Arr! I Discovered a New Card Game

Interview and photo by Rue Mason.

In March, I interviewed Luke Placitis and his partner, Caleb, regarding their trading card game, Pirates Dragons Treasure, at Awesome Con. Awesome Con is a yearly event in Washington D.C. at the Walter E. Convention Center, where people from all over can dress up as their favorite characters, play and trade card games, and meet and greet their favorite authors and voice actors. 

Rue: When did you create this game?

Luke Placitis: We started coming up with the concept probably back in 2019. We had a successful Kickstarter campaign in June of 2022 and then fulfilled our first copies of the game in early 2023.

Rue: What inspired you to create this game?

Luke Placitis: I've always loved dragons. Thinking about dragons and talking about dragons. At some point in my mid to late 20s, I also had a fondness for pirates, and I realized that they both like treasure. But no one had ever told stories about those two things coming into conflict over their mutual lust for treasure, so that was the original concept. When I found my business partner, Caleb, we decided to try to pull it together in whatever way we could, and a board game seemed like the most doable project for us.

Rue: When did you meet Caleb? 

Luke Placitis: We worked together at another company for years. We have known each other for probably 7 or 8 years, starting in 2014.   

Rue: How do you play the game? 

Luke Placitis: You play as a pirate captain, working to build your ship and your crew to be strong enough to face and defeat a dragon. There are seven dragons in the game. You play each one of them at a time. It's a race between those captains to get in there and beat the dragon first. You're essentially putting together a crew. The crew and ship upgrade to be strong enough to go and win, but there's no guaranteed win or loss, so you can go in with less power or more power, depending on how you want to play.

Rue: How would you describe the game?

Luke Placitis: It's an engaging game for the table. We tried to keep it super lightweight and have entertaining cards in there that get the players interacting with one another. So things that make you kind of laugh, cheat, backstab, and sing your way to go face and defeat the dragon. It's the type of game that if you've got a group of friends who like to have fun, who like to kind of make fun of each other, this is a great game for them.

Rue: How long has the game been for sale?

Luke Placitis: It's been for sale for about a year now.

Rue: Is this your first time promoting your game at Awesome Con?

Luke Placitis: No, actually this is our second year. We were here last year too, but Awesome Con was in June of last year. So it's only been like, nine months or so.

Rue: And everyone here today gets an exclusive dragon?

Luke Placitis: That's right. So we've got an exclusive dragon card. It's our 8th Dragon, Sephoron the Sand Dragon. It's got a gilded foil front, and anybody who picks up a copy while they are at the convention gets one of those cards.

Rue Mason is a freshman at Friendship Collegiate Academy.