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I am one of those people who cannot help himself and must absorb all convention hype possible, so I am now infiltrating the Facebook and official Penny Arcade forums for Unplugged and will bring you all the cutting-edge inf--uh? No ... no information at all really? Even only a couple months out? Oh. Well, that is certainly a change of pace from the conventions I am used to. I guess reading the "best cheesesteak" slapfights is pretty entertaining. I also feel even better about my decision to go hard and just get a hotel before tickets even went on sale since it sounds like traffic in that area is always bad and good lord there is a Marathon on Sunday morning going right past the convention (though it sounds like it will probably have moved out of that area by the time the show opens? Probably?) Pretty stoked for wandering around confused in an endless blank void for three days though.
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Sep 7, 2017 18:59
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Has anybody gotten their badges yet? I'm moving at the end of the month (thank god it's not as a result of hurricanes at least) and need to figure out if I need to try to change the delivery info.
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Sep 7, 2017 19:25
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Pork and greens are the superior Philly sandwich .
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Sep 7, 2017 19:35
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ZorajitZorajit posted:Has anybody gotten their badges yet? I'm moving at the end of the month (thank god it's not as a result of hurricanes at least) and need to figure out if I need to try to change the delivery info. Going by past pax events, you will probably not get your pass until a week or two before hand. Maaaaaaybe 3 weeks
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Sep 7, 2017 19:38
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Kashuno posted:Going by past pax events, you will probably not get your pass until a week or two before hand. Maaaaaaybe 3 weeks I just checked because I was curious. My East badges were mailed Feb 10 and the event was March 10. So one month or thereabouts.
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Sep 7, 2017 19:40
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Really not liking the silence PAX seems to have on their events. What are us anxious planners supposed to do! There is no answer to the best cheesesteak question. It is a trap everyone falls into. They're pretty much the same wherever you go, just be sure to get it with cheese whiz.
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Sep 7, 2017 20:06
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I would imagine things will start ramping up soon with PAX West in the books.
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Sep 7, 2017 20:33
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at least as far as west goes, there's an app and schedule / maps etc that gets updated a few weeks before the event. it's a handy guidebook that lets you schedule things and bookmark stuff you want to see. I think I'd probably go more nuts if I had that info way ahead of time, I'm bad with anticipation.
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Sep 7, 2017 23:07
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I know Ilor and I are planning to happily play poo poo with goons if the con ends up being poorly organized. If nothing else, we'll reminisce about Gencon with Dr. Quraex.
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Sep 7, 2017 23:19
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BlackIronHeart posted:I know Ilor and I are planning to happily play poo poo with goons if the con ends up being poorly organized. If nothing else, we'll reminisce about Gencon with Dr. Quraex. 
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Sep 7, 2017 23:25
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Everyone who's anxious about information or badges, don't worry. This is how it works for every PAX event: badges come about a month beforehand, schedule info gets put out 2-3 weeks in advance. A brand-new event like UP always has its kinks to work out, so it's possible the schedule might be even closer to the event than that, but these people generally have their poo poo together. As for alchahest's wondering about tabletop content at other PAXes, I can only speak for West this year and say that the TTRPG content was hands-down the worst I've seen in a decade of attending the con, while board games have never been better. Some new local group took over the RPG offerings, and while they had a very cool classic RPG library on display, nothing was being run except D&D 5e, a little AD&D 2e, and a couple scattered games of Pendragon. In years past, you'd be able to play all sorts of new and exciting RPGs at West, or older indie stuff that you'd missed because you couldn't convince your group to play it (  ), but that seems to have been wiped out. I strongly suspect this content has migrated to Unplugged or BigBadCon, or both.
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Sep 8, 2017 03:29
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Thank you, person whose posts I remember reading before I even registered Also I always get excited when I hear the name of a convention I am wholly unfamiliar with, and of course am then not surprised when said convention is on the other side of the country. Might be why I never heard of it, huh? Huh, Dr. Idiot?! YEAH For as much as I am confused by the utter lack of information, I also thrive on meaninglessness and chaos so it really does suit me fine. I mean I remember leaving Origins 2016 one afternoon to eat takeout and watch Gravity Falls for like four hours and I have no regrets whatsoever, I know this is going to be great even if it is just me eating sixteen pounds of fresh Philadelphia pretzels and crying while watching people play Settlers of Catan
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Sep 8, 2017 03:52
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It could be worse! You could be crying while I make you play 1846!
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Sep 8, 2017 13:13
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Fellis posted:It could be worse! You could be crying while I make you play CAH!
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Sep 8, 2017 13:13
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Kestral posted:Everyone who's anxious about information or badges, don't worry. This is how it works for every PAX event: badges come about a month beforehand, schedule info gets put out 2-3 weeks in advance. A brand-new event like UP always has its kinks to work out, so it's possible the schedule might be even closer to the event than that, but these people generally have their poo poo together. I was at west too, I should have put some contact info up to get some gaming in with a goon! It did seem less robust than last year. No Reaper painting room, for example. lots of little things that added up to a smaller tabletop experience. I DID really like the playtesting room at the Olive8 though. The games in there were largely good, and I liked to be able to provide feedback directly to the designers. There was a card game Ivion that my pal and I had a lot of fun playing. Special note: The PA game Thornwatch is kind of.. abysmal. it's in the same state it was last year, next to no prototyping has been done outside of the cards, and it's just really clumsy and swingy.
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Sep 8, 2017 16:37
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Man, I'm sad to hear that about Thornwatch... I backed the kickstarter for a fair sum and I really enjoyed that setting when they debuted it. 
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Sep 8, 2017 17:01
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I wish Thornwatch had stayed an RPG, because holy poo poo I love that setting, but for what it's worth I enjoyed what I played of it. I went with two friends from my tabletop group this year, and Thornwatch just kept fitting into our schedule for whatever reason, so we ended up playing three times, with three different scenarios. It really needs someone at the helm who can adequately explain it, because it's got some weird non-obvious stuff in there, and the first person we got botched the rules hard and nearly turned us off to the game entirely. Our biggest complaint about the scenarios we played was that it was, as alcahest said, swingy. The players either won or lost fast, despite there being a lot of cards or combos that seem to develop only after extended play. I suspect the game really shines in campaign mode, but we'll have to see when it comes out.
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Sep 10, 2017 02:58
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With that said, give it a try, if you have fun with it, you have fun with it. It didn't suit me or my friends, but I definitely liked some of the concepts in both mechanic and especiallyin the fluff. Maybe they'll improve between West and Unplugged, there was a lot of feedback generated, and they haven't really done any prototyping besides the cards, so changes should be cheap and easy to make.
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Sep 10, 2017 03:15
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Cross posting here and in the board game dev thread, if you are prototyping and want to do some playtesting at PAXUP, https://twitter.com/TheUnpub/status/907225957085450240
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Sep 12, 2017 15:13
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Kashuno posted:Cross posting here and in the board game dev thread, if you are prototyping and want to do some playtesting at PAXUP, https://twitter.com/TheUnpub/status/907225957085450240 Thanks for posting this here. I just signed up a slot on Friday to playtest the game I am working. Guess its really happening now!
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Sep 12, 2017 16:18
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nesbit37 posted:Thanks for posting this here. I just signed up a slot on Friday to playtest the game I am working. Guess its really happening now! Let me know what game it is and I'll come check it out! The main title I'm working on isn't quite ready for prototyping yet, so I think I'll miss playtesting it at PAX
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Sep 12, 2017 16:21
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It's "We Will Only Know Summer." Its pretty early in development but should be good for public playtests by mid-November.
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Sep 12, 2017 16:23
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nesbit37 posted:It's "We Will Only Know Summer." Its pretty early in development but should be good for public playtests by mid-November. I am always worried about whether or not I'll be ready for public prototyping. It will be sleeved up paper that is playable by november for sure, is that prototype worthy for this?
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Sep 12, 2017 16:31
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I don't see why not, but I've never done one of these either so... I've already made prototypes with laser cut chipboard for this, but its all white without any graphics. Certainly nothing fancy.
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Sep 12, 2017 16:37
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nesbit37 posted:It's "We Will Only Know Summer." Its pretty early in development but should be good for public playtests by mid-November.
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Sep 12, 2017 18:10
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Now I can only picture my game as Weekend at Bernie's only if someone actually tried to do that in real life instead of a comedy movie.
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Sep 12, 2017 18:25
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Did anyone else get an email from Reedpop about a refund for $1.80? What's that about?
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Sep 21, 2017 17:25
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Zweihander01 posted:Did anyone else get an email from Reedpop about a refund for $1.80? What's that about? Yes. They were charging incorrect tax rates on a lot of badges, so they're refunding the difference for the incorrect taxes
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Sep 21, 2017 17:27
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My favorite response was something along the lines of "Penny Arcade has determined your experience at PAX is worth $1.80 less than previously reported."
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Sep 21, 2017 19:25
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Fuckin stats nerds using data to determine the exact monetary value of fun n' poo poo
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Sep 21, 2017 23:57
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So...say I wanted to actually host an event. An RPG, perhaps. How would I... You see what I'm gettin' at here?
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Sep 27, 2017 02:24
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Ilor posted:So...say I wanted to actually host an event. An RPG, perhaps. How would I... Find a table and say LOOKING FOR PLAYERS
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Sep 27, 2017 02:27
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That seems hopelessly disorganized. Am I missing something?
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Sep 27, 2017 02:47
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The actual process will be made clear closer to the event, one imagines, but the method Kashuno describes is honestly not that far off from how it happens at other conventions. "Games on Demand" rooms are a staple of gaming cons, and they almost always use some combination of signup sheets, time slots, and GMs sitting at tables offering games for their slot. It actually works pretty well with good implementation.
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Sep 27, 2017 05:38
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Coming from a world where the Games On Demand room is the weirdo exception that makes no sense to me, I understand Ilor's concerns. But you know, when in D20 Rome...
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Sep 27, 2017 15:24
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It kind of depends on what you are doing as some groups are assigning slots already. I am involved with the group running D&D 5e at the convention and they have all the DMs they need and have assigned them slots already. I also signed up for the upub event so I can playtest a boardgame I am working on I would like to take through the publication process and all of those slots are assigned already. What I am gathering is that PAXs are a mess and the organizers want to do as little as possible. For instance, for the D&D group I am involved in PAX won't let us charge for tickets at the event or really supply us with anything, so we have to run a crowdfunding campaign to pay for everything to cover hosting DMs at the con, printing costs, etc.: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/theroleinitiative/dandd-adventurers-league-at-pax-unplugged-2017 Worst part is, at least to me, it doesn't look like its going to fund right now. I have no idea what their contingency plan is. I am just glad I am not one of the higher level organizers for D&D on this, if I wasn't bald already I would be soon.
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Sep 27, 2017 15:53
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Sep 27, 2017 16:15
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Kashuno posted:I'd say it's weird but then again for PAX East people barely had any idea what was happening until like 2 weeks before other that "ITS PAX EAST!!!" so I expect it to be October and still being like "hm wonder what's gonna happen there" Would ya look at that?
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Sep 27, 2017 16:18
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So isn't reserving a seat via Kickstarter reward basically doing what PAX said you couldn't do: selling tickets to the game? I want PAX Unplugged to succeed, but I'm starting to think at least the first year they're going to end up being an object lesson in how not to run this type of con. "Remember the first year when they couldn't even calculate the tax correctly? And that was just the start of the issues..."
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Sep 27, 2017 16:22
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fordan posted:So isn't reserving a seat via Kickstarter reward basically doing what PAX said you couldn't do: selling tickets to the game? The only difference I see is this way PAX can keep it at arms length. Still claim your badge gets you into everything for free and they don't have to worry about managing some ticket system or dealing with complaints directly because it was this other group running the games and their weird kickstarter instead of doing it all through PAX.
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Sep 27, 2017 16:30
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