Inspirations

Rootless is heavily inspired by a few different games:

Root (Board Game) - Root is an amazing asymmetrical territory control game published by Leder Games, where players control factions of animals vying for control of clearings within a forest map.

Root: The Roleplaying Game - Also inspired by the board game, the Tabletop Roleplaying Game created by Magpie Games is more of a direct inspiration where each player character in the RPG plays as one of the vagabonds in a party, influencing the woodland.  It's fair to say Rootless is a video game implementation of the roleplaying game in a lot of ways.

Wildermyth - Wildermyth is a tactical RPG video game developed by Worldwalker Games LLC where the player controls a band of characters who go on adventures in a procedurally generated world and story, responding to your characters' development.

Final Fantasy Tactics and other Tactical RPGs - TRPGs have been a favourite genre of mine for decades.  FFT was the first time I was exposed to the idea of a tactical RPG back on the PSOne, but since then I've played dozens including X-COM, Into The Breach, Arc the Lad, Front Mission(s), Fire Emblem(s), Triangle Strategy, and others.  I'm not sure what it is about them, but a good TRPG can keep me engaged for hours!

World Lore

In Rootless, players find themselves in charge of a band of vagabonds, critters from across the woodland who find themselves displaced (uprooted if you will), and in an alliance of convenience, working with each other to put a warm meal in their bellies and pocket a little bit of coin to get by.  While the characters in the party get along with one another well enough, the vagabonds in general are looked down upon by most of the population; they are referred to as the "rootless", creatures without a strong foundation upon which they can be relied.

Most of the factions of the forest consider the rootless to be a "necessary evil", roving bands of mercenaries that can be hired with a bit of coin to have odd jobs completed, particularly jobs of questionable morality.  These temporary tasks are posted across the woodland in various settlements, often under pseudonyms so that they can't be traced back to the faction.

The factions themselves have anywhere between an uneasy alliance and outright aggression towards one another.  Helping one often leads to the detriment of another.  In regions of the forest where one faction has a stable enough influence they tend to be more outspoken, hanging banners and building structures to strengthen their presence.

The day-to-day life of a citizen of the forest is often unaffected by this political turmoil.  It doesn't matter which faction's banner hangs overhead, the bugs still need to be butchered and the grains harvested.  Each settlement has its own nearly indistinguishable store, tavern, and temple. Short of outright war, the population has learned to live with each faction as they all bring their own pros and cons, opportunities and costs.

The Goal

The goal of Rootless is to assist one faction in gaining control of the majority of the woodland through the execution of available jobs supporting the faction.  While your team of vagabonds won't be the only thing affecting the overall political landscape, you may eventually build up enough trust with your chosen faction to be assigned jobs of increasing importance, gradually becoming more and more influential within the woodland.  Once a faction has gained a certain level of control over a majority of regions, the game will be complete in that faction's favor (and hopefully by extension, yours!)