The two classic responses to crises are avoidance and action. If you don’t want to hear any more about rampant diseases and what to do about them, just close this email and go on about your day. However, if you feel like kicking some viral ass might brighten your existence, read on for one of my wife’s favorite games!

Pandemic is probably old enough by now to qualify as a modern classic. If you haven’t played it yet, be warned: even on the easiest mode it can be brutally hard.

You and your friends take on the roles of a team fighting an outbreak of multiple viruses worldwide. The game is cooperative: you vs. the viruses is enough without competing with each other too! Together, you race against biology to prevent the extinction of the human race. There’s globe-hopping action as you quell outbreaks and prevent the spread of 4 strains (represented by different colored cubes) and try to find cures for them all. The gameplay is smooth, simple, and challenging, and the theming is decent.

Enter Pandemic Legacy.

For those who’ve never played one, a legacy board game is an ongoing campaign that carries over from one session to the next, with one complete playthrough pretty much ending the game’s usefulness. That’s because you write on cards, add stickers to the instructions and game board, and generally alter the game materials to the point where they can’t be reused for a second playthrough.

Some of you are cringing. I did at first, too.

But what you get for your trouble is worth it. Pandemic Legacy takes the core gameplay you used in the base game and repurposes it to tell an evolving story. Each “month” (game session) introduces new developments and new twists as the world reacts to the discovery that a supervirus may have escaped into the population. There’s espionage, long-term planning, and decisions that will echo throughout future sessions. You can fail and continue on, but there are always consequences…

It’s hard to go into detail about Pandemic Legacy because there is too much story to potentially spoil. Half the fun is in experiencing the ride for yourself. But I will say this to vouch for it; after finishing Pandemic Legacy, my wife and I went on to acquire and play Pandemic Legacy Season 2 and, as soon as it came out, Season 0 (the prequel).

Take that for what you will.

If you’re on the fence, I recommend you just play it. It’s an awesome game and you get over the defacing game pieces issue soon enough.

Just be careful naming your people! You’ll be stuck with those names for the rest of the season.

Check out the Pandemic family of games