Penny Arcade

Most PAX shows have a space carved out to shine a light on independent talent - and PAX South is even more novel, as it focuses exclusively on heroism in the tabletop space.  What can you expect to see at the show?  Glinting treasure such as this!

The Night Cage by Rosswell Saunders, Chris Chan, and Chris McMahon
The Search for Planet 9 by Foxtrot Games
Kingdom of Aer Kingmaker by Centennial Games
Crimopolis by Cheap Sheep Games
Hermetica by Iff Studios LLC
Eschaton by Archon Games
Churrascaria: A Cutthroat Game of Gluttony by Absurdist Productions

Congratulations to the teams! I’ll come bug you at the show.

(CW)TB

Chris Perkins so regularly generates fanciful sums donating his time behind the screen for Charity that we have a good sense, by now, what his time is actually worth - and it’s not looking good for us.

Hey!  So, we don’t understand one hundred percent how or why this happened, I would say our lives are like this generally, but we were invited down to Blizzard - yes, that Blizzard - and we can borrow their streaming studio to use on twitch.tv/pennyarcade so we’re gonna do it.  Here’s the schedule, all California times:

10am - 12pm: Streaming (We Play Overwatch w/ cool visitors maybe…?)
2pm - 4pm: Streaming (We create an Overwatch Hero)

The second part is just us having fun obviously, but if we’re gonna be in the crucible of this thing we gotta see if any of it rubs off, right?!  We’ll be taking suggestions from the channel - let’s see what we can put together… together.  See that?  No doubt it’s hot material like that getting us this invites to legendary studios.

(CW)TB out.

Hades is sick with the fever.

They just dropped a patch for it too, stuffed with the collated Wisdom of Crowds regarding a number of issues, and there’s a little note ticking down at the bottom toward the next big update.  It’s funny; I know these guys fairly well, I was a fan of Greg Kasavin from way back - gaze ye upon this 2002 act of worship in the strip for more - but I usually try to grab a bite to eat with them if they’re working a PAX.  I’ve given them a ton of unsolicited advice, for example:

- Pyre was really cool.  I think it’s cooler than most people had an opportunity to know.  It’s a little inside baseball - or, maybe, Basketball.  Wizard Basketball.  Greg did what he always does and wrote his fucking ass off.  He also worked to create a narrative that ennobles literacy, which hey.  Thumbs up emoji.  It was about this time I finished my second Tanqueray and Tonic.

- Now.  What you SHOULD do (sip) is to completely rework your combat system - by which I mean your imaginary sport that you’ve already invented and then made and finished - as a turn-based, tactical wargame.  This shit is back.  And I think it would expose this work to a broader audience and also I will commit to purchase one (1) copy.  IT’S BASICALLY DONE come on guys

- Actually, actually, listen.  Listen.  So you’re probably doing shit right now and you can’t reorient your entire vessel in accordance with my needs, vital though they may be, but how about this: contact Steamforged Games.  The art and models you have will put a physical game ahead of schedule, and they have a strong track record of gaming IP integrations and a vigorous approach to Kickstarter.  What’s more, their first outing - the one that put them on my radar - is Guild Ball, a literal sports wargame.

I also suggested that a Roguelike would be more or less the optimal marriage of their art, writing, and design conceits.  They got real weird looks on their faces.  Then a couple months later, Hades dropped on the new Epic Store.  Like I said: never wrong.

Of course, like every game, there’s a specific place you wanna play it.  And, thanks to my cohort’s efforts, that day is nigh.

(CW)TB out.

We were watching some high level tournament play for Smash, as one does, and while I’ve played tons of it I got the sense like I did with its predecessor: there is a whole other game here that I didn’t know about, and may not even be able to see.

It exists in a visual band I need a fanciful visor to perceive.  I’ve played it the same way you would Theatre Sports or something - Whose Line Is It Anyway, let’s say, against a backdrop of brutal slapstick.  Literal props, many of them hilarious, fall from the sky to spice up each scene.  That’s “my” Smash, for lack of a better term: it’s a party game I play with three other people.  It’s nothing like what the true aficionado plays: my win condition is not getting Fourth Place.  I have fun every time I play it and I always see something new.  Occasionally, very occasionally, I get a sounding of its true depth.  I like knowing its there but I’m afraid to explore it.

Nintendo does this often - it might even be the core of what they do.  They make approachable games whose first impression rests atop a subterranean complex of frightful sophistication.  Except Mario Party.  I don’t think that one works in this metaphor.  Mario Party is all fondant and no cake.  Splatoon and Arms constitute the House of Mario wading into established genres and, in at least one case, figuratively vandalizing them.  Gabriel is much more adept at finding the other game than I am, and occasionally he takes me along for the ride.

You might recall Waffles, Inc. - a behind the screen collaboration between myself and Dungeon Master To The Stars, Chris Perkins.  With it, we combined our Acquisitions Incorporated: The “C” Team game with Chris’ Dice, Camera, Action croo for hijinks aplenty.  During that fateful weekend, we also recorded a top secret, Alpha level clearance, two-part podcast called the Waffles, Inc. K’thrissmas Special.  It’s fucking bonkers, and you can get tender links to parts One and Two at the links I just formulated earlier in this sentence.  It’s one of my favorite things we’ve ever done, and we came up with all of it completely live.

(CW)TB out.

It’s quite true, unfortunately.  I stuffed my Switch full of rad shit to play, but then I ended up reading the Kill Team manual the whole way, dreaming of ways in which I could better serve our twisted Patriarch as five long hours evaporated.  Shortly thereafter, I left the row and also left the Goddamn Switch in there, which burns us.

I have a lot of technology that can execute and subsequently display entertainment software, but there’s no device that has accomplished what the Switch has in my family.  My teenager sulks with it.  My daughter and I play cooperative games on it.  When her friends come over, they take turns playing while everyone else strategizes or they collectively try, without success, to operate a restaurant.  And it’s the normalizing anchor from home I take with me on the trips I take once a month in this season.  I miss it more than I would miss an object.  I just thought about it, and winced.

A lot of things happened at PAX Unplugged, and one of the things that happened was that it was Mike Fehlauer’s last official show with us.

Figuring out what this company wanted to be when it grew up was a monumental undertaking, and he was part of that.  I mean, he’s just turning toward Child’s Play now and rocking it Dad Style, I’m sure I’ll see him all the time, but it just won’t be back to back with our swords out taking on all comers and it’s worth taking a moment to mark it.

The term we use for this is Boarding the White Ships.  It’s a Tolkien thing; after the great tribulation of bearing the ring, and the accomplishment of great deeds, you leave on a ship to your earned rest.  Among other things, Boarding the White Ships means you get to actually attend a PAX, without any of the weight associated with its manufacture.  I asked him if he had a good time at PAX Unplugged, and he said yeah.  He understands why so many people want to go to them, now.

(CW)TB out.