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Exiles Of Elk RootJam2024's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Creativity/Uniqueness | #14 | 3.588 | 3.588 |
| Clarity of Rules/Mechanics | #23 | 2.588 | 2.588 |
| Use of this year's theme | #24 | 2.471 | 2.471 |
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
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Comments
Incredibly inspires gameplay. I would LOVE to try this out.
Thanks for the encouragement!
this one is my favorite this year. The gameplay looks really well thought out. A plat test would be a good way to really feel the character. I can't wait to see more.
Thanks!
Wow these guys look really fun to play, and I'm so happy to see that they continue the legacy "protector John" the hireling made to look after and defend the denizens of the woodland.
Mechanics seem fun, easy to understand, and not gamebreaking, which is a huge feat in itself! I especially love the use of the action dice, and being able to "unlock" them through your factions mechanics. Also appreciate how in your faction board design, the more important aspects of your factions mechanics are given the space and attention they need, makes it very easy to follow.
Seems like they fit well into base root, though it's tough for me to criticize or offer help on their mechanics without being able to playtest em. Thanks so much for the great submission :)
Thanks so much for the input and encouragement! I definitely thought about your drawing of "Protector John" when creating this faction. :) Something I've had problems with in my previous fan factions (which were really just ideas scribbled onto paper) is making sure they weren't to overpowered, or if they actually even worked in the game at all. After returning to a faction I had been previously making, (The Freshwater Snipers, a group of hippos) I found that none of the mechanics worked very well. I pretty much had to scrap it all and start all over. In other words, I'm glad I got the Exiles to come together in a state where they fit the game, instead of simply breaking it. As for the action dice, I was trying to think of a simple mechanic that would allow the Exiles to have more access to more actions per turn, which was something they were very limited to in initial playtesting. Eventually the action cube idea came up and it worked perfectly. Thanks Tin(TheFoil)!
Wow no way! That drawing seems so super long ago now 😆. Thanks so much for sharing the story behind these guys, feel like maybe a few eggs were broken to make this omelette haha.
Hope you keep developing em, and keep making awesome factions in the future!
I will, thanks!
Very well done. The favor mechanic is unique and seems to work quite well together. I especially love that as a specific suit moves up the track, you are encouraged to slowly work towards getting acceptance down in that suit, then scoring in it. The action cube mechanic was hard to figure out at first, but seems very elegant once I did. My only concern is that everyone else can easily figure out what type of acceptance is about to be your scoring goal, and kill it. Because dispersal happens, these expensive acceptance tokens seem somewhat easy to kill, and the lack of board presence will hurt the elks for sure. Overall pretty balanced, but a generally weaker faction compared to base game, but still fun with elegant mechanics that maybe don't quite line up with the theme, or at least I don't see what the elks are doing to curry favor other than throwing away cards of that suit. The theme might be a little lost on me, but the mechanics seem very good. Even with clear counterplay, they still have good scoring potential nonetheless, which would make them still decent. Clear incentives to police as well with the green square of the first favor area. My main complaint is that I wish the board lined up such that "gather for the" phase was actually above where those cards will be and I wish it lined up with the sacrifice theme a little more, but I like it, the mechanics seem to work very well, and it's not ridiculously overpowered and controlling.
Thanks for the input! This was my first time creating a fan faction for Root (other than as a concept) and I felt pretty good about how it turned out. I agree that I had a hard time mixing the theme in with the mechanics, and sacrificing ended up more as an idea than a mechanic. At first when testing the Exiles were very weak, but could have decent potential to burst at the end game. This is when I made a few changes such as having the acceptance stay removed, so you don't have to re-place it. However, I believe it still came out as a common under dog. As for lining up the "Gather For" section was difficult, and I couldn't find a better way to arrange the board with the token track, the Favor track and the turn actions all there. I was attempting to do all this on Canva, which doesn't have all the tools I needed to make it look perfect. I hope the law page helped clear out the clutter of the rules. Either way, I appreciate the feedback and I hope you enjoyed the Exiles of Elk. Thanks!