>>6065612>>6067134desu if you're not going to go hard on rules then just run a risk game. The only real differentiator between risk and a builder is complex rules. That was exactly how they differentiated between the two on /tg/ and even then it wasn't a clean break. Each game built on the other, growing more and more complex until eventually they hit a breaking point and scaled back down to being risk + research or risk + buildings. You can actually see a very clear progression of complexity by looking at the archives of Bobski's builders. The first one was classic builder. Virtually no rules for anything. One player had EVAs by turn 12. Romans turned into zombies. Some player summoned God and the game inadvertently turned into Evangelion. Was it fun? Yes. Did it make sense? No. Bobski's next builder pared down the insanity by adding more standardization. The system builder then the colony builder were both way more complex in mechanics until we got to Space Builder which had a 20~ page rulebook (that I kept). I don't know if he ran one after that.
The advantage to a risk game is that they're simple as shit to run. The disadvantage is that unless people really want to roleplay in it, they're also aggressively boring. In either case, the GM usually gets bored and leaves or the players get bored with nothing exciting happening and also leave. On the flipside, getting a group of the same dedicated people always leads to meta-issues within the game itself. It's fun to play a backstabbing little shit. It's less fun when everyone remembers you were a backstabbing little shit last game and works together to stomp on you before anything else happens, or refuses to trust you in one game based off what happened in another. Even holding grudges in the same game months after the fact can get irritating. It is the one big advantage I've seen to playing games under anonymity. It lets players be absolute shitheads to one another and that can lead to some spicy turns. Throw everyone into irc or mibbit or discord and that illusion is shattered. Everyone remembers when Chucklefuck#9910 committed a Red Wedding and you can track their ass from game to game. It's harder when all you see is 5plb6y9u in one thread and 8814suckmynuts in another. It makes it difficult to even encourage aggression between players unless the GM or the rules force people into fighting as nobody wants to knock someone out Game 1 then 8 months later get kicked in the teeth turn 3 in a new game by that same person with no rhyme or reason because they'd fought once last year.
