One of my proudest achievements in life is converting you on Root 😂 Still my #1 game of all time. Lizard Cult for life 🦎

The thing I love most about Cole's games are that they are meant to be played dozens if not hundreds of times. You can't just play root, oath, pamir, or john company once a year with random people. You need to play somewhat regularly and with people who also play regularly. You really get your money's worth with a Cole Wehrle game. And yeah, like Jack, root is my favourite game of all time (but the Lizards are my least favourite faction).

Pretty amazing video, I loved it. It's really not that common to hear about someone who came around on Root. Because it is, as you said, not really concerned with being immediately accessible or winning over new players in their very first game, a lot of people bounce off from Root - and hard. I was livid at the people who played your first game with you. The urge to get that fourth player for a "proper" game of Root is real, and it's strong, but it's absolutely inadmissible (and, frankly, quite stupid and counterproductive) to put someone through what they did to you. Fortunately, the power of friendship eventually brought you back to the Woodland! :D I will never forget the specific moment I fell in love with Root. I had seen and heard about the game before. I knew it was supposedly excellent, but quite complex to learn and also that it required consistent games between 4 players to shine. "Shame", I thought. "This looks really cool, but it won't see play with my group." I also watched the SU&SD review of Root (the only video of theirs I will actively recommend people avoid watching), and, everything put together, I kinda decided to look away, deciding that Root wasn't "for me". Some time later I saw a thread on BGG where someone mentioned the digital version was on sale for a fairly low price. I wasn't a huge fan of playing board games digitally, but I thought it was cheap enough in the App Store that I'd buy it just to go through the tutorial. I basically bought it just to learn how it played. See what people thought was so good about it. I played the base rules tutorial. I loved it. I played the Marquise de Cat tutorial. I more than loved it. I downloaded the Law of Root PDF, and, as I read page 5, still on my phone, squinting and zooming to columns, I had a realization. "This is already my favorite game." It was - and still kinda is - beyond anything I've ever seen in game design. I really really deeply admire how well designed this game is. How the rules inform and are informed by the theme, both vastly enriching each other. It was the only time I fell in love with game not by playing, but by learning the rules. Not even four months later, I had the complete game with every single expansion. I played it just about as much as I would guess I would have, which is not nearly as much as I want to. But I had to own that game. I had to celebrate it.

I liked games like Catan and The Grizzled. Then I found Root and loved every minute of it. Ended up collecting it over the Covid Lockdown. Then Oath came out. I also thought it looks too complex. I didn't understand what it was even though I liked the art and components and the idea of a game that effected every game afterwords sounded really cool. I had never spent that much money on a game before but I got it for Christmas just to try it out. It's now my all time favorite game. I pull it out more than Root. The sad thing was I couldn't find anyone to really play it with me because everyone thought it was too complicated. So I ended up playing both Root and Oath solo. Which was a god-send because I would never play them otherwise. But I ended up getting Moonrakers Titan to get people to come back to the table with me. And that actually became a new family favorite. I'm now looking at Arcs and am like I just have this feeling that it will be the same story as Root and Oath in that they look complicated but end up being a gem. And yet they specifically say they will not do a solo mode for Arcs. And so I don't know if I can really get it since I can't get with my family or friends to play any Cole Wehrle game with me. It's sad because the idea of playing a trilogy with branching player driven narratives sounds really cool. Though I will say I can't ever seem to really get behind the map. It feels like it's missing something in my opinion.

i totally agree it's the passion that it requires to taste a good game

Yep, we had similar experiences early on with Root. But as our friends kept playing, we had more and more fun as everyone at the table understood the game at the same level. We love it now! We've logged close to 50 plays, and its top 3 games in my collection. The love/hate relationship seems normal with how many folks describe the onboard experience for Root.

When you play Root you should only eat Roots, things that are roots, how about we classify Carrots, Potatos, and other things like that as Roots so you can eat that stuff. Things that grow into the ground, can be pulled out, and consumed. That is your challenge. Can you add dipping sauce like Ranch. Yes you can.

Root is definitely worth learning. Thanks for the video.

Great video and an important lesson for all boardgamers! Root will always be my favourite game. I even went to RootCon 2023 and got first place in the tournament!

I never gave Root a chance. It was the first game I played with my GF's good friend who is also a board game collector, like myself. He drained the fun from the game in our friend group. Three times he ended winning by a ton of points and was fairly arrogant the whole time. Towards the end of the first game, we noticed he got a rule of his class completely wrong, which was giving him dozens of a points a turn. We were so busy figuring out our own stuff we didn't notice. Thing is, it was such an obvious rule miss that it felt like he purposely interpreted it as such. Of course, we thought this was an anomaly. It tooks us a half-dozen more games and a few years later before we realized he'd pull a "Root" as we call it now, in every game. So now, Root, is an engrossedly misinterpretation of a rule purposely misinterpreted for selfish purposes.

The game was long, way too long. Let's talk about that. If you are at a game convention where it has 4 hour slots normally, but say the game is going to be, say 2 slots (6 to 8 hours), and you are paying big money to be at the convention, time is money and unlike a game you play at home or even a local game store or place you might normally play, you only have so many game slots to fill at the convention. If you find yourself in a situation like the host of this video who was playing Root the first time. Get up, say "I am going to have to bow out, thank you for the game' and leave. Yup, that breaks everything you are expected to do, maybe have been taught about being polite, but since you clearly are in a situation like that don't take one for the team. To me that is the right thing to do. If you know 3 hours in you can't win Twilight Imperium and are just going to hang out making moves for 2 more hours, but more importantly don't have a game to play in the next convention slot so you need to find a game or say you have a game, then at the end of the 4 hour slot, bow out and go play something else. Leave your little empire and its peace's there to become NPC's in the game. I have stuck it out before, regretted it, and now that is the Gamer Life Lesson I learned. I most definitely would do this if I showed up to play a Root game like the one the host of this video played, but did so at a Game Convention time slot. I'll take that four about 3.5 hours and give myself 30 minutes to find another game if I don't already have one. If I do have another game scheduled I'll go to the like 3:50 giving myself like 10 minutes to get to the next game. One benefit I am getting is I am learning the game (to a point) and that is partly what I am there to accomplish. If I had an experience at a game convention like the first Root game the host of this video has, on second thought the best advice, after say around 1 hour in as you are giving it a chance, but if you are there to learn the game and no one is helping you, and they seem to want to fill a seat for 'optimum player count' and are ruthless SOB's with you, then get up and walk away, this is a game convention and your time is limited and valuable. I'd go spend that time in the Show Room, an Art room, the Movie Room, watching random Cosplayers and taking pics with them, going round to booths, so many things you can do than waste your time in a bad game like that. Don't do it, walk away.

One could argue, however, that good design is also accessible and that a higher barrier of entry is acceptable if the payoff is worth it. Root has a high barrier of entry, it is not accessible and doesn't offer much more depth that more accessible asymmetric games. Also the game IS imbalanced.

You need better friends

After 4 plays of Root - still bad gamedesign. Not bad game, but some engine solutions just aren’t right, or doesn’t feel right

Dude. 3 to 4 hours for one Root game? I am so sorry. That sounds absolutely awful.

who cares, root isnt that great