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Faithful of the Shrewsen One - RootJam 2026's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Creativity/Uniqueness | #1 | 4.889 | 4.889 |
| Use of This Year's Theme | #1 | 4.444 | 4.444 |
| Clarity of Rules/Mechanics | #3 | 3.944 | 3.944 |
Ranked from 18 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?
Yes
TTS File URL (If you've uploaded to Steam Workshop)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3726387648
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Comments
It's very hard to pick a favourite for this jam but if I had to, this would be it!
I love everything about it, the idea behind it is genuinely unique, I love the story-telling / narrative vibe, and the artwork is just sublime. I genuinely can't wait to give this faction a try!
I honestly don't have the words to describe how much I love this faction and how blown away I was when I first saw it. The art and design are pure mastery, and the tome mechanic is probably the most beautiful, appealing engine I've seen yet. I'm genuinely excited to try it just to feel what it's like to flip the pages and unveil the story! On top of that, the narrative is incredibly poetic, super "Rooty", and so coherent. I really expect this to become a massive hit!
If I had to nitpick (but take it with a grain of salt), I think the current weakness lies in the mechanics around the hero quest. A faction with such a massive thematic and narrative core engine doesn't really seem to need so many extra pieces (6 buildings, 8 tokens, 20 warriors). This plethora of pieces risks (?) making the gameplay lose its tension and mechanical elegance. Also, the shrews' daylight actions might be a bit flat and linear. I could be completely wrong, but my gut feeling is that it offers a bit too much agency, which takes away from that tight puzzle feel.
But hey, this might just be an aesthetic worry that doesn't actually show up once you get it to the table!
Uses the theme so well, the board layout is incredible, they seem fun... And the art is delightful. Fantastic job :)
Well done! I know the Hero is supposed to be the VIP, but I just want to read that book! It sounds like a really thematic way to tell the story (pun intended) of this faction in the Woodland. Plus, your art is adorable!
Just a couple questions about how the book works:
1. When I take a feat action, the bottom of the card says to turn the page. This usually reveals another feat card, which I can then use as another action, correct? So, assuming you had the perfect storybook, you could do up to 12 actions in one turn (3 from the faction board, and 9 from Feats)? Probably not likely to happen, but theoretically possible?
2. The first step of Evening talks about the Denouement being face down, which triggers a penalty of renown/points. However, the Feat cards always give an option to flip the whole Tome, which would mean that the Denouement is face up. Is there ever a reason you wouldn't want to "finish the book"? At some point, I would imagine you see that your Hero isn't going to be able to do many more actions and you would choose to "skip to the end" instead of turning the page?
Thanks for the feedback ! Both of your questions can be answered by knowing that you can only flip the next card or the Tome when you ACHIEVE a feat, not when you take the feat action. I should find a way to make it visually clearer I think.
The Tome is meant to be a Push your luck mechanism. When you achieve a feat, you may want to flip the next card to have a new action and more chances to place renown, or you may choose to play it safe and flip the whole Tome to be sure to score points in Evening and not remove half of your renown.
In practice it is really complicated to get all 9 feat actions, because to achieve the feat it usually requires more than the action given by the feat. Also you need to have 8 renown on the map already in order to set-up a Tome with 9 feat cards, that would be quite difficult.
Ah, that makes more sense! I was just misreading the cards. I should've been paying more attention to the bullet points to denote the actions. Maybe removing the line break before the "Then" statement would make the Achieve action read as one block of text instead of two? Otherwise, this seems like the kind of clarification that could be written in the Law of Root rather than on the cards themselves.
I also read past the step that says "Repeat [placing a feat on the Tome] once per Renown on the map". The growing (or shrinking) book should make the Push-Your-Luck mechanism much more dynamic. Would love to see this in action!