Done well, B movies are great entertainment films that create indelible memories. They are known for their low budgets, aesthetic ingenuity, and campy creatures. At least the horror films are. Keymaster Games’ second game, Campy Creatures, fits the bill perfectly. Inexpensive, beautifully designed, and filled with memorable monsters to do your bidding, this game will provide you with tons of replayability and maybe even some crushed dreams.
Campy Creatures Kickstarter ends on March 6, 2017
Given our love for Control, we had high hopes for Campy Creatures. We backed the game as soon as we could and then sat down to play the PnP. The premise of the game is this: you are a mad scientist looking to conduct your mad experiments upon witless “mortals”. But no true mad scientist is foolish enough to resort to first-hand kidnapping. Hence the need for henchman, aka the “campy creatures”. No, you have a host of monsters at your beck and call who are all too eager to carry out your bidding. Each monster has it’s own strength ranging from 0 (zero) to 8 with higher generally being better. Some monsters have unique abilities that trigger during gameplay and some have none.
But here’s the fun part, every mad scientist has the same horde of campy creatures at the beginning of each night (round). You will have to be clever and cunning to outwit your opponents and collect the most subjects by the end of the third night in order to claim victory. Bluffing and social deduction are givens in this game. But you will also need to be insightful of your enemies. Are they the types to play it safe with a power card like Kaiju? Or will they try to be wily with the nefarious Swamp Creature? You see, some mortals are worth negative points. You don’t want to be left with them when the night is up. The Kaiju taketh, but the Swamp Creature giveth.
Gameplay briefly described
As stated previously, the goal of the game is to finish with the most mortals at the end of each night/round (there are 3 of them). Some mortals are worth more than others and some are even assigned a negative value. You want to collect the former and avoid the latter. However, since all the other scientists are starting with identical decks it takes some ingenuity to outsmart them and become victorious. On strength alone, the Kaiju is the most powerful card in the game. The Kaiju’s 8 cannot be beaten. Except by another Kaiju as long as that particular player is higher on the Clash-O-Meter. However, if a player plays the Mummy then he could foil both players’ Kaijus. The Mummy is only a strength of a 3 but it has a special ability allowing it to “rise up and capture first if a Kaiju is play”.
There is a list below that details each of the cards and any special abilities they have.
Quality of the Components
Speaking of the Clash-O-Meter. Rumor has it there may be app for tracking score and tie-breaking. The original goal was to use chip-board for these components which would have been much better than the card stock we were using. Anytime we resolved a tie and had to move one scientist’s eye to the bottom we were bad to bump things around and wonder whether a player had 18 points or 19. But Kyle and Mattox have since replaced that stretch goal with an even better one of using custom & unique meeples for tracking score.
Again, we have been using the print-and-play version of the game so we can’t exactly attest to Campy Creatures’ quality but Control was phenomenal and Keymaster Games is using the same manufacturer. We anticipate the quality of the final product to be top-notch.
On the topic of quality, we’d be remiss to not point out the amazing art done by Emrich Office. Go check out Josh and Katie’s work here. You can even purchase some of the art if you’re reading this after the Kickstarter is over. Otherwise we encourage you to support both the artists and the game designers at the same time by backing them.
Final Thoughts
To sum it all up, Campy Creatures is inexpensive, fast playing (30 minutes, perhaps), replayable, and simple to learn. If you’ve played Coup or Sheriff of Nottingham then you’re familiar with the bluffing you may need while playing Campy Creatures. The social deduction of the Ultimate Werewolf and Love Letter games come to mind too while playing. You will have to anticipate your opponents’ moves to be successful.
Card List
- 0—The Blob—Discard a creature in hand to absorb its strength (ability resolves before capturing mortals)
- 1—The Swamp Creature—Give the mortal you capture to another player (ability resolves while capturing mortals)
- 2—The Invisible Man—You may discard a mortal you have captured (ability resolves while capturing mortals)
- 3—The Mummy—Rise and capture first if a Kaiju is in play (ability resolves before capturing mortals)
- 4—The Invader—Capture two mortals if possible (ability resolves while capturing mortals)
- 5—The Werewolf—Force the player to your right to discard a creature (ability resolves while capturing mortals)
- 6—The Vampire—Drain the ability of the creature to your left (ability resolves before capturing mortals)
- 7—The Beast—Score 3 points if the beast is in hand at the round’s end
- 8—The Kaiju—no ability
Oh, and there is just one last thing. There is another stretch goal that we are keen on seeing met. $70,000 gets Demogorgon added as a final Campy Creature. We don’t know if will be in the old edition D&D form such as the link we’ve provided or more along the lines of Stranger things but either way, we are confident that they can raise another $25k (as of this writing) to hit that stretch goal. Don’t miss out on it!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/keymastergames/campy-creatures
