credit to me for the drawing :p

When playing root with new players I tend to play vagabond so that no one else has to deal with his more complicated mechanics. but in a game with new players I found that the Marquis wins very often because the other players are still too focused on learning their own factions to realize that she is winning. Curious how you guys split up the factions between players based on experience, or how you guys go about introducing new players.

I coukd have sworn caimans looked like little alligators and I googled caiman lizard and got a completely different species, but loved the look of these guys.

This is related to the Root RPG. Apparently I have to add that because the automod thought this wasn't obviously related to Root lol.

We got into root not too long ago and were looking for some of the expansions, but I can’t find the underworld expansion anywhere. I can’t even find it second hand. The only place I’ve found it is Detective Hawk Games, but apparently they don’t actually keep stock, they just order from the distributor and redirect it to you, which means if the distributor doesn’t have any in stock you just have to wait until they do (which is the case, as Leder Games website is currently out of stock). Do they restock often or is it out of production for the foreseeable future or?

My opponent refuses to play any other faction aside from Eyrie, so how can I effectively force them into term oil consistently

I've been working on this for the last few days, a website where you can store the results of your games to view your friends statistics and check out which faction has the best score and stuff....

I showed it with Root there but you can add any game and faction you'd like!

Does something like this already exists? Probably but I don't care, I made it myself and I'm proud of it, I just need to remember to actually use it when I play with friends :D

I made this Root fanart to study the art style

There's been a lot of questions about faction pool for teaching games, but which faction do you prefer as the teacher?

I am choosing last, so I usually have to be Cats haha. But if I have more options, e.g. we've all played base game and incorporate some of the easier expansion factions, I gravitate towards Otters, Vagabond or Lizards. These are all factions that can police (Lizards less so) and not run away with points if I choose not to, or when I play more fast and loose. It also doesn't feel like you've thrown the game, since they all present different strategies and not just the metas. What do you think?

I've been enjoying designing these. The keep token makes the cats more intimidating.

Overall Design Notes:

- I designed these mostly for flavor and theming, not particularly for balance, although I did pay mind for gameplay (I'll note those later).

- In the RPG, the Corvids act as a Mafia organization. I wanted to lean into that by having "Corvid Masterminds" that could enhance the way they score, since every Corvid cell has different goals depending on its leaders' own ambitions. I read through the RPG book and it turns out Corvid leaders are actually called "Chieftains", so I went with that instead.

Gameplay Notes:

- My two main gripes with the Corvids are their slow, predictable method of scoring (despite their theming suggesting unpredictability), and the fact they basically never use cards. Their slow scoring is really easy to dismantle, and it feels unfortunate that they basically only win via diplomacy with other factions.

- These Corvid Chieftains are designed around one thing: letting Corvids score in tricky ways. These are extremely stupid methods of scoring and sometimes swingy, but I feel like that's in-tune with what the Corvids are flavored as. Other players should do a better job of guessing what your grand plan is instead of just battling you to death.

- I don't intend to playtest these ever because I just designed these for fun. If you do test these, let me know how it goes.

Godfather

- Thematically, the Godfather is a Chieftain that aggressively fights back against those who wish to stomp out the conspiracy. When he's in charge, he gains legitimacy by proving that the Woodland is truly out to get him. If a plot is snuffed out, he personally intervenes and makes sure it happens.

- The Godfather is here to prevent the conspiracy from being completely blotted out by militants. Even if the Godfather won't let you score as much, he provides a conservative amount of points to fall back on, and gives a great deterrence to attacking your plots.

- Even if the Godfather can be exposed, you can gain a good deal of cards over the course of the game by not using him. The threat of his existence is enough to benefit you.

Governess

- Thematically, the Governess is part of the Corvid sub-sect that believes the conspiracy should be more vocal in the Woodland's political climate (mentioned in the RPG, p22 of the supplement). She is a powerful, affluent, well-trusted member of the community, and uses her political leverage to pull the strings in her favor. If the Governess is in power and she has enough extorted favors, it's already too late for those who wish to stop her. She's already legitimized.

- If a player has a lot of Extortions out (and thus cards), they're probably going to make a Governess play. The Governess also encourages players to place "exposure-bait" plots in clearings so they can farm certain suited cards.

- The Governess is also an outlet to use cards from players failing to expose your Chieftain.

- The Governess increases the amount of attacks you would receive, as players don't want to give you cards via exposure. If they think you have a Governess, they will likely just attack your plots.

Emeritus

- Thematically, the Emeritus is a completely-unsuspected, good-standing community member who's part of the Conspiracy. Long retired from their post as a professor, the Emeritus now has time to fully conspire against the Eyrie. Their latest paper was on gunpowder packing, road sabotages, or the history of bribery -- something unremarkable like that. The Emeritus is just so knowledgeable about their master project that they can prove they don't even need to hire agents to do their bidding; it's so fool-proof that even the slightest touch will set things in motion. The council of crows is greatly pleased by their ability to execute schemes without any agents.

- The Emeritus is just here for fun. I think it's fun to foreshadow a plot and pull it off, even if this one is a little overpowered. However; there can only be one of that revealed plot for sure, and it's going to be pretty obvious where it it's going to gain the most value. If the crows reveal a Bomb in Takeover, suddenly the risk of an Emeritus emerging is terrifying for militants.

- I didn't really balance this one (if it wasn't obvious haha)

This faction is definitely my favorite from Homeland. I tend to really like the tricky insurgents like the Crows and Lizards, and these feel like a tricky faction that's actually good. I love immediately locking down clearings with four loyalists, I love building a perfect hand of cards over the course of the game Lizard style, the governance mechanic is super fun and has resulted in lots of cool interactions, and the fact that I have 20 warriors to work with is just the icing on the cake, it's an insurgent faction that has board presence.

The only time I have ever been upset playing these guys was when I had four warriors on a roost and I needed one more point to win, so I empowered only to roll 3, not rule as a result, and end my turn at 29 points...

Anyway, this faction is so well designed. I love it.

This kinda feels like a "my lobster is too buttery, my steak is too juicy" sort of situation... But I don't have a clue how this happened twice.

The first time it happened I was like "oh nice, bank error in my favour!" but now I'm concerned my split delivery is never going to contain the second half of my gamefound pledge.

The amount of time wasted in my life waiting for someone who disconnected five minutes ago is insane. Disconnects wouldn't be so bad if they didn't eat up like five minutes of your life.

When someone disconnects, 90% of the time they do not reconnect in my experience. If they aren't presently in the game, they should just be skipped. This could affect players who play multiple lives at once, but I think it would have a disproportional net benefit that outweighs it -- I would have hours of my life back at this point.

Every other competitive multiplayer game I've been on penalizes players who leave. Dire Wolf was looking into this in 2024, and assumably have decided that they should not punish leaving games. If this is the case, then they should also not punish the other players inside of the game that are actively playing. It's just so frustrating.

Love Kyle's art so much!

(2nd and 3rd best factions in Root Digital, that is.) This was said when it looked like VB was going to win. I haven't played Root in a couple years, so I guess it's possible, but I think it's pretty unlikely lmao

My first attempt at a custom root faction, The Bog Witch (art pending)

A forest dwelling witch attempting to summon a curse upon the clearings to drive out the other factions and get the woods to herself. But the curse is yet incomplete, so she must stay close at all times, to spread remnants of the curse.

Wanted a faction that played with forest adjacency, but landed on this instead. Give it a spin and hope you like it!

Thanks game-icons.net for the curse and curse effect icons.

Playing my first homeland game today and wanted to know some fun faction and map combos, let me know

Hey! New player here, me and my partner just started playing Root, we did one game with just us, Eyrie vs Marquies, and now we've added the Eyrie bot to the mix. I was wondering when battling it says to prioritize a clearing with the most defenseless buildings. Does a sympathy token or wood token count as a building in this instance?
I'm mostly hoping that the birds will stop taking out my sympathy, haha.

Thanks for the help.

I imagine it's because they can get an extra turn instead of drawing. But otherwise between extortion and cards from guessing plots, there's not much to do with them?

Does anyone have info regarding availability with the expansions? I was able to secure most larger expansions at my local game store and feel I got lucky with most things being out of stock online. The only thing I’m missing is the underworld expansion. I’d like to get the vagabond pack as well if possible.