Root

1. Game Components

2. Game Setup

1. Player count: If playing with three players, remove the Vagabond. If playing with two, also remove the Alliance.
2. Each player takes their faction board and all of their faction's pieces. The back of each faction board lists its pieces and basics of play.
3. Place each faction in play on "0" on the score track.
4. Shuffle the shared deck and deal three cards to each player. Do not confuse this shared deck with faction-specific card types.
5. Place the four card slots on the map marked with "R."
6. Place the chit matching spaces near the top of the map.
7. Gather other pieces: hand out the 16 faction overview cards as desired, and place the two custom dice near the map.
8. Set up factions in this order: Marquise, Eyrie, Alliance, Vagabond, following the Setup instructions on the back of each faction board.

3. Game Flow

Each turn is split into three phases, played in order: Birdsong, Daylight, and Evening. Once you play through these phases, your turn ends and the player to your left begins their turn. The three phases are described in detail on each player's faction board.

• Birdsong: Faction-specific start-of-turn steps (e.g., Marquise places wood; Eyrie adds cards to the Decree; Alliance revolts/spreads sympathy; Vagabond flips items and may slip).
• Daylight: Craft cards and take faction actions.
• Evening: Score faction-specific points (Eyrie score from Roosts track), draw one card plus one per uncovered draw bonus, and discard down to five cards if over the limit.

General action rule: Unless otherwise noted, a faction may take actions listed in the same phase in any order, and may take a given action multiple times.

4. Player Actions

Shared Actions

• Move: Take any number of your warriors from one clearing and move them to a connected clearing. You must rule the clearing you are moving from or to. You rule a clearing if you have the most combined warriors and buildings there; on a tie, no one rules.
• Battle: Choose a clearing where you have warriors; you are the attacker and choose another faction with pieces there as defender. Roll two dice — attacker deals hits equal to the higher roll, defender equal to the lower roll. Each player can roll no more hits than their number of warriors in the clearing. Both remove pieces simultaneously; the player taking hits must remove all their warriors before buildings or tokens.
• Craft: Activate crafting pieces in the clearings shown in the card's bottom-left corner. Each crafting piece can be activated only once per turn. Crafting pieces: Marquise = workshops, Eyrie = roosts, Alliance = sympathy, Vagabond = hammers. Immediate effects resolve then discard; persistent effects tuck under the faction board.

Marquise de Cat

• Birdsong: Place one wood token at each sawmill.
• Daylight: Craft with workshops, then take up to three actions:
• Battle: Initiate a battle.
• March: Take two moves.
• Recruit: Place one warrior at each recruiter (once per turn).
• Build: Place one building in a ruled clearing with an open slot by spending wood equal to its cost (wood may come from any wood on the map connected through clearings you rule). Score victory points revealed on faction board.
• Overwork: Spend a card to place one wood token at one sawmill in a clearing matching the card's suit.
• Hawks for Hire: After three actions, spend one bird card per extra action.
• Keep: No one but the Marquise can place pieces in the keep clearing. Field Hospitals: Spend a card matching the warriors' clearing to place removed warriors back in the keep clearing.

Eyrie Dynasties

• Birdsong: Add one or two cards onto any Decree columns; only one may be a bird card. Emergency Orders: If no cards at start of Birdsong, draw one.
• Daylight: If no roosts, place one roost and three warriors in the clearing with the fewest warriors. Craft with roosts, then resolve the Decree left to right:
• Recruit: Place a warrior in a matching clearing with a roost.
• Move: Move at least one warrior from a matching clearing.
• Battle: Initiate a battle in a matching clearing.
• Build: Place a roost in a matching ruled clearing with an open slot and no roost.
• Evening: Score victory points shown on the rightmost empty space of the Roosts track, then draw/discard.
• Turmoil: If you cannot take a Decree action: lose 1 VP per bird card in Decree; discard all Decree cards except the two Loyal Vizier bird cards; depose leader and choose a new one; end Daylight and go to Evening.
• Special: Eyrie rule a clearing even when tied for presence. Their Disdain for Trade means they score less when crafting items.

Woodland Alliance

• Birdsong: Revolt any number of times, then spread sympathy any number of times.
• Revolt: Spend two supporters matching a sympathetic clearing. Remove all enemy pieces, place matching base, place warriors equal to sympathetic clearings matching that suit (including this one), and place a warrior in the Officers box.
• Spread Sympathy: Place a sympathy token in an unsympathetic clearing (adjacent to a sympathetic clearing if possible), spending supporters per the Sympathy track cost. If the target has 3+ warriors of another player, spend an extra matching supporter. First sympathy may go in any clearing.
• Daylight: Craft (using sympathy), Mobilize (add a card to Supporters), Train (spend a card matching a built base to place an officer).
• Evening: Take military operations up to your number of officers: Move, Battle, Recruit (place warrior in clearing with base), Organize (remove warrior from unsympathetic clearing to place sympathy there and score). Then draw/discard.
• Outrage: When another player removes a sympathy token or moves warriors into a sympathetic clearing, they must add a matching card from hand to your Supporters (or you draw from deck if they have none).
• Guerrilla War: When defending, Alliance uses the higher roll and attacker uses the lower roll.
• Supporter limit: Without a base, max five supporters.

Vagabond

• Birdsong: Flip two items face up per hammer on its track, then three more. May Slip once (move into adjacent clearing or forest without exhausting items — the only way to enter a forest).
• Daylight: Exhaust items to act:
• Move: Exhaust a boot.
• Battle: Exhaust a sword.
• Strike: Exhaust a sword to remove a warrior in your clearing (or building/token if no warriors).
• Explore: Exhaust a torch to take an item from a ruin and score 1 VP; remove the ruin.
• Aid: Exhaust any item, give a matching card to a player in your clearing, take one item from their Crafted Items box.
• Quest: Exhaust the two listed items to claim a matching-suit quest; then draw two cards OR score 1 VP per completed quest of that suit; draw a new quest.
• Craft: Exhaust hammers equal to the card's crafting cost (hammers match your clearing's suit).
• Repair: Exhaust a torch to repair a damaged item.
• Special Action: Exhaust a bird to take the action on your character card.
• Evening: If in a forest, repair all damaged items. Draw one card plus one per hammer on its track; discard to five. Discard items down to item limit (six plus two per bag on its track).
• Relationships: Aid improves relationships and scores VPs. Reaching Allied allows moving/battling with that faction's warriors. Removing a warrior makes that faction Hostile: score 1 VP per piece removed in battle during your turn, but exhaust another item when moving into a clearing with Hostile warriors.
• Battle as Vagabond: Max rolled hits = total undamaged swords. Take hits by damaging items; ignore further hits if no undamaged items. Defenseless (extra hit) if no undamaged swords.

5. Scoring and Game End

You win by scoring 30 victory points or by playing and completing a dominance card.

• Marquise: Scores when constructing buildings (more of the same building = more points).
• Eyrie: Scores each Evening based on roosts on the Roosts track.
• Alliance: Scores when placing sympathy tokens.
• Vagabond: Scores by completing quests, improving relationships, and harming hostile factions.
• Any faction: Score 1 VP whenever you remove an enemy building or token (even outside battle).

Dominance Cards

• Four dominance cards exist (one per suit). They cannot be crafted but can be spent for their suit. When discarded/spent for suit, place near the map; any player during Daylight may pick one up by spending a matching-suit card.
• During Daylight, if you have at least 10 victory points, you may play a dominance card to activate it. Remove your score marker from the score track; for the rest of the game you can only win by meeting that card's victory condition. It doesn't count against hand size and cannot be removed or replaced.
• Vagabond Coalition: The Vagabond may play a dominance card to form a coalition with the lowest-scoring player (Vagabond chooses on tie), placing his score marker on that player's faction board and sharing victory if that player wins. If Hostile, move the marker to Indifferent.

Key Rules and Common Questions

Easy-to-miss Rules:

1. Tokens do not add to rule — only warriors and buildings count toward ruling a clearing.
2. The Vagabond pawn is not a warrior — it cannot rule a clearing and is not affected by effects referring to warriors, but it can move and battle.
3. Bird cards are wild — you can treat a bird card as mouse, fox, or rabbit, but if you must spend a bird card specifically, you cannot substitute another suit.
4. Ambush cards: Only one ambush card per battle per player. The attacker can foil it by playing a matching ambush card. Ambush hits are not limited by warrior count and can be played even when defenseless.
5. Defenseless bonus: The attacker deals an extra hit if the defender has no warriors in the clearing. Extra hits are not limited by warrior count.
6. Removing your own pieces: When taking hits, you must remove all your warriors in the clearing before removing any of your own buildings or tokens.
7. Crafting pieces can only be activated once per turn — "activating" simply means pointing at it; you don't remove or move it.
8. You never lose points when your buildings or tokens are removed.
9. Outrage is not triggered by placing a piece in a sympathetic clearing — only by moving warriors in or removing sympathy.
10. No consent required: No actions in Root require another player's consent.
11. Alliance supporter limit: Without a base, discard down to five supporters.
12. Vagabond item limit: Six plus two per bag on its track; discard excess during Evening.
13. Two-player games: Do not use dominance cards; best played as two full games with factions traded between games (each takes about 30–45 minutes).
14. Ruins slots cannot hold buildings until the Vagabond explores them; without a Vagabond, they stay blocked all game.
15. Forests (spaces enclosed by paths) can only be entered by the Vagabond, and only via Slip.

FAQ:

Q: Which pieces are buildings? Which are tokens?
A: Buildings are square cardboard pieces that go in open building slots on the map, while tokens are circular cardboard pieces that do not occupy a slot.

Q: Do I lose points if one of my buildings or tokens is removed?
A: No.

Q: Can I play multiple ambush cards in a battle?
A: No — just one.

Q: Does placing a piece in a sympathetic clearing trigger Outrage?
A: No. You have to move in warriors or remove the sympathy to trigger it.

Q: What does "activating" a piece for crafting mean? Do I do anything with it?
A: No. Activating just means "I have it, and I want to use it for crafting." You don't need to get rid of it — just point at it and say you're activating it.

… (condensed here; full text on the cunleme Chinese page)