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Collegium of Alfaromancy's itch.io pageResults
Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
Creativity/Uniqueness | #4 | 4.364 | 4.364 |
Clarity of Rules/Mechanics | #4 | 3.818 | 3.818 |
Use of This Year's Theme | #29 | 2.227 | 2.227 |
Ranked from 22 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
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Comments
Very interesting concept that seems a lot of fun to play!
I like the way they use different suits for different actions rather than any action in different clearings... that's a novel thing and provides fresh limits and opportunities depending on the hand you are dealt.
I wonder how many turns it might take them to get some competitive scoring going, feels like they could lag behind at the start until they've got some of the constructs up, but then they are surely a force to be reckoned with, both because of pretty good scoring and extra-strong warriors. So could be a nice curve and an interesting balance whether to bring the constructs out one after another or try and have a big burst in one turn with multiple of them... how much of a target does one want to be? :)
Good jobs, looks really cool and unique.
This looks like a really cool faction! I like how you have 4 different constructs that all do different things.
I wonder how strong they would be at scoring as they will need to keep all 4 constructs on the board in separate clearings to get their maximum points.
With the collector you're definitely incentivized to craft as many items as possible and it seems like they would be fairly good at crafting, although they need warriors to craft and might not draw enough mouse cards to have a strong board presence.
The use of mud tokens to build constructs and repair them is really cool!
I am so glad you included a little writeup. There's a lot of thought and theming behind the action, gameplay, and even animal choice that you've included that I wouldn't have been able to appreciate otherwise!
Swarming the map with mud that only your faction appreciates is fun, intuitive, and really cute haha. I love all little bit of whimsy and this faction is chock full of it, without really breaking the story that the official root game establishes.
It's also so fun that each construct has a different ability, and I definitely see how you'd want to prioritize certain ones during each game and matchup. The collector especially is really fun, and I do indeed like the little nerf to the VB. And yeah you've included balance in them that allows other factions to entangle with them in a fun and incentivizing way.
Scoring based on the amount of constructs is definitely balanced, but I almost wonder if the constructs could have more of a hand in generating those points themselves or accomplishing a goal to get those points. Rather than just a point for each one you've got. Not a nitpick, just some design space you've given yourself that would be fun to use!
This is a beautiful design - is this your original artwork?
Thank you very much, the basis of the art is generated by GPT-4 and then it has a many hours of editing on top to try to make it resemble a bit more to the style of Root. I am especially happy about the horneros; I think they turned out quite in line with the other characters in the game (at least to my taste XD). I take this opportunity to congratulate you on the art in your faction!! It is extraordinary!
Thank you! I’m no Kyle Ferrin but I am a published cartoonist
Wow! What a unique take on a Root faction. The world building you did makes a foreign concept feel completely natural in the Root landscape. The are so many levers here that I want to push and see what happens :-) The constructs are such a neat way to give players options on what to pursue. I think my favourite might be the Collector, as it gives the Crafted Item box a purpose.
How do constructs interact with "clearing wipes" (i.e. Alliance's Revolt, Corvid's Bomb, Favour cards)? I'd assume the pawns get removed, but do you lose any of the mud tokens?
Thank you very much for the kind words!! As for the question, you are correct! The bombs, uprisings, and favors remove the constructs and whoever activated them earns the 2PV, they also remove the mud tokens which are like any other token but do not grant PV. So watch out for those pesky crows and whiny mice XD.
While I was writing this, I realized that you were referring to the mud tokens on the board! Tht's a really good question. As it is currently written, none of those tokens would be removed, and in the next turn, you would be able to create a construct destroyed in this way without having to gather mud, which thematically feels a bit strange. Perhaps I could add to the board that if they are removed outside of battle, you remove all the mud tokens? Luckily, there is quite a bit of space tx to removing the object box.
Ty for the feedback!
Yeah, sorry…should’ve specified what I was talking about ;-). The way the mud tokens “built up” a construct reminded me of the Vagabond, so I wasn’t sure if there’d be a similar “remove X tokens” rule. The way I read Construct, you’d have to place at least one mud on a construct to build them (since the construct has to go in the clearing where the last mud came from).
Not sure how it would work for balance, but maybe a violent, explosive act (like a Corvid bomb) that breaks a construct in a single blow could disperse those mud tokens to nearby clearing? Rather than the way a battle slowly takes them down piece-by-piece?
I like how you think haha, I'll keep it in mind and I'll let you know when I finish solving that. ;)
As I've said, I'm obsessed with this. This adds megaworks into the game in a way that feels natural within the Root universe, and the fantasy of constructing these hulking automata from the resources available is really captivating. My two main notes are that the action system seems a little punishing to bad draws and I'm not really sure what the sentinel does as the only clearing you really want to defend in particular is the one with the collector, but they can't be in the same clearing.
I'm glad you like it :). About the sentinel, I thought it could be very useful to build it first in maps where dominating a clearing (like the mountain) or controlling certain bottlenecks (like winter) is very important. Regarding the issue of actions and cards, I share your concern; for example, starting the game with 3 birds can lead to a horrible second turn XD. I couldn’t test a lot of these situations due to time restrictions from the jam XD, but I'm already making the prints to do the first round of testing with my group this weekend. I'll keep you posted XD.

what if you could use 2 diferent suits for each action? That for example rabbit/fox to move, fox/mouse to battle, mouse/rabbit to recruit. This way you still have some randomness and noise, but its not as punishing
Another idea might be to add a 4th action that you can only take with bird cards. Similair to lizards sacrefice. Not sure what it could be but i leave that to you if you wanna do this idea
It's a very interesting idea, if during the testing it turns out that they are very restricted in actions, we could try this approach, thank you!