Per usual with all Metatopia recaps, everything presented here is based on playtest material and not final published versions.
Day 1, continued
Root RPG by Brendan Conway/Magpie Games
Presented by Brendan Conway
You may or may not be familiar with the board game Root, possibly the cutest wargame ever. This was an early playtest of the RPG adaptation of that game. It's based on a Powered by the Apocalypse system, and we focused mostly on chargen and a brief adventure, so there's not a lot to go over as far as mechanics. One interesting piece that jumped out at me is that there is a sort of extra type of basic move that's tied to equipment, so you can do moves particular to carrying a dagger vs. a large sword, for example.
As PbtA games tend to do, this game did a good job supporting its story genre, which I felt focused on a kind of action-espionage feel as part of an ongoing war. Like other games based on existing properties, this also has a lot of built-in setting, but none of it should be glaringly unfamiliar; the characters are anthropomorphic woodland creatures. It was a fun session with no shortage of action or hijinks, and I think it makes a great basis for some good, clean action-fantasy fun.
As I said, this was a pretty early playtest, so I imagine it will be in development a while yet (latest word is a Kickstarter scheduled for mid-2019), but you can keep up with it by keeping an eye on Magpie Games.