Over the last two years, as people stayed inside their homes more often due to the pandemic, board games have become popular once again. Here at Onward State, we’ve enjoyed recreating classics such as Monopoly and Clue, but we’ve yet to recreate a truly grueling game. Now, it’s time.

Risk is one of the greatest strategy games of all time and is notorious for taking days to play and ruining friendships. If you’ve never played before, the general premise of the game involves controlling territory and rolling dice to “battle” between two players, with either the attacker seizing the territory or the defender holding off the attempted invasion.

While there’s no imminent war on Penn State’s campus, we figured it would still be fun to section off the area into “continents” and create our own version of the game: Onward State Risk.

Behold, the game board. Just like in Risk, the game is divided into “continents,” each equating to a certain value based on their difficulty to control. The seven continents are West Campus, North Campus, Campus Center, South Campus, Sports Complex, and Downtown State College.

Within each continent, there are several “countries,” all of which are named for the area on the real-life map that they represent. At the beginning of each turn, if a player occupies every country of a continent, they get bonus troops in the amount listed in the bottom left.

Generally, smaller continents like Downtown State College and South Campus contain fewer countries, making them easier to control and worth less.

Obviously, Campus Heart is the most valuable continent. Not only is it centrally located, but it also contains many of Penn State’s most treasured properties, including Old Main and the HUB.

Just like in Risk, there are three types of “troops” that players will use to occupy territory. However, the traditional “infantry, cavalry, and artillery” are a bit intense, so our levels will be “football player,” which is worth one troop, “Spin Bike rider,” which is worth five troops, and “CATA bus,” which is worth 10 troops and could ram down anything in its path.

Other than the minor adjustments made for aesthetic purposes, the game plays just about the same, so if you own a Risk set and want to try our version out, feel free to use our board and let us know how it goes!