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Herd of the Void - RootJam 2024's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Clarity of Rules/Mechanics | #9 | 3.421 | 3.533 |
| Use of this year's theme | #15 | 3.357 | 3.467 |
| Creativity/Uniqueness | #18 | 3.550 | 3.667 |
Ranked from 15 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
This one is great, I love the way it can put warriors in all the clearings and it seems to be well compensated for its difficulty in governing and battling plus they can be moved by enemies. In addition, those skills fit well with the general vision that is usually held of sheep XD. Also interesting are the psychological games that can be played with the rift token. Excellent work and I'd love to see how this faction turns out in testing.
Thank you kindly! ♥ Yeah, definitely tried to hold to the theme - originally they couldn't battle at all as they're just sheep! However, the little testing I managed to do made it clear that having no way to deal with snares or sympathy made things... difficult :P Glad the psychological game appeals too, I think it depends on the board you're with but my hope is that it causes some tough trust decisions!
Haha first off I love the theming of these lil fellas and the artwork on those tokens 😆. Not only is it mega unique but there's also a lot of cheeky flavour in their theneatics and lore that spill over intp their gameplay.
The header artwork is absolutely phenomenal I love it 😭.
Cool mechanic of determining where the void gets to show up next.
I feel like 5 abilities at the top might be a lil too much, where maybe one or two could be included elsewhere. For example, sheepish war could BE your battle action. Ex: Sheepish war - Reveal a card to battle in a matching clearing, you take the lower dice roll.
Due to their high warrior count and THIRST for cards, I can see these guys buying every single turn from riverfolk. Might make em supah OP in those scenarios but would require a test.
Lure is SO fun, mini false orders!
Their craft is sadly way too limited, I don't Believe they can ever craft anything that costs more than one suit? Maybe include the fake rifts in this check?
I'd be interested to see what their game plan is like in action. Their theme is super cool and their mechanics are very clear and easy to understand. Great work!!
Thank you for the lovely feedback, I'm glad you enjoy the mechanics I've thrown in, and also that you like my silly art ^^
5 passives is a lot I do agree, my hope was that the relatively simple remaining board compensates a bit for that, but I do quite like your idea of just putting it into the Battle action! (Though that would be slight buff in battling through other means, like LoAM).
Also, yes! Buying from the riverfolk was a big issue in the early tests. Originally I had them have 30 warriors in the supply, (because a 30-stack of sheep scoring from 0-30 is such a funny visual), but I lowered it down to 25 after feedback that purchases were essentially free. I feel at this level purchases really start impacting your recruiting (you'll lose value recruiting twice with less than 24 supply for example), and the more warriors held by the Otters the less you're able to march into the rift. Plus, over-feeding Otters is hopefully a good disinsentive, especially as you'll probably rule a lot and cause easy TPs with your funds. Not certain though, for sure Otters are a nice matchup for the Herd, similar to Moles I suppose :)
Finally, yeah I intentionally limited their crafting heavily. I'll be open and say I'm pretty much only balancing around the E&P deck, as that's what I'm used to, and there's a bunch of good 1-cost cards in there for the Herd (False Orders, LoAM, Charm Offensive and Swap Meet come to mind). Plus, I really didn't want them getting Coffin Makers. Ever. Please oh God don't give the Sheep Coffin Makers!
Well dang you've obviously put a ton of thought behind each of these scenarios and mechanics, kudos!! 😆 Coffin makers being in the game at all does sounds totally rough lol, but I'm with you on balancing only for the E&P deck haha.
Thanks for clearing things up :)
Herd of the void? Of course I've heard of the void!