A recent post about the foamcore set for Mysterium has reminded me of a question I wanted to ask.
My family LOVES Mysterium but we’ve played it a lot and its becoming a bit easy/samey.
I was thinking about getting one or both expansions but also open to other games that might scratch the same itch. (I know about Dixit so might get that for some variety but I’m sure there are others).
Als0 - what are people’s thoughts on the upcoming Mysterium Park?
I like Detective Club as an alternative to Mysterium.
Secrets and Lies replaces “murder weapon” with “motive” and is highly recommended for taking a third round that can sometimes be a little too easy and making it more challenging.
Secrets and Lies’ motivations can also (unofficially) be made into a fourth round - there’s a forum post on BGG about it.
Hidden Signs is basically more of the same - new cards but nothing that affects gameplay.
Mysterium Park looks as if it’s going to be a smaller faster Mysterium.
Deception: Murder in Hong Kong combines Mysterium-like elements with social deduction (“which of us is trying to put the others on the wrong track”).
Paranormal Detectives has a lot more variety? Rather than just pictures it has a bunch of ways to convey information, and leans more towards fun and laughs!
Thinking on a tangent, if sitting in silence and gesticulating wildly is your thing, how about Magic Maze 
Obscurio is a really fun alternative where a traitor tries to include options to trip the other players up. Includes a lot of getting mad at the ghost/book player who has to frantically defend themselves!
Yes I saw that. Looks interesting.
I second Obscurio - It’s my personal favorite of the Dixit family, and significantly harder than Mysterium, so it could be what you want.
(I’m guessing the real purpose of this thread was “I think I want Obscurio, but want to feel like I made an informed decision”, right? 
)
That’s interesting. Mysterium is one of my partner’s absolute favorites, yet I skipped completely over Obscurio due to the hidden traitor aspect (that in some reviews/coverage didn’t sound like it was all that solid).
I have Mysterium Park pre-ordered as a Christmas gift for her, though I know very, very little about it.
I recently got Deception: Murder in Hong Kong because it has been on my radar for a long time and I found a good deal on it bundled with its expansion. It probably won’t go over very well with my partner, however, as neither of us are particularly fond of games where lying or deception are key mechanisms.
To me the downside to Deception is that one of the more effective strategies for the murderer is to pick on someone else and make them look guilty. And one of the things that makes that more effective is to pick on someone relatively inarticulate. For many groups this won’t be a problem but I think it’s a thing worth being aware of.
Looked at Obscurio but I’m trying to avoid giving money to the Asmodée Lump.
The other downside to Deception is that it’s a bit rubbish at 4, whereas Paranormal Detective and Mysterium play quite well at that count.
Fair.
I’ve played Paranormal Detective “once” (the group of three of us took turns to be the ghost in one game each) and while I enjoyed it I didn’t love it. I liked the mechanics but even when we won I felt there was too little bandwidth to be really enjoyable. Other people at the table liked it better than I did.
Belratti is a great coop game. It hasn’t the artwork of Dixit or Mysterium, but it’s fun to play and is quite a favorite in our group
That seems really unique, I’d never heard it before. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!
I saw Mysterium Park the other day in the FLGS and was startled by how small the box is compared to the original game (and finding it odd that I’ve just failed to find an online photo showing them both together). Has anyone played it? If it can match the gameplay of the original (or feel like an enjoyable expansion) whilst being so much much more portable, that’s quite appealing.
I’ve not palyed it, but I’ve seen a fair bit about it. It seems to be a streamlined version of the original - less set up, no screen with separate cards for the ghost and only two rounds rather than three. So it’s a quicker set up and quicker play through.