Cryptid

Plays: 4Px1.

The Game

Cryptid is categorised as a deduction game. You are zoologists searching for the lair of a mysterious creature - the cryptid. You have gathered different clues, and if all clues were put be put together, you would immediately be able to find the lair together. However everyone wants to be first to find it and claim the glory for himself. So you try to tease information from your colleagues while you try to protect your own clue from them. Whoever is first to find the cryptid's lair wins the game.

The game comes with many scenario cards. Before you start a game you randomly draw one to be used. You set up the game board and landmark pieces on it based on the scenario card. The spaces on the board are of various terrain types, e.g. deserts, lakes and forests.

The back of the scenario card specifies which clue each player gets. If this particular card is used for a 3-player game, one player would get clue #17 from the red booklet, another would get clue #45 from the green booklet, and the third would get clue #84 from the blue booklet. Everyone keeps his clue secret.

The player booklets list many many clues. Everyone gets a different booklet, and you look up your own clue in your booklet. Clues come in several types, e.g. the lair is on a desert space, the lair is within three spaces of a white landmark, the lair is within a bear habitat. By your own clue you cannot determine the exact location of the lair. It is only when all clues are put together that you can determine where the lair is. Only one space on the board fulfills all the conditions specified by the clues.

This is how the game board looks like once it is set up. Some landmarks are triangles (shacks), some are octagons (standing stones). If you look closely you will see some spaces with black dashed lines or red solid lines along the edges. These are bear and cougar habitats respectively.

Every player has two types of pieces. Cubes mark spaces which are not the lair, according to the player's clue. Discs mark spaces which may be the lair, based on the player's clue. As part of setup, every player must place two cubes on the board.

On your turn you have only two options. You either Question, or Search. To Question means you pick one specific space on the board, then ask a specific player whether it is possibly the lair, based on his clue. He places one of his cubes or discs accordingly. If he places a cube, you must then place one of your own cubes somewhere else on the board.

If you Search, you must pick a space which is possibly the lair, according to your clue. You place your own disc there (if one is not already there), and then starting from your left neighbour, your opponents check whether that space is possibly the lair. If it is possible, your opponent places a disc, and you move on to the next opponent. If it is impossible, your opponent places a cube, and the Search ends immediately (in failure). If you go a full circle and everyone places a disc, it means you have found the lair, and you win.

The Play

This is a deduction game, the premise being you are searching for the cryptid's lair. In actual playing, the feeling is more of trying to work out your opponents' clues while hiding your own. To find the cryptid's lair you need to guess what your opponents' clues are. There is a finite number of possible clues, and there are only a handful of types. As more and more information is revealed, you will gradually eliminate possibilities and narrow down what your opponents' clues might be. You want to mislead your opponents, e.g. you can Question a certain space, even when you already know it cannot be the lair, just to confuse your opponents.

Every cube or disc on the board is a clue. You analyse them by colour because they tell you what a particular opponent's clue might or might not be. You try to work out your opponents' thought processes by observing which spaces they pick to Question or Search, or place a cube. This is the kind of game where people make long pauses and think deeply and quietly, working out the various possibilities in their heads. Ideally with every turn you can tease out a little bit of new information. Either that or you use your turn to mislead others.

My colour was cerulean, that not quite blue and not quite green colour. My clue was the lair was within 3 spaces of a green landmark. There were two green landmarks on the board, one in the top row and one in the bottom row. When I placed my cubes, I intentionally placed them on lakes, so that my clue appeared to be "not on a lake". Unfortunately I don't think I was able to fool people for long. At best I was able to minimise leaking more information for a little bit longer. At this point, I already had two discs on the board. Probably the others had already guessed that my clue was related to the green landmarks, because both my discs were immediately next to the green landmarks.

When playing Cryptids you need to force your opponents to reveal information, and you must not allow anyone to hide more information than others. You want to hide your own information as best you can. The more you can hold back, the bigger an advantage you have. When Questioning, it is best to Question your opponents evenly, so that no one is holding back more information than others. There needs to be some ganging up on the leader, where the leader is whoever seems to be retaining the most information. In the game we played, we had this situation of everyone having rough ideas of everyone else's clue, except for one guy whose clue was still enigmatic to everyone else. Eventually it was him who found the lair and won.

You use the black pawn to indicate the space you want to Question or Search.

We did a 4-player game. The space with four discs was the location of the lair. Notice that there was a space with three discs and one cube. This was a close guess, because this was a possible lair space according to 3 out of 4 players. Only the orange player's clue denied that this was the lair.

The Thoughts

Cryptid is different and refreshing, and I enjoyed these. It is not yet another victory point scoring game. It will give your brain some exercise, because it's not a game you can play by gut feel. You have to do much calculation. You must think through the many possibilities and eliminate them one by one. You need to have the patience to do this. The game is not difficult to learn. Non-gamers and casual gamers can pick it up with no problem. The premise of the game is searching for the cryptid's lair, but really it's about probing your opponents to find out their clues, while doing your best to protect your own clue. So it's more like spy agencies protecting their own secrets while trying to find out their enemies' secrets. It is a race to collect all the pieces then assemble them to find the truth.