For this past week in class, the next game we played was actually a choice between two: Mysterium or Corrupted Kingdom(s). Personally, I gravitated towards Mysterium, because it seemed more conceptual and intriguing, plus I’m a sucker for gothic themes. Mysterium actually has many similarities to the classic game Clue, since the goal is to find a murderer, what room the murder was committed in, and the murder weapon. However, in order to find this information, players would need to interpret “dreams” presented by a player separate from everyone else. This detached player, or the “ghost” would hand players cards with stunning artwork on them, so that they could possibly translate the imagery into clues associated with the info needed.

As the game continues, players could also try to predict whether certain guesses were right or wrong, increasing their abilities and gaining advantages in the endgame. Players guessed after the “ghost” gave info, first guessing the person, then the area, then the weapon. With seven rounds to find information, and other players except the ghost being able to help translate images from other players’ dreams, this game was extremely cooperative. It really represented leadership on the ghost’s part, since he or she had to give images that they felt would help the most, and trying to know the players well enough to predict how they would interpret the “dreams” was probably no easy task, definitely the hardest part of the game in my opinion.

Even though I did not have the opportunity to play as the ghost during the time provided, I still enjoyed being among the regular players. There was a certain thrill I got from being able to correctly interpret the messages the ghost player was giving me, especially when the imagery was extremely subtle. For instance, one of our players got a card that had a chessboard and several mice on it. One of the suspected murderers was a chef, so we as a group determined that the ghost was making a Ratatouille reference, and the player who received that clue guessed that suspect correctly. Those kind of successes really helped make the game enjoyable.

I bet that my cousin Max would like this game, because he is a very conceptual thinker, and having to translate images like in Mysterium would be something that he might enjoy. He would most likely play the ghost though, honestly, since he likes being in positions where he has some degree of control over the game anyway.