#oneaday Day 314: Legacy

A few of us managed to get together for the first time in about three months to play some board games this evening. Well, board game; we got one round of Pandemic Legacy in before it was time to head home, but that's all good; we managed to actually beat the July scenario, though it was a close-run thing.

I've talked about Pandemic Legacy before in past posts, but for the benefit of those who've never come across it before, allow me to explain what it's all about, and I'll minimise spoilers this time around.

For the uninitiated, a "Legacy" board game is one intended to be played a finite number of times, changing somewhat each time you play. In the case of Pandemic, the game is split into twelve "months" (which can be played up to twice each if you fail the scenario the first time around), each of which adds something interesting to the game mechanics and setup.

Pandemic, in its original incarnation, is a game about finding cures for diseases while managing their spread around the globe. It's a cooperative game, in which multiple players with unique abilities work together in an attempt to collect sets of coloured cards, manage the amount of disease cubes on the board and prevent "outbreaks" — diseases "overflowing" from their current location into surrounding areas.

Pandemic Legacy begins exactly like this in its January scenario, but by the end of that, strange things start to happen. They're small, gradual changes at first, but as you progress through the game additional mechanics and possibilities that might have seemed useless in earlier months suddenly become very, very relevant. You start getting a lot more things to think about in a single session, and strategies that you used in the early months have to be rethought completely with the later months' additions in mind.

I'm being vague because I don't want to spoil things for those interested in giving it a try. Part of the fascination with the game is seeing how it evolves over time, because when something happens to the game, it's permanent. If a character gets wounded or killed, they are wounded or killed forever — in the latter case, you tear up their character card so they can't be used again. If you unlock special abilities, you stick those onto cards or character sheets so they can always be used. If a city falls to disease, you put a sticker on the board and it's fallen forever. You get the idea.

Once you've played through all twelve months of the game, you'll have ended up with a very different game to the one you started with. It's still possible to play the "December" scenario once you've beaten (or failed!) it, but there's no turning back to the mechanics and objectives of previous months.

It's a really great game that is constantly exciting and full of discovery. Its actual mechanics are simple to pick up and understand, too, so it's a good game to play with family or perhaps people who haven't come across tabletop gaming much in the past. And the way the "Legacy" rules work mean that even if you start playing with inexperienced tabletop newbies, the additional mechanics are added at a slow, gradual rate so as not to overwhelm said newcomers.

All in all, it's a really great game, and I'm looking forward to seeing what the subsequent months have in store for us. We're officially halfway through the overall campaign now, and we're not doing too badly! Can we save the world? I doubt it, but we'll have fun giving it a go.