PAX East 2015

We attended PAX East on Sunday! It was awesome! We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and look forward to attending next year, though hopefully for the weekend and not just Sunday. We went to check out the board game section and found a bunch of new games! Which was the whole point... :)

Highlights

While we were going through the aisles of board games, we got to try out Alchemy! from Aviary Games. The ladies taught us how to play and of course we went home with a copy of the game and expansion!

So many lovely components to this game! It was the first game we played when we got home! The expansion is definitely worth it (it adds alchemists, place cards and more potion cards) and we look forward to reviewing Alchemy here on the blog soon!

Definitely check out Aviary Games on their website, Facebook or Twitter page for updates on their games. Their Kickstarter for Interregnum will be coming this spring.

The B Hive Creations (you can follow her on Tumblr or Instagram) brought her super adorable Rocket Raccoon and Groot amigurumi to PAX East! She has some pretty awesome crochet and welding creations that are worth checking out! And we happened to win her giveaway! We're so excited to see what she creates!

We were also able to play Five Tribes from Days of Wonder, which is a game we have been eyeing for a while. We are glad to have been able to play it, because now we definitely want it! If we had more time, we would have liked to have played Imperial Settlers too.

We loved that there were so many tables set up for random people to get together and play board games! It was a fun experience!

The other games we got were: Terror In Meeple City from Asmodee (which I got for the kids), Race For The Galaxy: Rebel Vs. Imperium, and Race for The Galaxy: Alien Artifacts (early birthday presents for Albz). The last two games are expansions for Race For The Galaxy, a space-themed card game. It's a classic and worth looking into. We love it and play it often. 

Check out how lovely this game is! You get to play as a dragon who stomps around the city and eats meeples! And if that's not enough to sell you, it's also a wonderful game to work on both fine motor and gross motor skills, hand-eye-coordination, spatial awareness and so many more useful skills! The recommended age for this game is 8+, but we will be testing it out with Munchkin and Bean (3 and 5), who I expect will love it! 

Some interesting role-playing games and card games. I definitely wish I had been attending PAX for the whole weekend to learn more about these games! Sadly only the expansions for Slash were available, otherwise I would have picked it up. Though at the time I did not know that you could play with just the expansions! It is a fan-fiction card game! How cool is that?! But, because the game is so awesome, they have a print and play version right on their website! (Scroll to the bottom, it is below the newsletter sign-up.)

Whatever this game is... I want to play it! We walked by several times and somehow I managed not to catch the name. Gamer fail.

And apparently the Broomstick Monkey Games designers of Imperial Harvest were showing off their demo copies next to the board game library... AND I MISSED THEM! I'll be backing Imperial Harvest this week and snagging two copies with the expansions. I definitely suggest checking out the Kickstarter (it ends in 8 days and is already funded, so the game is definitely happening). You can get the complete game for 2 players for only $15! You can also add players by picking up another copy, which is what we will be doing, so it will be up to 4 players.

Also I am totally bummed that my battery was dying practically the entire time I was there, hence the incredible lack of pictures. 

One of the awesome things about PAX East is that the booths hand out free stuff. I'm sure I'm not the only person who loves free stuff. Especially when they are buttons, stickers, exclusive cards for games, and bookmarks. Because they will all get used. It's clever advertising, really. And who doesn't love more cards to add to their games?? Plus, because I have a terrible memory, so having these on hand will help me remember which games and companies I need to check out. A purse full of game goodies made this geeky mama happy. :)

We got cards for Munchkin and Munchkin Cthulhu (and by talking to the guys at the Steve Jackson Games table, I learned that you can mix the Munchkin games together, kind of like in Smash Up where you throw different themes together - that definitely changes the game and makes it more interesting!), ApocalypZe Card Game, Keep Calm and Titans of Empyrean (which was a Kickstarter).

Questlandia from Make Big Things is a GM-less world building role-playing game about kingdoms on the brink of collapse. They were at the Indie Bazaar table helping to represent indie games, like OmegaZone from Brooklyn Indie Games, Z-Ward from Memento Mori - creator of games from beyond the grave, Slash from Games by Play Date, Goblin Diplomat from Small Fly Games. 

Smirk and Dagger was there... We have been eyeing Cutthroat Caverns and Dread Curse for quite a while. Albz is really, really, dreadfully good at backstabbing people (especially me), because he plays by the rules, while I am a much more honest and upstanding player. But alas, I play to make sure he doesn't win, so we're even. ;) Also, while browsing their website, I realized that they have two "kid" games, Run For Your Life, Candyman! and Shootin' Ladders: Frag Fest. I say "kid" games lightly, because they are parody board games of Candyland and Shoots and Ladders, featuring gingerbread men gone bad. It's awesome. Wish we could have played them, but oh well. They are on our Amazon wish list... along with 200 other games. Did I mention that a board game hobby is expensive?

Eclectic Eccentricities by Bella Rose was there with some of her items from her Etsy store. She makes dice jewelry and I'm not gunna lie, it was hard to pass them up. I have been looking for the perfect dice earrings for quite a while, but sadly she didn't have any available in the colors I wanted (my dice are purple and green!). So I'll be checking out her Etsy store and I have my fingers crossed that I can find some cute earrings! And probably a mini dice charm bracelet! Because they are just so darn cute! 

Volante Design, Inc. had some INCREDIBLE Superhuman Streetwear available. Going to admit that I had to hold myself back. If you cosplay, or just loves amazing clothes, check them out. The jackets are stunning! Speaking of cosplayers, Eliza Eldredge from Eldritch Arts was there as female Loki.You can check out her costumes and props on Facebook, Tumblr and Etsy. 

Game Salute had Alien Frontiers, which we loved played last year on International TableTop Day and loved. They also told me about 9-Shooter Quick Draw - A Square Shooters Dice Game, which is on Kickstarter and looks pretty awesome, if you like Western gun fights! 

There was also Torchbearer, a dungeon crawl RPG, which was also on Kickstarter. Just going to say it, Kickstarter is like the best thing to happen to board game lovers. We get to check out games before they are even released, back them, and get them in the mail, like specially chosen Christmas presents. >.> Did I mention I love surprise packages? 

One game I wish I had been able to play was Heavy Steam from Greenbrier Games. It was on Kickstarter last year. (Note to self: I seriously just need to check Kickstarter every week, because apparently I'm missing out on a ton of awesome games.) They didn't have it set up, from what I could see, but the kind lady at the table showed me some of the components to the game and.. giant robots, a battle board, adorable little army guys... It was perfect. I loved the mechanics of the game and really, really look forward to getting our own copy. If you like anything steampunk, check it out! Greenbrier Games also created Ninja Dice and Zpocalypse.

MYTH: Journeyman looks epic! It's a kickstarter and there are two games available: Blackwall Warrens and Shores of Kanis. This is the kind of game that Albz loves.

Knight Moves is a Board Game Cafe in Brookline, MA, who had a tiny area set up. I really wish there had been more to it, maybe someone to talk to at least. They are kind of local, but not quite. We definitely want to go at some point this summer with a handful of our gaming friends. We're hoping their game list is expanded by then. ;)

Emergence Event was a Kickstarter that we missed, but we look forward to checking out this game when it arrives at our local game store. Who can resist games about exploring space?

I managed to make it into one panel, which was Knit 1 Purl 1 to Save the Princess: Geek Crafters Unite. The artist behind Cubeecraft was there and gave us each a Walking Dead Zombie Cubee. I grabbed two, so Munchkin and Bean could each have one. There is nothing worse than having to share a zombie. (I am joking, of course...) The panelists were Punzie McGinty (Rapunzel’s Tower), Christopher Beaumont (Cubeecraft), Sheri Baldwin (Crochet It Ain’t So!), Katrina Keller (Traveler's Keep), Kim Swanner (KimNKaboodle).

I grabbed as many catalogs as I could carry! Because obviously they couldn't showcase every game they had (although that would be awesome!), and because I am less likely to buy them all if I have time to look over the games and carefully pick and choose. And if you like dice, you absolutely need to check out Chessex. They make the best dice in the world! It was like going into a candy store... So many pretty dice to choose from, so little money to spend. :)

That was our PAX East experience. We had a blast and we look forward to going back next year! If you attended PAX, or a similar convention, feel free to share your experiences in the comments! We'd love to hear what you loved most, what you hated, what you look forward to next time.