As we continue traversing the United States in the game Shutterbug, it’s time we made it to the state of variant gameplay! … I’ll see myself out. If you need a refresher on how to play, check out Everything You Need to Know About Shutterbug.
Unlike previous posts where we offered several variants, this time we’re only offering one. “But Risa,” you shout, “how unfair! I want more!!” And more you shall have! With this one change, Shutterbug gets a Solo Mode and a Cooperative Mode.
All-or-nothing scoring!
Normally when you play Shutterbug, you choose which newspaper to send your photos to, and then you score each cryptid’s photo numbers individually, getting extra points if you have more than what the newspaper asked for.
In this all-or-nothing variant, you only score if you get all of the required photographs (though you can still score extra points for going over). Here’s how it plays out in various forms:
Get the Scoop! - Solo Mode Variant
Take 3 Secret Assignment cards and choose 1 to keep. Your goal is to fulfill all of the requirements for one of the newspapers. If you do it, you win! If you don’t, you lose.
Gameplay adjustments: You’ll be playing with the 2-Player rule of having 2 pawns to move about the board. Populate the board with 10 creature tiles instead of the regular game’s 7, and always repopulate up to 10 at the start of a round. Start the game with 4 tip cards instead of 3. At the end of your turn, you can choose to discard one tip card in your hand and draw a new one.
Team of Photographers- Cooperative Mode Variant
In this version, all the players will be working together to fulfill one side of a Secret Assignment card, as well as all of the Side Jobs.
(Just a hint, trading tip cards becomes very important in this version)
You can adjust the difficulty of this challenge based on the number of side jobs you need to complete and the number of players you have. For example, if you have 3 players, you might want to make the win condition “Complete the Secret Assignment and 2 Side Jobs.” How difficult do you want to make the game? It’s up to you!
If you give any of these variants a try, be sure to let us know on social media, and use #CalliopeGames so that we’re sure to see it! We might even feature it in an upcoming newsletter.
Happy gaming, Calliope family!