Pandemic: The Board Game Trivia Quiz

Answer: Matt Leacock

"Pandemic" was designed by Matt Leacock and published by Z-Man Games in 2008. As with many of Matt Leacock's games, "Pandemic" is a cooperative rather than competitive game, which means that the players are competing against the game not each other. "Pandemic" was a 2009 nominee for the Spiel des Jahres Award for Game of the Year. Matt Leacock's other games include "Forbidden Island" and "Forbidden Desert".

Of the other designers, Elizabeth Hargrave designed "Wingspan", Antoine Bauza designed "7 Wonders", and Susan McKinley Ross designed "Qwirkle".

Answer: Four players

Although the "On the Brink" expansion allows for a fifth player and the "In the Lab" expansion can be played with one through six players, the base game is playable by two, three, or four players. Having played the game a number of times, for me there was no reason why the game could not have a larger number of players. (The game avoids the difficulty many games with larger player numbers has--excessive time waiting for your turn especially if another player has "analysis paralysis". Multiple players are often active during a particular player's turn as one player often interacts with another on a turn.) Perhaps the initial limit to four was to prevent all of the potential player "roles" (and their powers) from being available.

Answer: Atlanta, GA

Players in the game start at Atlanta, GA, home of the real life Center for Disease Control. Various lines on the map connect cities to each other. A player may move along said line from one city to another as one of the four actions he/she can take.

The other cities are also found on the game board. Some special abilities will allow players to move around the board more quickly than this.

Answer: Quarantine Specialist

The five original roles were dispatcher, scientist, medic, researcher, and operations expert. Contingency Planner and Quarantine Specialist were added for the second edition. Various expansions also include some additional roles. Each player has special abilities that can complement and support other players. For instance, a medic can remove all cubes of a particular disease from a city with one action.

Another player would only be able to remove a single cube with that same action.

Answer: Seven cards

Shortly before the turn ends, a player draws two Player Cards. If a player has more than seven cards at the end of a turn, he/she must either discard or play cards to get down to that number. The Player Cards include Special Event cards which sometimes are played right away and sometimes can be held until later.

Answer: Fourth cube

A fourth cube for a particular disease leads to an outbreak of that disease. If different diseases are located closely enough, it is possible for more than one disease to spread to a particular city that way. The cubes representing the four diseases in the first edition were red, blue, black, and yellow. If more than seven outbreaks have occured in the game, it is considered an automatic loss for the players.

Answer: Four diseases

There are 24 cubes for each disease and a total of 96 cubes in the first edition game. If all cubes for a particular disease are already on the board and game play indicates that additional cubes of that color should be placed, that is considered a losing condition. An outbreak of a disease in a particular city (requiring several additional cubes to be placed) could easily cause a cube shortage.

The Infection cards are used at the beginning of the game to randomly seed a certain amount of each disease on the board.

Answer: Five cards of the same color as that disease

The five cards will cure the disease. It is not automatically eliminated. All the cubes of that color on the board must be removed. At that point, the disease stops appearing. There are six research labs that can be placed around the game board, so it is not possible to cure a disease in every city.

Answer: State of Emergency

While "On the Brink" has a fifth disease that can appear, it is treatable. In addition, it is possible for players to win by eliminating the standard diseases before the fifth one appears in the game. In "State of Emergency", "Superbug" refers to the incurable disease. "State of Emergency" also includes the possibility of animals spreading diseases to humans.

Answer: Pandemic: The Cure

Most of the play in "Pandemic: The Cure" is similar to that of the original game. The two big differences are use of dice for many game conditions and a reduced number of cities. The various spin-offs of "Pandemic" are not playable with the original game or with each other.