Pandemic (board game)
Cooperative board game about curing four diseases before a pandemic.
Pandemic is a cooperative board game created by Matt Leacock, first released in the United States by Z-Man Games in 2008. The game’s premise is that four diseases have emerged worldwide, each capable of devastating a region. Players must collaborate to find cures for all four illnesses before the game ends in defeat. It is designed for two to four players, each taking on one of five base-game roles: dispatcher, medic, scientist, researcher, or operations expert. (Additional roles like contingency planner and quarantine specialist were introduced in later expansions.)
Three expansions—*Pandemic: On the Brink*, *Pandemic: In the Lab*, and *Pandemic: State of Emergency*—were co-designed by Leacock and Tom Lehmann. Each adds new roles, special events, and rule changes that allow for a fifth player or team play. They also include optional “challenge kits” with additional rule variations.
Pandemic is widely regarded as one of the most successful cooperative games to reach a mainstream audience. It condenses the strategic depth of earlier cooperative games like *Arkham Horror* into a shorter, more accessible experience that appeals to a broader range of players.
Beyond expansions, several spinoffs have been released, most notably the *Pandemic Legacy* series, which includes three seasons (Season 1, Season 2, and Season 0). These games introduce an ongoing storyline and permanent changes to the game components. The *Pandemic Legacy* games have received critical acclaim; Season 1 is ranked third on BoardGameGeek out of over 100,000 games.
Leacock began designing the game in 2004 after realizing that competitive games were causing tense evenings with his wife. He based the game on the 2002–2004 SARS outbreak.
**Gameplay**
The goal of *Pandemic* is for players, each assigned a random role, to work together to stop the spread of four diseases and cure them before a pandemic occurs.
The game includes a board showing a network of 48 cities on a world map, two decks of cards (Player cards and Infection cards), four sets of 24 colored cubes (each representing a different disease), six Research Stations, and a pawn for each role. Player cards include city names matching those on the board, Event cards (which can be played at any time for an advantage), and Epidemic cards. Infection cards each correspond to a city and indicate which disease color starts there.
Quick Facts
- Designer
- Matt Leacock
- Publisher
- Z-Man Games (U.S.) / Κάισσα (Greece) · Hobby Japan (Japan)
- Illustrator
- Joshua Cappel (graphics and illustration), Régis Moulun (cover painting), Chris Quilliams (2013 edition)
- Players
- 2–4 · (5 with On the Brink expansion) · (1–6 with the In the Lab expansion)
- Setup Time
- 10 min
- Playing Time
- 45 min
- Random Chance
- Moderate
- Skills
- Tactics, cooperation, logic, logistics
- Genre
- Board game · Role-playing game · Cooperative gameplay
- Date
- 2008
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
Matt Leacock began designing the game in 2004 after realizing that competitive games were making for strained evenings with his wife. He based the Pandemic board game on the 2002–2004 SARS outbreak. The game consists of a game board representing a network connecting 48 cities on a world map, two decks of cards (Player cards and Infection cards), four colors of cubes with 24 cubes each, six Research Stations, and a pawn for each role. Players start at Atlanta, the home of the Centers for Disease Control, and are given a random role and a number of Player cards based on the number of players.
On each player's turn, there are four actions to take, consisting of any combination of eight possible actions. After taking actions, the player draws two Player cards, reducing their hand down to seven cards if necessary. Epidemic cards trigger an increase in the infection rate and reshuffling of the Infection deck. The game ends when players either win by discovering cures for all four diseases or lose by having eight outbreaks, not having enough disease cubes of a color, or not having enough Player cards when someone needs to draw.
Three expansions, co-designed by Matt Leacock and Tom Lehmann, each add several new roles and special events, as well as rule adjustments to allow a fifth player or to play in teams. Several spinoffs have been released, most notably the Pandemic Legacy series, which adds an ongoing storyline and permanent changes to the game. The Pandemic Legacy games have been received with critical acclaim, with Season 1 ranking 3rd place on BoardGameGeek out of over 100,000 games.
Reader's Guide
Pandemic is considered one of the most successful cooperative games that have reached mainstream market sales, condensing the strategic play offered by earlier cooperative games, like Arkham Horror, into a shorter, more accessible game that can be played by a broader range of players. The game requires all players to coordinate their efforts to win, specifically in gathering and sharing the necessary cards to discover cures while moving in coordination around the board and preventing Outbreaks in an efficient manner. A criticism of the game, dubbed 'quarterbacking', is that there is a tendency for one player – the 'alpha gamer' – to control the game, though this is not limited to Pandemic.
The expansions add new roles, challenges, and modes, including a Bio-Terrorist variant in On the Brink that makes the game semi-competitive, a laboratory research board in In the Lab, and new challenges such as Hinterlands and Superbug in State of Emergency. A second edition of Pandemic was released in 2013 with new artwork and two new characters. In July 2018 a 10-year Anniversary Edition was released with detailed miniatures, a larger board, and a metal box. The game's legacy spinoffs have been particularly influential, with Season 1 ranking highly on BoardGameGeek, demonstrating the lasting impact of the original design.
Did You Know?
- The game is based on the 2002–2004 SARS outbreak.
- The On the Brink expansion includes a Bio-Terrorist card that pits one player against the rest, making it the only semi-competitive expansion.
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