Root for the Home Team

I spend too much time thinking about RPGs. I can own it. I have pages and pages of notes for campaigns I may never even start. But the universe’s DM doesn’t let us decide when we get a point of inspiration. This is one of the games that had me thrilled to get started:

The critters are cute; the rebellion is real.

Root is based on an board game in which groups of anthropomorphic animals are pitted against each other in the medieval “Patchwood” forest. You have the Marquisade, run by the Marquis de Cat, the Eyrie, run by a republic of birds, and the woodland alliance, all the critters caught in between and willing to fight back… And that’s just the beginning. They’ve added in other factions: otter pirates/privateers, badger warriors, and underworld of burrowing creatures and more.

Your team plays as vagabonds, wanderers going from place to place, doing jobs and trying to stay one step ahead of the war. Hijinks inevitably ensue.

The game is a Powered by the Apocalypse system (players roll two six-sided dice for every roll: a 2-6 is a fail, 7-9 is a mixed success, and a 10-12 is a complete success), which means it’s easy to pick up and play. Character creation only takes a few minutes, and is all the easier with the amazing art in the guidebooks to inspire you. Then you can right down to a skunk wearing a mask burning down a lumber mill to free the people… animals. You get it.

One last thing that I think is so cool about the game: If you plan on running a full campaign, the game comes with rules to figure out how the war between the factions is going. At the end of every mission there’s a chance for territory to be won and lost, sneak attacks to be launch, and oppressors to be overthrown. It makes the world seem alive and like a bigger story is still unfolding.

There are some free resources available here to get started. It’s a lot of fun.