Using Maps As Board Game Surfaces

There are generally two different types of board games. Some of them work in an abstract concept, where you are competing against friends to earn the most points in terms of trivia, drawing, or other types of skill. These are games which take place in your living room and pit you against your friends in a competition of skill and daring. Other board games don't work quite in this way. They take place within the confines of a very specific world and your object is to maneuver yourself throughout the confines of that world to win. For example, traditional Monopoly takes place within Atlantic City, Clue takes place within Mr. Boddy's mansion, and Candy Land happens in the fictional world of Candy Land. With these games, you must adhere to the rules of this world in order to win the game.

Some games have a different design of the board, however, allowing for a more expansive type of game play. These boards often make use of a map of the area that the game is set on. You end up playing the game on the map, which serves as the board, much like a military strategist would do in a war room. Indeed, this is exactly how the game plays out with a board game such as Risk, in whichever form it might take.

Traditional Risk takes a map of the world as it currently stands, redefines certain areas on the different continents into new "territories" and the game proceeds over the this new map. Players will lay claim to certain territories and will proceed, over the course of the game, to battle each other for control of these territories. The game wins when one player has control of all the territories of the world. This map serves well for traditional Risk, although there are many different alternate version of this game which still use a map, albeit fictionalized or imagined.

Risk 2210 AD re-imagines Earth in the future and the design of the board is based on what the surface of the globe might look like in the future. A special edition of Lord of the Rings risk takes the board and redesigns it as a map of Middle Earth with different regions turned into territories, while Star Wars risk makes the board into a map of the traditional Star Wars Universe and instead of battling over territories, you now battle over the different star systems.

Another game, which makes use of a map of the world is the classic board game Diplomacy. This board is a map of Europe exactly as it stood in the middle 1960s. Players will each take control of one of the countries that comprise Europe and will proceed to make alliances and deals with each other, each working toward filling the winning conditions of the game. The first country to do so will be declared as the winner of the game. This board is unique because it is a true representation of life and doesn't look to distort anything as it actually stands. It is just another great example of how a little creative thinking can make for a great board game.