Play a Skyrim Prequel in The Official Board Game

Although it was released quite nearly ten years ago, the gaming juggernaut that is The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim continues to expand into new territory. The latest foray isn’t into the next generation of consoles (they already announced that) but into a whole new format with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim The Adventure Game. This new official board game by Modiphius Entertainment can be played solo or with up to four players. Although this was originally announced in February, today marks the beginning of its fundraising campaign.

If their name sounds familiar, you may have heard of their tabletop wargames and RPGs before, which includes Bethesda-based works such as Fallout: Wasteland Warfare, Fallout the Roleplaying Game, and The Elder Scrolls: Call to Arms. They have experience translating Bethesda games and have made miniatures before, so there’s hope that they can make something truly interesting.

While the board game format is likely to appeal more to casual audiences, so will the campaigns. Instead of focusing on the Dragonborn, players will have their choice between six characters, each based on a different race from the series (Altmer, Dunmer, Imperial, Khajit, Nord, and Orsimer). Together, they play as surviving members of the Blades.

The base game comes with two campaigns; the first takes place 25 years before the original game. This will provide more insight into events leading up to the game and even allow players to meet the younger versions of some memorable NPCs. The second campaign has simply been stated to start and end before and after the Dragonborn arrives respectively. According to an interview from Polygon with game designer Juan Echenique, you’ll even be able to “cross paths with the Dragonborn” as a separate character.

You don’t have to complete one or both campaigns in one sitting, which is great because it does look to provide a lengthy playtime. Both campaigns come with three chapters and each chapter is estimated to take 90-120 minutes each. Each time you play through them should be different thanks to nearly 600 story-related cards, as well as 196 equipment cards for your character. Players will also be able to further customize their character with skills, enchanting and upgrading gear, and by increasing their health, stamina, and magicka.

The multitude of choices given to the player(s) also dictates how different one experience can be with decisions potentially having consequences further during the entire campaign. Side quests will also be available, allowing you to meet new characters, gain experience, and become sidetracked just as you’d expect. Two expansions have also already been announced, with one focusing on the Dawnguard storyline (originally a Skyrim DLC expansion) and seemingly an original content expansion called From The Ashes. The former adds four extra heroes and a new three-chapter campaign, while the latter adds a couple of storylines and plenty of dragon and ghost content.

It didn’t take long for the game to blast through its funding goal on Gamefound and all of its initial stretch goals. More goals are already planned to be added before December when the backing period ends and production begins. If you don’t want to wait until the estimated August 2022 fulfillment date, there’s a lengthy two-hour first look on Modiphius Entertainment’s official channel that you can watch below.