PSA: I thought legacy board games were just a cash grab until my group tried Charterstone

For years, I saw those boxes with stickers and told my friends it was a gimmick. Then last winter, my buddy in Chicago mailed me his copy of Charterstone after their six game campaign. We played the first game, and I was hooked by the third session when we unlocked a new rule that changed everything. Now I'm torn between thinking it's genius game design or just expensive fun. Has anyone else had a legacy game completely flip their opinion?

3 comments

3 Comments

masonbell1mo ago

Yeah, the "cash grab" idea never really fit for me. I see it more like paying for a guided experience. A regular board game you play ten times, a legacy game you play through once but it's a whole story. That Charterstone rule change you mentioned is a great example of the design doing its job, making you feel like the game is growing with you.

phoenix291mo ago

Right? It's wild how much those permanent marks add to the experience. We just finished our copy of Pandemic Legacy and the board is a total mess, but looking at it brings back the exact moments of panic or victory. It's like a photo album of bad decisions and lucky breaks. That's the whole point, you're paying for that shared memory, not just a component upgrade.

hart.cora1mo ago

The guided experience idea is close, but it's more like paying for a game designer's time. They built a clockwork machine that only ticks forward once. My group's copy of Pandemic Legacy has permanent marker all over the board, which is a record of our terrible choices. That specific, unchangeable history is what you're buying, not just the stickers.