The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim board game takes place before the events of the video game
Players will cross paths with the Dragonborn.
The upcoming board game adaptation of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim will take place before the events of the original video game.
In an interview with Polygon, game designer Juan Echenique revealed that The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - The Adventure Game will take place “25 years before” the events of the video game, with certain non-player characters from Skyrim appearing in the board game as their younger selves. Echenique confirmed that these characters will include the infamous ‘arrow to the knee’ guard as well as the legendary Dragonborn, a role that players originally occupy in the video game but will be filled by a non-player character in the board game.
“The second campaign starts before the arrival of the Dragonborn, and then ends after the arrival of the Dragonborn. So you get to see all of the events that the Dragonborn causes,” Echenique explained, “you’ll cross paths with the Dragonborn - they’re just a different character”.
Chris Birch - a founder of Modiphius, the publisher responsible for releasing Skyrim - The Adventure Game - unveiled the ‘legacy-style’ elements that will be featured in the video game board game, such as the ability for players to make major decisions that will affect the next session that they experience, such as “killing the jarl of Whiterun” and having that character remain dead for the next game. However, Skyrim - The Adventure Game will not be a legacy board game in the traditional sense, as players will not be permanently altering or destroying components of the title and they can easily start a new campaign if they want.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - The Adventure Game, whose Gamefound campaign launched on November 2nd, sees one to four players becoming adventurers exploring the region of Skyrim, which is set in the fantastical continent of Tamriel. At the beginning of the game, players are able to choose from six different species taken from the video game series including altmer; dunmer; imperials; khajiit; nord and orsimer, and equip their characters with different gear and abilities.
Taking place over the course of two campaigns made up of three separate chapters, Skyrim - The Adventure Game enables players to travel across the frozen landscape in order to pursue various quests and side-quests, with some quests chaining together to form longer missions that promise greater rewards. Players’ actions throughout the game will determine the shape of Skyrim and how their individual characters will be remembered.
In the 2011 video game published by Bethesda, players take the role of the legendary Dragonborn who is tasked with preventing the dragons from conquering the whole of Skyrim. Within The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim players can customise their character’s appearance, equipment and abilities, choosing what weapons and spells they arm themselves with. As an open-world video game, players can decide where to go and what quests to do, with a mixture of main-story, faction quests and side-quests to complete.
Besides The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - The Adventure Game, Modiphius is also responsible for releasing several other titles based on Bethesda video games - such as two skirmish games called The Elder Scrolls: Call to Arms and Fallout: Wasteland Warfare - and various tabletop roleplaying games adapted from series like Dishonored and Dune.
The Gamefound campaign for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - The Adventure Game is live until December 5th, with a pledge of £68 ($92) getting backers a copy of the core board game that’s estimated to arrive in August 2022.