Risk

"What are we going to play tonight, kids?"

“The same thing we play every night … try to take over the world.”

World domination isn’t just for lab mice. As a kid, Risk was the game. I’m sure it was also every parent’s dream. You plop it on a table (or the floor) and let the kids go at it for … hours. And while its got some strategy, a younger sibling can do pretty well after a few games simply by getting lucky and copying the strategies that the older siblings use.

The 80s version, which is the one I remember, with roman numeral units. Photo by BGG user @Astinex

Albert Lamorisse¹ first published as La Conquête du Monde in ‘57 before Parker Brothers spotted it, snapped it up and tweaked it a bit, and it became Risk in ‘59. And at that point it spread across the globe, taking over tables and floors for kids (and adults) enchanted by it. In some ways, it reminds me of backgammon — Good play matters (quite a bit), but you are always at the mercy of the dice. You can play casually or very, very seriously². There is Risk Classic, but also plenty of variants (either new maps, or new maps and rules).

It’s got one of the most famous combat resolution rule of any modern board game — You roll one die per army³ and match up the dice (highest to highest). For each pair, low die suffers a loss. Keep attacking until you don’t want to and (assuming you won at least one battle) draw a card. Cards (along with control of an entire continent) give bonus armies.

An early game setup with the classic wooden blocks. Photo by Brett Christensen

It’s a rare person who keeps playing games as an adult⁴. But everyone I knew as a kid played games, and the one game that everyone seemed to have played was Risk. Really, there’s not much to say. It’s practically everyone’s introduction to the “Dudes on a map” game: a bunch of kids sitting around chucking dice to kill the other guys armies, until one kid has taken over the world.

What’s not to love?

We’re getting close to the 70th anniversary of this game, and its still available in stores. I’m not sure if kids still play games around tables (or on the floor); or if they just play games on their phones. But for generations of kids, Risk was the game.

For those reasons, Risk seems a lock for first ballot entry into “Most Influential Games of the 20th Century.”

1. Lamorisse was actually a film director most famous for The Red Balloon … and Risk.

2. The Risk World Cup seems to be a real thing, although you’d never know it from their terrible web sites.

3. The attacker can roll a maximum of three, the defender two.

4. Not as rare as it used to be last century, with ‘card games around the kitchen table’ being the big exception.