Risk and Monopoly, historically known as two games that take ages to play. The task? Combine the two games, ensure it only takes about 20 minutes to play, but use as many pieces as possible from each game. It's a daunting task, but one that my classmate and I took on with a great deal of bravery.
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| Combining the boards |
When starting out we first determined that we should use both boards. We briefly attempted to use the full Risk board, but decided for the sake of brevity and simplicity to only play with Europe, Africa, and North and South America. Similarly, we only used two sides of the Monopoly board, from "Go" to "Jail", and treating that as a loop.
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| Initial Soldier set up |
Keeping in mind we needed to use as many pieces as possible, we allowed the prices of properties on the Monopoly board to actually be rewarded to the player that landed on it. We took all of the positive Community Chest and Chance cards out, making sure there were opportunities to lose the money you made as well. We kept the Monopoly player pieces in play as normal, using the shoe and battleship to represent ourselves on the Monopoly Board.
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| In progress game. |
We also used the soldiers, horsemen, and cannons in their usual fashion representing armies owned by each player. Initially we tried to evenly divvy up territories and put a soldier each on them. In doing so, however, the game seemed to go too fast. We then decided to only use 10 soldiers each to begin the game, leaving some territories open to claiming if you had enough soldiers to support the move. In order to gain more soldiers, a player would have to buy a Monopoly house for $100 and then roll on their next turn to see how many soldiers they could place in a territory that had a house.
With all the initial setting up done, we could finally play the game fully. The rules and gameplay are as follows:
Goal:
Take over one entire continent with your soldiers.
Starting/Set-up
- Each player rolls to see who goes first
- Fold the Risk board so that you only see Europe, Africa, North and South America. Place this over top of the Monopoly board so that you can only see from "Go" to "Free Parking".
- Give each player 10 soldiers, the first player may place a soldier on any territory. The second player may then place a soldier on the same continent as the first player. This continues until all soldiers have been placed.
- Place a silver Monopoly piece on the "Go" square on the monopoly board.
During Each Turn:
- Roll one white die. Move your silver Monopoly piece the number of spaces indicated on the die.
- Award the player with the cash amount indicated at the bottom of the property on the board. If they landed on a Chance or Community Chest space, draw one of the cards and complete the action. If the player has no money, ignore the card.
- If the player has $100, they may purchase a house. They may then place the house on any territory they currently have soldiers on.
- If the player has a house they bought in a previous turn, they may roll the red Monopoly die (with the Monopoly man and bus on it). If they roll a 1, 2, or 3, they may have 1, 2, or 3 soldiers respectively to put on the territory with the house. If they roll the Monopoly man, they may not have any soldiers. If they roll the bus they may move any one soldier to another territory on the board. NOTE: You must have a soldier in your territories at all times. If you leave no soldiers in a territory, you lose both the territory and any houses it may have built on it.
- The player may attack an opponent. Standard Risk rules apply. If you do not know standard Risk rules for attacking, keep reading.
- The attacker may roll with up to 3 red dice, each representing a soldier in a territory.
- The defender may roll with up to 2 white dice, each also representing a soldier in the territory being attacked.
- The winner is the player with the single highest die. EX: The attacker rolls a 2, 1, and 4. The defender rolls a 2 and a 5. The defender wins because 5 is larger than 4. One of the attacker's soldiers is destroyed. If the battle ends in a tie, the defender is victorious and may destroy the attacker's soldier.
- You may continue to battle as long as players have enough soldiers to attack or defend with.
- If the attacker is successful, they may move soldiers into the territory, leaving one behind if they wish to keep their initial territory.
- Once all of these steps have been completed, the player's turn is over and the next player may do the same.
- The game is over once one continent is fully owned by one player.
Notes:
- Only use Europe, Africa, South America, and North America
- You should have 4 white dice, 3 red dice, and one red Monopoly dice (used in fast play in Monopoly)
- Once you reach "Free Parking" on Monopoly you may return to "Go"
- Collect $200 when passing "Go" as usual
- If you land on "Jail" on Monopoly, do not go to jail.
In all, the game should only take about 10-20 minutes. Starting with 10 soldiers leaves most of the territories covered, but still allows for empty ones to easily be taken over once houses have been bought after a few turns each. The game is surprisingly fun, especially since there are many strategies possible to help a player win, and with the game being so short you should be able to try out all kinds of strategies!
Happy Riskopolying!
Now clearly the idea of serfdom leads the game into a specific time period. The setting is the high middle ages, more specifically I would like to set the time at around 1250 in central England which saw a huge population boost before the onset of the Black Death 100 years later, but was ridden with poverty. This was a time where serfdom, essentially a form of slavery, ran rampant through Western Europe. Serfs were laborers bound to a lord's property, and once a person became a serf they remained so for the rest of their lives, passing on the status of being a serf to their children. Serfs were afforded a few more luxuries than slaves would: a home for their family, a plot of land to farm, and the ability to buy and sell goods in the local villages. Freedom could be bought, but few serfs would ever be able to afford the price. 
