The board game Root is being adapted into an RPG, but it’s not like D&D

Dungeons & Dragons is hot right now, experiencing a surge in popularity brought on by the game’s 5th edition as well as actual play experiences like Critical Role and The Adventure Zone. Even former video game developers are getting in on the action, building “5e compatible” campaigns and raising millions on Kickstarter. But while the d20-based system that powers D&D may be a big deal in mainstream circles — that even includes the National Football League — it’s not the best pick for every scenario.

The popularity of independently produced role-playing gaming games is also growing, which gives designers plenty to choose from when it comes to how to reuse their existing systems and create new designs. That’s helped one publisher, Magpie Games, to do something unusual. It’s turning the popular board game Root: A Game of Woodland Might and RightInto an RPG. Root: The Roleplaying Game, and it won’t be based on the 5th edition rules that underpin D&D. Instead, it will be called Powered by The Apocalypse.

Image: Kyle Ferrin/Magpie Games

Original RootThe board game is strange and was first released in 2018. It’s an asymmetrical wargame where cuddly creatures fight for control of a fantastical woodland. But while artist Kyle Ferrin’s work makes the complex wargame appear like something from Target’s toy aisle, the game itself has more in common with much headier wargames. Its mechanics were loosely inspired by the Counter-Insurgency (COIN), games that Volko Ruhnke, a former Central Intelligence Agency Instructor, developed.

In the end, there are four major factions. Root — the Eyrie Dynasties, the Woodland Alliance, the Marquise de Cat, and the Vagabond — and they all work very differently from one another. The Woodland Alliance, a group of nationalist revolutionaries, is fighting an occupying force called the Marquise de Cat. This Marquise has arrived from the outside to enforce its rules on the native people. Eyrie Dynasty on the other side is a monarchic system that wants to return to former glory. The Vagabond, on the other hand, is a powerful, racoon who runs around the board having adventures and can cast his vote with all or any of the other factions.

Written out like that, it’s easy to see the parallels to the real-world wars in Afghanistan, Columbia, and Cuba — all settings for other, more niche COIN games. However Root He has been widely praised for deliberately filing the serial numbers of historical international conflicts.

Ferrin says that this was an intentional decision.

Image: Magpie Games

“We were always very careful at the very beginning not to make any sort of cultural or racial equivalents,” Ferrin told Polygon. “So it’s not like, ‘Oh, the birds are England.’ Nothing like that. […]When we speak, the example that I use is always my. [with fans at conventions]Woodland Alliance. When you’re playing as a Woodland Alliance you can feel like Robin Hood, but for everyone else playing against them, they should feel like al-Qaida. It should feel like the worst kind of thing to deal with.”

As such, we have made a conscious effort not to draw parallels between our world and this one. RootThe backstory is virtually absent from the game. The game itself contains almost no “fluff,” or elaborate narrative content to set up its conflict. It’s a game without a history.

Mark Truman was the Magpie Games founder when he first met Magpie Games. RootHe was simply stunned. I am a big fan of COIN-based games, such as A Distant PlainHe was familiar with mechanics. But, his fascination was especially with Vagabond. He is the lonely character that lurks in the background. It’s something entirely new to COIN.

“I was going around doing quests and stuff,” Truman said, “and I had one of those moments that was just like, ‘This would be a really freaking cool RPG. […] There’s a whole world here, and the fable part of it makes it not so grim and dark!’ Because we’re not big fans of just endless grim, dark, grim-darkness.”

The rules behind D&D would have been a great choice, given their popularity. Unfortunately, the foundation that underpins the role-playing game D&D is not deterministic. The role of each die is crucial in determining whether players are successful or unsuccessful in trying to change the world. Did your Vagabond strike the Eyrie bird by the sword? To find out, roll a d20. Next, check whether you are positive or negative.

Magpie Games required a way for players to use dice to increase depth and colour to their world. To build upon the familiar setting and to add an original storyline, Magpie Games had to have a system that would let them roll dice. That’s the game, and that’s why Magpie settled on Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA), a design framework created by Meguey Baker and Vincent Baker.

“The reason you roll dice in Powered by the Apocalypse is not to decide if you succeed or fail,” Truman said, “but to decide the momentum of narrative uncertainty.”

Root: The Roleplaying Game, players will play their characters from what’s called a Playbook. It’s not a pre-generated character in the traditional sense, but more of a character type. The pamphlet format document gives a brief overview of some key stats such as Charm and Cunning. But a Playbook mostly details the nature of a character’s personality, what drives and motivates them, and any connections they have to the world around them. It also details their “moves,” which are the feats players will use to impact the in-game world around them. Truman refers to moves as the fundamental building block for the game.

“There is a move […] that will say something like, ‘When you try to trick an NPC,’” Truman said, giving an example from the Vagabond playbook. “And the stakes of that move are all written into the move. […] When the move goes off — when you roll the dice — it’s going to take us in different directions. It’s not just succeed or fail. You might see it succeed, but not at the cost of this chance. Or it might be a miss, in which case the GM just says what happens.”

Instead of simply showing up to a dungeon with any weapons and trying to deal with the creatures inside, players can be involved in creating a new world. RootThe players will be responsible for laying waste to the dungeons and their inhabitants. By engaging with a given quest, which is only loosely outlined by the game master, the actions that the characters take — the results of their die rolls — are what will actually create the story and give the world’s factions their true motivations. And just like the original source material, all of the character templates — all of the Playbooks — have different powers.

Ultimately, it’s the PbtA system that allows Root: The Roleplaying GameIt is every bit as asymmetrical than the wargame it was built on.

Image: Magpie Games

“It’s not about whether you have skill points, or whether you have a plus five or a plus three,” Truman said. “It’s about whether your character is positioned in the world to be a pickpocket. If you’re a pickpocket, you roll [a particular move]. If you’re not a pickpocket, you are pushing your luck. You’re taking a giant chance. You’re tempting fate.

“That whole idea of Powered by the Apocalypse is being not a set of binary interactions,” Truman continued, “but instead of a set of narrative moments that spiral off into new narrative moments. For stories like Root, […] binary success or failure, I don’t think, is a good mode of play. It is a wonderful mode of play to discover spaces where uncertainty can be turned into momentum. That momentum gives rise to the adventures that truly, really matter. So, should we place the birds or cats in control? One or the other.”

The original version was published in an early edition. Root: The Roleplaying Game It is now available for free at the Magpie Games Website. This final game includes the The Core BookYou will receive additional materials on December 15th.