Mysterium

We actually played this game a little over a week ago, but while I was checking the rules for something, I was reminded that the plot of the game takes place on Halloween, so I needed to save it for today to be the game of the day!

Mysterium is a really beautiful game that is best played with more than two players, but we worked with what we've got. Which is two players.

One player is the ghost. They were murdered, and can't QUITE remember by whom, in what room of the mansion, or with what murder weapon. The other players are psychics trying to solve the murder so the ghost can rest peacefully.

The ghost assigns a set of three answers (one culprit, one room, and one weapon) to each psychic, secretly, then uses vision cards to give the psychics hints as to what they're trying to convey to the psychic. The vision cards are really gorgeous, like weird, surreal little artworks with lots of different possible interpretations. For example, the ghost might give me a card with a red background with some swords and clouds and some animals floating in the sky... am I supposed to guess the hunter (who kills animals), the magician (with a red background), the chef (with knives), or the aviator (who flies in the clouds)? Maybe there's something round on that card and the ghost wanted me to see a round object on one of the culprit's cards? The ghost can give out multiple cards to the same psychic to try to establish a pattern of similarities to point out which thing the psychic is supposed to see.

In this manner, the psychics try to guess the culprit first, then if they succeed at that, the room, then the weapon, before the number of rounds is up. Each psychic is trying to guess a different set, remember. At the end, if all the psychics managed to guess their set of clues, the ghost gives the whole group a set of clues to help them pick the right set, which tells them who actually did murder the ghost (and where, and how).

It sounds complicated but it's really not (and there are actually some elements I didn't outline here but it still isn't that bad) and I enjoy it a lot, when I play with the right people. (I played once with people who I love, but really didn't like the game, which makes it... not so great.)