Lupine Pact
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Root Custom Player Faction
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2020-2022
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Tabletop
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Solo Project
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A modification for the board game Root by LEDER Games which adds a new player faction.
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Designed a resource management puzzle which sees the player balancing three tribes.
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Analyzed Root's design to create something which fit the ethos of the game.
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Extensive playtesting ensured a balanced design.
Overview
Root is one of my favorite games, so naturally I wanted to mod in one of my favorite animals as one of its many animal factions. It started with a strong central idea : a faction made of sub-factions that the player has to unite in order to win.
Root is a highly asymmetric game, with different factions being almost different games. It is also richly thematic. It creates a unique narrative feel for each faction primarily through incentives. Factions win by doing what makes sense for that faction narratively.
My first design was vastly overcomplicated and missed the mark on the incentive-based design. However, through playtesting, and some helpful feedback on the boardgame geek forums, I was able to create a system which much better fit the ethos of Root.
Postmortem
What went well
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Playtesting and feedback used to great effect to improve the system.
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Analysis of Root's design led to mod that felt like it fit yet was unique at the same time.
What went wrong
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Mechanics of the faction led to large power changes midgame that caused them to be undesirably swingy.
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Strictness of resource management systems sometimes felt limiting.
What I would change
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Additional balancing and playtesting needs to be done to make the faction less swingy.
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Adjust some of the player's actions to provide a bit more freedom.