Legacy board games are tabletop games that literally change each time you play, with new rules and gameplay elements added bit by bit over a ‘campaign’ of linked game sessions. They can be more expensive than regular board games, and are often single-use, as you’ll be writing on the board, applying stickers, and even destroying cards – but they can offer a uniquely immersive thrill, too. We’ve played a lot of them, and this guide lists our absolute top picks of the genre.
Some of these titles have even enjoyed seats among our coveted top 15 best board games on the market – going to show how premium these legacy games can be. On the other hand, most in this genre work best with multiple players – if you’re after a one-on-one experience, try our guide to the best board games for couples instead.
Fair warning: legacy games often take up a bit more space than your average board game, too – if you need a bigger, better play surface, our list of the best gaming tables might come in useful!
The best legacy board games are:
- Gloomhaven – best dungeon crawler
- Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion – best lite adaptation
- My City – best for family gaming
- Pandemic Legacy – best strategy legacy board game
- Betrayal Legacy – best horror legacy board game
1. Gloomhaven
The best dungeon crawler legacy board game is Gloomhaven.
Cephalofair Games’ seismic 2019 hit Gloomhaven is perhaps the best-known legacy board game that hasn’t squeezed the word ‘legacy’ into its title. That’s because it’s far more than just a campaign game with extra stickers and envelopes.
Mechanically, Gloomhaven is a dungeon crawler board game that uses eurogame elements in combat. It also adds elements of roleplaying games like DnD, presenting a rich world with recurring characters, plotlines, and other details.
The most obvious legacy elements are as we said above: stickers and envelopes. You start the game with limited Gloomhaven classes, no reputation, and very few quests to pursue as a party. These can all be unlocked, with stickers added to the board to show locations found and medals earned, as well as entirely new characters to unbox once your current one is ready to retire.
Read our full Gloomhaven review.
2. Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion
The best lite adaptation legacy board game is Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion.
Perhaps it’s cheeky to have two Gloomhaven games up top, but we think Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion is worth recommending as a separate game. It captures many of the core mechanics (and legacy elements) of the original Gloomhaven, but it’s lighter in all respects.
By lighter, we mean there are fewer rules to learn upfront. There are also fewer player options and scenarios, but this means you also don’t end up with a box that weighs the same as a small child.
For beginners in the legacy genre, this is the more approachable (and cost-effective) version of Gloomhaven.
3. My City
The best easy-going, family legacy board game is My City.
If heavy duty mechanics and hobby games aren’t your speed, My City is one of the best legacy board games to add to your family board games collection. The rules are fairly simple, each session in a campaign is kept short, and it’s totally ten-year-old-friendly.
In My City, each player has a personal board and a collection of buildings in various shapes and three different colours. These buildings look an awful lot like Tetris blocks, and this should give you a hint at what you’ll be doing with them.
As cards are drawn from a deck, you’ll be told which buildings to place on your board. The challenge is fitting as many buildings onto the board as possible to protect your score – as every building you can’t place takes some points away.
The legacy element in this game comes from various sealed envelopes. These include stickers for your board, new mechanics, new buildings, and plenty of new challenges.
4. Pandemic Legacy
The best strategy legacy board game is Pandemic Legacy.
Pandemic is already renowned as one of the best strategy board games ever made, and Pandemic Legacy carries the torch on in the single-use gaming space. Technically, we’re talking about three games when we mention Pandemic Legacy:
- Pandemic Legacy: Season One
- Pandemic Legacy: Season Two
- Pandemic Legacy: Season Zero
These take place in different time periods and introduce different features and stories to the series – if you’re looking to get started, Season One is generally considered the jumping-off point.
At their core, the Pandemic Legacy games aren’t too different from a regular Pandemic game. Players work together to travel the world and fight pandemics, spending actions and cards to contain outbreaks and research cures.
You’ll be completing the objectives of your campaign over several in-game months, and both cards and characters can be gained or lost along the way.
5. Betrayal Legacy
The best horror legacy board game is Betrayal Legacy.
Betrayal at House on the Hill is a haunted house game that turns friends into traitors and offers a different haunting experience each time you play. But what if each of the superstitious happenings were connected? That’s where Betrayal Legacy comes in.
Players are still exploring a procedurally-generated haunted house (and eventually turning on each other as The Haunt is triggered), and the game is still heavy on narrative over strategy. However, there’s now an overarching story, one that takes place over decades and involves multiple descendants from the same families.
There are also some rule tweaks that improve on Betrayal at House on the Hill’s second edition (if you played Betrayal at House on the Hill’s third edition, some will already be familiar). This, combined with powerful family heirlooms and intriguing mysteries to explore, make for a haunted house experience even Scooby Doo would enjoy.
We play and review a lot of board games at Wargamer, and we’ve created lists of our top games across many different genres – even the best sex board games, for 18+ players.