The Joy of Root
Favourite things #1- a pre-Christmas series
The struggle for the forest was finely poised. The Cats, who started the game as a thinly spread hegemony, had retained the core of their industrial complex, while losing ground at the fringes to the resurgent former lords of the forest, the birds of the Eyrie. The birds, in turn, had gone into turmoil and discarded their leader, and were still rebuilding when a charismatic Vagabond allied himself with them, and marched their troops into pyrrhic victories that suited his agenda far more than theirs. Meanwhile, sympathy for the downtrodden, war-torn people of the forest was spreading rapidly.
Then, the moment came that changed the game. A carefully co-ordinated revolt in the cats’ heartland ripped the heart from their strategy, and introduced a powerful military force, the Woodland Alliance. The other groups scrabbled to contain them, trying to quash their influence while squabbling among themselves, but it was too late- the insurrection was unstoppable and the rabbits of the Alliance were victorious.
Sounds fun to experience? How about if you could be one of these factions? Or militaristic moles, or tricky crows, or, hell, armed archaeology badgers? If this is at all appealing, you really need to try Root.
I’m not going to pretend this is a review. Root has been my favourite board game for years, and I have long ago abandoned any pretence at objectivity about it. This post is a celebration of the joy of introducing people to its world, and an invitation to do so yourself.
Root is not an easy or quick game to teach. There are the basic structures- what the different areas of the board mean, how you move, how the cards that power many actions are structured. But the real grit is the individual rules, objectives and strengths for each faction. Everyone has their own way of winning, of gaining and holding territory or just messing with stuff, all funnelled through the final currency of victory points (30 to win immediately). You would think this makes for an interminable process of learning. But here, Root has two wonderful tricks.
The first is the thematic integration, which means that most rules (not all, I would admit) just make sense. Take the Cats. They are a new government, so spread thinly. They are going to build up a military-industrial complex , so they need raw materials (sawmills), the workshops to craft weaponry and equipment, and recruiters to press the working people into instruments of war. Sorry, that got a little dark, but that’s the Cats- when you understand what they are all of their rules just make sense. Same for pretty much all of the ten factions now available.
The second, and it blows my mind that more board games don’t do this, is the tutorial system. Two rounds of the game can be scripted, at which point everyone has done most of the things their faction is capable off, at which point the training wheels can safely be removed.
Honestly, I have been wondering about making board games a bigger part of my career for ages- do I try to make content? design something? open a cafe? All of these are options, but my recent experience has taught me that one of the things I love most in the hobby is the experience of moving people, over an evening, from ‘WTF is this’ to ‘THIS IS AMAZING’. And nothing, I have found, does this better than Root. So maybe I should just travel the country, convincing people to play it.
Have I convinced you yet? OK, but LOOK AT THIS THING! It’s such a beautiful object, and has some really lovely, occasionally menacing details.
Still, it’s a big investment, both in time and, to an extent, money1. OK, last try- the app is also excellent (although I massively prefer to play in person) and an excellent way to learn.
So, no excuse. Treat yourself to Root this Christmas.
It’s been a rough year, all in all. So I am going to finish it with some purely celebratory posts, about things I really love. Normal, critical service will be resumed in the New Year.
As always, please share if you like what I do- it’s a tiny audience, which is great, but the little drip-drip of new subscribers is a very welcome validation.
It’s getting cheaper second hand though, which is great!