Rolling Through PAX Unplugged: Recapping the Excitement, Innovation, and Community

Couldn't make it to PAX Unplugged? No worries! Join us on a whirlwind recap of one of the greatest tabletop gaming conventions of the year. We take you through the highs and lows, the excitement and the inspiration, from Matt Mercer's unexpected yet delightful keynote to the amazing variety of games and vendors we encountered. Highlighting the spectacular resin dice designs from Long Dog Dice and the innovative "Session Zero System" by Mythic Grove Productions, we share our experiences and insights from the convention. Plus, get an earful from our guest, Catherine, about her dice shopping adventure and her thoughts on the event.

PAX Unplugged was not just about games, but also a celebration of community and shared passion for tabletop gaming. We ventured through the diverse areas of the convention center, from the humbling game library to the inspiring paint and take section, and were overwhelmed by the camaraderie and enthusiasm. The only downside? Not having enough time to enjoy all the incredible panels and activities! Relive the thrill with us and share our frustration with the ticking clock as we hurried from one exciting event to the other.

Closing this epic journey, we dive into the realm of tabletop gaming, sharing our recommendations for the best dice, miniatures, and gaming supplies - just in time for the holiday season. Whether you are a seasoned gamer or a newcomer, you'll find our guide helpful for enriching your gaming experience. Also, don't forget to join our discord community for more discussion and fun. As we bid adieu, we extend our warmest holiday wishes to you. May your dice roll high and your adventures be legendary. Happy gaming!

Links

Pirates Dragons Treasure - https://www.piratesdragonstreasure.com/

Varia - https://www.playvaria.com/

Dice Dungeons - https://dicedungeons.com/

Dice Dungeons Quest Decks - https://dicedungeons.com/collections/quest-decks

Limithron - https://www.limithron.com/

Pocket Bard - https://www.pocketbard.app/

Mythic Grove Productions - https://www.mythicgroveproductions.com/

Collapsible Stool - https://amzn.to/48cbRl9

Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:14

Welcome, lords, ladies and everyone in between, to another fantastic episode of Legends, Loot and Lore. Joining me today in the co-host chair is my wonderful wife, Catherine. Welcome, Thank you, so glad to have you here. Today we are going to be recapping our fantastic weekend at PAX Unplugged, the tabletop gaming extravaganza that it is from the Philadelphia Convention Center last weekend. We were going to talk about all the things we got to see and enjoy and talk about some fun things that we were able to do while we were down there and kind of cover the events. So we're going to recap that for you today. So this was not your typical convention, so I would both can call. I'd call both of us nerdy or geeky, but you're not necessarily. You didn't grow up playing tabletop games. This was not necessarily your niche of a convention.

Speaker 2: 2:26

Yeah, like when we got married, I was really surprised to see how many games you have, because I think I played Candyland as a kid and maybe Monopoly, but like the first thing my family did was not reach for a board game.

Speaker 1: 2:42

Yeah, so we were. My father was not a big board gamer You'd have to twist his arm to get him to play a game but the rest of us really enjoyed board gaming, so this was a lot of fun for me. So there was a lot of heavy heaviness on the D&D during packs unplugged. But there was so many other games, a lot of new games out there, a lot of Kickstarter campaigns launching and things like that so there was a lot to it that I was very excited about. So let's talk about this. This was a three day weekend. We made it a two day weekend. We kind of. I think we were pretty exhausted after two days of walking in the convention floor. So we're going to recap everything that we saw. Starting with day one, friday at noon, really really kicking off the entire weekend was story time with Matt Mercer.

Speaker 2: 3:49

Yep, which I went to under duress but ended up enjoying.

Speaker 1: 3:53

Tell us. So why were you not looking? Why weren't you looking forward to an hour of Matt Mercer talking?

Speaker 2: 4:06

I mean, I think I'm not the biggest D&D fan, so I've played. Obviously I've DM'd I prefer a one shot to anything else yes, and I've obviously seen and listened to critical role, but it's just not. It's not my thing, it's your thing, which is fine, but I just didn't know what his keynote was going to end up being Right. And there is nothing that makes me more uncomfortable than when they set up microphones during a panel and have people in the audience ask awkward questions.

Speaker 1: 4:44

So that's always fun. The awkward audience questions.

Speaker 2: 4:48

Thankfully the questions had been sent in advance and were kind of curated, so it wasn't horrifying for me. But his actual presentation I thought was pretty interesting. I he didn't lean as far into D&D as I thought he would, right, he more talked about how gaming kind of brings the nerdy people among us together and kind of becomes this I can't even think of the word I'm looking for kind of becomes this like I guess for lack of a better word bonding opportunity, right. And throughout it he was also posting photos that folks from the critical role cast were sending and they were all pretty funny. So that was entertaining.

Speaker 1: 5:35

Yes, indeed, and according according to Matt Mercer, this was his first PowerPoint that he had put together, so kudos to him.

Speaker 2: 5:45

I feel like if that's true, then he did not put that PowerPoint together, because that was a very well done PowerPoint. That was not a new B PowerPoint.

Speaker 1: 5:55

Well, maybe, maybe that's just it. Maybe because it was his first PowerPoint, he didn't have all the bad habits that many PowerPoint users have developed over the years.

Speaker 2: 6:05

I don't know. There was some like advanced PowerPointing happening. Maybe he had a little help, I don't know.

Speaker 1: 6:11

I suspect the story time with Matt Mercer I thought was really good. It really told it really was. It really was a story. It was him telling his story from from growing up, you know from from a very young age being being artistic, you know, drawing the video games that that he played. He talked about a lot of the video games that influenced him over his life, all the games that that he had he had been kind of playing. So it was a really nice history of kind of the history and background of Matt Mercer, more so than talking for an hour about D&D or critical, critical role, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 6:50

I think that. I think that's why I found it more interesting than I thought I was going to, right, because it was really more about him and like he showed a lot of his artwork and the evolution of his artwork oh yeah, that was cute and talked about some of the voiceover work he's done, but really talked about how one of the things that stood out to me was that he talked about how if he DM'd a game for you as he was growing up, it meant that you were like really important to him. Right, that was how he showed his love, which I thought was very sweet.

Speaker 1: 7:23

I just really liked that, that the hour was more about you know, matt Mercer the person, then Matt Mercer the DM or or whatever it might be, the voiceover artist. It was really kind of really the full. It was nice kind of history of Matt Mercer in in one hour. So I thought it was really. It was really fun.

Speaker 2: 7:44

Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 7:46

It was cool to see some of his influences, some of the, like I said, the games and different things like anime that's influenced him. So a lot of his cosplay. He showed a lot of pictures of him growing up doing cosplay, which was a lot of fun.

Speaker 2: 8:01

Impressive cosplay actually Very impressive cosplay.

Speaker 1: 8:03

Yeah, I was, I was. I was pleasantly surprised. I didn't. I mean, I know how much they are into it now, but even years ago he was, he was really well into it.

Speaker 2: 8:16

Got to start somewhere.

Speaker 1: 8:17

Yes, yes, he do. All right. So that was our first, I mean because we got to. We got to PAX at about 10 am, a little after 10, I think.

Speaker 2: 8:30

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 8:31

And the. The line was wrapped around the building and we finally got inside, got right into the got, got got my credentials, got right into the line for the Matt Mercer story time and then after that we, we kind of hit the floor and met up with our friend James Yep and started to see everything that there was to see and a couple of the yes.

Speaker 2: 8:57

And you and James started to buy everything that there was to buy.

Speaker 1: 9:02

Okay, so maybe, maybe that's true.

Speaker 2: 9:04

Bad influences on one another.

Speaker 1: 9:07

Yes, very bad influence. We enable each other to to to buy many dice and other game equipment and things like that. So yep, guilty as charged. So some of the some of the things that we got to see were were demos of not just new games but existing games and and things like that. So one of the really interesting games that I saw during our time there was a game called Pirates, dragon's Treasure and this is this is by Darkport Games. Now, this game I thought was really interesting. You and James were kind of standing in the background as I was watching the, the, the demo of it.

Speaker 2: 9:52

Not for the whole thing though.

Speaker 1: 9:54

Not for the whole. Oh, no, no, no you came up kind of late.

Speaker 1: 9:56

You came up kind of late, so so, interestingly enough. So Pirate's Dragons Treasure is a card game for I think three to six players is what they say, and really what you do is you, out of the cards, you have a, you are a pirate, so you pick which pirate you are going to be and then throughout the game, you have to assemble a crew and your crew has they've got their own abilities, so they add things to it. You also have to equip a ship and you build your ship out so you get the basic ship. You get some additional capabilities to that. I think it's about two to three cards that you use to build that ship. And throughout all this, throughout kind of the building of your crew and ship, you're bartering and interacting with the other players at the table. They encourage you to cheat. There are consequences if you do get caught cheating, but it's a lot of fun and ultimately, what you at some point, what you do, once you have your crew and you, the morale of the crew is high. You've got your ship assembled, you can go after and try to defeat the dragon and you, based on the overall capabilities of your ship, you have X number of health to try to attack the dragon and then you go into the dragon attack and hopefully you defeat it, and that's kind of. The ultimate goal of the game is to one of you has to try to ultimately defeat the dragon while trying to prevent your other pirates from doing the same. So it was a lot of fun. It's really a high speed game. I think they say it's about like a 30 minute play time, so for like for any particular round, which is which is really quick, so it's not a huge investment of of time, which is nice. It was really easy to to pick up and understand. I think there, I think one of my favorite things was there's one of the curse cards in the game. You can curse one of your opponents with with scurvy and the the only way to defeat, to overcome the scurvy curse is you actually have to somewhere in the physical, wherever you are playing is, is locate a piece of fruit. So there, there's no fruit card that you that you acquire, you actually have to go find a piece of live fruit to to avoid getting getting scurvy, which I thought was pretty pretty fun. So it's there, there's a whole, it's. It's a it's it's got a couple of different, different ways of, of differences. Then then your typical card game that I thought were a lot of fun, that that made it unique and stood out to me. But yeah, so. So pirates, dragons, treasure, was was tremendous amount of fun. Like I said, super easy to pick up, not very complicated, single deck of cards. So there there's different types of cards that and you, you play off of those and, based on how much coin you have, determines how, how many or which upgrade you can buy for your, your ship, etc. So it's a lot of fun, but check that out, a lot of fun.

Speaker 1: 13:49

The other game that we saw that I actually sat down for, a full scale kind of demo of the game, was a game called varia, and varia is by guild house games, similar, similar in the same realm as, like magic, the gathering, it's. It's a. It's a, it's a deck building game. So you have similar to D&D. There are different classes of of of character that you can play. So they've got a host of a host of classes that you can choose from. Most recently I think they came out with samurai and ninja. Are are two of the new ones, but there there's a lot of a lot of fun to it.

Speaker 1: 14:39

It's. It's really a one on one game. You, you've got your character, you've got some, some core weapons that that you could you can reuse round after round and and you really build out your attack on your opponent through your, through the deck of cards. So you draw six, you, you, you plan out your attack and then they plan out their response to to your attack, whether that's defense or or attacking back, whatever that may be. They, they plan on it out, and then there there's some dice rolling components to it as well. So there's D4s and D6s that you use to determine if your attack hits, and then the, the D4s are really to determine if the attack hits. D6s are are what they use for rolling how much. There's like a base amount of damage that you do, and then you roll the D6 on top of that to see what the total damage is that that you inflict on your, your opponent, that way.

Speaker 1: 15:43

But it was, it was a lot of fun to play, definitely more complex than than Pirates, dragons and Treasure, but I I think if you're, if you're anywhere familiar with Magic, the Gathering or any of those other games, you'd probably pick this one up really quickly Again. It was just, it was just a tremendous amount of fun to play. A lot of strategy involved in trying to to to kind of outwit your opponent, because there there are always sorts of defenses that they can they can put out there to negate your attacks. So you have no idea what they're going to do until you put your attack down. So there, there's a lot of fun play to it and, again, really enjoyable. I mean I was.

Speaker 1: 16:30

I went through a one hour long demo of of the game and felt pretty confident that I could reasonably play it after, after learning to play for for an hour. But I would. I would definitely like to start playing that game with with somebody. So I bought their season one set of classes. They have a season two set of classes that have come out and now they're now they're introducing them kind of in these pairs after that as well. So there there's additional classes that have been released. But it is it's it's a really cool game, something, something different. You know I thought I loved I like I'm again coming from D&D and and rolling the dice. I am, I'm always a fan of bringing dice into a, even a card playing game. So that was, that was a lot. That was pretty cool. What was your thought? Cause you were, you were filming, so I know it's hard to hear kind of in there, but but is there anything you picked up on the game when you were, when you were watching?

Speaker 2: 17:32

I think it's part of why I just am not in love with tabletop games. It looked really complicated, did it really. From where I was standing, I mean, I was literally videoing. I couldn't hear a word that was happening, but it looked interesting. But it did look like there were just a lot of pieces to it, like put this card down, roll the die, and now you do this and this is over here, and you were like what was the spinny thing? Was that reducing your hit points, or whatever?

Speaker 2: 18:00

The spinny thing you each had a thing, that you turned a dial on the side.

Speaker 1: 18:04

That was. That was tracking our health. So you start with 30 health and and as you, as you battle, you lose health. So that was, that was just a tracker you could. You could literally track your HP on on a piece of paper. It's just a matter of how you that's. That's the method they had for for tracking HP.

Speaker 2: 18:26

Sure Again. I don't know what was going on. I was literally just you know, filming and trying to hold the camera steady.

Speaker 1: 18:36

Well, thank you. Thank you for doing that.

Speaker 2: 18:39

It was.

Speaker 1: 18:40

It was a long session to to film, so I, I, I again. Vario was. It was a really fun game for me. I liked the strategy part of it I really liked. There was one card that I could play where I could actually you could repeat the action multiple times. So you could repeat the same attack as many times as you wanted to. So I repeated like the same attack four times. However, my opponent then, reacting to that, had a I don't know if it was a counter spell or a counter attack that negated all of that action. So it was really interesting when you think you're like okay, I want to do this great maneuver and really inflict a lot of damage, and they're like not so fast. So that's always fun. It reminded me a lot of the combat of D&D, which is my world, so that's why I really enjoyed the game.

Speaker 2: 19:41

And obviously I think her name was Kim that you were playing with.

Speaker 1: 19:44

Yes, Kim.

Speaker 2: 19:45

Kim was extremely animated, which I did enjoy, since I was videoing. She would actually mime, like you call it, pulling back the bow.

Speaker 1: 19:57

Bow and arrow.

Speaker 2: 19:58

Yeah, and that was cool. Like she obviously very much enjoys the game, it isn't just a like demo thing for her.

Speaker 1: 20:07

No, she was. She was definitely definitely into the game. She's known the creators of the game for some time, so she's pretty familiar with the game, which is cool. It was nice to have somebody demoing the game that was into it and really enjoyed playing it.

Speaker 2: 20:27

Yeah, I mean, and I certainly took that away from it.

Speaker 1: 20:30

Yes, All right. So those are the two main demos that I really spent a lot of time going over. Oh, on our on our weekend, there was lots of other things that we did, mainly just checking out all the different vendors, checking out a lot of the new games that were out there there was. There was so much cool stuff, but again, our world is mostly D&D, so that's that's a lot of what we focused on, and one of the first places we stopped was one of my favorite vendors for all things D&D, mainly dice, and that is dice dungeons out of out of Baltimore, Maryland, and I didn't realize they were out of Baltimore.

Speaker 1: 21:19

They're out of Baltimore.

Speaker 2: 21:20

I like Baltimore.

Speaker 1: 21:22

But, but I'm not pronouncing it correctly Baltimore, there you go, get it right.

Speaker 2: 21:29

So I'm saying oh, you should get it right.

Speaker 1: 21:32

I should get it right, not you, don't give me that look. So yeah, so dice dungeons. And, and for once, I walked away from dice dungeons table without buying a set of dice. Don't ask me how that happened. However, you were not. You were not as lucky.

Speaker 2: 21:50

Well, I mean, if I'm going to DM this campaign, I need my own set of dice.

Speaker 1: 21:56

Yes, so again for for all of our listeners, when we do the, the actual play of the characters that we have created, catherine has agreed to be our, our DM for for that campaign. We're doing, um, fan Delver and below the Shattered Obelisk, Yep. So. So Catherine needed some dice for for her DMing of that of that campaign. And, and your favorite color is Red. And what color dice did you buy? Red, oh, of course you did, and a very pretty set of dice.

Speaker 2: 22:33

So so, Is that fizzy? What's?

Speaker 1: 22:52

happening. He's playing with something. Hey what you got.

Speaker 2: 23:02

What do you have, sir, what you got?

Speaker 1: 23:06

What's that? What do you got? Oh, look at that. What is it? That is a trunk. Geez dude.

Speaker 2: 23:13

I'm gluing those things down.

Speaker 1: 23:14

What is this? I don't know what that is that a hot box?

Speaker 2: 23:19

Probably A hot box, dude, you gotta stop. How does he even get to that?

Speaker 1: 23:26

He stands up on here, yeah, and he puts his front paws up here and knocks stuff down and knocks everything down and then he goes. Oh, he's so handsome.

Speaker 2: 23:34

He's a good boy. Where were we? We were talking about my dice, we were talking about Finn Delver, and oh. So he said your favorite color is red, correct. The dice you bought were red, so Correct.

Speaker 1: 23:52

Dice Dungeons did a Kickstarter campaign it's been quite a few years ago now.

Speaker 1: 24:00

At this point, they did a Kickstarter for Vegetable Loan. They did a Kickstarter for Sea Glass Dice, which are basically frosted glass dice. The first one was a frosted glass dice. These were. These are extremely beautiful dice. I originally backed the Kickstarter campaign. I got a green set of Sea Glass dice and so, catherine, walking around their table we had already talked about it because I had mentioned them they have they have red Sea Glass dice and so you picked up a set of of those for DMing Finn Delver, correct.

Speaker 2: 24:50

Yeah, I like red.

Speaker 1: 24:52

You like red, so check.

Speaker 2: 24:55

And I like dice with a little bit of heft to them. Yes, like I like weight to my dice.

Speaker 1: 24:59

Yes, the glass dice have a nice, nice weight to them. They're not too heavy, Like like those copper dice that I have. Those are, or even the stone dice are very heavy. Even the stone dice are very heavy, yeah, but the glass are. The glass are nice. They got a nice, nice enough weight to them, but they're not not too heavy. Yeah, Just for everyone out there, now we, we, we, we have a new guest on the podcast and that is DD AKA Daredevil.

Speaker 2: 25:27

Yep, she has arrived.

Speaker 1: 25:31

She was. She was very needy, so so we brought her in here. Um, yeah, so so the Sea Glass dice have a nice, nice weight to them. So they're red, yes, they, they have a nice weight to them. What else, what else? Is there anything else about them that you really liked? What's what stood out about this set?

Speaker 2: 25:52

It's just really nice looking. I mean they're just a a nice red kind of hefty set of dice.

Speaker 1: 26:00

The numbering on them is really nice, easy to read yeah.

Speaker 2: 26:03

Oh yeah, cause there's one set I was looking at you couldn't even see the numbers, right, yeah, no, this will, I think it'll do nicely, yeah.

Speaker 1: 26:11

Dice Dice Dungeons does a really nice, nice job with their, with their dice. I'm always impressed by their, by their work. They are they just wrapped up a Kickstarter campaign for their Speak Easy dice, or what they're, what they're calling them, Uh, Liquid Core dice, all named for various types of cocktails. There's there's gin, there's a tequila sunrise, there's a dark and stormy. They got, they've got all sorts of ones. I don't think those are coming out until the the fall, if I recall correctly, though.

Speaker 2: 26:47

I do really like the Liquid Core dice, but again, they're usually they're so cool.

Speaker 1: 26:51

They're usually acrylics of their life and they're really light yeah.

Speaker 2: 26:55

Also, I roll really badly with them, Do you really?

Speaker 1: 26:58

Yeah, I don't know you you were, you rolled badly all weekend.

Speaker 2: 27:04

Except for the sea glass. Except for the sea glass, that is very true.

Speaker 1: 27:08

So we, we, we tested all sorts of dice over the entire weekend and Catherine kept rolling them to test them and consistently rolled poorly, but again they were. They were all, they were all like.

Speaker 2: 27:23

A lot of acrylic, yeah, yeah. So, and then James, james's whole thing was if you roll a nat 20, you have to buy them Right.

Speaker 1: 27:35

They had 20 with the sea glass, so See that it was, it was destined, it was fate Mentioned to be yes, indeed, so that was. That was what you bought at Dice Dungeons. Yes, I bought at Dice Dungeons another one of their quest decks. So they have these, these decks of cards, what they call quest decks different themes. So if you are looking to kind of quickly send, you're looking for quick ideas on sending your party on side quests, this is, this is the way to go. These are, these are perfect companions to your, your campaign. This time I picked up partners in crime and I cannot wait to to try this one out. I'm actually I actually haven't even opened this yet, so let me, let me pop this open. My, my cat is eagerly anticipating what I'm about to do here. I don't know why.

Speaker 2: 28:40

He probably likes the noise.

Speaker 1: 28:42

He does like that noise with the plastic.

Speaker 2: 28:43

Crinkly.

Speaker 1: 28:43

Yeah, all right. So we've got our quest deck here. Make sure you get them all out. Oh, there we go. Those are the blank. They give you some blank cards as well so you can create your own side quests. So this one, yes, this one is the, like I said, partners in crime. So we've got quests of. Our collections. This month have been low. We need to remind this town why they pay protection. Ooh, sounds like fun. And let's see what else do we got? I'm just going to pick some cards from random here. You want to pick one? Yeah, pick a card, any card. Okay, that one, that one, I'm allowed to show you that one.

Speaker 2: 29:31

Don't show you the card, don't show me the card Just read it to me. The Gala next week has some amazing pieces that I'd like to liberate. Ooh, my brother is in charge of moving some statues. In Think you got what it takes to stand as still as a statue.

Speaker 1: 29:48

Interesting. Didi is smacking her tail on the Sorry. On the microphone.

Speaker 2: 29:56

I mean, I'm trying to control my shoulder cat. Yes, okay, pick another one Pick another card Get in there. A friend of the guild has found herself in the local prison. She'll be shipped to a more secure location in a week's time, so I need a crew to earn her freedom.

Speaker 1: 30:15

Ooh, that's a, I'm going to keep that one on top because that sounds really good. So yeah, so that is just a quick example of some of the things that come in the quest decks. I've got three others. At New York Comic Con I bought coastal threats because I'm working on that spell jammer, kind of on the high seas homebrew. I've got four of the crown and far flung journeys and there's a whole bunch more than just that. So they've got they've got them all kind of themed out and some really cool things.

Speaker 1: 30:53

So there's one that's just like um side quest for a job board. So if they're in a town, maybe they're not so willing to leave the town. This is a way to kind of get them out and on adventure and things like that. So Dice Dungeons quest decks are another really super cool item to pick up when you're looking for some ideas for your campaigns. If they're again, if they're kind of stuck in one place and you need them to go out and do things, that's one way to do it. If you're, maybe the whole party's not there and you're just looking to fill in time another great reason why you might wanna use like some of the quest decks. So check out their website and we'll put all of these links in the show notes to all the things that we're talking about so you can check them out. Other dice that we got, since we're on the topic of dice yes, Misty mountain gaming.

Speaker 1: 31:59

Misty mountain gaming. So I got myself a set of dice. Where did I put them? There they are. So, first things first, I bought a. Actually, let's go even beyond that. So in my Wednesday campaign I am playing a tiefling warlock whose patron is an undead Egyptian god. So that's the backstory to that. When I was at I think it was the Norse foundry booth at Pax Unplugged they had this really cool dice storage coffin thing and the whole front of it is Egyptian hieroglyphics and it's super cool. So I thought that would be a perfect thing to put a set of dice in for my warlock Silas bloodbane. I'm like, why not? And then I found an excellent set of dice. Go figure, at Misty mountain gaming.

Speaker 1: 33:08

They refer to them as lava glass. It's kind of like internally like shattered glass and these are, it almost looks like amber. It's kind of what they look like. They got that orangeish yellow glow to them, but they're glass dice and they are absolutely beautiful. They are some of the coolest looking dice that I've seen, very unique. I haven't seen anything like this at any of the vendors that I've looked at online, at cons and things like that. So I think that is going to, since it's kind of a infernal history to those dice. I think I'm gonna use these dice for my Silas bloodbane character in that coffin with the Egyptian hieroglyphics. I think that's what I'm gonna use Now. What did you happen to? I mean, I'm the one that bought them, but what dice did you get from Misty mountain gaming?

Speaker 2: 34:08

They are a set of obsidian dice with red numbering on them. Yes, and it's some pretty like intricate numbering. The details are really nice on that set. I'm actually looking at a picture of them right now. Yeah, they're really pretty.

Speaker 1: 34:29

Well, because you had, you had pointed them out when we were walking around the Misty mountain. Gaming had a really large booth.

Speaker 2: 34:38

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 34:39

And at one corner you're like ooh, look at those.

Speaker 2: 34:41

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 34:42

And then, when I was purchasing my dice the lava glass they asked are you sure there's nothing else that you want? And I'm like you had these black dice with red lettering and there was a. The same set was right in front of me. So they're like oh, you mean those? I'm like those are the ones. So I got those for you cause I knew you would enjoy them.

Speaker 2: 35:05

Yeah, and again our nice and weighty weighty dice, that obsidian glass, glass dice.

Speaker 1: 35:13

So that'll be, that'll be a nice set to to roll with. And then another, another new vendor, that that I've been following on TikTok for some time and watching her make dice, which is which is always exciting. I love, I love the process of dice making, so it's always fun to watch her account Long dog dice and they are absolutely beautiful, resin, resin dice. And I mean it's just I don't know, her designs are really, really beautiful.

Speaker 2: 35:53

They are.

Speaker 1: 35:55

I really like those.

Speaker 2: 35:57

Plus she has two doshens and they're really cute.

Speaker 1: 36:01

Oh, the dice, the dogs that are the inspiration for the name long dog dice are, are very cute. But I I knew she was. I knew she was there cause she had posted about it on on TikTok. But she was. She was using some space in somebody else's booth and so we stopped by and she had an incredible set of dice that James and I both were kind of kind of gravitated toward. So we actually both got the same set of of dice.

Speaker 1: 36:38

I wanted it with silver lettering. There were. She had two set. Well, she had one set with silver lettering and that's what James bought. I also wanted the silver lettering and so she had a set with white lettering that she was going to remove the inking from and reink them in silver. But there's there's a couple different, couple things different about that set. It's not your traditional D12 shape. It's like a I'm just hexagonal, but the but the shape of the D12 is different, and and so is the D4 in in this set. So she gave me a couple of options on the D4 to choose from and I chose something a little bit different than your typical kind of triangle D4. So I went with. I went with something a little unique for for that set, so I'm I'm looking forward to to that Catherine's on their site as we speak.

Speaker 2: 37:45

I am.

Speaker 1: 37:46

Are you shopping? No, oh darn.

Speaker 2: 37:48

I have two sets now. That's more than.

Speaker 1: 37:50

I meant for me.

Speaker 2: 37:51

Oh no.

Speaker 1: 37:53

Not that I need another set of dice.

Speaker 2: 37:55

Seriously, you go, you go beyond dice goblin.

Speaker 1: 38:01

Beyond dice goblin.

Speaker 2: 38:02

Yeah, what's the next level? Dice hoarder, this is dice dragon. I can't I guess.

Speaker 1: 38:07

I don't know what the next one is. It's bad, it's really bad.

Speaker 2: 38:13

I doubt you're the worst.

Speaker 1: 38:15

Probably not. Probably not, but there's, I have quite a few sets of dice.

Speaker 2: 38:19

Yeah, you do.

Speaker 1: 38:20

But but definitely check out, check her out on on TikTok Longdog Dice she's. She's a tremendous creator of of resin dice beautiful designs. There's probably at least two more that I would have picked up, cause there was that like that time travel one. It was like like a bluish purple with like the green numbering on it, Like the bright green numbering, which was super cool.

Speaker 2: 38:46

Oh yeah, that was cool.

Speaker 1: 38:47

Yeah, that was a really cool set, so there's definitely other stuff that I would. I would buy if given the chance.

Speaker 2: 38:54

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 38:55

Just saying, my goodness, what else? What else was there there was? Was there? Was there any other? No, though, that was all the dice that we bought, right.

Speaker 2: 39:05

Yes.

Speaker 1: 39:05

Yeah. So there was. It was other things that that we saw there, that that I that I was checking out. Another vendor that I thought was really cool was a company called Mythic Grove Productions, and the guy by the name of Gabe Hicks has developed what he calls the session zero system. This is something you, if you're, if you if you have issues or you're working with new players, this is a great system for helping them kind of create, not not so much a backstory, but create kind of the connections between the characters in the party. So create a little bit of backstory, create a reason for why they're doing what they're doing. But it's it's a really simple system. It's really kind of like a three step system for creating this background and and finding out how these different characters are are connected to each other. He also wrote a book called A Kids Guide to Tabletop RPGs, which I thought was really interesting, and it's not just about Dungeons and Dragons, it's about about all sorts of tabletop RPGs, and at one point in the book he he creates kind of a flow chart of like what are you into all the different things that that you might be interested in, and recommends different types of tabletop RPGs for you to to explore with your kids. So it's a really great resource, definitely worth checking out. I'm hoping to hoping to have Gabe on the podcast shortly. I reached out to him when I was there and he said he'd be interested, so I'm I'm really hoping he's going to be willing to to be on the podcast.

Speaker 1: 40:54

So another really cool vendor that I saw was one called Limithron, which I'm hoping I'm pronouncing that correctly. They are a creator, publisher of an RPG that is pirate themed zombies. Nautical looks really, really cool. But what really caught my eye for me again being the D&D player, was they've got a rule supplement for fifth edition for nautical combat and I thought this was really tremendously helpful, especially for me working on the spell jammer homebrew that I'm working on. The, the adventuring party is going to spend a lot of the first part of the campaign on a single planet as a sailing ship, and I thought this would be perfect for me to try to build some combat adventures in and really make it as realistic as possible, cause the ship takes damage and and how, what are the, what are the ranges on the cannons and things like that, and what type of ammunition do they use. So there's there's a lot of great detail in this, the supplement that that I find useful for me for my campaign and if you're doing anything nautically themed with with a ship. This is the. This is something you might really want to look at picking up and it wasn't that. It really wasn't that expensive, but I think it was like 15 bucks for for the supplement. But but that's from Limitthron.

Speaker 1: 42:13

They've got a whole Patreon account where you can you can support them. They've got tons of of maps and map grids for for different nautical themes, underwater adventures, different types of boats. They've got all sorts of maps for you and drawings that you can use in your campaign. So definitely check them out, support them. They would be a great resource. Again, anything to do on a boat. That's gonna be my first resource for checking that out.

Speaker 1: 42:49

The last vendor that I want to mention that we took a look at was there's a vendor and a software company called Pocket Bard and they have an iOS, android app and eventually to become a desktop app as well, really for doing for creating sound effects and environmental sounds for your games, and one of the really cool things that I liked about it was you can change the intensity of the different sound effects with a slider right within the app. So if you're like cause they were, they were talking about like the rain, so you're outdoors in the rain so you've got the intensity all the way up that the rain is coming down, you really hear it. Maybe you step indoors you can slide the intensity all the way down so you still hear kind of this rain in the background, cause you're indoors but it's still raining outside, so you still kind of hear it, but it's not overpowering to the point where it's the primary sound that you're hearing. Now you crank up the fire in the fireplace and things like that. So the intensity modification of the different sound effects I thought was was a super cool addition to the app itself. Again, somebody that I'm hoping to have on the podcast, that we can really talk about this more in depth and really demo it so you can see how the different sounds. Maybe we'll do a little one shot or something with them and play the sounds, cause they talked about ways, cause, again, it's really meant for right now in person play, but they've talked about ways to integrate it into, like your discord games and things like that. So so maybe we'll get them on the podcast and really get to demo it through a one shot and really see how it, how it works. But that was another. That was another really cool one, pocket barred. Definitely go check them out again. I'll put the link in the in the show notes for you so you can. You can check it out.

Speaker 1: 44:52

And that was, I mean there was so much to to see. I mean there there's numerous other vendors that we, we saw there. Those were, those were just some of the standouts as far as we were concerned. There were there were so many games being demoed Other vendors Cobalt Press was there. They had some great stuff. There's just a lot, a lot going on. We, we saw some demos of some other games. There's the one game that I'm not going to talk about because we bought it for my brother and his family, so not talking about that game at all. Sorry, scott, but it's a lot of fun. I watched, watched a long demo of it and it looks, looks to be a lot of fun. So you're in, you're in for some fun times this Christmas. But anyway, there was there was other parts to two packs unplugged that that were there. There's so many.

Speaker 1: 45:50

So much of the convention center itself was set aside for playing just random games. There were. There were areas set up for for playing D&D games, specifically Pathfinder there was. There was like what was it? The national mahjong tournament was going on or something. There was. There was all sorts of things going on other than just just the vendor. So there's, if you wanted to just check out a game, they had a whole section of the convention center where you could just go up, check out games and play them with other people. There was a whole area where they were doing one shots of D&D so people could host, host a table and and bring in people. People could sign up and and try, try a one shot there.

Speaker 2: 46:35

There was the paint and take, which apparently is a big deal from what I was reading that, like you have to sign up first thing in the morning, as soon as it becomes available, oh, wow. You can paint your, you can paint your figure and take it with you.

Speaker 1: 46:46

Oh, that's very cool.

Speaker 2: 46:47

Yeah, so that that seemed like a thing that I would really enjoy doing actually.

Speaker 1: 46:53

I am just. I mean I. I get most of my figures through Hero Forge and I let them color them for me because I am. I am not artistic and creative at all as far as that's concerned.

Speaker 2: 47:06

There was also and I don't know if I understood this correctly, because it was just kind of when we were walking around, but that game library was that just an opportunity to like grab a game and go play it in one of the play areas. Yeah, yeah, that seemed kind of cool.

Speaker 1: 47:19

Yeah, there was just. Yeah, they had whole sections of just games you could check out and it's like, oh, I want to play this game. Okay, cool, here it is, go ahead and go ahead and play it. Like people in the hallways, like the games that they had purchased or brought with them. They were just sitting in the hallway playing with other people. It was just, it's just a fun, a fun time to to to gather around with with other other gamers and and and play some games Like I love.

Speaker 1: 47:47

Don't, don't get me wrong, I love video games and and playing them, but there's there's something fun and just sitting around a table playing, playing a game, whether it, whether it be something as simple as Uno or Monopoly, or or getting into some of these really complex games. Um, magic the Gathering there was a whole thing for Magic the Gathering there. Yeah, I mean, and and they were buying and selling cards and my goodness, and Pokemon. Did you see? Pokemon was there? Yep. So I mean there's just there's a lot to do at at Pax Unplugged it was. It was really impressive.

Speaker 2: 48:27

Oh and pin trading.

Speaker 1: 48:28

And pin trading yes.

Speaker 2: 48:29

So there, not only was the opportunity to trade pins with other people, but a lot of the vendors had um exclusive pins just for Pax that they were selling.

Speaker 1: 48:39

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 48:39

So that was cool, cause I actually really liked pins so that was kind of a fun thing for me to check out as we were there.

Speaker 1: 48:46

Yes, but you don't like trading pins, you just like acquiring pins.

Speaker 2: 48:49

Yeah, because I acquire pins that I love and then I'm not going to give them to anyone else.

Speaker 1: 48:53

That's. That's a problem. You have to, you have to like include some that you're willing to to part with. So I know, I know that's why you have walking backs on all of your pins.

Speaker 2: 49:04

So I don't lose any of my pins.

Speaker 1: 49:06

Exactly, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 49:09

Um, I'm trying to think what else? Oh, and the other thing I think that's just always nice at these conventions is the other people. Yeah, there are people, so they're just generally kind. That one, um that one woman gave you honey. Um, I mean, there were just yes, thank you.

Speaker 1: 49:28

I, I I don't know your name we, we, we were both fans of of long dog dice standing there and what, what. What was the reasoning? Why did she give me the honey?

Speaker 2: 49:41

Well, she was dressed in all B stuff so yes. Cosplaying. I think it was a theme, but I don't know why. She also gave honey to James.

Speaker 1: 49:50

Yeah. So, maybe we can ask James why she was handing out. I can't remember how the conversation started and yeah, and then.

Speaker 2: 49:57

She was lovely though.

Speaker 1: 49:58

She was, she was super nice.

Speaker 2: 50:00

And I found that was pretty much everyone. Like you know, by Saturday. Friday was pretty chill, but Saturday was pretty crowded and people were bumping into each other and everyone was just very kind. Um, and that's what I like the most about these things is that people are nice to each other and you don't find that everywhere.

Speaker 1: 50:18

Yeah, they're and they're there's just, I think probably the only drawback that that I see with these conventions is they they almost pack in too much stuff.

Speaker 2: 50:33

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 50:34

Because there's there were a bunch of panels that I wanted to see that I just didn't have time for Because I was I was more doing interviews and trying to find content for for the podcast, so that that was kind of my focus. But like I would have loved to go check out some of the panels, um, I I'd hope to get into a D&D one shot and the table was full so I didn't get it, didn't get a chance to play on that. So there's other things that I really wish that I had gotten a chance to do while I was there. But, um, I still feel like we we still accomplished quite a quite a bit.

Speaker 2: 51:13

Yeah, I mean, I think we saw just about everything.

Speaker 1: 51:17

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 51:18

That's why we didn't end up going back on Sunday. Right that and dead feet.

Speaker 1: 51:23

Yeah, we were after. After two days of being on that concrete floor, it's like, yeah, you're feet, your feet have had enough, so so wear comfortable shoes. If you ever go to a con, wear comfortable shoes. Bring multiple sets of shoes so you can change, because sometimes even just changing the pair of shoes that you're wearing is a big help. Stay hydrated.

Speaker 2: 51:49

Absolutely. That was a toughie for this one. Yeah, our mark was not as up on refilling their Roofer draiders as I'm accustomed to when we go to like conventions at Javits.

Speaker 1: 52:03

Yeah for the size for the size of the Philadelphia convention center. I feel like they their food, was a little bit lacking. Yeah, that would. That would be. That would be probably one of the one of the comments. And what what's really nice is that they are Conveniently located, basically right above and next to the Reading Terminal Market. But the problem is you've got hundreds, thousands of people at a convention and everybody goes down and crams into the Reading Terminal Market and the place is just a mob scene. So it was. It was a nightmare. Trying to get in there, get through there, we miraculously found three stools next to each other at the deli counter to get some sandwiches. So I don't know how that happened. But yeah, like I'm like I'm now used to like. New York Comic-Con has really stepped up their game as far as food is concerned. They've got like food Everywhere. I feel like in that.

Speaker 2: 53:06

Well, and I think that's just the Javits, like the Javits. Yeah, the job is a lot of good food options, but I think the biggest thing is that they keep stuff stocked, and that was what I was finding at PAX was like. By the end of Saturday you couldn't even get a drink.

Speaker 1: 53:20

Yeah, yeah, it was how. Yeah, by the. By the end of day too, the like the shelves were bare as far as beverages were.

Speaker 2: 53:27

Vending machines were empty.

Speaker 1: 53:28

The vending machines throughout the complex were were empty. There was the one vending machine with like two iced teas in it but the machine thought they were out of stock so you couldn't even get to those. Like remaining iced teas in there it was. It was tough. So that would. That would be one of my If you, I'd say bring snacks, like if you're going to go to the fiddle Philadelphia Convention Center, bring snacks. Um, bring beverages, bring something to eat. And I will tell you Catherine's favorite tip for for conventions those collapsible stools which I think I mentioned during the Comic-Con when we talked about comic-con.

Speaker 1: 54:08

Yeah, worth talking about again, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 54:11

I mean so good that After Friday James was on Amazon trying to see if he could get one delivered to his hotel overnight. They are.

Speaker 1: 54:19

They're great, they're phenomenal.

Speaker 2: 54:21

I mean, it's just an easy like you don't have to sit on the floor if there's not a chair around. You can just whip it out and Sit wherever.

Speaker 1: 54:29

Absolutely. They're just circular little collapsible stools. I mean they. What was the maximum weight rating on those things?

Speaker 2: 54:36

like 400 pounds.

Speaker 1: 54:38

Yeah, it's like insane. Yeah, it's like a tiny little stool like you're like how is that thing gonna hold up? But it does. They're, they're great stools. So that's. We'll put a link to the stools yes, the Amazon link to the stools in the in the show notes for for everyone out there. They're also lightweight, so they're not obnoxious to carry right, I mean they're just, they're just plastic, so they're, they're very lightweight.

Speaker 2: 54:59

I had both of them in a backpack and I was fine all day.

Speaker 1: 55:01

So All right, so I think who? I think that covers everything that we, that we did a packs unplugged for for the weekend of December 1st to the 3rd Philadelphia convention center and the people are never going to realize how many interruptions there were as we recorded this. Absolutely that. That is my editing skills mad editing skills mad editing skills. So many interruptions in this pot while we're recording this podcast mostly cat related mostly cat related. Yeah, but that's okay.

Speaker 2: 55:36

That's our life.

Speaker 1: 55:37

We love our cast. We've got five of them in there. They're the best. So, anyway, thank you, thank you everyone for for listening Again. We will. We'll post all the links in the show notes for all the different vendors that we talked about. Um, feel free to jump on discord and and and ask any questions there. You can always Email us at podcast at legends, loot and lore dot com. You can also please support the podcast. We would love, we'd love, to keep doing this, so, so, help us out. You can go to legends, loot and lore dot supercast dot com and and support us there. And other than that, um, I I hope you have a great holiday, because this is this is the holiday season. Hanukkah is upon us right now, christmas is coming up soon and, uh, hopefully, hopefully, you get everything that you wanted for for the holidays more dice.

Speaker 2: 56:34

No no no more dice.

Speaker 1: 56:37

More dice for you, not for me.

Speaker 2: 56:39

I don't need more dice either. No for them, not you for them. Yes, I hope you get all the dice you want.

Speaker 1: 56:43

Yes to all the listeners. May you get all the dice you get ever possibly want. Thank you.