I remember when I first conceived the idea of stealing the idea of pin trading from Disney. I hoped that some day it would grow beyond just our Penny Arcade characters and cover all the things we love about games and comics and nerd shit. Never in my wildest imagination could I have foreseen someone at PAX West 2017 trading Garfield and Master Chief. This is seriously an incredible group of pins and I love that a few of them are for good causes. Speaking of which, I did draw the Take This pin. Gamers and mental health are very close to my heart, so I hope you’ll go pick up the pin and support the work they do. Also I still can’t believe we have a Mario pins! Here, check out all the pinsanity at PAX this year:

PARTNER PINS

Gang Beasts and GNOG Pins [Double Fine]
Available at the Double Fine booth #106

KRZ and Donut County Pins [Annapurna Interactive]
Available at the Annapurna Interacive booth #6908

Spoopbucks, Herk, Torg, Krog, and It Not Perfect System Pins [LoadingReadyRun]
Available at the LoadingReadyRun table in Bandland.

Love Has No Labels Pin [The Ad Council]
Available for $15 each at the Love Has No Labels booth in the Diversity Lounge. Finish the new Love Has No Labels mobile game, League of Extraordinary Humans, to see if you’re a lucky pin winner! The game is available for download on the Apple App Store and Google play.

Mixer Hype Pin [Mixer]
At Booth #425: Attendees must walk up to one of 2 stations in our booth where they can sign up or verify that they have a Mixer Account registered.  Once verified, they will be handed a pin.

FoxTrot Paige GG Pin [Bill Amend]
Available at the Bill Amend table in Bandland.

Chainsawsuit Logo Pin [Kris Straub]
Available at the Kris Straub table in Bandland.

Monster Hunter: World Pin [Capcom]
Receive one pin after completion of the Monster Hunter: World demo at Capcom booth #2109

The Witcher 10 Year Anniversary Geralt Pin [CD Projekt Red]
Available at the “Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of The Witcher” panel, Sunday 12pm - Main Theatre

Cookie Brigade Pin [Cookie Brigade]
Need to find CC Brigade and purchase a pin!

PAX AUS Roadshow Platypus Pin [PAX AUS Roadshow]
Available at the Surprise Attack booth #6312.

Dauntless Pin [Phoenix Labs]
Available at the Phoenix Labs booth #2335 - The demo will feature 3 different, 15-20 minute PvE battles. If someone wins the battle they get a pin.

Bullet Hero: Enter the Gungeon Pin [Devolver Digital]
Available at the Devolver booth #2201

Dr. Whiskers Pin [Dire Wolf Digital]
Available at the Dire Wolf Digital booth #7405

Gunny Pin [Samurai Punk]
Available for purchase at the Samurai Punk booth #6215

Annie Pin [Riot Games]
Available at the Riot Games room (6th Floor) #614, #613

TeeKO Cat Pin [Jackbox Games]
Available at the Jackbox Stage.

CW Action Figures Pin [Katie Rice]
Available at Katie Rice table in Bandland.

Molotov Pin [New Blood Interactive]
Available at the New Blood Interactive booth #7218 - Play the demo for a pin discount.

Queen of Smiles Pin [Ska Studios]
Available at the Ska Studios booth #6317

Psychomancer 2017 Pin [Take This]
Available at the Take This booth in the Diversity Lounge.

Meat Boy Pin [Team Meat]
Available at the Team Meat booth #835

Mimic Pin [ThinkGeek]
Available at the ThinkGeek booth #Skybridge-9

ToeJam & Earl Pin [Adult Swim]
Available at the Adult Swim booth #1933 - Play the ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove demo.

Twitch Arcade Pin [Twitch]
How to Get the Pin:
Grab a Twitch Pin Passport at Twitch Booth Front Desk at Booth 1909. Collect at least two stamps around the Twitch Booth. Redeem your Twitch Pinny Arcade Pin at the Twitch Booth Front Desk.

Ways to Collect Stamps:
Take a photo with the Glitch statue and share on social with the hashtag #TwitchatPAXWest. Meet your favorite streamer at our Meet & Greets. Play Shadowverse at the Cygames Game Zone. Check out new products from the Twitch Demo Zone and Twitch Prime.

Limited pins available per day, only while supplies last. One card per person, per day.

FarCry 5 Flag Pin [Ubisoft]
Available at the Ubisoft booth #605 - Reward for high score winners during contests or attendees will be able to get the pin at our panel at the Hydra Theatre that takes place on Saturday from 2:30PM - 3:30PM.

Owlboy Otus Pin [We Love Fine]
Available at the We Love Fine booth #7411

Star Realms Pin [White Wizard Games]
Available at the White Wizard Games booth #6702

Shovel Knight Pin [Yacht Club Games]
Available at the Yacht Club Games booth #433

Halo Legendary Crate Pin [Loot Crate]
Available at the Loot Crate booth #6516

Game Wizard Garfield Pin [Toonhound Studios]
Available at the Toonhound Studios booth #7609

SHOW PINS

PAX West 2017 Pin Set
Available at both PAX Merch Booths.

Limited Edition PAX West 2017 Pin
ONLY available at the PAX Merch Lite Booth.

Merch 5.0 Pin
Available at both PAX Merch Booths.

SUPER MARIO BROS.™ SINGLE PINS

Game Over Mario and Super Star Pins
Available, for the first time, at both PAX Merch Booths. Available on the Penny Arcade Store on September 13th, 2017.

PIN QUEST

Get your Pin Quest here.

-Gabe out

My oldest son Gabe is about to turn thirteen and already I can feel him emitting powerful teenager angst rays. One of the things he wanted for this momentous birthday was for me to run a D&D game for his group of friends. Well I ran it on Friday and I have to say that running D&D for twelve year olds is the absolute best thing ever. Especially when it’s everyone’s first game and they have no fucking idea what to expect.

I let them pick from some pre-generated characters and made them pick names. I know in Tycho’s game the kids are roleplaying as kids but at my table they are all typical D&D archetypes.  I ran them through a version of “The Changeling Baby” which is an adventure Tycho wrote a few years ago and left my wife and I in tears at the table. A woman stumbles into a tavern holding a baby and collapses on the groups table, a dagger in her back. I lay it all out for these kids and then the barkeep looks at them and angrily shouts “what’s all this then?” and I do shout it, and I stare at them and I am the fucking barkeep and they aren’t kids anymore.

Of course the bandits that show up an instant later are after the baby but why? It’s time to fight but someone has to hold this baby! They are in the thick of it now. They understand the roll to hit and the damage dice. They even drew a little blood from one of the bandits which got a cheer from the table. Then holy shit the bandits are werewolves! Now they are getting sliced up and all of a sudden 12 hit points isn’t a lot. Then, “I rolled a 20!” and a werewolf gets his head sliced clean off. “Dad, can I use mage hand to pick up one of the mugs and slam it into his head?” I fight back tears.  “Never call me Dad when I’m behind this screen…and make me an arcana roll.”

They decided to knock out one of the werewolves instead of killing him. They wanted some answers and the rogue has a “+4” to intimidation. They drag the unconscious werewolf into the cellar of the tavern and lock the door behind them. “I have a bell with me and I ring it right in his face to wake him up.” the rouge says. I smile for too long and start rolling dice . “You take 11 damage.” I tell him and it nearly kills Azmaran the half elf who likes to do card tricks. The fighter looks at me stunned and asks “Should we have tied him up?” then to his friends “We should have tied him up!” They start making plans but it’s too late. It’s time to roll for initiative.

They learn by passing the baby around to keep it safe that it takes on the features of whoever is holding it. When they finally knock him out again and tie him up they find themselves trying to get information out of a werewolf who has no reason to answer any of their questions. Nothing is working and then I hear my own son say “I’ll let you have the baby if you tell me why you want it so bad.” I ask him to roll to deceive the werewolf and he tells me it’s not a lie. Now the table talk starts and I’m loving it. The fighter ends up just beating the crap out of the wolf and only manages to get that they like to eat changelings. They barely survive the fight with this monster and stumble back upstairs where they investigate the dead woman. She has a map that shows the town and a spot in the woods nearby is circled. The cleric recognizes that clearing as housing a temple to Bahamut.

The rogue spots more werewolves sneaking towards the tavern and it’s time to go. They race out the back door and in the alley behind the tavern they scrap with another werewolf after their cleric doesn’t spot the sentry and trips into a pile of discarded fishing nets. This fight it brutal but the rogue manages to steal a horse and wagon after asking me “Can we split the party?”. They all nearly die but the rogue shows up with the wagon just in time and they take off into the woods. They find the temple and the priest who lives there. He explains that he and the other priests of Bahamut operate a sort of network that helps those in need and a group of adventurers able to take on a pack of werewolves would be most helpful to their cause. They agree to help him with a job. He produces a wooden box, “It’s just a simple delivery but the journey will not be easy. There are many who seek the contents of this box and they will do unspeakable things to get their hands on it.”

“Can we see what’s inside” they ask almost in unison.

I shrug, “The old man lifts the lid and nestled in a bed of straw is a perfect black dragon egg.” I give them a second to share wide eyed looks with huge grins and then I say “I think that’s where we’ll stop for tonight.”

And the crowd goes wild.

-Gabe out

It’s coming up fast - only an hour or so until noon PDT.  Drop some Qs in here!

(CW)TB

Sonic fandom is a robust and layered thing.

You need a source of energy, of psychic calories, to endure what they have endured.  The good memories generated by a Puyo Puyo reskin or the explosive Sonic Adventure are as subject to entropy as anything else.  There are some for whom it is a matter of identity, an anthro trojan horse driven deep into the consciousness of a nation.  Some are simply very, very fond of the color blue.

For Galabriel, it’s bound up in his pledge to an ancient order - he was a Servant of the Master System, and the Genesis inherited his fealty.  Among other things, I’m told that it was a period where you had to actively claim that Mario games were not good.  That…  That seems like a tough position.  But there’s a lot to like in the new Sonic Mania, and it’s on the Switch, which means you get to play it more than you generally would.  A bunch of work on the game was also done by the fuckin’ fan community.  Shit’s artisinal.

I’m gonna break down the latest session of my weekend D&D game I run for America’s youth, as things got novel fairly quickly, but D&D seems to suffuse everything I do now.  Prepare for the PAX West game of Acquisitions Incorporated with the two and a half hour podcast “Enter The Trash Witch” featuring Holly Conrad!  As if that weren’t enough, first episode of the new “C” Team arc “Anchors Aweigh” just started - it’s on Twitch, podcast, to say nothing of the hallowed video halls of Yorab Tub:

(CW)TB out.

Hey!  I had a couple requests for this on the Twitch channel, and here it is if you have any questions.  We’ve been putting out a lot of new work lately, on various channels, so it’s worth getting this in front of you if you’re curious about one or more of our nefarious tendrils.

(CW)TB