Campy Creatures Solo Variant v2.

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This variant allows you to play against two or more automated opponents, and also allows you
to use all the expansions (except for the Demogorgon). It plays identical to the multiplayer
game, except that you are largely aware of what your opponents will do...and you must PAY to
use your creatures.

These changes to the rules make the experience more of a puzzle than a social deduction
game, but that compensates for the relatively simple AI. If you wish to bring back some of the
uncertainty of the multiplayer game, feel free to use the methods in the “Increasing the Difficulty”
section at the end of this document.

Setup
Set the game up using the rules for 3 players. After you have chosen your deck and picked
decks for each of your two opponents, put your Creeple on spot ​30 ​of the score track, and put
the scoring Creeples for the opponents next to the 0 point on the score track.

Put your Clash Marker on the first place, with opponent 2 below you, followed by opponent 3.

Each opponent has their own play area.

● For each opponent, shuffle their deck and place their cards in a face-up pile, so you can
always see the card they will play next. Put the deck for opponent 1 to your right, and
opponent 2 even further to the right.

Opponent 1 Opponent 2

Cards in a deck, face-up. Cards in a deck, face-up.

● In terms of adjacency, the order of players is: ​You ​-- Opponent 1 -- Opponent 2 -- You.

How a Turn Works

Place the Mortals

Do this as you would with the multi-player game.

Choose Creatures:
1. For opponent 1, take the ​top card of their deck and place it on the table.
 2. For opponent 2, do the same, placing it to the right of opponent 1’s creature.

3. Choose ​your ​creature and put it on the table, face-up, to the left of opponent 1’s
creature.

If you are playing with any opponents who have face-down decks instead of face-up (as
explained later in these rules), you must choose your creature ​before ​they do, ​then ​play
their top card to the right of opponent 2.

4. Reduce your score​ by the power value of the creature you played, taking into account
anything that would modify the power value (a location effect, for example).

If your score would go below zero then ​you lose the game!​.

“Reveal” Creatures
Resolve the “reveal creatures” effects, just like in a multi-player game.

● The Blob:​ When it is time for the opponent to resolve their blob, search their deck for the
first equal-or-higher card, shuffling after you find one, and play that card. If no cards are
equal-or-higher then simply shuffle the deck and play the next card.

If ​you ​play the Blob, you ​still need to ​reduce your score for the card you play to
power-up the Blob.

● Tarantula ​or the ​Man-Eating Plant:​ The opponent places the venom/entangle token on
the card they would choose ​first ​in the “Capture Mortals” phase, using the priority list
described in that section.

When determining which mortals to capture, opponents will take into account the penalty
for getting ​venom ​tokens and will ignore ​entangled ​mortals if they cannot capture them.

Capture Mortals
1. Follow the capture order of the multi-player game, determined by card power.

2. When an opponent must ​choose between mortals​, they follow this priority:

a. They pick an ​assistant ​card! If multiple are available, they pick the leftmost one.

b. They pick the available card that would ​improve their round score the most​ (or
reduce their round score the least).

i. Engineers:​ Keep in mind that choosing an even number of Engineers will

substantially improve the round score for an opponent with an odd
number already (when taking a second Engineer they go from -2 to +6, an
 increase of 8 points) and therefore an even Engineer will usually be
chosen.

ii. Teenagers:​ They compare the ​current ​1st and 2nd places for captured
teenagers with the way the scores ​would change​ if they captured an
available teenager card, and decide if/how much the card would benefit
them. If the results of this comparison means they would be ​tied ​for first
or second place with teenagers, they assume they will eventually be the
winner (and therefore probably want the card).

iii. Angry Mob & Instigator:​ They obviously never want one of these cards,
but when considering between two bad choices they will take into account
the points they would lose if they ended up with ​all ​the currently-captured
angry mobs.

c. If multiple cards are tied, they will pick the card with the greatest number of
location tokens​ on it.

d. If multiple cards are still tied, they will pick the ​leftmost ​tied card.

3. When an opponent must ​resolve a capture effect​, they do so as in the multi-player

game.

a. The Swamp Creature:​ The opponent will choose the player whose score would
be decreased the most (or increased the least) by having the card (giving an odd
number of Engineers, for example). If multiple players are tied for how much they
would be decreased/increased (which is usually the case), then the opponent will
give the card to you!

b. The Invisible Man:​ The opponent will pick the mortal in their collection whose
discard would increase their score the most. If none of the cards would increase
their score by being discarded then they will choose not to discard a card.

c. The Werewolf:​ If an opponent must discard a creature, they will discard the next
creature in their deck.

d. The Rogue Robot:​ If two or more cards remain to be captured, the opponent will
capture a mortal using the usual priority first, and then discard the remaining
mortal it would choose if it still were able to capture (the opponent’s “second
choice”).

Clashes
Clashes are resolved normally.
Scoring
Besides the usual rules for scoring, do the following at the end of every round:

● If an opponent gains the location, they gain points equal to their ​number of location
tokens​ on their captured mortals. Opponents ​never ​use the powers of the locations or
gain their bonuses.

● If either of the opponents has scored ​higher ​than you once all the cards and the location
are scored, then ​you lose the game!

● If there are additional rounds remaining to be played, total up the power values of all
your ​unplayed ​monsters and add that number to your score before the next round. (You
do not gain these points if all the rounds are finished).

It is easy to forget to subtract points for playing creatures. To prevent this, consider placing an
unused marker next to your score at the beginning of each round. If you ever think that you
have forgotten to subtract points during a round, simply add the powers of all your played
creatures together and ensure that your score is lower than the marker by that amount.

Before you begin the next round, be sure to shuffle the opponent’s decks and place them as
described in the Setup section.

End of the Game

If you have not lost the game because you could not play a card, or because an opponent has
beaten ​your score at the end of a round, then ​you win the game!​ To discover your ​solo score​,
subtract your score from the score of the opponent with the highest score. This is the score for
you to beat next time!

Opponent Intelligence
For the record, opponents are not aware of the following, and they never consider them when
making decisions:

● The total (full game) scores for themselves or for the others in the game. They only know
what the scores are for the current round (their “​round score​”).

● The probability of any given mortal appearing. They only know about the mortals that are
currently available, and the mortals that everybody has already collected.

● The way the “round scores” of the players might change in subsequent turns. They
always focus on the scores in the current turn only.
 ● The powers of the current location, even if it would increase the value of some cards
(opponents never gain location bonuses).

● The monster cards that are available to other players.

● The order of the Clash tokens.

Increasing the Difficulty

The game as described above is simple to beat with enough experience, and is only
recommended the first time you play. As soon as you have beaten the opponents, try any of the
following:

● Keep one opponent’s deck​ face-down​, drawing from the top each time it plays a card.
You will never know what they will play next, so Blobs become useful again.

● Add additional opponents. Only one opponent should have a face-down deck, with the
others keeping their cards face-up. Opponents are added to the right (so for three
opponents, the order of adjacency is: You - One - Two - Three - You) and their clash
markers are added to the bottom of the clash-o-meter.

● Add the expansion material (except the Demigorgon). Expansion 1 is best used with 3 or
more opponents.

Rationale
An effective human player of “Campy Creatures” must account for which creatures the other
players have used, which mortals might yet appear, and what the other humans in the game are
thinking.

That is very hard to reproduce in an automated opponent, so an easy AI will not make a fun
game of “Campy Creatures.” Random cards played by your opponents are simply boring to play
against (believe me, I’ve tried that!)

The only way to make the decisions meaningful (and fun!) with this AI system is to:

● Give you a puzzle to solve. That is why the top cards of one or more decks are visible.

● Make each decision painful: hence the “paying for cards” aspect.

● When you’re ready for some randomness, add the face-down deck opponent...but only
one, otherwise it becomes the game of totally unpredictable cards that nobody will enjoy.

Variant by Adam Thornton