50 Fun Facts About Pandemic (Board Game)

Who designed Pandemic?

He began work on it in 2004 after competitive games kept souring evenings with his wife.

Which company first published Pandemic in 2008?

The same publisher went on to release every expansion, spin-off and the Legacy seasons.

In what year was Pandemic first published?

Its first expansion, On the Brink, followed a year later.

How many diseases threaten the world in the base game?

Players win only by discovering a cure for every one of them before the board collapses.

How many players does the base game accommodate?

On the Brink added rules for a fifth player; In the Lab added a solo mode.

Which real-world disease event did the designer base the game on?

The theme turned out to be prophetic: sales rose again during COVID-19.

How many cities are on the Pandemic board?

Each has a matching Player card and Infection card in the two decks.

How many disease cubes of each colour come in the box?

Running out of cubes of any colour when you need to place one loses the game instantly.

In which city do all players begin the game?

It is home to the Centers for Disease Control, which is why the first research station sits there.

How many actions does a player take on each turn?

They can be any combination of the eight possible actions, some of which require cards.

How many Player cards are drawn at the end of each turn?

If either is an Epidemic, the infection rate rises and the discard pile is reshuffled onto the deck.

What is the hand limit for Player cards?

Excess cards must be discarded, though an Event card can be played instead.

An Outbreak happens when a cube would be added to a city that already has how many?

Every connected city then gains a cube, which can chain across the board.

How many outbreaks cause the players to lose?

Running out of cubes or Player cards are the other two ways to lose.

How many roles did the original core game include?

The 2013 second edition brought the count to seven.

Which role can treat all cubes in a city with a single action?

Once a disease is cured, that role clears its cubes without spending an action at all.

How many matching cards does the Scientist need to discover a cure?

Everyone else needs five cards of the same colour.

What term describes one player dominating a cooperative game?

The so-called alpha gamer problem is not unique to this title.

Which two roles were added in the 2013 second edition?

Some second-edition prints were missing the line between Lagos and São Paulo.

Who co-designed the three expansions with Leacock?

The expansions are On the Brink, In the Lab and State of Emergency.

What was the first expansion, released in 2009?

It added new roles, rules for a fifth player and a semi-competitive Bio-Terrorist.

Which On the Brink role pits one player against the rest of the team?

It is the only expansion in which the game becomes semi-competitive.

What is the fifth disease introduced as a challenge in On the Brink called?

It must be cured or absent from the board for the team to win.

Which On the Brink challenge makes one disease especially deadly via new Epidemic cards?

Each replacement Epidemic carries its own nasty special effect.

In the Lab, the second expansion, added which two modes?

Teams of two compete to be the most effective team.

In State of Emergency, which challenge has animals spreading disease to humans?

The same box added Emergency Events and the untreatable Superbug.

What colour are the fifth-disease cubes in State of Emergency?

They made the matching set in On the Brink redundant.

The 2018 10-year Anniversary Edition came in a metal box shaped like what?

It added miniatures for each role, wooden cubes and a larger board.

Which spin-off replaced cards with dice in 2014?

Its Experimental Meds expansion added a fifth disease in 2016.

In Pandemic: Contagion, players take on what role?

Unlike the base game it is not cooperative; the goal is to wipe out humanity.

Who co-designed Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 with Leacock?

He had pioneered the format with Risk Legacy.

In Pandemic Legacy: Season 1, each game represents what span of time?

The campaign simulates a full year, and you move on even if you lose a month twice.

Pandemic Legacy: Season 2 is set how long after Season 1?

Cubes became supplies rather than disease, with plague spreading when stocks ran low.

Pandemic Legacy: Season 0, released in 2020, is set during which era?

It is a prequel to the first two seasons.

Which spin-off has players preventing the summoning of a Lovecraftian monster?

In 2019 it became the first title under the "Pandemic System" label.

Pandemic: Iberia is set on the Iberian Peninsula in what year?

Players cure malaria, typhus, yellow fever and cholera while building railways and purifying water.

Pandemic: Rising Tide is set in which country?

Instead of disease, players fight rising water to stop the country flooding.

Pandemic: Fall of Rome is set in which year?

Players recruit armies and forge alliances against Anglo-Saxons, Goths, Vandals and Huns.

Who designed the real-time spin-off Pandemic: Rapid Response?

A two-minute timer adds a new disaster-struck city each time it runs out.

How many diseases feature in the Hot Zone games?

The smaller maps cover one region, starting with North America in 2020 and Europe in 2021.

Which MMORPG got a Pandemic System adaptation in 2021?

Heroes of Azeroth fight the Lich King's ghouls, who replace the diseases.

The 2022 Pandemic System game set in a galaxy far, far away covers which conflict?

Jedi fight Separatist battle droids across a map of the galaxy's planets.

Which award did Pandemic win in 2009?

It was also nominated for the Spiel des Jahres the same year.

Approximately how many copies of Pandemic have been sold?

Demand climbed again during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Which country did a 2018 newspaper report point out was missing from the map?

The paper called it a recurrent phenomenon in world maps.

Which earlier cooperative game is Pandemic credited with condensing into a shorter format?

Its success made it one of the first co-ops to reach mainstream sales.

Which 2010 Gamewright game began Leacock's family co-op series?

Forbidden Desert, Forbidden Sky and Forbidden Jungle followed, all from Gamewright.

What is the theme of Daybreak, Leacock's game with Matteo Menapace?

It won Best Board or Tabletop Game for Impact at the 2024 Games for Change Festival.

Leacock did UX work for which two internet companies before going full time?

He went full-time as a designer in July 2014.

Which 1960s TV series got a Leacock-designed board game for its 50th anniversary in 2015?

Modiphius Entertainment published it.