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Mysterium
A cooperative game in which one player is a ghost who cannot speak and gives clues with nothing but dreamlike vision cards, while the rest — the psychics — work out the culprit, the location, and the object. It puts the picture association of Dixit together with the deduction of Clue, and the mix of frustration and thrill in playing the ghost is the best part.
Rules
One player becomes a ghost who cannot speak and has to tell the other players — the psychics — who the culprit was, where it happened, and what was used, with nothing but dreamlike, abstract «vision cards». The ghost may neither explain nor gesture.
The roles split in two
One player is the ghost and everyone else is a psychic. The ghost is the soul of a murdered servant and cannot say who the killer was. All that is left are the vision cards.
- Everybody wins together or loses together. The ghost is on the psychics' side.
- Each psychic has to find a different combination (1 character + 1 location + 1 object).
- If everyone finds their combination within seven hours, the group votes together on the culprit at the end.
The ghost's one prohibition
The ghost may listen to the psychics talking but may not say a word or make a gesture. Nodding or pointing at a card breaks the rule.
Components
| Component | Count | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Vision cards | 84 | The ghost keeps a hand of 7 |
| Psychic cards | 54 | 18 characters · 18 locations · 18 objects |
| Ghost cards | - | The answer cards that pair with the psychic cards |
| Progress boards | 4 | Character · location · object · epilogue |
| Ghost tokens | 6 | Mark which psychic the ghost has already given cards to this turn |
| Crow markers | 3 | Placed when the ghost discards their hand |
| Clock board and sand timer | 1 each | 7 hours = 7 turns |
Each psychic also receives an intuition token, a clairvoyancy level marker, clairvoyancy tokens (agree / disagree), and a sleeve.
Setup and difficulty
- 1Choose a difficulty. It decides how many cards go on the table and how many times the ghost may discard their hand.
- 2Shuffle the character psychic cards and draw as many as the difficulty calls for, face down.
- 3Hand the matching ghost cards to the ghost, and lay the psychic cards out on the table.
- 4Repeat the same process for the location cards and the object cards.
- 5The ghost shuffles the ghost cards they received, draws as many as there are psychics, and places them in each psychic's color column inside the screen. The leftovers go in the box unseen.
- 6The ghost now holds one «character + location + object» combination for every psychic.
| Difficulty | Discarding the hand |
|---|---|
| Easy | Once per turn. Place a crow and take it back at the end of the turn |
| Medium | Three times per game |
| Hard | Once per game |
The number of cards on the table runs from 4 to 7 depending on the player count and the difficulty. More cards is harder.
Phase 1, reconstruction of events — reading visions and the ghost's answer
The order is fixed
Psychics guess in the order character → location → object and no other. Until you find your character you cannot move on to your location, which is why psychics move at different speeds.
- 1The ghost sends a vision. They choose one psychic and lay one or more vision cards face up. That psychic's ghost token is pushed against the screen to mark «already given».
- 2The ghost refills their hand back to 7 cards from the vision deck. If the deck runs out, shuffle the discards into a new one.
- 3Repeat until every psychic has received at least one card.
- 4Once everyone has their cards, turn the sand timer over.
- 5Before time runs out, each psychic puts their intuition token on the psychic card they believe is right. While there is time you may move it as often as you like.
- Psychics may study the cards freely and talk it over with each other. That is in fact the heart of the game.
- Several psychics may place tokens on the same card. Since every combination is different, at least one of them is wrong.
The ghost's answer
When the sand timer runs out, the ghost tells each psychic, in whatever order they like, only right or wrong. The ghost token of a psychic who has been answered comes away from the screen.
| Result | What happens |
|---|---|
| Right | Turn the ghost card face up, and the psychic slides that card into their sleeve. Discard all of their vision cards and move the intuition token to the next progress board |
| Wrong | The intuition token goes back to the same progress board, and the vision cards stay in front of the psychic. Next turn the ghost adds cards to build the vision up |
What matters is that a failed vision does not disappear — it builds up. The ghost looks at why the cards just given did not land, and layers on cards from another angle to narrow the meaning down.
Clairvoyancy tokens — betting on someone else's intuition
- Put a clairvoyancy token next to another psychic's intuition token to show «agree» or «disagree».
- You may not put one on your own token, and you may not put two of your own on one intuition token.
- Use as many as you like in a turn, or none at all. You may move them or take them back until the sand timer runs out.
- If you were right — you agreed with a correct intuition, or disagreed with a wrong one — move one space forward on the clairvoyancy track.
- Used clairvoyancy tokens are discarded onto their spots on the clock board and come back at the start of the fourth turn.
If you finish your own combination early
Put your intuition token on the «mission accomplished» space of the epilogue progress board and move one space up the clairvoyancy track for every hour left on the clock. After that you help the other psychics and keep spending your remaining clairvoyancy tokens.
Your clairvoyancy level decides how much you learn in the last phase
How far you got on the clairvoyancy track decides how many cards you get to see in the final vote. Reading other people well is a reward in itself.
The clock — within seven hours
- Once the answer step is over, move the clock hand forward one hour.
- If any psychic has not completed their combination yet, a new turn begins.
- If the hand was already on hour 7 (VII), the game ends and everybody loses.
- If everyone completed their combination, move on to the final phase.
Phase 2, revealing the culprit
- 1Suspect line-up — put the unused psychic cards and the three progress boards in the box. Place one numbered ghost token per psychic in the middle, and each psychic takes their 3 cards out of their sleeve and lays them beside a number.
- 2Shared vision — the ghost picks exactly 3 vision cards from their hand, all of them pointing at the same combination: one at the character, one at the location, one at the object. Shuffle them and place them face down in the middle. The ghost secretly puts that combination's culprit token face down on the epilogue board.
- 3Straw poll — the psychics decide the culprit's combination by majority vote.
Clairvoyancy level decides how many cards you see
Psychics vote in secret and may not talk to each other. When you vote depends on your clairvoyancy level.
- The ghost may not say which card points to which element.
- You vote by putting the numbered side of a clairvoyancy token into your sleeve.
- If the combination chosen by majority holds the real culprit, everybody wins. Otherwise everybody loses.
Commonly confused rules
Q. May the ghost say «not that card»?
No. Beyond the «right or wrong» of the answer step the ghost may give no information at all, and that includes facial expressions and gestures.
Q. May the psychics talk to each other?
In phase 1 they may talk freely. Talking is only forbidden during the final vote.
Q. Can several psychics choose the same card?
Yes. Since their combinations differ, at least one of them is wrong — and that fact is information in itself.
Q. Do the vision cards go away when I guess wrong?
No. They stay in front of you and the ghost adds more cards next turn. They are only discarded when you guess right.
Q. May I find my location first?
No. The order character → location → object is fixed.
Q. May I put a clairvoyancy token on my own intuition?
No. They only go on other people's intuitions.
Q. Does a psychic who finishes early have nothing to do?
They advance on the clairvoyancy track by the number of hours left, and after that they help the others read their visions and keep spending clairvoyancy tokens.
Q. Who should play the ghost?
The rulebook does not say. But the ghost cannot speak and has to keep making judgment calls, so the game runs more smoothly if someone familiar with it takes the role.
History and editions
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Designers | Oleksandr Nevskiy and Oleg Sidorenko |
| Publisher | Libellud, 2015 — from the Ukrainian original «Tiny Epic» / «Мистериум» |
| Setting | Warwick Manor in the 1920s. The ghost is a servant who died thirty years earlier |
| Same family | Libellud titles such as «Dixit» that live on interpreting abstract pictures |
| Expansion / spin-off | Released | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Hidden Signs | 2016 | Adds vision cards and psychic cards |
| Secrets & Lies | 2017 | - |
| Mysterium Park | 2020 | A standalone game with trimmed-down rules, set at an amusement park |
| Mysterium Kids | 2022 | A standalone children's game that communicates through sound |
Sources
Official Libellud rulebook (Mysterium, English)Wiki cross-check — Wikipedia: MysteriumRule summaries are reference content written by us, not quotations from the official rulebook. Always check the official rulebook for exact rules. Diagrams are original schematics, not rulebook illustrations.
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Last updated 2026-09-08
💡 Master tip
As the ghost, linking cards by impression — their colors and mood — usually works better than by «what is drawn on them». As a psychic, do not look only at your own cards; compare them with the cards the others were given, because the ghost is always making a relative choice.
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