Is Pandemic good for kids? Age and difficulty

How do you set up Pandemic?

Checked against the Pandemic English rulebook from Z-Man Games, copyright 2013. Page numbers count the cover as page 1, so the introduction is page 1 and setup is on pages 2 and 3. Some pages were hard to read as text because of the map art, so I checked them as page images.

1. Put the board where everyone can reach it. Put the 6 research stations and the disease cubes nearby, and sort the cubes into 4 supply piles by color (page 2).
2. Put 1 research station in Atlanta (page 2).
3. Put the outbreaks marker on the 0 space of the Outbreaks Track. Put the 4 cure markers, vial side up, near the Discovered Cure Indicators (page 2).
4. Put the infection rate marker on the left-most 2 space of the Infection Rate Track (page 3).
5. Shuffle the Infection cards. Flip 3 and put 3 cubes of the matching color on each of those cities. Flip 3 more and put 2 cubes on each. Flip 3 more and put 1 cube on each. That is 18 cubes. Put those 9 cards face up on the Infection Discard Pile. The rest are the Infection Deck (page 3).
6. Give each player a reference card. Shuffle the Role cards and deal 1 face up to each player. Put the matching pawns in Atlanta. Remove the other Role cards and pawns (page 2).
7. Take the Epidemic cards out of the Player Deck and set them aside. Shuffle the other Player cards (City and Event cards) (page 2).
8. Deal 4 Player cards to each player (page 2).
9. Deal 3 Player cards to each player (page 2).
10. Deal 2 Player cards to each player (page 2).
11. Choose the difficulty by the number of Epidemic cards: 4 for an Introductory game (use this for a first game), 5 for Standard or 6 for Heroic. Remove unused Epidemic cards from the game (page 3).
12. Divide the remaining Player cards into face-down piles, as equal as you can, with one pile for each Epidemic card. Shuffle 1 Epidemic card into each pile. Stack the piles to make the Player Deck, with smaller piles at the bottom (page 3).
13. Players look at their City cards. The player with the highest city population goes first (page 3).

How do you teach Pandemic to kids?

The box says 8 and up. We suggest 10 and up with an adult helping, and 12 and up on their own. It is a cooperative game and a hard one: everyone wins or loses together. The rulebook says the player whose turn it is decides, while everyone is free to give advice (page 3).

Say this

1. Four diseases are spreading across the world, and we are a team that has to find a cure for each one before it is too late.
2. On your turn you get 4 actions: travel, treat a disease by removing a cube, build a research station, share a card with a player in your city, or cure a disease.
3. To cure a disease, take 5 cards of its color to a research station and discard them. The Scientist only needs 4.
4. After your actions, draw 2 player cards. Some of them are Epidemics, and those make things much worse.
5. Then infect cities: flip infection cards and put a cube on each city named. If a city would get a fourth cube, it has an outbreak, and the disease spreads to the cities next to it.
6. We win if all four diseases are cured. We lose if there are 8 outbreaks, if we run out of cubes, or if we can not draw 2 player cards.

The rulebook sets the difficulty by the number of Epidemic cards, and says to use 4 for a first game (page 3). It has no other beginner variant, so the rest below are house rules.

First-game simplifications

• Official variant Play the Introductory game: use 4 Epidemic cards, and keep everyone's cards face up where all can see them. The rulebook suggests this for a first game (pages 3 and 7).
• House rule Let a grown-up read each role card aloud and remind kids of their role's special power during the first game.
• House rule Let a grown-up do the infection step, so the kids see how outbreaks spread without having to track which cities already had one.

Watch-outs for kids ages 10 to 12

• On an Epidemic, you draw the bottom card of the Infection Deck, and then shuffle only the Infection Discard Pile and put it on top of the deck (page 6).
• In the Infect cities step you flip as many cards as the infection rate shows, one at a time (page 6).
• A city never gets a fourth cube of a color. An outbreak happens instead, and a city that already had an outbreak on this card gets no more cubes from the chain reaction (page 7).
• Event cards can be played any time, even on someone else's turn, and are not an action. You can not play one between drawing a card and resolving it (page 7).
• Your hand limit is 7 cards. Only Player cards count (pages 6 and 7).
• Discover a Cure needs 5 City cards of the same color at any research station. The Scientist needs only 4 (pages 4 and 8).
• You also lose if you can not draw 2 Player cards at the end of your actions. The Player Deck does not get reshuffled (pages 6 and 7).

Back for another game?

• Each turn: 1. Do 4 actions. 2. Draw 2 Player cards, resolve any Epidemics and discard down to 7. 3. Infect cities. Then play passes left (page 3).
• Actions: Drive or Ferry, Direct Flight (discard the card for the city you fly to), Charter Flight (discard the card for the city you are in), Shuttle Flight between research stations (page 4).
• Other actions: Build a Research Station (discard the card for your city), Treat Disease (remove 1 cube, or all of a cured color), Share Knowledge (card for the city you both are in), Discover a Cure (5 cards of one color at a research station) (page 4).
• Epidemic card: 1. Increase, move the infection rate marker 1 space. 2. Infect, put 3 cubes on the bottom Infection card's city. 3. Intensify, shuffle the Infection Discard Pile and put it on top of the deck. No replacement card (page 6).
• Infect cities: flip as many Infection cards as the infection rate and put 1 cube on each named city. Outbreak if the city already has 3 of that color (pages 6 and 7).
• Outbreak: move the outbreaks marker 1 space and put 1 cube on every connected city. Chain reactions can follow, but no city has two outbreaks from the same card (page 7).
• Winning: cures for all 4 diseases (page 7).
• Losing: the outbreaks marker reaches the last space, you can not place the cubes needed, or a player can not draw 2 Player cards (page 7).

How do you keep track in Pandemic?

The board has an Outbreaks Track, a Discovered Cure Indicator and an Infection Rate Track. This helper keeps the same counts at the table. You lose when the outbreaks marker reaches the last space, 8 outbreaks (page 1). You win as soon as all 4 cures are discovered (page 7). Each Epidemic moves the infection rate marker forward 1 space (page 6), so count them here and read the current infection rate under the marker on the board.