During week 4 we played my favorite board game from this class to date: Mysterium. Heading into week #4 our teacher described Mysterium as a sophisticated version of Clue, which is my favorite board game of all time, so I was very excited to see what Mysterium was all about. While the premise of the game is similar to Clue in that the players are working to solve a “Who Dunnit” murder mystery by figuring out who, where and what weapon were used to commit the crime, that ended up being the only resemblance of Mysterium to Clue. Mind you, I asked for Mysterium for my birthday immediately after playing the first time, but it is completely different than clue other than in its basic premise.

In the first round of Mysterium, I played as the ghost, a role that I very much prefer in this game. As the ghost the biggest challenge I faced was providing dreams to the psychics that I thought aptly “described” the person, place or thing I was trying to lead them towards. This particular challenge in Mysterium is a matter of perception, (a similar challenge occurs in the board game Code Names), in which the player giving the clues has to think beyond their own interpretations in order to connect with/try to understand how others perceive ideas. This challenge nicely lends itself to an important area of leadership, which is understanding that those you lead may have different learning or thinking styles and that even if you believe you have a great idea, it can be misinterpreted or interpreted differently. A good leader can present information in a variety of ways and is open to others interpretations of problems, and will utilize others opinions/suggestions to create better solutions.

Two people I think that would really enjoy this game are my sister Amanda and my dad. My dad likes strategy games, with clue being one of his favorite board games, and I think he would appreciate this interpretation of a Who-Dunnit board game. I think my sister would like this game because of the similarities it shares with Code Names. She is great at interpreting clues and analyzing how the person providing those clues thinks, which is an important part of the strategy of Mysterium. This is a definitely a game that can be enjoyed by a variety of board game players as it encompasses visual information, with strategy and collaboration.