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Sightseers of the Mire's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Creativity/Uniqueness | #7 | 4.182 | 4.182 |
| Use of This Year's Theme | #9 | 3.636 | 3.636 |
| Clarity of Rules/Mechanics | #14 | 3.318 | 3.318 |
Ranked from 22 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?
1
TTS File URL (If you've uploaded to Steam Workshop)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3481610054
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Comments
Hello tourist faction buddy! :)
Wow this is so good! Having gone with this theme myself, I can appreciate how well designed your sightseers are. I love the redo of the retinue/decree aesthetics as a travel itinerary, but combining it with its own deck is a fresh twist that makes for a really cool mechanism.
Then there are so many little things that just fit naturally with the theme and the lore, like weaker battles if there are no visitor centers, hiring of local guides in the form of the clearings' inhabitants by spending cards, the Loyalty Program, collecting Souvenirs... it's all so well thought out!
Extra points for the art, btw, they fit the theme and the faction super-well. My favourite is the top left guy on the faction board front with the flower on his hat, he looks way happy with his travel plans :)
All in all, very interesting ideas, another faction I'd love to try. Good job!
Thank you so much! I'm glad you like them, and thanks for checking them out :)
So I took my time reviewing this one since I knew it was gonna be big. I'd enjoyed following along with your process on the server, but my word seeing all those little pieces come together to form this faction is such a payoff.
I love thematics so much, but you've emphasized them USING preexisting lore. For example local guides requiring a card because quite literally the card represents a denizen OF the clearing you're in (fox etc.). Little details like that stack up, and this faction seems airtight with them!
The artwork is for sure amazing, but you've captured the specific feeling of WONDER in each character... Down to the meeples. Looks like they're so excited to be there.
And come on, the scoring mechanism of doing sightseeing is cute, fits the woodland, and even leads to a really sweet mechanic! And they seem surprisingly balanced on first look as well! It makes me wanna theorycraft how to get a token on its own, though I'm sure that would def be matchup dependent. (Imagine it with VB, birds, lizards... Dang)
I do think there should be a lil spot to put souvenirs. Doesn't need to be there, just would be sooo sweet! You've def left yourself with the mechanics to support more design space, and even more importantly... Given the faction an engine that lets em make impactful and varying decisions each turn.
Fantastic work, and a favourite of mine
Thanks so much! This means a lot to me, glad you like them :)
Great work! I like the idea of the tourists checking things off their bucket list to score points. Should be very satisfying :-)
Thanks!
I love this. So clever to use how the map shapes out over the course of the game as a scoring mechanic. Great art too.
Thanks!🙏 Appreciate you checking them out!
This faction is beautiful - I love the idea of peaceful factions and seeing how they can interact with the world of Root.
The artwork is stunning and the theming and descriptions are on point - Buddy System is especially adorable!
I admit I'm still a bit confused about the exact details of scoring and feel I'd have to see it in action to fully get my head around it. I imagine it could be an intricate puzzle ala Badgers to set yourself up just right to score big points on a turn.
I wondered if you had any issues around how/why a peaceful faction battles with warriors. I've struggled with the idea thematically when I've brainstormed ideas for peaceful factions, but removing battle has always led to things getting pretty messy and having to rewrite a bunch of rules and interactions to make it work with a faction that doesn't fight. I suppose you could just write a quick line rationalising what is actually happening when warriors are removed (like you mentioned them wandering off), but it's always been a bugbear of mine that I haven't squared the circle on peaceful factions and battling.
Oh, also - two other things:
- it would be great to have a spot on the faction board to place your souvenirs if able
- I love your meeples!
I totally lied - one more thing!
What is the mechanism for using your contingency plan? I could see how you put plans in there but not how you do anything with them.
Yeah, maybe I could put part of a card outline at the bottom as a place to keep souvenirs! That could work well.
Thank you for checking them out! The scoring would probably need to be fine tuned as I develop them further, but I think a comparison to Badgers is valid as they need to consider the board state and figure out where to go next.
The basic idea for scoring is you have the 4 itinerary slots, one for each suit, and contingency which is essentially wild. To score you choose one clearing you rule (without a Visitor Center) then look at all connected clearings you rule (similar to cats being able to build with wood) without Visitor Centers. Then you look at each itinerary item that was completed (contingency plans don’t need to conform to a suit and are therefore easier to score).
The wording probably could be cleared up, but the goal is to get them to swarm around the map to new places, that’s what the “no Visitor Center” requirement is for.
The issue with battling is valid, but I wanted the faction to be able to change the board state to fit their objectives. I kind of pictured it as tourists that forcefully want to see an abandoned ruin and resort to fighting all the people there so that they can have the experience they are looking for. Maybe that’s a little dark, but I couldn’t think of a way to keep their agency and get around that.
Ok, I think I understand it clearer now - thanks for talking me through it. I thought the Contingency Plan might basically be birds but wasn't sure. I think it would be helpful to show that with a bird symbol as it's a handy shorthand for Root players to understand its role at a glance. So maybe just (bird symbol) Contingency as otherwise, you'd have to reduce the font size to make it fit.
I was also thinking you could remove mention of 'face up' and 'face down', and instead just add 'Place plans face down' in small text below the Contingency Plan slot. I feel like you would naturally assume cards get placed face up, so only need to specify the one exception.
I hope you don't mind, but I've had a crack at rewording the Evening phases in a slightly shorter, hopefully clearer way:
- Place a visitor centre in a clearing you rule without one. Score completed plans in that clearing, and in any connected clearings you rule without Visitor Centres.
- If you Scheduled plans, place 1 in the (bird symbol) Contingency. Then, one at a time, add the remaining plans to the Itinerary slot with the fewest plans, excluding (bird symbol) Contingency.
One thing that has just occurred - if you score in a mouse clearing then have another connected mouse clearing, do you rescore the same plans in that slot? Or is a scored plan removed from the Itinerary? That might need clarifying somewhere if that's the case.
I appreciate the rewording! That’s something that I wanted to get people’s opinions and suggestions on earlier but I just ran out of time. I like your suggestions for the itinerary as well!
As for rescoring, you should remove the plan to score the point so you wouldn’t be able to score twice. I tried to word the card in a similar way to VB quests, but it can probably be more clear.
Yeah, it's a tricky one to word clearly and succinctly but worth the effort, as I think it's a really interesting scoring system.
I completely forgot the cards clearly state 'Add to souvenirs' so I don't think it's unclear - just my slip up.
But it has just occurred to me that it might be worth thinking about swapping the placement of some text on the cards. I assume part of the reason the bulk of the Itinerary goes face up is so that players know what you're aiming for and can sabotage accordingly, like the Decree. But as they stack on top of each other like the Decree, it could be worth having the name of the location at the bottom and the details ('one empty corner clearing', 'a clearing with a building and 2 warriors', etc) at the top, so as they stack on top of each other, other players can see the goal of each card.
I think the fact that my brain's swimming with little ideas and tweaks around this faction shows what a cool and exciting one it is!
Yeah I really appreciate all the feedback and brainstorming! When I playtested I was stacking them in the reverse order so that all the goals are showing at the bottom, for the reason you stated. That way it sort of reads like a sentence "Visit... a corner clearing... a ruin... in a Mouse Clearing".
Oh, they look great stacked like that, that totally works! I guess it might be worth adding something in the Law to guide people on how to stack them, as I imagine most would instinctively tuck cards like the decree and retinue. But not worth adding anything to the faction board about it, as I think that could get messy. I just love how well thought out this faction is.
thanks! Yeah I definitely want to make a few changes and then work on the law to clarify a few things.
And yes, the battle issue with peaceful factions is a frustrating quirk, but not sure how to get around it. I guess you just bring your own logic to it. I could see the battle as jostling people out of the way for a better view, or an attraction being overbooked and fighting for space or something.