Intro
Lam Doan Gen Con Game Award: Orbit 🏅
Gamernauts 🧑🚀
Jacki, Lam, Mark, Darren, Kelsey
Lesson learned from this PAX Unplugged:
- There is a line to get into the main entrance, which doesn't take as long. Everyone simply has to go through metal detectors.
- Parking can go up to $60 for 12 hours. Come early, find early-bird parking!
- We got an Airbnb 20 minutes away, and we didn't feel like it was worth the price. It's better to get a closer location so that commute is quicker and cheaper.
- Restaurants are very packed for dine-in. Reserve in advance for a dine-in restaurant. Chinatown is also within walking distance. We loved Emei!
- Reading Terminal Market is a great place for a nearby quick bite. There are many restaurants to choose from. It closes around 6PM.
Board Games
Legend
- 🥳 - Fun but won't buy
- 🤔 - I may buy, but will noodle over it
- 💰 - Bought/will buy
Power Well 🥳
It's a 1v1 game (could be a 2v2), similar to Star Realms. You're trying to reduce your opponent's health down to 0 in order to win. Each player chooses a hero which comes with a unique ability and then have 3 sets of factions cards to trigger.
Piñatas 🤔
Piñatas is a trick-taking game where when you've earned 3 tricks, then you are out of the round and score points based on the number of tricks out there. If you're the last person to achieve 3 tricks, then you only score tricks based how many you have.
Emberheart 🥳
Emberheart is a weighted worker placement game where you have a number of disposable worker tiles and are upgradable to a non-disposable worker tile. The theme is to get a hero and pair with your dragon to get more powerful. I enjoyed the game, but I didn't get that dopamine hit from playing.
For All Mankind 🥳
For All Mankind is a reimagined version of Settlers of Catan, with improvements. The game is a solar-system themed where players try to expand colonies from Earth to other planets and colonies produce different resources. Other changes include: elimination of dice rolling, introduced researching, rotation of the planets, and nuking of planets.
Orbit 💰
Orbit is a unique game based on a space theme. There is a giant map with planets and ships moving through inter-connected dots. To win the game, a player's ship must visit each planet and then travel back to their respective planet. Features of the game include: sabotaging, upgrading your board, moving ships and planets. I knew I loved this game a few minutes into it.
Scream! 💰
Scream is game where you are trying to have the lowest points in your tableau. Each player will start with several cards mostly face down. On a player's turn, they can execute a drawn card or swap. the card with their face down card(s). If they swap multiple cards, then it's claimed to be the same valued card and could be challenged. The fun of this game is bluffing and there is merit to bluffing or calling a bluffer successfully.
The Game Maker 🤔
The theme is about making board games (referencing real board games). This game solely focuses on your own board and barely has any player interaction. Features of the game include resource gathering, completing contracts, tracker, tile placement, and a small engine component. This game is still in kickstarter.
Dice Throne: Captain Marvel v Black Panther 💰
This game is a 1v1 or 2v2 card play and dice manipulation game with a Marvel theme. On your board, there are several special abilities based on your superhero. On your turn, you'll roll the dice Yahtzee-style and the combination of dice can trigger one of your abilities to inflict damage on your opponent. The first player to have 0 hit points loses. It's so fun!
Potions of Azerland 🥳
Gather resources and craft potions based on a priority cards set on each action. There are 5 action selections and every player will get to activate them in priority order based on how each player sets a priority (in secret).
Other
Game designer of Obsession
Dan Hallagan designed the board game Obsession. We had a great conversation with Dan and got a lot of context on the expansions of the game.
Game artist of Power Well
Sam is the artist of Power Well. It was absolutely a pleasure meeting Sam who also taught us the game.
A militant and me 🪖
