March 28, 2010: Awesome Gaming At PAX East

PAX East is going better than I could have hoped. On Thursday night I taught a few people Zombie Dice, Cthulhu Dice, and Nanuk before the crew joined me, but it wasn't really until Friday that we dove headfirst into the show . . . and we're still buried in gaming! Unfortunately, we had only a few dozen advance copies of the dice games. They sold out almost immediately, so we have to keep sending players home without new dice . . . but now we know for sure these are going to be huge hits with the casual market. At one point I ran Zombie Dice with 14 players, and we constantly have at least ten players in Cthulhu Dice and Zombie Dice games. (I bet there's a crowd playing right now as I write this.)

We've also been running Revolution! (with the 5-6 player expansion). Those sessions haven't been as loud as the dice games, but we can tell the players are having fun. Getting to watch the look on people's faces as they "get" the game is always fun, and we've seen that look several times at this show. Revolution! can be subtle -- especially compared to the dice games -- so demonstrating it takes a different approach. That's why I've been mainly teaching the dice games; I'm not known as subtle.

Anyway, I'm rushing back to the show now. For more PAX fun, keep an eye on our Twitter account and don't forget to look through our PAX East photo set at Flickr. If you're at the show, swing by and say hi -- we're on the 2nd floor near the tabletop HQ.

-- Phil Reed