You Can Play Risk On Anything #1

Chutes, RISK, and Ladders

(you can play RISK on anything pt.1)

It is true.

You can play RISK on anything. 

To prove this I will do a multiple entry how-to series on the various games you can turn into RISK.

If you have suggestions or challenges for this series, please email me at tymora42@gmail.com.

Needed:

Chutes and Ladders

RISK!

Setup:

There are a few ways to set up your pieces on the board, depending on game length. To determine how many armies each player gets take the amount of Territories (100), divide it by the number of Players (3-8), round your quotient down and multiply it by 2.

(ex. 3 players get 66 armies, 4 players get 50, 5 players 40, etc.)

• Short - Random Placement - Deal out flashcards numbered one to a hundred (or pick the numbers out of a hat). Put your pieces on the picked number.
  
• Medium - Player Placement - Each player takes turns putting a piece on the board until all territories are chosen.
  
• Long - Battle Placement - This is advanced and will need further explanation below.

Rules:

The same rules as RISK are applied for attacking and defending. How you attack and how many armies you get for what continents is a different story. Below I will give suggestions. Feel free to combine them or leave them out as you see fit.

1. Continents:
   • Base - Territories of a Player divided by three equals troops per turn. It is suggested to at least have this for reinforcement.
     
   • Rows - (1-10), (11-20), (21-30) . . . +3 troops
     
   • Columns - (ending in 1), (ending in 2), (ending in 3) . . . +3 troops.
     
   • Chutes and Ladders - controlling both ends of a chute or ladder +1 troop.
     
   • Chutes and Ladder Advanced - Controlling every square a chute or ladder touches +3 troops.
     
   • 4 squares - Controlling 4 adjacent territories that make a square (1, 2, 11, 12) or (2, 3, 12, 13) or (11, 12, 21, 22) or (22, 23, 32, 33) . . . +1
2. Attacking
   • Adjacent - Any adjacent square may attack each other (up, down, left, right) 
     
   • Consecutive -  Only consecutive numbers may attack each other (12 may attack 13 or 11, but not 2 or 22)
     
   • Ups and Downs - Chutes may attack any square down from and along the chute. Ladders may attack up the ladder. Neither can attack the opposite way.
     
   • Both Ways - Same as Ups and Downs, but allowing the attacks to be both ways.
     
   • Rollover - 100 attacks and can be attacked by 1.
     
   • Corners - corners can attack any corner (1, 10, 91, 100)
     
   • Complete rollover - squares on the end can attack and be attacked by the square on the opposite end. (ex. 95 and 5, 20 and 11). This also opens up the corners to each other.

Advanced Alteration

Battle Placement Rules

(merging Chutes and Ladders with Risk)

Divide the number of players by 100. Each player gets this many troops in their reserve.

1. Round One 
   • The first player spins the wheel and places however many troops on that territory. 
     
   • The next player does the same. If they land on the same square as another player, they may attack with as many troops as they would like to pull from their reserves.
     
   • Continue this way until the first round is finished.
2. Round Two and onward
   • Add bonus troops to reserve army.
   • Place as many reserve armies into any territories they occupy (if any).
   • Spin the wheel and move that number of spaces forward from any territory they occupy. Use Chutes and Ladder Rules for this. Troops may only be moved from this territory to the new, leaving at least one army in the original territory.
   • If that territory is occupied by another player, they may attack with troops from the initial territory.
   • Players may attack any attackable area occupied by another player at this time.
   • Fortify.
3. After all territories have been occupied
   • Place the remainder of Reserve armies onto any territories you occupy.
   • Forget the wheel and play as normal until a winner is declared.

High Stakes Monopoly

High Stakes Monopoly

(a gambling with real money version)

Description:
An alteration of the typical Monopoly game using real money for not very rich people.

Needed:
a complete monopoly set
real money (about $50 per person)
3 people or more

Main Alteration:
Move the decimal place on all denomination two places to the left so every dollar is now one cent.
(ex. $500 is now $5 and $152 is now $1.52)

Set Up:

• Everyone antes 10 bucks to fill the bank (or an agreed upon sum).
• The house should have penny, nickle, and dime rolls to buy out some of the bills.
• Players are allowed to have no more than $15 dollars starting cash. They can have less, but they are starting the game at a disadvantage.
• The banker or house should be a nonplayer to minimize disputes.

Gameplay:

• Start at go and follow the official rules of monopoly with the Main Alteration.
• When a player "passes go" they recieve 2 dollars, if the bank has money. If the bank does not have money when a player passes go, that player is allowed to up the ante at a maximum of $10. They may then collect their $2.
• Any player that does not want to meet the new ante may "fold" by returning all of their assets to the bank for the morgage price or selling them to another player.
• A player may not fold if there is money in the bank or a new ante has not been declared.
• Game continues until all but one player has folded or been bankrupted.

Free parking is just a free space. Do not put money into it.

Deals:
Players may make deals with each other with in-game assets only.
This will be difficult to control. Be lax with it, but do not tell your players that.

What This Blog Will Do

This is a project I have had in my head for quite some time. Needless to say there are many ideas floating around about it. The crux of the project is to take classic board games like Monopoly, Risk, Jenga, etc and create new games with their pieces. Alongside the classic games I will review new games that reveal the progress in the classic style like Blockus, Flux, and Carcassonne. Every so often there will be short anecdotes about an experience within a role playing game, modifications to make new games better, video game platform quips, and whatever else I might think of to fill the space. But the crux is the game manipulation.

So, hold on tight. More will come. Some will be fun. Some will be irreverent. All will be something new.