Riskelo

Riskelo is a turn-based conquest game where the roll of the dice is replaced by a trivia question. The attacker picks the subject and how many questions — those are the dice. The defender answers against the clock. A right answer and it is the attacker who loses a man; a wrong answer, or time running out, and it is the defender. One question is worth exactly one roll: it costs a man to one side or the other. THREE WAYS TO FIGHT • Classic — the attacker asks and picks the ground; the defender answers alone. What you know is your armor. • Showdown — both players get the same question. Both know it? The clock settles it. Neither? The territory holds, the way a tied roll holds it. And the defender can double the stake before answering. • Dice — just like the box: up to three dice against two, ties to the defender. THE PRESSURE OF A SIEGE Without chance, a player who knows would never lose a place. What replaces the dice is time: fifteen seconds on the first question, and the clock tightens with every question the same territory takes in the same turn. Pressing a place eventually pays — but it is the defender's breath that gives out, not their luck. FOUR BOARDS • The Ring — an invented world, five lands in a circle, 28 territories. • Europe — from the Atlantic to the Black Sea, 38 territories. • World — six continents in hexagons, 42 territories. • Real World — the same 42 territories on the real coastlines, twenty sea crossings. TWO TO FOUR PLAYERS • Alone against the machine, whose knowledge sets anywhere from 35% to 90% correct answers and whose play has three levels — knowing and playing well are two different things. • Around one device, passed from hand to hand. • On several devices, one per player: in the same room, with nothing to set up — or far away, each of you at home, with a six-letter code sent by message. No account either way. THE RULES FROM THE BOX, OPTIONAL • Territory cards, with the trade-in climbing at every exchange. • Total war: every territory, no exception. • Personal conquests: each player is dealt an objective only they can see — two continents, so many places held, one side to bring down. Filling it wins outright, and the territory count no longer tells you who is winning. • Scholar's reinforcement: one extra man for every few right answers in the same subject. 2,400 QUESTIONS IN THE GAME Six subjects — Geography, History, Science & Nature, Arts & Literature, Sports & Games, Screen & Music — four hundred questions each, at three levels of difficulty. The mix is set before the game: easy for playing with children, mixed the way a boxed game would be, tough for anyone who finds the rest too easy. And a question does not come back: the device remembers what has already been asked, and puts the ones you have never seen in front. THE GAME KEEPS You find it where you left it. And the library records every turn without being asked: you can go back to the moment it all turned and play the rest again, without erasing the original. A game played far away can span several evenings: the code stays good for a week, and the game starts again on the turn you had reached. You can have several at once — one with your sister, one with a friend — and none of them erases the others. You do have to be there at the same time: a question is answered against the clock. WHAT RISKELO DOES NOT DO No ads. No subscription. No account. No tracker, no analytics. The questions are in the app: playing needs no connection at all. Only a game played far away goes through a relay, which learns nothing about you and does not keep the game. SEVENTEEN PACKS, IF YOU WANT THEM Sixteen school decks — History, Geography, English and Science, for grades 6 through 9 — and Rock 70-80. Bought once, kept for good. The base game is whole without them, and whoever joins a table plays the host's packs. iPhone, iPad and Mac — one app, in English and French.