A tabletop roleplaying game based on the award-winning Root: A Game of Woodland Might and Right board game.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
End of 2020 Check-in
over 5 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.
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 5 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.
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 5 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.
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!
September Check-in
over 5 years ago
– Fri, Sep 18, 2020 at 12:59:47 AM
Boisterous bunnies! It’s time for our September 2020 update on Root: The RPG!
Production Update: September
Everything is coming together as work continues on all the myriad pieces of the project! As mentioned previously, we’ve adopted a strategy of working on multiple elements at the same time, pushing them all forward. To that end, we have our Deck of Denizens in layout, and our Deck of Equipment is all but finished, ready for proofing!
The Deck features 35 different weapons, all fleshed out and ready to use, with interesting mixes of tags and abilities. It also has the weapon moves themselves put on cards for easy reference while you play!
We’ve also received revised production samples from our printer, ensuring that we’re satisfied with the quality of paper in things like the clearing booklet and the notepads. Our printer, Longpak, has been great to work with as we’ve been going through every item, making sure they conform to our desire for the best possible products!
Meanwhile, we’re working on the 4 different maps for the game—getting them set up to be useful for myriad campaigns—and we have some fantastic work from additional writers going on for the clearing booklet!
Work on the core book proceeds apace as we’re editing and honing the text—special thanks to our new copy editor, Kate Unrau! Stay tuned—we’re planning on sharing significant previews of text and mechanics with you next month while we get ready to send you a full PDF copy of the core book in the fall!
In general, our plan right now is to have everything printing by the end of the year, so we can start delivery towards the beginning of 2021. We know this is delayed from our initial timelines, and we appreciate your patience in waiting for the game. Believe us—we want to get this into your paws!
Changing Leaves Litter the Road
As always, thank you for your continued support, interest, and patience! We’ll have more to share with you, including new rules elements, next month. Until then, may the Woodland’s paths be kind to you!
August Check-in and Samples
over 5 years ago
– Thu, Aug 13, 2020 at 03:57:19 AM
Erroneous eagles! It’s time for our first-half-of-August 2020 update on Root: the RPG!
GenCon and Free RPG Day Overview
GenCon online happened just over a week ago, and it was a fantastic experience! Thank you to everyone who came to play in one of Magpie Games’s online events!
Mark Diaz Truman and I (Brendan Conway) did an interview with Simon Moody about Root: The RPG! We talk about a bunch of things ranging from design topics to the story of the project, so check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REIzB66hQGw
And then, Mark, Sarah Doombringer, Marissa Kelly, and I all played a 2-hour demo game of Root: The RPG! It was a great, fun game with a great cliffhanger ending! Check that out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWwHSR2i8Vw
These are still limited in quantity—once we run out, we’re out, so make sure you nab yours if you want one to hold!
Production Update: August
We’re still pushing ahead on the text and final rules of the game! We’re refining playbooks, faction mechanics, equipment rules, and more, all focused on making the game and the core book as excellent as possible! We’ll share more about some of those changes and refinements in future updates.
We also received a whole bunch of white samples from our manufacturer, Longpack Games! We have a few things we’re going to check on for quality issues and to see if we can get a few other changes made, but on the whole we’re very happy with what they’ve shown us. The two hardcover books fit beautifully in the slipcase sample; the GM screen feels good and sturdy; and we were all impressed by the bag and how well it fit everything!
Here’s a picture of some of the pieces further along in development—the two notepads and the dice! We’re very pleased with how all these turned out, with only minor changes to bring them to their final version!
Trails To and Fro
We’re still hard at work making every single piece of this game as excellent as we can, and we really appreciate your ongoing support! Whenever we get in some new piece or sample or design that makes us all excited, we’re reminded of how awesome it is that you helped to fund such an incredible project! Thank you all again, and we’ll check back in about a month!
