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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.