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.
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