How to play Risk for office fundraiser? [closed]

Question

My office frequently raises money for charities holding lotteries or raffles. A coworker and I were considering more creative & entertaining ways to raise money, and we hit on the idea of playing Risk! Participants would be randomly assigned territories (most likely one territory per participant given the # of participants in my office) and could raise armies by donating money (say $1 per army token). Players would be free to form alliances & conquer neighboring territories as per the rules. Not sure if the Risk cards would be used in order to keep our rules as simple as possible. The winner of the game wins a prize, with runners up winning secondary prizes.

Questions: How can the rules of Risk be adapted to a fundraiser in order to maximize the amount of money raised? Once a player is knocked out of the game, how can she continue donating money in a meaningful way? How do we link # territories owned with # of armies you can raise without placing undue restrictions on donation amounts?

Answer 1

I would veer away from having to paying money to raise armies, which, depending on implementation, might be perceived badly (as either being able to pay money to buy huge armies, or requiring money to even make it to the end by having to pay ever-increasing amounts of money just to play.)

Instead, I would suggest allowing players to pay money to re-roll the dice used for determining battle outcomes. This way, you get a little bit of an advantage from paying money, but you may still roll badly and not win. (plus, it can incentive the other player in the battle to pay money to re-roll his dice, etc.) I might also try a staggered cost - so that for each player, the first 10 re-rolls cost $1, but the next 10 cost $2, etc.

As for players that have already been defeated, you could allow them to pay for re-rolls on one side in future battles. Depending on how competitive your office is, this may break friendships as people contribute money to their favorite faction, etc.

Also, note that the physical Risk game comes with a limited number of colors, so you might need to find some sort of work-around (have several independent "pods" where the winner of each goes on to play in a final game) or digital version.

Answer 2

Meta suggestion: Playtest: I strongly suggest that you do a dry run with whatever combination of rule modifications you come up with. Maybe give a few Risk-loving friends allocations (different allocations, since different people will have different amounts of money they are willing to spend) of poker chips, and try some of the rule ideas that get suggested here.

Split into groups Define "factions" and have them pool their money and vote or take turns taking turns in the actual play. Advantage here is that you don't have to change the rules as much (that's likely a good idea to optimize your modifications toward).

Money considerations You might set a target amount of money you want to raise, and have individuals recruit pledges from other coworkers to sponsor them--maybe have a minimum amount you have to have pledged to get in at all, say--and whoever organizes those pledges is a leader of a faction (=one color). You could have a sign-up sheet with faction leader slots, or you could have it be that whoever gets in their pledge sheet first (with the minimum pledge) gets the slot. Consider setting a maximum amount of money to prevent it devolving into pay-to-win.

One more idea--there have been many iterations of Risk, so if you end up wanting or needing more factions that you have colors, obtain pieces from differing versions (i.e. of different colors or shapes) to differentiate more than six factions.

Time may be your enemy (given that this is in a workplace). Consider that a game of Risk will often go for three hours. If you use the faction strategy (multiple contributors playing one color), perhaps people can rotate in and out during the day as "the player" for their color. Or, if you have room where you can securely leave it out, play on lunch break over multiple days. Consider using time reducing rule variations (like Capitol Risk) to mitigate this issue.

Answer 3

You could allow players to buy Risk cards (they eventually turn into armies when you get a set) - $5 per card, only can buy one card per turn.

This would allow 'eliminated' players to buy back in - as if they collect a set while 'eliminated' (by buying a card each round) they could get some armies and attack back in (say, allowing them to attack back in at their starting country).