Continue if you are looking for the best Legacy board games and want to know what to play. A Legacy board game is any game that continues past one instance of gameplay. This is usually in the form of campaigns where you have characters that grow and get stronger over time. There are many great options that span across many different categories. This is our definitive list of the 10 best legacy games.
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#10 | Machi Koro Legacy
A newer title just makes the list of the best legacy board games. Machi Koro Legacy features the same gameplay as Machi Koro. You are still rolling dice, you are still collecting income, and you are still racing to build landmarks — but then you unlock things and start to earn extra income. You explore and need to make long term choices. Even if you aren’t in contention to win a given game, you still need to make moves for your long term strategy. For 2 – 4 players, games last roughly 30 – 45 minutes.
FOR MORE: Buy Machi Koro Legacy on Amazon
#09 | Ultimate Werewolf Legacy
Ultimate Werewolf Legacy makes the list of the best legacy board games because it uses gameplay similar to the wonderful Ultimate Werewolf with great additions. There are no single standalone games as players and the village itself have attributes that are retained between games, with events that take place in the first games having effects that ripple into the future. Players can earn titles, which provides them with special abilities in future games, regardless of their role. For 8 – 16 players, games last about 1 hour each.
FOR MORE: Buy Ultimate Werewolf Legacy on Amazon
#08 | Shadowrun: Crossfire
Shadowrun: Crossfire is a cooperative deck-building card game set in the gritty, cyberpunk fantasy world of Shadowrun. Take on tough jobs such as protecting a client marked for death, shooting your way out of downtown when a run goes wrong or facing down a dragon. The best legacy game portion comes in where you’ll improve your deck with a mix of strategies while earning to give your character upgrades, physical augmentations, magical initiations, weapons training and Edge as you play. For 1 – 4 players, games last 30 – 60 minutes.
FOR MORE: Buy Shadowrun Crossfire on Amazon
#07 | Charterstone
Another title on the list of the best legacy board games that is legacy and nothing else is Charterstone. This is a competitive title where you construct buildings and populate a shared village. Building stickers are permanently added to the game board and become action spaces for anyone to use. Thus, you start off with simple choices and few workers, but soon you have a bustling village with dozens of possible actions. For 1 – 6 players, games last 45 – 75 minutes.
FOR MORE: Buy Charterstone on Amazon
#06 | Seafall
In SeaFall, the world is starting to claw its way out of a dark age and has begun to rediscover seafaring technology. Players take on the role of a mainland empire that consults with a consortium of advisors to discover new islands, explore those islands, develop trade, send out raiding parties, take part in ship-to-ship combat, and more. From the same designer as Pandemic and Risk Legacies, this is a slam dunk for the list of the best legacy games out there. For 3 – 5 players, games run 2 – 3 hours.
FOR MORE: Buy Seafall on Amazon
#05 | Risk Legacy
It is a delight to see that the near century-old iconic board game has a continuation version landing it on the list of the best legacy board games. Risk Legacy follows the same tried and true combat of Risk. What’s different is that the game changes over time based on the outcome of each game and the various choices made by players. You have to choose from different factions with different rules and these change as you go. For 3 – 5 players, games run around 1 hour each.
FOR MORE: Buy Risk Legacy on Amazon
#04 | Aeon’s End Legacy
Aeon’s End itself was already built as something to grow and continue so naturally with the Legacy version out, that version is one of the most obvious best legacy board games on this list. Like the original, Aeon’s End Legacy is a deck building game that is also part dungeon crawler. Either solo or cooperative build up your deck to take on the epic monsters of the game. The difference with Legacy is that you gain powerful things as you go that get added to your supply. For 1 – 4 players, games run 45 – 90 minutes.
FOR MORE: Buy Aeon’s End Legacy on Amazon
#03 | Betrayal Legacy
Betrayal Legacy marries the concept of Betrayal at House on the Hill — exploring a haunted mansion — with the permanency and multi-game storytelling. Betrayal Legacy consists of a prologue and a thirteen-chapter story that takes place over decades. Players represent families that have members coming in and out of the interweaving tale. Rob Daviau, the designer of this and many other titles on this list of the best legacy board games is fantastic at storytelling over time. For 3 – 5 players, games last 45 – 90 minutes.
FOR MORE: Buy Betrayal Legacy on Amazon
#02 | Gloomhaven
This is a game of tactical combat in a persistent world of shifting motives. You take on the role of a wandering adventurer forced to work with other players to clear out menacing dungeons and forgotten ruins. In the process, you will enhance their abilities with experience and loot, discover new locations to explore and plunder, and expand an ever-branching story fueled by the decisions you make. Once you complete an expedition, gain experience and key items to make you stronger for the next one. The ultimate continual dungeon epic on the list of the best legacy board games. For 1 – 4 players, games last about 1 – 2 hours.
FOR MORE: Gloomhaven Page | Games Like Gloomhaven | Buy Gloomhaven on Amazon
#01 | Pandemic Legacy Season 1
When most people think best legacy board games, the title they are thinking about more often to not is the amazing reinvention that is Pandemic. Pandemic is the original cooperative race against time game that has been satisfying audiences for years but has gotten a little stale. This evolution sure fixed that. The legacy mechanic here works as a timeline. Each month you have two chances to complete a specific set of objectives. If you succeed you move to the next month but if you fail you get one final chance at tougher odds. Get through the entire season, fighting the pandemic every step of the way. For 2 – 4 players, games run about an hour.
Love legacy games currently playing Pandemic legacy and Gloomhaven, our next was going to be Charterstone or Clank legacy but I see it doesn’t make the list, I’m surprised as it has amazing reviews.
Clank Legacy should be in the top 4 of this list. It is my favorite legacy game hands-down. I played the campaign initially with my wife and two daughters and they all loved it. We have a ton of board games and they couldn’t wait to finish the campaign so we put everything else on hold and that was our go-to game for the month.