Mysterium 2023 On-site Activities

We’re celebrating 30 years of Myst and we have a lot of great events planned for Mysterium this year!

Please head over to the schedule page for a full list of events such as panels and presentations. Below is a list of other great on-site activities we offer over the weekend.

Marker Missions

Have you ever calibrated your KI in URU? You know, that thing where you run around D’ni and find those glowing circles hidden in devious places? Well, you’ll have a chance to do a similar thing here at Mysterium! (With or without fancy glowing lights.)

We hide the marker tokens around the hotel in community spaces such as the con room, the lobby, elevators, hallways, the pool room, etc. They will not be hidden in guest rooms, parking lots, at Cyan HQ, etc. Anywhere where it would be disruptive to regular guests, or dangerous for attendees.

Find markers, bring them to us during daylight hours during Mysterium, and we will award you points! Do not cheat. We will be angry.

We also ask that you please wait to take markers home until Closing Ceremonies on Sunday. We realize that they are cool. However, when everyone pockets them, we won’t have any to hide. So please turn them in so we can hide them for you! During Closing Ceremonies, we will make the remaining markers available for you to take home.

Sound fun? Please fill out this form so we can gauge interest: interest form.

Try Moving the Slider

Fancy a challenge? Rayne and m13 have put together a unique adventure for you this year! For our returning attendees, this is the puzzle event. Except it’s slightly different this year.

Atrus left you a message. Will you be able to find it? To participate, sign up at the Registration Desk (there will be sign-up sheets). At 5pm on Friday, we will split you into groups and give you The Challenge. Gather your pencils and work together to solve puzzles, find clues, and try to figure out what in the world This Thing is for.

Nervous because you aren’t super familiar with the Myst games? That’s ok! You will be provided with everything you need to solve The Challenge. You won’t need your phones for this. No cheating. Cheating will make us incredibly cranky. 

If your group is able to complete The Challenge before 12pm on Sunday, your group will win a special prize that the committee put together!

Want to sign up early? Cool! Please fill out this form.

VR Stations

There will be two VR stations in the Con room at Mysterium this year!

One station will be run by the Virtual Reality Guild.

Since 2021, the Virtual Reality Guild has existed with the purpose of bringing Myst-related content to Virtual Reality via VRChat, and bringing VRChat members who are fans of the Myst series together. Over the past two years, we have focused our efforts on porting ages and content from Uru (Plasma) engine to VR using the Unity engine and using VRChat as a hosting platform. Join them for a live demo to see these ages in VR and explore these familiar places in a new way!

The other station will be run by Jeedeye. Have you ever wanted to experience Myst in VR? Well now you’ll get your chance! A VR station will be setup using a Valve Index and PC. Myst, Obduction, and Firmament will all be available for attendees to experience.

Both stations will be available during Socialization Time in the evening. If you’re interested, please fill out this form to help gauge interest.

Unwritten

Unwritten brings the surreal worlds of Myst and Uru to tabletop role-playing. Using the popular FATE gaming engine, Unwritten gives players the chance to delve into the depths of D’ni’s troubled past, influence the future of the D’ni, and explore or even create new Ages. The D’niverse has room for any of the stories you want to tell. YOUR story is Unwritten.

Unwritten allows both Storyteller and Players to fully flex their creative muscles unbound by traditional TTRPG rules. This allows each experience to be truly unique and catered to those gathered around the table. Utilizing a specific series of D6 styled dice, Unwritten is much more nebulous in its perception of pass/fail play. Meaning that critical failure is not near as punishing and plays much more as an interesting story beat your party will overcome.

From the ancient eras of the D’ni to the Modern DRC and beyond, no unexplored branch will be left untended. So gather your group and delve once again into the ages of MYST…and beyond…

There will be two adventure masters hosting Unwritten sessions this year!

This year, Eleri’s group will be testing out some new mechanics and rules for Unwritten, using a LARP setting. If you don’t know what a LARP is; it’s taking a tabletop role playing game and making the action live- often in costume, with props and activities. We’re taking a page from URU for this- you will be playing *you*.

When a group of fans get a private message while at Mysterium, they find themselves investigating strange goings on… all while trying to keep the rest of the con from finding out that something could be terribly, terribly wrong…

There will be a sign up sheet with space for up to 6 players, a 1 hour (ish) character creation & planning session, and then you’re off on an adventure!

If you’d like to sign up early, you may do so by filling out this form. It’ll help both adventure masters prep their sessions.

Ahyoheek

Deep in the underground caverns of the D’ni, citizens gathered around holographic Ahyoheek tables for their version of Rock-Scissors-Paper, whiling away the hours until their civilization was destroyed by a madman.

Now, modern explorers of D’ni have developed a tabletop version of Ahyoheek to the surface, so that anyone can enjoy this simple, but strategic game.

There will be Ahyoheek decks on the table for you to play during Socialization Time.

Quabitat for Squeemanity

It appears that something went wrong with one of Atrus’ breeding experiments! This has resulted in a bit of an overpopulation of quabs and squee.

But, Because we care at Quabitat for Squeemanity, we decided to step in and do something about that.

How can you help? By adopting a quab or squee today! And, Because we care about the health of your pet here at Quabitat for Squeemanity, we’ll throw in a customizable habitat for your pet absolutely free! That’s right! 100% free.

To get started, call the toll-free number at 1-… Just kidding.

We brought some 3D printed quabs and squees that you may adopt if you wish! And some fun pieces to build and decorate a cute little habitat for them during Socialiation Time!

Gemedet Tournament

Have you ever thought that the game Tic tac toe was cool, but just didn’t have enough tic tac toe in it? Well, the D’ni apparently did.

Gemedet is a game where two players take turns placing pieces of their color in a 3 dimensional grid nine wide, nine long, and nine layers high. The objective is to complete an unbroken straight line of six pieces of the players color. Any direction the line of six can fit will count, including diagonals.

If you are curious, sets will be set out to play, and there will be a tournament Saturday during Socialization Time.

If you’re up for the challenge, sign up at the Registration Desk before 5pm on Saturday. Want to sign up early? No problem! Please fill out this form.

Name that Tune

🎶Ever gotten a song stuck in your head? Ever searched and searched for the instrumental music you know you know from somewhere but just can’t quite remember where? This is the game for you! We’ll play you a tune (maybe it’s a song, maybe it’s a sound effect) and you can tell us what it’s from. Like in real life, the game is made up and the points don’t matter but if you’ve ever looked for a game where your esoteric video game soundtrack knowledge will really shine, this is the game for you! 🎶

Sound fun? Great! We’ll get our game on on Saturday evening during Socialization Time. Please fill out this form so we can gauge interest. On-site sign up forms will also be available.

KI Painting

It’s every Maintainer’s worst nightmare: An Uncalibrated KI! This batch is missing more of its colorful decoration than most, and unfortunately, collecting Markers won’t fix this one! Fortunately for you, we have a set of Maintainer’s Guild Standard Issue Do It Yourself Coloring Paints to fix this, if you’re up to the task. (Painting Not Required, if you want to do later customizations at home.)

We will have acrylic paint, brushes, and drop cloths available for these KIs. Acrylic paint is permanent and does not come out of fabric. If you are interested in painting your KI, it would be advisable to wear clothing that you wouldn’t mind getting a little paint on.

KIs will be available for painting Friday evening during Socialization Time.

Cosplay

We love cosplay! Have an outfit to show off? Please do! As we’ll be at Cyan HQ on Saturday, that would be the best day to wear it, but you are welcome to rock it any time during the weekend!

Unsure about how to interact with a cosplayer? That’s ok! Our friendly neighborhood mangree put together a handy dandy guide that lays out some cosplay etiquette!

What Would Yeesha Draw?

While we’re on the subject of art, this is a fun one! This event involves eight people sitting around a table, each with a sheet of 9.5×13” paper in front of them. We’ll provide these supplies, don’t worry. You have one minute to draw a thing. Everyone draws. When the timer is up, everyone passes their drawing to the left. You receive the drawing from the person on your right, and you have another minute to draw. You’re going to add to that drawing. Draw for a minute. Pass. Keep going until your original drawing returns to you! You’ll have a collaboration of eight different art styles on one page that you can take home.

We will have a few time slots available with sign-up sheets at the Registration Desk for this event.

Coloring Pages

Do you enjoy coloring? We gathered some old Mysterium shirt design submissions as well as some coloring and activity book submissions from previous years and printed some pages of fun Myst-themed things that you can color! Because who doesn’t enjoy that?

We encourage you to bring some coloring supplies if you would like to participate. Our coloring supplies are pretty limited.

Blind Book Exchange

What could be more mysterious than a book when you don’t know where it will lead? The concept of blind date books is pretty simple: you wrap a book up in paper, write some clues to the content of the book on the paper, and trade for another wrapped book. We’re Myst Nerds, so we’re obviously going to D’ni it up.

• Bring 1-3 NEW OR GENTLY USED books. They DO NOT have to be directly Cyan related (or we’ll have 512 copies of BoA), but they should be widely Cyan-adjacent. Mysterious worlds! Sibling betrayal! Space Pinecones! Annoyingly complex puzzles! Archaeology! Strange beasties! Fallen Civilizations! Could you see Gehn cozying up with his pipe reading it? Maybe Yeesha stuck it in her backpack when she first explored D’ni? What *does* Zandi read when he’s done with that quantum physics book? Fiction or non, it’s up to you!
• Wrap them so that the book itself can’t be seen.
• Feel free to decorate that wrap in a Myst/D’ni/Obducton/Firmament inspired way.
• Put clues to the content of the book on the wrap. For example, for a certain book I might write:
  • Siblings aren’t always what they seem to be
  • Portals have rules
  • What happens when the adventure is over?
  • LGBTQ+ representation
• Recognizing that Mysterium caters to a wide range of (ages and maturity levels)[https://mysterium.net/policies/#general], we please ask that you clearly mark wraps with content warnings for sensitive subjects including explicit violence or gore, “clothes-off” intimacy, and narcotics use.

We’ll have a table in the con space to put your books, and browse through the offerings. The only major rules are NO PEEKING and IF YOU UNWRAP IT, IT’S YOURS.