Root

Components

Root plays 2 to 4 players, and the official rules recommend an age of 14 and up. A game usually runs 60 to 90 minutes, though a first session with explanations will take longer.

Setup

1. 1Choose factions. With 3 players, the official advice is to drop the Alliance; with 2 players, drop both the Alliance and the Vagabond.
2. 2Place each faction's score marker on 0 on the score track.
3. 3In a 2-player game, remove all 4 dominance cards from the deck first (2-player games do not use them). Otherwise shuffle all 54 cards and deal 3 to each player.
4. 4Place a ruin marker on each of the 4 clearings marked 'R.' Without a Vagabond, these slots stay blocked for the whole game.
5. 5Fill the item supply with the specified starting items (2 boots, 2 bags, 1 tea, 1 hammer, 2 swords, 2 crossbows, and so on).
6. 6Hand out faction overview cards and place the 2 battle dice beside the map.
7. 7In the order Marquise, Eyrie, Alliance, Vagabond, each player follows the setup instructions on the back of their own faction board.

Turn structure — Birdsong, Daylight, Evening

1. 1Birdsong: each faction takes its fixed setup step for the turn (Marquise place wood at sawmills, Eyrie add to the Decree, Alliance may revolt or spread sympathy, Vagabond flip items face up).
2. 2Daylight: each faction takes its allotted actions, usually a mix of battling, moving, building, and recruiting.
3. 3Evening: score that turn's points (Eyrie, Alliance, etc.), draw cards up to your draw bonus, then discard down to 5 if you have more.
4. 4Once a player finishes Evening, the next player clockwise begins their own Birdsong.

Battle — dice and ambushes

1. 1The player initiating a battle is the attacker and chooses another player present in that clearing as the defender.
2. 2Before the roll, the defender may play an ambush card matching the clearing's suit to deal 2 hits immediately. If the attacker holds a matching ambush card (or a bird card), they may play it to foil the ambush.
3. 3Roll both battle dice. The higher die is the number of hits the attacker deals, and the lower die is the number of hits the defender deals.
4. 4Each side's hits are capped by their own number of warriors in that clearing. Effects explicitly described as 'extra hits' ignore this cap.
5. 5If the defender has no warriors there (defenseless), the attacker deals one additional hit.
6. 6Both sides remove pieces equal to the hits they take. You must remove all of your own warriors in the clearing before removing any of your own buildings or tokens. Removing an enemy building or token scores you 1 victory point.

Four factions — four different turns and scoring methods

Scoring and shared rules

Root has no end-of-round tally. All four factions add victory points straight to their track as they play, so the running total is always the current standing. Faction-specific scoring follows the table above, but two rules apply to everyone regardless of faction.

• Whenever you remove an enemy's building or token, by battle or by any other effect, you score 1 victory point (removing warriors does not score).
• Whenever you craft an item using a card's crafting effect, you score the victory points printed on that card.

Winning the game

1. 1The moment anyone reaches 30 victory points, the game ends immediately and that player wins.
2. 2If multiple players reach 30 on the same turn, the tied player closest clockwise from the current player wins (including the current player).
3. 3During Daylight, if you have at least 10 victory points, you may activate a dominance card matching your hand (one per suit) to replace your victory condition entirely. Activating it removes your marker from the score track, so you can no longer win by victory points.
4. 4After activating a dominance card, you win immediately at the start of your Birdsong if, depending on the suit, you rule 3 clearings of the matching fox/rabbit/mouse suit, or 2 clearings in opposite corners of the map for the bird dominance card.

Getting started

• The official Learning to Play guide recommends Eyrie versus Marquise as the ideal 2-player learning game. The Marquise's turn is predictable (wood, then build), which makes it easy to learn first, while the Eyrie shows off the game's signature Decree pressure.
• Learning to Play itself explains the four factions in the order Marquise, Eyrie, Alliance, Vagabond. The Marquise has the fewest exceptions, while the Vagabond juggles items, relationships, and quests and is usually learned last.
• With 3 players, drop the Vagabond; with 2 players, drop both the Vagabond and the Alliance, to keep interaction simpler.
• This is a game about ganging up on the leader, not a race against the clock. When one faction pulls far ahead, the others typically gang up on them in battle — a dynamic that falls naturally out of the design (scores post immediately to a visible track) rather than being a written rule.
• As the Eyrie, avoid leaving a Decree column you cannot resolve; restraint in how many cards you add is the key to avoiding Turmoil.

Expansions and maps

In Korea, the game is licensed and distributed by Korea Boardgames. Namuwiki records a 2019 Korean edition combining the base game and the Riverfolk expansion, and Korea Boardgames' own magazine article describes the same combination in Korean, confirming the game is officially sold there. This guide still uses the official English faction names (Marquise de Cat, Eyrie Dynasties, Woodland Alliance, Vagabond) because this research did not obtain the actual Korean rulebook text or confirm its specific terminology.

Frequently confused rules

History and editions

Designed by Cole Wehrle with art by Kyle Ferrin, Root was published by Leder Games in 2018. It won the Golden Geek Board Game of the Year that same year, then took three categories at the 2019 Origins Awards — Game of the Year, Best Board Game, and Fan Favorite Game. It also won the American Tabletop Awards' Complex Game category and Spiel Portugal's Jogo do Ano, and was nominated for the 2020 As d'Or Expert award.

Several expansions followed the base game: Riverfolk (2018), Underworld (2020), Clockwork and its second edition (2020, 2022), and Marauder (2022). A Homeland expansion and related hireling packs are announced for 2026. Nearly every expansion adds at least one new playable faction, which is a defining feature of Root's ecosystem.

In Korea, the game is licensed and distributed by Korea Boardgames, and Namuwiki records a 2019 Korean edition combining the base game with the Riverfolk expansion. Both English Wikipedia and Namuwiki were cross-checked as of 2026-10-11.