If you’re a gamer there is a really good chance you have played Risk during your lifetime. There have been more versions of Risk then I care to remember.  Halo, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings they have all had the Risk make over. You can play it online on the Xbox, PC or PS3 and there are countless forms of it on your iOS devices.  So why is Risk Legacy such a hot button topic right now?

Risk Legacy asks you to do the unthinkable for a lot of hobbyists and that is mark up and even destroy parts of your game.  This column isn’t a review of the game itself.  I’ve only played it once so far on my version of Earth and it would take around 15 plays to enjoy everything Risk Legacy has to offer.  I’m going to cover why I don’t think it is such a big deal to alter a board game.

In Risk Legacy you’re going to get a game board that is very empty. The map is Earth as we know it but there are no continent names. There are no cities or other structures in strategic positions.  Even the resource cards are all the same until you get set up. In Risk Legacy the world is yours to make and shape as you see fit.  The minute you open the game and the rule book you’ll notice this. Portions of the rules are empty and will be filled with stickers at some point during your sessions.

Don't cheat and look early.

One of the first set up items you have to do is choose a starting power for each faction. You have two choices and once you pick one and affix the sticker to the card you throw away the other one. The resource cards representing the territories all have one coin on them. During setup you have 12 coins to put on these cards, the only rule is no card can have more then 3 coins during this stage.

How do you make these starting decisions? It’s entirely up to you. I randomly selected 6 cards, then reshuffled and pulled 6 new ones.  If I saw a continent getting ignored I discarded my pull and choose another one. While not entirely random I was able to craft a world where Afghanistan and Europe are key resource areas for now.

There are several envelopes on the inside lid of the game, the box is shaped like a brief case by the way, that tell you when they can be opened. There are also several containers possibly housing new pieces that also have instructions on when to open them.  What’s in all of these secret spots, well you won’t know until you play enough games and meet certain conditions.  There is even one envelope under the insert that says “Do not open ever”.

When you win a match you sign the board, each player also notes their participation on the faction card and whether they won, held out or were eliminated. The winner gets to do such things as forming cities, naming continents and even tearing up resource cards.  Even the players who “held out”  get to do something to the board. Yes the reward for winning a game of Risk legacy is either placing a sticker, writing on your board or tearing stuff up.

How could any game ask you to do this? We’re serious hobbyists.  We sleeve 500 card games. We meticulously count each component when we open a new game. We have on hand more baggies than Sam Hurd would know what to do with. Before you get your Plano container all in a huff let me tell you the main reason you should do this…IT’S FUN!

We ran our first session of Legacy as dueling games. We had two copies and 6 players so we split up to see how different each version of Earth would be. One of the players was very nervous about marking up the game as it wasn’t his copy. At the end of his session he had no problem naming a minor city after himself.

These stickers are going all over your board

From a cost standpoint does it make sense to mark up and destroy a board game? The average cost of the game online is around $47 as of this article. They state the average game is going to take 90 minutes which seems really short to Risk players but it is very accurate.

In our two sessions my game finished in 60 minutes and the other game probably close to 2 hours.  Everything I’ve read tells me you’ll get around 15 plays before you learn all of Risk Legacy secrets.  That works out to 22.5 hours of game play if every game took 90 minutes.

I’ve paid $60 for Xbox games that have lasted 8-9 hours so from a time standpoint Risk has me covered.

“But Dan you only get 15 plays!”

It’s not like you can’t play the game again once you hit the 15 play mark. It’s just the world and rules are not going to change anymore.  In essence it is like every other game in your collection after you have played it 15 times.  I also did a survey of my game collection. I own over 200 games and I have only played seven of them 15 times or more.  That may say more about me then the habits of every gamer but most people I’ve talked to on the subject fell into the same percentage.

“What about resell value”

This is where I don’t have a good counter argument. A lot of gamers sell or trade their games. Typically from my experience there is more trading going on then purchasing of opened games. While a copy of Magic Realm or the 75th anniversary edition of Axis and Allies will fetch you a nice chunk of coin do you really see yourself selling a copy of Risk? However if you’re someone who likes turning over games or trading then Risk Legacy isn’t going to cut it for you.

In the end is Risk Legacy worth a purchase? I can’t say at this point. The one game we played I enjoyed more then any previous version of Risk,  but that had more to do with the quick pace of play thanks to some rule changes. Marking up the board afterwards is certainly a nice reward for winning.  Unfortunately I have questions that I can’t answer at this point.

Is it better to play with the same group over and over to appreciate the changes to the world?

Are new players at a disadvantage?

Can you appreciate this if you only play it once or twice a month?

These questions and I am sure others will ultimately tell me if Risk Legacy is a good game.  As a concept however while the collector in me cringes, the gamer in me delights at the reward for winning and appreciates the tact the designers have taken.