In The Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the Second Era, players take on the role of adventurers travelling across the world in search of adventure. Over a series of three sessions, players increase in power, eventually gaining enough strength to engage in a final battle in the last session. The game map forms a framework for players to explore as they encounter peaceful or (more likely) antagonistic/combat encounters. These could be simple 1-room combats or a more involved dungeon-crawl type experience. Because the entire game is only three sessions, players increase in power significantly over the course of a single play session, providing a strong sense of building power (and tension.) Based off of a very popular line of role-playing videogames, The Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the Second Era (TESBotSE) has a vast amount of source material available. Players who love combat and upgrades will enjoy the character growth (and its huge number of options) while story-oriented players should find satisfaction in the depth of background in the world. Fans of Chip Theory Games will know what to expect in the box – lots of dice, maps, and cool poker chips making a game that may even survive a trip to the bathtub. TESBotSE has been out for a bit less than a year but there is already a crowdfunding effort for a 2nd printing and several new expansions to the base game (along with a mammoth storage option to go with the mammoth game…) It ends October 31st.

The Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the Second Era
Designers: Josh J. Carlson, Michael Gernes, Logan Giannini, Ryan Howard, Salem Scott, Josh Wielgus
Publisher: Chip Theory Games
Players: 1-4
Ages: 14+
Time: 2-4+ hrs per session
(review copy provided by publisher)

TESBotSE plays in two different modes. The first is an over-arcing storyline where the players’ party roams around on a map, interacting with towns, quests, or initiating encounters (both peaceful/story-based and combat-oriented ones.) The second mode kicks in during those combat encounters. Players maneuver around and fight in a hex-grid layout. This could be a single large room, a cavern exploration that is built up while you play, or (typically a final boss) a large set piece area with multiple linked map tiles. The game is huge and involved in many ways so I will only describe it in broad terms here, enough so that my evaluations will make sense. Feel free to visit more in depth reviews if you need to figure out the details. (Note: there is a pretty good detailed tutorial book that comes with the game that can also be downloaded here.) The basic process is a daily movement around the game map, which may or may not result in a combat situation. Since player powers lean heavily into combat options, expect combat situations more often than not.

Plot, Quests, and Overland Travel

Continuing in the Chip Theory theme of way, way too much stuff in the box, the 10 kg / 20+ lb base box contains five different maps (provinces) to explore, each with their own Gazetteer. There are a few generic encounters and lots of common enemies but each area also has province-specific encounters and a few map-specific enemies one might meet to play towards the theme of the map. At the start of a 3 session campaign players select a guild to belong to and a province in which to explore. The two combine in the province gazetteer to set players off on their main quest objective. The second session typically has players explore the guild quest in a different province, all culminating in a big bad showdown in the third session. With nine guilds to join and five provinces to explore, there is going to be plenty of variety in the game – even before one starts down the path of expansions (one so far, two more coming in the crowdfunding drive.)

Once players have created their characters (more on that later), picked their guild (as a group), and chosen their starting province, their leader picks up the requisite Gazetteer and looks up the overarching guild quest for that area. These typically have a couple parts to them with one “big” ending. These could be as simple as find this thing/person here and take it there to more involved stuff like chasing your prey around the map.

The main quest line uses a dial to track each day that passes. Players move around the map, typically interacting with an event (town/encounter/battle), then reaping any rewards earned, healing a bit, and finalizing the turn by spending earned experience to improve one’s character. The day dial then spins by and the next day starts. Note, the Day Dial only goes up to 12 so players had better finish off their business by the 12th day or their quest is over.

Each day, the party moves about the map, stopping at a location of their choice within range. While the majority of the hexes are blank, a large number contain an icon representing a town, a peaceful encounter, a conflict (battle) encounter, or an Unstable location. Unstable locations have players rolling a die to determine which kind of encounter occurs. If a “town” is rolled, it represents encountering a travelling caravan.

A peaceful encounter is resolved by drawing a card from a deck, reading its text and then flipping it over to see the options offered to the players. There are typically two choices – one with better rewards at a cost (or skill check) and one “safer” choice with less benefit. Note, some encounters will sometimes force players to pick a specific choice if it was found while in an unstable location.

Battle encounters tend to come in two flavors, a Clash encounter (which is mostly a one-room set piece fight) and a Delve encounter (which is a progressively revealed dungeon crawl.) Combat is similar in both, and I’ll cover it in brief in the next section.

Town encounters have players turn to that town’s page in the Gazetteer. It will show what sorts of items are for sale, what sorts of skills are available to be trained, and any special rules for that specific town. Most towns have an inn for healing, a place to refill player potions (one-use items that can be refilled,) a place to gain side quests (draw 2 cards and pick one to try and perform on your way along the main quest..), and a place to interact with one’s guild. However, some towns may have one or more options unavailable. Players (usually) get to perform two town actions on each visit.

How Rolling Dice Works

Now that moving around and getting into trouble is covered, let’s talk about fighting one’s way back out of it. Player characters are built around sets of dice representing their skills. Players begin with some dice representing basic combat moves but gain more when they learn and improve their specific skills. Players choose a number of dice to roll for an attack, applying the outcome and then putting used dice down at the bottom of their player mat in the cooldown track. Some dice actually have ongoing effects so they are plugged into the top of a player’s mat until they are used up and placed down into the recovery track. Thus, dice slowly accumulate down there and players must use some of the other dice on their mat until they get those spent dice back. Thankfully, every turn a player uses their recovery stat to bring the oldest (left-most) dice back out of the recovery track. This starts at 2 or 3 dice a turn but can be upgraded. WIth players rolling only a few dice per turn, they should be getting most of their dice back all the time. However, players can often go above and beyond and earn fatigue dice. These are simply grey dice that clog up one’s recovery track and have to be “recovered” to clear out the track. Special black nasty “overfatigue” dice work the same way but don’t ever go away completely, they just cycle to the back of your recovery track over and over again. A very common way to earn fatigue is to take 1 fatigue to attack for a second time (provided you still have dice available to roll…) Don’t worry though, there are plenty of other fun ways to earn fatigue and clog up one’s recovery track.

Building a Character

It’s time to talk about what may be the most enjoyable part of the game, constructing one’s character. Each player starts with a race (10 possible) and a class (15 possible). A race defines some starting stats and gives a special ability (like prevent damage once per battle or take an overfatigue die to take a full second turn.) Classes give thematic abilities (healing, creating an undead minion, inspiring other players to take an action, improving one’s attack, etc…) Class powers are not triggered using dice. They use a resource called Tenacity. Some powers spend Tenacity while a few rare ones simply provide an ongoing benefit as long as the character has a minimum level of Tenacity. The primary way to gain Tenacity is to roll a “dud” roll on one of your combat dice. This is a nice consolation prize for a poor roll. Classes are the primary thing that uses Tenacity. Players can upgrade their class from Novice to Master if they can arrange a set condition to occur during play (such as defeating enemies, getting hurt, fulfilling side quests, acquiring a specific level of abilities, etc…) When a skill goes from Novice to Master the abilities available tend to stay the same but cost less and/or become slightly more powerful.

The primary source of character growth in the game is through Skill Lines. Once trained in a skill, a player can spend experience to purchase additional dice in that skill line. Dice come in various levels and higher level dice don’t cost more but they can only be bought if a character already has a die of the next lower level. Players start the game with one Skill Line and will acquire additional skills during game play (usually at towns, remember?)

At this point, let’s look at a player mat. It holds all of a character’s dice and manages their base stats.

Several spots on the outside of the mat are used to track things. The arc in the upper left tracks a character’s “stance” during combat. This determines what dice can be rolled. Most dice (and some weapons) require a character to be in a specific stance to be used. The most straightforward ones are the magic stance (far right) which is used for almost all magic, ranged stance (for bows, etc…), the far left is defensive and allows the generic dice to be used for defense.

The top right of the play mat is saved experience for later (max of 3.) The bottom right tracks Tenacity (to power Class skills, remember?) Bottom left shows a character’s recovery (the number of dice regained each round…) The top four slots are for ongoing dice effects (1 hand & shield die placed there now to prevent 1 damage) and the bottom recovery row shows a (generic) combat die, a skill die, and three grey fatigue dice. A recovery of 3 means the two grey and the single combat die on the left will be recovered next turn.

Both sides of the playmat have circular spaces to hold stats and skills. Round chips are placed here to indicate a specific skill or attribute. On the left are the health, stamina, magicka attributes. Note that these are not represented by dice. When upgraded they are filled in with tiles instead. Health is obvious. Stamina covers several things. It is a character’s movement speed in hexes, the number of dice rolled per engagement, and the range of a ranged weapon. Magicka determines the number of magic-based skill dice rolled and the range of those skills. The bottom row is generic combat dice that all players start with (more can be purchased.) The right-hand side of the mat has a row for the 1-hand & Shield skill (dice do damage and then stick around for defense) and the Acrobatics skill (lots of funky movement and damage.)

An observant player will note that the skills on the two sides of the playmat will “run into” each other as dice are added. This is another decision tree that a player must take. Players will want to place skills they want to bump up to high levels across from skills that they will only take a few dice in. It is possible to unlearn any skill, but of the attributes only Magicka can be removed.

Combat

Combat arises in three main ways. A Clash is a one-room set piece of opponents that are fought. A Delve is a progressively revealed map that typically requires eliminating opponents but can sometimes be accomplished purely by exploration. Finally, there are a few Dungeons consisting of a much larger set piece consisting of several pre-revealed tiles and typically unique setups. These are usually reserved for a big send-off at the end of a particular session.

To place enemies, one multiplies the players by their current experience totals (which is tracked) to set a pool of enemy points to spend. Opponents come in levels 20, 10, 5, and 1. Using the enemy pool, enemies are placed onto the board using the highest possible level and then adding in lower level opponents to “make change.” So a party of 3 players with 11 experience would field 33 points of enemies: a 20, a 10, and three 1s. At this point, treasure is also placed. (A quick aside, treasure can be picked up by walking over it and then going through a mini game of 3-dice Yahtzee to match the back of the card. Players can gain fatigue to make up for any poor rolls.)

After placing enemy pieces, players put themselves on the entrance to the combat. All players take their turn and then all the enemies take a turn. Players recover dice, decide on their stance, and then they may move and engage (attack) or engage and then move. You may not partially move before and after engaging. Note that one can gain a fatigue die to engage multiple times but that does not include a move – that would be an entirely new turn.

Whatever the heroes fail to eliminate gets to attack back. Monsters follow simple rules, attacking the closest thing, or moving towards the nearest thing if nothing is in range. When ties are present, which may often be the case, each chip has a priority to attack either the lowest or highest HP character in range. Many chips may be able to attack a second character or possibly all characters in range.

Each Clash or Delve will have its own rules for success, with a default of eliminating all enemies. The Clash/Delve ends at the end of the turn after success is met. (Thus some players will still get a turn if success happens mid-round.) It is fine for players to be eliminated as long as at least one character survives to the end. Most (non-mainline) quests can be abandoned by retreating if necessary but then players typically receive no award.

To summarize gameplay: Players pick a guild to belong to and a province to explore, the two together determining the party’s overarching quest for the first session. They move about the game board, gaining experience through encounters and side quests until they meet up with (and hopefully defeat) the final goal of the first province. At the start of the second session, the party chooses a second area to explore (along with its guild quest.) All along the way players will be gathering items, new skills, and experience points to spend on new dice. The third and final session will involve a major showdown with the final boss, all based on the area picked for the second session. When the boss of session 3 is defeated, the players have “won” the game and can start a campaign all over again.

Expansions:

There’s a Valenwood expansion available that gives a new area to explore (with your nine guilds) and three new classes to play and three new skill lines (Illusion, Legerdemain, and Light Armor and their associated dice!) As mentioned at the beginning, there’s currently a crowdfunding campaign for a reprint along with more stuff. This time around there’s several separate expansions available. There are two new regions, each with two new classes and new skill lines. Heroes of Tamriel is a hero-centric one with a pile of new races and two classes and two skill lines. Fur and Fang brings werewolves and vampirism into the mix through two skill lines, two side quests, and four new encounters. Finally, there’s Shadows of Oblivion which adds in some bad-guy themed content (including new enemy chips, a few new skill dice, and a brand new draw bag to hold things in. This expansion is meant to make the game harder for those seeking a challenge. There’s also a mega-storage all-in thingy in development alongside a more budget oriented “extra box” that should, in theory, hold all the extra stuff that can’t fit within the original box. For those interested, the funding campaign runs through the 31st…

Verdict:

I must say that this game captures my imagination about as much as a good old paper and pencil role playing game. I can’t wait to get it back onto the table to level up my character and try him out. That is the game’s strength. Long gone are the days where gamers could play some boardgame for a (long) evening and go through a complete power arc of their characters from small fry to action-hero studliness. Designed to be played over three sessions, there’s room enough for a character to grow and improve but not so much room that power increases have to be drip fed. There are some great 20+ session boardgame campaign games that have an epic story arc, but when it comes time to play, I spend several hours exploring and fighting off the bad guys and end up with a reward of…. I can now reroll a die every once in a while… Contrast this with TESBotSE where after the first three encounters players have most likely doubled or tripled the dice they have available – and many of those dice have funky powers to boot. I’m not going to say character level like that all the time, but after an evening’s game session I can point to my character and say “look at all that cool stuff I just got.”

And there is a lot of cool stuff to get! In just the base game (there is already one expansion out) there are five provinces and nine guilds which means there are about 45 different main quests to experience. Taking into account that you do two provinces each game, that’s still 20+ games you’re going to play before seeing even a partial repeat. Add in side quests and all the player options and there is a PILE of material to keep the game fresh for a long time.

Mechanically, I love how each decision is balanced. It’s almost like no specific decision is the right choice 100% of the time. Players can take on many skill lines, but because they “bump” in the middle, the more you specialize the less you can generalize. Of course, the freedom to take on any skill you want is also very nice… there are no pre-formed restrictions to prevent odd builds. I like how dice are cycled and recovered. There seems to be space for players to specialize in churning dice with a high recovery value and characters who might have a lower recovery but more dice to spend. Most dice have one or more “dud” sides but these almost always give a player tenacity – there are times where players are actively hoping to roll “duds” to get their tenacity back up!

The difficulty scaling throughout the game is so elegant. Simply multiply experience by player count and use that many points of enemies – drawn out of a bag. Setup, once figured out, is fast. While not ideal, it has worked for me when we lose a character for an evening. We just scale by 3 players instead of 4 players and we’re on our way. When the party “fails” at something, sure you don’t get experience, but you also aren’t greatly penalized for failing to get that experience (although the way final boss battles work it does set you back a little there…) This means you aren’t going to doom your entire 3 session campaign by one or two early battle failures.

There are a few downsides. To pull off a 3 session campaign, those sessions can get pretty long. This is not something I’ll be able to pull out at an after-school activity and play for a couple hours. Expect that first session to go several hours as players adjust and build their characters, something that is slower at first until players get a better feel for what they want their character to become. Even with several video-watches and rules-reading my first “session” took three evenings to pull off. Expect to add a couple hours to that session with new players, although an experienced player leading other players should drop that a fair bit. Our group used the cool DIZED app to run through the introductory encounter and start up our campaign. While it was very cool at first to get us up and running, after we started to get the gist of things the DIZED app felt like it was dragging us down a bit. We abandoned the app near the end of our second session.

The game storage, particularly the plastic overlays for the player mats, is really cool and holds all a player needs between sessions. But there are a few little bits that limit its ability to store things if you have to cut a session short. There are raised slots for all the skill dice and stored experience but you cannot leave dice in your recovery row nor keep your tenacity peg marker in place. These are all reset between sessions, so not a big deal – unless you want to pause a session mid-way through. Sure, there are other things to track – like what’s going on in the overland map, but notes are usually sufficient for that. It seems a missed opportunity to have designed the character “box” so that it could also be sealed up in the middle of a session.

I am always loath to bring a new “giant” game into my home. There’s only so many places I can cram extra-large game boxes. It’s particularly frustrating when the size of the box is somewhat gratuitous. However, TESBotSE justifies its presence. It’s huge because there is just so much stuff in there, and the majority of the “stuff” is there to add variety to what is a thoroughly enjoyable game. It has managed to simultaneously provide a wide variety of narrative or adventures with a huge variety of (viable) character options and builds. The two together mean that I will have a lot of play left in this box for some time to come.

Thoughts from other Opinionated Gamers

Alan H. I have enjoyed nearly every Chip Theory game and especially Too Many Bones. TESBotSE builds on TMB but offers more of everything, which always excites me. There’s far greater choice on character development; a wider range of quests, magic items, upgrades and many more choices. There are books of adventures using maps to explore, which is better than TMB as the direction of travel dictates what type of encounter you might face.

But the largest difference is in the style of the battle encounters. Each one requires a hex based board to be created using different sized mats that are then populated with creatures of great variety with a goal to reach. Combat is no longer on the 4×4 grid of TMB, but the tactical choices are far more evident as you fight off the creatures facing you. Experience points create opportunities for more skills, that branches your character in a new direction with a mix of benefits that you need to consider.

I have played this game at solo, 2,3 and 4 players and enjoyed every game. Each scenario presents a range of challenges and how you build your initial character will dictate how well you do in each section of the game. I have played for over 120 hours now and I haven’t even scratched the surface of the options in the game.

If there was a rating better than Love it!, I would be selecting that one.

However, the rule book is not perfect. It’s very good, but other complex games (like Civolution) provide a small booklet of summary pertinent rules and this game with so many complexities would benefit from that style of player aid in my opinion.

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

I love it! Matt C., Alan H
I like it.
Neutral.
Not for me…