Question: I've never played Pandemic, but thinking of getting the Legacy edition. Is it possible to play it without the legacy elements a few times first, and get an experience that is same or similar to that of the regular Pandemic?

Answer: 
Yes, you could play something very similar to vanilla Pandemic using just the base game components and ignoring all the Legacy elements. The board is slightly different, but you probably won't even notice.

You can really only do this before you start playing the legacy version though. Once you start playing the legacy version, things will happen that will modify the game in ways that will quickly make it difficult or impossible to play the base game.
**Yes, you can play “vanilla” before, during and after playing the campaign.**

During the campaign:

* don’t destroy anything, just put it aside1
* before placement, shift stickers a little so that they don’t hide information of the virgin board2

During the “vanilla” play:

* follow vanilla rules according to the Legacy rule book (or download and read vanilla rules)
* ignore stickers
* do not incorporate introduced Legacy material (easy to avoid)
* use all the 5 vanilla events only
	+ Resilient Population
	+ One Quiet Night
	+ Forecast
	+ Airlift word
	+ Government Grand word
* use the 5 available roles and find a way to shuffle them
	+ 4/7 from vanilla vrol
		- Medic
		- Scientist
		- Researcher
		- Dispatcher
	+ 1/6 from On the Brink exp
		- Generalist

You *might* want:

* find and print all the vanilla roles (only 5 in Legacy and not easy to shuffle)
* use On the Brinkexp rules regarding event cards:
	+ use 2 cards per player
	+ draw form a pool of “funding”/event cards
		- the 5 vanilla cards and
		- 2/8 On the Brink cards available in Legacy5
			* Borrowed Time
			* Remote Treatment
		- the last Legacy card “flexible aid package”4 could be used as well6
* use the original lines between cities, instead of the Legacy modifications
	+ there would be no connections between these yellow cities:
		- Los Angeles – Lima
		- Santiago – Buenos Aires
		- Buenos Aires – Johannesburg
	+ there would be connections with black/red:
		- Bagdad – Karachi
		- Chennai – Bangkok

1 actually, you can still destroy almost all material as instructed in legacy, just not the material you need in vanilla (and you will know which that is)

2 the majority of the stickers (e.g. panic level) do not even hide anything and the ones who might you can probably remember

word the card has different wording to accommodate Legacy features, but the effect is the same

4 I am not sure about the name, as the one I have is in German

exp On the Brink is the first expansion of vanilla Pandemic: among other things it includes Events and Roles which can be used for vanilla play

> 
>  5 later in Legacy you will discover another event from On the Brink: New Assignmentword  
> 6 you will discover up to 5 other unusable event cards which could be re-purposed for events from vanilla expansions  
> vrol the Quarantine Specialist (non-vanilla abilities only; needs to be played with original features in mind) and the Operations Expertword come later, the Contingency Planner is not in Legacy
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