Cryptid

Objective and clues: Each player receives one unique hidden clue from a clue book. The intersection of all clues leaves one habitat hex on the map. Clues refer to terrain, bear or cougar territories, standing stones, abandoned shacks, or distance from those features. Players reason through questions and searches; the first to correctly search the unique habitat wins.

Map and setup: Assemble six numbered map tiles into hex spaces with desert, forest, water, mountain, and swamp; some spaces also contain animal territory or structures. Use the setup card to arrange tile orientation and structures, then assign clue books and secret clues for the player count. Osprey’s main rules have Normal and Advanced setup. Normal is intended for learning; Advanced allows negative clues and uses all four structures of each type rather than three.

Initial sharing: Starting with the first player and moving clockwise, each player places one cube on a space their clue rules out and where no other player has a cube; everyone places two cubes in total. Cubes cannot overlap, though a piece may be placed on a structure. These opening exclusions are public and must be truthful. A space containing any cube can never be questioned, searched, or receive another piece.

Turn choice: On your turn, choose either a question or a search. To question, place the pawn on any cube-free space and ask one opponent whether it could be the habitat. They answer honestly under their clue and indicate possibility with a disc or impossibility with a cube. If they place a cube, you must also put one of your cubes on another legal space excluded by your clue. The turn passes left. A player cannot add another of their own pieces to a space already containing one.

Discs and cubes: A player’s cube means a space cannot be the habitat according to their clue; their disc means it could be. Only one cube may occupy a space, while different players’ discs may stack. Pieces are never removed except to correct a mistake. If your action makes another player place a cube, whether by Question or Search, you must also place one of your own cubes elsewhere on a legal excluded space.

Search action: Choose a space that could be the habitat under your clue and contains no cube, declare a Search, and place one of your discs there. If you already have a disc on that space, you may still search but cannot add a duplicate; instead, place a disc on another legal space your clue allows and that contains neither your own disc nor a cube. Then ask each other player clockwise whether the searched space could fit their clue; a player who already has a disc there skips the duplicate response, while others place a disc or cube.

Success and failure: If every other player says the space is possible, the searcher has found the one intersection and wins immediately. If anyone places a cube, the Search fails at once; later players do not answer. The searcher must place a cube on a different space their clue rules out, then the turn ends. A failed search reveals information and blocks future interaction with that hex, so players must combine previous marks before committing.

Honesty, bluffing, and deduction: Pieces must always match the player’s clue; a player cannot falsely mark a possible location as excluded or vice versa. Since a clue may cover many terrain or distance spaces, players can choose among legal locations when placing an initial cube or responding, limiting how much their clue reveals. For example, excluding one of several similar terrain hexes does not necessarily reveal that the clue is tied only to that terrain. Notes can help track public marks while clues stay hidden.

Official two-player head-to-head variant: Set up as a four-player game. Each player takes two clue books and two token colors, one color per clue. If a space fits both clues, place both colors’ discs; if exactly one clue rules it out, place the matching color’s cube. If both clues rule it out, choose one color of cube, creating a chance to bluff. A searched space must fit both of the player’s clues, and all four clues must allow it for the search to succeed. If the searched hex already has one of the player’s colored discs, place an additional disc of that color on another legal hex, leaving the existing disc in place and place the other color on the search hex; if both colors are already there, place an additional disc of each color on other legal spaces, together or separately, as the variant allows.

Player count and mode boundary: Osprey’s main rules support three to five players. The official two-player variant gives each person two clues to simulate a larger clue intersection, but it remains competitive. The base rules do not include an official solo, cooperative, or automated-opponent mode. Normal and Advanced setup and the two-player variant belong to this Cryptid entry; fan variants should not be described as publisher-supported rules.

Interpreting distance clues: An element is zero spaces from itself, so within one space of forest includes forest spaces as well as adjacent hexes. Structure clues can specify a type or a color, and animal-territory clues use the indicated territory. Advanced negative clues exclude the described range, so read whether the clue says the habitat is within or not within it.