Briefly: A Thematically Coherent Game System

Mysticana (Dustin Dobson, Jamie Thul) is a game system – that is, a set of components that can be used to play multiple games – in just 18 cards: 6 cards in each of 3 elemental suits (Fire, Water, Earth), ranked from 2 to 6 plus the Avatar (akin to an Ace in playing cards).

While this can seem restrictive since other game systems – like the Decktet, Dice Deck, Piecepack, and the classic standbys of dominos and playing cards – feature more components, from my experience with extensive play testing, Mysticana is very efficient in how it offers flexibility for game rule hooks.

In particular, the heart of Mysticana is a three-element cycle:

Water douses Fire
Fire burns Earth
Earth absorbs Water

This is an inherent relationship between all three suits that can be built upon and extended, but importantly, it will always be present in some way. Not only that, but as this relationship is captured by the elements of water and fire and earth, a fantastical elemental nature will always be part and parcel of every game created using the Mysticana system.

This means Mysticana is a game system with thematic teeth.

There are very few other game systems that can claim the same.

I also believe this central thematic core is part of why, when you dangle Mysticana’s structure in front of people, many of them – both designers and people who generally don’t design games – will start to have ideas straight away.

And while I am someone with designer-adjacent interests (a lot of board game analysis is something I like to do, including meta analysis), I’m also a solo player primarily – hence my series on Mysticana will be sticking to solo and soloable games.

On to the games!

Nine Perils (Dustin Dobson, Jamie Thul)

Nine Perils is one of the three games included in the core Mysticana wallet, and it’s one of my most played solo games of this nature. It’s fast, it’s a great puzzle, and the best part is that it feels like it shouldn’t work and yet it does.

When you first play this game, the idea that you’re trying to stop disasters that you can’t even see yet sounds ludicrous. But as you play, you reveal more of the disaster line, so there’s an element of deduction in Nine Perils – a mechanic that doesn’t always fit easily into a solo game, but does so quite comfortably here.

You also have another ally – the tie mechanic. Specifically, if you can play a card that ties in strength to a disaster, you can skip resolving the next two disasters. Which means you can logically work out how to most likely skip over anything that you mess up or just don’t have enough certainty on.

It’s deduction combined with effects chaining and clever play that feels like you’re pulling off a magic trick – especially once you’ve gained enough experience to play at Seer level difficulty. Nine Perils also shows off the elemental cycle at the heart of Mysticana at full glorious strength, isolated and pure, like a finely cut diamond.

Cave of Djinns (Roshni Patel)

Cave of Djinns became one of my favorite games during play testing.

Your mission: to solve the riddles of six random djinns by playing cards surrounding each one that fits their personal criteria. But these djinns don’t always play nice with each other – so you’re going to have to time your card play and cascade the wish effects of solved djinns in order to satisfy them all and escape the cave with your life!

The fact that the djinns’ conflicts differ from game to game – due to (a) 12 djinn (six 2-sided cards) and (b) their pyramid layout that changes who neighbors who every game – means this is one conniving puzzle generator. Wish effects are unique to each djinn, and will help you manipulate the tableau, and yes – effects can and do cascade if you arrange things right.

The fact that djinns who are satisfied then take one of the cards you played around it also keeps the game flow dynamic –and it means you need to consider which card the happy djinn will just assume it can straight up vanish with. (What are you going to do about it as a mere mortal, anyways?)

Cave of Djinns takes a tad more time than Nine Perils, but it’s just as enjoyable to me.

The Future

As a mere public play tester, I can’t say much, and I don’t even know the order in which anything will be released.

I will say that whenever Mysticana play testing rolled around, even though I focused on solo play, there was never a round when I didn’t have testing to do – and always more than one game to test, too!

Hence why this is Part 1. There’s more solo in them thar hills!

Lục Bát

The sun is fire, burning.
The open waters quench thy flame.
The very earth thirsts deep,
And every rainstorm she will drink.
In turn, the fire burns,
And in ashes the cycle renews.