Pandemic Legacy

The Legacy games are a narrative story version of Pandemic that currently (July 2021) are the second most popular game of all time per Board Game Geek! It is relatively important to play through the 12 or more games in one Legacy Season with the same team of people, since the game can draw you in as a team! It seems you play 12 games in sequence, but if you fail in a game you need to play it over again (with two extra bonuses). So in the end your team may play about 18 games (more or less).

Board Game Geek:

Season One (likely the best Pandemic game of all)
Season Two
Season Zero (final Season)

=> Rules

=> Video Playlist

Watch Kim Tolson talk about the three Legacy Seasons to get a feel for what the game(s) are like:

The gist of the game in just a few minutes:

And … if the first video (by Kim Tolson) or second (the gist) didn’t hook you into wanting to play this … and even the fact that it is the #2 best game of all time on Board Game Geek … watch Rahdo talk about the game here:

A spoiler free look at the game board and components:

Before continuing … here are some comments from Board Game Geek to newcomers to the game:

Read the first page of the rules (after the contents) – the page titled “Overview” very carefully and make sure you understand that fully.
Follow the step-by-step rules for the Set-up pages very carefully (don’t assume you know what you’re doing because of experience of normal Pandemic, there are some differences)
stickers are rewards for winning or losing a round.
Only add rule stickers to the book when told to.
the cards in the legacy deck control everything
Once you start drawing Legacy Deck cards, keep drawing cards until it says to stop. (and look at when it says you should come back to start drawing more of the cards again).
A lot of stuff is not available at the start. Dont just open stuff, you’ll get lost fast!
There are no relationship stickers yet. (It’s one of the things that will be revealed.)
you may have to draw from the legacy deck multiple times during 1 game. Carefully read the text beneath the STOP sign to check when to draw the next card.
Only open doors/boxes when explicitly told to
Make sure you read the front AND back of all cards as you go through the legacy deck.
The Legacy deck is the only thing that the base rules tell you to use. Access to the dossiers (like an Advent Calendar) and the packages is strictly limited to when specific game elements tell you to do so (usually the legacy deck, but there are a couple of exceptions – for example, Box 8 is opened if you lose four games in a row, with no in-game reminder except the sticker that you should have placed on that package).
At the start of the first time through a month you draw cards from the top of the Legacy deck, reading both sides on each card, until you reach a card in the deck labelled “STOP”. Read the instructions below the STOP sign to know when to resume drawing from the deck (either the start of a new month, the end of a month, or at a certain point during a game).
Cards from the Legacy deck will tell you when to open various dossier windows. Different things will tell you when to open packages. Never open any dossier window or package without an explicit instruction from the game.

Remember these points for the Dispatcher character:

Before you begin playing, use the bonus you received from your prior victorious game:

Remember that everyone can fly from one research station to any other research station:

Eradicating a disease notes:

Our BLUE disease has a special sticker that gives us this:

Remember – any time there is an OUTBREAK (not an Epidemic) we MUST do the Panic Level increase process:

Event Cards are considered Player Cards!

NOTE: the full 16 page rule book is at the end of this article

NOW … if you want to see the FINAL FINAL thoughts that Rahdo mentioned … here they are … just know that you should only watch the first 18 minutes and then stop the video (spoilers happen after that … he warns you ahead of time in the video)