#Riverfolk Expansion

[gay-little-izzet]

Amazing art! Can't wait for Root frogs and Bats. Don't know if anyone mentioned this or not, but Ral as Otter Riverfolk seems to be fitting well (aside from the other two reasons) with his place as Niv Mizzet's expansion takes place and sets up shop across the multiverse, especially on Thunder Junction.

His other husband is the free market

[dawnexpanse-central]

Relationships in the Dawn Expanse

The native inhabitants of the Dawn Expanse have never had a need for romantic or sexual attraction. Instead, stemming from the cosmological concept of the Dance of One, there are several known types of close relationships and possibly many more unknown. The four most commonly used delineations are Fluidic, Crystalline, Ethereal, and Self-Defining.

Order and Entropy

The Dance of One is the cosmological principle, held as both a scientific truth and a spiritual one, in which all things— living and nonliving— contain both entropy (the ability to exist in multiple states and to increase in complexity over time) and order (the tendency to self-select for those states that are functional and contribute to the greater harmony of the whole), and that these are not opposing tendencies, but the same tendency.

People are not inherently order or entropy aligned. It's not like binary gender. One becomes aligned as a response to one's environment, including those with whom one forms a strong connection, and one's alignment can change based on who one is with as well as in response to environmental conditions.

Fluidic partnerships are symmetrical order/entropy dynamics, built on the acknowledgement that each party has something to teach the other and finding balance with another person can promote balance within oneself. In as much as there is an "ideal" interpersonal structure within the Dawn Expanse, it is the Fluidic pair, which is said to be most reflected in the Dance of One itself.

Crystalline partnerships are asymmetrical order/entropy dynamics in which the order-aligned partner takes the more active role. This interpersonal structure often emerges as an adaptation to stress, during which time focus and precise planning can help to ensure the survival of both parties.

Ethereal partnerships are asymmetrical order/entropy dynamics in which the entropy-aligned partner takes the more active role. While the Crystalline structure is often a response to high stress, the Ethereal structure, by contrast, is a response to low stress and high potential for growth. An Ethereal partnership, at its most harmonious, tends to be a very creative one, with a high level of idea generation.

Most order/entropy dynamics move naturally between Fluidic, Ethereal, and Crystalline states.

Self-Defining partnerships are any interpersonal relationship that doesn't fit with the established structures. They aren't considered any less important or less committed than Fluidic, Crystalline, or Ethereal partnerships. No one in the Dawn Expanse has to sacrifice social legitimacy for personal freedom.

The emphasis on two-person bonds doesn't and shouldn't be taken to imply an emphasis on monogamy. Such a concept doesn't exist in the Dawn Expanse. Two-person bonds are simply the smallest unit of interpersonal connection. Most communities in the Dawn Expanse are networks of pairbonds, of which most people have multiple.

Internals

Internals are those who have a self-regulating balance of order and entropy, and do not require co-regulation. When not in Self-Defining partnerships, they tend to be completely non-partnering. When they choose to integrate into a community, they are fully accepted and often grow over time to be respected counselors and advisors. Others choose to live nomadically, either traveling alone by land or with others as part of a riverfolk clan.

So, where do babies come from?

Inhabitants of the Dawn Expanse will be surprised that this segment is in this document, rather than a document on communities or settlements. However, those in realities where interpersonal relationships and reproduction are closely connected— in particular, those who inhabit realities where reproduction is determined by sexual acts— may be confused by how it works in the Dawn Expanse.

The precise workings of this process are a mystery even to those who study the natural sciences, but what is known is that once a sufficient connection is formed between an individual and the place in which they've settled, the spirit of that place will reach out to them, often in the form of a waking dream. It will then give them a choice of whether they'd like to bring a new life into the world. If they choose to do so, they will be compelled to bury a series of sentimental objects— the nature of which can differ depending on the person and location— in a specific place near the edge of the community, and wait for approximately six months. At the end of that time, the child they chose to contribute to the creation of will come to them, usually in the middle of the night.

The children created by this process appear to be around five years old by human standards when they first appear, and tend to look fairly similar to their contributing parent, but with minor differences that are often clearly inherited from those to whom the contributing parent is closest— friends, pairbonds, and mentors who live within the same community.

[roguedeck]

One of the things I love about board games is their ability for emergent narratives.

It's a magic trick to take bits of cardboard, plastic, and wood and come out the other side with stories -- to take fundamentally mechanical rule sets and transform them into memories and in-jokes as if you we actually part of an intergalactic struggle or siege of the wizard's castle.

While many games do this well, for my money, Root is the best.

In Root, you take on the role of an adorable woodland dynasty and hack, slash, cajole, and strongarm your way to domination. Don't let the meeples fool you - this is a ruthless war game.

But it is also SO much more.

In addition to the normal rules of movement and combat, Root is a completely asymmetric game. When you choose your faction, you get a unique player board that defines your personal goals and mechanics throughout the game. Out of the box, you have four completely different factions.

Marquise de Cat: The current lords of the forest, the Cats start with the most pieces on the table. They score by building up their supply lines and industrializing the forest.

Eyrie Dynasty: The Birds are an explosive factions that works by programming actions turn after turn. But watch out - if you ever can't complete your program, your subjects revolt and depose you as a ruler.

Woodland Alliance: Everyone's favorite angry toast meeples represent the subversive movement in the forest. They spread sympathy/propaganda through whisper campaigns until they violently overthrow the invading forces.

The Vagabond: While the other players are in the middle of a war game, the Vagabond is playing his own RPG. He travels around the forest leveling up and raiding items from ruins.

While you can get hundreds of hours of great gameplay from the core box alone, there are a myriad of expansions that unlock the games true potential.

The Riverfolk is a big box expansion that brings along two new factions: The Lizard Cult who have limited, but extremely powerful actions and the war profiteering Otters who sell their services to any other faction needing mercenaries.

The Underworld is the second big box that introduces new maps along with more factions: The murderous Crows who sneak around the board setting traps, and the Moles who can spring up from their tunnels to jump-start their colonization.

The newest big box expansion, The Marauders, introduces Hirelings that give more options for smaller player counts. It also brought us the Lord of the Hundreds who commands his Rats to raze as much of the forest as possible, and the Badger templars who use their military prowess to delve for ancient relics.

And that's just the beginning. There are more hireling packs, an additional deck of cards, landmarks, and plenty of aesthetic upgrades you can buy.

Root is a full-on, five-star game for me. It is significantly different than the other euro and card battler games my group favors, but that palate cleanser is an incredibly fun challenge. Root also requires more direct interaction and table talk than anything else on the shelf.

While it can seem untenable from the outside, the rules system is logical and cleanly laid out. It isn't particularly hard to get up and running in a game.

And even if it was, it is worth the effort to be able to play with these little fellas...

[kalamantus-blog]

Root and Expansions Board Game Box Inserts

Insert compatible with Root, and The Riverfolk, The Underworld, The Exiles & Partisans Deck, The Vagabond Pack and Resin Clearing Markers. The design provides both efficient storage and improved game play. Many of the trays can be utilised during the game, and they greatly aid set-up and clear-away times. The insert is arranged in three layers.

This product consists of a flat-pack of 4 Evacore sheets. The trays require assembly, which is quick and fun, using ordinary PVA glue. Detailed instructions are included in the package.

Note: Insert designed for game with external box dimensions of 22.6 x 29.0 x 7.4cm.

FS-ROOT

Built to Last

Insert compatible with Root, and The Riverfolk, The Underworld, The Exiles & Partisans Deck, The Vagabond Pack and Resin Clearing Markers. The design provides both efficient storage and improved game play. Many of the trays can be utilised during the game, and they greatly aid set-up and clear-away times. The insert is arranged in three layers. This product consists of a flat-pack of 4 Evacore sheets. The trays require assembly, which is quick and fun, using ordinary PVA glue. Detailed instructions are included in the package. Note: Insert designed for game with external box dimensions of 22.6 x 29.0 x 7.4cm. FS-ROOT

https://curiositycorner-6393.myshopify.com/products/root-and-expansions-board-game-box-inserts

[the-craftsman-and-mover]

Fearie chess, Root, Risk (moon version), Risk (two-player), Risk (normal), Risk (Lord Of The Rings), Root (riverfolk expansion), Root (underground expansion), Root (hireling expansion), Ludo, King Of Tokyo, Uno and Monopoly.

I am being driven insane. Where are a lot of the pieces in our wall of boardgames?

[mozillo]

Firmly Rooted In The Enjoyment of Root

Firmly Rooted In The Enjoyment of Root

Behold, Board Games! Something new for this blog and my many ventures, and what better game to start with than Root from Leder Games. An exceptional asymmetric war game, from designer Cole Wehrle, that’ll see you tense up with dread as your great plans fall apart and then immediately ease up as you set your eyes once again on the…

[magicmalcolm]

Finn Bálor: "Oh look, it's snowing outside."

Sami Zayn: "It's Victoria, it's legally mandated to have one snowfall per year."

Finn: "Oh okay, so it's done for 2022 then? Efficient! I like it's moxie."

[awesomefroggy]

Mighty Nein's Favorite Board Games

Fjord- Scythe

It's the crunch, the strategy, the 2+ hour play time. This man is nose to the board, into it. Most of the Nein grumble about it, but Beau and Essek will play it with him and get far far too into it.

Beau- Red Dragon Inn

This appeals to the Beaurebar in her. On the surface, she's got the silly drinking gambling party game. Deeper, she knows how to meta and has a hero that she's very very good with. She excels at stacking everyone else's decks against them. Making it an actual drinking game is a favorite, and she supplies really awful shots when called for.

Caleb- Root

Not only are you the resistance to the Cat overlords, there's resources! Strategies! Conniving! And adorablely vicious forest creatures! Caleb gets very attached to his factions. He likes playing with the Riverfolk expansion as the otters.

Veth- King of Tokyo

Yahtzee but with Kaiju. Veth will rule over Tokyo with an iron fist. There is now a rule that dice rolls that land on the floor don't count. Yeza is always apprehensive when she and Luc want to play, but he tries to be a good sport about it.

Jester- Unstable Unicorns

Fast paced, full of cute unicorns and puns, and there's an NSFW expansion. Jester is here to slam down some cute unicorns, shut down your combos, and cackle maniacally over pumpkin spice Basics.

Yasha- Cascadia

Puzzling together habitats for wildlife. It's lowkey, and Yasha likes to try and make the most realistic ecosystems she can. She'll play it alone for hours, but sometimes she can drag Beau or Caduceus in to playing with her.

Caduceus- Everdell

A sweet game of woodland creatures, resources, and collecting through the seasons. It's a pleasant game to him, and he sometimes he plays single player as a way to connect with the Wildmother. He has all of the expansions and the Kickstarter exclusives.

Molly- Mysterium

A ghost uses dreams in the form of surreal art to point mediums to solve their murder. It's the absolute cold reading bullshit Molly loves. If he's one of the mediums, it's just interpreting tarot cards. He loves helping everyone else interpret their cards and make up bullshit stories about how and why and where and who. If he's the ghost, he equally tries to help people and fuck with them.

Kingsley- Pirates

Stack up crews, steal other people's crews, blow up bases and collect pirate ships, loot, and glory. Kingsley is delightfully vicious at this game, and much like the man who taught me how to play it he wears his big pirate hat and coat whenever they play.

Essek- Sagrada

Sudoku, now with pretty dice and modifiers. The stained glass motifs remind him of Rosohna in the best way, and he finds it soothing to put it all together. Everyone is shocked the first time he swears in Common over someone taking a die that he needs.

Other related headcanons:

Beau, Fjord, Caleb, and Essek get together and play some of the crunchiest Warhammer you've ever seen. Jester paints Fjord's armies and Yasha paints Beau's, Caleb and Essek have dedicated weekly paint nights.

Essek hate drafts during Sushi Go.

There was an attempt to play The Mind once. It was never played again.

Caleb and Essek have fierce Scrabble games. Everyone made fun of them until Beau asked to witness one, and realized they play with four different languages at once and do not hold back about it.

Yasha has the Stardew Valley board game and plays it as often as she can.

Essek and Fjord play chess together. It freaks people out sometimes because they will sit in silence for a very long time until one of them swears violently.

Throw Throw Burrito is only allowed every once in a while, and they "burrito proof" the house first every time after they broke a vase at Beau and Yasha's.

[rootisms]

Boardgames and their price tags have a relationship many tabletop fans would rather avoid talking about. Prices are high but should that take down the value of the game? Root is expensive yes, so I highly recommend making sure you want to invest before you buy the physical edition. Luckily there are other ways to play the game which are cheaper, the two options are either buying Root Digital or downloading the Tabletop Simulator Mod. 

Root Digital has the advantage of accessibility and ease of play but it does not have many expansions yet and can be a bit buggy at times. It currently has the riverfolk expansion and the vagabond pack and the exiles and partisans deck. 

The other option is the TTS mod which is also cheap enough and includes everything but you have to move every piece manually and you also need to find people on the discord community to play with. 

Both are good options but if you really wanna go for physical Root that’s a great option too. There are a ton of expansion recommendations out there when it comes to Root but I think that the only necessary expansion is the Exiles and Partisans deck, the others just add more options but this is a genuine improvement of the game. Other than that I think Underworld and Marauder are better than Riverfolk in terms of content and everything else, like landmarks and additional vagabonds are very optional even if they’re fun.

If you’re looking for where to buy a physical copy always check your FLGS and after that some online retailers. Ledergames’ webstore also sells them but beware of shipping costs outside US and shipping times. 

Steam Links Below: https://store.steampowered.com/app/965580/Root/

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2516434159 

[farshores]

So what exactly is ROOT?

Root is an asymmetric wargame where the player(s) would control certain anthropomorphic factions to control the board & reach the winning goal of 30+ points. Each faction has their own special tactics/gameplay (especially in the case of the Vagabond - which have 9 different "subclasses" to pick from) & players need to essentially strategize for the win.

Said factions are: the Eyrie, Marquise de Cat, Woodland Alliance, Vagabond(s), Riverfolk Company, the Lizard Cult, Underground Duchy & Corvid Conspiracy. There's also the Clockwork versions of the first four - but they are bots/non-playable...and a pain in the ass to play against. These + latter 4 factions are from addons - which there is/will be another addon for the boardgame itself introducing the Lord of the Hundreds & Keepers in Iron factions!

There is currently a digital version of the game available on mobile, PC (via Steam), & the Switch! They don't have the latest expansion nor the Duchy or Conspiracy factions - but other than that, this version is pretty up-to-date compared to its physical boardgame sibling.

There's also a TTRPG version of the game that more-so takes the lore behind the factions + characters of Root & runs it with a PbtA-framework. It's the most recent of releases - so it hasn't caught on in TTRPG circles yet (from my knowledge), but hey! It looks fun, even adds some extra Vagabond "classes" for players to choose from.

TL;DR - Root is essentially fuzzy (& not so fuzzy) little critters fighting for control of the Woodlands that comes in 2 flavors: Boardgame (phys + digital) & TTRPG. I'd highly recommend trying out the boardgame first before the rpg, but it's not required to understand the world of the games!

Also play ROOT, if you got the time & funds, it's fun!

[battlersexual]

Board Game Showcase #4: Root

Hey! It’s been a while since I did one of these: Six months, to be exact. In that time, I’ve been playing a lot of board games. The old college club moved online for the pandemic, so we’ve had plenty of opportunities. So, I have a new one for today. This is actually going to be a wargame, which means I have to talk a bit about wargame mechanics. I’ll do a more in-depth discussion of them at some point, but for now I’ll just leave space for a link here and mention the basics.

So, Root. This game came out of absolutely nowhere and won a bunch of awards back around 2017-18. It certainly flew under my radar at first - I was more interested in a different wargame, which I will be making a showcase of very soon - but the moment I started playing in earnest, I realized how brilliant it really was. So let me tell you why Root is so great.

Story:

Root’s story is typical of wargames - more about factions and empires than individuals. You and up to three other players - five in the expansion - play as different groups vying for control of a thriving forest. The forces of the Marquise de Cat, an imperialist hailing from tamer lands, have seized control of almost the entire forest and are gearing up to industrialize the place. The forest’s old masters, the proud Eyrie Dynasty and their squabbling bureaucracy, have united under a new leader and are gathering their forces for reconquista. The citizens of the forest, the mice, foxes, and rabbits of the underbrush, have decided to throw off the yoke of oppression and band together as the Woodland Alliance, engaging in sabotage and guerrilla warfare to take the forest for the people. And in the midst of it all is the Vagabond, a traveler seeking to find a place in this new status quo taking shape, with the potential to play kingmaker or even seize power for himself.

Also, they’re all cute animals.

Mechanics and more under the cut. 

Mechanics:

Oh boy, this is gonna be a big one. In fact, for the first time in Board Game Showcase history, I have to split up the mechanics section. See, Root is an asymmetrical game, much like Cosmic Encounter was, but unlike Cosmic, Root’s factions have differences that go far beyond a single ability. So instead, I’ll summarize the major mechanics here and go into detail on the factions in their own section.

Root is played on a board representing an autumn forest, with twelve “clearings” connected by paths and separated by thick forested areas.

Each clearing has a suit, represented by the color of the trees as well as a small symbol (you can see it on the prior image: this one is just the art) next to the clearing. The suits are Fox, Mouse, and Rabbit. Each clearing also has small white squares, which represent building slots: different clearings support different levels of infrastructure.

The denizens of the forest are represented by a 54-card deck with four suits: the aforementioned fox, mouse, and rabbit, as well as a bird suit that acts as a wild card for the board: any bird card can represent any clearing.

Cards are mainly used for their suit, but can also be crafted: if the cost on the bottom of the card is paid (using crafting pieces, which are different for each faction but all in some way represent infrastructure in clearings), you get the benefit. Sometimes this is an upgrade, sometimes it’s points and an item, but it;s usually worth considering, and some effects can make certain factions exceedingly powerful. There are also “ambush” cards, which are played from the hand directly in battle, and “dominance” cards, which unlock alternate victory conditions.

Most factions have three kinds of piece they can place on the board: Warriors, Buildings, and Tokens. Buildings are always square, and tokens are circular.

Moving warriors around is highly dependent on who rules each clearing, which is determined by how many pieces a faction has there. Ties default to nobody ruling the clearing.

Battle is simple: When a battle is initiated, the attacker rolls two dice numbered 0-3. Once rolled, the attacker takes the higher number and the defender takes the lower one. The number is dealt to the opposing side as hits, each of which removes a warrior. If there are no warriors left, buildings and tokens start being removed. You can only deal as many hits as you have warriors.

The goal of the game is to reach 30 victory points. You earn points by crafting item cards, destroying buildings and tokens, and completing your faction’s goals. Each turn consists of three phases: Birdsong, Daylight, and Evening.

And that’s the end of the basic rules. If it seems like there’s a lot missing, that’s because...

Factions:

Each of the four factions in Root has completely different rules for how they play. I’ll have to present each one individually. I’ll be leaving some things out: each faction has a LOT going on, and I’ll try to convey what they do at the core.

The Marquise de Cat starts out controlling almost the entire forest, and gets points from building sawmills, workshops, and recruiters. She plays the most like a traditional 4x game, taking territory, building, and using resources. Sawmills make wood, which make more buildings. Workshops are used as crafting pieces, and recruiters make more soldiers and let her draw more cards each turn. She takes three actions each daylight, plus more for each bird card she discards, and can both pump out troops quickly and move across the map at a good pace. She starts with a heavily defended keep, and can spend cards to either overwork her sawmills or save troops from death with field hospitals.

The Eyrie Dynasties start stuck in the opposite corner from the Marquise’s keep, but with a good army and a Roost, which acts as a combination crafting piece, recruitment area, and point generator. They have a choice of four different Leaders:

All of the leaders have different abilities and affect the Decree. The Decree is the Eyrie’s political system: It’s got four columns (Recruit, Move, Battle, and Build), and each turn, the Eyrie player adds a card to the decree, then resolves it from left to right. For each card, the player must perform the corresponding action in a clearing of the same suit. This means the number of actions the Eyrie can take ramps up each turn, but the catch is that if any action can’t be fulfilled, the government falls into turmoil, the leader is replaced with a new leader, the decree is reset, and the player loses points for every bird card in the decree.

The Woodland Alliance don’t start on the board at all, but rely on sympathy tokens and supporters. Supporters are cards in a special supporter zone that can be used to spread sympathy or revolt. Sympathy tokens represent popular support for the alliance: it’s used to craft, it scores them points, and if another faction takes aggressive actions in sympathetic clearings, they make even more supporters of the cause from the general outrage. With enough support, they can revolt, setting up a base on the map and gaining warriors and officers, which allow them to take military action at night. They have fewer troops, but are much stronger: their guerrilla warfare means they always take the higher number in all conflicts.

The Vagabond isn’t a faction, but an individual. While the rest of the players are busy warring, this guy is over here playing D&D, complete with character classes.

The Vagabond wanders around the map with his pawn (not a warrior), searching ruins for items, trading with the other factions, questing, and building up a relationship meter with the other players. He doesn’t take territory, and he can leave the clearings and hang out in the forests. His items determine his capabilities, and everything he does helps or hinders the other players, directly or indirectly. He can ally with a faction by giving them cards, which earns him points, or he can go hostile and earn a point for each warrior of another faction he kills.

The expansion introduces two more factions, but we’ll go over them in that section.

Flavor:

Amazing. The different playstyles really get to the heart of the political game here, where you often can’t easily predict what other players will do and how the forest will change in a single turn. The art on the cards and board is also gorgeous, and really brings this little forest to life.

Replayability:

It’s a wargame, there’s almost infinite replayability by definition, but Leder Games went above and beyond. On the back of the board is another board, this one depicting a winter forest.

The clearings on the winter board don’t have fixed suits: instead, you place suit markers in whatever configuration you like. This is admittedly more for advanced players, but it’s nice that it was included in the base game at all, and adds even more replayability out of the box.

Expansions:

There are several expansions coming out, but only two finalized for release: The Riverfolk expansion, and the Clockwork expansion.

Riverfolk adds several things, including a board and rules for a second Vagabond player, and two new factions: The Lizard Cult and the Riverfolk Company.

The Lizard Cult is a dragon-worshiping cult that cares about the outcasts of the forest, and by that I mean the discard pile. Each turn, the most common suit in the discards is marked as the “outcast”, and the lizards perform conspiracies in the clearings matching the outcast suit. They don’t discard cards themselves to use them, instead only revealing them from their hand each turn, but to compensate, they have to radicalize their followers into acolytes before actually performing their conspiracies.

The Riverfolk Company are riverfaring merchants and mercenaries. Their goal is to set up trading posts in the forest and make a tidy profit. They act as merchants in-game as well: everything is for sale. Their hand is always visible, and other players can buy cards from them. They can sell their warriors as mercenaries, and ferry other factions along the rivers connecting some clearings, and they set the prices of all their services turn-by-turn, so they can react to the market. In exchange, they get more things they can do on their turn the more people buy from them, and if the other players aren’t careful they can become a terrifying force.

The Clockwork Expansion is very different from Riverfolk. It doesn’t add any new factions: instead, it compensates for players not having a large enough gaming group by making automated versions of all the base game factions. I can’t give much more detail, as I don’t actually own this expansion at the moment, but I love the idea.

There are a lot more expansions in the works, including new boards, a new deck, new vagabonds, and a new riverfolk-style expansion featuring two new factions, the Corvid Conspiracy and the Underground Duchy, but those aren’t fully released yet.

Criticisms:

Root can be a difficult game to learn, since you have to keep track of everyone’s different playstyles and rules to really play well. It can also be a bit snowball-y, with the winner often being very obvious several turns in advance. In terms of actual defects, the Lizard Cult have a special rule that isn’t listed on their faction board and only exists in the rulebook, which is frustrating. It’s also not a great two-player game, only really shining with three or more players.

Availability: 

Root is pretty easily available, since it’s still in the process of release to this day. You shouldn’t have issues finding a copy. It’s also got some good mods on Tabletop Simulator.

Conclusion:

When I first played Root, it was two-player, and I got stomped. I thought that would be the end of it, and I decided I probably wouldn’t like the game. Then, a week passed, and I wasn’t able to stop thinking about it. I tried it again, and again. I played it against myself to refine my strategy. I bought my copy and taught it to people.

It’s been months since then, and Root has become one of my favorite games. So don’t be discouraged if it’s hard to get started with. Give it some time, and some thought, and you’ll see the appeal. There’s a lot of great design here, and I thoroughly recommend Root.

[illuminatinggames]

Hah! With Tabletop Simulator, even with #gaminginthetimeofcovid19 I *can* do some of that board-level-view photography I like 😄. The Root TTS module is actually really nice, with all the expansions and pretty clean configuration. The only thing to watch is that you have to follow the setup directions closely; if you pick your map before you’ve picked factions, it won’t set up the Ruins correctly and there isn’t anything you can really do to fix it other than proxying some random stuff up from the general bits drawer. But otherwise nice! I’ve been really happy with the two new factions (Corvids and Moles); the Corvids are an excellent replacement for the Alliance, and the Moles are a good substitute for the Marquise or the Eyrie, whichever one you like less. If you want to live dangerously, you could play with all 3. The two new ones actually might be slightly better than the originals, although they’re also just a bit more complex imo. We also had the Riverfolk in from the 1st expansion, and those guys are a terrific piece of design as well, I really like how those guys work. Anyway, still love this game, and having two extra factions really gives you a disproportionate increase in variety. This TTS module also has several fan-made factions which I would assume are terrible by default, but I���m at least slightly curious about them now. I also have to say I’ve become a real TTS convert. It’s obviously not going to be great for *everything*, but I really like both the much higher level of situational awareness and the more immersive and boardgame-y feel of the 3D modeled environment. #bgg #boardgamegeek #boardgames #tabletopgames #tabletopsimulator #rootboardgame https://www.instagram.com/p/B_rHwXTgV8v/?igshid=mr1kl5visw3

[ghostpalmtechnique]

Haven’t had many new games that I could do overviews for in a while, but I am expecting several that I have pre-ordered to show up in the next couple of months.  The common thread, it seems, will be games that look adorable but involve being exceptionally mean to your opponents (or look like cinnamon rolls, will actually kill you, if you prefer).  First up, we have Root, which is sort of a  streamlined assymetric COIN (counterinsurgency war) game featuring a Redwall-like setting.  (This was the semi-surprise hit of the board game side of GenCon, so I pre-ordered to make sure I get a copy at all.)

The coming Riverfolk expansion includes some more species, including proselytizing lizards, which invariably makes me think of that “would you like to hear about our lord and savior, Voldemort?” image.

Then we have The Estates (a prettified new edition of the game Neue Heimat), considered the meanest auction game in existence.  Also players in this are competing construction companies who are just as corrupt as real life land developers, which is fairly amusing.

[total-cards]

Take your enjoyment of this awesome boardgame to the next level with the excellent Riverfolk expansion! Find out more on our blog! https://www.totalcards.net/blog/board-games/head-to-the-forest-with-the-riverfolk-expansion-for-root

[boartendo]

#root The final #raczugaming of this year... And I have the honour to host a picture... 😱😉 #raczugamingchallenge will be back next year... The same? Different? New challenge? New people? New games? Who knows... Follow the # to join the journey. #boardgamephotography #bordspelfotos #juegodemesa #bordspellenvaninstagram Root is a game I haven't played much... Shame on me. When I first saw this I knew I needed it in my life. It has such cool artwork and MEEPLES. We need more games with wooden pieces, not those dry European worker placement games or puzzling victory point games. But easy rules, beautiful art and awesome meeples. I only own the base game first edition. There is also an automa version where you can try to defeat another faction solo. There are already two expansions with even more cool meeples such as the riverfolk.... Have you played this beauty? What is your favourite faction? Do you think a particular faction is too strong? Let me know. #everydayisplayday (bij Merksem) https://www.instagram.com/p/CJX66t1h514/?igshid=16tmwpkiq0in4

[twrpodcast]

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Hades

Launch Line-Ups

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The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance: Tactics: The Game: For Consoles: And PC

Root: Riverfolk Expansion

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I went sailing for two weeks and it was a disaster.  

The Sims 4: Journey to Batuu was a mistake.

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