You'll 'cross paths' with the Dragonborn in the Skyrim board game

Earlier this year we learned Skyrim was coming to yet another platform: tabletops. The Skyrim board game was announced back in February, and today crowdfunding for the 1-4 player board game has finally opened on Kickstarter-alternative Gamefound. Gosh, I hope it gets fully funded.

Whoops, it's already been fully funded. In less than 30 minutes it reached its £100,000 goal, then quickly doubled it, and is currently on the brink of quadrupling it. I guess that's not really a surprise. The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim The Adventure Game is projected to ship in August of 2022 for backers, and a retail version is planned as well.

We learned a bit more about the board game today, too. Polygon reports players will choose between six different characters, each representing a different race from The Elder Scrolls: Nord or Imperial (human), Altmer or Dunmer (elves), Orsimer (orc), and Khajiit (cat person). Two campaigns, each with three chapters, are formed from the game's 600 cards, and continuity is established between sessions so player choices and events in one game may have an impact on the next. 

For example, if you kill the Jarl of Whiterun in one game he'll stay dead the next time you play, says Polygon, because his card will be removed and kept out of the campaign deck. (It's a similar system used in the Fallout board game.) When the campaigns are completed, the world can be reset by simply adding cards back into the deck and reshuffling. Games will take roughly 90 minutes to two hours to complete, perhaps longer if you take an arrow to the knee or need to investigate the theft of a sweetroll.

The first campaign takes place 25 years before the events of Skyrim (the videogame), and the second campaign takes place at the time the Dragonborn arrives in the world and begins shouting noisy magic at dragons. You'll even get to "cross paths" with the fabled Dragonborn (Dovahkiin, to his friends) during the campaign, according to game designer Juan Echenique. In addition to the campaigns, unconnected one-off games are also possible.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim The Adventure Game is being made by Modiphius Entertainment, which also publishes the official Fallout TTRPG. It's pricey, as board games typically are. Backing the base game costs $112/£82 on Gamefound, with the middle tier costing $190/£140, which includes two planned expansions. It's $300/£220 for the deluxe edition which throws in miniatures (plastic) and some other extras. The retail version will cost in the neighborhood of $136/£100.

Interestingly, all backers will get to test the game a bit early if they've got a PC. A demo of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim The Adventure Game will come to Tabletop Simulator before the physical version arrives next year.