Reviewed by Herb Levy
MYSTIC PATHS (R&R Games, 2 to 6 players ages 12 and up, 20-45 minutes; $39.99)
Have you ever wanted to be an apprentice in a school of magic? If you have, then in this cooperative game designed by Kevin Worden and Brian Leet, you get your chance as players assume those roles as they enter the “Eternal Forest” and seek to unlock magical portals in a specific order – portals that can only be unlocked by having fellow players speak the magic words you wish them to speak as they follow Mystic Paths.
Play centers around that “Eternal Forest” represented by a 3 part board that fits together like a puzzle. Its 19 circular spots are randomly filled in by 2-sided portal disks (out of 60 provided along with some blanks so you can make your own). Each of these disks has a word or phrase. (There is no real connection between the “magical theme” and the disks as words and phrases found on the disks run the gamut from “elves” to “hot pockets” to “Tesla” to “giraffe”. All players receive an apprentice figure (with base) and places it on the portal attached to their starting color icon on the board’s perimeter, 7 NOT tokens and 5 Progress tokens. (The Progress tokens number 1, 2 and 3 are placed face up in front of the player.) Finally, a map card and a hand of 4 Clue cards are dealt to all.
Every player has a similar challenge: get the OTHER players to guess the words that will unlock the portals needed to be travelled to as shown on their individual map card. To determine the correct path to follow, players will provide clues to point the other players to the correct portals. And this is how it’s done:
Clue cards held by players show TWO different words. One of these cards is placed underneath a Progress token so that one word (the clue that a player wishes to give) is visible. You may also place a NOT token to indicate that the word shown should be taken as its opposite. (For example, should the Clue word be “Strong”, a NOT token placed alongside it would indicate that the clue should be read as “NOT Strong”.) Now, the other players try to determine the correct path, using these clues to guide them.
If the players guess wrong, a NOT token is placed on the incorrect Portal and that player’s turn ends. If the players guess correctly, the Apprentice is moved to the correct Portal (the base staying where the Apprentice came from so you can track movement easily) and players continue to guess the next Portal and, if successful, the next. Any NOT tokens of that player still on the board are removed as are the Progress tokens correctly guessed with Clue cards used discarded.
Once all players have had their turn, the Round Card is flipped over, all draw back up to 4 Clue cards and new Progress tokens (indicating the next three steps on the path shown on the map card) placed face up, ready for Clue cards. (Should a Progress token not be correctly guessed, one more Clue card can be added to that Progress token.) If the map path is not completed when the final round of the game (round 5) begins, then players receive an extra Clue card and can display 4 (rather than 3) Progress tokens.
After 5 rounds, the game ends immediately and scores tallied. Each player’s score is equal to the last Portal successfully reached. In addition, any player successfully completing their 10 Portal map journey by the end of round 4, gets a Gold Cup disk; if completing the journey by the end of round 5, a silver cup disk instead. A Gold Cup adds 2 points to your score while a Silver Cup adds 1. Points earned by ALL of the players are added and that total divided by the number of players rounded down. Based on the final result, players will earn an “Amazing A+” for a score of 11 or more to a dismal “Failure F” if only managing to earn 1 to 3 points.
Graphic quality of the game is satisfactory. Portals are large and easily readable, a very important consideration. Not sure why a puzzle board style is used, rather than a standard board with cutouts to hold the Portals, but it is functional. Having a base along with your Apprentice (a nicely molded plastic piece) is helpful in tracking the path the Apprentice is following. Keeping in mind the clues used in the second or third leg of a path is a good idea as they can provide hints as to what the first leg could be. An oddity is that Progress tokens for all colors are numbered 1 through 5 on one side and 6 through 10 on the other – except for white! Why do the white Progress tokens use Roman numerals???? Sticking to the standard numerology makes so much more sense!
While the theme to give background to what you are doing is clever, it is, to put it mildly, a stretch and really has no effect on play. Rather, Mystic Paths is a game that falls squarely into the Codenames (featured in the Fall 2015 Gamers Alliance Report) family of linking words/phrases via giving clues to indicate some sort of relationship. In Codenames, you are only limited by your imagination in seeking links between words. But in Mystic Paths, you are limited by the cards held in your hand. While you only have four cards, there are two words on each card so you really have a supply of 8 choices to work with – and when you consider using the NOT tokens, the possibilities double to 16! Of course, you can look at the clues for the second or third stop on the path and work backwards. That will sometimes be beneficial. But Codenames and Mystic Paths share a potential problem: the inability to find a clue that fits! As it relates to Mystic Paths, situations can arise where the clue cards in your hand can leave you feeling clueless! May we suggest a solution?
In Mystic Paths, there is no way to discard cards that a player may find unsatisfactory. This can very frustrating. This frustration can be lessened if you can, somehow, acquire a new set of cards. But you should pay a price for this. NOT tokens can be valuable in expanding the possibilities of clue cards held so why not DISCARD a NOT token in exchange for discarding one, some or ALL clue cards held in your hand? You have 7 NOT tokens at your disposable but limiting the use of this “power” to only 3 times per game seems a fair exchange. In this respect, you would feel you have at least a chance to draw better cards but only by limiting your ability to add a “not” to a clue card held.
The game benefits from more, rather than less, players (four is probably the “sweet spot” here) as it is fascinating to see how other minds work in trying to decipher clues that may be more obscure or mean such different things to different people. In some games, this can drag down the action but here, with only five rounds to a game, it is not a major factor. The challenge of “reading minds” makes Mystic Paths interesting – and if you don’t mind going down those paths, you’ll find Mystic Paths interesting too! – – – – – – – – Herb Levy
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