Risk: Lord of the Rings Trilogy Edition
Encyclopedia
Risk: The Lord of the Rings Trilogy Edition is a board game
Board game
A board game is a game which involves counters or pieces being moved on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve...

 based upon the game Risk
Risk (game)
Risk is a strategic board game, produced by Parker Brothers . It was invented by French film director Albert Lamorisse and originally released in 1957 as La Conquête du Monde in France. Risk is a turn-based game for two to six players...

, but set in J. R. R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...

's fiction
Fiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...

al land of Middle-earth
Middle-earth
Middle-earth is the fictional setting of the majority of author J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy writings. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings take place entirely in Middle-earth, as does much of The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales....

 rather than the actual Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...

. The board is divided into nine regions of Middle-earth taken from the three films.

Equipment

The box contains: a rules manual; a map
Map
A map is a visual representation of an area—a symbolic depiction highlighting relationships between elements of that space such as objects, regions, and themes....

 on a cardboard
Paperboard
Paperboard is a thick paper based material. While there is no rigid differentiation between paper and paperboard, paperboard is generally thicker than paper. According to ISO standards, paperboard is a paper with a basis weight above 224 g/m2, but there are exceptions. Paperboard can be single...

 board, depicting the northwest area of Middle-earth at the end of the Third Age
Third Age
The Third Age is a time period from J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fantasy writings. The history of Middle-earth is to be taken fictionally as a history of the real Earth....

; playing pieces--two light-colored sets containing Elven
Elf (Middle-earth)
In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, Elves are one of the races that inhabit a fictional Earth, often called Middle-earth, and set in the remote past. They appear in The Hobbit and in The Lord of the Rings, but their complex history is described more fully in The Silmarillion...

 Archers
Archery
Archery is the art, practice, or skill of propelling arrows with the use of a bow, from Latin arcus. Archery has historically been used for hunting and combat; in modern times, however, its main use is that of a recreational activity...

, Riders of Rohan, and Eagles
Eagle (Middle-earth)
In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional universe of Middle-earth, the eagles were immense flying birds that were sapient and could speak. Often emphatically referred to as the Great Eagles, they appear, usually and intentionally serving as agents of deus ex machina , in various parts of his legendarium,...

 for light, and Trolls
Troll (Middle-earth)
In J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, Trolls are large humanoids of great strength and poor intellect.While in Norse mythology, the Troll was a magical creature with special skills, in Tolkien's writings they are portrayed as evil, stupid, with crude habits, although still intelligent enough to...

, orkish leader shields; and, finally, a pewter replica of the only One Ring.

Official rules

Gameplay is similar to the original Risk, but there are additional cards (earned by entering certain territories with a leader piece) that give missions for leader pieces to accomplish, provide special bonuses, or cause "special events" to occur. However you cannot trade the cards. Also, strongholds and leader pieces modify combat rolls as well as the great use of ports which can quickly take you across the map.

One key difference is that the game itself is randomly time-limited by the Ring moving along the Fellowship's path at the end of each player's turn, its rate determined by dice
Dice
A die is a small throwable object with multiple resting positions, used for generating random numbers...

 rolls. The game ends when the Ring reaches the end of its path.

The winner is then determined by points being awarded to each player based on the territories, strongholds and regions they control, as well as what cards they have played during game. The player with the most points is the winner. However, many choose to not use the Ring Quest rules and simply play a standard global domination game. One reason for this is that the evil side can win at any point along the Ring's path, but the good side must get the Ring to the end of the path, and still may lose.

Many players find that the game suffers due to ambiguity introduced by the lack of clarity in the rules, and in particular regarding the special events specific to this version of Risk.

Criticism

Many fans were upset about the initial release of "Risk: Lord of the Rings edition" because it did not include the regions (continents) of Gondor
Gondor
Gondor is a fictional kingdom in J. R. R. Tolkien's writings, described as the greatest realm of Men in the west of Middle-earth by the end of the Third Age. The third volume of The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King, is concerned with the events in Gondor during the War of the Ring and with...

 and Mordor
Mordor
In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional universe of Middle-earth, Mordor or Morhdorh was the dwelling place of Sauron, in the southeast of northwestern Middle-earth to the East of Anduin, the great river. Orodruin, a volcano in Mordor, was the destination of the Fellowship of the Ring in the quest to...

. This was odd because unlike normal Risk, in this game certain players use "Forces of Darkness" armies and others use "Forces of Light" armies: Gondor is the head "good" country and Mordor is the head "evil" country. It was thought that the "Trilogy Edition", to be released a year after the first, would be something of an add-on pack, including only Gondor and Mordor and intended to be lined up with existing Risk sets. However, the "Trilogy Edition" was actually a large super-map, containing all the original regions as well as Gondor and Mordor. As a result, fans that bought the original edition were left with "incomplete" Risk maps and would have to buy an entirely new game if they wanted the "full" version, although Hasbro did offer them an add on for a fee.

External links

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