Last time, I wrote about game balance in a cooperative Legacy game and some of the psychology involved. This month gets a bit grittier as we talk about panic and scarring. Again, no spoilers; you will learn all this information in the rulebook before you start your first game.

~ PANIC! AT THE CAIRO ~

One thing Matt and I wanted to establish in this campaign is a world sliding into chaos. Whereas the main Pandemic game is a Euro that does an excellent job evoking a pandemic, we wanted to amplify the narrative and show Earth toppling and progressively lurching into darkness. I had a sinister vision of a game where an observer could ask “Where’s South America?” and the players could only respond “It’s…gone.” Luckily for all of you, Matt is a bit nicer than I am. A bit.

Each city has a panic level, which starts at 0 and goes to 5. A city’s panic level goes up by 1 every time there is an outbreak in that city. As a city panics, it gets harder and harder to deal with it. Games will evolve differently so each of your worlds will have its own trouble spots and safe havens.

Here are the Panic Levels and their effects:

Also: If a character is in a city when it falls, that character is Lost. Which brings us to what bad things can happen to characters.

~ CHARACTERS: YOU MIGHT BE EATEN BY A GRUE ~

In Pandemic games, your characters charge into the heart of darkness. They treat diseases, put themselves in harm’s way, and generally see some stuff that keeps them up at night. We show that. Each character has two slots on their sheet for Scar stickers. The starting game comes with nine scar stickers. If your character is in the wrong place — for example, if a character is in a city when it outbreaks — they get a scar. Being on the front lines is helpful. But getting out in time is a good idea.

What kinds of scars are there? Here are two examples:

Luckily, you get to pick your scar when you get one so you can make sure the Medic isn’t intimidated and the Researcher isn’t an insomniac. Of course, those are just the starting scars. Each character can have two scars, making them a bit of a mess but still functional. It’s that third scar that matters.

~ LOST: HAVE YOU SEEN OUR SCIENTIST? ~

Most dramatically, characters can become Lost. What is Lost? Gone. Out of the game. Out of all future games. The character is no more. (It’s a polite way of saying dead.) That’ll keep you on your toes.

A character is Lost if they are ever in a city that falls while they are there. They also are Lost if they have to gain a third scar. In either case, you know the risks. Going into a city with three cubes when you have two scars? Going into a collapsing city that has three cubes? Hope the city doesn’t outbreak.

What happens when your character is Lost? You get a civilian character for the rest of the game. You’ll have no powers, just a willingness to help. It is theoretically possible for the last game of the campaign to be played with all civilians because all the role characters have gone Lost.

If that ever happens, please email me.