Miskatonic Tales: Journey to Innsmouth

This game has taken a fair amount of criticism, and not without reason. The rulebook is poorly structured, and the narration app is a real let‑down. I can’t argue with either point. Even so, there is a genuinely good game underneath all of that. It leans very heavily into narrative play, so if long passages of text aren’t your thing, this probably won’t win you over. But if you enjoy the feel of old choose‑your‑own‑adventure books and want something that blends that style with light board game elements, cards and dice, and a strong sense of the Mythos, it’s worth a serious look. Like many others, I was put off by the early negativity. As a long‑time Call of Cthulhu Keeper, the idea of finally stepping into the role of an Investigator was too tempting to ignore. Bit once I read through the community clarifications on BGG, everything made sense. The mechanics aren’t complicated. They just need clearer explanation and structuring than the rulebook provides. The app is another matter. You’ll want to avoid it unless you really, really... really need it. The production quality simply isn’t there. It’s a shame, because the problems with the app have overshadowed the strengths of the actual game. I hope Chaosium takes the time to rerecord the audio with a capable voice artist and proper production values. It would make a huge difference. Personally, I enjoy reading the story from the book, so ditching the app makes no difference to me. If you love the TTRPG, or narrative driven story adventures, give this a chance. It deserves more positive attention than it has received so far. There’s no point pretending the flaws don’t exist. They do (at the time of writing). But once you get past that initial barrier and start playing, you’ll find a game made with love and passion, and a stoeies full of mystery, atmosphere and more cosmic dread than you can shake the proverbial stick at. It’s creepy, it’s engaging, and above all, it’s fun. That’s what matters.

The mechanics of the game, once figured out, are quite clunky. It clearly wasn't play tested sufficiently, maybe the release was rushed, because it arrives with errors which the buyer is invited to fix with accompanying errata stickers. The rule book is a mess, and so play is frustrating and confusing. I've been playing RPG and derived board games for 40 years, so I speak with experience when I say the rules are the worst I've experienced. The immersive audio was a great idea but unfortunately the narrative is monotone and dull. The projected play time is 90 minutes for each scenario, but over 6 hours later we're less than half way through. So far, so very disappointing.