Jagex, the publisher behind the massively multiplayer RPG RuneScape, will officially bring the title to the world of board games this year. The British videogame publisher has partnered with Dark Souls RPG publisher Steamforged Games to create RuneScape Kingdoms: Shadow of Elvarg, a cooperative campaign board game for one to five players that launches on Kickstarter “this year”.
Steamforged and Jagex revealed the first ever official RuneScape models, as well as the game’s description, in a press release on Wednesday. According to Steamforged, who are creating, Kickstarting, and publishing it, “RuneScape Kingdoms: Shadows of Elvarg distils the classic, fun, high-fantasy adventures of the beloved living game into a tabletop experience”.
Players will reportedly be exploring the kingdoms of Asgarnia and Misthalin on a board designed to replicate a fast-travel map, jumping between regions and levelling up by beating bosses and completing quests. The game’s official crowdfunding launch date, pledge prices, and stretch goals have not officially been announced yet.
Steamforged said in Wednesday’s statement that the RuneScape board game “lets you live your fantasy, your way”. “You choose what skills to max, which weapons to craft, and even where to explore next.”
Mat Hart, Steamforged’s Creative Director and CCO, also emphasised how important it was for the game to appeal to experienced ‘Scapers and newcomers to the franchise. “The board game is heavily inspired by content and references from both RuneScape and Old School RuneScape”, he said. “We also created the board game as a way for brand new fans to enjoy the rich world of Gielinor, even if they’ve never experienced the videogames.”
Players can reportedly expect “a classic and fun fantasy game that features rich narrative quests, light-hearted distractions, sandbox exploration at the macro level, face-to-face boss encounters, and classless character progression”.
The new miniatures sculpted by Steamforged’s team are designed to showcase iconic outfits and characters from RuneScape. The first revealed include a Knight in plate body armour, a Wizard holding the Staff of Air, and the green dragon Elvarg, who originates in the popular Dragon Slayer quest from the videogame.
“For years our community has looked forward to collectibles of their favourite characters”, said Jagex CEO Phil Mansell. “This board game is an important milestone for us, and we can’t wait to share more of what Steamforged have been developing for RuneScape Kingdoms: Shadow of Elvarg and get this tabletop adventure in players’ hands.”
In January 2022, Steamforged and Jagex also announced they would create a RuneScape tabletop RPG based on D&D 5E rules, but no further details were revealed about this in Wednesday’s press release.
Steamforged Games are best known for developing several other board game adaptations of videogames, along with sculpted miniatures for the games. Its catalogue of games includes the Monster Hunter World board game, the Resident Evil board games, as well as tabletop adaptations of Horizon Zero Dawn and Dark Souls.
The publisher also developed the Dark Souls RPG, a tabletop RPG based on Dungeons and Dragons 5E rules. Steamforged issued an apology to fans of the game on Tuesday after receiving negative feedback about the quality of the rulebook. “We at Steamforged Games would like to issue a sincere apology regarding the errors that have come to light in Dark Souls: The Roleplaying Game”, the publisher said on its website. “We are listening to your comments and recognise the importance of the issues that have arisen.” The publisher announced in the same post that it would reprint the rulebook and issue replacements.