March Check-In + Corebook Preview
about 3 years ago
– Fri, Mar 05, 2021 at 02:01:51 AM
Hegemoniacal hawks! It’s time to check in on Root: The RPG at the beginning of March 2021!
Thank you for your patience and ongoing feedback as we work to get Root: The RPG into your hands! We’ve got a couple of big updates for you below!
Corebook Preview!
We’re excited to share the first seven chapters of the final book with you! These first seven chapters include everything in the book (nearly 200 pages!) except the GM section, which is what we’re working to finish now! The end is in sight!
It’s been a long road to get here, with multiple editing passes (both developmental and copy editing) and an approval process with Leder Games to make sure that everything meets their standards. In particular, Chapter 5 is the largest, longest, and densest chapter of the book, and it took some time to get it through all of those steps. But now that it’s all set, we’re happy to share it and move forward with the final components of the game!
From this preview, there may be minor edits (cuts and such), but this is pretty much the final text and layout. Because this is close to the final product, only backers will have access to the file.
We’ve already sent out email instructions via Backerkit to download your preview, but you can also head over to your digital downloads page and grab it as a direct download:
https://root-rpg.backerkit.com/backer/digital_rewards
We’d love to hear feedback! Please email us at [email protected] and let us know if you spot errors or have specific questions and comments!
Updated Timeline
Now that we have such a huge chunk of the book set, we have a much better and realistic idea of the timeline going forward. We’re sorry we had to wait until now, but we still had big questions about how quickly things would move through the extended process to finalization, so we couldn’t give an accurate timeline until now! Thank you for your patience!
The Updated Timeline
- Core Book PDF - April 2021
- Clearing Booklet PDF - April 2021
- Travellers & Outsiders PDF - May 2021
Shipping Timeline
Unfortunately, there is a big shipping crisis in China right now due to the economic impact of COVID. We’ve heard from other publishers that they are experiencing long delays in shipping, which means we can’t accurately predict exactly when the printed books will arrive. Once our printer gives us a confirmed print and shipping date, we will be able to give you an accurate time estimate! Thanks for your patience!
Preorders Closing
As we are now getting very close to delivering the final PDF and going to print, preorders will be closing through Backerkit on April 1st!
If you know anyone who has been waiting to preorder it, please let them know the time is now!
Welcoming Those Spring Flowers
Thank you for your support, patience, and excitement! We’re so thrilled to be so close to the final PDF being in your hands! Stay tuned, as always, and keep being awesome! Thank you, everyone! Until the next update!
End of January 2021 Check-in
about 3 years ago
– Sat, Jan 30, 2021 at 12:31:24 AM
Frabjous foxes! It’s time to check in on Root: The RPG at the end of January 2021!
Materials Update
We received word of a few difficulties with the old links, so here are some new ones using a different link shortener in hopes that it works better. We’ve been updating the basic materials a bit, but mostly in wording and minor changes, not any significant rules alterations.
Here are the base play materials: tinyurl.com/c86tahqx
And here’s the first set of new playbooks we shared last time, including the Chronicler, Exile, and the Seeker: tinyurl.com/38hnfp2a
New Playbooks
We’re excited to share three more playbooks from Travelers & Outsiders! These are similarly still undergoing finalization, so we’re interested in feedback about them if you play with them. This set includes:
The Envoy, a diplomatic playbook emphasizing acting as an agent of the factions. You’ll act on their behalf, but as a third party you’ll have more flexibility and can be disavowed if necessary. All the while, you’ll improve your own special reputation track for Diplomat, allowing you to act as a flexible representative with ease.
The Pirate, a scurvy scallywag of the seas! ...Okay, rivers and lakes. The Pirate ties in well with the aquatic pathways and routes of the Woodland, and has quite the tendency for theatrics and robbery! As the Pirate, you’ll have your own ship with its own special traits, alongside a few nifty tricks—most dependent on Luck.
The Raider, an aggressive, combat-ready bandit type. Where the Arbiter is focused on combat from a defensive perspective, the Raider is all about the attack, taking valuables by force and toppling dangerous tyrants.
Take a look at the new playbooks here: tinyurl.com/3lbjgdoq
Survey For Feedback On New Playbooks
If you do play with one of the new playbooks, let us know what you thought through this survey: https://forms.gle/uhQ7W6Sf1dQjJtAs8
Overall Update
We’re still mired in the text in myriad forms. The bad news is that, especially in the midst of the pandemic, while we’re doing our best to account for the time it will take to tackle some of these pieces, they have a tendency to sprawl out beyond what we expected. We’re doing our best—we absolutely want this book in your hands ASAP—and we ask for your patience and continued support as we move forward. You’ve been an awesome audience this whole time, and we can’t wait to deliver final pieces to you and see what you do with them!
The good news is that all the different text pieces are advancing—the core book is undergoing final writing and editing while the expansion book, Travelers & Outsiders, has already moved into writing. The clearing booklet has multiple clearings all-but-done and is already in layout, and the GM’s screen is being prepped. We’re getting our final samples of a few different pieces soon, and we’ll share with you any new images of the actual products when we have them!
Passing Over Wintry Streams
We’re hard at work here at the beginning of 2021, with Root: The RPG as one of our highest priorities, so we’re hoping to have plenty more to share with you soon! Stay tuned, as always, and keep being awesome! Thank you everyone! Until the next update!
End of 2020 Check-in
over 3 years ago
– Thu, Dec 24, 2020 at 07:18:14 PM
Byronic bluejays! It’s time to check-in on Root: The RPG here at the end of 2020!
Assorted Materials Update
Firstly, just to share it again in case you missed it, here’s the most up-to-date version of the play materials for the game: https://bit.ly/3mslMvf
Those materials include the playbooks in the core book, but we have something exciting to share with you now as a holiday treat...three new playbooks from Travelers & Outsiders!
These include:
- The Chronicler - a devotee of history, knowledge, and understanding, somewhere between a historian and a journalist.
- The Exile - a powerful denizen ousted from their home faction, now trying to survive...and perhaps retake their position.
- The Seeker - a master of ruins and exploration, at home in the broken, dangerous places of the forests.
You can find the new playbooks right here: https://bit.ly/2LYOuGJ
If you play the game with any of these playbooks, please give us your feedback through this Google form: https://forms.gle/69adjAo4epTE3rrR8
We appreciate your help!
As for everything else, we’re moving through proofreading and approvals on nearly every other piece of the game. We have clearings for the clearing booklet undergoing finalization, and we’re sending the decks off for print samples.
Especially of note, after some feedback on the last update, we changed the Denizen Deck cards a bit to feature the character image on the back of the card, too—check it out!
And finally, for the core book—we’re hard at work laying it out and getting it ready for you, but unfortunately we don’t have digital files ready yet. Delays ranging from particularly difficult or complicated rules explanations to illnesses hit us hard this year. Our current plan has us sharing those with you by the end of January, so stay tuned.
Snows Drift on Needle-Covered Forest
2020 has been a year, and while things didn’t go as smoothly as we (or anyone) would’ve wanted, we’re still very happy with how much progress we made in the face of such problems. We’re staying hard at work, and as much or more than anybody else, we can’t wait to put the full game into your hands.
Thank you, as always, for your patience and your support. Here’s to the end of 2020, and here’s to a better 2021!
Early December Check-in
over 3 years ago
– Fri, Dec 04, 2020 at 04:17:52 AM
Brobdingnagian badgers! It’s time for our early December 2020 update on Root: The RPG!
Play Material Update: Equipment Page
Firstly, after a few backers rightfully pointed out that it’s tough to invent equipment without some guidance, we’ve added an equipment page to the play materials!
You can always create your own equipment as you need it, when you need it, to flesh out some special or important item. The baseline formula for creating a piece of equipment is relatively basic—give it some boxes of Wear, give it a range tag if it’s a weapon, give it a few weapon skill tags if it’s a specialized weapon, and give it a special tag or two. Add up its Wear, its weapon skill tags, and its special tags (and any extra ranges) to get its value!
You can invent new tags and traits on your own, but the sheet includes a bunch to start with. In general, though, you should just be sure not to stat up every single item in your campaign—”equipment” fleshed out this way should only ever be important stuff.
Check out the equipment page alone here: https://bit.ly/3muBAxA
And check out the full materials including the equipment page here: https://bit.ly/3mslMvf
Note that the equipment page is the most likely of all this to change—it’s important to have it, but there’s A LOT of information crammed into that page, so we’re going to be looking at ways to either slim it down or present it better!
Deck of Denizens Update
The Deck of Denizens is with Leder Games for approval! That means we’ve designed and laid out every character, and while we need to work with the Leder team to make sure the Deck successfully matches the goals and nature of Root, we’re really happy with how things have come together here!
Here’s a sampling of what those cards look like:
And here’s one example of a card back and the kind of content you can expect:
Map Update
We have maps! We’re very happy with how they look, and we think they’re going to be very helpful during actual play! It was a challenge to fit in all the elements on an 8.5” x 11” page, but after some testing we think these maps will work great!
We're still undergoing final approvals for the maps, so they are subject to change, but we can't wait to show them off in their finished form!
Overall Update
Meanwhile, work on all the myriad pieces of the project continues, between the clearings of the clearing booklet to new playbooks and new sample clearings for the core books.
We’re working with our production company to make sure that we have a good plan in place for getting files printed and shipped, and we’re doing our best to get that set ASAP. As you might expect, however, this year has been full of challenges. We’re hard at work trying to move things forward ASAP, with the goal of getting you more digital materials by the end of the year. In general, that means we’re going to get you physical copies in 2021—later than we had hoped, for sure, but in the end our focus is always on making the best possible product.
We’ll update with more information and specific dates later this month. Magpie Games will be taking a holiday break later in December, and we’ll put up an update just before we do, letting you know where things stand. Then we’ll come back with another update in early January letting you know what to expect next.
Cold Winds Whip the Hearthfires
We’re always very grateful for your interest, support, and attention. We know this road has been long, but we’re very excited with how things are turning out and we can’t wait to get them over to you. Stay tuned for more information, and thank you so much!
October Check-In and New Play Materials!
over 3 years ago
– Tue, Oct 27, 2020 at 11:55:04 PM
Raucous raccoons! It’s time for our October 2020 update on Root: The RPG!
New Play Materials!
We have some good stuff to share with you this month—an up-to-date and improved version of the play materials for Root: The RPG!
These play materials have had a few changes to them that we’ll get to in a bit, but here’s the most exciting new detail…
That’s right! The play materials here include fully playable versions of the Adventurer, the Harrier, and the Ronin!
Here are some of the other changes for you to keep in mind:
- We changed the way Load works, vastly simplifying it. Now, you don’t have to worry about individual “weights” for each piece of equipment. An item is either “equipment” large enough to use up 1 Load, or it isn’t. Some particularly large pieces of equipment (with the Large tag) might take up 2 Load. And that means a vagabond can carry a Load of 4 + their Might without being burdened—so, a vagabond with 1 Might can carry 5 Load without being burdened.
- Every playbook now has a “Starting Value” it uses to buy equipment at character creation. The amount of starting value changes a bit to match a balance of available roguish feats, as well—so the Thief may have the most roguish feats out of any playbook to begin, but starts with the least money to spend!
- We added new Reputation moves for high (or low) levels of Reputation. If you get particularly famous or particularly infamous, new ways to manipulate the factions open up to you—from genuinely changing minds, to calling upon major faction resources, to wielding a fearsome reputation to get your way.
- We changed the Travel moves to tie into the fiction more thoroughly. Previously, they drained resources and had interesting consequences, but the decision of how much of a resource to spend on the move was purely mechanical. Now, it’s much more tied to the fiction.
- We adjusted Natures, Drives, and the Background Questions. We wanted to make sure that all the playbooks’ Natures can be fulfilled closer to the beginning of a conflict, so you clear exhaustion BEFORE getting into trouble. Drives were honed a bit to make sure they pointed at achievable, interesting goals. And the Background Question for “Why did you become a vagabond” was revamped to point at “Why you are a vagabond,” demanding players think a bit about why their characters continue to choose this life.
- We cleaned up the text and framing of numerous moves, mostly weapon skill moves and playbook moves. The connections as well went through a bit of refining, to clean up and clarify the text and effects.
You can find the newly updated play materials right here: https://bit.ly/31OvQ9Q
Production Update: October
We’ve got a few other cool bits to share with you, too! Firstly, we have all the art for the next 10 playbooks we’re working on!
We’re very excited to use these playbooks to really push at the boundaries of Root: The RPG!
Beyond that, we’re still putting together our remaining materials.
- The books continue to be refined and written—and in fact many of the changes and improvements that came from really scouring through the play materials for the book are reflected in the new play materials above. They’re undergoing editing and writing close together so we can get them done quickly.
- We’re also close to finished on the Deck of Equipment and Deck of Denizens, and we’ll share more from those with you next month!
- The GM Screen has already had an initial layout, but we’re going to wait to finalize that until we can do a full assessment of the tools on the screen—we want to make it as useful as possible!
- We’ve had an initial design of the bag already, and we’re excited to see how it comes together!
- The clearing booklet is underway, with one of the pre-made clearings already all but done and two more in editing! Thanks to our writers Danielle Lauzon, Elizabeth Chaipraditkul, and Simon Moody!
- We’re working on the maps, trying to balance the twin masters of “beauty” and “utility”—it’s not easy, but we think you’re going to love the result!
- You’ve already seen the dice! We’re still very happy with them and how they use the symbols from the faction boards of Root: A Game of Woodland Might and Right.
Gray Skies With Snows Await
As always, we’re supremely grateful for your support and your patience. Thank you all so much! Stay tuned for our update next month!
