Game mechanics include action points, card drafting, cooperative, dice rolling, events, hand management, legacy, push your luck, take that, tile laying, trick-taking, variable setup, worker placement, and many many more.
No matter what type a game is, there are always mechanics that define what to do and how to do it. Let’s look at an example before diving into the legacy mechanic specifically. Sagrada by Floodgate Games is a game which involves dice rolling (pretty basic mechanic), drafting (selecting what dice to take), contracts & set collection (selecting what objectives you need to complete & collecting the dice needed) along with pattern building (matching the dice color and/or number to your board pattern).
All these mechanics together in just one game sounds like it is way too complicated to play, right? It seems like the weight (complexity level) of the game should be a 3.0 or higher because of all that is going on but in reality Sagrada has a weight of 1.93 (out of 5). Even Yahtzee which has five different mechanics to it and is only weighted at 1.19.
Now with a little understanding that games function using many different mechanics, let’s dive into legacy and see why this mechanics is picking up steam with more and more titles coming out with it. First, here is the definition provided by Board Game Geek:
“Legacy games are board games whose rules and components change over time based on the outcome of each game played and the choices made by the player(s). They will oftentimes make physical changes to the board game by, for example: marking the cards, placing stickers, destroying components, opening sealed packages, and so on.
The changes made in a Legacy game are designed to be permanent. A Legacy game's full experience is played out in a campaign that can only be played once. To replay the full experience again, the player(s) would need to purchase another copy of the game or, if available, a "recharge pack".
Official and unofficial methods to circumvent Legacy mechanisms are common in popular Legacy games.”
So the big question is why would you want to play a game which changes the rules as you go along and that, most of the time, you can only play it once. Another question often arises about if you are required to play with the same people for the whole campaign. A third question is do you need to more players to do better in the game. Last question is what to do when we are done playing the legacy version. I shall address each of these concerns before we look at a few popular legacy games.
Why play a game with rule changes?
Legacy games often are a story based version of a game. As you progress in the story, characters and/or pieces may change, locations (the board) will be added to and/or subtracted from, and etc. all of which may need rules modifications for the changes to be effective in the game.
To stay as vague as possible as to not spoil the game, if you are familiar with the game Pandemic you know it is all about defeating a virus outbreak. In Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 as you progress in the game the virus gets stronger and mutates which causes new rules to apply in how to win. These changes ensures that the game stays balanced so not one side is too powerful (although sometimes it seems like it is).
Do we have to play with the same players?
This is definitely a good question to ask. Most legacy games encourage you to play with the same group throughout the whole game for consistency in the campaign. Some games another player can easily take over without much “catching up” to do.
An example… we started to play Charterstone a while back with our friend and her now ex-boyfriend. Well, they are no longer together and if we wanted to continue with a 3 player game we could or if we find another fourth player, we can catch them up since we did not get that far into the campaign.
Do you need more players to do better at the game?
The short answer…. Depends on the game. Some games you have a better chance at succeeding the campaigns with higher player counts.
If you know the game Betrayal at House on the Hill, it is one that the best plays at a higher player count because you have a better chance to survive “the haunt”; Betrayal Legacy is the same way regarding player count (we don’t own Betrayal Legacy yet).
Another legacy game that we really love is My City (more about this game further down). Even though BGG says it plays best at four players, two and three player count still is fine to play with. Our first complete play through was with three players.
What to do when we are done with the game?
Now, I cannot answer for all of the legacy games but some you can play over and over as a regular non-campaign version (My City) and some if you want to replay the whole campaign all you need is a recharge pack and flip the board over to the unused side (Charterstone).
My Thoughts…
We are just starting to get more into legacy games since we do have a few people that we can consistently get together with and play the same game with over and over. I feel having that base will make the legacy games more fun to play since we all have our gaming strengths and weaknesses that can feed off of each other.
Regarding to if it is worth getting a legacy game that may or not be re-playable after completion at a cost that is usually higher than a typical or the standard version of the game, that would be totally up to you to decide that. I consistently weigh that issue myself.
So how about looking at a few legacy games so you can decide if you want to try them or not. As of today’s posting, Wikipedia lists a total of 25 legacy games (a few not released yet) and I know that more are coming as well.
Risk Legacy (2011)
Risk Legacy is considered to be the first legacy game. It retails for around $60, has a weight of 2.59/5, and has six mechanics list for the game on BGG. The description on BGG gives a wonderful overview so I will let you read it except for the last main paragraph…
”It should be noted that although cards are ripped up over the course of the game, there are so many cards added via the sealed packages, that the game does not suffer. Nor is this a "disposable" game, merely a customized one. The game can continue to change beyond the 15 game campaign, and even when it finally does stop changing, you still have a copy of Risk that is completely unique.”
I grew up playing Risk and now after reading the full description, I might actually want to get my own copy. Maybe for Chirstmas?? (hint, hint, wink, wink)
Pandemic Legacy: Seasons 1, 2, & 0 (2015, 2017, 2020)
Each of these retails for $80 and the weights for each (in order of release) are the following: 2.84, 3.23, 3.00. Seasons 1 & 2 each have 8 mechanics and Season 0 has seven.
What is neat about this is that Season 1 represents the “present” day (I know in a pandemic, playing a game about a worldwide pandemic is ironic, don’t you think) and is played over the course of a year so you can beat the game in just twelve plays if you win each month on the first try (at most is two plays in a given month). I haven’t heard of anyone winning that way. With our game, we are nearing the end of the season but have had to replay a month (or two).
Season 2’s setting takes place 71 years in the future and as you can see in the weight, it is suppose to be harder and with new mechanic to the game. That is all I really know and/or want to say about the next season. You don’t need to play Season 1 in order to play Season 2 but it highly recommended.
Season 0 is the third in the series but it takes place during the Cold War in 1962 as a prequel to the others. You do not need to complete the other two seasons to play this according to the publisher so if you want to dive right into the Cold War thriller. Go right ahead. For us, we want to complete the first two season before “going back in time.”
** Note: Pandemic Season 1 and Season 2 have two different boxes each. The box for each season contains the same game just different artwork to complete the picture shown above. You do NOT need a copy of both to play the season.
Charterstone (2017)
Charterstone is by Stonemaier Games is a 1-6 player game which plays best at 6 in order to get the full scope of the game for completion. It retails for $70.00 on the SM website but you can find it cheaper elsewhere. It has a weight od 2.82/5. Here is the description from the BGG page:
“The prosperous Kingdom of Greengully, ruled for centuries by the Forever King, has issued a decree to its citizens to colonize the vast lands beyond its borders. In an effort to start a new village, the Forever King has selected six citizens for the task, each of whom has a unique set of skills they use to build their charter.
In Charterstone, a competitive legacy game, you construct buildings and populate a shared village. Building stickers are permanently added to the game board and become action spaces for any player to use. Thus, you start off with simple choices and few workers, but soon you have a bustling village with dozens of possible actions.
Your journey through Charterstone's many secrets will last twelve games, but it doesn’t end there. Your completed village will be a one-of-a-kind worker-placement game with plenty of variability."
Charterstone can be replayed if you purchase the recharge pack ($30 retail) which resets the cards that have been used and play again with the backside of the board. The other components are not replaced in the pack so you still need to have at least one copy of the full game. If you like it so much after the second play through, you can buy another board separately and more recharge packs to keep playing over and over again.
One of these days when this Covid pandemic gets under controller where we can return to a new “normal” I do want to either finish what we started and/or get a new group and dive head first into completing the game.
Sagrada Legacy (2021?)
You recall the game I talked about at the beginning of this article when describing game mechanics? Yeah, it was Sagrada. Back in January Floodgate Games sent out an email to subscribers stating:
“We’ll be making and official announcement about Segrada Legacy in the coming weeks with more information. But we wanted you, our most loyal fans, to have the inside track on it first.
Sagrada: Legacy will be released this summer for Gen Con 2021!”
Well, Gen Con 2021 is coming up in a few weeks, and since the email from January I have not seen any chatter about the supposedly release. So we can hope that this will be a reality but the masterminds at Floodgate only knows.
My City (2020)
BGG has the game weighted at 2.02/5 and the average rating by those who rated it is 7.9/10. It has 8 different mechanics to the game which as you progress in each of the chapters the mechanic become more and more important.
I cannot praise this game enough so here is the description from BGG:
“My City is a competitive legacy game in which you develop a city on your own playing board through the ages.
The game consists of 24 episodes, beginning with the development of a city in its early preindustrial stages and progressing through industrialization. During each game, players customize their experience by adding elements to their personal boards and adding cards to the game. Players' choices and action made during one session of gameplay carry over into the next session, creating a personalized gaming experience.
For players who do not want to experience My City as a legacy game, a double-sided game board offers an alternate set-up for repeatable play (some elements from the legacy experience are needed for the repeatable play game, players can unlock these elements by playing through the first 4 episodes).
Since we played it with 3 players the first time, we plan on playing it again with 3 players to see if we can beat our scores from the first play through. Because of that we will have 2 extra boards for my wife and I to play it again a third time just the two of us.
If you have multiple copies of the game (completed through the first four episodes) you can actually play the game with more than four people at a time. Can you say GAME NIGHT!!!! Everyone.
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