Root: The Roleplaying Game returns with a new supplement—Ruins & Expeditions—and new faction inclusion dice from Fanroll!
Latest Updates from Our Project:
New Playbook: The Orphan!
over 1 year ago
– Thu, Jan 30, 2025 at 12:09:22 PM
Bellicose bunnies, vagabonds! We’re excited for another update AND another shiny new playbook!
Project Update
We are very excited to let you know that around 90% of the book is fully written and has moved into the developmental editing stage. The remaining 10% is still being worked on steadily. Developmental editing is a collaborative process between the writers and the project editors and leads as they hammer out the text to be exactly what they need, including content and cohesiveness, approachability, and continuity. This process has the text passing back and forth until everyone agrees it’s perfect for the book. Once this process is over, we’ll head to copy editing.
New Playbook: The Orphan
Ruins & Expeditions welcomes six new playbooks to the Woodland: The Dealer, the Gourmand, the Scourge, and the Hunter (plus the two you unlocked with stretch goals, the Nomad and the Orphan). We’re excited to release the Orphan playbook to you today!
You grew up alone, your parents lost in the war or simply unable to care for you. Now you’ve set out to find your own way, learning the ways of the forest and roads from the vagabonds who know them best.
The orphan is a truly unique playbook for Root: The Roleplaying Game—a proto-vagabond whose full identity isn’t yet resolved! While other vagabonds have a tried and true method of solving problems—whether that be a sword (The Arbiter), sneaking around (The Ranger), or arson (The Scoundrel)—the Orphan hasn’t quite figured out who they are yet.
But… they do look up to someone: their idol! And when the Orphan acts as they think their idol would act, they usually find a way to succeed, marking their confidence track to take a 10+ instead of rolling. They clear the track by fulfilling their idol’s nature, but the track gets shorter every time they clear it; the Orphan has to eventually find a new idol…or grow up into the full version of themselves!
We’d love any feedback you have on the Orphan, especially playtesting feedback. Please email your feedback to [email protected] and put Root Orphan Feedback as the subject line! We can’t wait to hear what you think of the new playbook!
Gratitude from the Woodland
Thank you, as always brave vagabonds, for your kindness and support on the project! We’re excited to bring you the final new playbook and to be working through the book toward copy edits! Stay tuned next month for more updates!
New Playbook: the Nomad!
almost 2 years ago
– Fri, Dec 13, 2024 at 08:44:39 AM
Egocentric eagles, vagabonds! It’s time for an update and do we ever have some important intel for you!
Project Update
Things are moving! Right now we’re getting art, writing chapters, and editing the chapters that are complete. The art coming in is spectacular and we can’t wait to give you a sneak peek when some of the art is ready from Kyle! We’ll have a full update for you on how the book is progressing at the end of January!
New Playbook: The Nomad
Ruins & Expeditions welcomes six new playbooks to the Woodland: The Dealer, the Gourmand, the Scourge, and the Hunter (plus the two you unlocked with stretch goals, the Nomad and the Orphan). We’re excited to release the Nomad playbook to you today!
You aren’t from the Woodland; you’ve traveled far and wide in the wider world, and your journey has now brought you here. You seek to see all there is to see—and learn all there is to learn—in this strange land at war with itself.
The Nomad is a true vagabond, a wanderer from outside the Woodland who now travels with the band in search of strange and new experiences. True to that journey, the Nomad has a lot of interesting knowledge from their travels… but the longer they stay in one place, the less interested they are in it! The Nomad wants to keep moving from clearing to clearing, never tied down to just one set of problems.
Mechanically, this means the Nomad can mark a condition to leverage their knowledge and succeed at any roll with a 10+. But each condition represents their growing discontent with staying in one place. The Nomad will need to find new experiences to clear those conditions…or hit the road for the next clearing!
We’d love any feedback you have on the Nomad, especially playtesting feedback. Please email your feedback to [email protected] and put Root Nomad Feedback as the subject line! We can’t wait to hear what you think of the new playbook!
Gratitude from the Woodland
We’re so grateful to have your support and joy over this Root: The RPG expansion! It’s been an absolute delight to create these playbooks, and we can’t wait to show you the fuller mechanics for ruins early next year. Have a wonderful Winter holiday and we’ll see you in the New Year!
The Dealer & Backerkit Surveys!
almost 2 years ago
– Thu, Nov 14, 2024 at 11:39:03 AM
Contemptible cats, vagabonds! We’ve got some project updates and a shiny new playbook for you! Let’s dive into what we’ve been up to at Magpie Games HQ!
New Playbook: The Dealer
Ruins & Expeditions welcomes six new playbooks to the Woodland: The Dealer, the Gourman, the Scourge, and the Hunter (plus the two you unlocked with stretch goals, the Nomad and the Orphan). We’re excited to release the Dealer playbook to you today!
You traffic in important items–relics, artifacts, and more. But you aren’t just putting money away for a rainy day; you’ve got an empire to build!
The Dealer traffics in treasures, the most important and rare items of the Woodland. But their real gift is their Investments, new upgrades that the Dealer can buy for individual clearings! Rather than just roll through a clearing and spend a little coin on gear, the Dealer can actually buy allies and business resources (Investments) that persist long enough for the Dealer to return to them later. Always wanted to have a gang of thugs on call or an important political leader in your pocket? Then the Dealer is your playbook!
To make sure these Investment options are robust, we’re not squeezing them onto the playbook. Instead, you can find them in the book AND on a separate Investments sheet, where the Dealer can track each clearing they’ve invested in to expand their empire…
We’d love any feedback you have on the Dealer, especially playtesting feedback. Please email your feedback to [email protected] and put Root Dealer Feedback as the subject line! We can’t wait to hear what you think of the last new playbook!
Backerkit Surveys
We are excited to work with Backerkit for fulfillment! Backerkit utilizes software designed for pledge management. We’ll be using Backerkit to get your shipping information, allow you to get more add-ons if you want them, deliver digital rewards, and manage your pledges!
Backerkit surveys will be sent to everyone via the email address on your Kickstarter account. These surveys will be sent in waves, so don’t panic if you don’t get it right away. We’ve submitted it for review with Backerkit earlier this week, and we’ll do a smoke test with a small number of backers before it goes out to everyone. You should see it before American Thanksgiving!
If you haven’t received your survey by December 1st, please shoot us an email at [email protected]
You must complete your Backerkit survey to get your rewards!
If you run into any issues navigating Backerkit, please email us at [email protected] and we’re happy to help you out. Do not DM us on social media or message us via Backerkit.
Failed Pledges If you backed the project, and your pledge failed, you will still get a Backerkit survey and the opportunity to fix your dropped pledge. If you have already late-pledged after your payment failed, you will have two orders, one for your late pledge and one for your failed pledge during the campaign. Please do not pay for both. If you need help because you have two orders, please email us at [email protected].
Gratitude from the Woodland
Thank you so much for all your support and excitement! We can’t wait to talk to you next month with updates on how the book is going! We hope you have a great November and enjoy the Dealer!
WE DID IT! Campaign Closed!
about 2 years ago
– Thu, Oct 03, 2024 at 04:12:14 PM
Hypnotic hawks, vagabonds! That’s a wrap! WE DID IT! What a phenomenal journey it’s been with you! Let’s review everything we accomplished this campaign!
Unlocked Stretch Goal: Clearing Booklet 3
At $325,000, we’re creating ANOTHER new physical book: Clearing Booklet #3! Clearing Booklet #3 collects all four of the new stretch goal clearings we unlocked so far—Blackwine Vineyard, Rosewater Basin, Ingram's Ford, & Sweetwater Inlet—into a perfect bound book with new art from Kyle Ferrin! Each clearing contains interesting conflicts, important residents (with stats), unique locations, and special rules! Everyone who backs at a level that includes ALL STRETCH GOALS will receive a copy of Clearing Booklet #3 for free and the Clearing Booklet #3 is now available as an add-on!
Unlocked Stretch Goal: Ahh, More Monsters!
At $350,000, we’re expanding Ruins & Expeditions to include MORE monsters and a NEW clearing—Ricklebell Falls—that focuses on the fearsome beasts of the Woodland. Both the new monsters and the new clearing will be added to the digital and print versions of the book. Along with the unlocked playbooks, this final stretch goal brings the new expansion up to almost 200 pages!
Final Campaign Overview
Let’s take a quick look at what you’ve accomplished over the course of this campaign:
Funded in 18 minutes
$382,177 funded
3,893 Backers
18 stretch goals unlocked
2 new clearing booklets
3 new sets of faction dice
A dice tray and dice bag
2 new playbooks: The Nomad and the Orphan
4 new clearings: Blackwine Vineyard, Rosewater Basin, Ingram's Ford, and Sweetwater Inlet (all in Clearing Booklet #3!)
4 new maps: Lake, Mountain, War-torn, and Spring
Alchemy & Roll20 VTT
MOAR MONSTERS—expanding Ruins & Expeditions to almost 200 pages!
This is an incredible level of success, vagabonds! We can’t wait to deliver all these amazing stretch goals to you next year!
Late Pledges
We know the pain of missing a Kickstarter campaign by just a few hours, but your friends who missed out will be able to pledge starting RIGHT NOW using Kickstarter’s Late Pledge option! All you need to do is hit the late pledge button where the pledge button used to be!
We’re going to keep most of the pledge levels open for approximately one week to give fans who missed out on the campaign a chance to pledge. By the end of next week, however, we’ll be limiting late pledges to pledge levels focusing on the new material. Let your friends know before time runs out!
If you pledged during the campaign, you don’t need to do anything more! We’ll let you know when our pledge manager opens with an update here on the Kickstarter page.
Next Steps
First—a break! We’ve been working hard to make this an amazing campaign and are ready for a short recovery time! But don’t worry, we’ll be back at it shortly!
When we come back we’ll begin monthly updates about the progress of the book and all the stretch goals, including where it’s at in development, what steps are next, and what you can expect from the process. You can look for our next update in November!
Gratitude from the Woodland
There’s absolutely no way to thank you, vagabonds, for such an amazing campaign! We’re so grateful to all your excitement, great ideas, feedback, and love for Root: the RPG! We’ll see you next month with our first monthly update!
Livestream & The Scourge!
about 2 years ago
– Tue, Oct 01, 2024 at 08:00:01 AM
Fearless foxes, vagabonds! We’re sneaking up on the next stretch goal and while we wait, we wanted to show you the last playbook preview! Let’s dive in!
New Playbook: the Scourge
Ruins & Expeditions welcomes six new playbooks to the Woodland: The Dealer, the Gourmand, the Scourge, the Hunter…and our two unlocked stretch goal playbooks (the Nomad and the Orphan). We’re excited to release the Scourge playbook to you!
You have been wronged by someone powerful, left for dead by your nemesis after they took everything from you. Now you pursue justice for yourself and others, no matter the cost.
The powerful denizens of the Woodland, especially those affiliated with the major factions, often leave a trail of destruction in their wake, their lust for power a wrecking ball that careens through the lives of ordinary denizens. The Scourge is a vagabond whose search for justice leads them to abandon their life as an ordinary denizen and take up life on the road, seeking to avenge themselves on the one who wronged them.
The Scourge's main move is "The List"—a reminder of their revenge that spurs them on to do great things. They get a +1 ongoing to everything they do against those on the list... but marking down too many names and enacting too much vengeance has a terrible cost: the Scourge will be consumed by their desire for revenge and ceases to be a PC!
We’d love any feedback you have on the Scourge, especially playtesting feedback. Please email your feedback to [email protected] and put Root Scourge Feedback as the subject line! We can’t wait to hear what you think of the first new playbook!
Wanna hang out and talk about the amazing art of Root: the RPG and board game?
Join us on October at 3PM PDT/6 PM EDT with amazing artist Kyle Ferrin to watch him create some amazing Root art while we talk about the new rpg supplement!
Kyle’s art has brought thousands of fans to both the board game and ttrpg, featuring adorable woodland creatures in a unique style. Join us on the livestream to ask him your Root questions, talk to Mark about the new supplement, and see some amazing art in real time!
