“The game really highlighted the critical importance of clear communication and coordination, especially under pressure, and the value of establishing and understanding specific roles within the team to improve efficiency.”
EMCE: City Blackout
Collaborate under pressure. Balance response and mitigation.
* EMCE: City Blackout can play multiple groups concurrently
EMCE Game Framework
Deciding how to allocate resources during an emergency is challenging. Emergency Management Cascading Effects (EMCE) games place players in fast-moving crisis scenarios where they must allocate resources quickly between preparedness and incident response, adapt to shifting conditions, and collaborate under time constraints.
This game framework can be used for other emergency scenarios, beyond the current City Blackout and Hurricane versions. If you are interested in working with CAPTRS on a new version of EMCE, please contact us.
Description
Emergency Management Cascading Effects (EMCE): City Blackout is a collaborative game in which players take on the role of crisis managers, working under intense time pressure to restore power, manage resources, and reduce a massive winter storm's cascading impacts. Each round of the game tests players' abilities to prioritize, communicate, and adapt as they coordinate a response to infrastructure failures and growing community needs. The game offers powerful lessons in emergency preparedness, teamwork, and the importance of early and decisive action.
Learning Objectives
- Understand the critical value of preparedness and mitigation
- Practice strategic resource allocation
- Improve decision-making under urgency and uncertainty
- Understand and plan for cascading effects during emergencies
Game Details
Players must rapidly build a shared situational awareness across multiple threat dimensions and allocate existing resources quickly and proportionally based on the severity of each situation that is identified as the game progresses. The goal is efficient resource use to address as many threats and needs as possible. Design elements of the game reinforce the time pressure and stress inherent in real-world emergency decision-making.
After three game rounds that each introduce escalating threats and cascading effects, players analyze their decisions and outcomes by reviewing the game state (snapshot of the crisis situation at that point) and conducting deeper analysis using the digital app.
This game also comes with a 15-minute tutorial game, called EMCE: Firetruck, which helps players learn the game mechanics before a full-scale game.
Completion Time: 1.5 hours recommended, which includes the 15-minute tutorial game and a post-game discussion- Number of Players: maximum of 8 per group; multiple groups may play the game simultaneously
EMCE Insight App
The EMCE Insight App generates summary reports, light analytics, discussion points, and text-entry opportunities for the facilitator to capture to reinforce game learnings. Using the gameplay data captured by a data recorder during each game, the Insight app 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. The app lives on the CAPTRS digital platform, and users receive login credentials to be able to log as many game sessions as they would like.
What's Included & Customization
Each game of EMCE: City Blackout includes:
Elements of this game may be customized, including:
- The city game map. We can map game elements to mirror your city. (The game is an abstracted representation of a city.)
- Specific city elements or locations. Individual hexes on the game map can represent unique or important elements or locations, such as hospitals.
- Specific incidents or preparedness tasks. We can include location-specific incidents or customize certain preparedness and mitigation tasks that drive cascading effects.
- The overall emergency scenario. (Please note this requires a larger redesign.)
* For all customization requests, CAPTRS requires a discovery call with our team. We will then provide a bid of costs associated with the customization.
What Our Players Are Saying
“The game effectively demonstrated the challenge of allocating resources between immediate incident response and long-term mitigation. Playing it highlighted the value of planning and preparation to reduce cascading effects during a crisis.”
EMCE: City Blackout—Electric Utility Version
We offer a version of EMCE: City Blackout designed to be played by electric utility providers. This version was created to reflect the unique collaboration challenges that exist between emergency management and electric utilities as they navigate restoring power to a city while managing other impacts of the incident that caused the blackout. This game includes roles and rules to mimic each type of entity and what types of incidents they can address.
Develop a Custom Game
Partner with CAPTRS to design a research-driven simulation game tailored to your organization's needs.