It's a mysterious game that we delve into next as we settle down to play a board game called Mysterium. Following on from the last blog post and where we talked about shady characters and learning to fool the Sheriff, this game develops the skill of inference. What is that all about you may well ask.
So, taking what I already know + evidence from a source = inferred meaning to reach a conclusion. Answers may include. “I predict” or “I know because..”
A real world example may be looking out of a window and seeing that the grass outside is wet with a possible inference would be that either it rained or there was dew on the grass from the morning. These inferences explain why the grass was wet and assumptions are based on previous experiences because we all have seen rain, or morning dew.
This is where skills are developed though games such as Mysterium. A fun game with a difference, this game is both a competitive and a cooperative game also. If you are playing as a team you can help each other find the links between the clues on the cards.
Set in a world where three mystics contact the ‘ghost' from the other side and each player has to figure out who has been killed, with what weapon and where within a set time frame. Subtler than Cluedo this is not only a challenge for the mystics, but also as the ghost. Each person will see different things in the cards/clues and because inferred meaning is something that a person assumes, decoding the pictures is a skill in itself.
I love a detective story as I enjoy figuring out whodunit and this game is more than that. It is about teamwork and learning to communicate as a team so you can all successfully solve the puzzle of ‘who killed me?’ What one person sees, another does not so it makes you converse in a different way and for me reaffirms something I've long felt. If you can’t do something one way, look at the task from another angle or try an alternative approach. We each have different skills and board games are a wonderful platform for developing and strengthening these skills. No two people are alike and thus their perspectives and insights may be different from yours.
Why not take up the challenge and combine these two worlds.
