Near the end of this past semester, despite not being a chemistry major, I suddenly realized that the Periodic Table of the Elements would make a very interesting Risk map. (Backstory: I was in a numerical modeling class where the professor brought up quantum modeling of atoms, and gave us a periodic table). I originally intended to run at least one game on such a board with my friends at school, but I never got around to it before the end of the school year.
Noting that Conquer Club lacks a periodic table map (and even though jrisk seems to have one), I decided to search around this forum to see if anyone was working on something like this. I found the other thread, and was going to post my ideas there, but noticed that that map was nearly finished, and rather significantly different from mine.
So here I'm proposing the following plans for a map, set on the periodic table of chemistry:
1. Use elements 1-112.
2. Map display: map will be laid out according to orbitals. So, basically, it's a column from lithium to francium, then a column from be to radium, then two rows of fourteen elements (lanthanum to ytterbium and actinium to nobelium) on the 6th and 7th rows, then four rows and ten columns of transition metals, and so forth. Hydrogen and helium can be set aside above the table or something, or can be placed in their traditional placement above lithium and neon respectively. The two f-orbital rows (La to Yb and Ac to No) can of course be set aside below the rest of the table, but connections should of course be indicated.
3. All elements can attack their neighbors above, below, right of, and left of them (and possibly others, which will be listed below).
3. In addition to #2, all elements can attack other elements numerically adjacent to them in the periodic table. Basically, this means the following additional two-way connections (some of them I've listed redundantly because of the way I've drawn my map that's sitting in front of me):
1s orbital: H - He
noble gases and alkaline metals: He - Li, Ne - Na, Ar - K, Kr - Rb, Xe - Cs, Rn - Fr
2nd row: Be - B
3rd row: Mg - Al
4th row: Ca - Sc, Zn - Ga
5th row: Sr - Y, Cd - In
6th row: Ba - La, Yb - Lu, Hg - Tl
7th row: Ra - Ac, No - Lr
4. In addition to #2 and #3, all elements can attack their highest-energy-orbital neighbors left and right. What this means is that, for example, magnesium ("newest" electron is the 3s2 electron, filling the 3s orbital) and scandium ("newest electron is the 3d1 electron, starting the 3d orbital) connect. Such orbital connections are made in the left-to-right order of the wide periodic table--s connects to f, f connects to d, d connects to p. So, this means:
principal quantum number 3: Mg - Sc, Zn - Al
principal quantum number 4: Ca - La, Yb - Y, Cd - Ga
principal quantum number 5: Sr - Ac, No - Lu, Hg - In
principal quantum number 6: Ba - Lr (because the we haven't discovered enough elements to make the 6f orbital yet), Uub - Tl
5. In addition to #2, #3, and #4, elements that are fluids (gases or liquids) at Standard Temperature and Pressure (0 °C and 1 atm) are able to attack one-way outward, diagonally. This means the following additional one-way connections: (note that some of these are also redundant; I'm listing them for completeness's sake)
H -> He, H -> Be, H -> Ne (because I can't decide what column to put it in)
He -> Li, He -> B, He -> F, He -> Na
N -> Si, N -> S
O -> P, O -> Cl
F -> He, F -> S, F -> Ar
Ne -> H, Ne -> Cl, Ne -> K
Cl -> O, Cl -> Ne, Cl -> Se, Cl - Kr
Ar -> F, Ar -> Na, Ar -> Br, Ar -> Rb
Br -> S, Br -> Ar, Br -> Te, Br -> Xe
Kr -> Cl, Kr -> K, Kr -> I, Kr -> Cs
Xe -> Br, Xe -> Rb, Xe -> At, Xe -> Fr
Hg -> Ag, Hg -> In, Hg -> Rg
Rn -> I, Rn -> Cs
These should of course simply be indicated by arrows and chemical symbols on the game map (a simple way that I've used on my map).
6. Bonus groups and numbers: I haven't figured these out yet, but groups should be made for some (maybe not all) of the following:
each column (except the f-orbital two-element columns)
each row
each orbital (first two quantum numbers): e.g. 1s, 2s, 2p, 3s, 3p, 4s, 3d, 4p...
all elements of a certain substance type (i.e., alkaline metals alkaline earth metals, lanthanides, actinides, transition metals, poor metals, nonmetals, halogens, noble gases)
all fluids (H, N, O, F, Cl, Br, I, noble gases)
all radioactive elements, i.e. without known stable forms: Tc, Pm, and everything from Po onwards
all synthetic elements, i.e. not yet found naturally: Tc, Pm, Am onwards
I have this map mostly hand-drawn-up sitting in front of me on paper right now. I could easily make this into a neat image that I could scan into a computer.
But I'd like to see what y'all think first. Please, feedback is very welcome! (Even if this idea doesn't get off the ground here at CC, I still plan on using it for some games with my friends, at the very least for playtesting; I'd always appreciate ideas, commentary, and constructive criticism.)
