Exploring The Vast Scope of The Elder Scrolls: Betrayal Of The Second Era

In the world of tabletop board games, truly premium projects are a unique challenge for game makers. Deep, highly replayable games with high-end components are expensive to produce, even after ensuring there’s design and gameplay in place that will satisfy players. Chip Theory Games has a history of doing precisely that and a proven track record of delivering high-end board games that have delighted their fans. Its latest 2025 release leverages one of the most popular franchises in video games; The Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the Second Era is a big game with a hefty price tag, but those who take the plunge will discover why it’s one of the most highly regarded releases of 2025. It’s a ton of fun.

Unlike many of the single-player video games that make up the Elder Scrolls franchise, the new board game opens up vast swaths of Tamriel for discovery and quests, with stories spread out across the world from Skyrim to Black Marsh. “The game is set at the same time period as Elder Scrolls Online, which takes place in the second era,” says development director Ryan Howard. “All of the single-player mainline games take place in either the third era or the fourth era. So this is several hundred years before any of those single-player games.”