So you're one of the 3 Packers fans in the world? Or are you on the current bandwagon?

Packers just made it because the Bears allowed them.

Quote from: danbuter;441204So you're one of the 3 Packers fans in the world? Or are you on the current bandwagon?

I don't watch football, really.  I just like to be contrary.

Just for good measure, though.

Quote from: Peregrin;441162Somehow my gut tells me it's not going to help Monopoly sell any better than it already does.

Monopoly sells incredibly well.  That's why you see all the variant boards.  This will just be another variant...unless it really does add speed to the gameplay.  If so, it may be a hit.

Best way to know is check ToysR'Us a year after it comes out.   If its on the shelf, its a seller.  If not, its a dud.

And the craze of 'the digital initiative' continues...

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/618890/the-future-of-boardgames-by-hasbro/page/1

I had to switch off the video after 30 seconds. Some of the comments are more entertaining, anyway.

The thing reminds me of what my ex said re: modern theatre. Contemporary stage directors no longer believe in their own medium, so they have to put large digital screens with weird moving background imagery onto the stage, to compete with the actors for the audience's attention.

The case at hand is a lot less intellectual. It's really some stupid exec's idea of "how can we lure the kids away from the screen? that's easy - we simply tell them ... it's more of the same!". That thought isn't stupid on its surface - far from it - but then you look at the implementation and you go 'wow, I guess he meant that literally'.

Once again, it is a losing strategy. For losers. :hatsoff:

Yet on the other hand this big multi-national corporation has come up with one of the most innovative board games I have seen for some time:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/105134/risk-legacy
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/691729/english-rules
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/690270/designer-notes

I recommend checking the links out - in many ways this is the closest a board game has ever come to a role-playing game.

It's a neat idea.  But at the end of the day, take it or leave it, it's still Risk.  

Draw backs are that the game isn't really resettable without modifying the game.  It doesn't play well between different groups of people.   You need to play 15+ games of it to really see the evolution of the game.  

But still I do think it's a neat idea.  I just think it could have been done better, probably at a higher price point.  But then it would be a resettable game, playable between multiple groups of people and perhaps provide something a little stronger then risk.

Quote from: Glazer;478825Yet on the other hand this big multi-national corporation has come up with one of the most innovative board games I have seen for some time

Thanks for alerting me to the game. However, could you kindly help me contextualize this value statement ... e.g. how does it fare in comparison Android or Mansion of Madness, just to mention two recent mainstream designs that did attempt to offer a new experience.

Quote from: Glazer;478825Yet
I recommend checking the links out - in many ways this is the closest a board game has ever come to a role-playing game.

Again, I'd want to know which other games you've tried that would justify this statement. I could think of any multiplayer wargames with thick alliance subsystems that require diplomacy... Where does this game outshine the other efforts, where does it offer something else?

Just to prevent that my post is getting across the wrong way... I'm not dissecting your post to probe (or worse, undermine) its credentials, it's just that I'd appreciate a bit more contextualization to see how what your says figures in the larger scheme of things - i.e. compared to other things. I say that as someone who hasn't played this version of Risk (or any other, I hasten to add).

Quote from: Glazer;478825I recommend checking the links out - in many ways this is the closest a board game has ever come to a role-playing game.

Yeah, I don't see the RPG element here, except for maybe from a limited world-building perspective.  Still intrigued by the game, though.

Quote from: kryyst;478828Draw backs are that the game isn't really resettable without modifying the game.  

The mods wouldn't be terribly difficult to do, however.

For me, the innovation comes from the way that the game evolves through play, and the way that it is designed for ‘campaign play’. As Kryyst pointed out, this isn’t a normal board game; you can’t play in an ad-hoc fashion with different groups of people. It will require a committed group of players that meet together regularly for each session of the game. What’s more, it’s specifically designed to work in such an environment, and won’t work if used in a more traditional way (although you can play Android or Arkham or Battlestar Galactica week after week, they aren’t designed specifically to work that way).

It’s these element that make it seem like an RPG to me. Risk Legacy takes the social, long term ‘lets meet up every Friday to play the same game’ aspects of role-playing and straps them onto a board game. More importantly, it takes these important aspects of role-playing, and straps them onto an accessible mass-market game that lots of people will pick up, and many may even be tempted to play. It could be an ideal gateway game to the tabletop rpg hobby. “You've played Risk Legacy have you? Well D&D is a bit like that, except you play one person rather than run a whole country. A group of us meet every Friday to play the game…”

Quote from: Windjammer;478798I had to switch off the video after 30 seconds. Some of the comments are more entertaining, anyway.

I could endure nearly 2 minutes of this before I had to switch it off. I still wonder how I did it.

Quote from: Glazer;478862For me, the innovation comes from the way that the game evolves through play, and the way that it is designed for ‘campaign play’. As Kryyst pointed out, this isn’t a normal board game; you can’t play in an ad-hoc fashion with different groups of people. It will require a committed group of players that meet together regularly for each session of the game. What’s more, it’s specifically designed to work in such an environment, and won’t work if used in a more traditional way (although you can play Android or Arkham or Battlestar Galactica week after week, they aren’t designed specifically to work that way).

It’s these element that make it seem like an RPG to me. Risk Legacy takes the social, long term ‘lets meet up every Friday to play the same game’ aspects of role-playing and straps them onto a board game. More importantly, it takes these important aspects of role-playing, and straps them onto an accessible mass-market game that lots of people will pick up, and many may even be tempted to play. It could be an ideal gateway game to the tabletop rpg hobby. “You've played Risk Legacy have you? Well D&D is a bit like that, except you play one person rather than run a whole country. A group of us meet every Friday to play the game…”

If that's the (primary) thing that makes it the "closest to RPG ever boardgame" then it faces some pretty stiff competition, actually. Europa Universalis and Empire in Arms to be specific. I haven't played either, though people at my wargaming club have. You'll find a review of EiA on BGG that references it as "the greatest RPG ever". (The drawback of the games is, however, that they take months to conclude.)

Even the more commercial two-player wargames like Memoir 44 or Tide of Iron (mostly, but not predominantly 2-player games) come with campaign modes these days. And then there's of course Descent 'Road to Legend' and the campaign rules for Warhammer Quest.

Once we take stock of all these (mostly) great titles, I can't see how plastering the idea of campaign length play onto the Risk base engine would rule them all, let alone how this could be so terrifically innovative.

I certainly agree with your closing point, however, as to how this could neatly feed into a marketing initiative for the nowadays somewhat neglected D&D enterprise. Whether Hasbro is that clever at cross-marketing its IPs... you make the call.

Quote from: Windjammer;478966If that's the (primary) thing that makes it the "closest to RPG ever boardgame" then it faces some pretty stiff competition, actually. Europa Universalis and Empire in Arms to be specific.

You're spot on about EiA - it was what I thought of when I read about the game. As it happens I have played an EiA campaign. A group of us met about once every week or so for more than a year - it was a blast! And of the board games I've played, it was the closest in feel to an rpg campaign I've come across.

However, even EiA doesn't have have quite the same idea  of the campaign being a one-off thing, and unique, and created (at least in part) by the players. By this I mean that, during play, you create your own unique game-board and world with its own little back story and history, and what's more, you create it as a artefact that you will keep. Much like we create our own game worlds when we play an rpg.

Check out my link to the rulebook, give it a read through, and I think you'll see what I mean.