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[INFECT ON!] Pandemic - "C'mon, get down with the sickness..."

PMAversPMAvers Registered User regular
edited August 2008 in Critical Failures
Pandemic_cover.jpg

What's it about?
Four diseases have broken out in the world and it is up to a team of specialists in various fields to find cures for these diseases before mankind is wiped out.

Players must work together, playing to their characters' strengths and planning their strategy of eradication before the diseases overwhelm the world with ever-increasing outbreaks. For example, the Operation Specialist can build research stations, which are needed to find cures for the diseases. The Scientist needs only 4 cards of a particular disease to cure it instead of the normal 5.

But the diseases are outbreaking fast and time is running out: the team must try to stem the tide of infection in diseased areas while also working towards cures.

A truly cooperative game where you all win or you all lose.

Oh, shits. How do I play?

I'm going to go ahead and write them out here, but if you want to read the full rules, you can download the rulebook here.

There are three phases to a turn.

Phase 1: Action phase.
You have four actions total you can take per turn.

You can take any of the basic or special actions that are available, and it costs one action to perform it.
BASIC ACTIONS
  • Drive/Ferry. You can move your pawn to a adjacent city. Cities are only adjacent if they're connected by the red lines on the board. The lines that are on the edges of the board warp around and are connected to the named city.
  • Direct Flight: Play a card from your hard to move directly to that city.
  • Charter Flight: Play the card corresponding to the city you're currently in to move to any other city on the board.
  • Shuttle Flight: If your pawn's in a city with a Research Station, you can spend a action to move to any other city with a Research Station.
  • Pass: You can decide to not take a action with one of your actions. For some reason.
The Dispatcher, one of the special roles, can move other player's pawns as if they were their own with his actions, but has to have permission from the player to do so. If he's doing a Charter Flight, he has to play the card of the current location of the pawn he's moving, not his own.

SPECIAL ACTIONS
  • Build a Research Station: Play the card corresponding to the city your pawn's currently in, and set up a Research Station there from the pile. If there isn't any more Stations left, you have to move one that's in play at a different city to there. This lets you use the Shuttle Flight action, as well as being needed to Discover Cures. If you're the Operations Expert, the second special role, you don't have to discard a card to set one up, just spend a action and BAMF, you've got one.
  • Discover a Cure: If you're at a Research Station, discard five cards of the same color, and you've got a cure. The Cure token gets set up on the vial-side at the bottom of the board. If you're a Scientist, the third special role, you only need four cards of the same color to discover cures.
  • Treat Disease: The important one. Spend a action to remove one disease cube from the city you're currently in. The removed cubes go back into the stock. If a cure's discovered, you remove ALL the cubes of a specific color from the city with your action. If the cure for a disease has been found and ALL the cubes of a color are removed from the board, that disease is considered "eradicated", and cards drawn during the Infector phase of that color have no affect. Hooray! If you're a Medic, the fourth special role, your Treat Disease actions always remove all cubes of a specific color from a city instead of one. Also, anytime you move into a city which has cubes of a disease that have been cured, they're automatically treated without having to spend a action. (This can happen on any player's turn, so a Dispatcher moving a Medic *will* get these free treatments.)
  • Share Knowledge: The only way to transfer cards between players. To Share Knowledge, you both have to be in the same city, and the card being transferred has to be for the same city as you're in. You transfer one card per action spent, and cards can go either way. If you're a Researcher, the final special role, you can give *any* card in your hand during a Share Knowledge action to another player, regardless of who's turn it is. Other players *giving* you cards are still under the normal restrictions, though.

Phase 2: Draw
During this phase, you draw two cards, and take them into your hand. If one of the cards is a Epidemic card (which are spaced through the draw deck, four total for now), shit just got worse.
Epidemic.jpg

That happens immediately. Bad shit, huh? It's nasty since the whole "shuffling the discards and putting it on top" means that cities that have already been hit once with infections will be hit *again* soon.

We'll be playing with open hands, since there's really no way to PbP it well, and I don't think it'll affect much. With four players, you'll start with two cards each. You have a maximum hand size of seven, and if you have more after drawing, you have to discard down. You *can* immediately play Special Event cards to get your hand size down.

Special Event Cards: There's cards in the draw deck that do specific stuff. They'll usually tell you when you can use them and what they do, but it's *all* good.

Phase 3: Infector
Off the Infection deck, a number of cards equal to the Infection Rate are drawn, and each of those cities in turn get one cube of the corresponding color of the card.

Outbreaks: HOLY SHIT IMPORTANT! If a city already has three cubes of a color and it'd get a fourth due to a draw, it doesn't, but a Outbreak happens instead. EACH CONNECTED CITY to the one that outbreaks gets a cube of that color instead. It's possible for outbreaks to form chain-reactions, setting off other Outbreaks, but a city can only Outbreak once in each chain reaction. Every time a city Outbreaks, the Outbreak Counter moves up one space.

How You Lose:
1) If the Outbreak counter ever hits 8.
2) If you have to place a cube of a specific disease, and the stock's completely empty.
3) If the Player Draw Pile is completely empty, and you have to draw cards.

How You Win:
You collectively win the game immediately when you have cures for all four diseases. You don't have to administer the cures to the cities, victory's instant the fourth cure comes into play.

Simple, huh?

Oh, yeah, everyone starts at Atlanta, where the free Research Station is.

The board, as set up at the beginning of the game...
turn000.jpg

Players & Roles:
1) Inquisitor - Scientist - White Pawn
Hand:
Washington
Seoul
Osaka
Bangkok
Karachi
Kolkata

2) Ianator - Researcher - Brown Pawn
Hand:
Khartoum
Lagos
New York
Sydney
London

3) KrataLightblade - Operations Expert - Green Pawn
Hand:
Cairo
Ho Chi Minh City
Istanbul
Lima
Hong Kong
Paris

4) Akinos - Medic - Orange Pawn
Hand:
Milan
Los Angeles
Mexico City
Kinshasa
Miami
Beijing
Taipei
Manila
Tokyo

Player Discard Pile:
Jakarta
Tehran
Riyadh
Mumbai
Algiers
Chennai
Baghdad
Special Event: One Quiet Night (you may play it anytime to make the next player skip the Infector phase entirely.)
Special Event: Government Grant: Add a Research Station to any city for free.
Special Event: Forecast: Examine the top six cards of the Infection Draw Pile, rearrange them in the order of your choice, then lace them back on the pile.
Toronto
Atlanta
Chicago
St. Petersburg
San Francisco
Essen
Special Event: Airlift: Move a pawn (yours or another players) to any city. You must have a player's permission to move their pawn.
Madrid
Dehli

I'll be playing the role of the Infector/GM for this. Your actions for the turn should be limed. Turn limits I havn't quite figured out yet, but I'm thinking Midnight EST/24 hours. Depending on how on-the-ball people are (and if I'm around), might be able to cycle through multiple turns per day.

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Posts

  • InquisitorInquisitor Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    I'm down Charlie brown.

    Though I've never played it before, so fair warning, I'll probably suck.

    DLing the rules.

    Inquisitor on
  • IanatorIanator Gaze upon my works, ye mighty and facepalm.Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    Man, this looks like fun! If my trip out of town doesn't interfere, I could totally do this. How long does an average game last?

    Ianator on
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  • PMAversPMAvers Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    Inquisitor wrote: »
    I'm down Charlie brown.

    Though I've never played it before, so fair warning, I'll probably suck.

    DLing the rules.

    Congratulations, you're a Scientist. Opening hand's in the OP. I'm coloring the text of the cities to correspond with the color of the card, so if that makes it hard to read, someone yell.
    How long does an average game last?

    The box says 30-45 minutes normally... dunno how many turns that'd end up being in PbP. If it ends up going long, we could always pull someone in to play for you from a wait-list.

    PMAvers on
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  • IanatorIanator Gaze upon my works, ye mighty and facepalm.Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    Awesome! Sign me up!

    Ianator on
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  • PMAversPMAvers Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    Ianator wrote: »
    Awesome! Sign me up!

    Okay, you're dealt in, and you'll be playing the Researcher.

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  • crimsoncoyotecrimsoncoyote Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    Oh shit... reading now!

    crimsoncoyote on
  • InquisitorInquisitor Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    So, I shouldn't look at what hands you assigned to other players right? According to the rules?

    Just finished reading the rules again, gonna let things sink and then read them again. I think I get the general idea.

    Inquisitor on
  • PMAversPMAvers Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    Inquisitor wrote: »
    So, I shouldn't look at what hands you assigned to other players right? According to the rules?

    *Technically,* according to the rules, you're not supposed to show your hand. You can *tell* people what you have in your hand at any time, though. But, since this is a "beginner's" game (and I don't feel like having to PM everyone their hand every turn), we're just going to keep them open.

    PMAvers on
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  • InquisitorInquisitor Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    Sounds good.

    Inquisitor on
  • InquisitorInquisitor Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    Oh, fyi I can't see the name of the city that has three black cubes on it, the cubes are covering.

    Also, outbreaks are TERRIFYING so we San Fran, London, and the unknown 3 black location ASAP.

    London the most because it is linked to four locations.

    Also, what happens on an outbreak at say, San Fran? Does LA, Tokyo and Manila get a cube even though they are a different color disease or just Chicago?

    Inquisitor on
  • PMAversPMAvers Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    Inquisitor wrote: »
    Oh, fyi I can't see the name of the city that has three black cubes on it, the cubes are covering.

    Also, outbreaks are TERRIFYING so we San Fran, London, and the unknown 3 black location ASAP.

    London the most because it is linked to four locations.

    Also, what happens on an outbreak at say, San Fran? Does LA, Tokyo and Manila get a cube even though they are a different color disease or just Chicago?

    Oh, crap, didn't even notice it. But, that's Mumbai. I'll fix that when the results for the first turn go up.

    And yes, they would get a cube. The colors of the spaces don't have any mechanical effects.

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  • InquisitorInquisitor Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    Okay, in that case:

    Inquisitors oh shit oh shit damage control priority list:

    1. London is linked to 4 others and has three infections already. It is also linked to all locations of the same color, making it more likely to trigger more outbreaks.
    2. San Fran is linked to 4 others and has three infections already. However, most of what it is linked to is different in color, making it less likely to trigger additional outbreaks.
    3. Mumbai is linked to 3 other locations and has 3 infections already too. All the locations it is linked to are the same color too.

    I think everything else can go on the back burner for now.

    Inquisitor on
  • IanatorIanator Gaze upon my works, ye mighty and facepalm.Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    Agreed. I think London's going to be my first target.

    Ianator on
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  • InquisitorInquisitor Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    Yeah, I can go to Tehran and then to Mumbai. You can go to Petersberg and then London.And someone else can just go from Atlanta to San Fran.

    We get 4 action points so I think we could fly, move, move, and then get rid of one of the disease tokens. Guy from Atlana could go, move, move and knock 2 off of San Fran.

    Sounds like a decent opening blitz and a decent short term plan. No idea what we should be thinking long term though.

    Inquisitor on
  • KrataLightbladeKrataLightblade Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    If you need another player, sign me up. I don't know how long you want each individual turn to last, though, so if you're expecting like eight to ten turns a day, you might not wanna count on me too terribly much.

    KrataLightblade on
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  • AkinosAkinos Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    Ooh! Ooh! Me! Me!

    Akinos on
  • PMAversPMAvers Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    And thus it begins...

    Krata's the Operations Expert, and Akinos is the Medic. Your opening hands are in the OP.

    Turn-order wise, we'll just go 1-4.

    So, Inquisitor, the ball is in your court for the first turn.

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  • AkinosAkinos Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    Guys I can remove all cubes from a city at once, so I can take care of SF on my turn. Just FYI.

    Akinos on
  • InquisitorInquisitor Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    Okay, yell at me if I do something wrong:

    Action point 1: Play Tehran card to fly there.
    Action point 2: Move to Karachi
    Action point 3: Move to Mumbai
    Action point 4: Remove one disease token from Mumbai


    Done.

    Akinos, that is true. You could also fly to Essen, move to London, and remove all the tokens there on your turn, leaving our other two members to go to SF and wipe out the disease there.

    Also, is the game discontinued or something? I can't find it for sale anywhere.

    Edit: limed

    Inquisitor on
  • PMAversPMAvers Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    Inquisitor wrote: »
    Okay, yell at me if I do something wrong:

    Action point 1: Play Tehran card to fly there.
    Action point 2: Move to Karachi
    Action point 3: Move to Mumbai
    Action point 4: Remove one disease token from Mumbai

    Done.
    Okay, processing them now, but that's exactly how I want to see them. (And, y'know, limed.)

    Everything checks out okay, and you draw two cards. No Epidemics this turn.

    INFECTORS TURN

    Moscow is the first one that's drawn, and it gets it's first black cube.
    Karachi is the second card that's drawn, and it also gets it's first black cube.

    Current Board State:
    turn001.jpg

    Ianator's up.

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  • IanatorIanator Gaze upon my works, ye mighty and facepalm.Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    Alright, let's see...

    1. Direct Flight to St. Petersburg.
    2. Drive to Essen.
    3. Drive to London.
    4. Treat London's Black disease.

    Ianator on
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  • PMAversPMAvers Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    Ianator wrote: »
    Alright, let's see...

    1. Direct Flight to St. Petersburg.
    2. Drive to Essen.
    3. Drive to London.
    4. Treat London's Black disease.

    Okay, processing now, although I'd like to point out that you could've just driven there from Atlanta to get to London, and not have to discard a card. (Atlanta-Washington-New York-London) Would you rather do that instead?

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  • InquisitorInquisitor Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    Oh man, my bad Ianator, it was my advice to fly. Forgot about driving (ferrying) across the ocean. :oops:

    Inquisitor on
  • IanatorIanator Gaze upon my works, ye mighty and facepalm.Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    Oh! Yes please.

    1. Drive from Atlanta to Washington DC.
    2. Drive from Washington to New York.
    3. Ferry from NY to London.
    4. Treat London's Blue disease.

    Ianator on
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  • PMAversPMAvers Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    Ianator wrote: »
    Oh! Yes please.

    1. Drive from Atlanta to Washington DC.
    2. Drive from Washington to New York.
    3. Ferry from NY to London.
    4. Treat London's Black disease.

    Okay, processing this now. (I'm assuming that black = blue in London.)

    Everything worked out okay, and no epidemics drawn.

    INFECTORS TURN

    Paris is the first card to be drawn, and gets one blue cube.
    New York is the second to be drawn, and gets one blue cube as well.

    Board state at the end of turn 2:
    turn002.jpg

    I'll be heading to work now, so the next turn will be delayed a few hours in processing. Should be back around 11:30 PM EST to do so. Krata's up.

    PMAvers on
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  • IanatorIanator Gaze upon my works, ye mighty and facepalm.Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    I'm assuming that black = blue in London.
    *facepalm* Right. Fixing...

    Ianator on
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  • KrataLightbladeKrataLightblade Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    My plan, to be discussed with other players, is to Fly to Riyadhi, move to Cairo, kill a token there, and then set up a Research Station there so we can freely move between Atlanta and Cairo much faster. Then Akinos can go make San Fran all better because he';s the Medic and thus better at it than me anyway, and that way we also take a tier-2 threat off the table.

    Anyone disagree with this?

    KrataLightblade on
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  • IanatorIanator Gaze upon my works, ye mighty and facepalm.Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    I have no objections - seems pretty sound to me.

    Ianator on
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  • InquisitorInquisitor Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    Sounds awesome, that puts a research center close to me, and I only need 4 of the same colored cards instead of 5 to cure a disease being the Scientist.

    Speaking of which, I've already got 2 black, which I am going to try to hold onto at all costs.

    Inquisitor on
  • IanatorIanator Gaze upon my works, ye mighty and facepalm.Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    You want my Moscow? Being a Researcher, we don't necessarily have to be there for me to give it to you.

    Ianator on
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  • InquisitorInquisitor Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    I'd love your Moscow but there's no need to get it to me quite yet. We probably should start moving in the general direction of each other as we wipe out diseases though.

    Inquisitor on
  • AkinosAkinos Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    Everything discussed so far sounds good to me. I will mainly just head towards the nearest hot spots until I have something trade-worthy.

    Akinos on
  • KrataLightbladeKrataLightblade Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    Well okay then.

    Action Point 1: Charter Flight to Riadyh
    Action Point 2: Move to Cairo.
    Action Point 3: Set up a Research Station.
    Action Point 4: Treat Disease in Cairo.

    KrataLightblade on
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  • InquisitorInquisitor Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    Man, things seem to be going well for us but I know it's only a matter of time before one of us draws a right nasty card and things get wild.

    Inquisitor on
  • KrataLightbladeKrataLightblade Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    Well, we could always get lucky.

    KrataLightblade on
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  • AkinosAkinos Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    Just wait until the Epidemics to start happening. :)

    Akinos on
  • InquisitorInquisitor Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    Akinos wrote: »
    Just wait until the Epidemics to start happening. :)

    Seriously, I keep expecting to come back to the thread and just see a map covered in little colored blocks of death.

    Inquisitor on
  • KrataLightbladeKrataLightblade Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    Inquisitor wrote: »
    Akinos wrote: »
    Just wait until the Epidemics to start happening. :)

    Seriously, I keep expecting to come back to the thread and just see a map covered in little colored blocks of death.

    At that point, can we switch to a game about zombies?


    EDIT: There was a better joke there, but my computer just got spamblasted. Sorry.

    KrataLightblade on
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  • IanatorIanator Gaze upon my works, ye mighty and facepalm.Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    Only if it's about blocky zombies.

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  • InquisitorInquisitor Registered User regular
    edited August 2008
    Huh, you know it actually would be a really simple pallet/theme swap to make this game be about a zombie invasion across the world instead of a disease epidemic.

    Inquisitor on
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