Table 7 at Dice and Drizzle is the one near the window, where the rain streaks down the glass and the radiator hisses. One Saturday in February, four people who had never met sat down there and asked for something cooperative. We handed them Pandemic. Two hours later they emerged victorious, buzzing like a sports team that had just won a championship.
How to Play
Pandemic is a fully cooperative game for two to four players (we bend the rules to five sometimes) in which the team works together to cure four diseases before outbreaks spread out of control or the card deck runs out. Each player takes a role — Medic, Scientist, Dispatcher, Researcher, Quarantine Specialist — with unique abilities. On your turn you get four actions: move between cities, treat disease cubes, build a research station, or trade cards with a teammate. Curing a disease requires a player to be at a research station with five city cards of the same colour in hand. The game fights back after every turn by drawing Infection cards that add disease cubes to cities. Epidemic cards — shuffled into the draw deck — accelerate everything catastrophically. Win by curing all four diseases. Lose if eight outbreaks happen, any disease runs out of cubes, or the draw deck empties.
Our Experience
The Table 7 group included a retired nurse, a software developer, a student, and someone who described themselves only as 'bad at games.' The nurse immediately claimed Medic and proceeded to treat cities with terrifying efficiency. The developer built a card-sharing pipeline with the student that produced two cures in back-to-back turns. The self-described bad-at-games player drew the Epidemic card that nearly wiped out Asia — then pulled the cure for the Blue disease from a single desperate hand. They erupted in a cheer that turned every head in the cafe. We gave them the house discount on their next visit.