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The Order of the Scale's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Clarity of Rules/Mechanics | #2 | 4.174 | 4.174 |
| Use of this year's theme | #9 | 3.652 | 3.652 |
| Creativity/Uniqueness | #25 | 3.261 | 3.261 |
Ranked from 23 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Includes Law of Root?
No
Includes PnP?
Yes
TTS File URL (If you've uploaded to workshop)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3245737319
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Comments
Faction mechanical design is on point as always, of course that's to be expected from a seasoned root content creator! The turn flow is fantastic and easy to decipher, a few games in I'm sure you'd be able to instinctively tell what actions you should be taking next.
But that's what's interesting, with the dice roll mechanics, even if it were the exact same setup on the board, your game plan has gotta change depending on your dice rolls. Very unique and sets em apart in any given root game, but not enough to where they feel they don't belong.
I like congregation as an ability! At first I thought "why would someone take an extra warrior there, when it benefits the pangolins more?". But honestly the extra warrior would mean a lot in certain situations for all faction, but especially those who value warriors a ton like otters, WA, crows even.
I'm interested to see how the martyr actions would go, it's a fantastic concept and I really wanna see it used in gameplay in creative ways by the player. But if be tempted to go the greedy route and just go for points each time. Would take me some plays with em to see if that's actually the case! Just an awesome concept that I want the player to use.
Really awesome faction as usual, and I can't wait to see how you continue to support and playtest these guys on your channel! ❤️
Very fun, rolling dice and using them actions sounds very satisfying, and the martyr lock-in adds tension to every roll. Took a bit to get my head around without a clear image of all of the dice faces, though your comment below cleared that up, (and the TTS image helped me realise it wasn't an ordinary D6 though, I was very confused there!).
Seems like there are various playstyles to try to go for, and it's quite dynamic. I like it :)
I love love LOVE the dice rolling. That is a SICK and unique idea. The mechanics are clear. My main concern comes with how much martyring you'll be doing compared to recruiting. I wish I could see the full dice layout, I wish I knew which side had 2 of them on the dice, or if the sixth side is blank. They seem to have a high board presence and seem to be good at policing, and I love the tradeoff of taking extra hits and giving them away from temples, but battles being more tame on temples. The other main problem is trouble policing them. If you have only a couple of warriors on a clearing with a temple, all except the most militant factions will struggle to kill the temple, removing your scoring potential, but it seems pretty easy to rebuild that temple next turn and regain the scoring. Once you get 5 or more temples, your scoring is nearly unstoppable, which forces others to counterplay you when you are still setting up, with few martyrs. Fanatical will allow the Order to keep policing others (without the obvious policing of building a temple right where they already are), without needing to have too much commitment.
Overall, unique ideas and seems fairly balanced, depending on other factions that are being played. The only reason they won't be completely OP is because even with 7 temples, they only get 5 vp, which is an unrealistic number of temples to start.
I also wanted to say how much I love the risk-reward of rolling again for a better or more needed action, with the possibility of being forced to martyr.
usually it's about 1-2 martyrs a turn. (Each of which is only one warrior) And your recruit is usually 2-3, plus a passive 1-2 . So the balance so far has been pretty good, though you do have to watch it with your rerolls, as I did have one turn with 4 martyrs and it was rough! For me that's the fun of the faction though, that there is this push your luck aspect that can really bite you (with the blessing helping take some sting out of that bite)
The dice are one of each of the 5 actions and a blank side, to promote re-rolling.
The rules are well-written and easy to follow. My only critique is some trepidation at playing a faction whose core mechanics come down to RNG dice. Imagine rolling nothing but sword icons for the first turn when you want to be setting up. Makes planning out a turn difficult i imagine. Other than that, I like the armored berry ability and the congregation effect-I'd be curious to see what the faction interplay would look like there
So far in the 3 games I've played with them, this hasn't been a huge issue. You get to roll 3+ times a turn, and the blessings of the martyrs somewhat mitigate any bad luck on a one turn delay. It's not much more rng based than lizards, and they are significantly better at moving and attacking than lizards 🤷🏼