Cryptid Cafe: The Chef's Apprentice Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Game Setup
• Component Breakdown
• How to Play
  • Drafting
  • Plating Dishes
  • Prepping Dishes
• Tokens
  • Prep Tokens
  • Eyeballs
  • Snail Garnishes
  • Spatulas
• Scoring
  • Line Cook Specialties
  • Chef's Challenge Cards
  • Worked Example
  • End Game Scoring

Components

• 1 Kraken Chef's Board
• 84 Dish Tiles
• 12 Cryptid Line Cook cards
• 36 Wooden Prep tokens
• 22 Challenge cards
  • 6 Level 1 Customer cards
  • 6 Level 2 Customer cards
  • 10 Kraken Chef's Challenge cards
• 36 Wooden Eyeball tokens
• 12 Wooden Spatula tokens
• 10 Wooden Snail Garnish tokens
• 1 Score Pad
• 1 Cloth Bag
• 1 Rulebook

Game Setup

1. Each player chooses or is randomly given one Cryptid Line Cook card.
2. Give each player 3 Spatula tokens.
3. Shuffle the Level 1 Customer cards, randomly draw one card, and place it near the Kraken Chef's Board. Put the remaining cards away.
4. Shuffle the Level 2 Customer cards, randomly draw one card, and place it near the Kraken Chef's Board. Put the remaining cards away.
5. Shuffle the Kraken Chef's Challenge cards and deal two cards to each player. Each player chooses 1 card to keep as a personal Kraken Chef's Challenge card. Keep it hidden from other players. Collect and shuffle the remaining Kraken Chef's Challenge cards, randomly draw one card and place it near the Kraken Chef's Board.
6. Add all the Prep tokens to the bag (not pictured), then draw 3 Prep tokens and place them on the Prep tray area of the Kraken Chef's Board being careful not to reveal the underside of each token.
7. Place Eyeball tokens in the area marked with an eyeball icon on the Kraken Chef's Board.
8. Add Snail Garnish tokens to the Kraken Chef's Board. Cover the snail spots marked with the 2-player icon for a 2 Player game. Cover the snail spots marked with the 2-player and 3-player icons for a 3 Player game. Cover the snail spots marked with the 2-player, 3-player, and 4-player icons for a 4 Player game.
9. Shuffle the dish tiles and place them in the spaces indicated on the Kraken Chef's Board as follows: a. 1 dish tile on each space for the first and second rows. b. Divide the remaining dish tiles into 3 stacks of 26 dish tiles and place 1 stack in each space of the third row. (The printed step reads "Divided"; corrected to the imperative here.)
10. Decide on a starting player and begin taking turns in a clockwise order.

Component Breakdown

Kraken Chef Board. The board has an un-plated dish area made of Row 1, Row 2, and Row 3; a Prep token dish space; a Snail Garnish can; and an Eyeball token area.

Cryptid Line Cook card. Each Cryptid Line Cook character has dish type specialties that earn Praise used in final scoring. See End Game Scoring.

Dish tile. Dish tiles contain a monstrous dish, (a) a flavor icon, (b) a temperature icon, and sometimes (c) eyeball icon(s). See Tokens.

Challenge cards. There are 3 types of challenge cards:

• Level 1 Customer
• Level 2 Customer
• Kraken Chef's Challenge

Challenge cards present a criteria that needs to be met in order to score Praise at the end of the game.

How to Play

Turn Summary. On a player's turn they will do the following actions:

• Drafting: acquire dish tiles from the main Kraken Chef Board. See Drafting.
• Plating: add your new dishes to your tableau. See Plating Dishes.
• Prepping: optionally change the flavor or temperature of a plated dish with a Prep token. See Prepping Dishes.
• Garnishing: may purchase a Snail Garnish to maximize a dish's scoring potential. See Snail Garnishes.

Drafting

You must draft two dish tiles, one at a time, from the Kraken Chef's Board. The two dish tiles drafted do not need to come from the same row or column. Once you draft your first dish tile, move the remaining dish tiles in the column forward filling in the blank space (Fig. 1). Then select your second dish tile, and again, move remaining dish tiles in the column forward filling in the blank space.

Drafting from Row 1 is free, however, sometimes you may want to draft a dish tile further back on the Kraken Chef's Board in Rows 2 or 3 (Fig. 1). To do this, you must trash a dish tile(s). To trash a dish tile(s), remove the dish tile(s) in front of the dish tile you want to select (Fig. 2) and place them face down near you (Fig. 3). Then select the dish you want. You may Trash as many dish tiles as you want throughout the game, but each trashed dish tile that you have at the end of the game is worth -1 Praise.

With your dish tiles selected, it's time to move on to plating your dishes.

Plating Dishes

Now that you have drafted your dish tiles, it is time to plate them into your tableau. There are a few rules you need to follow when plating dishes.

1. You can place the first dish tile anywhere in the tableau, as it will be the starting point for plating the rest of your dish tiles.
2. From the second dish tile onwards, each new dish tile in your tableau must always be plated orthogonally (top, bottom, left, right) adjacent to an already existing dish tile in your tableau (Fig. 1).
3. You cannot plate dishes in a location that would exceed a 4x4 grid (Fig. 2). At the end of 8 rounds a completed tableau will contain 16 plated dishes in a 4x4 grid (Fig. 3).

As long as you follow these placement rules, you can plate dishes anywhere in your tableau.

Prepping Dishes

Prepping dishes allows you to modify the temperature and/or flavor of plated dishes. A single dish can hold no more than 1 flavor Prep token and 1 temperature Prep token.

Before selecting a Prep token, check to see if any of the Prep tokens on the Prep tray are overwhelmed:

1. If all 3 of the available Prep tokens on the Prep tray have the same icon showing, they are overwhelmed and automatically refresh (Fig. 1). Take all 3 Prep tokens and place them aside. Then, one at a time, draw 3 new Prep tokens from the Prep token bag and place them on the Prep tray, careful not to reveal the bottom of the token. (Note: this could happen multiple times on any given player's turn.)
2. If two of the available Prep tokens have the same icon showing, the active player may choose to refresh these tokens (Fig. 2). If the active player chooses to refresh them, take those 3 Prep tokens and place them aside. Then, one at a time, draw 3 new Prep tokens from the Prep token bag and place them on the Prep tray, careful not to reveal the bottom of the token. (NOTE: You may only do this once per turn, even if 2 or 3 of same icon appear after refreshing.)
3. Place any Prep tokens set aside back into the bag.

Placing a Prep token. Place your selected Prep token by covering the flavor or temperature icon on any plated dish tile in your tableau, modifying that dish tile's temperature or flavor. Flavor Prep tokens can only modify flavor icons and temperature Prep tokens can only modify temperature icons (Fig. 3).

After selecting a Prep token you may look at the unrevealed side and use either side of the token to modify a dish tile. You may also choose not to take a Prep token on your turn, however, if you do take a Prep token it must be played.

Once you have placed your Prep token, draw a new Prep token from the bag and place it on the Prep tray, careful not to reveal the underside of the token, bringing the total of Prep tokens on the Prep tray back up to three (3).

Tokens

Prep Tokens

There are 36 unique Prep tokens in the game. Each side contains either a flavor or temperature icon.

Flavor icons: Bland, Moldy, Rotten, Slimy, Soggy, Stinky.

Temperature icons: Hot, Warm, Cold.

Eyeballs

A player earns an Eyeball token(s) when they plate a dish tile with an eyeball icon on it. One eyeball icon earns one (1) Eyeball token and two eyeball icons earn two (2) Eyeball tokens (Fig. 1). One (1) bonus Eyeball token is earned when the dish is plated next to a previously plated dish tile with any number of eyeball icons on it (orthogonal matching only). If more than one match is made, earn one (1) bonus token for each match (Fig. 2). Eyeball tokens can be helpful in a number of ways:

1. A player on their turn may spend one Eyeball token by returning it to the pool in order to peek at the underside of one (1) of the available Prep tokens on the Prep tray (Fig. 3).
2. A player on their turn may spend Eyeball tokens equal to the price shown below an available Snail Garnish to purchase that garnish token. See Snail Garnishes for details on pricing and use.
3. For every two (2) Eyeball tokens you have at the end of game earn 1 Praise.

Snail Garnishes

Snail Garnishes are purchased with Eyeball tokens earned by plating dishes. Each player may purchase up to three (3) Snail Garnishes in a game and can only purchase one (1) Snail Garnish per turn. (Note: Garnish tokens are limited, not every player will be able to purchase three). Garnish your dishes wisely; there is no way to move a Snail Garnish once it has been placed.

In the Snail Garnish can, Snail Garnishes have two purchase prices listed below the available Snail Garnish tokens. They are Play Now or Play Later, and the player must pay either one of the prices (Fig. 1).

Play Now. The first purchase price requires the player to place the garnish immediately. No other actions can be done until the garnish has been placed.

Play Later. The second purchase price allows the player to save the Snail Garnish for placement at any time during the game but before final scoring.

A garnished dish tile scores +2 Praise every time that dish tile is used in scoring (Fig. 2). With five different scoring phases, a single garnish dish tile can potentially score 10 bonus Praise in a game. See End Game Scoring.

Spatulas

Each player has 3 Spatula tokens to use throughout the game during their turn. To use a Spatula token, cover one of the empty spatula slots on the player's Cryptid Line Cook card with a Spatula token and perform one of the four actions available below.

Spatula actions:

1. Change the placement of two plated dishes on your tableau. Any Prep tokens or garnishes stay with their already assigned dish tiles (Fig. 1).
2. Change the placement of two dish tiles on the main board (Fig. 2).
3. Exchange one plated dish tile for one dish tile on the main board. Any Prep tokens or garnishes stay with their already assigned dish tiles (Fig. 3).
4. Refresh all the Prep tokens on the Prep token Tray (Fig. 4).

Note: Empty spatula slots are worth a certain number of Praise at the end of the game. Covered spatula slots are not scored, so use them wisely.

Scoring

Line Cook Specialties

Each Cryptid Line Cook card has two specialty icons, each with a Praise value, and a Bonus row of spatula slots.

• Mothman (example card in the rulebook): 1 Praise for each Rotten icon and each Warm icon in your tableau at the end of the game.
• Bonus: the card's Bonus row prints 1, 2, and 3 Praise values beside its three spatula slots. Empty spatula slots are worth Praise at the end of the game (see Spatulas).

(The specialty text on the card art is small in the printed rulebook; the icons were read from the page image and the card text as printed. Check against the physical card if in doubt.)

Chef's Challenge Cards

The example Chef's Challenge card printed in the rulebook reads: 10 Praise for each complete set of 6 different flavored dishes in your tableau at the end of the game. This card can only be scored once. The card shows six flavor icons (Bland, Moldy, Rotten, Slimy, Soggy, Stinky). The rulebook does not print the criteria for every Customer or Kraken Chef's Challenge card; those criteria are printed on the cards themselves.

Worked Example

The rulebook shows Lisa's scoring as an example. Lisa's score pad totals were:

Scoring line	Lisa
Level 1 Customer card	8
Level 2 Customer card	16
Community Chef's Challenge card	16
Personal Chef's Challenge card	10
Line Cook specialties & bonus	16
+1 Praise / -1 Praise (eyeballs / trashed dish tiles)	+1 / 0
Total	67

The rulebook's Lisa example also marks Snail Garnish bonuses (+2 per garnished tile used in each scoring phase) on the scored tiles.

End Game Scoring

At the end of 8 rounds, each player will have a full tableau of 16 plated dish tiles in a 4x4 grid.

Use the score pad to record each scoring phase. The scoring phases are:

1. Level 1 Customer card
2. Level 2 Customer card
3. Chef's Challenge card
4. Personal Chef's Challenge card
5. Line Cook's specialties and unused spatula spaces
6. Extra Eyeball tokens: 1 Praise per 2 Eyeball tokens
7. Subtract Praise for trashed dish tiles

Remember: during each scoring phase, a dish tile with a Snail Garnish on it receives an extra +2 Praise when used to score.

The player with the most Praise wins the game and is crowned the Chef's Apprentice!