Root rules: how to play and how to score

Root quick rules

The goal

Each player leads a faction fighting over the Woodland, and each plays and scores in its own way. The first to reach 30 victory points wins immediately. You can also win by activating a dominance card, then ruling the clearings it asks for. Your faction board sums up everything your faction can do.

A turn

Your turn has three phases: Birdsong, Daylight and Evening, detailed on your faction board. Usually, Birdsong sets up your turn, Daylight is for actions, and you draw in Evening: one card, plus one per uncovered draw bonus. Above five cards in hand, you discard.

The map and ruling

Twelve fox, rabbit or mouse clearings are linked by paths. You rule a clearing if you have more warriors and buildings combined there than each other player; on a tie, no one rules it. To move, take as many warriors as you like to an adjacent clearing: you must rule the origin or the destination.

The cards

Cards are fox, rabbit, mouse or bird, and bird is wild. But when a rule asks for a bird card, no other suit can replace it. To craft a card, you activate your crafting pieces in clearings of the suits shown; a crafted item scores the points written on the card.

Battle

The attacker rolls both dice and deals the higher roll, the defender the lower, each up to their warriors in the clearing. A defender with no warriors takes one extra hit. Warriors fall before buildings, and each enemy building or token removed scores one point. Before the roll, an ambush card deals two hits, unless the attacker plays a matching one.

The Marquise de Cat

She scores by building sawmills, workshops and recruiters. In Birdsong, each sawmill produces wood; in Daylight, she crafts, then takes three actions, plus one per bird card spent. The wood she spends must be connected to the building site through clearings she rules. No one else can place pieces in her keep’s clearing.

The Eyrie Dynasties

It scores every Evening based on its roosts on the map. Every Birdsong, it adds one or two cards to its Decree, which it must carry out in full in Daylight, each action in a clearing matching the card. One impossible action, and it falls into turmoil: points lost, Decree emptied, new Leader.

The Woodland Alliance

It scores by placing sympathy tokens, paid for with its supporters, a separate stack of cards. Anyone who removes a sympathy token or moves into a sympathetic clearing gives it a card: that’s outrage. Two supporters start a revolt, which wipes the clearing and sets up a base. When defending, it uses the higher die.

The Vagabond

Its pawn rules nothing, but it moves anywhere. It acts by exhausting items: boots, sword, torch… It scores by aiding other factions, completing quests and exploring ruins. A faction whose warrior it removes becomes hostile, and each hostile piece it later removes in battle scores one point.

Dominance and the end

The game ends as soon as a player reaches 30 points, with no final round. With at least 10 points, you can activate a dominance card during your Daylight: your score no longer counts, and you win if you rule three clearings of its suit at the start of your Birdsong, or two opposite corners with the bird card.

Beginner traps

Read your neighbors’ boards: everyone scores differently, and you need to know who to slow down. To move, rule the origin or the destination. Nothing replaces a bird card, and the Vagabond doesn’t count for rule. Above all, don’t let anyone race to 30 points.

How to score Root

Faction

The faction you played, to keep a record of your games.

Victory points

Your score on the track at the end of the game. Every source of points adds up there during play: buildings, roosts, sympathy, crafted items, enemy pieces removed, the Vagabond’s aid and quests.

Victory

The first to 30 points wins immediately. With an activated dominance card, the score no longer counts: the Ludingo sheet then lets you pick the winner.

Victory by

Optional, for the record: 30 victory points, or dominance card.

Worked example

Emma plays the Eyrie and has 28 points. During her Daylight, she battles in a Marquise clearing and removes a sawmill and a wood token: 1 point each, so 28 + 2 = 30. The game ends at once, without waiting for her Evening: Emma wins.

Common mistakes

• Playing a final round after 30 points: the game ends immediately.
• Activating a dominance card with fewer than 10 points: you can’t.
• Checking dominance in the middle of your turn: it’s checked at the start of your Birdsong.
• Forgetting the point for each enemy building or token removed, even outside battle.
• Using dominance cards with 2 players: they’re removed from the deck.

How to set up Root

Setup takes about ten minutes. The suggested factions depend on the player count, then each faction sets up in order: Marquise, Eyrie, Alliance, Vagabond.