PAX Unplugged is Here!
It’s PAX!
Some quick links before we begin:
Instagram where I’ll post live updates.
I’ll be posting my best discoveries here as we go, specifically oriented towards gaming with children.
Map for Entering the Convention Center
This is the official map for entering the venue.
Day 1: Friday
Getting to PAX at 10 am is a good game for those who (1) want to be in an early event or (2) have a high tolerance for lines. This is the building you want, though I am told other portals open at 11am.
Breakfast at Reading Terminal Market, which provides the highest density of options in a prime location at the price of everyone at PAX knows it. Expect every line to be 10 people long between 9 and 10 am. I did notice quite a fall off of traffic at 10. My kids needed a pre-breakfast snack (which I had prepared, eager not to repeat the sins of my youth.) The donut lines at Beiler’s goes quick if you need immediate sugar and coffee. I had a guy that looked and sounded like a leaner, hungrier Christopher Walken ask me why all these nerds were in town, and then was pleased with the answer, as he was meeting some old train friends of his, for though he was retired he still got together to talk about trains with his friends. So he gets it.
The lines were looooooooong. As we were queuing to enter the building, and the line had already wrapped around the building and doubled back, we found an angel. It might have been the sight of two children in the cold, or more likely sheer dumb luck, but we were the chosen ones to start a new line and walked past the escalators and onto the stairs (or elevator as it was for us and the stroller.) Thank you the Enforcer, or as we called him, the kilted angel.
Because I missed out on one limited edition pen one year, and this mistake haunts me to this day, I did brave the Merch Lite line first thing, which was a mistake as it took an hour and I don’t even think they ran out of pens. Which honestly, if you like pins, go get this one. It moves.
The game my oldest talked about was “Giant Boop”, which was fun to play, and the designer of the game gave him a pin. (PAX Pro Tip: don’t take a kid to PAX just to get the free stuff. I mean, I always appreciate the generosity of the vendors, but it’s a very expensive way to get a handful of knickknacks.) Catan Starfarers was another big hit: you play Catan and you build a spaceship at the same time. What’s not to love?
Day 1 ended with a minimum of tears: mostly whining on the way back to the hotel because everyone was tired. Of course, when we got into the room, they just wanted to stay awake and play. But then again, didn’t we all?
Day 2: Saturday
Woof. This was near overwhelming, but we made it with probably less than five minutes total of crying, and most of that was the 5 year old not wanting to leave, and the 1 year old not leaving soon enough. So…
Today was more playing, now that we got our bearings. Top line: Loopin’ Louie, you know, the game from the 90’s where a manic in an airplane knocks chickens off the roof of a barn, is still the best game at PAX, per a 5 year old child. We tried Lorcana, which goes well if someone can read. People still overwhelm me with how much kindness they show a child. And we learned that it’s probably best to play games in the hallways outside the hall, just to give the kids room to literally roll around on the carpet.
Much thanks to the designer of Mission to Planet Hexx, who spent quite a bit of time helping a 5 year old learn to play a game that the 5 year old couldn’t read. And, it also happens to be a great game.
Day 3: Sunday
Ok. So this is better.
I don’t think anyone would say that the Sunday crowd was “slim” by any imagination, but it was manageable. We actually got to try game demos, we were pretty much able to move from one thing to another (maybe not exactly what we wanted, but something) without a huge line, or feeling like your two kids bouncing around were going to cause some sort of domino effect mass destruction.
The highlight games for the day: Loopin Louie (tournament!), Crokinole, Minecraft Heroes of the Village, and Pirate Blast Battle for Monkey Island. The tournament was fun and unexpected: we got on a waitlist, and he didn’t make it to the second round, but was such a good sport about it, cheering for the winners and going over to say “good game” the person who knocked him out.
This felt more like the PAX that we enjoyed from previous years, and probably a lesson learned. As this convention gets bigger and busier, it’s going to be harder to carve out our space. I think that next year, we might cut Saturday short. I think I would have rather got a few games and played in the hotel lobby than try to fight the crowds.
