Runescape board game Shadow of Elvarg announces date for Kickstarter campaign

Grab your gp reserves and get that armour trimmed to anticipate the launch of Runescape Kingdoms: Shadow of Elvarg’s crowdfunding campaign on May 31st. Steamforged Games, the company adaptating the classic online multiplayer RPG for the tabletop, teased a peek at the upcoming board game’s box art.

Shadow of Elvarg was announced in January alongside an accompanying tabletop RPG adaptation, also designed by Steamforged, that’s slated to arrive later in 2021. The board game set players loose in Gielinor to complete cooperative quests, level up their skills and probably get up to a fair bit of mischief. A description in the press release says that the board game will prioritise player agency, “Just like the RuneScape and Old School RuneScape video games”, apparently allowing groups to invest in skills and explore paths at their own discretion.

The hulking, angry dragon on the cover will serve as the final boss for Shadow of Elvarg (hint: that’s the lizard’s name), though how the encounter will play out hasn’t been detailed. Expect plenty of references to both Runescape and Old Runescape, the faithful recreation of how the video game looked during its 2001 launch. Steamforged, the company behind Monster Hunter World: the Board Game, the Dark Souls RPG and several other video game adaptations, has previously said that dedication to facsimile even means favourite questlines will make the jump to tabletop.

Shadow of Elvarg will stretch across both Asgarnia and Misthali, which served as free-to-play starting zones in the original Runescape. Large section of play covers the group traveling to various locations, using the board “like a fast-travel map”. The action will scale down to the individual level during combat encounters, though don’t expect things to get too crunchy - Steamforged wants to recapture Runequest’s light-hearted and often irreverent tone through its storytelling.

Though the game will come with a number of miniatures to represent player characters, those avatars won’t have explicit classes tied to them. Abilities are earned through practising skills, and surmounting certain challenges will even reward the intrepid players with capes. Steamforged has already hinted at a long design tail if their adaptation is successful, levying the decades-long history of the video game as a promise for much more to come.

The Kickstarter campaign for Runescape Kingdoms: Shadow of Elvarg will launch on May 31st and remain active for ten days. There’s no word on pricing or estimates on shipping dates available at this time.