How well does Risk Legacy travel?

I'm going to be 40 this year. While pondering on what I might do to celebrate the occasion, I stumbled across my unplayed copy of Risk Legacy and thought it might be cool if I took it round some of my old friends (most of whom are gamers) and played it with them. The changes to the game and board would become a lasting memento of my birthday.

The trouble is that I'd already planned to mark the day in various different places. At home, with my family, with some local friends, and a trip to London to see a few more. There'd be some people at all three, some people at just one.

So here's the question: I always got the impression that Risk: Legacy would work best if it was played exclusively with one group. How would it be if it saw its first few games passing through a number of different players, 2-3 of whom would play multiple games, before finally settling down with my local gaming cronies?

And if I did that, would the later changes be in danger of erasing the changes to the game that had happened during birthday celebrations?

No spoilers please!

I seem to be in the minority among my friends about it, but I think it works fine with different players popping in. While some of the perks you gain over time are player specific (think person specific), the perks aren't so spectacular as to ruin it for someone new. And new players start one star closer to victory than anyone who has played before, making it easier to win a game and sign the board.

I think your idea is great, especially since everyone who plays a game, win or lose, signs a piece of it and generally makes some change. Having that as a memory when you break it out later would be fantastic- and if everyone who plays kind of knows one another, it might be fun for later players to see what earlier players did in the game.

**edit: While there are opportunities to undo the changes of others, it's not that common. And like I said, everyone signs their faction card when they play no matter what.

I don't know about that minority thing, Ochobee. I had maybe 14 different signatures on my box, maybe more. I think it would carry the theme better if each player chose a faction and played the entire 15 games (or more) as that faction, but I don't think it loses all that much.

If it did, then it would be an admission that the only thing interesting about it is the "unlockables", and I'm not of the mind that the design relies so heavily on them that it is not "portable". It's a good game, and the "unlockables" make it very, very unique.

Oh, I agree that it would be better that way. But I don't think it loses enough to say that it is the only way to play it, or that playing with different people swapping in is bad.

For a birthday roadtrip, I think it would be awesome. And make for a great memento of the occasion.

Agree with the above--and it's a cool idea. Nice one, Matt.