Osprey Games Cryptid

Product Information

Players must be honest when placing game pieces onto the map. At no point may pieces be removed from the board. Players are not permitted to search or question any space that has a cube on it. One space cannot hold multiple pieces from the same person. END OF GAME The art is really quite lovely. Every space on the board is easily distinguishable so if you’re sitting across the table you can still make out what is on the map across from you without too much of an issue. The modular board, clue books, and set-up cards offer many many configurations for multiple player counts, (in both normal and advanced difficulties) adding high levels of replayability.

Deduction games are some of my most favorite styles to play and Cryptid is a fantastic addition to the genre. I absolutely love that it is so simple. There are no cards, dice, or variable player objectives to worry about. You are simply trying to deduce where the creature is through pure logic. The habitat is within one space of either animal territory. This includes spaces inside those territories. left and right hand columns around the map image indicate which map tile goes where, while the dots in each corner of the tile indicate its rotation. The dot on the map image highlights the space on the tile which contains the number. Each turn we may point to a hex on the map and ask our rivals if the creature could be there. They respond by placing a cube or a disk on it, with the latter being a positive answer. Once we have a good idea of where the creature might be, we may attempt to find it. We place a disk on a space and if everyone does the same, we win.When I first came across Cryptid a couple of years ago, I fell in love. Regular readers know I’m a huge fan of mystery, so anything involving logical deduction is very much “my bag”. When pictures of the box art for the follow-up, Cryptid: Urban Legends, began surfacing, it’s fair to say I was a teeny bit excited. More Cryptid? Be still my beating heart! What we find in Urban Legends, however, wasn’t exactly what I expected. Where’s the rest of it? Then again, if you ask someone a question and they place a disc, you don’t have to place a disc of your own, but now maybe you’ve given everyone else just what they’ve needed to solve to puzzle. So maybe you ask someone about a space you know the creature can’t be based on your clue in hopes to both learn something and throw your opponents off your scent? Cryptid is a unique deduction game of honest misdirection in which players must try to uncover information about their opponent's clues while throwing them off the scent of their own. Each player holds one piece of evidence to help them find the creature, and on their turn they can try to gain more information from their opponents. Be warned; give too much away and your opponents might beat you to the mysterious animal and claim the glory for themselves! At the beginning of the game, choose a starting player (we suggest whoever sets up the map), and give a set of playing pieces to each player. Whether you're using the app or the clue books, the map will be constructed the same way. The numbers in the What sets Cryptid apart from most deduction games is that the map is a huge part of the process. Clues are much harder to visualize in a physical space than they are on raw logical terms. We might not notice that a hex is near a wooden cylinder or that another has red lines denoting a different habitat.

No special cards. No victory points. Just you and your brain racing to find the answer before your opponents. Example:'The habitat is on forest or swamp.' This player knows the habitat is on a forest space or a swamp space, so would place discs on those spaces. The player knows the habitat cannot be on any other terrain type, so would place cubes on spaces with any other terrain type.

You’ve Got to Know What You Don’t Know, You Know?

The game can be swinging against you, but what if you have more evidence tokens than your opponent? Do they abandon their plan to try and gain evidence counter parity, or go gung-ho into trying to win the game? For all I like about the game, it isn’t without problems. If you’re a fan of Cryptid, I would approach Urban Legends with caution. A Puzzle Race Example:'The habitat is within one space of desert.' The desert spaces are all within one space of themselves, so they could be the habitat. A cube would be placed on any space which is more than one space away from a desert space.

We sit, trying to pull together the strands of what we're given. And all of sudden, I see why knowing the clue types are important. It allows you to reverse engineer the patterns in clue placement. Then you can guess what other player's clues are and put them together to find the habitat hex. I am fearful, wondering what my questions and answers might reveal about my own clue, and whether anyone has guessed it. But I also know, now that despite its simplicity, this is no gateway or family game. The logic chains are too long and cumbersome for that.Cryptid is a logical deduction game where players take on the role of cryptozoologists in search of a hidden creature. Every player has exactly one clue that gives information about where the creature lives. When all of the clues are combined, they lead to a single, solitary spot on the map that indicates where the creature can be found. The fastest way to set up a new game is to put the cards and clue books away, then follow the instructions at: playcryptid.com. Cryptid is a pretty straight forward deduction game. Searching for a single, specific spot on the board works very well within the theme of searching for an elusive creature. The topographical art works well and feels a lot like a map that players are all looking over, searching for answers. The habitat is within one space of the specified terrain type. This includes tiles of the specified terrain type. There’s certainly more to this game of outwitting and arranging cubes than meets the eye, though you may begrudge the amount of time it takes to truly appreciate it

On a player's turn they will question one other player. The question is always ‘Could the Cryptid live in this space?”. Cubes and discs are placed on the board to show that it either could or couldn’t live there. If a player answers no to your question by placing a cube then you also must place a cube, giving away valuable information about what you know. As a huge fan of deduction games, I highly recommend Cryptid to just about anyone, and especially to those who love puzzle solving and pure logic driven experiences. It’s these little things–again, literally–that make it difficult. Solid or dotted lines on various hexes denote whether they’re natural habitats for cougars or bears (oh my!) only they’re somewhat difficult to see (even for non-color-blind players) against the colors of the terrain itself. Also, you will find yourself constantly referencing your player aid to see which is which and wondering why, in a game that sells itself so visually, they couldn’t have used paw prints or silhouettes. In a similar vein there are various structures placed around the map as landmarks (mountains and abandoned sheds in several different colors each) but these also are abstract, being represented by wooden triangles and cylinders. If you come into Urban Legends expecting a two-player, abstract, tug-of-war, I think you’re going to love it. If you’re expecting clues, a process of elimination, and some real gosh-darned deduction, you’re going to be disappointed. One thing’s for sure though, and that this game is an attractive little creature. The cubes and discs are irresistibly tactile, and Kwanchai Moriya’s artwork is – as always – fantastic. Final thoughts

During their turn, a player must either question or search. If the player chooses to question, they begin by choosing a space on the board that they want to question about. They will ask one player about this space. Depending on their clue, the player will either identify it as a spot it could be, by placing a disc on it, or the player will identify that it could not be, by placing a cube on it. After that, everyone gets a coloured booklet and a set of pieces. On the reverse of the map card, there's a series of colours and numbers in a cross-reference. You find the number in your colour, open your booklet and look it up. Mine says "The habitat is within three spaces of a blue structure". We're cryptozoologists, hunting for a mysterious monster and, at the start of the game, this is the only information I have about where it lives. The habitat is within three spaces of the specified color of structure. This clue includes spaces containing the specified color of structure. The type of structure is irrelevant for this clue. dating sim is aro/ace friendly! not into dates? no problem! time to develop some friendships instead, all without getting a "game over :( " ending: There are also times when your opponent needs to replenish their hand. Is that a good time for you to do the same, or should you take a turn and hope for a longer-term pay-off? The evidence counters being a tiebreaker is also a nice twist.