Campy Creatures Review – A High School Reunion For Public Domain Monsters

Campy Creatures is a high school reunion for all the monsters who’ve entered the public domain. From the Blob to the Werewolf they’re all here and ready to party. And by party, I mean capture mortals for you to perform experiments on. You are a mad scientist after all.

Start by giving players the same deck of nine monster cards. Each monster has strength and speed values as well as an ability. Players also start with one mortal card face up in front of them.

Meanwhile, construct a row of mortals, equal to the number of players, to prepare for the first round. Capturing these victims is your path to victory, and range from the Damsel in Distress worth 6 points to the Monster Hunter worth -3. Some of these come with special conditions, like the teenagers that give bonus points to the player with the most.

Now to get these cards, every player selects a monster to play in secret. Once everyone is ready, they’re all flipped face up.

These monsters are then activated one at a time. With the fast monsters go first, then the strongest. Upon activating your monster, you also get to capture a mortal. So the earlier you go, the better.

The Clash-o-Meter, a randomly generated queue of player tokens, breaks ties. The player in front gets the first pick but is then moved to the back of the Clash-o-Meter.

After everyone’s gone, a new set of mortals is drawn and play continues. Except for any monsters previously played, they stay on the table for all to see. Repeat this until the mortal deck runs out. Then shuffle the deck and start again. Do this once more. Then the player with the most points wins.

What are they going to play?

Close your eyes for a second, and imagine the perfect board game. How would it play? For me, there would be zero downtime, it would be balanced so everyone starts equally, and every choice you make has both immediate and long-lasting effects.

This pretty much sums up role-selection games like Campy Creatures, and Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest. And when it’s done right it’s bloody marvellous.

With that said, Campy Creatures gets it right. The interplay between cards is indescribably well done. Often creating moments of exclamation and surprise, and I’m not talking about spring-loading snakes in a Go Cuckoo tin. I’m talking about you having an idea of how things are going to go, but then something unexplainable happens instead.

For example, one time I played a Blob card, a zero-strength card that lets me wait until I see everyone’s card before substituting it with another monster. However, the player next to me played a Vampire – a fast card- that silenced my Blob. Leaving me with a zero-strength monster, and a lifetime of regret.

These moments are fantastic, and keep you on your toes throughout the game. Yet they keep happening because of the mind games always going on. As the round plays out, players’ cards are added to the table. This gives you a basic understanding of what others can and can’t play.

This tricks you into a false sense of security, where you think you know what they’re going to play. But given that they know you know, will they play what you expect? Or will they do something unexpected?

These mind games are wonderful and evolve as you play game after game. Keeping Campy Creatures fresh and fun, well after you’ve removed it from its plastic wrap.

Make sure to play a couple of times

Campy Creatures takes a while to warm up, and you may not have a great first impression of the game. With nine monster cards, you don’t understand the effects they have on the game until you play them all. So while you’re still learning the game, it feels like you’re playing cards randomly.

The other reason for a poor first impression is that this game thrives on the mind games you play. However, when starting out, you’re unsure of how people play. This reduces the effect of deduction and bluffing, forcing you into randomly guessing more often.

This is also a symptom of playing at higher player counts. Because there’s so much interactivity between the cards, as you add players the game descends into chaos. To the point where it feels random, and you don’t feel rewarded for the thought you put into your card choice.

Outside of these caveats this Monsters vs Aliens, Hotel Transylvania crossover is ace. Role selection is such a good mechanism for a quick interesting game and Campy Creatures makes the most of it.

That’s before even mentioning anything of the wonderful art or the small box stature of the game. Making it easy to take with you anywhere. Campy Creatures is simply wonderful. So much so that even the great mad scientist Kyouma Hououin could not ask for more.