20 April 2019
ROOT: THE RPG
MORE THAN ANIMALS
Part of Root’s asymmetrical depiction of its woodland
warfare was the way its animal combatants symbolised
conlicting ideologies and behaviours, continuing
a tradition that stretches from Animal Farm to the
Redwall novels. From industrialist felines to tradition-
bound birds, the allegorical gameplay relected a living,
breathing world of difering beliefs and ambitions – all in
a few bits of cardboard and wood.
Root: he RPG is able to dig even further into the history
and nature of each faction and their place in the forest,
with the underlying symbolism giving players’ portrayal
and perspective of the sylvan setting a huge amount
of potential for richer storytelling and worldbuilding.
Truman highlights the Lizard Cult introduced in the
board game’s irst expansion – a faction he hopes to
explore further in a supplement for the RPG – as a perfect
example of Root’s ability to go beyond its charming
visuals and hand players room for interesting stories.
“I love that they worship the Great Dragon and they’re
religious fundamentalists and they have their little skulls
and they hiss about everything,” he says. “hat for me as
a GM is really exciting: to get to play all those diferent
factions and have them be represented as metaphors for
those kinds of people.
“he Eyrie being an aristocratic, above-it-all faction of
birds is super fun to play, and it reminds us of what we love
about things like Mouse Guard – which is an RPG which I’ve
loved for a long time – and of course anything, any movie,
any iction like he Rescuers Down Under where the animals
are not just animals; they’re metaphors for what it feels
like to be a mouse in a big world or a fox in a big world.”
As in the board game, Root: he RPG’s metaphorical
layers won’t just sit below its cute and cuddly surface.
Truman promises that the roleplaying game’s systems
will bring the individuality of its characters to the fore.
“If you’ve played any of our games, we’re very rarely
just like, ‘It’s a theme!’ and wave our hands,” he assures.
“Everything is always rooted in mechanics.”
he roleplaying game will feature tracks similar to the
alliance system used by the Vagabond player in the board
game. As the group works with – or against – particular
factions, the GM will be able to track their standings
with certain characters and groups. As their favour
or notoriety grows, the players might ind eventually
themselves confronted by particular situations as the
result of their past decisions, in a more concrete and
impactful way than other roleplaying games.
“If the cats make an opportunity available to you and
you turn them down, then they’re going to remember that,”
Truman explains. “And as you go through the adventures
that you have, the cats are going to have a mechanical efect
on your options that are available, on their reactions and
on some of the ictional setups for the adventures that
you have. And eventually they’re going to be enemies,
right? hey’re going to put up posters all over the
woodland. Y’know: ‘REWARD for these Vagabonds!’ We
think that that’s part of the fun. Part of the fun of beinga Vagabond is not just making new friends, but having
enemies – and those enemies, like Robin Hood-style,
trying to catch you and you evading their grasp.”
Truman cites Robin Hood as a particular inluence on
the feel of playing a Vagabond in Root: he RPG – as well as
acknowledging Root’s existing similarities with Disney’s
animal-illed take on the Sherwood-dwelling outlaw.
“What we deinitely think about is that Robin Hood,
woodland feel,” he says. “We want the Vagabonds to be
the lovable scoundrels of the woodland. So we’ve spent a
lot of time thinking through what it takes to give players
the ability to play tricks, persuade people to give them
what they want, sometimes get in ights but also have a
whole plethora of other options for resolving conlicts.
So we see that as an opportunity to do what we always
do, which is build highly thematic mechanical systems
to get across what options players have.
“What we’re doing right now is trying to build out a
game in that style, in that fashion of: what does it take to
produce scoundrel iction at the table? [...] Are people
having an experience at the table that mirrors that sense
of playing Robin Hood?”
Although there’ll be plenty of opportunity for
jaunty woodland adventure and witty interaction with
animal characters, Truman is keen that Root: he RPG
presents players with tougher decisions and potentially
darker implications as the result of their Vagabonds’
mercenary ways.
“One of the parts of that is we also feel that there’s
a strong Game of hrones-style inluence here as well,
where you could also play the Hound,” he compares.
“You could also play a Vagabond who works for the
cats and you’re wrestling with the moral challenges of
working for the ‘villains’, but who might be making the
woodland a better place, maybe? here’s some questions
there about whether you’re on the right side.
“We don’t want it to just be light scoundrel fun – we
also love the idea that you roll into town and the local
people have things they want you to do, but those things
are in direct opposition to what your allies want to
have happen. And you as a group of Vagabonds have to
choose: who are we really working for? And if we want
fame and fortune, are we willing to go our own way
and perhaps earn the enmity of everybody – of all the
diferent factions! – to be our own Vagabonds? ‘No cats,
no masters,’ right? hat’s sort of the core moral challenge
we want to put into the game.
“All the systems we’re building are trying to give
the Vagabonds the option of being very powerful,
very exciting – have a lot of agency as players but also
be confronted with touch choices about what the
woodland’s going to look like when they’re done.”AWAY FROM THE ROOTS
While Truman vows that Root: he Roleplaying Game
will be faithful to the board game’s world and characters,
he says that the experience of actually playing the RPG
will feel signiicantly diferent for fans.