A legacy game is a variant of

tabletop Tabletop may refer to: Mountains * Table Top Mountain in Rangeville, Queensland, Australia * Table Top Mountain (New York) * Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa * Tepui, flat top mountains in South America Places * Tabletop, New South Wale ...

board game Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well. Many board games feature a comp ...

s in which the game itself is designed, through various

mechanic A mechanic is an artisan, skilled tradesperson, or technician who uses tools to build, maintain, or repair machinery, especially cars. Duties Most mechanics specialize in a particular field, such as auto body mechanics, air conditioning and r ...

s, to change permanently over the course of a series of sessions.

History

Game designer

Rob Daviau Rob Daviau is an American game designer known for creating legacy board gaming. Career He has guest lectured at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University, and New York University on game design and has been a visiti ...

claims to have come up with the idea at a work meeting after jokingly asking why the murderous characters in ''

Clue Clue may refer to: People with the name * DJ Clue (born 1975), mixtape DJ * Arthur Clues (1924–1998), Australian rugby league footballer * Ivan Clues * Tim Cluess Arts, entertainment, and media ''Clue'' entertainment franchise * ''Cluedo ...

'' are always invited back to dinner. Realizing that each new game resets, Daviau thought about what it would be like if everyone would remember who the murderer was, and he pitched the idea of a ''Clue'' legacy game to

Hasbro Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational conglomerate holding company incorporated and headquartered in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Hasbro owns the trademarks and products of ...

. While that idea was rejected, Daviau was later asked to use the mechanic in a new version of ''

Risk In simple terms, risk is the possibility of something bad happening. Risk involves uncertainty about the effects/implications of an activity with respect to something that humans value (such as health, well-being, wealth, property or the environme ...

''. ''Risk Legacy'' was released in 2011 and was his first game to use this format. Daviau followed up with an award-winning ''

Pandemic A pandemic () is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has spread across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of individuals. A widespread endemic (epidemiology), endemic disease wi ...

'' variant, ''Pandemic Legacy: Season 1'', which was released in 2015 to positive reviews and praised as a leap forward in modern board game design. Daviau continues to develop legacy games and co-developed a mechanic, the Echo System, to retain permanent changes through subsequent games in a franchise. Daviau cited his work on ''

Betrayal at House on the Hill ''Betrayal at House on the Hill'' is a board game published by Avalon Hill in 2004, designed by Bruce Glassco and developed by Rob Daviau, Bill McQuillan, Mike Selinker, and Teeuwynn Woodruff. Players all begin as allies exploring a haunted hous ...

'' (which was later adapted into a legacy version) and ''

Trivial Pursuit ''Trivial Pursuit'' is a board game in which winning is determined by a player's ability to answer trivia and popular culture questions. Players move their pieces around a board, the squares they land on determining the subject of a question t ...

: DVD – Lord of the Rings Trilogy Edition'' as predecessors to the legacy idea. The latter was designed in such a way that pre-programmed games sorted the cards by difficulty. This caused some vocal backlash as the game was perceived by many to have a more definite end than other versions.

Common mechanics and themes

Legacy games are designed to be played over the course of a

campaign Campaign or The Campaign may refer to: Types of campaigns * Campaign, in agriculture, the period during which sugar beets are harvested and processed *Advertising campaign, a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme * Bl ...

, usually with the same players, and permanently change over time. As such they have been compared to tabletop

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within ...

s like ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical Studies Rules ...

''. New rules can be introduced as the campaign goes on, allowing for the game to expand both mechanically and thematically. Games can use the expanding campaign as a mode of storytelling; ''Pandemic Legacy: Season 1'' uses a three-act structure to tell its story. Daviau describes legacy games as " experiential" in contrast to traditional games, which are "repeatable". He compared his legacy games to that of a

concert A concert is a live music performance in front of an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, choir, or band. Concerts are held in a wide variety a ...

where you "buy a ticket for an experience" while Haoran Un of ''

Kotaku ''Kotaku'' is a video game website and blog that was originally launched in 2004 as part of the Gawker Media network. Notable former contributors to the site include Luke Smith, Cecilia D'Anastasio, Tim Rogers, and Jason Schreier. History ...

'' describes the idea as "avant-garde performance art". Legacy games break certain covenants that players expect from traditional board games. Rob Daviau (2017), 2:42. Permanent, physical changes can occur to components based on game outcomes and player choices. For instance players might be instructed to write names on cards, place

sticker A sticker is a type of label: a piece of printed paper, plastic, vinyl, or other material with temporary or permanent pressure sensitive adhesive on one side. It can be used for decoration or for functional purposes, depending on the situation. ...

s on the game board, or destroy some components. This causes each copy of the game to be unique at the end and has earned the legacy genre criticism in that there is a finite amount of replayability. Some games have been designed to be replayable with refill packs or non-permanent stickers while others are still playable with the final permanent changes once the campaign is over.

List of legacy and legacy-styled games

References

External links

Legacy 'family' page
at

BoardGameGeek BoardGameGeek (BGG) is an online forum for board gaming hobbyists and a game database that holds reviews, images and videos for over 125,600 different tabletop games, including European-style board games, wargames, and card games. In addition to ...

Keynote by Rob Daviau
on legacy games from the

Game Developers Conference The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is an annual conference for video game developers. The event includes an expo, networking events, and awards shows like the Game Developers Choice Awards and Independent Games Festival, and a variety of tutori ...

2017 {{Use dmy dates, date=January 2018 *