I’m on set for Eureka, tethering to the Internets through a mobile hotspot, using my iPad to post with the Typepad app.
This is, as they say, less than optimal for blogging. However, I wanted to put a post up for PAX stuff, until I can write a proper post in the next few days.
I had a wonderful time, didn’t get sick, played games with friends, and was given some truly epic gifts, including a Cape Of Dicks (pictures forthcoming). There was also a D&D game for the ages.
Please use this as a PAX thread, to share your PAX stories and pictures. I’ll add my own as soon as I can.
Just an FYI: PAX badges sold out in May this year, and I expect it will only get more popular. Start looking for them to go on Sale in January or February. Wouldn’t want you to miss out.
Also, if you have a smartphone I suggest following pax_lines on twitter. It will give you updates so you can get in to the things you want without having to get in line super early. Unless of course you want prime seating, in which case get in line early.
I had the best time at Pax. I purchased The Complete Works of Me Dvd by Wil Wheaton #2 of 10. It is the best ever. So many hours of joy. I am so glad I got it. I can’t wait for next year.
An absolute blast; though I learned a lesson for the Seattlites: Getting a hotel room downtown is worth it.
Let it be written down!
Also, I must apologize for being too dumbfounded at the end of my day Saturday to recognize your Cape of Dicks clad, mouth-stuff-with-string-cheese visage in time to proffer a “Team Fargo” heckling.
With fist shaking in air I submit, “Next time sir, next time…”
Like many, it was my first PAX. It was a very different experience, as I was ‘just an attendee’ (I’ve been running other conventions for eleven years, so showing up and just wandering the exhibit hall and getting to watch panels and stand in line for guests was odd) but it was great.
Seeing the Cape of Dicks presentation was a highlight, as was not critically failing my ‘resist fangirl squee drooling’ when I met you and gave you a pipe cleaner die (my fiance gave you the game store fire survivor die). Played some games, met some people, did a lot of walking and gawking at cosplay and enjoyed the HECK out of the D&D podcast.
I had a BLAST at PAX…my ONLY regret is that I had a poket full of multi-sided dice to give Wil and I kept missing him at his booth. On the plus side I guess, I did get to see Felicia Day at Wil’s booth while he was out talking at a panel. Well, hopefully I can see Wil next year and give him some dice then…PAX is AWESOME!!!!
PAX was great as always, but why why why was JoCo before Supercommuter. No JoCo encore makes me sad. And Supercommuter is not my kind of music.
I can’t wait to hear the Acqusitions, Inc. panel, assuming it’ll be podcasted…
All hail the Cape of Dicks! It is made of Awesome! Also of dicks. It renders its wearer immune to the effects of wands, rods and staves (especially the dreaded and mysterious Staff of Freud), as well as providing a +5 to AC vs attacks from quarterstaffs, spears, arrows and certain monsters such as the Overly Friendly Roper (said to be common in certain Eastern lands) and the dreaded and rarely discussed Gelatinous Tube.
On a related note, when I explained the Cape of Dicks to my girlfriend (as one does), I told her that, as it appeared to be trimmed in knit dicks, that some had sat down for a long evening of knitdicking. She promptly informed me that it had, in fact, been a dickknitting sitting. Whereupon we looked at each other, lost it, and literally LOLed for long enough to make everyone else in the coffee shop think we’d gone insane.
I’d like to say that was the strangest conversation we’ve ever had, but I wouldn’t like to lie. π
This was my first PAX and honestly the best 3 days of my life so far. I attended the Triwizard Drinking Tourney and met some fantastic people. Spent the next 3 days with my new best friends.
I actually avoided the expo hall, because it’s not my thing, and had the most amazing time playing DnD and board games. I spent almost the entire time in Tabletop.
Brief story about the experience: I think it was Friday night and my group decided to do the ~4 hour DnD encounter. We had some bad luck early and struggled the entire time with rolls and some other bad luck. We made it to the last encounter, a red dragon.
This dragon was just ripping us apart, one of our allies fell unconscious and then… the rogue took her turn. We had bloodied the dragon at this point, but just barely, and at great personal cost. We were almost spent, out of heals, out of dailies, and bleeding out.
The rogue crits, and then crits with her offhand. Both her weapons were vicious and she rolls almost all 12s on her weapon rolls and crits the dragon for 105. The dragon explodes and we actually cheered. (Sorry for disturbing the other players!)
The next few minutes were crazy, we were all smiling, laughing, and then my character drops the bomb I had been holding in all session (it’s part of the encounter story) and the table erupts again.
Thank you Graham, Blake, Thomas, girl who crit the crap out of the dragon, and our fair warrior. You five players created the most exciting, fun, and absolutely brilliant DnD game I have ever played. And to the DM, Kim, I think, you were fantastic and I only regret that the volume in the room didn’t allow me to hear all of your wonderful voices.
This PAX for me was unique. You see I have a 3 month old baby and my husband and I decided to venture to PAX with him. We decided not to really get our hearts set on any panels because we really weren’t sure how the little guy would do…but it turns out he’s a natural geek because he looked wide eyed at the expo hall floor and camped out with us in the bean bag chairs like a pro.
I also brought dice for you, but as I’ve gotten a picture with you twice I left the standing in line for others who have not had the privilege to meet you. I gave my dice to someone who was at the front of your waiting line. I got to play a fun Mayfair game called Family Business and a board game called Pajaggle but mostly just wandered the Expo hall floor looking at the shinies.
We dressed our little guy up as a red Pikmin the first day. First cos-play – achievement unlocked!
Glad you were able to have fun playing games, sorry I missed your panel as I know it’s always EPIC! I’m looking forward to the next PAX whether we make it to PAX East or next years PAX Prime.
Thanks for this thread. I enjoy hearing how other’s spend their time.
Spectating a D&D game the ultimate in Geekdom. Loved Acquisitions Incorporated.
I had a great time in the Pathfinder room role playing for the first time in years … and I ALMOST got to play a round with the Dorkness Rising guys! But alas they decided on expo hall before tabletop.
Was cool seeing Felicia and you, and talking to the Bastion guys, screaming “BRAAAAAINS” in a game of zombies with total strangers, buying a game of “Poo” for my kids, discussing the intricacies of multi-touch table design, admiring and discussing other PAXers art, painted figures, etc in various lines. So much just, FUN and EXUBERANCE!
As a person that attends “professional” conferences for work I just want to say that the PAX crowd (minus scalpers and forgers) is a more polite, and pleasant crowd BY FAR. Way to be awesome folks!
Hi Angie, I’m not Wil either, but thought I’d respond as I took my 12 year old daughter for the first time this year. Aimee is right. Definitely be okay with expecting your kids will likely hear a lot of swearing. Here are some other things to expect:
They will run out of patience while you check out the games they’re not interested in. They will have games they want to check out that you may not be interested in. If you keep your kids with you the entire time, just make sure to be fair in letting them see what they want to see too. No use in paying for them to go if they’re not going to enjoy themselves too!
Many of the same things we do for ourselves to prep for PAX, kids should do too. IE, wear comfortable clothes/shoes, bring hand sanitizer, bottled water, a backpack for swag, etc etc.
Other than that, my facebook is probably linked here, and I’m a localite too. Hit me up if you have other questions, etc, about bringing your kids, and I’ll try to help out π
Three days of gaming, cosplaying and general geekery…how can it be anything but epic? Played my first RPG (Pathfinder) which was so much fun I immediately bought my first set of dice right after. Sad parts: Didn’t catch all the panels I wanted and I kept missing you at your table. But! I was able to meet Felicia Day. This encounter was 1-up’d as I had cosplayed as her character in LoN and she was the only one who recongized me (collective geek fail?). So thanks for letting her crash your table!
Also, what I wanted to say if I had the pleasure to meet you: Thank you for all your blogging, tweeting and Google +ing. Everything you write is an absolute pleasure to read and has inspired me to keep up with my own writing and blogging. +1!
It’s easy to be awesome to your son, because your son is awesome.
This was my fourth PAX (haven’t gone to PAX East yet but it’s on my list of things to do!). I can’t say it was the best PAX I’ve been to (I think 2008 was the best so far since it was my first) but it was still good. Let’s just say the company I kept helped keep it from being what I wanted it to be. Duly noted for next time.
I had tried to get to you (Wil) to get you a pair of dice (I handed it to the Enforcer next to you in the second to last hour of the last day of PAX after the line enforcer told me he closed your line…) but the line was either blocked, too long (because I had somewhere I needed to be–NEVER FORGET!!), or you just weren’t there (for obvious reasons…). I actually passed you at one point but you had your Cape of Dicks on and I didn’t want to bother you. Anyhoo, hope you enjoy them. They look like Companion Cubes and weigh a ton but roll oooh so smooth.
Beyond that though, a uniquemoment at PAX: watching the OTHER side of Khoo surface. I was wandering the smaller expo hall when I took a turn and ended up behind Robert’s retinue (behind the PATV camera guy). We split at one point but then I ended up behind him again (funny how that works out). Then he stopped and picked up this RC car that had been modified with a container (like a plastic Halloween jack-o-lantern kids use to carry candy). There were cards or something inside. He turned to the guy with the remote who had a speaker badge and went to grab the RC car. Robert looked at him and said “You can’t do this.” Not sure if the guy knew who Robert was but Robert whipped out his badge and said “This is my show.” The guy was just standing there, eyes wide. I thought he was going to piss his pants. Robert turned and disappeared into the crowd and it was over.
I’d had a chance to talk with Robert during PAX Dev and he’s of course the nicest guy. Just seeing the two sides was pretty interesting.
The thing I missed out on this time around was the board game freeplay area. People I was with were sort of ruining my high. Last year I discovered it and it was great. Just sat down with some guys and learned to play Munchkin.
And, the lines were becoming a problem but then that’s not a highlight is it? π Highlights:
1) Getting to go to En Masse Entertainment’s offices along with 26 other people to play Tera and meet the people behind it.
2) Getting hugs from the people going around giving free hugs.
3) Helping out with one of the Lando Society events (Sunday).
3a) Being escorted by storm troopers and Han Solo as part of that event.
4) Winning a raffle at one of the equipment manufacturer’s bootm for the first time!
5) Seeing a guy walk up to someone dressed as a Power Ranger, shake the PR’s hand and say “You made me relive my childhood. Thanks, man!”
6) Buying another bag full of dice I really didn’t need… π
Worst part: being there for the forth time in Expo hall when they announce the end of PAX. If only I had a time machine…
And by virtue of being an [E], you are ALSO one of the most awesome people ever. Thanks for everything that you and the rest of the [E] do, Tyson. PAX wouldn’t be PAX without you guys.
I hada fantastic time cosplaying as The Rocketeer for Friday and Saturday and getting a lot of photos taken. Highlight was probably getting to meet and nerd-it-up with the voice of Marty McFly from the new TellTale Games Back to the Future games, A.J. Locascio. Turns out he is also a massive Rocketeer fan, even going so far as to make his on helmet! i could not have been a happier, nerdier bunny.
This was my second PAX, and first time as [E] – helping the attendees have the most awesome PAX possible may be the coolest thing ever! There should be more words here, but my brain is in PAX withdrawal!
Good times this year. It was my second trip and the first going with a group of friends. Definitely a superior experience with company. In addition to buddies I want with, I was always surrounded by good folks in lines and we had some great random people jump in with us during evening board game sessions.
Somehow I missed all of the freeplay optoins last year. We spent a lot of time in both the tabletop and console rooms this time and it was awesome. There’s not a game store in my town that offers demo games so it was a treat to get a test run in.
Got to see Acquisitions Inc. in the main theater. That just felt right as far as a first trip to the Paramount. Super stoked to catch you and Felicia on Sunday.
BTW – Thanks to anyone that was working as an enforcer. This was a particularly helpful, friendly, and effective group!
PAX was fantastic! This was the first year I got to share it with my whole family, 16-year-old gamer and 2-year-old future gamer. (She kept pointing at the exhibition hall and yelling, “Game! Game!”) I’m embarrassed to say that I had a picture of you on my wall from Tiger Beat when I was younger, so it was surreal to see you in person, especially when you ran across the hotel lobby to get a picture of us in our pvz costumes – mostly because of my daughter as the fabulously adorable peashooter (I’m not at all biased). I hope you were able to enjoy the con as much as we did, despite your adoring fans ;-). Have fun with Eureka and we look forward to seeing the wonderfully funny character you are playing on there.
Well, I professionally photographed an Omeganaut’s headshot at Ground Kontrol, because the PAX team had asked him for a headshot, and he didn’t have one. And then, that Omeganaut defied all odds and won the whole big-damn thing! That totally made the weekend for me and all of the other folks in our PDX PAX cluster. Holy crap.
I spent a lot of time feeling tired and vaguely-ill, unfortunately, but my amazing friends and the openness of the community that is PAX saved my weekend. Getting to play Skyrim, seeing Acquisitions Inc. in the main theater, getting trounced by the BSG board game and loving it, and just seeing all of the cool things that my fellow nerds are doing, sharing, and creating? It was all fantastic. I also got to observe as my boyfriend experienced PAX for the first time, and his incredible fanboy enthusiasm for it was a beautiful thing.
I also learned that I’m basically destined to be a babbling idiot fangirl in front of any famous human whom I actually like and respect, but at least that small subset of people also includes the type of people who’ll forgive me those transgressions. Geek heroes, thank you for not being dicks. π
Was my first PAX ever and I was only able to attend one day. WOW. what an experience. Sensory overload in so many ways. I was glad I got the opportunity to say hi to you and say thanks for all the great stories. I have not yet gotten to start reading your book, but will soon.
Seriously looking forward to next year.
How was my PAX? I ran into you in at the Privateer Press booth and gave you a wee printed version of Wesley the Space Princess, a bedtime story, as seen here: http://mizufae.tumblr.com/tagged/Wesley_the_space_princess
Thanks Wil, for looking momentarily bored and thus approachable enough to make me get over myself and say hi. You’ve basically made my friend’s life complete, and she hasn’t even gotten the one you signed in the mail yet. π
This year’s PAX Prime managed to do the impossible for me, and that is to top last year in terms of shear awesome.
Probably my favorite moment was during one of my many wanderings through the convention hall I happened to receive a call from my Mom. My attempt at a civilized conversation was cut short though when I was interrupted by the noises coming from the Tell Tale booth, specifically Jurassic Park. My Mom, without missing a beat, asked me, “Was that a T-Rex?” At which point I was forced to simply say, “Yes, yes it was.”
It was alright at first, but then a small percentage of the population developped extreme aggression and began turning to cannibalism and space barbarism. It was awful.
That is the sexiest photo I have seen of Wil in ages.
I feel strange, but also good.
(It’s a bit disturbing because I don’t generally think of him That Way, but… :))
This was my fourth PAX and I, again, had an exhaustively wonderful time. I played so many board games, made some new friends and everyone was just so damn nice. Oh, and this also happened:
http://i.imgur.com/aREGh.jpg
Loved the guys who cosplayed as Dance Central 2 dancers! That’s forward thinking.
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/xELCCz8BgdGAbDBlsRLSyTR4xonalNO8GueUsXAV61o?feat=directlink
I already posted this on G+, but I had to share here:
Re: Cape of Dicks…
I’d already come up with a Munchkin card called Wil Wheaton’s Beard (Can be worn with other headgear, gives user +5 Bonus). Am now adding “Cape of Dicks” to that. [Can be worn with other armor, +5 bonus/+10 if you’re wearing Wil Wheaton’s beard, protection against Trolls].
#Munchkin #SuperMunchkin #AWESOME
Thanks for all of the suggestions! Lots of great information that I’ll copy over and save for reference. I know it can be irritating to see kids running amok at a mostly adult venues, so thanks for the reminder about what they will be seeing/hearing and their boredom levels, and I will make sure to keep them in line. =D
Angie
You did not take us up on our offer for cruising up Pike Street in the either the Ecto-1 or Jurassic Park Jeep.
WW, we are disappoint.
It was my first PAX and I had a great time. I loved that everyone I met was incredibly nice, including you. It is great when the people I am a huge fan of turn out to be great and very appreciative of their fans. All of the other attendees were great, too. Mike and Jerry have raised one hell of a community. I know I can’t wait to go back next year.
Still not Wil, but came with my 5 year old daughter. Best advice – find things that are age appropriate and enjoy them. We managed to find half a dozen or more including demos, freeplay tabletop & freeplay console. And use things that are inappropriate (and they actually notice) as teachable moments.
PAX may be aimed at a specific demographic, but there were a lot of families there with kids from babies to that-teenage-age-when-they’re-hardly kids. The fact that those in the target demo barely notice is due to kid blindness* and those kids not being annoying.
Most of the notice my kids – 5 & 11 months – got was positive “Oh, look a the little gamer/geeks in training!” variety.
Also, there were several panels for Gamer parents which you might find interesting as a parent of gamers.
*kid blindness – the state of being oblivious to kids because they don’t form part of your day-to-day life
PAX was awesome. Good games, good friends, lots of fun. Felicia Day is super-nice and somehow manages to be even more beautiful in person than on screen. Wil Wheaton is shorter than I expected, but I really should have known better than to project his towering King of Geeks presence onto his physical stature. The line to his table was quite long, but I caught him standing about listening to music and he handle the way I rudely interrupted him to gift him a die very politely.
Sorry again for butting in like that Wil, I hope you at least get some use out the die, even if it hasn’t got numbers on it.
Didn’t get to go to PAX, but I did watch The Last Will and Testament of James Darkmagic III on justin.tv. IMHO, Aoefel is suffering from severe PTSD.:) Sounds like the only way to balance the scales is for Binwin to suffer an “accident.” Well done, Wil and Company.
Here’s a picture I took of the Cape of Dicks.
Thank you very much for taking my cursed dice off my hands. I dropped ’em by your booth while you were off paneling. They’re red and black speckled with gold numbers. They were a gift for a significant other who is no longer anything resembling significant and will roll 20s all day long– until you’re in the middle of an encounter.
My new ones are sparkly and went on many a delve this weekend with me. Including one where my paladin got in a bar fight. Yes, Mom, just my paladin, NOT ME.
Although I do hazily remember starting a Timbers Army chant in one of the TWDT bars that was displaying a Seattle Flounders flag (Timbers : Flounders :: Giants : D*dgers).
Your son was adorable! We were calling him Mini-Matt.
+1 and LOL to you, good sir.
Your family had the best cosplay, EVER.
This was our third PAX. Had a great ol’ time as usual! Last year Acquisitions Inc was the highlight of the show for us, and this year we were really impressed at the increase in Epic Awesome.
(We had to browbeat a friend of ours into attending… He was not disappoint)
We never get to do everything we mean to do, but wouldn’t miss it for the world.
I never hit your line at a good time, but I hope the two Angry Birds I left with your Enforcer found their way to you and Felicia π
I hope you had as good a time as we all did… See you next year for Geek Summer Camp (aka PAX!)
As the maker of the Cape of Dicks, I can tell you that the trim is actually crochet. So they are hooker dicks. For the record.
Wil Wheaton likes this.
–<<<_>(β )<_>>>-
Grateful for YouR Existence on this Beautiful Planet…Sweetest of Dreams to You Brother.
Who wouldn’t like being covered in hooker dicks?
Last year, I met you for the first time [embarrassed admission]and was so star struck I tripped over every word[/embarrassed admission]
I was pregnant and wearing the epic shirt of pregnant awesome that said “Geek inside”. This year, my daughter is 6 months old, and with husband deployed, we could not make the trek out. However, living vicariously through these stories is definitely helping to restore my HP/MP to get me by until next year when we intend to bring 18 month old gamer girl!
Afterall, she’s getting ahead of the curve already:
http://twitpic.com/6dun6m
I will share a embarrassing story. I was lucky to get Ken Levine’s and two other people (cant remember their names..) who worked on Bioshock Infinite to autograph the poster they were handing out. I asked if he would be doing it again the next day and he said no that tomorrow he was gonna be a fan boy and walk around the floor.
The next day I walked past Borderland 2’s setup and saw a guy in a red shirt standing sideways by the closed door to the demo room and a lady next to him. all the people in line were still in the secondary line waiting to come over. I figured they were Gearbox employ’s. They had their backs towards me so I went forward and tried as nicely as I could to get their attention. I was gonna ask if they had any shirts in my size left before I got in line to see the game. The lady noticed me and drew the mans attention to me. He turned around and it was ken Levine! I froze and couldn’t even speak all I could get out was, “y-you don’t work here do you…”. It wasn’t really a question but more of a shocking realization. He had a annoyed look on his face and said no, and turned around. All I could was yell sorry as I ran away.
I feel bad to have bothered the guy. He probably had enough trouble with people bugging him. I don’t want people like him to feel like they cant go out and enjoy the cons.
My third PAX… it was amazing, as usual. I finally got your autograph too! Lmfao. Waiting in line for an hour and a half was worth it! π
For my part, I wish that Rock Band had been more represented at Harmonix’s booth. But I’m a total RB nerd. :’D
My mom works for Wizards, and when I asked her if she knew Chris Perkins, she was like Chris? Of course I know Chris, he’s great. I can proudly say I waited 2 + hours in line to watch a fucking DnD match. <333
This is AMAZING
The video of you fake kicking me out of line worked very well to convince my friend that you actually did. The look on his face was priceless. Thanks for that. You, good sir, are a hell of a lot of fun and I’m glad your PAX went as well for you as it did for me!