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There has been quite a bit of hype around this game since its Kickstarter went wild in 2018, and so when I spied it on the counter at my local games store while in the queue, I immediately impulse bought it to see what all the fuss is about. Spoiler alert: I’m glad I did! Crypt is a light set collection game with a generous amount of dice rolling, bidding, and push-your-luck elements going on in the mechanics mix. It is definitely a filler game, but it’s that delicious kind of filler that has a pleasantly surprising amount of depth and replayability relative to its size.
In Crypt, players are the children of a recently deceased king who, rather than bequeath his prized possessions to his family, has decreed that he is to be buried alongside all his precious content. Players must break into the king’s crypt to reclaim what they believe is rightfully theirs. The objective is to be the family member with the most valuable treasure at the end of the game.
Having chosen a character (red, purple, turquoise, black), each player gets 3 dice of a corresponding colour. These dice represent servants, which players send into the king’s crypt to purloin as much treasure as possible. To do this, players place their dice on the treasure cards they wish to acquire. The number they choose on each die (1-6) represents how much effort that servant puts into obtaining that particular treasure, so the higher the number the more chance they have of being the player who has bid the most for it, thus claiming it. On their turn, a player may choose to outbid another player for a card they really want by placing a higher number, thus pushing the previous player’s die off the card. Additionally, players may place multiple dice on 1 card, so I may choose to place two 3s rather than a single 6 to outbid a player who has placed a 5. Why bother to use multiple dice you ask? Here’s where the ‘unique dice placement mechanic’ that the publisher refers to on the box comes into play.
It's a simple inversion of a standard mechanism; rather than rolling your dice first and then placing them according to what you rolled, in Crypt you place your dice first and then roll them. So after the bidding and claiming, each player has to roll each die they placed, and if they do not roll a number equal to or greater than the number they placed, that servant is ‘exhausted’ and the die is lost until the player uses an action to pick up all their exhausted servants. For example, if I placed a 5 with one of my dice, and then roll a 4 with that die, I lose it. To return to my earlier example, placing two 3s instead of a 6 will lower the chance of my servants becoming exhausted (as rolling a number equal to or greater than a 3 is more likely than a 6), but also means that I have committed 2 of my 3 dice to just 1 treasure card.
This dice placement mechanic is indeed unique and is a big reason the game is as fun as it is. The bidding adds a push-your-luck element to the game, as players must constantly wrangle with whether to outbid their opponents for a certain card they really need, or to let them take the card and save their own dice for a later turn when their opponents may have lost their dice. As retrieving dice costs a precious action, meaning you can't place dice on that turn, it is easy to find yourself without any dice for a turn if you place too rashly.
The treasure cards each have a value of 1-4 Coins and come in 6 different sets (Idols, Jewelery, Manuscripts, Pottery, Remains, Tapestries). The bonus for collecting each set is displayed on the relevant Collector card. These bonuses either take effect mid-game (e.g. 1 Idol card may be used to re-roll a die) or when the game ends for bonus Coins (e.g. players with 3 or more Manuscripts at the game’s end score each of their Manuscript cards as 4 Coins rather than whatever is stated on them). I really love that the Collector cards come with an A and a B side, so that the set bonuses can be varied and mix-and-matched to keep games fresh. Play continues until all the treasure cards are claimed, then players total up how many Coins their treasure hauls are worth and the winner is decided!
The above gameplay works for 2-4 players (although the number of cards in the deck and the number of cards dealt per turn varies depending on the player count). The gameplay is fun, tense, and competitive without ever being antagonistic. Once you learn the rules (which are super easy to grasp) play proceeds swiftly and has a lovely rhythm to it. The box says Crypt has a play time of 25 mins and this is, refreshingly, accurate. There is also a solitaire mode where you play against your dead father’s ghost (you also roll for him and place his dice according to some adapted rules). While I found the solo variant enjoyable and still a challenge, it would have been nice to have some kind of victory threshold in place for this mode, as totting up my score at the end and comparing them to the table of par scores in the rulebook felt a little anticlimactic and inconsequential. Additionally, much of the strategy feels drained from the solitaire game, as the king’s ghost never goes after certain sets and his servants never become exhausted. This meant that playing solo came with the occasional feeling that I was simply ‘going through the motions’.
In general, the component quality of Crypt is high. The cards are printed on good stock with a linen finish, the dice are decent and come in a lovely array of rich colours, and the artwork fits well with the theme (particularly effective are the malignant-looking character cards). The game comes in a stunning compact box that can fit into most pockets and is satisfying to both the eyes and the touch. Unfortunately, my copy does feature a small but annoying error on one of the red dice; the 2 side has been painted as a 3 side, which makes using the red dice set slightly confusing at times.
However, aside from these minor reservations, I have to say that Crypt is a wonderfully designed game that I have fun with every time I play it at the 2 or 3 player count. The mechanics are unique and tight, there is plenty of opportunity for player interaction and gentle rivalry, and victory requires that ideal mix of strategy and luck. The prominence of dice in the game, and the ever-present element of luck that they bring to the table, may put some more strategy-centric gamers off Crypt, but the original mechanic of 'place then roll' really changes the way that luck is experienced. Instead of being at the mercy of luck and then seeing what you can do with the outcome, you choose your actions and then attempt to manage the luck, and so it feels like the agency remains with the player rather than feeling like the player is fully at the mercy of pure chance. If you like fast-paced set collection games that balance chance and tactics, Crypt will likely become a staple at your game nights.
N.B. I highly recommend sourcing the free bonus content available on the publisher's website: a suitably creepy and subterranean soundtrack timed to the length of a game, and The Book of Variants pdf that includes a 2 player co-operative variant, a 6 or 8 player variant, and a variant that increases the difficulty of a standard game.
Cthulhu Reviews: 7 out of 8 tentacles 🐙🐙🐙🐙🐙🐙🐙
Designers: Andrew Nerger and Jeffrey Chin
Publisher: Road To Infamy Games
Players: 1-4
Age: 12+
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