I must comment that Nusfjord has something of a dearth of better actions. Most buildings offer a one time benefit rather than income/actions/exchanges so not much grows other than your fishing income. The game is pretty arms-length.
Hallertau comes to mind again as a game that has some serious momentum build throughout.
La Granja as well.
We haven’t talked about those two as both cap at 4, but … they’re pretty good. And Nusfjord is pretty good. Stick with that, but I guess this post is to stick a pin in two bucolic options with more emphasis on better stuff and better actions over the game’s arc if this question re-opens after a few Nusfjord plays
It’s my birthday soon and Kate and the boys want to get me a game. Sounds like chaotic, silly fun. However, I have just received my copy of Hot Streak. Do I need both in my life?
Obviously that’s 1st edition Gravwell (but gosh is it ever nice to see old SUSD and remember the insanity that drew me to this lovely place originally). 2nd Edition adds unique player powers as an option (which I love), but you can just remove them, give everyone their Emergency Stop card, and give’er.
But the new edition is prettier, plays 1 more player, and is really stonkin’ good. It’s just good.
I didn’t realise there was a second edition, or that it went up to 6 players (which is ideal for me!)
Looks really fun and I’ve added to my list but the second edition is ~2x the price of the first edition! What’s that about! As an “opener” I’d be much more inclined to drop £20-something on it but £45 feels pretty steep. Might cave eventually as I think we’d enjoy it but felt the need to moan a bit.
I still like it as much as I ever did*, which is quite a lot. Although to be honest it is a little while since we played it, but we’ve always had a great time.
*This is probably a fairly useless reply really, as I don’t tend to change my mind much about games. Once I’ve played it a couple of times and liked it, I’ll probably always like it.
I have still not played Mysterium with the full ruleset. We have never bothered with the clairvoyance tokens and nearly always play on easy difficulty. We play for fun, not for a real challenge. As such, we always enjoy it!
Figure we will try out the tokens at some point, but the game only hits the table 1-2x a year, so don’t know when that’ll be.
Still a fan, though I haven’t played very recently. Having the Secrets and Lies expansion with the “story cards” I tend to play it as a four-stage game. Rules for that on my rules page.
But with or without that I always do the final round with at least some clues even if the players have “failed” to get there in time.
We still enjoy Mysterium, although it’s probably better with more players (more than 3p). And at 3p you don’t use the clairvoyance tokens, so it’s a bit simpler.
I have read the Tajemnicze Domostwo rules and it’s simpler. No clairvoyance token. This means that everyone will see the 3 clue cards at the final stage.
If the group got it wrong, the Final Stage continues to the next day (round) with the wrong guess removed. There will be no more clues beyond the first 3 clue cards. So it goes on they run out of time or get it right.
It’s a long time since I’ve played Mysterium, but I recall liking the clairvoyance tokens. I don’t think I’ve ever played a game without them! We found betting on whether your friends have got something right or wrong adds to the fun, especially when two (or more) people disagree.
In case it isn’t clear, I still really like Mysterium. I had never heard of Tajemnicze Domostwo until less than an hour ago.
Perhaps an obvious follow-up question: what do you all think of Mysterium Park? I’m aware that it exists, but I have neither played it nor read the rules.
The tokens add some faff but we’ve always used them. Adds some more investment in other people’s guesses, and if you’re not sure about a guess they can give you a sort of win-win where if it’s right you can move forward but if it’s wrong you at least get the token right.
Have never played Park but most of what I’ve heard is that it’s quicker to set up and play but not as good.
I also really like Mysterium, so I will play with extra faff if that’s how others want to play. I got Mysterium Park as a “Mysterium Lite”, but found that I didn’t like the setting or the cards as much, so got rid of it.
My family has found Mysterium Park easier to play (smaller, shorter) and harder to win. (We’ve never won.) I think that the suspect and location cards are just too much alike to easily distinguish them. (I have thought about swapping the cards out. We’ve not tried that yet, but I don’t see any reason it wouldn’t work mechanically.)
We won’t get rid of it any time soon. (My daughter loves Mysterium and likes having a more portable copy.) But I think we’d all rather play Mysterium than Mysterium Park.
Like some others here I invariably ignore the clock and allow every player to get their three clues and play the final round. I almost exclusively play Mysterium with family who don’t play a ton of games, and the occasions are usually few and far between, so keeping it simple is an intentional choice. I pretty much just want everyone to have fun interpreting the weird visions without them feeling pressured into choosing a different card on account of other players’ votes, or being punished for not getting the correct interpretation.
I can see some potential appeal in the extra voting features for certain groups, but it’s not necessary for the game. I’d consider it if the game was getting a ton of regular play and the other players wanted to up the difficulty for themselves.
