Riskgaming Scenarios

Four Forks

Thu, 23 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Digital Adventure · 5 mins · 1 players

A short scenario about where the AI surplus goes

The AI optimists turn out to be right. AI delivers its promised dividends, and most work becomes optional.

But even this “good” timeline forks on two questions: who controls the surplus, and what does it fund?

Four people have real leverage: the President, the CEO of an AI Lab, the head of the country’s largest union, and the leading policy podcast host.

Where will you steer the country—and how will you keep your seat for long enough to get there?

Why play

You vs. The Country — Weigh your own standing and personal incentives against where you’re pushing the world.
State vs. Shareholders — Pick who controls the surplus: the government that would tax it, or the companies that built it.
Libraries vs. Subscriptions — Decide what the dividend buys: public spaces and civic infrastructure, or atomized comfort and individual consumption.

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Gray Matter

Thu, 26 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Salon Experience · 90 mins · 20–54 players

Selling Science in the Age of Attention

A lab accident turns transgenic mice into sharper learners. Within months the FDA clears it under a new 'innovation acceleration' framework that skips Phase III trials.

Three cognitive-enhancement drugs — AlphaAxon, BrainBatter, and Claricore — hit the market, each facing a one-year review that could pull it back off the shelves.

Congress is in chaos. The EU threatens sanctions. China denies any interest while quietly filing patents. Every neuroscientist, journalist, and fund manager has an agenda.

The fate of human cognition won't be settled by peer review — but by the people who know, the people who are loud, and the people who are rich. Which are you?

Why play

Credibility vs. Virality — Reliable information and sensational information don't travel at the same speed. Which one wins?
Knowledge vs. Advantage — Sharing what you know strengthens the commons; hoarding it strengthens you. Which you choose affects the world.
Truth vs. Momentum — Can accuracy ever catch up to a story that has already gone viral — and is funded?

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Experimental Automata

Thu, 18 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Salon Experience · 90 mins · 30–60 players

A Global Investigation of the Future of Digital Health and Biotechnology

New tech breakthroughs are upending biotech and healthcare, none more than artificial intelligence.

Global leaders gather at international summits and vote on the policy questions that steer health, research, and trade across six world regions.

Competitive nationalism keeps pulling against the global cooperation that health has always depended on.

How do we build resilience in a post-Covid world while still giving everyone access to safe, affordable, and comprehensive healthcare?

Why play

Unbundle the Bundle — Every policy choice moves every global indicator — you can't improve one thing without affecting others.
Developed vs. Emerging — Learn the complex policy mechanics of how tech innovations affect wealthy and developing nations in unexpected ways.
The Cost of the Middle — Under time pressure, leaders default to safe options — even when a better path is on the table.

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No Man’s Land

Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Full Immersion · 3 hours · 8 players

The AI Singularity and the Future of American National Security

A near-future America is mired in economic decline and global instability.

Chuck Branner, a television comedian, wins the presidency on a single radical promise: replace every federal worker with artificial intelligence.

Five emerging AI companies become indispensable to both the commercial economy and national defense, each angling for advantage as the administration rebuilds the state around their technology.

Will President Branner be the last man standing? And which company will dominate the fast-growing AI market?

Why play

Safety vs. Capability — Weigh the race for ever-more-capable AI against the case for slowing down to keep it safe.
Security vs. Growth — Balance national security against the economic growth the same technologies unlock.
Open-Source vs. Proprietary — Decide when open collaboration beats private advantage — and when it doesn't.

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Truth Santa

Wed, 10 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Party Escapade · 2 hours · 30–60 players

A Lux Riskgaming Holiday Experience

The North Pole's economy has collapsed. The rise of Amazon has hollowed out Santa's Workshop, and elves and reindeer alike are out of work.

Then the AI boom arrives, just in the St. Nick of time. Data centers need cooling — and nobody cools better than the North Pole.

Santa races to turn a failing, tradition-bound workshop into an AI superpower, spinning up rival company groups to build the most valuable businesses in the Arctic.

Everyone's on the same team — but only the sharpest strategy keeps the North Pole out of bankruptcy.

Why play

Reinvention Under Pressure — Turn a dying, tradition-based economy into a tech-driven one before the money runs out.
Okay, We're Sort of Joking — This was the Lux Christmas Party for 2025. It wasn't exactly serious.
Remember Nothing — The punchbowl was really strong — no one even remembers who won. Maybe Santa. Probably Jeff Bezos.

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Southwest Silicon

Wed, 17 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Full Immersion · 2 hours · 9–10 players

Water, Semiconductors and the Future of American Economic Security

For more than a century, the Colorado River has anchored tense negotiations among the Western states and Mexico. Now the water is running short.

In Arizona, fresh residents keep arriving, farms keep expanding, and a new set of thirsty industries — semiconductor fabs above all — are sprouting across the desert.

Farmers, cities, tribal nations, and chipmakers all need to secure water rights. Who gets them, and at what price?

Who keeps their access and who loses it will decide Arizona's future — and, increasingly, the world's.

Why play

Growth amidst Scarcity — Fight to grow amidst the scarce water resources of increasingly dry Arizona.
Sovereignty at the Table — Navigate tribal water rights alongside state and federal policy — competing claims on one river.
Coalitions and Leverage — Learn how alliances form, shift, and ultimately decide who wins a scarce resource.

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Powering Up

Sat, 14 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Full Immersion · 2 hours · 8 players

China’s Global Quest for Electric Vehicle Dominance

One of the largest industrial shifts in history is underway: internal combustion engines are ceding the global market to electric vehicles.

American car companies own the old technology, but new Chinese upstarts understand the future. Beijing wants to own both.

The rules keep changing. Dictates from Beijing and shocks from abroad — tariffs, supply disruptions, scandals — constantly reshape which strategies work and which collapse.

Can century-old foreign manufacturers out-maneuver CCP-backed national champions in a $3 trillion market?

Why play

Playing an Opaque Market — Practice reading a political economy where the rules are unwritten and always shifting.
Beyond Capital — Trade in social capital and proprietary information, not just money — the currencies that really move deals.
Compete or Collaborate — Decide when to fight rivals for EV dominance and when to align with them.

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DeepFaked and DeepSixed

Sat, 02 Nov 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Salon Experience · 90 mins · 30–60 players

AI Election Security and the Future of Democracy

U.S. elections have never been more exposed to foreign adversaries, cybercriminals, and hackers looking to prop up a side — or simply spread chaos.

AI and big data deliver a level of voter personalization that didn't exist before, a vector for unique attacks.

In response, a fusion cell of public officials and private-sector leaders has been established to identify and debate clues.

What's legitimate and what's disinformation? How do the clues converge? It's your call, and time is running out.

Why play

Speed vs. Silos — Threats move faster than institutions. Practice coordinating across agencies and companies before it counts.
Intervention vs. Free Speech — Weigh aggressive intervention against the open expression a democracy depends on.
Shared Signal — No single organization sees the whole picture — learn to fuse intelligence from rivals into one view.

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Hampton at the Cross-Roads

Sat, 20 Apr 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Full Immersion · 3 hours · 6 players

Climate Change and the Future of American Maritime Security

Hurricane Helen has devastated Hampton Roads, Virginia, paralyzing America's most important naval shipyard and maintenance facilities.

Amid the wreckage is the damaged hull of the next-generation Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier. The very future of America's power projection is at stake.

Worse, COVID-19 fallout, unionized labor unrest, and inflation deepen the crisis, complicating recovery and the Navy’s future readiness.

Six leaders want America to succeed, but each carries their own motives. Can they serve their interests — and the nation’s?

Why play

Challenging Tradeoffs — Negotiate naval power, fiscal limits and extreme climate change simultaneously — the same tradeoffs facing U.S. decision-makers today.
Competing Incentives — Everyone wants America to succeed, but private motives pull against the common good. Learn to negotiate when interests collide.
Complex Alliances — Is defense about security, power, prestige, or local jobs? The answer is all of the above, as you'll see live.

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