Campy Creatures: Volume 1 (Third Edition) Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Game Setup
• Playing the Game
  • Playing a Turn
• The Clash-O-Meter
  • Moving on the Clash-O-Meter
• End of a Round
  • Next Round Setup
• End of the Game
  • Score with Your Mad Pad
• Creature Anatomy
  • Creature Abilities
• Mortal Anatomy
• Mortal Set Scoring
  • Assistants
  • Classics
  • Engineers
  • Teenagers
  • Townsfolk
• Scene Anatomy
• Scene Abilities
  • Immediate Effects
  • End-Game Scoring
• Scoring Tile
• Quick Setup
• Icon Reference

Components

• 35 Creature Cards (5 Creature Decks)
• 1 Clash-O-Meter Board
• 6 Strength Tokens
• 5 Player Clash Markers
• 1 Scoring Pad
• 25 Energy Tokens
• 77 Mortal Cards
• 16 Scene Cards
• 1 Scoring Tile

Game Setup

1. Place the Clash-O-Meter in the center of the table.
2. Give each player a set of Creature Cards and a matching Clash Marker and 1 Energy.
3. Gather all Clash Markers from those players and place them randomly into the Clash-O-Meter with one above another. Any unused player sets can go back in the box.
4. Shuffle the Scene Deck and place it face down to the left of the Clash-O-Meter. Draw and place 4 Scenes face up above the Clash-O-Meter.
5. Shuffle the Mortal Deck and place it face down to the right of Clash-O-Meter.
6. Place the Strength Tokens and Energy Tokens to the right of the Clash-O-Meter within reach of everyone.
7. Choose the A-Side or B-Side of the Scoring Tile and place it to the left of the Clash-O-Meter with the selected side up. For your first game, use Side A.

The Mortal Market is the area below the Clash-O-Meter where revealed Mortals are placed.

Playing the Game

Campy Creatures is played over three rounds consisting of four turns each. Every turn, you will secretly choose a Creature Card from your hand to help you capture Mortals to take back to your Lab—your area of play. Mortals earn you points in various combinations, and Scenes can give you mid-game bonuses or end-game points. Use Energy to power up Monsters and lure valuable Engineers.

Playing a Turn

1. Reveal Mortals - Reveal Mortals from the Mortal Deck equal to the number of players into the Mortal Market.

2. Choose a Creature - All players secretly and simultaneously choose a Creature Card from their hand and place it face down in front of them.

3. Reveal Creatures - All players reveal their Creature Card at once. If you revealed a Monster, spend Energy now to set its strength (p. 11).

4. Take the Scene - The player with the HIGHEST strength Creature takes the leftmost Scene Card. If the taken Scene Card has an immediate-effect icon, resolve those effects now.

5. Capture Mortals - The player with the HIGHEST strength Creature captures a Mortal of their choice and activates their Creature's ability. Continuing in strength order, each player captures a Mortal and activates their Creature's ability until everyone has taken a turn.

   Effects on Mortals resolve when they are captured. If there are no Mortals to capture, you can still activate your Creature's ability.

6. Discard Cards - Discard your played Creature face up next to you. Discard any Mortals not captured to the left of the Mortal deck.

Whenever your captured Mortal has an effect to resolve, you can choose to resolve it before or after your Creature's ability.

Example. The Vampire is the strongest Creature played. They take the leftmost Scene, The Mortal Portal, and then capture a Mortal—choosing The Teenagers. The Vampire would normally cancel the ability of the Creature on their left, but the Mummy cannot be canceled.

Next, The Swamp Creature captures The Damsel, and takes a Strength Token that must be played on their next turn. Finally, The Mummy gains two Energy Tokens, and moves their Clash Marker to the top of the stack. They capture The Assistant and gain two more Energy.

The Clash-O-Meter

In this battle of wits, clashes are inevitable. The Clash-O-Meter is your handy-dandy tie-breaker for any tie in Campy Creatures. Whenever two or more players play a Creature with the same strength value, A CLASH OCCURS! The tied player who is highest on the Clash-O-Meter wins the tie and takes their action first or breaks scoring ties. The next highest player on the Clash-O-Meter goes second and so forth. Multiple clashes may happen on a turn.

Moving on the Clash-O-Meter

Your position on the Clash-O-Meter should only change when you play a Creature, capture a Mortal, or take a Scene with the following icons:

• (Up arrow icon) This icon immediately advances you to the top of the Clash-O-Meter. Place your Clash Marker above all the others, keeping the rest in their current order.
• (Down arrow icon) This icon immediately sends you to the bottom of the Clash-O-Meter. Place your Clash Marker below all the others, keeping the rest in their current order.

If you ever get multiple +2 tokens, you can flip them to the +4 Side.

Example. Three Players (Pink, Green, and Purple) played The Vampire for strongest Creature, so they tied for strongest. They must consult the Clash-O-Meter. Purple is at the top, so they capture first and cancel Green's ability. Pink captures second because they are higher than Green on the Clash-O-Meter. Pink's ability has not been canceled by Green, so they cancel Red's ability. Then, Green captures, but their ability was canceled by Purple. Lastly, Red (The Invisible Man) must capture from the remaining Mortal Market.

End of a Round

When all face-up Scenes have been taken, the round is over. If you just finished Round 3, move on to end of the game. Otherwise set up for the next round.

Next Round Setup

1. Return your played Creature Cards to your hand.
2. Deal 4 new Scenes face up above the Clash-O-Meter.

Organize sets of Mortals in overlapping stacks to easily reference icons or points at the top of the cards.

End of the Game

At the end of Round 3, take out the Score Pad as it's time to tally up your points. The maddest scientist with the most points wins! First, flip any face-down Mortal Cards in your Lab face up, ignoring any immediate effects revealed. Then, if you have a Scene with an end-game effect, resolve that now. This can be done simultaneously with other players. Now, add up your score based on the following:

Score with Your Mad Pad

• The Classics and Townsfolk Mortals earn you positive or negative points.
• The Assistants, Engineers, and Teenagers earn points based on the Scoring Tile.
• Scenes earn points based their effects.
• Energy Tokens in your Lab are worth 1 point each.

If a tie occurs during end-game scoring, use the Clash-O-Meter to resolve them (as always).

Example. Red and Green are tied for the most Assistants. Red is higher on the Clash-O-Meter, so Red wins the bonus points for having the most. There is also a tie for the fewest Assistants between Purple and Pink. Purple wins that tie because they are higher than Pink on the Clash-O-Meter. Pink gets the negative points for fewest.

Creature Anatomy

Clever cardplay and careful deduction are the core of Campy Creatures. Each player begins with the same hand of Creatures, strength 0-5, so get inside your opponents' minds to guess what they might play. Staying one step ahead of your rivals is the key to victory.

• Strength - Ranges from 0-5 and determines capturing order.
• Name & Ability - More details in the next section. Creatures will always capture a Mortal, if one is available, even if their ability is canceled.

Creature Abilities

• 0. The Mummy - Gain 2 Energy and move your Clash Marker to the top of the Clash-O-Meter. This ability cannot be canceled.
• 1. The Werewolf - Gain 1 Energy (and capture a Mortal) OR give a Mortal from the Market to another player. The player receiving the Mortal gains any immediate Mortal effects.
• 2. The Swamp Creature - Take a +2 Strength Token from the supply. This token MUST be applied to the next Creature you play.
• 3. The Man-Eating Plant - Capture 2 Mortals if 2 or more are remaining in the Mortal Market.
• 4. The Invisible Man - Instead of capturing a Mortal from the Market, you may draw the top Mortal from the Mortal Deck. Look at it and place it face down in your Lab. Do not gain any Mortal effects from the card. You may look at this card at any time, and it will be revealed at the end of the game. If you draw, you must keep it!
• 5. The Vampire - Cancel the ability of the Creature on your left. The Vampire does not cancel the abilities of the Mummy or the Monster. A Vampire may cancel another Vampire.
• X. The Monster - After Creatures are revealed, discard Energy to increase the strength of The Monster this turn. It gains +2 Strength for each Energy discarded.

If multiple players choose The Monster on the same turn, those players take their Energy into their hand, then secretly and simultaneously reveal the Energy they want to spend to power up their Monsters. All Energy bid this way must be spent.

Mortal Anatomy

Every evil genius needs a steady stream of test subjects for their unhinged inventions, chemical concoctions, and a doomsday device or two. There are five types of Mortal Cards you can capture. Each will earn or lose you points in unique ways.

• Mortal Sets - These icons categorize Mortals. The Scoring Tile, Scenes, and other Mortals will call upon them when scoring points.
• Effect - Immediately take its action when a Mortal is captured with an icon effect.
• Scoring - These negative or positive points on Mortals will score in addition to any set bonuses at the end.

If the Mortal Deck is ever empty and you need to draw a card, shuffle the discard pile to refresh the deck.

Mortal Set Scoring

Assistants

They're not the highest-scoring Mortals, but Assistants are here to help! Assistants score in the following ways depending on the Scoring Tile:

• A-Side: Every Assistant is worth 1 point. The player with the most Assistants scores 7 points, the player with the fewest Assistants loses 3 points.
• B-Side: Score 12 points for every 3 Assistants.

Classics

They're classic for a reason! These Mortals are worth their printed point value. Some also gain you an Energy token when captured.

Engineers

Engineers are after your Energy! When capturing an Engineer, you must discard energy from your supply if you have it. Engineers score depending on the Scoring Tile:

• A-Side: Score 10 points for every 2 Engineers.
• B-Side: Each Engineer increases in point value starting from 1, 4, 9, 16, and ending at 25. If you have more than 5 Engineers they still score 25 points.

(Transcriber's note: the printed B-Side Scoring Tile illustration appears to show the Engineer row as 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36 for 1 through 6+; the text above is the rulebook's prose.)

Teenagers

Teenagers really add up when you capture more of them. Teenagers score in the following ways depending on the Scoring Tile:

• A-Side: Each Teenager increases in point value starting from 1, 3, 6, 10, 15, 21, and ending at 28. If you have more than 7 Teenagers they still score 28 points.
• B-Side: Every Teenager is worth 3 points. The player with the most Teenagers scores 5 points, the player with the fewest Teenagers loses 2 points.

Townsfolk

Townsfolk aren't just going to stand idly by! They can take away points and drop you to the bottom of the Clash-O-Meter. The Hero will force you to lose 1 Point for each matching Mortal icon in your Lab.

Scene Anatomy

Each scene is set in a secret spot, peculiar place, or dastardly destination for your nefarious deeds.

Each turn, the player who plays the highest strength Creature Card will take the leftmost remaining Scene Card to their Lab (one card per turn). Scenes can score you extra points or activate special effects. Scene Cards mix up the action and give you new ways to unleash chaos as your plan falls into place!

• Title - The location of our next scene.
• Effect - What you gain by taking the Scene.
• Timing - When you activate the effect.

Scene Abilities

Immediate Effects

These Scenes grant rewards immediately when they are taken.

End-Game Scoring

Scenes with this icon contain end-game effects and scoring. If a Scene has an end-game effect, resolve that effect before scoring your points. For set-based scoring Scenes, you gain the listed points for every complete set of the listed Mortal icons in your Lab at the end of the game.

Scoring Tile

Mortals can be unpredictable when they're on the run! This scoring tile gives you two different options for scoring sets of collected Mortals at the end of the game. Choose the A-Side or B-Side during initial game setup, then score accordingly.

Quick Setup

1. Give each player a set of Creature Cards, a matching Clash Marker, and 1 Energy token.
2. Set up the Clash-O-Meter in the center of the table with players' Clash Markers at random.
3. Shuffle the Scene Deck and place it face down to the left of the Clash-O-Meter. Draw and place 4 Scenes face-up above the Clash-O-Meter.
4. Shuffle the Mortals and reveal cards equal to the number of players below the Clash-O-Meter.
5. Pick a Scoring Tile side, and let the madness consume you!

Icon Reference

• Move your Clash Marker to the top of the Clash-O-Meter.
• Move your Clash Marker to the bottom of the Clash-O-Meter.
• Add a +2 Strength token to the next Creature you play. These carry over between rounds.
• Gain 1 Energy.
• Draw the top card of the Mortal Deck and place it face down in your Lab. Do not gain its effects.
• Add the point(s) to your final score.
• Subtract the point(s) from your final score.
• Discard 1 Energy.