Elden Ring: The Board Game Review

Not many games in the past decade have generated as much buzz in the zeitgeist as FromSoftware’s Elden Ring. In a time when board games based on video games are becoming commonplace, it was only a matter of time before FromSoftware’s behemoth made its way to the tabletop. Steamforged Games – creators of other major video game adaptations like Resident Evil, Monster Hunter World, and FromSoftware’s Dark Souls – took up the flask to do just that. Now, after a highly successful crowdfunding campaign in 2022, Elden Ring: The Board Game (referred to as just Elden Ring going forward) is nearly in the hands of backers and available for preorder for everyone else. Rise, Tarnished. It is time to fight once more.

Elden Ring is a campaign board game, meaning you and your fellow players progress through a series of scenarios, leveling up and improving your characters as you play through the story. Steamforged Games has created three of these “campaigns” for prospective Tarnished to choose from – Realm of the Grafted King, The Weeping Peninsula, and Stormveil Castle – with Grafted King serving as the larger “base game” and the other two as standalone expansions. These expansions can be tackled on their own or played after Grafted King, allowing you to carry over your characters and continue their adventure, growing ever stronger in the process. Depending on which box you purchase, you will have access to different classes, including the Vagabond, Samurai, Astrologer, and Prophet in the Grafted King (base game) box; the Hero, Prophet, Astrologer, and Bandit in Weeping Peninsula; and the Confessor, Prisoner, Samurai, and Vagabond in the Stormveil Castle box.

This game is an imposing thing, arriving in large boxes filled with fearsome-looking monster miniatures, hundreds of cards, cardboard tokens, tiles, and a plethora of books containing rules, combat maps, and scenario guides. It’s one of the most intimidating games in my collection, made even more terrifying by the fact that I only own one of the campaigns – I have yet to get the other two boxes or any of the bonus boss sets that can be added in. For such a large game, Steamforged has knocked Elden Ring out of the park in terms of production value, featuring some of the most detailed miniatures I’ve seen, along with great-feeling cards and sturdy cardboard components.

Scenarios come in a handful of varieties that do a good job of keeping things fresh, so you’re not doing the same thing back-to-back. However, not every scenario type lands as well as others. Narrative scenarios ask you to read paragraphs of story, choose different actions to take (potentially making skill checks), and then draw the appropriate card to see what happens. While these are well-written and I appreciate the inclusion of skill checks, this type of scenario didn’t do much for me – if I wanted to do a bunch of reading or storytelling, I’d simply read a book or play Dungeons & Dragons.

By far, my favorite are Exploration scenarios, which excellently capture the spirit of discovery and the feeling of never knowing what lies beyond the next hill – something that almost defines the source material. In these scenarios, you and the other players explore a region of the map, flipping and placing random tiles as you work to complete various quests. Tiles can contain enemies, items, Sites of Grace, or other surprises for you to uncover and take advantage of. I’m a big fan of the “grow as you go” approach to map creation in board games – whether it’s in Betrayal at House on the Hill or Clank! Catacombs – as it enhances both the sense of discovery and the game’s replayability due to the random nature of tile placement. These scenarios offer a balanced mix of everything Elden Ring has to offer – combat, story, and exploration – without feeling overwhelming.

The remaining three scenario types are strictly combat-focused: Gauntlet, Dungeon, and Boss scenarios. Gauntlets throw you into incredibly difficult encounters with mobs of enemies and special rules sprinkled in. Dungeons are similar but culminate in a strong boss at the end. Finally, Boss scenarios – where you and your friends square off against the game’s true threats – are the ultimate test of your builds and teamwork. Between these scenarios and the encounters you stumble upon while exploring, Elden Ring is a combat-heavy experience, which isn’t a bad thing considering that the combat is really solid.

Combat takes place on grids formed from ring-bound notebooks included with the game. Some fights require multiple books to be laid out in a multi-page spread, creating a battlefield where players and enemies move strategically in their struggle to defeat one another. Attacks with spells and weapons have specified ranges, but depending on the row you’re standing in, players can gain additional boons – such as dealing extra damage, modifying turn order, or blocking more effectively. My friends and I frequently found ourselves deep in deliberation over positioning, trying to survive the onslaught of incoming attacks. Alas, even our best-laid plans often led to our demise – because the enemies in this game are TOUGH.

Basic enemies each have a card displaying their actions, with symbols indicating attack placement, movement, and other mechanics. It takes some time to get used to what all the symbols mean, but it’s manageable. Once an enemy has taken its listed actions – or passed if it can’t fulfill all the steps – its turn ends. That’s straightforward and relatively easy to manage. Bosses, however, are terrifying. They have entire decks of actions, each with its own place in the initiative order. Sometimes, you get lucky and their attacks land last. Other times, they pounce on your party before you can react. It’s brutal and unforgiving, but thanks to scalable health pools based on player count, the fights never felt unfair. Every boss battle was exciting and full of tense moments where we held our breath, hoping to stagger the boss or dodge a devastating attack. Despite just being miniatures moving on a grid, the combat offers surprising depth and strategy that makes it shine.

Elden Ring forgoes dice entirely, opting instead for a card-driven deck-building experience.

One aspect that may surprise players is that Elden Ring forgoes dice entirely, opting instead for a card-driven deck-building experience. Players play cards from a deck dictated by their equipped weapons, skills, and gear. However, damage dealt and mitigated – along with special effects like Bleed – are determined by a separate Attribute deck. Different Attribute cards contain symbols representing Strength, Dexterity, and other stats, with attack and defense decks favoring certain symbols over others.

Character progression is a core component of campaign board games, and Elden Ring is no different. Similar to the video game, not only can you level up your class for new abilities, but you can also customize your character by swapping weapons, armor, accessories, and Attribute cards, as well as increasing overall stats through Trait cards. This is all managed via the Rune system, which functions as an equipment load limit. Your total Rune count increases as you progress in the campaign, allowing more customization. However, the tracking method is lacking – Steamforged provides small Rune cards to track your total, but they aren’t abundant enough for every player and add to the card clutter. A simple tracker, like the one used for health, would have been far more effective. As it stands, the best method is to track Runes on paper, which feels clunky. Hopefully, a better solution will emerge from the community or Steamforged itself.

Despite Elden Ring’s strengths, my initial experience was frustrating – not due to the game itself, but because I started with Stormveil Castle, the third campaign. While technically a standalone expansion, it assumes your characters have completed earlier quests and starts with adjustments to gear, runes, and decks. This made it overwhelming to set up for fresh players. I strongly urge anyone interested in this game to start with Realm of the Grafted King.