History YMMV / Pandemic

* AudienceAlienatingPremise: Let's just say that not everyone is willing to play a game in which your goal is to exterminate the whole human race.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: As ''Legacy Season 1'' was the GenrePopularizer for legacy-style games, it falls under this on occasion. For example, the game asking you to tear up and throw away a card early on was seen as a shocking twist that many players struggled to do after years of being conditioned to take good care of their games. Today, defacing game components is one of the most basic things legacy games do, and it's practically expected.

* AscendedMeme: Pandemic 2.5 has three difficulty levels: Casual, Normal, and [[MemeticMutation Madagascar]].

* PopularVariant: The player roles are supposed to be randomly distributed, but a large number of players prefer to let people choose their roles, or otherwise create a {{draft|ingMechanic}} system that gives players a greater degree of control over what role they end up with. This is especially common if expansions, are used, as those add roles and makes it less likely that you'll get a synergistic combination.
* ScrappyMechanic: The roles are supposed to be randomly allocated, but this is a controversial rule given that some roles are more valued than others. This isn't so bad in the base game where there are only 7 roles and you are going get at least one or two you can build a strategy around, but as the expansions increase the number of roles to 20+, players are more likely to end up with a team that struggles to synergise well. Many PopularVariants allow the players to select their roles directly, or at least give them a greater degree of control over what role they are assigned. Some official ''Pandemic'' offshoots, such as ''Cthulhu'', implement such mechanics.

* ScrappyMechanic: The roles are supposed to be randomly allocated, but this is a controversial rule given that some roles are more valued than others. This isn't so bad in the base game where there are only 7 roles and you are going get at least one or two you can build a strategy around, but as the expansions increase the number of roles to 20+, players are more likely to end up with a team that struggles to synergise well. The most common kind of HouseRules are those that allow the players to select their roles directly, or at least give them a greater degree of control over what role they are assigned. ''Cthulhu'' has the mechanic of the first player choosing one of two roles handed to them, and handing the unselected role and a new role to choose from to the next player.

* FanNickname: The pairing of the Dispatcher and the Medic is known as the "Jesus Walk."[[note]]The Dispatcher has a special ability to move another player's pawn on the Dispatcher's turn as an action. The Medic can instantly treat diseases of any cured disease without spending an action, which means it can be done on another players turn. This leads the Dispatcher to walk the medic from place to place, eradicating cubes as he goes.[[/note]]

* ContinuityLockout: Courtesy of several important, but less-read, side stories in ''Aftermath''. This became a problem with certain plots.

* ShockingMoments: ''Legacy'''s first twist is that one of the diseases is incurable, and the game only gets crazier from there.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: The untouchable Madagascar is [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-24461474 at risk of a bubonic plague epidemic]] after it started cropping up in prisons.

* ScrappyMechanic: The roles are supposed to be randomly allocated, but this is a controversial rule given that some roles are more valued than others. This isn't so bad in the base game where there are only 7 roles and you are going get at least one or two you can build a strategy around, but as the expansions increase the number of roles to 20+, players are more likely to end up with a team that struggles to synergise well. The most common kind of HouseRules are those that allow the players to select their roles directly, or at least give them a greater degree of control over what role they are assigned. ''Cthulhu'' has the mechanic of players choosing one of two roles handed to them, and handing the unselected role and a new role to choose from to the next player.

* AudienceAlienatingPremise: Let's just say that not everyone is willing to play a game in which your goal is to exterminate the whole human race. [[HarsherInHindsight Especially after 2020]].