So I've had the idea of Star Trek Risk bouncing around in my head for awhile, being a fan of games like "Birth of the Federation," "Civilization," and of course, "Risk."
Recently, my friend TJ and I have decided to sit down and really tackle the project. We have decided to tackle the project in three phases.
Phase 1: Preparation for Evacuation
TJ is an avid Diplomacy player, so even though the original idea was a Star Trek Risk, our first endeavor is to take the Diplomacy board and alter it to Star Trek interests. To that end, we have taken Europe and tilted it on its side, reassigning territories based on Star Trek empires. Naturally, we run afoul of all the known major headaches associated with Star Trek cartography, which are only exasperated by compromises that must be made for the sake of gameplay.
So far, we have come up with this:
The idea at this stage is to make minor alterations to the actual game of Diplomacy and apply it to the Star Trek universe. Essentially, this is more an excuse to tip Europe on its side and see how that affects the game as much as it is to get our feet wet in this kind of project. TJ claims that something as simple as altering the map by 90 degrees could be something akin to revolutionary within the Diplomacy community and I'm interested in how that sort of thing will turn out.
From here, we basically need to graft this map of Europe onto a starfield (likely this lovely image) , which should do a pretty good job of hiding the apparent shape of the borders.
Phases Two, Three, and Four involve expanding the concept first to larger scale in Diplomacy, then applying the idea to a more Risk-like concept. Eventually, borders will be redrawn entirely and possibly even new rules devised. The latter will definitely need to be the case if we do indeed reach our imagined peak - a 3-D Risk board.
One thing TJ was very hype about when I showed him this message board was the 3-D cartography efforts, and we'd like to use those resources to further this little project.
Yes, there are problems. It doesn't precisely match up with any of the prominent theories about Star Trek geography. I'm not entirely happy with the placement of the Ferengi, but it's one of those compromises to game play. This is obviously a predominently Alpha/Beta Quadrant map, but the two big Gamma and Delta Quadrant powers are represented in ways that are neither entirely accurate or inaccurate. The Borg encroach into it the map as one would imagine they would were they to ever send more than one cube at a time. And the Dominion are represented at what would be the peak of the Dominion War. Somewhere in there is a pivot point between the Cardassians, Dominion and Federation that will be Bajor, which we have an idea for, but are still pinning down.
So, we'll need some cartography help. We're currently trying to name all the sectors/territories. The Federation is easily done, we've got the Cardassians filled up, and most of the Klingons. Using Memory Alpha as a reference, we're able to name a lot, but not all.
I'll post a map with the names we have so far in the near future. We could also probably stand a little graphical art help and if anybody here is familiar with Diplomacy, we'll undoubtedly need beta-testers at some point. Posted by TheWoozle (Member # 929) on :
this whole idea keeps nagging me.. I love it. A map of the Federation and Other Empires is a great idea to play Risk or Diplomacy on, though in general, there would have to be a re-ballancing of resources, since the Fed is a larger area with more resources (it's just not on a war footing).
I think, a TOS setting would work best.
Posted by Da_bang80 (Member # 528) on :
I saw a commercial for Risk, Clone Wars Edition. That looks really cool. I'd like to see what the game board looks like. Is it the world? or the galaxy? Anyone got any pics of it?
I like BOTF too. I once defended Qo'Nos against about 25 Ferengi ships, with one single green Vorcha. They were Elite after that battle. That was a glorious Victory. Only problem I had was once the galaxy was totally explored, the turns took about 5 minutes for the computer controlled races to take.
I agree with Woozle that TOS would be a better setting since there's fewer races involved so it keeps it simpler. It's also, in my experience, the most well established era.
Posted by Balaam Xumucane (Member # 419) on :
This sounds interesting. I know exactly zero about the game, but I do have me some graphic skillz. Lemme know if you need any helps.
Posted by Da_bang80 (Member # 528) on :
Is this gunna be a board game or on the computer? Cuz if it is I'll beta-test. Will I get my name in the credits? Can I be a producer?
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