Pax Prime 2011

I had an excellent time at PAX Prime this year. Like most conventions, it was a fair amount of work and a huge pile of fun.

I was there to help Mindspan Labs demo ZoxSo. Going into the weekend, I was filled with dread - it'd been a while since I'd played, and I wasn't feeling as sharp as I usually do. And - to be perfectly honest - I'd like the game, but I wasn't a huge fan.  So the prospect of playing a game like that over and over ... well ...

Friday morning, I met with Dave to go over our plan for the weekend.  He re-taught me the game (and managed to show off a few of the strategies in the process). Which helped a lot - suddenly, I wanted to play more.  He wandered off to check on something, and by the time he returned, I had an opponent at the table and was already mid-game.

I'll discuss the game in depth some other time - this post is about PAX, not ZoxSo - but it's fast-playing, fun, and has a surprising amount of strategic depth. Enough that I played it 70+ times this weekend, and I still want to play more.

I've been to GenCon and Origins. I even visited PAX a few years ago. And all three conventions have a very different feel from one another.

Origins is about playing games and teaching games. It's the focus of the con. It's the smallest of the three, but it holds the Fun of the Game above all other considerations.

GenCon is about selling the game. Sure, people are playing games all hours of day and night, and I play a lot of them there, but - at its heart - GenCon is much more mercantile than Origins.

PAX is ... different. For me, PAX is about the people. I had an opportunity to meet dozens of folks while teaching ZoxSo. I also got to teach the game to a number of good friends who I game with regularly.

I met a game store owner from the Midwest. I met a gentleman who works for Best Buy in the cellular phone department. I played with an insurance agent. I played with scientists and doctors and lawyers and game developers. I met the wife and mother of the designers of The Ares Project (coming soon from Z-Man games). I became re-acquainted with a friend I hadn't seen (or heard from) in over a decade.

And I got to keep an eye on the tournaments and board game area. And deal with the Enforcers.

PAX has the best volunteer team in the convention business. No question. They are unobtrusive, but omnipresent. And I saw them heading off problems before they even developed. Stuck in a long line and getting irritable? Odds are good that an Enforcer will be along shortly to entertain you.  Vendor stuck at a table? Enforcers will bring you water, if you ask politely.

At one point, a cookie seller came by - they were selling cookies to raise money for Child's Play. It was all up to us what we donated, but if we hit the $30 level, you could get a "Yo Dawg" cookie. The woman who was selling to us had bacon-wrapped Nutter Butter cookies which were inside an Oreo cookie brownie ...it made me wish I had $30.  It also bears mention: Child's Play is one of two of my charities of choice.

In short: PAX was amazing.

If you have the chance to attend PAX at any point, I heartily recommend that you do so.

Also: If you haven't already entered my ICONS Contest, you still have a few days.

PAX '09: How I Got A Badge

Map
Originally uploaded by Gamethyme

I can't figure out how to scheduled a post with Flickr, so this will be up a few hours earlier than normal. In fact, it'll be up Tuesday Night instead of Wednesday Morning. Don't get used to early posts, however.

I need to write about PAX. And I still haven't given GenCon a full writeup, either.

I will do both of these in detail later. For now, the Tale of How I Got A Pass.

As long-time readers of this blog will know, my home Game Store is Phoenix Games (at the moment, this may be a better link). Phoenix is where my weekly Wednesday gathering is held, and it's where the bulk of my boardgaming dollar goes.

You will also know that I demo games for Asmodee Editions. This is not restricted to Phoenix. One of the game stores I visit often is Uncle's Games, as it's about a mile from where I work and is a well-run game store. I spend the bulk of my role-playing dollar there.

I had been asked for feedback on whether or not Asmodee should consider a booth at PAX. My plan was to buy my pass on payday. Unfortunately, PAX sold out.

I had loaned my copy of Dixit to the Uncle's Games district manager in hopes that they would pick the game up (they did, by the way - they loved the game). When I swung by to pick my copy up on Monday, there was an employee there that I didn't know. We spent some time chatting, and I'd discussed a desire to attend PAX, as I was loaning a number of my games to the game library.

"Let me pull some strings and see what I can do," she said. I left her my name and number and e-mail address.

Thursday morning, I had voice mail. "This is Jodi from Uncle's," she said, "I have a PAX Pass for you, but you have to be willing to spend some time in the tabletop gaming area."

What? You mean I have to spend time in one of the two areas where I had planned to scout most heavily? In exchange, I am free to wander the convention for a few hours?

So, to make a long story short, I wound up at PAX, wearing a badge that said, "Uncle's Games," a very odd feeling. (If you're reading this, Jodi, thank you again!)

I took a few photos, and compiled a report for Asmodee. I even got to play a few games. Some of you will notice that this list is very similar to another list I recently compiled.

Over the next few weeks, I plan to talk about PAX and GenCon and the games I played. I think we all know how good I am at keeping to my plans, however.

PAX Confirmed

Just a quick note to confirm: I will be at PAX this weekend, so next week's post may be late.

It will certainly include The Adventure Of Obtaining A PAX Badge.

Many thanks to Jodi from Uncles Games for making it possible.

Tale to follow.

If you happen to be at PAX, be sure to drop by Tabletop Gaming to say "Hi."

Dice Town

I had one of my Twitter friends ask me what I thought of Dice Town. I explained that Twitter was not exactly the best stage for a full game review - that 140 character limit makes good reviews very difficult.

I promised him a more in-depth review here, "soon."

Those of you who read my Geeklist of games played at GenCon will have spotted that there were three games that were sprung on us shortly after arrival.

All three of them were great games - one of them was (in my opinion) the best new game in the booth. "New," in this case meaning "Learned since July 20, 2009." That includes everything included in my pre-GenCon prep shipment and the games I learned at GenCon.

Here is an overview of the first game of the three "surprise" games:

Dice Town
First of all, let me explain: Dice hate me. Games such as Yahtzee leave me completely cold because of this hate (and yes, I realize that there is a great deal of strategy to Yahtzee, if you look for it).

And yet, I love Dice Town. There's something oddly appealing about it.

I didn't have a chance to look at the game until late on Thursday - we had a guy in the booth who knew the game already, and that table was constantly busy, and frequently had a line of people waiting to demo it.

The game itself is simple: Roll the dice. Decide how many dice you want to keep. Pay the Stagecoach for every die you'll be keeping past the first. Set kept dice aside and roll the remaining dice.

Once someone has five kept dice, everyone else gets one last roll, when they are required to keep all dice (at no cost).

Then go through each stage on the board - do you have the most nines? Grab one Gold Nugget for each nine. Every number has a benefit associated with having the most of them. One player will get "General Store" cards, which have a variety of effects. One player will get to rob the bank. One player can steal a card from another player. One player becomes Sheriff and decides who wins ties.

The best hand gets the Deed to some property. If that hand has any aces, you will get some bonus Deeds.

Any player who didn't win anything else gets to vist Doc Badluck, for an additional benefit.

Once the Gold Nuggets or Property Deeds are all gone, players check their score. Each gold nugget is one point. Each dollar is half a point. Some of the General Store cards are worth points. Each property deed is worth points.

Most points wins.

I don't know what it is about this game that appeals to me. Maybe it's the fun of the poker dice. Maybe it's the fact that you can win the game without even once having the best hand.

The game is simple enough to teach in five minutes, and plays quickly enough to qualify as filler. My regular Wednesday group has asked for it for the last few weeks.

Was it the best game in the booth? No. Sorry. That was Dungeon Twister (Did you really expect a different answer from me?).

Was it the best New to Me game in the booth? No.

Was it the game which most surprised me? Yes, absolutely.

And the most telling question: Will I voluntarily play it again? Yes. Absolutely. I'll probably even play it tomorrow ...

Next week, I'll try to discuss one of the other two surprise games - it depends on PAX and how much time I have this weekend. Don't worry, though. I'll get to them eventually.