Deluxe Root RPG Core Book and Expansion with Original Art and Slipcase

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1. Florin Rusu Verified Buyer – 9 February 2025

   Hardcover and books overall quality are good.
   

2. Reasonable Reviewer Verified Buyer – 11 March 2025

   I was conflicted with how to write this review. I want to support indie game developers, but this game has some challenges, and I feel it is important to be honest about them. The game appears to be cute and inoffensive, but as a parent or grandparent you probably need to understand the game a bit so that you can make an informed decision about what you want your little angels to get out of the game. You might fist pump the air and go, “at last a game that captures my political inclinations and DEI views of the world,” or … you might not. Bottom-line, up-front: the game is very limited as role-playing games go. The core mechanic (2D6 with low, fixed bars for success) means that this could be a one-off game or a very short series of linked adventures, but would be very, very hard to turn into an on-going campaign. (The players would very soon run out of any challenges.) The players take on the roles of vagabonds, wandering characters with thief-like abilities ranging from trickery to legerdemain. You can also attack and kill non-player characters. If your player’s character ever permanently joins a non-vagabond group and picks a home (a place where people care about you and you care about them) then your character is no longer a vagabond and needs to retire from the game. Essentially, you play a “murder hobo” using cute animals. My order came over $100. That is way too much for a game that many of you might or might not play one or two times. I gave the game four stars overall. Why? For a lovely layout and a well written and edited game, four stars. For actual rules and application, two stars. For being an Indy game, add one star for a total of four. The game is set in the same “world” as the wildly popular board game of the same name. I am going to mix in positives and negatives with the description of the game’s world and mechanics. The premise of the game is that there is a Woodlands that inhabited by intelligent, anthropomorphic, bipedal creatures. The cats are part of a technologically advanced empire that is trying to take over the Woodlands. The birds are the remnants of an aristocracy that ruled the Woodlands in ages past and wants to again. There is a guerilla group, the Woodland Alliance, that opposed the cats and birds, and then, there are the average “denizens” that just want to be left alone and are unlikely to support any of the three other groups. The game describes itself as “close to medieval … but with a hint of the fantastic.” It has talking birds, cats, and other common, North American creatures, most of which are playable as characters. Bears and deer are off limits for reasons to do with the board game’s setting. There are other characterizations; more to follow (below). The core mechanic involves making “moves” using a 2D6 mechanic. You roll the 2D6, add the results, and then add in any modifiers. (These generally range from +1 to +3.) If you get a “7” or higher, you succeed. There are levels of success and failure – though in this game, there are no failures there are only “complications” and allowing the Gamemaster (GM) to detail what happens rather than the player. Even with no positive add, the raw chance of success on any move is almost 60% (3 out of 5). By the time you add +3, your chance of success goes up to 92%. This game has the same issue that the old, West End Games Star Wars game had. After a very few adventures, there is no game mechanic challenge for the player characters. This automatically, severely limits your ability to play this with the same group multiple times. The game layout is lovely with lots of colored illustrations, and the mechanics are easy to understand. The character creation process is well detailed, and everyone starts with a “playbook,” a set of specific moves and a character outline. I really liked these aspects of the game. The game makes a great fuss about being inoffensive, but it is wildly inconsistent given the framework of the game and the world. There is a whole section on “playing safely” that suggests giving the players the ability to raise an alarm using the “x-card” anytime something in the game or environment triggers them, which is ironic because part of the core mechanic involves “triggers” in the game. (By the by, I do not know for sure, but this might be a translation issue.) Also, the game rules are clear that the game should not involve discrimination or other negative social influences, but wait. The world involves inter-species conflict (the game widely avoids the term racism, but what are cats vs birds vs mice vs badgers? You get the idea). Probably the most offensive, limiting thing about the game is the players take on the rolls of vagabonds (again, this might be a translation issue), but it is a synonym for hoboes. In fact, if the player ever starts to care about a particular group or place in the context of the game then the character should retire. The skills that the characters have involve attempting roguish feats, trickery, and physical attacks on other characters. The common euphemism among role-players to describe such a group is “murder hoboes.” The layout of the game with the childish illustrations makes you think that this is a game for kids, but I would be very, very reluctant to hold up being a murder hobo as the ideal for my children or grandchildren. The last irksome aspect was the heavy, heavy price tag. My two volume order set me back over $100 once you included shipping. That is too much for a game that you might or might not play a few times. All in all, I recommend that you try this game at a convention, i.e., try before you buy, but I cannot recommend it at its current price point.

   

3. Tyler McDonald Verified Buyer – 16 March 2025

   The package came almost perfectly. There is a small part of the back cover of the core book where the paper is slightly scrunched up, but it’s barely noticeable. The game is very easy and fun to learn, and it is a very beautiful presentation across both books. The price is high, but at the same time this is a collector’s edition of a TTRPG book, so it’s to be expected.
   

4. TheWizardsEmporium Verified Buyer – 27 March 2025

   I have had these books for a bit before writing a review to see gameplay wise what my players think we are 5 sessions in and my players love this and with a new supplement coming later this year (2025) I can say it’s one of my favorite ttrpgs.
   

5. M. Howard Verified Buyer – 20 April 2025

   This set is beautiful and very good quality.
   Add this to your Root collection. You won’t be disappointed