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The Rot Within ROOT JAM 2025's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Use of This Year's Theme | #10 | 3.524 | 3.524 |
| Clarity of Rules/Mechanics | #12 | 3.381 | 3.381 |
| Creativity/Uniqueness | #13 | 3.952 | 3.952 |
Ranked from 21 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
Includes TTS files?
Yes
TTS File URL (If you've uploaded to Steam Workshop)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3481833716
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Comments
Covering a clearing on setup with your own sort of landmark is a super creative idea! And I like how you also find a way to play around with both warriors and card draw of other factions in the game at the same time. Really glad to see another faction other than my Bearcats that add in their own cards to the shared deck for folks to draw.
I really like how rotbloom is like a chain to the necropolis. A well positioned removal could trigger the removal of many, a cool way to counterplay them that's built in, I dig it!
I also really appreciate the artwork you've created, ties the whole thing together. I really couldn't see this idea being conveyed so effectively without it!
You've also definitely been paying attention when it comes to their balance, and you've given them a way to be entangled and slow others down without even the need for battling specifically. Though that option is there.
And I just now noticed they have an interactionw tih ruins too! Neat!
Great submission and I super look forward to following along as you continue this faction and with other projects as well!
Thanks Tin! I will definitely be looking at testing this faction some more to get it fine-tuned. I really tried to enforce a certain thematic with it being creepy and slowly sprawling across the woodland like little rot tendrils. The counterplay aspect for the rotway seemed very on theme and it is a really good way to get rid of some defensive power and scoring by being able to break through a vital part of the rotway. It took about 4 to 5 test games in order to get the faction into a fairly decent playable spot. All in all I am very pleased with it!
Wow kudos on being able to playtest so much already! Looking forward to more!
I like the mechanics of having a central base, the Rotting Necropolis, and spreading out from there each turn. Adding cards to the deck that infect other players when they draw them is a cool addition and very thematic. I do wonder what the benefit of Deteriorate is to the faction though. Do they benefit from getting items? or is it just a way to add more space to the map for Spore Towers?
Its mainly to insure that you can have a spore tower in the necropolis clearing in case you start in a clearing with a ruin (Since the necropolis only has one building slot). Its also used to just indicate that the mushrooms are rotting away the ruins for thematic purposes as well.
This faction has unique mechanics that I'd like to try out :D. The spores' effect on the game makes other think more strategically, and the spread of the cards could have different effects on factions with more warriors and factions with more card draw. This faction seems to be heavily influenced by interactions with other players, so it might take a few games to see how different levels of interaction affect the outcome :3
Excellent work! I agree with Danimal85 both in regards to how cool your theming is and how many cards are in the spore deck - I know it's better to not run out of them, and as the game goes on more and more will make their way into the shared deck, so perhaps it's better to be safe than sorry?
The inhaled spore effects are very good! Since the rot within chooses the replaced piece, and since it happens on another player's turn, I worry it has too much potential to mess with their plans and scoring - perhaps if the person who drew the card chose what warrior they replaced it would feel less punishing and more manageable?
You've given it some really cool unique mechanics which are both evocative of other root factions and yet not too similar to them - adding to the deck makes me think of frogs, yet it's more unique and organic than what frogs are doing and gets gradually added in rather than shuffled in from the start. The choice between scoring and shuffling the discard pile into the deck feels very tactical and fun!
Power wise, I'm not sure if this faction feels too strong or not strong enough! Filling the deck with spore cards will take time, and their warrior recruitment is quite slow, which is hard as that's their method of building as well, so it really is imperative that they fill the deck with spores to fill their recruiting needs. I think it'll be a slow to start faction, but also very difficult to stop once it gets going. I look forward to seeing it played at some point, because you're exploring some interesting ideas and design spaces very elegantly and cohesively!
Thanks for the comment! The early game is definitely focused on balancing holding your ground (especially your main clearing) and trying to shuffle as many spore cards into the shared deck as possible. They definitely had a lot of trouble staying on the board before I gave them the one passive recruitment a turn. If everyone kind of ignores them they become a little hard to dislodge but a focused effort can really bring them down. But hopefully by then you've stacked the deck more in your favor to try and get some more troops out. It took a lot of balancing and testing to get it to the point its at now, but I will for sure be making more tweaks in the future!
I bloody love this faction. The way you describe how it plays is so evocative and really makes me want to play it for real.
I love the term 'The Rotting Necropolis'. I love the idea of The Rotway and having to create a chain of infection and if it's cut off from the source, it dies. The theming of this whole faction just seems fantastic to me.
I am curious why you need 50 Spore cards if you're only shuffling in 10. If I understand correctly, you're spending Spore cards in your hand to take Call of the Necropolis actions, placing them into your Spore Deck. Then in Evening, you're taking between 1 and 4 of them from the Spore Deck back into your hand. So it seems quite cyclical and 50 seems like a huge amount. After shuffling 10 into the regular deck during setup, do the other 40 all go in the Spore Deck?
Anyway, outside of the usual balancing concerns that can only come from an insane amount of testing, my first impressions are that this faction is fantastic and my favourite one I've looked at so far. Great job!
Thanks for commenting! We start with 10 in the shared deck and 40 in your spore deck but as the game goes on you will be slowly adding more spore cards to the discard pile by interacting with The Rotting Necropolis (which adds or removes 2 spores to/from the discard). Or you can choose to discard your own spore cards to kind of sacrifice actions in order to stack more spores into the discard. In your birdsong you can then forgo most of your turn to then shuffle the discard back into the deck which effectively increases your odds of infecting more enemy warriors. They have a slow start but they really creep up on everyone if left uncontested. Just like a normal infection would want!
Gotcha - very cool. I think I was thinking the Spore Deck was the discard pile. So when you spend Spore cards, they go in the Spore Deck. And when you discard Spore cards, they go into their own discard pile anywhere outside of the board, not the discard pile where the regular discarded deck cards go?
These are all the spore card interactions I believe.
If you use spore cards for your actions (from hand) they go to your spore deck.
If they are discarded normally, they go to the shared discard pile.
If they are added because of necropolis interaction they go to the shared discard from the spore deck.
If they are removed via the necropolis interaction they are taken from the shared discard and put into the spore deck.
The Spore deck itself has a spot on your board that only spore cards can be added/removed to/from.
Hope this clears it up.
I'm pretty much there - thanks for your patience on this. Seems like a satisfyingly complex system where you'd need a good few games with them to get tactically savvy on where and when you distribute your spore cards, key to which is getting them all back in deck, hence the skip to evening counterbalance.
So just to 100% get it, you're shuffling the entire shared discard pile back into the existing deck, not just the spore cards that have been discarded?
Correct! you shuffle the WHOLE discard pile spores and all.