The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
Please vote in the Forum Structure Poll. Polling will close at 2PM EST on January 21, 2025.
If plan A fails, revert to plan A [Your PAX East plans]
Frugus
PhotographerMontrealRegistered User regular
PhotographerMontrealRegistered User regular
Those of you who went to PAX last year, what are your plans for the next round?
Those of you who are attending for the first time, what are you planning on doing?
---
As for me I don't dare make any set in stone plans. I do have objectives, mainly of trying out some table top rooms and the like. Stuff like Catan or Magic the Gathering for instance... I've been hearing about the stuff and saw people play it (friends and not), but the never did the occasion actually materialize where I got to play for myself *. I hope to rectify this at PAX East 2011. Last year I did not try my hand at anything mainly because I was unaware how one could get into any games. I'd settle for some D&D or any RPG even.
Stuff I really want to do:
- Pre-PAX Dinner (or any other social event)
- Not miss the Keynote - Unless the enforcers have crowding problems I would not mind standing outside this time around, which is what i should have done last year when I was stopped short from entering the theater room.
- Play a tabletop game, preferably something with high geek cred (everyone keeps talking about Arkham Horror). *
- Play Magic The Gathering. I never really played before, this must be fixed. *
- Play DnD. Have not played in too long. *
- Be at one of the PA panels *
- Re-fatten up my 360 friend list, hopefully it will be the case with anything that has an "*"
- Indulge in at least one epic nom worthy of a trip to Boston
Bonus Achievements
- Catch one of the evening movies
- Check out some of the other panels
- Chill out in the music section more than I did last year
- See the MC Frontalot show and all that comes with it, but I bet I'll still want to see both concerts, which is the greatest obstacle to my other plans.
- Participate in a Rock Band tourney (must put my Lord of the Strings achievement to the test)
- Come back home with a new game I fell in love and bought at PAX
And last but not least: SWAG is not what PAX is all about, but it's definitely fun. Most of all I would love to score something that is a bit more hard to get, such as an exclusive avatar item or a free game. I would not mind coming back with a lighter swag bag in exchange.
Those of you who are attending for the first time, what are you planning on doing?
---
As for me I don't dare make any set in stone plans. I do have objectives, mainly of trying out some table top rooms and the like. Stuff like Catan or Magic the Gathering for instance... I've been hearing about the stuff and saw people play it (friends and not), but the never did the occasion actually materialize where I got to play for myself *. I hope to rectify this at PAX East 2011. Last year I did not try my hand at anything mainly because I was unaware how one could get into any games. I'd settle for some D&D or any RPG even.
Stuff I really want to do:
- Pre-PAX Dinner (or any other social event)
- Not miss the Keynote - Unless the enforcers have crowding problems I would not mind standing outside this time around, which is what i should have done last year when I was stopped short from entering the theater room.
- Play a tabletop game, preferably something with high geek cred (everyone keeps talking about Arkham Horror). *
- Play Magic The Gathering. I never really played before, this must be fixed. *
- Play DnD. Have not played in too long. *
- Be at one of the PA panels *
- Re-fatten up my 360 friend list, hopefully it will be the case with anything that has an "*"
- Indulge in at least one epic nom worthy of a trip to Boston
Bonus Achievements
- Catch one of the evening movies
- Check out some of the other panels
- Chill out in the music section more than I did last year
- See the MC Frontalot show and all that comes with it, but I bet I'll still want to see both concerts, which is the greatest obstacle to my other plans.
- Participate in a Rock Band tourney (must put my Lord of the Strings achievement to the test)
- Come back home with a new game I fell in love and bought at PAX
And last but not least: SWAG is not what PAX is all about, but it's definitely fun. Most of all I would love to score something that is a bit more hard to get, such as an exclusive avatar item or a free game. I would not mind coming back with a lighter swag bag in exchange.
Frugus Eggbeater
Frugus on
0
Posts
- Attend the full length Make-A-Strip Panel. Only caught the last half of it or so at first PAX East.
- Table Top area, want to scope out some new board games for my sister.
- Bring a game of Fluxx for the really long lines.
Stuff I'd like to do
- Attend a concert.
- Meet more people.
- Go to the Expo hall for more then just Swag.
I am a monster truck that walks like a man.
Thursday
-Pre PAX Dinner
-Pokecrawl
Friday
-Lined up at 10am in queue room for keynote
-Saw Keynote and first Q&A
-Met up with buds from the forums
-Did another main theater thing...forget the name of the panel, crap.
-TF2 Tourament (2nd place)
Saturday
-Lined up early again, this time for PATV panel iirc
-Left after preview episode before questions to get back in line for Draw a Strip
-Saw Draw a Strip, which was great
-Played some Magic, played some PC games, played Borderlands for 360 quick
-Was supposed to play in L4D2 tournament but we didn't get signed up in time, so I caught JoCo's set at the concert
Sunday
-Fucked around and didn't do much to start
-Went to the exhibition hall (finally). Felt sad that I missed out on so much.
-Went to Omegathon Final Round
-Went home
This year I want to:
Get to the Exhibition hall earlier in the weekend
Hang out more with forum peoples
Possibly do BYOC but don't know if I wanna lug my PC up to Boston via train
See more of the concerts
Check out Kurtz's panel(s), and Acquisitions Live if they do that at East
See some more satellite theater panels
Turn into a rocket ship
Bomb the russians
Crash into the sun
etc.
Nuke them from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NisCkxU544c
- PokeCrawl
- Watch THE PROTOMEN!
- See D&D Live, if they do it again
- WIN Omegathon this time
- Get to know some strangers and make them friends.
Stuff I'd like to do:
- Watch Scott Kurtz's Q&A. I feel I have neglected comic genius by missing him last year
- Since I just got back into the paper version again, play in a Magic tournament. Mini-Master sounds intriguing
- See the other concerts
-free play rooms
-some kind of giant fluxx game at some point
-concerts
-hotel parties @ the westin
I really want to go to the keynote and draw a strip and other panel stuff, but I don't want to stress myself out if it's going to be too difficult. i'll definitely go to some, but i'll let serendipity decide which.
also, i'm not super competitive so tournaments aren't for me, but I plan to be at the ready with cookies for hungry tournament players!
edit: oh, and i'd love to get a chance to see wil wheaton. I had a super huge crush on him as a kid, like literally tiger beat magazine pictures taped on the wall.
@tvethiopia: What's the cookie brigade all about?
Am I missing anything?
PAX East 2015: -Pass [X] -Hotel [X] -Time off[X]
twitter: acumen101 | fb: fb.com/acumen101
Steam: acumen101 | xbl/psn: caseBlaster101
it'll be my first time, but basically cookie brigade distributes free cookies while collecting donations for the charity Child's Play.
-Pokecrawl (probably)
-Assassins
-Pokemon league
-hang out with complete strangers and play games with them
-watch the keynote
-not miss too many panels because I don't get in line early enough
-swim at the westins in door pool
-wonder who these strangers in my hotel room are
-have as much fun packed into the few days as possible
that'll do it.
Not PAX-related, but I do plan on trying to make it to Night of the Barrels at Beer Advocate's Extreme Beer Fest. It's at the Cyclorama on Friday night. I don't go to the concerts anyway, so I think I'll be OK.
Also, if Jason Scott is there showing off his new-ish film Get Lamp I recommend you check it out. I've seen it a few times now and it's a loving, exhaustive look at the original text-based games.
-Actually organize a legitimate dance group for the Friday night concert
-SSBB pick up games
-Finally get around to playing Steel Battalion. I've missed it at two PAXes now.
-Chill at the Jamspace
-Get more stickers!
-Find out about some new delicious indie games
-Take the PAX Pokemon league to town
Things I'd like to do but wouldn't mind if I didn't:
-Get more T-shirts (Seriously, about half of the T-shirts I own are from PAX
-Play a table top RPG and *not* make a complete fool of myself.
-Convince enough people to go see RHPS and not JoCo Saturday night
-Magically get a year older and go on the Pokecrawl
Heh. Heh. Hehhhhh. BWAHAAHAHAHAAHAHAH.
3 Day Pass [X] - BYOC [X] - Accomodations [X] - Travel [ X ] - Time Off [ X ]
Please don't misunderstand me, I'd REALLY like to see these things live. But with every thing else that there is to do there, I can't imagine dedicating 4 hours to standing in line waiting for one thing. Is that really what folks do?
I can't tell you if the Keynote or the Q&A will be worth it to YOU. But I can tell you that if you decide to do it, you won't be bored in line. Some of my best memories are from just waiting in line and playing games and meeting new amazing people.
Personally? I can catch the keynote on youtube that night after the con and unless we get someone 'new' this year as opposed to a Prime repeat I don't see a reason to change my way of doing it.
I plan on running D&D again this year, was lots of fun last year and I especially liked doing the DM Challenge and the Learn to Play.
This upcoming year I want to spend a little more time in the exhibit hall checking out stuff that I didn't actually spend time on last year. I also want to see some more panels if I have the time, and give time to maybe some competitive play Catan or Magic.
Trading cards would also be fun to participate in, we'll see.
Let other people win... greedy...
Looking forward to seeing the Evil Genius Designs guys doing the queue room stuff again in the mornings (seriously, these guys were great and helped pass the time).
Running boardgame demos for part of the weekend (hopefully meeting a lot of you folks!).
Enjoying the Exhibit Hall where I can to check out the upcoming games I will want to buy.
Taking more pictures of the great cosplayers where I can. I completely forgot my camera when I passed the two amazing Bayonetta cosplayers last year.
Bringing more trail mix and some water bottles to make sure that I am in good shape between meals.
And with any luck, getting home with at least one swag shirt.
* Magical Mystery Tour (as either a passenger or organizer, depending on if I find someone who has time to organize it
* Cookie Brigade
* Play at least one good multiplayer game of Magic
* See all the peoples here that I
* Miss pretty much all of the formal panels and such that take place
Last year there where some heavy forum discussions about candy and other gamer friendly foods. Some people claimed that Smarties from Canada where better than those made in the US. Not sure if this was Bull but I litteraly bought into it and got a small case of Smarties boxes.
I had a blast a PAX last year but I never got around to playing with strangers, so the booty was all kept for thyself. Every little piece tasted like shame.
I plan to trying again. I'll be bringing down some food stuff to share with other people who I'll have the chance to meet up with. Particularly stuff that people would love to have but can't get because it's up there way in Canada.
My plan is pretty much the same one I had last year:
1) BYOC
2) Maybe Keynote if the speaker is awesome
3) Cruise the Expo hall
4) Meet as many awesome people as I can
5) Trade as many cards as I can (didn't get to do this much last year, but hoping to change that this year)
6) Try to get in and play a game of D&D (also didn't really do this last year)
7) Try and find the Classic Arcade console room if that they do that again this year (I thought I walked around the whole building, but could not find this room to save my life.)
- Meet people. Going alone for my first PAX and wouldn't mind making a few friends.
- Free play rooms, i love me some console games
- Exhibit Hall as much as possible
- Catch a panel or two..hopefully.
Stuff I'd like to do
- Attend a concert
- Attend the keynote
- Go to the Pre-PAX dinner
- Be an Omeganaut [ha fat chance!]
- Get swag.
- Maybe get into a board game? Never really played too much as far as tabletop games...
- Pokemon League/random battles
Stuff that will absolutely happen:
- Have an amazing time.
The big change from last year is to split up sessions to check out other areas in the convention.
Last year, I did all the extra running around on Sunday. End result is simply not enough time to check everything out.
This year, take 3 hours a day to check out exhibits, arcade, dealer's, and demos from other game companies.
I just have to make arrangements to store my games in the company booth whilst I'm off checking out the rest of the con.
One thing that will not change: get there early and claim my spot in one of the open gaming rooms before the crowd starts pouring in. If it's one thing you learned in open gaming last year was that ye who hesitates doesn't get to play.
Yahoo group GCIACST
1) Live DnD with AI if they do it
2) Pre-PAX Dinner
3) Exhibition hall
4) Lurk around the tabletop room, potentially jump in a game
5) Let the flow take me to wherever it does
6) Meet lots of people and just enjoy the surroundings
Can't wait!
I shall bring the Smarties none the less.
GMs would rather not have to grab people by the collar to play, so please, do take an opportunity out of your busy schedules to stop in and play. With so many games to choose from, I'm sure you'll find something you'll enjoy.
Yahoo group GCIACST
The problem for me is that I would not know where to start.
I have very decent nerd cred in many domains but I tend to fail when it comes to table games of all kinds. So my problem is that I would not know where to start. I can still count the number of "interesting" table games that I've played with one hand. Most of my progress was done last year at when I played Carcasonne and one game of Ticket to Ride. Zombie dice, Chtulu dice and We did not playtest this where all discovered at PAX. The rest I've heard about, at best.
And for Pen and Paper RPGs, the last time I played dungeons and dragons there was an awesome monk on my AD&D dungeon master book. That should give you an idea.... Ah, Highschool! No seriously I've played a few games since but I think the last time I was ever serious about any game was back when Vampire: Masquerade was still considered an obscure thing.
This being said I would really like to try me some modern Dungeons and Dragons, I just don't know how much of a neophyte one can be if he wants to try.
Hum... Here's a list of things I'd like to try before I leave PAX. Obviously it would be a great occasion to meet up with people too.
1- Try DnD
2- Try Magic the Gathering
3- Try some obscure niche game with tons of geek cred that only few people have heard about.
4- Surely I will be able to repeat #3 (maybe something with Chtulu?)
Frugus: those will be pretty easy to accomplish goals. I spent a lot of time in the D&D room last year at PAX East. They ran several adventures that were geared specifically to be accessible to veterans and complete rookies alike. The waiting list filled up extremely fast, so I recommend stopping by the D&D room almost immediately if you would like to play, but they will give you a character, dice, and even a party to adventure with if you sign up solo.
The Magic goal could be slightly harder to do - it depends on if the swag bag contains another deck (I would say unlikely, but who knows), if you're willing to spend $10-20 on your own cards, or if someone is nice enough to lend you a deck to learn with for a bit. Last year in the keynote line there were dozens of games going on using the 30-card mono-color decks that were included in the swag bag. I was finishing my book at the time so I didn't join in, but I was convinced to pick up the "Phyrexia vs The Coalition" Duel Deck (It contains 2 prebuilt 60-card decks made to play well against each other), which I played several games with during the weekend.
As for the Tabletop room in general, I posted a thread shortly after last year's PAX East with the rudiments of a plan for a LFG (Looking for Group) system to assist people who were too shy, busy, or otherwise discouraged from joining in games. I'm not sure that this will be implemented, but there was some positive response, and I did send my plan to FatherFletch at his request.
As far as the table-top area goes:
No matter if you go to GM to learn a game or find a group you need to get over one thing: being shy.
The GMs can't help you if you don't ask, and a group isn't going to grab you and shove you in an open spot to play. You have to ask.
In my case, I have found that playing with friends is always great, but showing up and sitting down with 2 - 5 complete strangers can be just as fun (especially when you don't know their style of playing a game).
Walk around the rooms. GMs should have the available games they will demo out in front of them (you can also try the booths). Groups of people playing games will also be there. You may not be able to jump into a game but if you see a game you think is intersting you can ask if you can watch to learn how to play.
And sometimes you get a GM like me, who tends to grow on you (in a good way, I promise). Yes, many people came in, saw one of the games I demo on the table, and asked to play. I'll teach you the basics and let you finish the game you started.
Other people walked in with a game from the company I demo for and I'd present myself to them, explain who I was and that I teach people how to play that game, and would run the game for them whilst teaching them how to play.
And I don't limit myself to just the games of the company I demo for. If someone comes in and I see doesn't know how to play a game, and I know how to play it, I will teach you how to play the game, if you'll allow me to do so.
Don't count on me or another GM seeing you, though. Take the hard step and walk to someone and ask. You never know, it might open a whole new door for you.
Yahoo group GCIACST
Primary goals:
1) Keynote
2) D&D session
3) Make new friends
@Durinthal
1) Attend the pokecrawl.
2) Attend more (that is to say ANY) parties (which I failed to do last East, but did at Prime)
3) Drag my 2 best friends out of the damn LAN room
4) Hit one of said friends very hard if he ends up winning 3 video cards this time AGAIN
5) Have fun
PSN: L00nyEclip
Steam: Loony Eclipse
Twitter: @Loonyeclipse
The absolute *must* would be somehow finding Wil Wheaton and ensuring I get a picture with him. I have a bet with a co-worker who is a die-hard Star Trek fan that I can get his picture before she does, and she's already got a Flickr album with pics of her and LeVar Burton, Mirina Sirtis and Brent Spiner. She assures me she is not a stalker.
I foresee many sidetrips to the freeplay room, and some hotel parties if we meet the right people. We're both board/ccg junkies.
Steam: TheArcadeBear
1. go
2. talk to people
3. play games
4. have fun!
As long as I do #1, I can't fail at the rest.