CaptainCon 2014 will take place Friday, July 25 through Sunday July 27 in Taunton, Massachusetts (midway between Boston and the Rhode Island border) where we'll have over 6,000 square feet (considerably more if we meet our stretch goals) of gaming space available around the clock. We'll be at the Holiday Inn, Taunton - 700 Myles Standish Blvd., Taunton, MA 02780. They’re located right off 495 between routes 95 and 24. Convention rate rooms are available at $109/night by calling directly at 508-823-0430 or 1-800-Holiday and referencing CaptainCon or by visiting www.holidayinn.com to reserve online with the group code CAP.
We’re no strangers to conventions, but this will be our first expedition in our new pirate ship. We hope you’ll join our fleet as we journey to exciting new places. Our mission is to bring you the best gaming experiences available at a reasonable cost with as few restrictions as possible. Our vision is playing what you want, when you want, in a fun and engaging atmosphere. With your support we’ll provide:
- A single convention badge price - no tickets for individual events
- 24 hour access to the convention's game space
- The Captain's Log achievement system that rewards you with prizes just for participating
- A robust schedule of well-organized competitive miniatures games tournaments including the flagship New England Team Tournament for WARMACHINE and HORDES
- Plenty of table space for casual miniatures, board, and card games
- A demo area where you can learn and try new games with the coaching of experienced players
- A dedicated hobby area where you can assemble or paint models (we'll supply the paint) and socialize
- An entire weekend of meeting new friends, hanging out, enjoying games, memorable conversations and having fun with an amazing group of great people
What's going on at CaptainCon?
First and foremost, CaptainCon is about giving you choices. You’re the captain and our crew will make sure you enjoy whatever course you set for the weekend. Your badge grants you access to any event that you would like to participate in. We’ll provide plenty of tables and terrain to ensure that casual games for any system are always an option. We’ll even help you find an opponent in our dedicated “looking for a game” area.
Will there be tournaments? You bet there will! We'll provide a robust schedule of tournaments for those who enjoy a competitive challenge. Our flagship event will be the 8th annual New England Team Tournament for WARMACHINE/HORDES. We're also planning tournaments for Malifaux, X-Wing, Warhammer 40,000, Warhammer Fantasy Battles, and Infinity. Keep an eye on this page and our website (www.captaincon.com) as we announce additions to the schedule as soon as they are confirmed.
What if I want to try something new? Try a new game in our Expeditions Demo Area. This is a section of the convention hall dedicated to giving you the chance to try new games with the help of an experienced player. This is the perfect opportunity to get a taste of that new game you've only read about online or seen being played on the table next to yours.
Feel like you need a break from pushing models? You can stop by the Games & Gears Hobby Center where our partners at Games & Gears have generously provided paints, brushes and any other tools that you might need. Just drop by, grab a seat and spend some time chatting with friends while you paint a few models. There will often be several very experienced painters hanging out there if you want to learn some new tips or tricks. Also, don't forget to enter some of your creations in our painting competition while you're there.
Will there be prizes to win? Everyone likes prizes so we want to give you an opportunity to earn plenty of them at CaptainCon. The tournaments will have prizes for players in those events, but you can win stuff even if you don't participate in a single tournament.
You will be issued a Captain's Log with every badge that you purchase. Your Captain's Log will serve as a record and memento of your achievements throughout the convention. These achievements include things like playing a casual game of X-Wing, trying a demo of Malifaux, finishing a game of Settlers of Catan, painting a model at the paint station, or even just visiting a vendor booth. Every achievement is worth points in your Captain's Log. You can then use those points to purchase prizes such as posters, models, copies of games and exclusive items from our Treasure Chest. Some of the prizes are so secret that even we don't know all of them yet! How cool is that? Have fun all weekend and walk away with free stuff.
As we hit our stretch goals, we’ll be able to add even more to these offerings as the venue has more space available for us to grow into if we meet our initial goals.
Stretch Goals
Who are we?
CaptainCon 2014 is brought to you by the New England Privateers. We’re a group of four long-time gamers (miniatures, board games, card games, we play them all) who have been putting on local and national events for more than a decade – Paul “Snakeman” Shoemaker, Andrew “Hacksaw” Hartland, Craig “Lonelymonk” Caton, and Sam “Builder” Butler. Beyond organizing events at local game stores, our accomplishments include:
- Organizing and running WARMACHINE/HORDES gaming at TempleCon every year since its first
- Organizing and running Warhammer 40,000 and WARMACHINE/HORDES gaming at PAX East for the past three years (including this year)
- Organizing and running WARMACHINE and HORDES events at GenCon Indy for the past five years
- Producing the highly successful New England Team Tournament for WARMACHINE and HORDES for the past 7 years
As veteran gamers, and event planners, we've got an extensive network of contacts that will help us run a wide variety of gaming events at CaptainCon. Their expertise, skill, and dependability combined with our know-how will make our events second to none. We've seen our share of conventions and have learned the lessons required to make CaptainCon great. We've got the experience, people, and skills to make CaptainCon one of the best conventions on the east coast – now we need your support to make it happen.
Where does your pledge go?
We’d never ask the gaming community for support without sharing our plan for CaptainCon’s funding. Here’s a quick breakdown of where the money will go when we reach our goal.
- Half will go to hotel costs; grand ballrooms don't come cheap, even in the slow season.
- Printing (signs, Captain's Log, player badges, registration forms, etc.) and the costs of the product rewards for various sponsor levels take up another 23% between them.
- Kickstarter and Amazon Payments take 10% between them for the financial transaction costs.
- The remaining 17% is split between prize support, the costs of making and moving terrain, and miscellaneous logistics like renting more tables or the other unexpected expenses that always crop up.
Should we surpass our goal, additional funds raised go to supporting the added features of each stretch goal, adding features to the convention and more prize support. In short, we'll be responsible with your sponsorship dollars and you can be sure your contribution is being used to put on a great show.
The Pirate's Chest - ADD-ONS
Want more cool stuff for supporting a great event? We thought so. Check out some of the cool add-ons we've got for you. Anything in the Pirate's Chest can be added to any backer level.
Risks and challenges
If you’re reading this, we hope that you’re no stranger to the risks of Kickstarter, but we’ll cover the basics here just in case. In our minds, the biggest risk in this venture is that we don’t meet our goal. If that happens, CaptainCon can’t happen since none of us has the personal finances to bankroll the event without getting tossed out of the house by our wives. Thanks to the Kickstarter format, neither we nor our backers will be out any money but we’ll all be pretty sad.
The second biggest risk is one of success. What happens if we not only meet our goal but blast right past it? We've got a commitment from the hotel for additional space if we need to expand so there shouldn't be any problems related to gaming real estate. More funding not only means more space and events but also more resources for cool things to enhance your experience at the convention so we’re really not too afraid of success, though it may mean we spend a lot of weekends in May and June building extra terrain.
Finally, there’s the very tiny risk that some major event would prevent the convention from going on as planned. We’re not talking about one of us getting sick or anything, we've got redundancy and backup for that. We’re talking things like a volcano suddenly erupting in southern Massachusetts the week before the convention or the like. If the unthinkable happens, you can rest assured that we’ll be making plans to re-schedule the convention as quickly as possible and all commitments to backers will be honored once we’re re-scheduled and back up and running.
We appreciate any support (even $1 is greatly appreciated) you can provide and are committed to making sure CaptainCon not only happens on schedule this summer but that it is a great gaming experience for everyone in attendance.
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