Phenomenal Nerdery Alert.
PREFACE: I must alert those of you new to this blog that I am a huge board game nerd. In fact, every time you come to this page, there's A Random Game from my Den Of Nerdery in the bottom right corner. Just so you know before reading this post.
Hoo, boy. That's a good question, Bea.
See, there's this board game called Risk. And in Risk, you're usually trying to control the whole world with little army guys. Your goal is to eliminate everyone else, which can take a very, very long time.
But the guys at Hasbro decided to revamp that old idea. They've taken the game and rewritten the rules from the ground up.
So, while it's still Risk, it's been streamlined. There are missions everyone is trying to accomplish for points. There are capitals each player has to hold onto for reinforcements. The game takes a lot less time, sometimes coming in at under two hours.
I heard about it here. And I looked at the pictures. And I became very, very jazzed.
Now, the new design won't be coming out until this summer. But one very kind soul, one of the people who rewrote the very rules I was talking about, has sent us a very special copy of the game. This is the note that was taped to the front of the box:
So that's what's in the box, Bea. A very special, limited edition of one of the first games every teenager plays.The board game Risk is changing.
This new edition - designed to play faster and more intensely - won't be available for the general playing public until later this summer. In the meantime, we thought some people, such as you, should get the chance to preview the new rules of the game.
In this box is Risk Black Ops, a special edition of the game that showcases the updated rules - however, the pieces and graphics have been created for this version alone. You are now holding one of only 1,000 copies of this special preview edition of the game.
The designers of the game thought you would appreciate playing the new version before anyone else.
Enjoy.
And I am beyond excited to get it to the table.
Yes you may, Bea. Yes you may.
Comments
Me, I likes the word games. I am nearly unbeatable at Boggle (have I ever been beaten? perhaps not). I am pretty darn good at Scrabble. But not, like, creepy documentary good.
I don't feel quite as strongly about it now, but I really hated it that day.
Well...it sort of depends upon knowledge, but it primarily depends upon a kind of visualization skill that I'm really good at—mixing up letters and seeing words. Whereas most strategy games depend upon visualization skills that I'm really <em>bad</em> at, thereby massively reducing the fun quotient.
I'm really, really bad at Scrabble.
I am really, really bad at Scrabble. And I have THAT ^ as a sister, so I got traumatized early. (But I loves me some Boggle. Three letter words is my speed.)
But I also got introduced to Risk too early; I was too little and it was too complicated and seemed like a boring boys game, so I never got it and didn't come back to it when I was older.
Now Clue. There's some good game.
I like Risk. We used to have an ongoing Risk game at my friend's house that lasted for days. I was in high school. It was the 70s. Marijuana was involved. There was a game like Risk that I played once where you could do back-end alliances, a sort of built-in cheat. That was fun.
But I suck at Stratego and anything that involves figuring the Grand Scheme of Things.®
Roberta and I loves us some card games, though.
Oh, I look forward to hearing more about this version of Risk. When I was in college, it was fine to have Risk games that went on for weeks...now, I have a much shorter timeframe available for game playing. My older daughter was some kind of Risk savant when she was about 10 - she routinely took over the world when we played.
I like Pictionary, although the board game portion of that is really kind of secondary to the fun of figuring out what your partner is drawing (or coming up with the perfect drawing to convey the clue to your partner). I like Scrabble, but I'm not so good with the strategic aspect of figuring out where to put your words, and I can never remember those 2 and 3 letter words that can help you garner huge points.
I don't think I've ever played Boggle.
For the past few weekends, my husband and I have been hanging out with his sister and brother-in-law, and we've been playing Parcheesi, that's kind of fun although I always start out strong and end up in last place - 2 guys completely safe, 1 guy on the board, and 1 guy at home.
endeavors, emotions got high. At one point, my friend Brian jumped up from the table, threw down the dice, and proclaimed, "FINE! Just take Madagascar!" This has now been a teasing point. Yeah, here is a pic of me teasing him about it on myspace. Ha! Thanks for providing an outlet for his continued torture :) FINE! Just take Madagascar!
And who says being famous isn't rewarding...
as Yosemite Sam might say: "OOOOooooyyeeeooooooreckin'freckin..."