RuneScape gets not one but two tabletop adaptations on the same day

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(Image credit: Jagex)

RuneScape studio Jagex and Steamforged Games today announced the release of not one but two adaptations of the venerable MMO, both under the branding of RuneScape Kingdoms.

The board game, RuneScape Kingdoms: Shadow of Elvarg, was kickstarted back in 2022 and quickly sailed past its target, offering "co-operative campaigns heavily inspired by iconic quests from the video game." It does seem very RuneScape-y, built around questing, crafting gear, earning capes, and apparently the ability to bake "game-changing cakes." The game's structured around four boss campaigns, during which your party balances questing and saving cats from trees with an ever-increasing threat level in the world.

Steamforged clearly has the bit between its teeth, too: there are four expansions available for Shadow of Elvarg, including the Culinaromancer Expansion which features no less than "the iconic Noob NPC." Three of the four expansions are only available direct from Steamforged Games.

The tabletop RPG, RuneScape Kingdoms: The Roleplaying Game, has its own bespoke game system "designed to be both accessible and elegant", with streamlined versions of RuneScape mechanics. The core book is a detailed guide to the RuneScape world of Gielinor, and includes a ready-made bestiary "teeming with iconic monsters and bosses" for game masters to get on with the killing. There's a standard edition or you can buy the posh one that boasts a "luxurious leather-effect cover embossed with glimmering gold text."

"We’ve worked very closely with Jagex to make RuneScape Kingdoms an authentic addition to the RuneScape family, as another way for new and existing fans to engage with the world they love," says Steamforged Games' Mat Hart. "It’s been a special collaboration, from concept to the finished games."

Steamforged is probably best-known for its all-conquering board game adaptation of Dark Souls, since when it has become a videogame specialist with games based on Monster Hunter World, Resident Evil, Horizon Zero Dawn, and others (it does also make games with its own settings).

RuneScape, meanwhile, just goes from strength to strength. Jagex says the game has now welcomed over 320 million player accounts which, even allowing for the duplicates, puts it among the most-played games ever made. The studio now, rather grandly, calls it a "forever game." Well, whether the appeal is high fantasy adventuring or spending 2,500 hours killing a mole to get a baby mole, something's clearly working.

Both games are available to order now: the roleplaying game ships immediately, and the board game will start being sent out on March 8, 2024.

Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."