Cryptid: Urban Legends

Cryptid: Urban Legends is a two-player asymmetric deduction game. Set up the game by placing the initial city blocks in a central row between the two players. One player takes the role of the Cryptid with a blue deck and presence counters, while the other plays as the Scientist with a red deck and sensor markers. Each player starts with a hand of three action cards and a face-down wild card.

The game features opposing goals: the Cryptid wins by spreading presence counters until they span both ends of a city that is at least seven blocks long, whereas the Scientist wins if they can reduce the Cryptid's presence counters in the entire city down to one or zero.

Each round is divided into five phases, starting with the sensor phase where players play split, align, or shuffle cards to move sensor cubes diagonally across the city blocks. Next is the hiding phase where the Cryptid announces a feature to spread their presence. If applicable, players then check victory conditions, restrict and remove specific city blocks, and finally expand the city by adding new blocks to both ends.

Evidence tokens are placed on certain city blocks during the game. When a Cryptid places a presence token on an evidence token, they collect it and allow the Scientist to flip their wild card. Similarly, the Scientist can collect evidence by removing blocks during the restriction phase.

The game can end immediately if either the Cryptid or Scientist achieves their primary win condition during the victory phase. Alternatively, if the city block deck runs out before either player wins, the game ends and the player with the most collected evidence tokens wins.