Travelers Cloak Manuscripts - "The Astronomy Tower"

Photo above is property of Travelers Cloak Manuscripts

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Company: Travelers Cloak Manuscripts

Game: The Astronomy Tower

Country: Canada 🇨🇦

Language: English

Type of Game: Tabletop Games 📬

Genre: Alchemical Mystery

Date Played: March 31, 2025

Difficulty (based on 2 players): 3-7/10 (depending on the chapter)

Size of Team: Unlimited (Recommend 1-4 ppl)

Time: Unlimited (Approx. 5-10 hrs) - Individual chapters ranged from 5-45 mins.

Price: $185 CDN

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Haven dreams of moving to Italy and helping to curate and preserve the wonders of the Villa of the Starry Skies, where Galileo himself once viewed the wonders of the universe. However, her journey brings both unexpected danger and discoveries as she seeks to understand secrets long hidden.

The story immediately drew us in with its intriguing blend of astronomy, astrology, art, and alchemy - a fabulous mix of science and fantasy with a more light-hearted tone. It’s a narrative-rich experience, with each envelope including a fair amount of reading and various types of ephemera to advance the plot, particularly journal entries by Haven herself.. That said, the plot was sometimes hard to keep straight, especially since we focused our note-taking on puzzles rather than the story itself. Some parts never quite clicked into place, and we found ourselves asking, “Wait - who was that again?” more than once. If you love immersive tales, you’ll likely still enjoy the vibe here, but consider jotting down key story beats as you go. And fair warning: the frequent typos, while not game-breaking, did pull us out of the moment at times.

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This game is undeniably beautiful - clearly a labor of love. The visuals blend Italian elegance with mystical flair, combining astrology, alchemy, and cultural elements in a way that feels richly and consistently thematic. The print quality is top-notch, with sturdy paper and lush colors that made everything feel polished. A few images - like some rather sad-looking birds - felt a little out of sync with the overall aesthetic and gave off “AI-generated image” vibes, but these were rare blips in an otherwise thoughtfully designed world with some gorgeous artwork. While it is predominantly a paper-based game, there are a few other components. We definitely appreciated some of these unexpected touches, like the inclusion of actual Italian treats (those lemon pirouettes were a chef’s kiss of a detail).

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Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers

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Gameplay is organized into 13 envelopes, each containing a standalone puzzle and some narrative elements to advance the story. You’ll often revisit previous envelopes for clues or materials needed for the current puzzle, which makes tracking your progress (and where things came from) essential. Playing the entire game in a shorter window helps maintain momentum and memory (for both the story and where you saw that thing that just might with this thing…). While the discrete envelope structure provides great stopping points, The Astronomy Tower is definitely a strong candidate for longer binge-playing sessions, ideally with minimal time between bouts. For us, the final puzzle was a bit anticlimactic compared to earlier chapters - more of a soft landing than a dramatic finale - but it does appear to segue nicely into their next game, The Lost Queen.

The hint system is thoughtfully structured, with tiered hints and a separate answer sheet in each chapter’s envelope. Hints typically take the form of guiding questions that aim to nudge you toward the solution without giving too much away. We appreciate the opportunity to let players come to the a-ha moments themselves! However, in some cases, the leap between the question and the solution may still feel murky. Overall, the hints would benefit from more detailed explanations and provision of answers to each step along the way, as it is still possible to get stuck (or unable to see how they reached the final answer).

Internet access and a QR scanner are required for many of the chapters, which didn’t bother us but might be a factor for some. Also worth noting: while the game is replay-able with a bit of care, no reset instructions were provided. Another great reason to keep meticulous notes (or take pictures) of what is found in each envelope! Also, make sure you have plenty of table space - it gets sprawling fast, especially when you’re deep in the game, surrounded by dozens of intricate, lovingly crafted items.

One final gameplay tip: While you're told to open sealed items within each envelope last, that doesn't always mean you'll get a clear prompt telling you when to do so. Once you've explored everything else in an envelope, it's safe to peek. And don’t overlook loose items outside the envelopes, and which chapters they go with. We missed that at first and briefly thought we were missing a key piece.

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Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers

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The difficulty of the puzzles are quite varied - early puzzles are fairly quick and accessible, while later ones ramp up in complexity thanks to layered clues, increased number of potential items from earlier envelopes that you might need to incorporate, and occasional red herrings or lack of signposting. Most answers come in the form of words or phrases, though we occasionally misread them as cues for additional steps we hadn’t done yet. One or two puzzles didn’t quite work for us, but there were several we really enjoyed, and the overall variety kept things engaging.

We really liked the tactile quality of many of the paper-based puzzles - there’s a surprising amount of physical interaction built into what could’ve just been flat printouts. We also appreciated the use of “filler” Latin text in some documents, which helped guide our focus to what actually mattered, though some could feel this detracts from the immersion. There’s a lovely mini-meta moment partway through, too, which gave us a satisfying sense of progress and payoff.

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Photo above is property of ESCAPETHEROOMers

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There’s so much to love in The Astronomy Tower. This game is bursting with creativity, atmosphere, and handmade charm (and a lot of reading!). Yes, a round of cleanup - fixing typos, improving a few puzzles, ramping up the ending - could elevate it even further. But even as-is, it stands out as one of the more unique and charming at-home puzzle games we’ve experienced. We especially valued how physical and interactive it felt, even within a format that relies almost entirely on paper. If you’re looking for something that blends rich narrative, imaginative puzzles, and a hefty dose of handcrafted magic, this one’s well worth diving into.

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(If you do decide to try this game, give us a shoutout or tag us on social media so we know you heard it from "ESCAPETHEROOMers"!)

Disclosure: We thank Travelers Cloak Manuscripts for providing us with a sample of their game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.

#KristaJones #AtHomeGames #TabletopGames #PuzzlesByMail #TravelersCloakManuscripts #Alchemy #Mystery #Canada