Magpie Games

GAMA news ROOT

By Mark Diaz Truman, CEO and Game Designer

Root: The Tabletop Roleplaying

Game is a new tabletop RPG for ages 12 and up based on Leder Games’s award-winning Root: A Game of Woodland Might and Right board game about conflict and power, featuring struggles between cats, birds, mice, rabbits, foxes, and more.

In Root: The RPG, three to five players all take on the role of vagabonds, denizens of the Woodland who have been cast out of “civilized” society, whether by their own volition or by exile. Together as a band of outlaws, the vagabonds venture throughout the Woodland fulfilling jobs for the other denizens, having adventures, getting into trouble, and tipping the scales in the conflict between the factions.

This game focuses on fun adventurous action and escapades, and on the meaningful, lasting backdrop of the Woodland and its war. The vagabonds get into big fights and stage cunning heists, and by doing so, they earn reputations with different Woodland factions. They might even choose to help a faction take control over clearings and win the War!

From Board Game to RPG

In the original board game, the Marquise de Cat’s troops try to hold the Woodland against the forces of the tumultuous Eyrie Dynasties— meanwhile a single vagabond piece adventures and the Woodland Alliance plots revolution. The different factions create an experience that makes players want to return to the game again and again!

Root: The RPG isn’t just set in the wonderful world of the Woodland; it’s inspired at every level by Root’s delightful asymmetry and core mechanics. We’re huge fans of the board game, and we’ve spent the past few years building out a roleplaying game that allows players to step more deeply into the Woodland’s setting and politics.

Want to know more about what happens as the Marquisate grows in power? Or what secrets and mysteries haunt those ruins in the forest? Root: The RPG makes time for all those questions and gives players an opportunity to spend dozens of sessions immersed in a setting that feels more real with every adventure.

For Players New and Old

Actual play podcasts and livestreams have made RPGs hotter than ever. Root: The RPG uses a format with which many players are already familiar—a band of adventurers roams the Woodland encountering enemies and mysteries in roughly three to four hours sessions— but offers a cutting-edge rules engine featuring adorable animals. We’re so excited to see many players try out Root: The RPG as their first (or second) roleplaying game!

At the same time, the game’s systems—a Powered by the Apocalypse engine similar to Masks: A New Generation and Monster of the Week— are robust. Gear, weapons, and resources matter in Root: The RPG, and the reputation mechanics mean that every adventure counts toward the broader politics of the setting. We’ve also given the gamemaster tools for creating adventures on the fly, reducing the amount of prep time needed to run a great session.

By Wing and Paw!

We’re so thrilled to release Root: The RPG later this year, and we hope it finds a space at your store right next to the board game! Root: A Game of Woodland Might and Right is a game that tells stories, and we’re so excited to give players a new way to experience the Woodland... and make a lasting mark on the War as vagabonds!

Root art and logo © 2017 Leder Games. All Rights Reserved.