Miskatonic Tales

Overview:
We’re in the late 40s, after WWII. The world seems to be at peace, with only a few conflicts
and the start of the Cold War. But a bigger disaster is coming, the followers of the Outer
Gods are trying to summon them to destroy the earth.
No one is aware of those plans, except for a few people that got somehow in the middle of
their apocalyptic plans.

Components:
• 6 Investigation Files cards (both faces)
• 1 Status (front) + Profile (back) card
• 1 Outer God card (both faces)
• 1 City Map card (both faces)
• 12 Dice (4 red, 4 green, 4 blue)
• 11 Tokens or cubes (3 for resources, best if they are one green, one blue and one red, 3 for
enemies, 4 for portals, best if they are of a different color than the enemies, 1 for Doom)
• 1 Meeple or cube to represent the location of the Investigator (should be different thant
tokens used for portals or enemies)

Set Up:
•Select one of the Outer Gods (the initial one is Azathoth). Put the Doom Token in the Start
square.
•Select Map (the initial one is Arkham). Put a meeple in the square with a Starting Point
symbol (in Arkham, it should be the top-left square). Add one Portal Token in each of the
squares with Portal Symbols. Roll 2 dice. Put 2 Enemy Tokens in the squares matching the
values of the dice.
•Select Investigator on the Profile Card. Each one has a different amount of Strength,
Influence and Wisdom dice and different initial resources. Once you decide what Investigator
to use, flip the Profile Card, so you have the Status Card. Get as many dice of each color
depending on the stats of the selected Investigator, we won’t need the rest of the dice. Put
the 3 Resources Tokens, over the Status Card, depending on the initial resources of the
selected Investigator.
•Shuffle the 6 Investigation File Cards. Put them in 3 rows of 2 cards.

The composition of the board. with Jane as our Investigator, should be now similar to this:
Gameplay Overview
In order to save the world, you need to move your investigator through the map, close the
Portals on it, then go to the Ritual Site and disrupt it.
In order to move the Investigator through the map to an adjacent tile, you need to gather a
Clue.
In order to close a Portal, you need to gather an Arcane Symbol, and the Investigator needs
to be in the location of a Portal. Then, you can claim the Portal Token.
In order to disrupt the ritual, you need to have closed enough Portals, depending on the
difficulty level:
 Easy: Close 2 Portals
 Normal: Close 3 Portals
 Hard: Close 4 Portals
The Investigator has to be also in the Ritual Site. Also, the Ritual can’t be disrupted if there
are enemies in the Ritual Site.

Round Structure
The Round follows a Daily Structure. During Morning, Afternoon and Evening, there will be
the Investigator Turns. On those turns, you will try to complete an Investigation on each row
of cards.
At Night, the Cultists will continue the invocation of the Outer God. That will have some
negative effect on the Investigator and, with enough turns, complete the invocation and
destroy the world.
After the Night, you will shuffle the discard pile (without flipping the cards) and put them in 3
rows of 2 cards again, like in the setup, so a new Round will start. 

Investigator Turns (Day)

You have 3 Investigator Turns: Morning, Afternoon and Evening.
You can choose between the 2 cards on the bottom row on the Investigation File Cards,
each of one with 3 possible Investigations.
You have to discard one of those cards, and put it into the discard pile, without flipping the
card.
Then, you have to fulfill one of the Investigations of the remaining card.
First, you can do a Research Action. A Research action is to roll 3 of the Stat Dice, in order
to help you to decide what Investigation to approach.
After you decide one of the investigations, you must roll the other 6 stat dice.
Then, using the result of the 9 dice, you have to approach the Investigation.
After the Investigation, no matter if it has been successful or failed, you have to put the
Investigation File card into the discard pile, flipping the card.
With this, you have completed the Morning, and now there should be only 2 rows of
Investigation File Cards.
Then, you must repeat the same procedure with the bottom row of the Investigation File
Cards (afternoon) and again with the last row of the Investigation File Cards (evening).
When all the Investigation File Cards are in the Discard Pile, enter the Night.

So, as reminder:
Repeat 3 times, starting with bottom row:
1- Discard one of the bottom cards to the discard pile (without flipping).
2- Research Action (optional)
3- Choose Investigation on the remaining card.
4- Roll rest of the dice
5- Solve Investigation, get rewards.
6- Put the card on discard pile (flipping the card)

Mythos Turn (Night)

At night, apply the effects that are shown in the Outer God card. Usually, that implies moving
the Doom Track, spawning enemies on the map, and also additional effects.

Investigations
You fulfill an Investigation trying to match the result of the Stat Dice with the Investigation
Slots of the Investigation that you chose, following the next rules:
 A Slot can be completed with a single die, but also with several dice (one over the
other), adding the amounts, but only if those dice are of the same color.
 If a Slot has a number, the exact value has to be assigned. If it’s a number with a +
sign, it means that value or higher.
 If the Slot has a color, like Red (Strength), Green (Influence) or Blue (Wisdom), can
only be completed with dice of that color.
 Items can be used to modify the dice results, but only before assigning the dice to
the Slots.
 If all the Investigation Slots have been completed, you receive the rewards.
 If any Investigation Slot is not completed, you won't receive the rewards, and the
Doom tracker advances 1 for each non-completed slot.
 If there are enemies in the Map, you can confront them during the Investigation
phase.

Rewards
You can receive different Rewards by completing the Investigations:
 Weapon: Increase the amount of weapons in 1 in the Status Card. Weapons are
used to reroll ALL the dice of the same color. You can choose the color of the dice to
reroll, as long as you reroll all dice of that color.
 Money: Increase the amount of Money in 1 in the Status Card. Money is used to
modify a die in +1 or in -1. +1 can’t be applied to a 6. -1 can’t be applied to a 1.
 Spellbook: Increase the amount of Spellbooks in 1 in the Status Card. Spellbooks are
used to flip the die to the opposite face (a 2 become a 5).
 Clue (represented as a Notebook): allow to move the Investigator to the next Map
Square on the 4 main directions (diagonals are not allowed). The Investigator can’t
cross the red crosses of the Map.
 Arcane Symbol: allow to close a Portal or to disrupt the Ritual if the Investigator is in
the same Map Square as the Portal or Ritual.

Resources can’t be increased over the amount showcased in the Status Card.
If an Investigation has a Clue and an Arcane Symbol as reward, you can choose the order
(e.g. Close a portal in the current Map Square, then move to another Map Square).
If a reward can’t be applied (Resource is already at the highest capacity on the Status Card,
you got an Arcane Symbol but the conditions to close a Portal or disrupt the Ritual are not
fulfilled), that reward is lost.

Doom tracker
The Doom tracker can advance because of the Outer God description (at Mythos Turn) or
when the player fails an Investigation, leaving non-completed slots on it.
Doom tracker advances as reading order (left to right in every row).
The effect of the Doom tracker is immediate. Those effects can be:
 Resource -1: Reduce a resource. If the Investigator doesn’t own that kind of
resource, one dice of the color of the resource will be locked during the next
investigation. There is a place, in the Status Card, to store the Locked Dice.
 Portal: Create an enemy in a portal location that doesn’t have any enemy. The
enemy will spawn at the closest portal to the Investigator. If 2 portals are at the same
distance, the Investigator can choose the portal.
 Cultist: Create an enemy in the location of the Ritual.
 Tentacle: The ritual is completed. The Outer God is summoned and all life on the
Earth ends. You lose the game.

Enemies
Enemies appear in the map, on Mythos Turn, depending on the effects of the Outer God, or
as a consequence of the Doom Tracker, with the Portal or Cultist symbols.
There are 3 enemy tokens used for marking the enemies on the map. If there are already 3
enemy tokens in the map, but a new enemy needs to be spawned, you lose the game.
There can be more than one enemy in the same map square.
You can defeat any enemy on the map (even if they are in a different map location than the
Investigator) if you also fulfill the Dice Slots of the map square where that enemy is, during
an Investigation.
You can defeat the enemies, fulfilling the Dice Slots of their map square, even if you don’t
fulfill the Investigation. The enemies should be defeated during the Investigation progress,
so you can’t use the same rewards that you get after fulfilling the Investigation to defeat the
monsters, you need to deal with them in the next Investigation.

Game End
The game can be won if:
 The player manages to close as many portals as showcased by the difficulty level
selected, then disrupts the ritual, before the Doom Tracker reaches the Tentacle.
The game can be lost if:
 There are already 3 enemies on the map, and we need to spawn another enemy.
 The Doom Tracker reaches the Tentacle.