium Park is a stand-alone game created in the same vein as Mysterium. It is not an expansion.
When was the first Mysterium board game released?
Mysterium Park was released October 2015
Is Libellud a part of Asmodee?
Yes, Libellud officially joined Asmodee in July 2020, although both companies had worked hand in hand for more than a decade before that.