Pandemic (game)
The box cover of Pandemic, 1st edition
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| Designer(s) | Matt Leacock |
|---|---|
| Illustrator(s) | Joshua Cappel (graphics and illustration), Régis Moulun (cover painting), Chris Quilliams (2013 edition) |
| Publisher(s) |
Z-Man Games (U.S.) Κάισσα (Greece) Hobby Japan (Japan) Filosofia (France) |
| Players | 2–4 (5 with On the Brink expansion)(1-5 with the "In the Lab" expansion) |
| Age range | 10+ |
| Setup time | 10 min |
| Playing time | 45 min |
| Random chance | Moderate |
| Skill(s) required | tactics, cooperation, logic, logistics |
Pandemic is a cooperative board game designed by Matt Leacock and published by Z-Man Games in 2007.Pandemic is based on the premise that four diseases have broken out in the world, each threatening to wipe out a region. The game accommodates 2 to 4 players, each playing one of five possible specialists: dispatcher, medic, scientist, researcher, or operations expert. The game is unlike most board games in that the gameplay is cooperative, rather than competitive. Through the combined effort of all the players, the goal is to discover all four cures before any of several game-losing conditions are reached.
Three expansions, Pandemic: On the Brink, Pandemic: In the Lab, and Pandemic: State of Emergency, 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. In addition, several rule expansions are included, referred to as "challenge kits".
Pandemic is considered one of the most successful cooperative games that has reached mainstream market sales, condensing the type of deep strategy offered by earlier cooperative games, like Arkham Horror, into a game that can be played in a limited time by a wider range of players.
Pandemic Legacy: Season 1, a spinoff version of Pandemic, which adds an ongoing storyline to the game, is currently rated by the website Board Game Geek as the greatest board game ever made.
The goal of Pandemic is for the players, in their randomly selected roles, to work cooperatively to stop the spread of four diseases and cure them before a pandemic occurs.Pandemic setup consists of a game board representing a network connecting 48 cities on the map of the earth, two decks of cards (Player cards and Infection cards), four colors of cubes (each representing a different disease), six Research Stations, and a pawn for each player. The Player cards include cards with each city name (the same as those on the board); Special Event cards, which can be played at specific times to take beneficial actions; and Epidemic cards. Infection cards consist of one card for each city on the board and a color of the disease that will start there. At the start of the game, Infection cards are randomly drawn to populate the board with infections, from 1 to 3 cubes for a number of cities. Players start at Atlanta, the home of the Centers for Disease Control, and are given a random role and a number of Player cards. On each turn, a player can take 4 actions, consisting of any combination of the following:
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