Okay, it's not a secret—but you might miss it, and you shouldn't, since it's a great chance to take a short break and play (or learn) a quick game of 7 Wonders, Epic Spell Wars, Pandemic, or the like. Rather than brave the entire show floor and then the phalanx of fan queues for Summer Glau, Katee Sackhoff et al. singings, just walk across Pike and enter from the street. Go past local merch superstars Pink Gorilla and the giant Kinect setup (perhaps pausing to watch some nine-year-olds spazzing out as they use the Force), then head downstairs. (If you played D&D demos at PAX, this is the same place. If you are old and remember the basement of the temporary downtown library, this is the same place.)
You'll find roleplaying game demos, including D&D, Pathfinder, and cool indie games like Shock—so if you've always been curious to try D&D or an RPG and can spare an hour, this is your chance. You'll also find nice folks from several local game stores who are happy to recommend and teach you any board game you want, or you can jump in on whatever game's on the schedule. Here's the Sunday schedule from Tacoma game store The Game Matrix:
- Wiz War!
If you're hardcore, you don't need us to tell you there are also lots of tourneys going on for Magic and Heroclix in the side rooms—along with less intense (and free) ECCC Gaming League tournaments, including one today for Settlers of Catan from noon to 4.
Some other highlights from the annex: don't miss demos all day today of the reportedly awesome roleplaying game based on David Petersen's widely acclaimed Mouse Guard series:
- They're cute because they're mice. (With swords.)
Some local game designers are showing off their fun, brand-new dice-racing game Siebzehn, so stop by and say hi. The gameboard may remind you of Formula Dé:
- "Siebzehn" comes up 7.5% of the time on 3d10.
Last but not least (and Mary has procured good pictures of this), Greenwood Microfactory is next to the Siebzehn guys, and you can watch minis get "printed" on a 3D printer. They apparently shot photos of some of costume folks this weekend, and they'll be posting miniatures they're making based on the 3D renders online later. We can only hope they got the Hawkman with the ginormous articulating wings.
The Stranger Testing Department is Rob Lightner and Paul Hughes.
