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RootJam 2023: Stack the Odds - The Casino Conclaves's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Creativity/Uniqueness | #11 | 3.951 | 4.176 |
| Use of this year's theme | #11 | 3.561 | 3.765 |
| Clarity of Rules/Mechanics | #16 | 2.671 | 2.824 |
Ranked from 17 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
Includes Law of Root?
Yes
Includes PnP?
Yes
Includes TTS files?
No
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Comments
This is such a neat faction! I love how you've incorporated the gambling theme, including the randomness of decks and dice. The mechanics are so interesting and out of the ordinary - draw cards in Birdsong, having no hand outside your turn, losing and gaining points so drastically...I'm not sure what I'd think after playing it, but I love the concepts here!!
Thank you so much! This is our first year working on a faction, so it means a lot to hear positive reviews. I am glad the mechanics are interesting, we really tried to make them not feel like an existing faction without being too incompatible with existing factions. I have heard there may be a version of them on TTS, so I will have to try them out with some other players rather than my group. Even now after seeing all the incredible factions that others have created I have new ideas I would have liked to try. It's like they say "a work of art is never finished, merely abandoned." :P
OMG I love this. I think I have a thing for reptiles? I am curious to see how much the RNG of the draw can impact these guys since it feels like their whole turn is based on how the deck is. But I love how much they have for battling. I do agree that they seem like they could lose points in many ways. Maybe that's just the risk of gambling ;)
Haha gambling is always a risk! I think that is what I enjoy about some of the lesser dependable factions like the Lizards. There is a complexity of how you manage your "luck" and makes for far more interesting games. Our intent was to make a more aggressive luck based faction that tries to stack their deck with VP gaining cards, but we also wanted the other players to feel like they could participate in this. This is why we allowed other players to "flood" the deck with less desirable results in order to sway a battle or loose the snakes some points. But sometimes you could spend a card and the snakes still get what they want - just another gamble. :D
I am glad you liked them! It means a lot to hear the feedback! I will definitely be doing this again next year!
I love the artwork and the thematics of these guys a ton... Having no hand because they're snakes? So cool!
One thing I'm wondering about is scoring, since it seems kind of easy for them to lose points, and I'm interested to see how it battles out. When they take the action to score points matching the suit of the die roll matching casinos in a matching clearing, is it just casinos in ONE matching clearing or AMONG matching clearings? It might affect their gameplay a bit depending on that, since that way they can spread out a bit more, and they're not limited to certain clearings in similar ways to the lizards.
Love the deck building mechanic a lot, and as I mentioned before, the artwork is killer!
Thank you so much on the complements regarding artwork, especially coming from someone so well know in the WWM community for their artwork, it means a lot! :)
The "no hands" rule was the number one rule we wanted to stick with so I am glad you liked it!
For clarification the Roulette action is "AMONG". The thought behind it is potentially you could build all five of your casinos in fox clearings and net a potential 5VP per turn (with 1:3 odds) or build a casino in each suit for a guaranteed 1VP per turn.
In our playtests, they showed that they could keep up with the pack on average and with some Lucky swings take the game. Though due to the nature of the odds it could always go the other way. We really wanted the punitive mechanism to be in the "gamble" so that is why they loose points, but their whole schtick is manipulating the odds so that they don't have to take as many risks.
We had a new player with only one game under their belt try them out to see how they played with someone still learning and they liked how hands off it felt. With the start of their turn basically dictated by the cards drawn, they were able to sit back and watch other factions without needing to pre plan their turn, allowing them some more understanding of the game. They could see when they needed to catch up in points so would do a Ophidian Roulette or, if the cards they drew favoured a specific suit, commit to a risky battle for some nice points. It was some very interesting feedback.
I would love to try them out outside of the group I play with though just due to the "meta" of the group definitely augments the experience and so our playtests aren't perfect. I would have loved to figure out how to get them into TTS to playtest them with other players but that was outside my wheelhouse.
Thanks for the kind words and the complete response! :D
Sounds like your playtesting went really well, and I like the balancing of the faction themselves being more hands off for a new player, but giving the more experienced opponents a new mechanic to interact with! Also appreciate the clarification on casinos.
If you check the WW fan content discussion channel, Githe has kindly compiled all factions including yours to a TTS mod for you!
This is a quite elegant implementation of a "deckbuilder" faction. I also like how "snake-y" you've made them feel with the faction abilities.
Thank you, this is our first year trying to build a faction and it has been a lot of fun, though quite stressful. We really went through a few iterations before landing on what we have, even now I am still thinking of revisions! It has been really cool seeing what everyone has come up with! I am blown away by the quality of everyone's factions!