The Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the Second Era game will feature “many regions” of Tamriel
With an emphasis on character creation.
The Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the Second Era is an adventure board game that will take players across the continent of Tamriel.
Initially teased in May 2021 by publisher Chip Theory Games, Betrayal of the Second Era is a co-op board game based on the popular video game series The Elder Scrolls, which takes place in the land of Tamriel. Unlike other tabletop adaptations of The Elder Scrolls series, Betrayal of the Second Era will not be restricted to any specific region of the continent, instead taking players across multiple areas of Tamriel – both underground and overground.
Chronologically speaking, the events of Betrayal of the Second Era will take place during The Planemeld – a Daedric, or demonic, invasion instrumented by Molag Bal in an effort to drag Tamriel into his relm – players will become adventurers investigating the schemes of the necromantic Order of the Black Worm, as they attempt to get their hands on the precious Amulet of Kings. As the players unearth the cult’s plans, they’ll discover an even grander plot intended to tie the mortal plane of Tamriel with the Daedric plane of Oblivion, which they must stop before it’s too late.
The video game board game will support up to four players and will have a detailed character creation system inspired by one of Chip Theory’s previous games, Too Many Bones, a board game with both dice-building and roleplaying elements. When creating their characters, players will be able to choose from a selection of different classes based on the wide variety character-builds found in The Elder Scrolls series, as well as skills to learn and improve. Across multiple adventures – which each take place over three separate hour-long sessions – the player characters will earn experience that they can use to further develop their characters. The combat system for Betrayal of the Second Era is also inspired by Too Many Bones, with Chip Theory yet to confirm whether players will be gaining and rolling dice in the same way.
The Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the Second Era was co-designed by Josh J. Carlson – a co-creator of Too Many Bones, as well as the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena inspired board game Cloudspire - and Michael Gernes, who has previously worked on content for several miniatures games such as Star Wars: Armada and the Runewars Miniatures Game.
Apart from the upcoming board game Betrayal of the Second Era and Too Many Bones, Chip Theory is responsible for releasing the aforementioned Cloudspire and a deduction game set in a steampunk-inspired alternative London called Triplock.
The Elder Scrolls video game series is published by Bethesda and began with the release of The Elder Scrolls: Arena in 1994. Since then, four additional mainline entries in the series have been released – including the popular The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim in 2011 – alongside a MMORPG, or Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game, called The Elder Scrolls Online in 2014. Taking place in a high fantasy world populated by species such as elves, humans, orcs and even cat people, called khajiit, The Elder Scrolls series has focused on providing players with the freedom to create the character they want and to explore across a large map filled with various quests.
A Gamefound campaign for The Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the Second Era is set to be launched in October, with pledge amounts and expected delivery dates yet to be confirmed.