The Elder Scrolls Betrayal of the Second Era reference sheet

Overview

• Cooperative adventure game for 1–4 players, played as a 3-session campaign [p.10 — Game Overview]
• Each session: journey across a province, complete a guild quest, fight battles [p.10 — Game Overview]
• Advance adventurers by earning XP through encounters each session [p.10 — Game Overview]
• Session 3 is the endgame — defeat a major threat to win the campaign [p.51 — Endgame]
• Fail any guild quest step or exceed 12 days → session and campaign end [p.46 — Guild Quests]
• Three battle modes: Clash (quick), Delve (exploration), Dungeon (multi-tile) [p.54 — Modes of Battle]

Setup

1. Choose a province; place its overland map and set aside its gazetteer [p.12 — Setup Procedure]
2. Sort enemy chips by level into draw bags (1/5 bag and 10/20 bag); include only province-coded enemies for your province [p.12 — Setup Procedure]
3. Build card decks: shuffle Side Quest deck; build 2 Overland decks (4 general + 8 province cards each); build Delve deck; shuffle Common and Legendary Item decks separately [p.12 — Setup Procedure]
4. Sort map tiles by shape facedown; set aside clash tile and entrance tile [p.12 — Setup Procedure]
5. Set up Campaign Journal; place XP Dial at 1 (with Jailbreak) or 2 (without); leave Day Dial unset [p.12 — Setup Procedure]
6. Choose difficulty: Apprentice / Adept / Expert [p.13 — Difficulty Levels]
7. Each player creates an adventurer (race → stats → Combat skill line → 1 starting skill line → pegs → class) [p.19 — Adventurer Creation]
8. Draw 3 Guild Cards, choose 1; place party token at quest's starting location on overland map [p.13 — Setup Procedure]

Turn structure

Each session is played over days. Each day has 5 phases:

1. New Day Phase — Advance Day Dial by 1; fail quest if dial reaches 12 [p.34 — New Day Phase]
2. Overland Phase — Move party token up to 3 hexes; trigger an encounter type (quest > town > overland) [p.34 — Overland Phase]
3. Encounter Phase — Resolve the triggered encounter (town, overland card, or quest) [p.36 — Encounter Phase]
4. Reward Phase — Gain XP and rewards; untrain attributes; spend XP on advancements [p.43 — Reward Phase]
5. End of Day Phase — Activate province effect; Adventurers Rest (heal HP, remove dice from cooldown, trade items) [p.45 — End of Day Phase]

Actions

Adventurer turn sequence: Start of Turn → Recovery → Actions → End of Turn [p.59 — Adventurer Turns]

Recovery step: Remove dice from cooldown track equal to Cooldown stat (left to right) [p.59 — Recovery]

Engage steps: Gain Fatigue → Choose Battle Form → Declare Target → Gather & Roll Dice (up to Stamina or Magicka) → Resolve Roll → Units React [p.59–60]

End of game

• Endgame unlocks after completing Sessions 1 and 2 [p.51 — Endgame]
• Takes place in the same province as Session 2 [p.49 — Successfully Completing a Session]
• No overland movement; party automatically triggers next encounter each day [p.51 — Endgame Phases]
• Keywords from Sessions 1–2 modify endgame encounter difficulty [p.50 — Quest Keywords]
• Complete all endgame encounters and objectives → campaign victory [p.51 — Final Victory and Defeat]
• Fail any endgame step or full party defeat → campaign loss [p.51 — Final Victory and Defeat]
• Guild Assist cannot be used during the endgame [p.51 — Guild Assist]

Glossary

• Enemy Pool (EP): Party XP Dial value × number of adventurers; determines enemy levels drawn for battle [p.54 — Enemy Pool]
• Cooldown Track: Holds exhausted skill dice, fatigue, and status dice; dice recovered left-to-right each turn [p.23 — Cooldown Track]
• Overfatigue: Black fatigue dice; not discarded on recovery — moved to leftmost open slot; deal true damage each fatigue round [p.23 — Fatigue]
• Tenacity: Resource tracked on adventurer mat; spent to trigger class abilities; gained from ○ die results [p.25 — Tenacity]
• Battle Form: Determines engage range and which dice can be rolled together (Light Weapon/Heavy Weapon = adjacent; Ranged = non-adjacent up to Stamina; Magic = up to Magicka; Defensive = no range) [p.61 — Battle Form]
• Skyshard: Icon on delve cards marking a tile; gaining all required skyshards (default 3) fully explores a delve [p.78 — Skyshards]
• Drained (D): Skill die placed on race sheet; unavailable for rest of battle; recovered at end of battle or by inn/specific effects [p.60 — Resolving Skill Abilities]
• Quest Unit: White/brown-border chip; no level value; acts before all enemies; cannot gain status effects [p.54 — Quest Units]
• Linked Step: Quest step that must be completed the same day as the previous step [p.46 — Linked Steps]
• Guild Assist: Once-per-campaign ability; heals all adventurers to full HP, clears cooldown tracks, draws items; forfeits major keyword for that session [p.51 — Guild Assist]
• Unstable Landmark (☼): Roll unstable die to determine encounter type; unstable choices are mandatory; completing encounter grants each adventurer 2 tenacity [p.34 — Overland Phase]

FAQ

• Q: What happens if the cooldown track is full and a die must be added? — A: Drain the incoming die (if skill) or return it to supply (if fatigue/status); then replace the rightmost non-overfatigue die with an overfatigue die [p.23 — Cooldown Track]
• Q: Can an adventurer take a second move action and still engage? — A: No. If a second move action is taken, no engage actions are allowed that turn [p.59 — Move]
• Q: Does Bonus HP count toward enemy targeting priority (strongest/weakest)? — A: No. Bonus HP is excluded when determining strongest or weakest unit [p.20 — Bonus HP]
• Q: When multiple effects trigger at the same time, who decides order? — A: The party decides the order of resolution [p.88 — Effect Timing]
• Q: If a drawn enemy chip doesn't meet a specific type requirement, what happens? — A: Set it aside and redraw; return set-aside chips to the bag after all required enemies are deployed [p.54 — Enemy Pool]
• Q: Can a unit move through occupied hexes? — A: No, unless an ability specifically allows it; a unit can never choose to end movement in an occupied hex [p.58 — Occupied/Unoccupied]