Ironhead Station

It's hard to believe that only one week ago I was at PAX, which is quickly becoming my favorite weekend of the year.  If you have never been to PAX, it's hard to describe:  It has video games like a trade show, panels and tournaments like a convention, and concerts like a festival.  Personally, I like to think it as a family reunion where the whole geek tribe gathers once a year.

The only down side is what I now call Post-Pax Depressive Syndrome (PPDS), which is the horrible funk that you feel after having to merge with real life after three days of awesome sauce.  I summed up my feelings best last year, so rather than try to creatively re-express those emotions, I'll just dredge them up from the internet time machine and repeat them here:

"So, here I am, one week later, and I find that now that I have rejoined "real" life, the motivation to go back in time and discuss PAX in any great detail has left me. It seems that PAX has become like a warm memory of childhood, locked away safe from the harsh light of this working man's reality, only to be brought out over good scotch and in the company of fine friends. To allow one's thoughts to linger over-long on such a happy time is only to invite sorrow it seems, for these days cannot measure against those..."

Now that I've had a week to recover, I find that, much like last year, I lack the desire to recount the weekend in any great detail, but I'm ready to share the highlights.  Helmets and chin-straps, gentle reader, because here we go!

Warmachine
Privateer Press was there in force this year, as usual, with a pile of upcoming releases available at the show.  Many of them would be out to the public within a few days, but some of them won't.  I picked up a plastic Cygnar starter, a Triumph kit, and some croaks for a friend.  I also picked up an Extreme Titan Gladiator, which is so stupid awesome looking that I think I'm going to have to finally take on that Skorne Army.

There were a number of tournaments going on, and it's good to see the Warmachine scene growing at PAX.  I didn't play in any of them, mostly because I didn't want to miss other stuff going on.  Plus, the guy I was traveling with doesn't play the game, so it would have made for some boring days for him.  Still, they were filling tables, rolling dice, and pushing pewter, which is always a good thing, and one of the guys from the local Boise store took home the Working Man's coin, which is cool.

I also got to see Jen Ikuta (Bobaferret) again, which was definitely one of the highlights of the trip.  Jen was the person who really got me into Warmachine back when she was the Boise press ganger, and she was my Thursday night sparring partner for almost two years before she was beamed up by the mothership.  We had planned to play a 50-pointer while I was there, and I had even put together a very special "lightning in the facehole" Epic Nemo list for the occasion, but it never happened thanks to crazy PAX schedules.  I'm thinking I might have to go to TempleCon this year just to get that game in.  Thanks to Jen I also got to meet most of the Privateer crew, which was a pretty cool experience.  (Oh, and thanks for the beers, Simon!)


Roleplaying
This blog may be mostly about Warmachine, but I spend a huge part of my "gamer time" doing roleplaying stuff.  I primarily run the weekly home game, so I always like going to a con where I can just be a player for a couple of days.  PAX is great for that - Wizards of the Coast has a strong connection with the Penny Arcade guys thanks to the podcast series, and they always show up in force for PAX.  This year they were pimping the "new" red box intro set and the upcoming release of the new GammaWorld RPG.

It seems like WotC has been working hard to make their games more convention friendly, and I think they have really succeeded with the dungeon delve concept.  They ran 12 tables, each with the same 6 pre-generated characters.  Each table was a different section of the Dread Witch's lair, and was made up of two encounters.  Each session lasted only an hour, and you earned tokens for the progress you make, which could be redeemed for either items for your character or D&D swag for you.  At first I wasn't sure I liked using pre-generated characters, but it ended up being a great thing - after a few sessions you had a good sense of what your party was capable of, regardless of who was sitting at the table.  We ended playing six or seven hours of the delve, and had a blast each time, and met some really fun people along the way.

We also played a preview game of the new GammaWorld, which was super fun and really memorable.  Rather than a collection of source books, GammaWorld is more of an RPG in a box, well suited for pickup games and one-shots.  Character creation is highly random, and character powers are randomized through a card mechanic.  (I ended up playing a chainsaw-wielding telekinetic cockroach berserker!)  While this lack of control won't appeal to min-maxers, the "take-what-you-get" approach can be a blast for the more roleplaying-oriented.  I'll definitely be picking that one up as soon as it comes out.  Best moment from the session:  One of party challenges a guard robot to a dance-off... and succeeds!

The roleplaying highlight (and possibly the highlight of the whole show) was the live Acquisitions Incorporated D&D game.  Chris Perkins ran Gabe, Tycho, Wil Wheaton and Scott Kurtz through and adventure to retrieve Wil's recently (and quite un-heroically) killed character Aeofel from Hell.  I laughed so hard I cried for almost three hours.   The rumor is that Wizards will be posting this in complete form eventually, and when they do, you need to watch it.  If you have never really got the roleplaying thing, this will make it click.  Here's just a taste:




General Geekery
While people were generally gaga for Halo Reach, I would say that the biggest news of the show was Gearbox software showing off Duke Nukem Forever in playable form.  I personally didn't play it (the two hour line was more than I could stand to play a game), but by all reports it has no shortage of boobs and potty jokes.  Fans should be pleased!  Square Enix showed off Final Fantasy 14 Online, which I was excited about (although I recognize I am probably the only person excited about this one outside of Japan).  Dragon Age 2 is coming along, although in a departure from the first game you won't import and continue with your first character.  You now play a character named Hawke (either a boy or a girl) and from what we learned it sounds like the game will have more of the Mass Effect type character/cinematic focus.  Blizzard was strangely absent, leaving me to assume they have invaded Canada.

And whatever time was left over we spent playing board games wherever we could find space.  Ascension, Small World and Zombie Dice were all big hits.  Sunday night, after the show, we even took over the Sheraton lounge and sipped microbrews while we played board games and made some new friends from Isreal who had come all the way for PAX.  What a great show - I can't wait to go back again next year!

Labels: Board Games, consoles, Dungeons and Dragons, Hordes, miniatures, MMORPGs, PAX, PC games, roleplaying, RPGs, video games, wargaming, Warmachine, XBOX