August 12, 2015: MIB Report: CaptainCon

I had a fabulous time at CaptainCon over the weekend of July 18th and 19th, in Taunton. This was the first MIB representation of SJ Games at CaptainCon, and I am very glad that I stepped up to volunteer. Admittedly I felt at first like a shipwrecked sailor on a foreign island, but after I spoke to one of the event organizers, the volunteers started coming in, and before I knew it, I had a full day's work.

Several games got lots of press: Castellan, which got an encore request late Saturday night, Mars Attacks: the Dice Game, Munchkin on Sunday morning. But the master game of the night was Revolution!, expanded with The Palace for the second match. We had an enthusiastic group of six players. After I first explained the basic rules to those who were completely new to the game, I then explained The Palace and the Guardhouse, plus the new officials of the city. All the experienced players were transfixed.

It was clear that the invulnerability conferred by the Guardhouse, combined with a domain worth more Support Points, had completely upset their original plans. Two players, one an experienced Revolution! player and one a veteran gamer elsewhere, drew ahead of the others, and most of the heavy fighting came down to these two. It came right down to the wire. And ironically the experienced player had been previously unaware that taking a domain unchallenged gave a 10-point bonus.

Fun moment of the weekend: the hotel FIRE ALARM on Sunday morning! I was in bed at 7:15 AM trying hard to get up, when suddenly came the deafening sound of the siren. I forced myself out of bed and downstairs, and all the gamers, some of whom had obviously not been to bed, and some of whom had had too much to drink, assembled sleepily in the parking lot. Paul Shoemaker commented that he wanted to create a T-shirt for next year reading "I Survived the 2015 CaptainCon Fire."

In the end, I ended up going home on Cloud Nine as if I had found Pirates' Treasure. The two organizers were thrilled to have both me and SJ Games there, and gave me the official CaptainCon Challenge Coin. Now I am part of the brotherhood - argh, matey! They definitely look forward to having SJ Games back next year. And it was my most fun SJ Games event by far, as well as a huge triumph for me in standing in as the sole SJ Games representative. My MIB shirt and cap never felt better to wear.

-- Nicholas Sterling, MIB #9366