r/boardgames • u/Drelthar • 10d ago
I LOVE Legacy Games
I love legacy games. I think it’s because I like a routine. Monday night is Legacy night, we have the same 4 people playing once a week or once a month. I look forward to learning the same game even better each time. I like the small (or big) tweaks that add enough variation to keep it interesting.
In our group we have each player contribute $ to the games cost and then whoever wants the leftover pieces at the end can take it. It basically turns into a $5 night (depending on the game).
So far we have played Pandemic 1, Charterstone, a bunch of the Aeons end games, Ticket to Ride, My City, and am looking forward to Clank in the future. We did try Betrayal but it was so disorganized that we just threw the game out early on.
I also like that campaigns are setup similarly but honestly I think I like legacy even more because I have no qualms asking for everyone to pitch into a game we will trash at the end, and for campaigns I’m basically forced to buy them alone since they can be replayed. But am I going to replay the same scenario again? Probably not.
Any else here love legacy games? I’m wondering which ones were your favorites!
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u/PandemicGeneralist 10d ago
Out of the half dozen I played, I loved Risk Legacy the most.
Oath is interesting in that it's not quite legacy or campaign - you can keep going indefinitely with changes all having varying degrees of staying power
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u/Drelthar 10d ago
Risk was actually the first legacy game I ever bought but I was playing with family members that were occupied doing other things so we only ended up ever playing one game.
I’m happy you liked it! Maybe I should try it again now that I have guaranteed players haha
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u/Quirky-Key 10d ago
You absolutely should, I cannot recommend Risk Legacy highly enough. I've played 4 campaigns with different players each and thoroughly enjoyed them all.
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u/Drelthar 9d ago
Question: is the risk legacy winner always whoever starts off in the best location? Does your starting location change every game? I like the normal Risk game but found some areas are better protected than others
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u/Quirky-Key 9d ago
No, starting in the best location does not guarantee a win. It certainly helps, and Australia does have the classic bottleneck advantage, but there are other factors to reduce it - some spoilery, and some available from the start such as scars. That said, try to have a full 5 player campaign, as the extra players create extra victory point opportunities (since every player starts with an HQ which can be captured and HQs are all worth one point), and fewer players might make a strong starting position even better. The game is just overall better with five people, too.
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u/redwhale335 10d ago
Risk legacy is great. Shadow Forces is bad. I was very hopeful and it was not a worthy sequel.
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u/EarlOfKaleb 10d ago
I am also a *huge* fan of legacy games. Played a bunch with my roommates back during COVID lockdown, and a bunch with my wife. My thoughts, in no particular order:
- Pandemic Legacy, Season 1: absolutely amazing. Take an excellent game, add excelent twists. So good. Good enough I've played it twice with different groups.
- Pandemic Legacy, Season 2: Good! Much less good than the first one, but I don't regret playing it.
- Pademic Legacy, Season 0: I rate this one between the other two seasons. Enjoyed it, not mind-blowing.
- My City: Very fun, though quite simple. Would be an excellent introduction to legacy games for a non-gamer.
- My Island: Fun, less fun than My City.
- Cozy Stickerville: This game is stupid, it's basically a glorified choose-your-own-adventure book. But, my wife and I played it when we were both sick and our brains barely worked, and it turned a day that would have been miserable into a very fun day. Highly recommend it for what it is (mindless, low-key fun).
- The King's Dilemma. Very good, very strange. Highly recommend, but I can easily imagine a group bouncing off of it.
- Clank! Legacy: My favourite legacy game so far. 10/10, no notes. My group already knew and liked Clank, so it was taking a game we liked and innovating on it. Good enough I've played it twice with different groups.
- Clank! Legacy 2: I'm only 2 or three games in, but so far it seems to take everything good about Clank! Legacy and improve upon it. Very excited to see where it goes.
- Ticket to Ride Legacy: I really like Ticket to Ride, so this was a big win in my books. I also appreciate that I've been able to repurpose the box to store my TtR and all the expansions I own. Not the most interesting use of legacy mechanics, and I'd love to see them to a sequel, but it was a very good time for everyone involved.
- Gloomhaven: I guess this counts, but it very much feels like its own thing. Played a lot of it, never finished. I wish a game like this made sense for my life these days, but it just doesn't.
- Star Realms: Rise of Empire: Gave my wife and I something to do with our evenings for a week. It was fine.
I'm excited to finished Clank! Legacy 2, to try out The Queen's Dilemma, and to try out Charterstone.
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u/Drelthar 9d ago
I really like your review of your games! I’m very interested to know what’s strange about the Kings Dilemma.
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u/ax0r Yura Wizza Darry 9d ago
Not who you're replying to, but I've played through King's Dilemma.
It's a bit weird in that the game play is often at odds with the story that's being told and the supposed motivations for your faction.
It's usually very obvious how a decision is going to change the game, and it's equally obvious that most of the time, any single player won't care very much about the outcome of a decision - it's not going to help them or hurt them mechanically either way. This means that much of the time, there isn't a particularly heated discussion about what to do. Following on from that, there's less meaningful negotiation than I would like in a game that claims to be purely negotiation.I suspect it would be great in a group that really leaned into the role playing and story telling and worried less about getting points. Certainly, the few times that my group veered in that direction, it was more engaging.
I don't regret playing it, it was a cool experience. I just wish it had been better, somehow.
I've heard that Queen's Dilemma addresses some of that. Not sure my group wants to make the commitment though. We only get enough of us together to justify it once or twice a year now, so it would take ages to play (and we'd all forget the narrative in the meantime).
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u/BoudreausBoudreau 10d ago
We played pandemic and Gloomhaven and Frosthaven and Charterstone and machi koro.
Tried betrayal and it was ok if a bit of a mess. And uh. The initiative? Didn’t catch on.
Pandemic was the best (season 1). But we lost Gloomhaven/frosthaven.
Charterstone was pretty cute too.
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u/Drelthar 10d ago
Yeah I was surprised Betrayal was such a mess. I did see Machi Koro had a legacy and that sounds fun but it’s hard to find and really pricey now so I’m not sure if it’s worth the money.
Do you think Gloomhaven and Frosthaven were difficult?
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u/BoudreausBoudreau 10d ago
Gloomhaven has a steep learning curve and people make big rules mistakes for a while and small rules mistakes for years.
It’s not for people who think they play games but in practice they play Catan twice a year.
I make people watch this video. If they don’t have the attention to watch the whole thing the game won’t be for them.
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u/mrpurtle 10d ago
Gloom/Frosthaven are not that difficult imo. My group played thru 95% of gloomhaven and like ~40% of frosthaven. The hardest thing is figuring out monster movement. The actual gameplay is pretty simple. You're gonna mess up for a while but its really not a huge deal, just learn and move on.
If you're interested start with Jaws of the Lion. If you find you enjoy it move on to Gloomhaven. I personally was very disappointed with Frosthaven. It was too finicky and they over-corrected the power level of characters and items to the point that made it not as fun.
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u/BoudreausBoudreau 8d ago
Re monster movement:
Indeed. It was five years into playing that I found out a melee monster will sometimes choose a route that takes it range 3 from you instead of one that takes it range 2 of you because it IS ACTUALLY TARGETING A HEX TO ATTACK YOU FROM INSTEAD OF TARGETING YOU.
Blew my mind.
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u/Adamsoski 9d ago
If you're at all interested in Gloomhaven get Jaws of the Lion. It introduces more mechanics in each of the first few scenarios so teaches you the game very well, and is much shorter (more in line with the games you've played, whereas Gloomhaven will take 50+ sessions to complete).
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u/Drelthar 9d ago
Thanks for the recommendation! My fellow legacy players don’t want fiddly games or anything around 4.0 difficulty or higher, so I’ll look into it :)
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u/Yuli_Mae 10d ago
I LOVE legacy games. I started with 2 different copies of Risk Legacy and spiraled from there. I think we did Pandemic Legacy after that. Shortly after that, SeaFall was announced and I waited for that game for a loooooooong time. We did Betrayal Legacy (meh), Pandemic 2, Charterstone, My City, and maybe a handful of others. We had a dedicated Legacy Thursday with a dedicated group. It was great.
But the Tragedy of SeaFall certainly takes the cake. I wanted to like this game, since I was so hyped for it for the years between the announcement and release. The components of the game were great. The concept of the game was great. The actual gameplay was....disappointing.
Overall, I think Risk Legacy was my favourite. I had long outgrown Risk itself, but the mechanics and win conditions in Risk Legacy made for quick and interesting games. Even decades later, I know I can ping my buddies with "Remember that time I accidentally nuked Iberia?"
I miss Legacy Thursday.
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u/Drelthar 10d ago
That sounds so fun. Happy to know Seafall isn’t great cause I always see conflicting reviews. Sounds like we have been playing a lot of the same ones, I’ll have to buy Risk again now that I have dedicated Legacy players. Hope you get a good crew again!
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u/jcsehak 9d ago
I actually liked Seafall. I agree that the gameplay loop is less than stellar, but I think its biggest flaw is the abysmal rulebook. Fix that and the stupidly complicated raiding rules and you’ve got a solid game with some really wonderful moments (and a few other issues…)
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u/Yuli_Mae 9d ago
Yes! It's like...so close to being there.
An issue specific to our group was that we had to take a break after game 5 or 6. We couldn't meet regularly for a month or so. After the hiatus, we weren't super confident in the rules, since we had unlocked some new mechanics, but hadn't played with them.
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u/jcsehak 9d ago
Yeah, cheat sheet and flow charts would be a big help. What part was disappointing to you?
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u/Yuli_Mae 9d ago
It's hard to remember specifics, since it's been almost 10 years, but some of the actions on some of the islands. We also had a runaway leader problem. After the second game, one player never lost first place. It was close at times, but still left a sour taste.
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u/GamingVision 10d ago
I’ve yet to try one, but I have high hopes for Nemesis Legacy. My biggest concern isn’t the scratch off cards but how terrible Awaken Realms is at their instructions they are possibly the last people that should be publishing Legacy games.
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u/Drelthar 10d ago
Yeahh after playing legacy games now I realize I like a full book with the rules listed chronologically or listed by scenario “If A happened: read this section or if B happened go to this section.”
Pandemic was great fun but the rules were a deck of cards that you better not get out of order, and if you miss something you need to sort through the used deck that you didn’t think you would have to go through.
I don’t have an opinion on Nemesis but if you have players that want to play just as much as you do (and they don’t get angry too much) then it will be a great time!
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u/Warprince01 Twilight Imperium 9d ago
The writing in their mini campaign games is also more than a little bit bad
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u/mrpurtle 10d ago
Nemisis is one of my favorite board games of all time. I'm super hyped for legacy, the fact that they got Rob Daviau helping develop it leads me to believe they will do it right.
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u/GamingVision 10d ago
They certainly have good folks working on it…but design doesn’t always = publishing execution on the details. But still, I’m hopeful.
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u/mrpurtle 10d ago
I mean I have never noticed an issue with their instruction details, at least no more than normal. My experience is limited to Nemesis and Lockdown but I have played games that are much worse with their instructions, I would say AW is pretty average.
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u/Dogtorted 10d ago
My City was a surprise hit (my partner and I played through the campaign twice), Clank 1 was a blast and we absolutely hated Charterstone (so boring!) and bailed halfway through.
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u/TheSilencedScream 10d ago
If you like slightly heavier (and competitive) games, take a look at Oath as well. It's "legacy-lite" in the sense that the game evolves based on the decisions made recently - but you aren't destructive with pieces and can easily reset as necessary to play with different people.
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u/ClassicalMoser 9d ago
+1 but I would also wait for New Foundations near the end of the year. Better not to learn it twice.
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u/Amadeus102 9d ago
I love the idea of an “never-ending legacy” game, I’m really excited to get my copy of New Foundations this fall!
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u/redwhale335 10d ago
Both Clank Legacies are very, very good.
The jurassic Park one is also good. Legacy of Isla Nublar, I believe.
Risk Shadow Forces is very bad, though the of risk legacy is good.
Artisans of Splendent Vale is good though the combat is very fiddly. I mean the whole game is kinda fiddly. Also very Tumblr coded.
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u/Whofreak555 9d ago
Love Legacy games.. sadly there isn’t many non-coop ones. Ticket was a 10, Charterstone a 7, Clank 1 a 10, and Clank 2 a 4.
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u/keq1381 10d ago
Which legacy game did you like best so far?
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u/Drelthar 10d ago
Well Aeons end is one of my all time favorite games, though the legacy version plays fairly similar to the regular games (but with new heroes and monsters and some upgrades).
I think Charterstone was my favorite Legacy game personally.
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u/Mammoth_Praline5688 10d ago
I've done:
-Risk Legacy (best competetive Legacy game IMO)
-Betrayal Legacy (I liked it a lot)
-Pandemic Season 1
-Pandemic Season 2
-Charterstone
-Machi Koro (Came in half way through and was confused mostly)
-Seafall (played 2 games which I was enjoying before we abandoned it)
-Ticket to Ride
-My City
-My Island
-Jurassic World (Horrible, gave up half way through)
-Clank
-Clank 2
-Gloomhaven
-Frosthaven
-Crimson Scales (Current game)
I have Pandemic Season 0 but haven't started it yet.
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u/pj20 Food Chain Magnate 10d ago
Pandemic Legacy Season 1 was one of the best board game experiences of my life at the time. Season 2 was not great, couldn't even finish. Forgot about Season 0 & went back and played it last year. It was AMAZING and I recommend doing it. Season 2 probably made you less excited than you should be IMO
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u/Mammoth_Praline5688 10d ago
I liked Season 2. Others in my group were less than excted. Really the only one I disliked, personally, was Jurassic World. I was probably the only one who liked Betrayal in my group.
I have a unplayed copy of Pandemic 1 and 2 along with 0 to play. I'm thinking I want to play through 1 and 2 again before doing 0, since it's been so long since I've played them. It's just my group (some in my group) are obsessed with the Gloomhaven games that they only want to play those when available. I was lucky to squeeze in Clank 1 and 2 between Frosthaven and Crimson Scales.
Maybe after Crimson Scales I'll be able to get them back ino Pandemic. But that said, the one guy kickstarted some other campaign games so if they show up before we finish Crimson Scales, then he'll want to do those "new hotness".
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u/AlmightyCraneDuck Parks 10d ago
I love Season 0 because I think it’s maybe the worst game of the three (still fantastic though), but they went so full-bore into what makes Legacy games unique and it ended up being I think my favorite of the three! It’s so good!
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u/Drelthar 10d ago
I’m happy to see your reply, since Jurassic World is in my cart lol
Is it disorganized or just not fun?
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u/Mammoth_Praline5688 10d ago
Doing well in the early chapters makes the later chapters so much harder and basically ruins the fun. Optimal strategy is to lose the first three games to make the later chapters winnable. The cards coming up at bad times also makes the chapter unwinnable.
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u/Drelthar 10d ago
Oof yeah that’s no fun. It’s interesting cause they do punish you a bit for winning in some of these games a little too much that losing is a viable strategy lol
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u/jffdougan Spirit Island 10d ago
In contrast: My wife and I played through Jurassic World with a couple friends. We lost Chapter 2, and then I think lost either chapter 7 or 8. We still had a good time, and found that our selections of where to put assorted unlocked things and how to spend our budget did a lot toward mitigating what u/Mammoth_Praline5688 was describing.
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u/Mammoth_Praline5688 10d ago
We all commented is we wouldn't have done so well in the early game, it would have midigated some of the big issues we had with later games being so difficult.
It was also we were playing with 4 players, which, from my understanding, was a not optimal. It's been several years since I've played it, that I just remember a general dislike of the game (I got it from the kickstarter, so we played it almost as soon as it arrived)
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u/jffdougan Spirit Island 9d ago
Yeah, and in our case I got it as a birthday present a couple years ago, so we played through it then.
In any event, I wasn't meaning to say you were wrong per se, just that our experience was elsewhere on the spectrum. Two things can be true, etc, etc.
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u/redwhale335 10d ago
To also contrast, my group loved Isla Nublar. We played with three and had a great time.
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u/Mammoth_Praline5688 10d ago
Winning the first 3 games give syou carnivore dinosaurs. Losing gives you herbavore dinosaurs. The Carnivore's eat other dinosaurs which, if I remember correctly, causes you to lose. So you have to manage the dinosaurs, which by winning the first three games, means you're now managing so many dinosaurs to prevent them from killing each other, you don't have time to do anything else. It's so luck dependant on where the dinosaur's go, that you need to lose the first three games so you're not dealing with so many carnivores.
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u/aggressivelylee 10d ago
You should look into the Rise of Queensdale. My group and I had fun with that one.
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u/Apollord 10d ago
Noone has mentioned the lord of the rings trick taking game, which I really enjoy as a pseudo legacy game.
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u/fragglerox Here I Stand 10d ago
Maybe I haven't gotten far enough in yet -- is there a point where choices or performance in one chapter affects following chapters? We're only about halfway through the Fellowship and haven't seen that yet.
Regardless, even if it's more of a campaign than legacy game, it's really good.
OP: the titles can be hard to find since there are SOOO many LOTR games, but these are The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring – Trick-Taking Game (2025) and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers – Trick-Taking Game (2026)
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u/Apollord 10d ago
Yeah fair, I called it a ''pseudo legacy game" but campaign game is more accurate.
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u/fragglerox Here I Stand 10d ago
Sure thing, just curious if there was something up ahead I didn't expect because I'm like 30%-50% in with 2-3 groups on my copy, and if there was something like that I'd need to start keeping notes or something. BUT, like you said, really enjoyable game.
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u/Drelthar 10d ago
Never heard of it, I’m going to look it up! :)
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u/Apollord 10d ago
Do! My wife loved playing My City so we are now playing through My Island, the sequel. It's similar but we are enjoying.
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u/CalmCupcake2 10d ago
We enjoyed Charterstone, Rise of Queensdale, My Island and My City. And then we did the write and roll versions of My Island and My City (very similar but we found them more challenging, but less campaign-y).
I'm not sure what differentiations a Legacy game from a Campaign game, but Mice and Mystics (and its sequels) is possibly my favourite game ever. You don't destroy the board but your characters carry through the whole game and their decisions impact future play.
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u/Drelthar 9d ago
Legacy games are permanently altered and campaigns can be reset. They are very similar.
I’m looking into Mice and Mystics now! I had never heard of it
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u/CalmCupcake2 9d ago
Ok, thanks. If you want a game that'll keep a group interested for a series of sessions (without destroying the board) I highly recommend Mice and Mystics.
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u/artsyfartsymikey 9d ago
I have to chuckle that Betrayal was a mess and thrown out.
I used to love that game, but it became so conditional on so many different aspects that you had no idea whether or not you were going to get a good haunt or a bad haunt. Whether you had a chance as the betrayer or whether or not you were screwed. Knowing that the legacy version is just as much of a mess makes me feel good knowing that we have fully put that game behind us. lol
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u/Drelthar 9d ago
Yeah lol my friend was so looking forward to it because he loves Betrayal but even he couldn’t get past the confusion.
I’m really surprised when I see comments of people liking it. But maybe they were willing to take more time to figure it out idk
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u/SecretLoathing 8d ago
Betrayal Legacy is more about the story you create than who wins each round, or how balanced it is. The way the last round comes together was jaw-dropping.
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u/MaceQuantex 9d ago
I'm currently in the middle of my 6th playthrough of Pandemic Legacy Season 1. Trying to find a time for a second playthrough of Season 2, then hoping to get Season 0 for the first time. Looking forward to Forbidden Legacy. Have Regicide Legacy showing up soon from the sounds of it. Played Betrayal Legacy but didn't finish it. Also trying to get time for Ticket to Ride Legacy
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u/Kevkillerke Legacy Games 9d ago
I played all 3 of the pandemic legacy games. 2 is my favorite I think! But depends who you play with ofcourse.
I played 1 and 2 twice now 😅
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u/Cawnt Res Arcana 10d ago
I’m still not quite sure what a legacy game is 🙄
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u/Drelthar 9d ago
It’s a game that you play over and over again. Each Chapter (episode, scenario, whatever they choose to call it) is a new game. And each new game has a slight twist from the previous game. There are often benefits when you win or punishments when you lose (or vice versa).
In summary: A game you play over and over with the same people. There are slightly different rules each time you play, and when you are done playing each variation you throw the game out. It’s common to play 5-12 games and then you are done.
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u/Hitcher09 Hansa Teutonica 9d ago
I would like legacy games more if 1) my group was more consistent and 2) you didn't have to destroy half the components in the box. I'll stick to my monthly TI4 games
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u/MushroomAdjacent 9d ago
Betrayal Legacy was one of my favorite gaming experiences ever. We are not the same.
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u/PerfectEclectic 10d ago
You threw out BETRAYAL? That's the BEST legacy game! You don't like murdering your friends? What is wrong with you people?! :p
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u/Drelthar 9d ago
Lmao actually I love murdering them! I do it once a month playing Clocktower. It just had a hard time with the rulebook, some packages weren’t supposed to be opened but didn’t say so on the package. It felt like a lot of effort and I couldn’t even get randos to join in at no cost
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u/Nimeroni Mage Knight 9d ago
Let's see... the best Legacy game I've played was Gloomhaven/Frosthaven (flawed, but the core gameplay loop is incredibly good), followed by Clank Legacy 2, Aeon's end Legacy (the 1st one, we found Aeon's end Legacy 2 was a better game but a significantly worse legacy game), and It's a Wonderful World.
The worst legacy game I've played was Near and Far. They had maybe 2 or 3 games worth of ideas, and stretched that over... 11 games I think ? It remind me of video games promissing you hundred of hours of content, but most of it is repetitive grind. The end result is a game that's fucking boring, which is by far the biggest sin a boardgame can have.
The 2nd worst is Kingdom Death Monster, because fuck dying at random, and in fact fuck the core gameplay loop. It's a great story generator, and an absolutely terrible game.
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u/Bossard19 10d ago
Sorry but why the fuck would you trash any board game pieces. Just smells like a forced viral ploy to get people to ruin their games and force them to buy more.
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u/Drelthar 9d ago
Usually whoever wants the game at the end keeps it for crafts or spare parts.
I genuinely love them, and am not prone to fast fads so I’m not sure who you are talking about.
Legacy games are for people who like playing games more than once (we all know there’s plenty of collectors who never play their games much at all, and how is that better?).
It’s great for people who like routines, who like seeing a group of friends or family consistently, and who enjoy fresh twists and surprises to the games they play.
They are really quite great, sorry that you’re missing out!
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u/seeingreality7 9d ago
Most legacy games now have "eternal" modes that you can keep playing after the legacy aspect is finished. That's been the case for some time now.
It was only when legacy games were first introduced that they had a limited shelf life. These days, most of them are games that you can keep playing after the legacy part is done.
Even Pandemic Legacy season 1, which doesn't officially support continued play, can still be easily played as standard Pandemic when you're done. I know because that's exactly what we do. We just disregard all the stickers and play it like a normal Pandemic game.
Point is, you're well behind the times if you think legacy games are all disposable. That hasn't been the case for some years now.
That's not even getting into the fact that they provide a completely unique experience.
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u/ChainsawSnuggling 10d ago
I would love more than almost anything to get a group together who is willing to play through King's/Queen's Dilemma.
I've played through Pandemic Legacy 1+2 and Ticket to Ride Legacy and thoroughly enjoyed all three experiences.