Welcome to my recitation and regurgitation of the past weekend that was PAX East 2013. It is, as usual, the pinnacle of New England conventions for the first half of the year as we welcome Spring. Or at least what are technically the Spring months. What follows is a substantial recap over the few days I was there, from the Expo hall to the tabletop area. I’ve tried to segment it up a bit, that way you can jump to the parts that interest you.
Part One: Thoughts from the Main Expo Hall
(If you’re looking solely for the tabletop area materials, feel free to skip to the next page.)
The Expo Hall is what you often see the pictures of when you look at PAX online. It’s the main component of the convention where all of the major (and minor) booths are set up to display their video games of the year. There’s certainly a lot to see, and it’s difficult to catch it all. Mind you, that’s without being surrounded by a few thousand other people all trying to do the same. There are times where it’s difficult to move due to the volume of people, and waiting lines for the more popular games stretch all over the place. So, I didn’t spend my weekend here solely. These are the places of note that I checked out though, in no particular order:
Mayfair Games: See Privateer Press on why I enjoy seeing them in the Expo floor. Granted, they do have a little bit more of a digital presence, but traditional board games are still their expertise. It was a bit of a pity that they didn’t have more tables to demo with, especially since they had a copy of Catan: Explorers and Pirates on display. (That’s something they plan on fixing for next year.) Explorers and Pirates shapes up to be the first massive change to how Catan behaves as a game in a while, rather than simple expansions or variant options. Luckily we won’t have to wait long!
Speaking of leveling up, Rise of Vigil’s new mechanic does something not seen in Ascension before: the ability to “charge” a card. The more that is invested into certain cards, the more potent they become. The concept is sound, and the game played well, though we were a little disappointed on the presentation. A couple of our party had mixed feelings by some of the presenters, who tended to tout up the game by trash talking similar games in their field such as Dominion or Magic. It just didn’t feel like a positive sales pitch.
The other thing? Why are you charging people for new promo cards? This does not compute.
Also, I do not understand why they were pushing Diablo 3 as their other game on display besides Hearthstone. Heart of the Swarm came out less than a month ago, and there wasn’t a Starcraft reference anywhere. At least people play Starcraft.
Geek Chic: I’m glad they’re back again this year, but it’s so bittersweet. On the one hand, geek furniture, yes please. On the other, I don’t have the space or the money for some of their great furniture. Like the Hoplite.
Square Enix: There’s a new Final Fantasy coming out. Surprise!
Wizards of the Coast: I had an interview with them to go over their newest computer iteration, Duels of the Planeswalker 2014. This time it’s all about Chandra and her quest for revenge. The game is similar to the other DotP games of years past with some new puzzles, new challenges, and, thankfully, a whole new tutorial mode for new players to learn. This has always been the game’s best selling point: teaching people who don’t have access to adequate Magic teachers to learn the game. The booth itself was a hit as well, with an X-Box Kinect hooked up for attendees to hurl fireballs, and a scavenger hunt around the Expo floor that rewards you with a pair of Chandra’s goggles. Alone they look very steampunk in nature, and they very well could have been the sleeper hit of the entire convention. Everyone wanted them.
Riot / League of Legends: I’m going to confess, I don’t play League or DOTA, not anymore. I have nothing against the games, but it’s partly that I don’t have the time and partly that I don’t want to deal with the now-infamous vitriolic atmosphere they embody. What I do like though is that they put Riot, arguably in the top three booths by square footage and highest by volume, in a corner of the floor that could better accommodate the fervor it brings. I chatted with a couple of the folks in the middle of their booth Friday morning before things opened up, but that was the last time I set foot there for the rest of the weekend. They are continually drawing in large crowds, which is great. I’m just glad at least they didn’t bottleneck up the floor because of that fact.
Popcap Games: I got to speak with them during the media hour as they were setting up, and I felt a little bad. Contrary to popular thought, this was their first year with a major booth. And it looked great, complete with a carnival-style high-striker and bright colors. They also had a team member dressed as life-sized zombie for the zombie kissing booth. Why, then, did I feel a little bad? For one, the game they wanted to have ready for PAX wasn’t ready yet, leaving them with no new material. So they loaded up a cart with free plushy giveaway items that you could take at will. They seemed to downplay the idea they would run out of freebies if one could just come take what they wanted, and they didn’t think people would actually kiss the zombie-costumed person at the booth. I heard that latter claim was broken pretty quickly. (Never underestimate zombie love?) All in all though they were a fun group. Plus, walnut hats!
Part Two: The Expo Hall Indie Showcase
City of Steam: One thing that I particularly enjoyed about PAX this year was that compared to the previous two, MMOs took up a much smaller chunk of games on display. Bethesda’s pretty Elder Scrolls Online aside, they didn’t take up the lion’s share of things, and those that were there were boasting free-to-play versions. One was Neverwinter Online, and the other was City of Steam by Reality Squared Games. It’s a browser-based game touted as “an RPG with MMO characteristics”, set in – if the name didn’t give it away already – a steampunk world. That is, you can meet up with other players and go dungeon crawling in all of the normal trappings of a standard MMO, but if you prefer to just wander around solo, the game is fully capable of supporting that as well. If you dig the industrial fantasy genre, give it a look. Speaking of which:
Windforge: At first glance, Windforge appears to be a steampunk/airship Minecraft clone. However, that’s just because Minecraft is the go-to response for any sandbox-style building game these days. Windforge is a 2D side-scrolling building game that is actually much more like Terraria: a game of building, sure, but also with elements of combat, adventuring, and RPGs. If you dig world building games, but are sort of Creeper-ed out, check out Windforge (or at least Terraria).
ARTEMIS: Have you ever wanted to be part of your own starship bridge crew with a group of friends? Well, now you can. Artemis is a very unique game in contemporary gaming. Billed as a simulator game, it’s essentially one part LAN party, one part LARP, for sci-fi fans. The game is run by a central workstation computer that displays the current situation of the ship, and a number of other connected machines connect in to it. Each player operates a different section of the bridge controls, such as engineering, communications, or weapons. And one player operates as the captain, forgoing an actual computer station in order to coordinate everyone’s actions. Are you a Kirk, Picard, or Sisko? Here’s one way to find out.
Neocolonialism: Sold to us as a “subversive educational game”, Subaltern Games’s Neocolonialism is a game in development. The premise? Abuse capitalism, buy votes in countries, make money. Then stash that money in a Swiss Bank Account. Have the most money at the end of the game to win. Designed as a 3-6 player video game, Neocolonialism has a distinct board game feel to it, and was partly what drew our attention to it. It’s a biting indictment of capitalism taken to logical extremes, and the satirical tone of it belies that fact. Still in alpha form, we’re really curious to see what the beta holds for it.
Continue Onward!
Part Three: Panels, Panels, Panels
It was here that they announced the fall sets to be called Thoros, Born of the Gods, and Journey into Nyx, with what appears to be a very Greco-Roman theme. They also went into detail some about their plans for the year (DotP 2014, Modern Masters, and confirmation that more Commander stuff will be on the way by the end of 2013.) The bulk of the talk focused around the upcoming Dragon’s Maze set, however. In that, Niv-Mizzet, the genius dragon antagonist, has found a secret pathway throughout the world of Ravnica that links all 10 guilds together. He has claimed it as his own, but things are getting out of hand. Jace Beleren, planeswalker extraordinaire, is trying to keep the peace, but it’s tenuous at best. The 10 guilds will vie for control of the Maze, each of them sending a paragon representative. The set will still focus on the 2-color pairs but is meant to be played with 3 colors in draft. Oh, and Ral Zerek is all but confirmed as the planeswalker of the set. About damn time.
Part Four: Going Analog. Welcome to the Board Games Section
Q-Workshop Dice
Ok, now we come to the tabletop section of the convention and what is more applicable to our site here. What was most striking this year was how much better organized the section was. Sure, it sort of stunk that a lot of the vendors and exhibitors were jutting up against the mobile food court, but that was the tradeoff this year for much more table space and foot traffic. And my what foot traffic it had. I don’t know if it was because people felt the video games were more lackluster overall than in previous years and opted to focus on board games, that there were more attendees overall, or just that the new layout allowed for easier access to general gaming, but just wow. There were times when it was hard to find tables to play, which given the size of the area, was pretty impressive.
Bring on the Print & Plays!
So, I would have been remiss if I didn’t bring a few print and play prototypes with me to try out. I had been meaning to test a few with friends, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. The three I brought with me were:
Island Siege: Island Siege is a 2-player game that is half worker placement, half skirmish battle. Your objective is to manage to get out all nine of your workers while making sure your opponent can’t do the same. This is done by building forts, reinforcing those forts, building ships, and using those ships to attack your opponent’s forts. It’s that simple. Once we had the rules down, which only seemed complicated because it was almost 11PM at the time, the system was quick, fluid, and pretty easy to grasp. If you’re after a quick colonial naval battle, Island Siege isn’t a bad addition.
Deadwood Studios: Deadwood Studios was originally created by Cheapass games over a decade ago, and it was a hit for them back then. Now they’re looking to do a revamped, revised version with new art and some new rules. Hence their Kickstarter. In Deadwood, players personify actors on bad spaghetti western movies, and you’re either an “extra” looking to make some cash, or an actor looking to get their break in a film. Players spend several rounds roaming around the game’s set filling the spots of various film roles such as “Crazy Prospector” and “Guy Who Gets Shot in Leg”. No actual acting is involved, as the game mechanics revolve principally around a success/fail method for dice rolling, but it’s goofy, silly fun with a decent sized group. In that, it’s sort of hard to not make some acting jokes.
Battle of Wits: We’ve done a shout out to this game before on our twitter account and in a weekly news roundup not long back, but for those who may have missed it: Battle of Wits is a bidding game designed for use in the Princess Bride line of games being produced by Game Salute. In it, players are given a hand full of cards. Each card has a numerical value, and is either a poison card or a wine card. Players use these cards to either bid on the cup they wish to drink from, or add contents to any given one. The game is intended for larger groups to really feel the full strategic effect, but even then the games are not intended to be terribly long or complicated. The hardest part is trying not to make Princess Bride speaches while you’re doing it.
Ok, but enough of those things, what about the actual games I saw and played at PAX??? I know, I’m saving the best bit for last.
Captured at 11:30 PM on Friday. Still lots of gamers.
Test-Driving Games
Prototype Shown
Area 1851: We had a chance to try out the prototype of Area 1851, and, to be honest, our reaction was a bit mixed.
It’s an active Kickstarter at the moment, so we wanted to see what it was like. In the game, set in the wild west, there are three factions: the townsfolk, the Indians (sorry, “Survivalists”), and the aliens. Players take hands full of various item components belonging to each of the three factions and assemble different amusing-sounding-but-often-useless items to sell for reputation. Played out over 15 rounds, players will have the option to make items, take special actions, achieve feats of engineering, and so on before passing their entire hand to the next player. Then the round starts all over again.
It’s a simultaneous action game, so once you do some of the upkeep steps, players can take their turns at the same time. And that was sort of where we got lost. Simultaneous action games are fine, but they tend to involve player interaction somehow. Area 1851 felt at times more like we were each independently playing our own games at the same table. Plus, the theme was hard to grasp at times: “So I’m using an alien device to improve a broom why? And why does that help me win?” The mechanics themselves behaved just fine, but there just seemed to be a couple disconnects we had a hard time getting over.
Alien Fortress: Okay, I have to admit, we had not ever played this game before PAX. We had always meant to, but it had just never come up. At first, it took us a little getting in to, as all of the game’s various actions are dictated by rolling d6 dice. Without having a strategy, it can feel very much like a sci-fi version of Yahtzee. Once things got going though, there’s a lot that can happen in the game between acquiring special items, battling over the planet colony territories, and outmaneuvering one another for precious actions on the board. The game really shines with four players (five with the expansion), but it can be played with fewer too and still have it be enjoyable. It’s currently out of print, but luckily it’s been confirmed that the 4th printing of it is due out this fall. I’ll certainly be keeping an eye out for it, and fans of dice games or intermediate dificulty sci-fi games should do so as well.
In this, your group’s airship has crashed in the desert. You need to excavate the tiles to find out where the four repair items are located so you can fix the ship and get out. However, you have to contend with an ever-intensifying storm (Water’s Rise!) as well as making sure you don’t run out of water and die of thirst (like we did). To make matters worse, instead of flooding and removing them, tiles gain sand markers. The more markers a tile has, the harder it becomes to find out or access what’s underneath them. What’s more, the tile locations themselves can move – it is a shifting desert after all. All in all though, this is another fun soon-to-be hit in the making. Between the increase in strategy and creating something thematically similar but mechanically different, you won’t feel like you’re buying Forbidden Island 2. Oh, and did we mention the airship pieces actually assemble the ship?!?
High Heavens: This game, tucked in the Zpocalypse booth, proved to be a pleasant find. Created by Ryan Lesser of Harmonix fame, High Heavens is a strategic 2-player game between a couple pantheons of gods. Every single member of our various parties that tried the game really enjoyed it, so it should be no surprise that we have already announced that High Heavens has earned the Seal of the Republic. Check out that link for more on the game and what it entails!
Island Fortress: Bryan Johnson’s long-awaited game was on display at the Game Salute booth amongst the many other games, as was he on Saturday. Having played it previously, it didn’t factor in to our timetable this time around, but I certainly encouraged a number of folks to give it a try. Hopefully they enjoyed the clever fortress tile-building formula the game offers and will do some pre-ordering. I know I’m looking forward to it. I patiently await my copy at some point in the future like the rest though.
Alas, I had plans to play Pixel Lincoln, as well as PlaidHat’s Mice & Mystics, but time grew short in our stay. We’ll get to them eventually though I’m sure.
When we weren’t playing, eating, checking out the sights, braving the Expo floor, or taking breaks, we often tended to hang out in the Zpocalypse / Game Salute area. Ironically though, none of us played Zpocalypse this time around. (We already have previously, so stay tuned for our thoughts on that soon!) They were advertising their expansion too, so hopefully PAX gave them a boost. I also didn’t get a chance to chat with Jonathan Liu (one of the many things on my PAX to-do list that didn’t happen), but I did get a chance to catch up with Dan Yarrington, CEO of Game Salute, as well as many of the staff members present over the weekend. It appears they have several more games currently in testing, so we’ll certainly be keeping our eyes and ears open for some of those.
Saturday gamers. It’s like they never left.
And so ends my PAX East 2013 experience. It was a fantastic several-days-long whirlwind, and while we may be a little sleep-deprived and have some sore feet for a couple days, it was quite a treat to wind out the Winter convention season in New England. It sure has been a busy couple of months with all of them. For now though, it appears we get a nice little reprieve as we await GenCon later this summer. In the meantime, we’ll be continuing our efforts to doing, well, pretty much more of the same actually. Playing games and talking about them. More games await, so bring them on!