EMCE: City Blackout

EMCE: City Blackout offers key advantages over typical tabletop discussion exercises:

• Fast-Paced and Engaging – Every player has an active role and will be fully engaged in the game. Time-limited rounds and physical sand timers simulate real-world urgency, and prompt teams to quickly make decisions and work together.
• Relevant to the Real World – The game was designed to simulate interdependent failures, cascading effects, and resource fatigue. Players have opportunities for robust conversations with their facilitator about how these challenges and decisions relate to their communities.
• HSEEP-Compatible – Use with post-game AAR/IP discussion
• Two-Level Design – The game includes EMCE: Firetruck, a guided tutorial to onboard new players before they play the primary exercise, EMCE: City Blackout. With this approach, players learn game mechanics in a short period of time and then can play a more complex game in their main exercise.
• Built for Teams – EMCE was designed for a wide range of players, including emergency managers, public officials, planners, students, and instructors. No matter what your role is, we know you will gain valuable insight from playing!

EMCE stands for Emergency Management Cascading Effects. CAPTRS is developing additional versions of the EMCE game to reflect varied threat scenarios. Current versions under development zero in on: a hurricane, a blackout from a bad-actor threat, and a city blackout version for energy companies with different roles and resources pertaining to collaboration between agencies and utility providers.

• EMCE: Firetruck tutorial game
• EMCE: City Blackout game
• Game Maps & Cascade Boards (customisable upon request)
• Event Cards simulating location-based crises (customisable upon request; expansion packs planned for future)
• Game pieces, including Solving Tokens, Power Tokens, & Timer Resources
• Facilitator Guidebook with scenarios, instructions, and facilitation tips
• CAPTRS EMCE Insight App for data capture and visualization for use in Hotwash discussion and After-Action Reports
• Player Reference Cards to support game play

This game is intended for groups of 6 players. All players are actively moving pieces and engaged in gameplay decision making. The game may be played by multiple groups of players simultaneously, which will require a facilitator for each group, and ideally include a data recorder for each group. The size of the gameboard allows for around 6 optional observers as well as the active players. Additional game boards can be purchased if needed for multiple groups playing simultaneously. If you are planning to play the game with a large group, please contact the CAPTRS team to discuss further so that we can help you plan accordingly.

Gameplay, including the tutorial game, lasts approximately 1 hour. We recommend allowing some additional time for in-game discussion, post-game Hotwash discussion, and review of gameplay data.

The game may be played again to give players the chance to apply learnings from their first gameplay experience. The Cascading Effects and Event Cards will remain the same, so the surprise element will be diminished. Expansion packs for Event Cards are planned for the future to allow for more replayability. Additional versions of the game with different threats and cascading effects are also planned for the future.

Yes! There are many situations in the game that contribute to the overall Crisis Level. As you resolve the situations, your score goes up to a maximum potential score of 509. Your team works to resolve as many situations as possible to support your community. Resolving a situation may restore power to an area, clear roads, support a vulnerable population, or address one of the many other challenges your community would face in a winter storm.

The facilitator should spend time going through the facilitation guide and tutorial video in advance of the exercise to become comfortable with the game and its rules. Players do not need to review anything in advance of play. The tutorial game will teach them all they need to know, and reference cards are provided and available to players during game play.

The person in this role will document gameplay data in a custom-built online application. During game rounds, the data recorder will ask players about their mitigation attempts and will record their attempts and results. This allows the team to capture real-time data on decision making, crisis resolution, and team effectiveness. The application is set up to guide the recorder through an easy data collection process; the recorder does not have to be familiar with any rules of the game.

The EMCE Insight Portal generates summary reports, light analytics, discussion points, and text-entry opportunities for the facilitator to reinforce game learnings. Using the gameplay data captured by the data recorder, the Insight Portal will give the facilitator rich discussion points and visualization tools to use in a debrief. This information will support Hotwash discussions or an After Action Report.

Yes, we can work with you to customize the Game Map as well as Event Cards. Additional change requests to game mechanics, scenarios, or other elements must be approved by the CAPTRS team and go through a proposal process, as they require additional game design and graphic design. All customization requests are subject to additional fees.

The base price for EMCE: Blackout is $2,500. Any requests for customization or facilitation will increase the cost. Expansion packs will be available in the future to customers who have purchased the game, at an additional lower cost. Contact us to request a game or discuss your group’s needs!