The Road to Canterbury

Choice of Games LLC

Contains adsIn-app purchases

About this game

May the best story win! Enter the medieval world of Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales," where your journey, and the stories you tell, will change history.

"The Road to Canterbury" is a 175,000-word interactive medieval adventure novel, and 2018 Nebula Award for Game Writing Finalist, by Kate Heartfield, where your choices control the story. It's entirely text-based--without graphics or sound effects--and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

London, 1375. The Black Prince of England is dying, and peace with France hangs in the balance.

You are a young pauper on a secret mission. Join a pilgrimage to Canterbury with the powerful noblewoman Philippa de Roet, co-sister-in-law to the Black Prince, and Philippa's husband, Geoffrey Chaucer himself, the customs agent, spy, and occasional poet. Your mission is to persuade Philippa to change the course of history.

You'll fight raiders and knights, aid or foil an assassin, fire up a peasants' revolt, and change your luck for the better or worse. And of course, there's a storytelling contest with a big prize--one you intend to win.

• Play as male, female or non-binary, and as gay, straight, bi, asexual and/or aromantic
• Travel the ancient route of Watling Street from Southwark to Canterbury
• Win a prize in the storytelling contest
• A quest, a joust, a trial by combat? All in a week's work
• Persuade an influential noblewoman to change her politics
• Find love with a knight, a squire, or a traveler from distant lands
• Become a knight, or the head of an abbey, or a powerful player in London's merchant guilds
• Solve the mystery that haunts your family
• Declare your loyalty to England or to France and determine the outcome of the Hundred Years' War

The Hundred Years' war is heating up: will you stoke the flames on the Road to Canterbury?

Ratings and reviews

Story is good, but the stats are poorly balanced (you have to have a high stat in one of 3, but the story doesn't make it clear until the end) so you end up focusing on the wrong things. Individual story lines each require a skill, hidden until the end as well. In short, it requires 2 playthroughs for each line.

Loved the story! Unique & fun. I haven't read the Canterbury Tales since high school, but I really enjoyed it then. I have played through a few times with different types of characters. I wish the romances were a little more immersive, but that's just a minor gripe. I was a little confused at times about what choice to make to stay true to my strengths. Overall, it was good! I am happy with my purchase!

I actually purchased this book. One of the best things about this is the replayability. The stats are incredibly well done as well. This game has romance options, political intrigue and well-developed characters. This is one of the best choice games in my opinion. It's a proper period piece and is based upon a real book written by Geoffrey Chaucer. I appreciate the original and consider this an expansion upon the original material. This was a work of love and it shows. Highly recommend.

What's new

Bug fixes. If you enjoy "The Road to Canterbury", please leave us a written review. It really helps!