Root: The Underworld Expansion

Golden Geek Awards and New Shipping Zones
over 5 years ago – Thu, Mar 21, 2019 at 09:38:50 PM

Hi everyone, 

As you may have heard, Root has been nominated for several Golden Geek Awards this year, including awards for Artwork and Presentation, Expansion (for the Riverfolk Expansion), Innovative, Strategy Game, Thematic Game, and Board Game of the Year.

It hardly requires saying that we are incredibly honored by these nominations. I first created my BoardGameGeek account back in 2003, and the website has been an important community for me both as a player and as a designer. I certainly would have never been able to get my first games published without it. Though the site has its share of problems, I think it remains a tremendous resource for everyone in the hobby. 

For those not familiar with the award, only BGG users who have supported the site or have an avatar or a geekbadge are eligible to vote. Voting is done using the Schulze method, which is a type of voting where you get to rank your preferences from a list of nominees. It’s pretty fun and a nice way to take stock of the previous year of gaming. Regardless of who you vote for, I’d encourage the active BGG users among us to vote.  

If you’d like to vote, just click here. 

Shipping Update

We received a lot of feedback on adding additional shipping zones to our campaign and we're pleased to say that we've expanded shipping to several new countries: Peru, Russia, India, Israel, South Africa, Argentina, Vietnam, Costa Rica, Serbia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Brunei. Prices can be found on the shipping graphic on the main project page. 

We understand there's a great demand for shipping to Brazil and although we haven't added Brazil yet, we're still figuring out our options and are trying what we can to get the best and most reliable rates to Brazil. Please stay tuned and hopefully we'll have good news soon.

Have a Specific Question?

There are many questions popping up in the comments and Kickstarter messages and it is very difficult for us to track. If you have any questions or concerns please contact us at [email protected].

One Million Dollars!
over 5 years ago – Thu, Mar 21, 2019 at 02:30:39 PM

Hello backers! I can’t believe this project has been only open for just 5 days at this point. This has been an amazing affirmation of the work we have done. I don’t know how much more my heart can take right now. Also a huge thank you to everyone the congratulated us for our win at SXSW this weekend for Tabletop Game of the Year.

You are all amazing! Thank you for your help. I am humbled at how you help us continually move forward and top ourselves.

To celebrate we will be starting a new live stream around 3:00 central time (meaning in a few minutes).

Livestream

We have had some amazing comments and I really appreciate your energy for our project.

Woodland Alliance Meeples - We've acknowledged the desire we've seen in the comments for variant Woodland Alliance Meeples. We are going to hold these Meeples back for a later development we are working on. I love how committed you all are to the idea, though.

Playmats - We are happy to announce we will be adding Playmats as an add-on due to a popular demand. We will offer both the original map and the new board as double-sided mats. They will each be 25 dollars.

Here is a rendering of the new map.  Yes, they will be double sided!

Thank you everyone and I will see you all soon!

Developer Diary
over 5 years ago – Thu, Mar 21, 2019 at 01:44:15 PM

Hey everybody! I’m Nick, graphic designer and developer for Root: Underworld. Writing isn’t exactly my strong suit, but today I want to talk about my relationship with Root, Leder Games, and my experience transitioning from being strictly a graphic designer to both a graphic designer and developer.

When I joined Leder Games in February of last year, I was nervous. The team was finalizing Root, and I was going to be primarily getting it ready for the factory and doing layout for Vast: The Mysterious Manor. These would be by far the largest projects I’d ever worked on. I remember being assigned to lay out the punchboard for Root. I worked slowly and diligently, reviewing the files over and over and over again, with my main goal being to simply avoid mistakes.

Once Root was sent off, Cole (as developer) and I (as graphic designer) were tasked to finish Vast: The Mysterious Manor. What started as another layout task quickly shifted before my eyes.

Being involved in this game earlier in the process, I saw how different graphic design for board games could be. I saw an opportunity to elevate the work I was doing, but this required greater changes. With the trust of Patrick and Cole, I started making more edits to mechanisms to improve not only visual clarity but conceptual clarity. The line between graphic design and game design started to blur. I was finding ways to link systems together by changing component designs. “Editing” extended beyond layout and leaked into rules. The result was a game where mechanisms inform graphic design and vice versa.

As I felt more confidence in my process,Cole and Patrick, asked me to be the developer on Root: Underworld. Patrick had already finished the preliminary design for the factions, and Root's graphical and visual language had been established. So again my goals shifted—now I wanted to distill what Patrick had created into its purest form. This process started to resemble my graphic design process, and I treated it as such. Similar to doing a rebrand, I cast a wide net of possibilities in building iterations and variants. When doing this, it’s not about each iteration being perfect, but rather to see what can be changed while maintaining its original identity. My computer has more than ten versions of both the Crows and the Moles, and I can look to those anytime our current version is falling flat or losing some edge. Doing that work upfront when you’re excited and have the energy to ideate pays huge dividends later on.

I've learned so much and I’m just so thankful for the support from the community as well as my coworkers. I can’t wait to share all of our hard work and passion with those who love the game as much as we do!

Also, there are many questions popping up in the comments and Kickstarter messages and it is very difficult for us to track. If you have any questions or concerns please contact us at [email protected].

Mountain Map!
over 5 years ago – Wed, Mar 20, 2019 at 04:53:32 PM

I have always had a fascination with maps. One of the joys of dungeon-mastering Dungeons & Dragons for me is getting to lovingly toil on my own maps and spending time poring over other artists' maps. One of my favorite map types is the dungeon cross-section, built like the one below. I have used maps like this in a few D&D games, populating and designing blown-up maps on graph paper as the players move from section to section.

I wanted to make a Root map that was a maze of tunnels and warrens under a giant tree, so I started building a cross-section map like the one above. One thing I wanted in there was a few paths to the middle, but the players would be able to dig through the map, creating new paths between clearings.

The map didn’t work out. It was hard to pick fair corners for setup and domination, and the central placement of many of the clearings meant that the game would play much too differently. I was worried the map would be hard to parse.

I threw out that drawing and drew the new Mountain Map you now have. Thanks to the graphic design of Michael Ptak, I was able to play with a simple version of the map a few months ago. Some of you may have printed out the old one and played games on it. We have been playing with it in the studio frequently on my playtest nights.

Kyle recently set about making the map, and this is what we ended up with. I am very proud of his work.

Like the Winter Map, the Mountain Map uses the clearing markers to show the suits of the clearings. In addition, many paths on the map are covered at the beginning of the game. Players can spend a card to remove the mountain piece from the game, creating a new path on the map.

For a little added friction, if a player rules a central clearing called the Pass during their Evening, they score a bonus victory point.

You can check it yourself here:

Root Kickstarter Print and Play 

I think veteran players of Root will enjoy the added challenge of the Mountain Map.

Thank you very much for the amazing support you have given to this campaign. I will talk to you all soon!

Root takes top tabletop award at SXSW, Cole goes to GDC
over 5 years ago – Wed, Mar 20, 2019 at 02:57:03 PM

Hi everyone!

As you might have heard, Root won the Tabletop Game of the Year award at this year's SXSW! Patrick and I were in attendance and it was our honor to accept the award on behalf of the entire staff at Leder Games. Needless to say, this award would have been impossible without the support of our backers. We are incredibly grateful for your continued support.

With the festival over, Patrick is heading back to Saint Paul. I'll be hopping on a plane in about 20 minutes and heading to GDC in San Francisco. Tomorrow, I'll be giving a talk at 11:20am in Room 3005, West Hall. The talk is an exploration (and defense) king-making in conflict games. If you're interested and happen to be at GDC, I'd love to see you at the talk! In the past many of these talks are later posted on YouTube. We'll be sure to let you know if we get a link to the talk later.

Now, I'm pretty sure I've nearly run out of the free-wifi allotment at the Austin airport, so it's probably about time for me to wrap this update up. As always, if you have questions, the best place to send them is [email protected]. We will of course continue to be active in the comments section here on Kickstarter and in the various updates--but it may be a few days before you hear from me again.

Cole