Cooperative disease-control game where specialists travel the world, treat outbreaks, and race to discover cures before global systems collapse.
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Turn timer
Keep turns moving with a per-player clock for Pandemic.
Work together as a team of specialists to treat disease outbreaks and discover four cures before time runs out. All players win or lose as a group -- there is no individual winner.
Pandemic is a cooperative board game where 2 to 4 players work together as members of a disease-control team. Four diseases are spreading across the world, and your shared goal is to discover cures for all four before the situation spirals out of control. Each player takes on a unique role with a special ability, and success depends on coordinating actions, sharing knowledge, and managing outbreaks.
The game plays in about 45 minutes. Because it is fully cooperative, all players win together or lose together. There is no individual score or ranking -- the outcome is pass or fail for the entire group.
Game board: a world map with 48 cities connected by routes.
Disease cubes: 24 each in 4 colors (blue, yellow, black, red).
Cure markers: 4 vials, one per disease color.
Player cards: city cards matching the 48 cities, plus special Event cards.
Epidemic cards: mixed into the player deck to increase the infection rate.
Infection cards: a separate deck that determines where diseases spread.
Role cards: 7 specialists (Medic, Scientist, Researcher, Dispatcher, Operations Expert, Contingency Planner, Quarantine Specialist).
Research stations: 6 pieces; one starts in Atlanta.
Place the board. Put a research station in Atlanta and place each player pawn there.
Shuffle and deal infection cards to seed the board: flip 3 cards and place 3 cubes of the matching disease on each city, then 3 more cards with 2 cubes each, then 3 more with 1 cube each (9 cities total seeded).
Give each player a random role card and starting player cards (varies by player count: 4 cards each for 2 players, 3 each for 3, 2 each for 4).
Set the difficulty by shuffling Epidemic cards into the player deck: 4 (Introductory), 5 (Standard), or 6 (Heroic).
Place the infection rate marker on the first position of the infection rate track.
On your turn, perform these three phases in order:
Choose any combination of these actions (repeats allowed):
Drive/Ferry: move to an adjacent connected city.
Direct Flight: discard a city card to fly to that city.
Charter Flight: discard the card matching your current city to fly anywhere.
Shuttle Flight: move between any two cities that both have research stations.
Build a Research Station: discard the card matching your current city to place a station there.
Treat Disease: remove 1 disease cube from your current city (if that disease is cured, remove all cubes of that color instead).
Share Knowledge: give or take the city card matching your current city to/from another player in the same city.
Discover a Cure: at a research station, discard 5 city cards of the same color to cure that disease.
Draw the top 2 cards from the player deck. If you draw an Epidemic card, resolve it immediately:
Increase the infection rate.
Draw the bottom card of the infection deck and place 3 disease cubes on that city.
Shuffle the infection discard pile and place it back on top of the infection deck.
Hand limit: if you ever hold more than 7 cards, you must immediately discard or play Event cards down to 7.
Draw infection cards equal to the current infection rate (starts at 2, rises via Epidemics) and place 1 disease cube on each drawn city.
Outbreaks: if a city would receive a 4th cube of one color, an outbreak occurs instead. No 4th cube is added; instead, every city connected to it receives 1 cube of that color (which can chain further outbreaks).
Win: discover cures for all 4 diseases. You do not need to eliminate all cubes; just cure all four.
Lose if any of these happen:
Pandemic has a binary group outcome: the team wins (all four diseases cured) or the team loses (any loss condition triggered). There are no individual scores.
Outcome: Win or Loss.
Player list: who participated.
Outcome (Win/Loss).
Difficulty: number of Epidemic cards used (4, 5, or 6).
Number of outbreaks that occurred.
Diseases cured at game end (0-4).
Diseases eradicated (completely eliminated from the board).
Because Pandemic is cooperative, traditional competitive rankings do not apply. The site records group wins and losses. Useful for tracking your win rate at different difficulty levels.
Select the Standard variant.
Add all players who participated (2 to 4).
Record the outcome: Win (all 4 diseases cured) or Loss.
All players share the same outcome.
Optional fields worth recording:
Difficulty level (4, 5, or 6 Epidemic cards).
Number of outbreaks.
Which diseases were cured or eradicated.