Learn to Play: Captain Sonar (Plus Other Games About Explosive Nautical Partnerships!)

Join us at Pandemonium for our 3-hour, bi-weekly session to learn and play games! You’re especially welcome if you’ve never before played hobby board games (and are curious about where to start). These games are especially good if you have a friend to bring with you!

Today, our focus will be on demoing Captain Sonar (1st edition), but if we can’t meet its recommended player count (6-8 attendees), we’ll have two other games to demo as well. Coincidentally, all three games are cooperative, meaning that you’ll win or lose as a group – whether against another team or against the game itself.

• Captain Sonar (1st edition*; two teams of up to 4): You and three other players crew a submarine team trying to complete an objective before the other submarine team (on the opposite side of the table). Each of you will have a role – captain, first mate, engineer, and radio operator – and will have certain duties you need to complete to keep your boat running. This game is notable for being played in real-time (optionally), and each team’s radio operator will be listening to the other team coordinating in order to find them in the water. So if you like tense but fun team games, try this one out.

• Dead Men Tell No Tales (2-5 players) is a fully cooperative game about looting treasure from an undead-filled ghost ship that is also on fire. What seems like a relatively manageable situation gets out of hand very quickly with many ways to lose and only one way to win (in good cooperative board game fashion).

• JAWS (2-4 players) is a one-versus-many board game based on the film of the same name. What makes this game unique among others of the genre is that it’s played over two acts. In Act I, the three human players try to find the shark player while also trying to save swimmers around Amity Island. In Act II, the shark player attacks The Orca directly, and the humans need to do what they can to survive. 

As implied, the game we play will be determined both by how many folks show up to the event and what people are interested in doing. Therefore, if we end up playing one, but you still want to play the others, just let the organizer know, and we’ll get it back to the table as soon as we can.

So if you ever wanted to learn these games or just want to spend time with others who want to play, come on out! And if you prefer your board games less metaphorically water-logged, stay tuned to the Events Calendar for announcements of our future events!

RULES FOR ATTENDING: 

• Proof of vaccination is no longer required. If COVID levels rise, masking will be required. We will make an announcement about this on our website and social media if re-instated. 
• Photos may be taken at events to be used in our social media or promotional materials. Please inform the staff member running the event if you do not want your photo taken.
• Advance online registration is required.
• Anyone not registered in an ongoing event will not be allowed in the event space to maintain capacity limits.
• Food is not allowed in our event space. Drinks are allowed.