Vandalize your board game? Bring on Risk Legacy!

One board game I’m very excited to play is Risk Legacy.

When I first heard about Risk Legacy last year, I had my doubts. But as it surfaced, and the more I heard about it from reviewers around the world, the more curious and then excited I got.

My boys an I have a great time playing Risk Star Wars – both the Clone Wars edition and the Original Trilogy edition. Gathering your forces and attacking each other can be a lot of fun.

We also like these versions of Risk because they don’t last forever like the original game does. Instead they have elements in the game that bring it to a conclusion without overstaying its welcome. And Risk Legacy has some of those elements too – where you play to certain victory conditions rather than total world domination every time.

Vandalize Your Game?

The biggest element of Risk Legacy that has everyone talking is the destruction. Not the matter of destroying the other players. But rather the destroying of parts of the game itself.

You see, the first thing you do when you open the game and begin your first play is tear up some of the cards!

But that’s not the end of it. You tear up cards throughout your game plays. You also write on and put permanent stickers on the game board.

So my first thoughts were like many others – “No way! I don’t want to destroy my game!”

But those aren’t my thoughts anymore. Now I’m thinking – “It will be so cool to create our own version of the game!”

The fun of so many family board games is the replay value – how the experience is different every time you play. As you play the game, you get to explore new ways of trying to win. And having options – through different cards or abilities – every time you play, you experience new options and combinations. So the thought of permanently destroying a card that would have provided certain special abilities means that you’ll never get to use that power again. And that’s a scary thought.

And writing on the board with a marker or placing stickers and letting the winners name the cities and countries on the board! Wow – that just seems too permanent and would ruin replayability.

However, I don’t feel that way anymore. Sure it may cause a slight twitch now and then. But it’s overpowered by the possibilities of the experience.

Fun for years to come.

Playing board games is all about the social experience. And what better way to enjoy the experience than to create a world together. Apparently it takes 15 plays before you get through everything – making permanent changes all along the way. So what then? Do you say the experience is over and the game will never be played again? I don’t think so.

What I imagine now is 15 fun experiences with my boys going through all the options and making tough choices while we battle for world domination each time. But I also see more than than. I see us years down the road pulling Risk Legacy out to play again and completely reliving the whole experience. “Remember when Caleb did such and such… And so Jaden did this and that… And then you named this place Trevoropolis.”

What a cool family heirloom – all in a board game.
The thought gets me excited!

(Now I just have to convince a gaming friend to buy a copy as well so we can go through the experience as a group of buddies too…)