Cryptid: Urban Legends is a two-player game between a monster and its seeker
Bug in the Big City.
Search for a mysterious creature or hide from an assailant in Cryptid: Urban Legends, an upcoming board game between a monster and its seeker.
Initially teased by artist Kwanchai Moriya - who also created the artwork for the original Cryptid - in an interview with Dicebreaker last month, Cryptid: Urban Legends has been revealed to be a two-player board game taking place in a city that’s hiding a dark secret. Whilst the original saw players competing to discover the location of a creature, Cryptid: Urban Legends pits players against one another as either a scientist eager to nab their next great discovery, or as the monster attempting to remain hidden.
An asymmetric game - meaning that each player has their own unique objective and abilities - Cryptid: Urban Legends invites players to step into the shoes of the seeking scientist or mysterious creature. As the scientist, players will use their arsenal of technology, such as sonic sensors and heat detectors, to try and hunt the monster down. Alternatively, the cryptid role will involve the player sneaking through the city’s streets and covering their tracks to prevent the scientist from finding them.
The co-designers of the game, Hal Duncan and Ruth Veevers, described Cryptid: Urban Legends as being like “a hidden movement game, but where the movement isn’t actually hidden!” During Cryptid: Urban Legends, players will each be able to manipulate a “shared set of sensors,” with the player controlling the monster having several possible hiding locations that the other player can use to gradually narrow down where their quarry might be lurking. Players will also have a hand of cards that they can use to perform various actions. However, each player will only have a limited number of cards, meaning that they’ll have to think carefully about which cards they’ll play and when. Whoever fulfills their set objective first is the winner of the game.
Besides co-creating Cryptid: Urban Legends, Hal Duncan and Ruth Veevers have also previously worked together on the original Cryptid. Osprey Games, the studio behind the release of the first game in the series, is set to publish Cryptid: Urban Legends and is otherwise best known for releasing the deckbuilding title Undaunted: Normandy and its sequel Undaunted: North Africa.
The original Cryptid is a deduction game for three to five players taking place on a board made up of tiles. In the game, players attempt to discover the location of the cryptid by uncovering their opponent’s clues whilst avoiding giving too much of their own information away. Whichever player gathers enough information to find the creature first becomes the game’s winner.
Cryptid: Urban Legends is set to be released in April 2022, with a retail price yet to be confirmed.