The BIGGEST Root Expansion EVER Just Arrived

0:00 This last week, I've filmed a lot of sporadic, off-the-cuff, conversational style videos because I've been on the road. We started off talking about all the games I have yet to open up, unbox, and play. The titles that I'm exceptionally excited about that are still back here where I left them. After that, we talked about problems that I have with some games. games that many people love, but for me there's a crux or a thing that makes them hated. Games that I never want to play. We talked about how overwhelming my collection is getting and the games that really shouldn't still be on my shelf, but I kept them because I'm a collector at heart. Also, for the comment that was asking on that video at the start of the week, this is Claremont Steep, a American single malt whiskey. And then finally, yesterday at 4:00 a.m. before hitting the road to come down here to Cleveland, I filmed a video talking about some of the classics, you know, the age-old Clue and Guess Who and Monopoly and Sorry that I'm kind of adding back into my collection. So, in thinking about what I was going to film today, what I was going to talk about, well, I've got games I could talk about, but I feel like we've been through that topic, and I don't really want to do a haphazard or quick review on a game that's either little known, little cared about, or well-known, and I need more time with. And then it hit me. About 8

1:31 months ago, I did what some might consider the best decision I've ever made, or the most egregious board gamer and collector hybrid mistake. Now, copy number one has been on the shelf in the background for most of the time that this channel has been alive, right next to a baby photo of me and a real life uh stuffed quack that West sent me. by the way, died naturally, preserved carefully, and it's still one of the most horrific things I own. I have oh, the original, the classic, the full-on complete collection of Root. And if you're asking yourself, am I going to pull out another collection of Root?

2:22 [sighs] And you're thinking that if I do, you're not going to believe me. Here's how I'll prove it. I'm going to go ahead and set the camera on top of this stack of boxes. That way, you know for a fact there's no way I could change. This is a magic trick done in real life if magic was just actual reality. And we're grabbing another box of Root, but not just another single copy. No, instead we have the full complete, some of them yet to be opened or played. second copy of Root. And now you're seeing what the problem just might be. But hold on, I do have very good reason. And first off, let me clarify. I did not buy a second copy of Root. Instead, I traded for it. I had a friend who wanted some of the games that we had here in the studio, games that I wasn't actively playing, and I knew they would get to the table more often than me. They had a second copy of Root and I said, you know, I've always wanted to try a few different things. I did the deal and now I've got some games I want to try out, some theories, projects, and mistakes I want to make. So, that's this video really a question to you, the audience, as to whether or not the ideas I have, the reason for getting an additional copy, whether or not you even

3:52 think they're possible, potentially entertaining, and uh for one of them, whether or not you might want to go out of your way to come be a part of it. So, what would drive a little old duck like me to acquire two full copies, expansions, and maps and, you know, stand uh 3D textured areas other than the whiskey? Well, hear me out. I think it would be interesting, maybe not mechanically sound, but certainly a curiosity if we did some experiments with root. I've already talked about how I really want to do the uh automata verse itself, which is in the works.

4:41 We've got Clockwork number two here ready to be opened and played. The next experiment I have is whether or not it would be possible to run a game, a two-player, three-player, four player game with equal factions headto-head. Which means I will have to identify or mark or color some of my meuples. Can one faction of the Marquita the cat fight another? Will that work in a game that's as wild, crazy, and asymmetric as Root is? If you have two copies of the Eerie and two copies of the moles, can you have an allout battle that's the sky, the ground, and the earth beneath your feet, like a nuclear explosion on the map? Not only would it work, but would it be fun? And my theory around this is that the answer is both yes. As long as the numbers equal out, the ability to score is balanced. You're still doing the same thing. You're still scrambling for the victory points that are available on the map. You're still poking and punching and stretching to try to make that happen while other people tend to get in your way. And the heart and soul of Root is chaos, is mixture, and is other people getting in your way. Now, you might say to yourself, why wouldn't they announce that this is a thing that you can do?

5:57 And the answer to that is obvious. Why would they? No one wants to buy a second copy of a base game so they can play the same faction against another player sitting at the table. That's completely insane. No one even needs to own two copies of the the same game, especially with all the expansions included. You've got enough asy asymmetry in Root as it is. Why would it ever be necessary to customize, diversify, create, and produce a game session involving the the same matching faction? And I don't honestly have a good answer to this. It's it's not necessary. Is it interesting? Possibly. Is it playable in real life like this? Like, would I ever join a game night and have it so that two players can run Marquita Cat? It sounds silly. It sounds fun. It is kind of a way to just expand Root in and of itself. I just doubled the the the potential gaming capacity of Root and you didn't even know it could be done.

6:54 And theoretically, if this experiment works, I have just given Leader Games one of the greatest assets ever received from a content creator to publisher. and not only open up their ability to both market and sell a second copy of Root to every player out there in existence that already owns and loves the game, but they could start producing just mele sets to diversify your faction. So, if you're playing Marquita Cat vers Marquita Cat or you've got a battle of the birds, four players all playing the eerie, you've got your own little custom skin colors and graphics to apply. Oh, Etsy sells stickers. Etsy sells stickers. The industry is already there. People have been preparing for this long before I ever had the idea and came across multiple copies.

7:41 The way that the stars line up, for those of you that dream big, is just glorious. And speaking of dreaming big, I do have other things I would like to do. This is already cocked. The ball's ready to go. And I just killed something. I don't know what that was. Well, my shot was excellent. It turns out I just shattered one of the uh original prototypes from Tainted Grail's King of Ruin, which I had sitting up on the banister. Am I going to try to put and piece this guy back together or is it is it kind of over? Oh man, Brandon Sanderson's sword just actually completely destroyed him. I should be more careful where I point I don't even know if you can say that word on YouTube. I'm going to cut that out. I should be more careful where you point nerfs in general. So, before the major mistake I made by firing that half-hazardly in a random direction, it's a cool Deadpool shot nerf, by the way, which is pretty exciting and I was excited to show off. I was talking about going big. This is where some of you might be able to come into play and actually help me out. I have one other goal and dream. Remember, an only AI battle, a game played with two Marquita cats or four factions of the fearless feathered eerie. And finally, [snorts] let's connect the regions. After all, the lake side of the map is apparently or theoretically adjacent to the forest

9:12 side. The mountains might be right across from the snowy valley Keep. So, why shouldn't it be possible to play a larger game of Root? If you or someone you know or your personal gaming group happens to love Root, you're willing to dedicate an entire, let's say, afternoon through late into the evening cuz we don't know how chaotic this might be, and you don't mind appearing on camera with your fun, charming, competitive personality. I'm looking for eight gamers. We could go more technically. I think you could stretch it to 12, but that might even be asking a little much. I'm looking for eight gamers. I want to set up in this studio space on this table and in this room dedicated to filming board game content with seven cameras and two vlog cameras stretched across the scene. I want to film the most epic battle of Root that has ever existed.

10:17 I'm talking an allout war. You could double up on the factions if you want, or we could have everyone choose something unique, and we will stretch across two full route battlefields. It'll be a showdown for the ages. We might have to do a little bit of quick math or accounting to figure out a win condition that keeps the balance or sets the score at an appropriate level, but honestly, I don't think expanding the game is going to hurt the game. So, eight people, two maps, potentially multiple matching factions, and a battle to sing about into the ages. I sacrificed a prototype Awaken Realms miniature, one that looked really cool, for the sake of getting this word out. So, if you want to take up your sword, join forces with me, and contend for the title of grand champion of all, I don't know, duckery, let me know. Leave a comment. Send me an email is going to be the the very best way. But when people send emails, what I'll do is probably start a WhatsApp or Discord thread where whoever is interested and willing or has design opinions and thoughts can hop in there and let us know. I'm aiming to do this sometime over the next two months. This month here in November is going to be very, very hectic. December is actually

11:48 fairly free, but I know a lot of you have holidays that are coming up that might involve travel that isn't to my studio. And January, while it is a little snowy, weather permitted, might be the perfect time. So depending on how quickly I can pull together eight expert root players and how ambitious we want to be, I'd love to see this happen soon. So that's going to round out my week of chaotic, sporadic, hopefully interesting videos. We've talked about being a collector and a hobbyist, a gamer that wants to play good games and a collector that wants to own everything ever created for them, even if you're not playing them. And I think this takes it to the next level. Two copies. I mean, after all, when I started in the hobby space, I entered through the reigns of Kingdom Death Monster.

12:40 And I also started with two copies of that game because I didn't want to open start gluing together and painting a set of miniatures if I wasn't confident I would have a second set to not worry about ruining. And at the time, Kingdom Death was so rare and limited, it was a genuine and very reasonable concern. I bought one straight up. I had it pre-ordered on the Kickstarter and I bought one from eBay so that my excitement had a place to land. I opened, ripped, painted, colored, played, and did so with reckless abandoned cuz my Kickstarter copy from wave 2 was on the horizon. There we have it. Thank you for watching. Thank you for being here.

13:26 Whatever the case, whatever you do, remember to do the important thing. Get a second copy of your favorite game of all time. I think it's reasonable. You should probably see if they could play together. I think every board game has the potential to just connect at the seams. Use a little bit of like fancy duct tape and a couple house rules and suddenly you've got yourself an unending game of dominant species or a uh a version of croenol that has inverted pyramids and sides you can flip off of while still scoring. I'm tired. It's been a long week. Looking forward to Shabbat and uh excited about what's coming for next week. We'll see you later. Bye.

14:13 Okay. All right. Well, that's why you don't do that's that's why you don't try to pose for the thumbnail while filming the video. [sighs] Oh no, now they're all mixed