Blog

In writing about this subject, I’m going to be using the word “temporality” a lot. First, I’m sorry for that. It’s a bad word with far to many syllables for its own good. When I use this word, I’m specifically referring to how something (say a board game) both uses time and is used by time. This is a particularly useful word because it captures the fact social spaces (like games) can organize and regulate time. In this way, the word’s oddness is useful too. It reminds us of the artifice inherent to all measures of time and the degree to which structure informs perception.

Unlike Root, Arcs is not a fundamentally asymmetric game. It’s not Root 2 and it doesn’t really try to attack the same design space, despite, as we shall see later, sharing a few rules. However, in one key respect, Arcs does respond to fundamental problem in Root.

Most of my games have very long incubation periods. Traces of both John Company and Oath can be found in decades-old notes. Arcs is not like that.

I’ve spent the past year working on a new game. Over that time, I’ve largely kept myself from sharing the details of its design and development outside of an occasional interview or Twitter thread.

Today, I wanted to celebrate the game by sharing a couple things with you all. First, I want to share a little Developer's Kit which contains many Oath assets you can use to make your own cards and variants. Second, want to share a variant you can use to start a fresh chronicle.

Currently, there are four published factions that will gain Automated support with the release of The Clockwork Expansion 2. Automated factions for the Lizard Cult, Riverfolk Company, Corvid Conspiracy, and the Underground Duchy have all been in development for over a year. 

Root's Marauder expansion is the first addition to the game that offers a new system to the game's core design. Even typing that sentence makes me nervous. A game of Root can be overwhelming enough—why on earth should we add more to it!?

After designing the Warlord and moving it into testing, I started working on my ideas for the Badgers. I wanted two things: a faction that was hard to kill and a faction that was slow to act.

Back in October or so while I was struggling with Void Lich, Cole proposed to me that we trade projects. I would take a swing at the new Root project, like I had with Underworld, and he would try a new approach for Void Lich. I was a bit surprised as I knew he had come out of Underworld with a few ideas for major factions that he hadn’t had time to explore yet. But, I was happy to take a break from Void Lich and return to Root.