ROOT 2.0

[bitter-pillbug]

which way to the nearest ruin?

[rootsequel]

Friendly paths

Instead of moving with Rule, I think I'd add a new concept of "Friendly Paths", which are paths that have a neighboring clearing that you rule.

Rules-wise, the effect is the same, but it makes it much easier to describe and would allow some content that could use that terminology.

[rootsequel]

Reverse Rats

A faction that gets points based on every clearing they share a space with enemy faction pieces would be neat. They want to spread out, but not so thin they get removed entirely from a clearing.

[rootsequel]

This turned out to be somewhat prophetic with the Bats

[soulsidekick]

"My Duke told me the Vagabond keeps killing his moles so I asked how many moles he has and he says he just goes to the burrow and gets more moles afterward so I said it sounds like he's just feeding his mole warriors to the Vagabond and then his squire started crying"

Never let the Vagabond get 4 swords and a crossbow or they will ruin you. RIP my brother, in my defense he was going to win the game.

Featuring my swagabond board and beach resort start

[rootsequel]

Letting Vagabond get points for kills is terrible design, but it's very funny.

[soulsidekick]

All too often this

Turns into this

God how I love playing vagabond to mess with my friends but!

I gangster too hard my fit too swag my crossbow too obnoxious I get (deservedly) jumped to oblivion

[rootsequel]

Faction guides

ROOT factions should have another little cheat sheet card that tells you a practical goal for first turn and subsequent turns. eg. for cats, a card that says you should be trying to build every turn. For moles, you should be swaying a minister every turn.

It should say how that mechanic works and what part of the player board that action is found on. A new player has way too much to look at, this would reduce the mental load a lot.

[verytom]

I made this ROOT fan animation. Figured i should post it here :)

[rootsequel]

Wow! It has a lot of personality!

I love the cowardice.

[rootsequel]

Obviously things would be different if this was professional graphic design, but you can see what I'm doing here. For some cards, a couple symbols would literally replace all the text on the card!

[rootsequel]

Just put a space on the player board that reserve pieces go to, then put the reminder text in that same area.

(Make the Lost Souls a separate card and put it on the top of the discard pile. Impossible to make mistakes!)

[rootsequel]

ROOT Buyer's Guide

"What ROOT products should I buy?" It's a question everyone is asking.

To be clear, this is about whether you should buy the product, and in what order, not if the product is good. I think all the ROOT products execute their targets very well. But some of them reflect more niche interests.

ROOT: A Game of Woodland Might and Right: A+

In many ways, this is still the perfect ROOT product. The new decks are better, the new factions bring a lot of different play styles to the game, but this is still immortal.

Plus, you (essentially) need this to play, so it's not really worth discussing.

Root: The Riverfolk Expansion: A-

I feel like the Otters are another essential addition to the game. It provides an entirely different way to play that some people really enjoy. Lizards are fine as a faction that takes up a small amount of space.

It has a first generation bot that's fine, but superceded by the bot expansions. It has new Vagabonds, but you'd have to be unhinged to buy this whole set to play more Vagabond.

ROOT: The Underworld Expansion: B+

I love the Lake map. I like the Corvids a lot. I think the Moles need to be tweaked to be a great faction. (As it is, it does a poor job of being a faction that takes a lot of space on the board. Maybe change Brigadier to "Move and Attack?" There are many proposed solutions.)

I'd get this last of the main sets, unless you really want new maps. The Tower and the Raft can add a lot of variety to other maps, you don't have to use them with their official maps!

ROOT: The Marauder Expansion: A

The Rats feel like a faction that should have been there from the beginning. They love to take up space in a way that no one else has. Finally you can play without the Cats and still feel like the board isn't empty! The Badgers are a bit too fiddly for my tastes but they're good for a certain kind of weirdo.

This also has Hirelings, which is a HUGE bonus. It makes a ton of different player counts and faction combinations viable. One of the main reasons I started this account was because the game could incorporate Hirelings as part of the player boards, etc. (Note to self, make custom board with Hirelings reminders).

Hirelings Packs: C

To clarify, these are great products. I'd particularly recommend the Riverfolk since they have the wonderful Otter Boat, my favorite figure in the game.

But I would put them low on the priority of purchasing simply because you should already have some Hirelings from the Marauder Expansion. Unless you've been playing a ton, the default hirelings are probably enough to add plenty of variety.

ROOT: The Clockwork Expansions: A/F

This is either an A or an F for 98% of people. If you love to play solo, or you love to manipulate all the pieces while following the programming, these are very sophisticated and well-thought out products. They do a lot of cool work to emulate the way that existing factions work.

If you already have a four player game group, these just aren't necessary and add a lot of fiddliness to the game. If you have two or three players and want to do a co-op game it might be a bit much to process, but could be worth the extra trouble.

ROOT: Landmarks Pack: D

The best Landmarks, the Tower and the Raft, are in the Underworld Expansion and are easy to incorporate into other maps without the need for this pack. If you want some more variety this is just fine, but not a priority over Hirelings.

ROOT: The Vagabond Pack: D (Or B)

If you love Vagabond, you might as well get it. I don't love Vagabond.

The upcoming set is going to use Vagabond pieces so seems worth getting for that alone, if you're getting the Homeland set.

ROOT: The Exiles and Partisans Deck: S

This is the easiest, cheapest and most profound change you can make to ROOT. Yes, I am saying that buying this is a higher priority than buying the basic box. Technically you can play without the basic box, and I think the E&P deck without the basic box is better than the reverse.

ROOT: The Homeland Expansion: S

I'm counting this all as one set since you get it all with the Kickstarter. The new deck alone makes this a must-buy. Hard to believe, but it looks like an improvement over Exiles and Partisans. The new factions look really interactive and take up a lot of board space. The new Hirelings have Ducks, which rules.

[rootsequel]

ROOT and reminder text

ROOT (And LEDER games in general) seems to think you can keep all the overlapping rules in your head all at once, all the time. Many things are triggered in one place, but the rules are on a separate board.

An obvious example: Field Hospitals. An experienced players will remember that Cats can save their units, but a new player simply can't keep that in their head without a reminder.

I'd add reminders to anywhere in the game that can handle it. For pieces that trigger effects on removal (Field Hospitals, Lizards' Martyrs, Badger Relics), put a symbol on the bottom of the piece. This can be done by hand, of course.

At least the new set is thinking of reminders with their little reminder tokens, but it's not nearly enough. The new deck is great but it could benefit a lot from a new iconography instead of complicated text.

This is a great card, but it could be like three icons and a few words instead of 25 words. This is another thing that would require the game to be rebuilt from the most basic level.

They could at least put an icon on cards to represent whether it is used during battle or move or whatever.

[rootsequel]

I'd want to have more thought out graphics than this, obviously, I'm not a graphic designer, but these simple icons get you 90% of the way to understanding a card and require zero words.

"Did you move? Then move!" "Did you battle? Then Move!"

Of course, icons this simple don't explain all the details, so the player is always able to look at the rules text. (You could still get rid of a lot of words [highlighted] because the "Trigger" is so simple.)

PS. I'd also do an icon for "return to hand", which would cut down the text on both cards to six words each. So elegant!

[rootsequel]

ROOT and reminder text

ROOT (And LEDER games in general) seems to think you can keep all the overlapping rules in your head all at once, all the time. Many things are triggered in one place, but the rules are on a separate board.

An obvious example: Field Hospitals. An experienced players will remember that Cats can save their units, but a new player simply can't keep that in their head without a reminder.

I'd add reminders to anywhere in the game that can handle it. For pieces that trigger effects on removal (Field Hospitals, Lizards' Martyrs, Badger Relics), put a symbol on the bottom of the piece. This can be done by hand, of course.

At least the new set is thinking of reminders with their little reminder tokens, but it's not nearly enough. The new deck is great but it could benefit a lot from a new iconography instead of complicated text.

This is a great card, but it could be like three icons and a few words instead of 25 words. This is another thing that would require the game to be rebuilt from the most basic level.

They could at least put an icon on cards to represent whether it is used during battle or move or whatever.

[cadaverbrut]

I’ve been playing Root with my friends over discord for a while now and I just need to show off my little guy! This is Mustard, a raccoon-dog Ronin. The art style for this game is just so fun.

[rootsequel]

Mandatory Hirelings

I think it would absolutely make sense for a ROOT 2 to have Hirelings in every game and replace item crafting with craftable payments to hirelings. Either increase the number of loyalty chips, or a one-turn loyalty payment so you have access to them for that turn.

[rootsequel]

Also replacing crafting with building a Landmark in a clearing with a Ruin would be cool. The card could say, "Add a loyalty to a hireling you control OR build the next Landmark in a Ruined Clearing you Rule."

[rootsequel]

Incorporating Expansions Into Player Boards

As it is, there's no reminder text to deal with Hirelings or Landmarks on player boards for ROOT.

I think this is actually a pretty easy fix, even without a ROOT 2. You can just use tape and a pen to mark the appropriate spots: Step 0 for Daylight becomes activate Hirelings, the last step for Twilight becomes Landmarks and Hirelings maintenance.

[rootsequel]

My best idea for ROOT: a clearing marker that also gives a spot for a faction that rules that clearing.

[rootsequel]

"Poison wounds and Wounds poisons"

That's the mnemonic I use to remember how Gloomhaven attacks work.

Anyone know why Gloomhaven uses the exact wrong words to describe wound and poison? Such a silly choice. (Honestly it rarely matters. It's just one or two free damage.)