The Elder Scrolls V Board Game Review: Skyrim – Adventure Game

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is still one of the most popular parts of the famous series. Now it also has a board form that gives you dice and hundreds of cards. The following lines will tell you if it has the same ratings as the video game.

• Number of players: 14
• Play time: 120 minutes
• Price: 3199 CZK (Alsa)
• Age: 14+

Blades play a significant role in the campaign.

Tamriel is a place of constant conflict. Dragons, sometimes mad mages or demonic entities appear on the scene. More than one situation was resolved by the Order of Blades, which includes the main characters of the plot of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Adventure Game. At the beginning, you choose one of six unique races and a starting point, after which you begin playing with basic equipment and a game board. I really like the fact that you can go on an adventure alone or with friends. However, when I say alone, I mean it literally. It is definitely not like Borderlands: Mr. Torgue and his arena of cruelty, where you have to take care of three other figures, trying to survive.

Its tabletop adaptation has a lot in common with the role-playing game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. For example, the story of both available campaigns is not very long. If you are fully immersed in the game, it will probably not be difficult to complete it in one or two sessions. Its depth is also minor, although it has its charm. Fortunately, side quests are still there, and this is what made the “normal” Skyrim endure, as well as the tabletop game. As you travel across the landscape, you will find dozens of side quests related to the game world, exploring the wilderness, as well as cities that are breeding grounds for crime and villains of all stripes.

You usually have more than one active quest, so you’re really dedicated to wandering around here. In fact, this is again a very important connection to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, where you’re also running around the landscape with a bunch of side quests. The good thing is that you’re not moving around the map in a turn-based format, which would take hours. Here, that’s replaced by the fact that everyone plays at the same time, so each player can move along four-tile paths. The exception to this is keeps, which allow you to travel to another hold for a small fee.

Each player after their turn takes a turn action, which for those in the strongholds can be associated with pleasant purchases, sales or improvements of items. In short, relaxation, which also does not count as an action, so you can still take the main action. This will allow you to explore a dungeon, wilderness, city or evaluate one of the number of quests, many times based on the popular idea of ​​​​take/bring. I know, it sounds unflattering, but on the table, this format is not a bad choice at all.

So I can say for myself that I quite enjoyed the side orders, because among the supply orders there were some that deviated from the series in format by distributing the order inside the cards into several parts. Completing the tasks brings you various rewards, which can then be used to create items needed to improve your ability to survive. In my opinion, the speed with which you get new equipment and complete quests is one of the hallmarks of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Adventure Game. I definitely found the game to be smoother compared to competing RPGs. When you have enough experience points at the end of the turn, you can use them to buy one of eighteen skills.

However, the gameplay itself is not only running around the map, purely completing tasks and developing heroes in combination with military, magical shadow skills. Fights are quite an important factor here. In dungeons, on city streets and in the wilderness, you will find various opponents who will grab you by the throat. The range of enemies is diverse, and they differ primarily in appearance, statistics, abilities, and levels. Here I would like to emphasize that the time of the game has a significant impact on the difficulty. The fewer you are, the more pressure the game puts on you in all respects. Fights here take place with the help of dice, which have their own symbols, but do not deviate from the series in any way. But the structure of fights with monsters suited me.

Here and there I also encountered a wandering troll, daedra or dragon, whose movement is determined by various factors in the game world. I must say for myself that I really like the journey itself and, above all, the fact that the game world goes through development associated with unrest and, in the end, rebellions in the fortresses. I would also like to note the presence of the “Free Roaming” mode, which allows you to play even after completing the main campaign. However, there is one small nuance: additional content is in English, which I personally do not consider a disadvantage. And, at least, I was grateful for such an expansion of the possibilities of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – The Adventure Game.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Adventure game fully conveys the spirit of the popular RPG.

Tabletop games don’t always succeed in capturing the idea of ​​video games, as they simply fail to fully realize the potential of their template. In the case of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Adventure Game, I think it works very effectively with what the legendary RPG gave us, which in practice means a more superficial story, but a varied set of side quests that can be interesting to process. In this case, the combat is based on dice, linked to a wide range of combat actions. I would probably like more figurines, but that’s mainly due to my obsession with painting figurines. But the character development design itself is decent.

Overall, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim — An Adventure Game is one of those successful video game adaptations. For those of you who love card games, dice games, and especially The Elder Scrolls, this is a solid choice. The only thing that might put you off is the price, but the playtime is decent even with the free roam mode, so fans shouldn’t miss this one.

We would like to thank Czech distributor Blackfire for providing us with a copy of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Adventure Game.