December 12, 2023 • 58 mins
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
1. Visit our website! www.legendslootandlore.com
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome, lords, ladies and everyone in between,
to another fantastic episode ofLegends, Loot and Lore.
Joining me today in the co-hostchair is my wonderful wife,
Catherine.
Welcome, Thank you, so glad tohave you here.
Today we are going to berecapping our fantastic weekend
(00:31):
at PAX Unplugged, the tabletopgaming extravaganza that it is
from the Philadelphia ConventionCenter last weekend.
We were going to talk about allthe things we got to see and
enjoy and talk about some funthings that we were able to do
while we were down there andkind of cover the events.
(00:53):
So we're going to recap thatfor you today.
So this was not your typicalconvention, so I would both can
call.
I'd call both of us nerdy orgeeky, but you're not
necessarily.
You didn't grow up playingtabletop games.
This was not necessarily yourniche of a convention.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Yeah, like when we got married, I was really
surprised to see how many gamesyou have, because I think I
played Candyland as a kid andmaybe Monopoly, but like the
first thing my family did wasnot reach for a board game.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Yeah, so we were.
My father was not a big boardgamer You'd have to twist his
arm to get him to play a gamebut the rest of us really
enjoyed board gaming, so thiswas a lot of fun for me.
So there was a lot of heavyheaviness on the D&D during
packs unplugged.
But there was so many othergames, a lot of new games out
(01:59):
there, a lot of Kickstartercampaigns launching and things
like that so there was a lot toit 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 prettyexhausted after two days of
(02:25):
walking in the convention floor.
So we're going to recapeverything that we saw.
Starting with day one, fridayat noon, really really kicking
off the entire weekend was storytime with Matt Mercer.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Yep, which I went to under duress but ended up
enjoying.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Tell us.
So why were you not looking?
Why weren't you looking forwardto an hour of Matt Mercer
talking?
Speaker 2 (02:59):
I mean, I think I'm not the biggest D&D fan, so I've
played.
Obviously I've DM'd I prefer aone shot to anything else yes,
and I've obviously seen andlistened to critical role, but
it's just not.
It's not my thing, it's yourthing, which is fine, but I just
(03:21):
didn't know what his keynotewas going to end up being Right.
And there is nothing that makesme more uncomfortable than when
they set up microphones duringa panel and have people in the
audience ask awkward questions.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
So that's always fun.
The awkward audience questions.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Thankfully the questions had been sent in
advance and were kind of curated, so it wasn't horrifying for me
.
But his actual presentation Ithought was pretty interesting.
I he didn't lean as far intoD&D as I thought he would, right
, he more talked about howgaming kind of brings the nerdy
(04:01):
people among us together andkind of becomes this I can't
even think of the word I'mlooking for kind of becomes this
like I guess for lack of abetter word bonding opportunity,
right.
And throughout it he was alsoposting photos that folks from
the critical role cast weresending and they were all pretty
(04:26):
funny.
So that was entertaining.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Yes, indeed, and according according to Matt
Mercer, this was his firstPowerPoint that he had put
together, so kudos to him.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
I feel like if that's true, then he did not put that
PowerPoint together, becausethat was a very well done
PowerPoint.
That was not a new B PowerPoint.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Well, maybe, maybe that's just it.
Maybe because it was his firstPowerPoint, he didn't have all
the bad habits that manyPowerPoint users have developed
over the years.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
I don't know.
There was some like advancedPowerPointing happening.
Maybe he had a little help, Idon't know.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
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 storyfrom from growing up, you know
from from a very young age beingbeing artistic, you know,
drawing the video games thatthat he played.
He talked about a lot of thevideo games that influenced him
(05:27):
over his life, all the gamesthat that he had he had been
kind of playing.
So it was a really nice historyof kind of the history and
background of Matt Mercer, moreso than talking for an hour
about D&D or critical, criticalrole, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
I think that.
I think that's why I found itmore interesting than I thought
I was going to, right, becauseit was really more about him and
like he showed a lot of hisartwork and the evolution of his
artwork oh yeah, that was cuteand talked about some of the
voiceover work he's done, butreally talked about how one of
the things that stood out to mewas that he talked about how if
(06:06):
he DM'd a game for you as he wasgrowing up, it meant that you
were like really important tohim.
Right, that was how he showedhis love, which I thought was
very sweet.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
I just really liked that, that the hour was more
about you know, matt Mercer theperson, then Matt Mercer the DM
or or whatever it might be, thevoiceover artist.
It was really kind of reallythe full.
It was nice kind of history ofMatt Mercer in in one hour.
So I thought it was really.
It was really fun.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
It was cool to see some of his influences, some of
the, like I said, the games anddifferent things like anime
that's influenced him.
So a lot of his cosplay.
He showed a lot of pictures ofhim growing up doing cosplay,
which was a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Impressive cosplay actually Very impressive cosplay
.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Yeah, I was, I was.
I was pleasantly surprised.
I didn't.
I mean, I know how much theyare into it now, but even years
ago he was, he was really wellinto it.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Got to start somewhere.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Yes, yes, he do.
All right.
So that was our first, I meanbecause we got to.
We got to PAX at about 10 am, alittle after 10, I think.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
And the.
The line was wrapped around thebuilding and we finally got
inside, got right into the got,got got my credentials, got
right into the line for the MattMercer story time and then
after that we, we kind of hitthe floor and met up with our
friend James Yep and started tosee everything that there was to
(07:47):
see and a couple of the yes.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
And you and James started to buy everything that
there was to buy.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Okay, so maybe, maybe that's true.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Bad influences on one another.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Yes, very bad influence.
We enable each other to to tobuy many dice and other game
equipment and things like that.
So yep, guilty as charged.
So some of the some of thethings that we got to see were
were demos of not just new gamesbut existing games and and
(08:21):
things like that.
So one of the reallyinteresting games that I saw
during our time there was a gamecalled Pirates, dragon's
Treasure and this is this is byDarkport Games.
Now, this game I thought wasreally interesting.
You and James were kind ofstanding in the background as I
(08:42):
was watching the, the, the demoof it.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Not for the whole thing though.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Not for the whole.
Oh, no, no, no you came up kindof late.
You came up kind of late, so so,interestingly enough.
So Pirate's Dragons Treasure isa 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
(09:09):
which pirate you are going to beand then throughout the game,
you have to assemble a crew andyour crew has they've got their
own abilities, so they addthings to it.
You also have to equip a shipand you build your ship out so
(09:32):
you get the basic ship.
You get some additionalcapabilities to that.
I think it's about two to threecards that you use to build
that ship.
And throughout all this,throughout kind of the building
of your crew and ship, you'rebartering and interacting with
(09:54):
the other players at the table.
They encourage you to cheat.
There are consequences if youdo 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 andyou, the morale of the crew is
(10:15):
high.
You've got your ship assembled,you can go after and try to
defeat the dragon and you, basedon the overall capabilities of
your ship, you have X number ofhealth to try to attack the
dragon and then you go into thedragon attack and hopefully you
(10:40):
defeat it, and that's kind of.
The ultimate goal of the gameis to one of you has to try to
ultimately defeat the dragonwhile trying to prevent your
other pirates from doing thesame.
So it was a lot of fun.
It's really a high speed game.
I think they say it's aboutlike a 30 minute play time, so
(11:02):
for like for any particularround, which is which is really
quick, so it's not a hugeinvestment of of time, which is
nice.
It was really easy to to pickup and understand.
I think there, I think one ofmy favorite things was there's
one of the curse cards in thegame.
You can curse one of youropponents with with scurvy and
(11:26):
the the only way to defeat, toovercome the scurvy curse is you
actually have to somewhere inthe physical, wherever you are
playing is, is locate a piece offruit.
So there, there's no fruit cardthat you that you acquire, you
(11:47):
actually have to go find a pieceof live fruit to to avoid
getting getting scurvy, which Ithought was pretty pretty fun.
So it's there, there's a whole,it's.
It's a it's it's got a coupleof different, different ways of,
of differences.
Then then your typical cardgame that I thought were a lot
of fun, that that made it uniqueand stood out to me.
(12:10):
But yeah, so.
So pirates, dragons, treasure,was was tremendous amount of fun
.
Like I said, super easy to pickup, not very complicated,
single deck of cards.
So there there's differenttypes of cards that and you, you
play off of those and, based onhow much coin you have,
(12:31):
determines how, how many orwhich upgrade you can buy for
your, your ship, etc.
So it's a lot of fun, but checkthat out, a lot of fun.
The other game that we saw thatI actually sat down for, a full
scale kind of demo of the game,was a game called varia, and
(12:56):
varia is by guild house games,similar, similar in the same
realm as, like magic, thegathering, it's.
It's a.
It's a, it's a deck buildinggame.
So you have similar to D&D.
There are different classes ofof of character that you can
play.
So they've got a host of a hostof classes that you can choose
(13:20):
from.
Most recently I think they cameout with samurai and ninja.
Are are two of the new ones,but there there's a lot of a lot
of fun to it.
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 youcan reuse round after round and
(13:45):
and you really build out yourattack on your opponent through
your, through the deck of cards.
So you draw six, you, you, youplan out your attack and then
they plan out their response toto your attack, whether that's
defense or or attacking back,whatever that may be.
(14:06):
They, they plan on it out, andthen there there's some dice
rolling components to it as well.
So there's D4s and D6s that youuse to determine if your attack
hits, and then the, the D4s arereally to determine if the
attack hits.
D6s are are what they use forrolling how much.
There's like a base amount ofdamage that you do, and then you
(14:28):
roll the D6 on top of that tosee what the total damage is
that that you inflict on your,your opponent, that way.
But it was, it was a lot of funto play, definitely more complex
than than Pirates, dragons andTreasure, but I I think if
you're, if you're anywherefamiliar with Magic, the
Gathering or any of those othergames, you'd probably pick this
(14:51):
one up really quickly Again.
It was just, it was just atremendous amount of fun to play
.
A lot of strategy involved intrying to to to kind of outwit
your opponent, because therethere are always sorts of
defenses that they can they canput out there to negate your
(15:11):
attacks.
So you have no idea whatthey're going to do until you
put your attack down.
So there, there's a lot of funplay to it and, again, really
enjoyable.
I mean I was.
I went through a one hour longdemo of of the game and felt
pretty confident that I couldreasonably play it after, after
(15:32):
learning to play for for an hour.
But I would.
I would definitely like tostart playing that game with
with somebody.
So I bought their season oneset of classes.
They have a season two set ofclasses that have come out and
now they're now they'reintroducing them kind of in
these pairs after that as well.
So there there's additionalclasses that have been released.
(15:54):
But it is it's it's a reallycool game, something, something
different.
You know I thought I loved Ilike I'm again coming from D&D
and and rolling the dice.
I am, I'm always a fan ofbringing dice into a, even a
card playing game.
So that was, that was a lot.
That was pretty cool.
What was your thought?
(16:16):
Cause you were, you werefilming, so I know it's hard to
hear kind of in there, but butis there anything you picked up
on the game when you were, whenyou were watching?
Speaker 2 (16:26):
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, Imean, I was literally videoing.
I couldn't hear a word that washappening, but it looked
interesting.
But it did look like there werejust a lot of pieces to it,
like put this card down, rollthe die, and now you do this and
(16:47):
this is over here, and you werelike what was the spinny thing?
Was that reducing your hitpoints, or whatever?
The spinny thing you each had athing, that you turned a dial on
the side.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
That was.
That was tracking our health.
So you start with 30 health andand as you, as you battle, you
lose health.
So that was, that was just atracker you could.
You could literally track yourHP on on a piece of paper.
It's just a matter of how youthat's.
That's the method they had forfor tracking HP.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
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 (17:30):
Well, thank you.
Thank you for doing that.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
It was.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
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 itI really liked.
There was one card that I couldplay where I could actually you
could repeat the actionmultiple times.
So you could repeat the sameattack as many times as you
(17:54):
wanted to.
So I repeated like the sameattack four times.
However, my opponent then,reacting to that, had a I don't
know if it was a counter spellor a counter attack that negated
all of that action.
So it was really interestingwhen you think you're like okay,
(18:16):
I want to do this greatmaneuver and really inflict a
lot of damage, and they're likenot so fast.
So that's always fun.
It reminded me a lot of thecombat of D&D, which is my world
, so that's why I really enjoyedthe game.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
And obviously I think her name was Kim that you were
playing with.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Yes, Kim.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Kim was extremely animated, which I did enjoy,
since I was videoing.
She would actually mime, likeyou call it, pulling back the
bow.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Bow and arrow.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Yeah, and that was cool.
Like she obviously very muchenjoys the game, it isn't just a
like demo thing for her.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
No, she was.
She was definitely definitelyinto the game.
She's known the creators of thegame for some time, so she's
pretty familiar with the game,which is cool.
It was nice to have somebodydemoing the game that was into
it and really enjoyed playing it.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Yeah, I mean, and I certainly took that away from it
.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Yes, All right.
So those are the two main demosthat 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 justchecking out all the different
vendors, checking out a lot ofthe new games that were out
there there was.
(19:43):
There was so much cool stuff,but again, our world is mostly
D&D, so that's that's a lot ofwhat we focused on, and one of
the first places we stopped wasone of my favorite vendors for
all things D&D, mainly dice, andthat is dice dungeons out of
(20:07):
out of Baltimore, Maryland, andI didn't realize they were out
of Baltimore.
They're out of Baltimore.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
I like Baltimore.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
But, but I'm not pronouncing it correctly
Baltimore, there you go, get itright.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
So I'm saying oh, you should get it right.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
I should get it right , not you, don't give me that
look.
So yeah, so dice dungeons.
And, and for once, I walkedaway 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 (20:43):
Well, I mean, if I'm going to DM this campaign, I
need my own set of dice.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Yes, so again for for all of our listeners, when we
do the, the actual play of thecharacters that we have created,
catherine has agreed to be our,our DM for for that campaign.
We're doing, um, fan Delver andbelow the Shattered Obelisk,
Yep.
So.
So Catherine needed some dicefor for her DMing of that of
(21:15):
that campaign.
And, and your favorite color isRed.
And what color dice did you buy?
Red, oh, of course you did, anda very pretty set of dice.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
So so, Is that fizzy?
What's?
Speaker 1 (21:45):
happening.
He's playing with something.
Hey what you got.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
What do you have, sir , what you got?
Speaker 1 (21:59):
What's that?
What do you got?
Oh, look at that.
What is it?
That is a trunk.
Geez dude.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
I'm gluing those things down.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
What is this?
I don't know what that is thata hot box?
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Probably A hot box, dude, you gotta stop.
How does he even get to that?
Speaker 1 (22:19):
He stands up on here, yeah, and he puts his front
paws up here and knocks stuffdown and knocks everything down
and then he goes.
Oh, he's so handsome.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
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 coloris red, correct.
The dice you bought were red,so Correct.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Dice Dungeons did a Kickstarter campaign it's been
quite a few years ago now.
At this point, they did aKickstarter for Vegetable Loan.
They did a Kickstarter for SeaGlass Dice, which are basically
(23:07):
frosted glass dice.
The first one was a frostedglass dice.
These were.
These are extremely beautifuldice.
I originally backed theKickstarter campaign.
I got a green set of Sea Glassdice and so, catherine, walking
(23:29):
around their table we hadalready talked about it because
I had mentioned them they havethey have red Sea Glass dice and
so you picked up a set of ofthose for DMing Finn Delver,
correct.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
Yeah, I like red.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
You like red, so check.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
And I like dice with a little bit of heft to them.
Yes, like I like weight to mydice.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
Yes, the glass dice have a nice, nice weight to them
.
They're not too heavy, Likelike those copper dice that I
have.
Those are, or even the stonedice are very heavy.
Even the stone dice are veryheavy, yeah, but the glass are.
The glass are nice.
They got a nice, nice enoughweight to them, but they're not
not too heavy.
Yeah, Just for everyone outthere, now we, we, we, we have a
(24:15):
new guest on the podcast andthat is DD AKA Daredevil.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Yep, she has arrived.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
She was.
She was very needy, so so webrought her in here.
Um, yeah, so so the Sea Glassdice have a nice, nice weight to
them.
So they're red, yes, they, theyhave a nice weight to them.
What else, what else?
Is there anything else aboutthem that you really liked?
What's what stood out aboutthis set?
Speaker 2 (24:45):
It's just really nice looking.
I mean they're just a a nicered kind of hefty set of dice.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
The numbering on them is really nice, easy to read
yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
Oh yeah, cause there's one set I was looking at
you couldn't even see thenumbers, right, yeah, no, this
will, I think it'll do nicely,yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
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 aKickstarter campaign for their
Speak Easy dice, or what they're, what they're calling them, Uh,
Liquid Core dice, all named forvarious types of cocktails.
(25:27):
There's there's gin, there's atequila sunrise, there's a dark
and stormy.
They got, they've got all sortsof ones.
I don't think those are comingout until the the fall, if I
recall correctly, though.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
I do really like the Liquid Core dice, but again,
they're usually they're so cool.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
They're usually acrylics of their life and
they're really light yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Also, I roll really badly with them, Do you really?
Speaker 1 (25:51):
Yeah, I don't know you you were, you rolled badly
all weekend.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Except for the sea glass.
Except for the sea glass, thatis very true.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
So we, we, we tested all sorts of dice over the
entire weekend and Catherinekept rolling them to test them
and consistently rolled poorly,but again they were.
They were all, they were alllike.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
A lot of acrylic, yeah, yeah.
So, and then James, james'swhole thing was if you roll a
nat 20, you have to buy themRight.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
They had 20 with the sea glass, so See that it was,
it was destined, it was fateMentioned to be yes, indeed, so
that was.
That was what you bought atDice Dungeons.
Yes, I bought at Dice Dungeonsanother one of their quest decks
.
So they have these, these decksof cards, what they call quest
(26:53):
decks different themes.
So if you are looking to kindof quickly send, you're looking
for quick ideas on sending yourparty on side quests, this is,
this is the way to go.
These are, these are perfectcompanions to your, your
campaign.
(27:13):
This time I picked up partnersin crime and I cannot wait to to
try this one out.
I'm actually I actually haven'teven opened this yet, so let me
, let me pop this open.
My, my cat is eagerlyanticipating what I'm about to
do here.
I don't know why.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
He probably likes the noise.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
He does like that noise with the plastic.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
Crinkly.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Yeah, all right.
So we've got our quest deckhere.
Make sure you get them all out.
Oh, there we go.
Those are the blank.
They give you some blank cardsas well so you can create your
own side quests.
So this one, yes, this one isthe, like I said, partners in
(27:59):
crime.
So we've got quests of.
Our collections.
This month have been low.
We need to remind this town whythey pay protection.
Ooh, sounds like fun.
And let's see what else do wegot?
I'm just going to pick somecards from random here.
You want to pick one?
Yeah, pick a card, any card.
Okay, that one, that one, I'mallowed to show you that one.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
Don't show you the card, don't show me the card
Just read it to me.
The Gala next week has someamazing pieces that I'd like to
liberate.
Ooh, my brother is in charge ofmoving some statues.
In Think you got what it takesto stand as still as a statue.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
Interesting.
Didi is smacking her tail onthe Sorry.
On the microphone.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
I mean, I'm trying to control my shoulder cat.
Yes, okay, pick another onePick another card Get in there.
A friend of the guild has foundherself in the local prison.
She'll be shipped to a moresecure location in a week's time
, so I need a crew to earn herfreedom.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
Ooh, that's a, I'm going to keep that one on top
because that sounds really good.
So yeah, so that is just aquick example of some of the
things that come in the questdecks.
I've got three others.
At New York Comic Con I boughtcoastal threats because I'm
working on that spell jammer,kind of on the high seas
(29:31):
homebrew.
I've got four of the crown andfar flung journeys and there's a
whole bunch more than just that.
So they've got they've got themall kind of themed out and some
really cool things.
So there's one that's just likeum side quest for a job board.
(29:51):
So if they're in a town, maybethey're not so willing to leave
the town.
This is a way to kind of getthem out and on adventure and
things like that.
So Dice Dungeons quest decksare another really super cool
item to pick up when you'relooking for some ideas for your
(30:13):
campaigns.
If they're again, if they'rekind of stuck in one place and
you need them to go out and dothings, that's one way to do it.
If you're, maybe the wholeparty's not there and you're
just looking to fill in timeanother great reason why you
might wanna use like some of thequest decks.
So check out their website andwe'll put all of these links in
(30:36):
the show notes to all the thingsthat we're talking about so you
can check them out.
Other dice that we got, sincewe're on the topic of dice yes,
Misty mountain gaming.
Misty mountain gaming.
So I got myself a set of dice.
(30:58):
Where did I put them?
There they are.
So, first things first, Ibought a.
Actually, let's go even beyondthat.
So in my Wednesday campaign Iam playing a tiefling warlock
whose patron is an undeadEgyptian god.
(31:19):
So that's the backstory to that.
When I was at I think it wasthe Norse foundry booth at Pax
Unplugged they had this reallycool dice storage coffin thing
and the whole front of it isEgyptian hieroglyphics and it's
(31:41):
super cool.
So I thought that would be aperfect thing to put a set of
dice in for my warlock Silasbloodbane.
I'm like, why not?
And then I found an excellentset of dice.
Go figure, at Misty mountaingaming.
(32:01):
They refer to them as lava glass.
It's kind of like internallylike shattered glass and these
are, it almost looks like amber.
It's kind of what they looklike.
They got that orangeish yellowglow to them, but they're glass
dice and they are absolutelybeautiful.
They are some of the coolestlooking dice that I've seen,
(32:25):
very unique.
I haven't seen anything likethis at any of the vendors that
I've looked at online, at consand 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 thesedice for my Silas bloodbane
(32:47):
character in that coffin withthe Egyptian hieroglyphics.
I think that's what I'm gonnause Now.
What did you happen to?
I mean, I'm the one that boughtthem, but what dice did you get
from Misty mountain gaming?
Speaker 2 (33:01):
They are a set of obsidian dice with red numbering
on them.
Yes, and it's some pretty likeintricate numbering.
The details are really nice onthat set.
I'm actually looking at apicture of them right now.
Yeah, they're really pretty.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Well, because you had , you had pointed them out when
we were walking around the Mistymountain.
Gaming had a really large booth.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
And at one corner you're like ooh, look at those.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
And then, when I was purchasing my dice the lava
glass they asked are you surethere's nothing else that you
want?
And I'm like you had theseblack dice with red lettering
and there was a.
The same set was right in frontof me.
So they're like oh, you meanthose?
I'm like those are the ones.
So I got those for you cause Iknew you would enjoy them.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
Yeah, and again our nice and weighty weighty dice,
that obsidian glass, glass dice.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
So that'll be, that'll be a nice set to to roll
with.
And then another, another newvendor, that that I've been
following on TikTok for sometime and watching her make dice,
which is which is alwaysexciting.
I love, I love the process ofdice making, so it's always fun
(34:29):
to watch her account Long dogdice and they are absolutely
beautiful, resin, resin dice.
And I mean it's just I don'tknow, her designs are really,
really beautiful.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
They are.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
I really like those.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Plus she has two doshens and they're really cute.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
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 shehad posted about it on on TikTok
.
But she was.
She was using some space insomebody else's booth and so we
stopped by and she had anincredible set of dice that
(35:19):
James and I both were kind ofkind of gravitated toward.
So we actually both got thesame set of of dice.
I wanted it with silverlettering.
There were.
She had two set.
Well, she had one set withsilver lettering and that's what
James bought.
I also wanted the silverlettering and so she had a set
(35:44):
with white lettering that shewas going to remove the inking
from and reink them in silver.
But there's there's a coupledifferent, couple things
different about that set.
It's not your traditional D12shape.
It's like a I'm just hexagonal,but the but the shape of the
(36:09):
D12 is different, and and so isthe D4 in in this set.
So she gave me a couple ofoptions on the D4 to choose from
and I chose something a littlebit different than your typical
kind of triangle D4.
So I went with.
I went with something a littleunique for for that set, so I'm
(36:31):
I'm looking forward to to thatCatherine's on their site as we
speak.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
I am.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
Are you shopping?
No, oh darn.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
I have two sets now.
That's more than.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
I meant for me.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
Oh no.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
Not that I need another set of dice.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
Seriously, you go, you go beyond dice goblin.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
Beyond dice goblin.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
Yeah, what's the next level?
Dice hoarder, this is dicedragon.
I can't I guess.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
I don't know what the next one is.
It's bad, it's really bad.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
I doubt you're the worst.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
Probably not.
Probably not, but there's, Ihave quite a few sets of dice.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
Yeah, you do.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
But but definitely check out, check her out on on
TikTok Longdog Dice she's.
She's a tremendous creator ofof resin dice beautiful designs.
There's probably at least twomore that I would have picked up
, cause there was that like thattime travel one.
(37:33):
It was like like a bluishpurple with like the green
numbering on it, Like the brightgreen numbering, which was
super cool.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
Oh yeah, that was cool.
Speaker 1 (37:40):
Yeah, that was a really cool set, so there's
definitely other stuff that Iwould.
I would buy if given the chance.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
Just saying, my goodness, what else?
What else was there there was?
Was there?
Was there any other?
No, though, that was all thedice that we bought, right.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (37:59):
Yeah.
So there was.
It was other things that thatwe saw there, that that I that I
was checking out.
Another vendor that I thoughtwas really cool was a company
called Mythic Grove Productions,and the guy by the name of Gabe
Hicks has developed what hecalls the session zero system.
(38:21):
This is something you, ifyou're, if you if you have
issues or you're working withnew players, this is a great
system for helping them kind ofcreate, not not so much a
backstory, but create kind ofthe connections between the
characters in the party.
So create a little bit ofbackstory, create a reason for
(38:44):
why they're doing what they'redoing.
But it's it's a really simplesystem.
It's really kind of like athree step system for creating
this background and and findingout how these different
characters are are connected toeach other.
He also wrote a book called AKids Guide to Tabletop RPGs,
which I thought was reallyinteresting, and it's not just
(39:07):
about Dungeons and Dragons, it'sabout about all sorts of
tabletop RPGs, and at one pointin the book he he creates kind
of a flow chart of like what areyou into all the different
things that that you might beinterested in, and recommends
different types of tabletop RPGsfor you to to explore with your
(39:29):
kids.
So it's a really great resource, definitely worth checking out.
I'm hoping to hoping to haveGabe on the podcast shortly.
I reached out to him when I wasthere and he said he'd be
interested, so I'm I'm reallyhoping he's going to be willing
to to be on the podcast.
So another really cool vendorthat I saw was one called
(39:50):
Limithron, which I'm hoping I'mpronouncing that correctly.
They are a creator, publisherof an RPG that is pirate themed
zombies.
Nautical looks really, reallycool.
But what really caught my eyefor me again being the D&D
player, was they've got a rulesupplement for fifth edition for
nautical combat and I thoughtthis was really tremendously
(40:13):
helpful, especially for meworking on the spell jammer
homebrew that I'm working on.
The, the adventuring party isgoing to spend a lot of the
first part of the campaign on asingle planet as a sailing ship,
and I thought this would beperfect for me to try to build
some combat adventures in andreally make it as realistic as
(40:34):
possible, cause the ship takesdamage and and how, what are the
, what are the ranges on thecannons and things like that,
and what type of ammunition dothey use.
So there's there's a lot ofgreat detail in this, the
supplement that that I finduseful for me for my campaign
and if you're doing anythingnautically themed with with a
(40:55):
ship.
This is the.
This is something you mightreally 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.
They've got a whole Patreonaccount where you can you can
support them.
They've got tons of of maps andmap grids for for different
(41:18):
nautical themes, underwateradventures, different types of
boats.
They've got all sorts of mapsfor 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 firstresource for checking that out.
(41:42):
The last vendor that I want tomention that we took a look at
was there's a vendor and asoftware 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
(42:05):
sound effects and environmentalsounds for your games, and one
of the really cool things that Iliked about it was you can
change the intensity of thedifferent sound effects with a
slider right within the app.
So if you're like cause theywere, they were talking about
(42:26):
like the rain, so you'reoutdoors in the rain so you've
got the intensity all the way upthat the rain is coming down,
you really hear it.
Maybe you step indoors you canslide the intensity all the way
down so you still hear kind ofthis rain in the background,
cause you're indoors but it'sstill raining outside, so you
still kind of hear it, but it'snot overpowering to the point
(42:47):
where it's the primary soundthat you're hearing.
Now you crank up the fire inthe fireplace and things like
that.
So the intensity modificationof the different sound effects I
thought was was a super cooladdition to the app itself.
Again, somebody that I'm hopingto have on the podcast, that we
can really talk about this morein depth and really demo it so
(43:08):
you can see how the differentsounds.
Maybe we'll do a little oneshot or something with them and
play the sounds, cause theytalked about ways, cause, again,
it's really meant for right nowin person play, but they've
talked about ways to integrateit into, like your discord games
and things like that.
So so maybe we'll get them onthe podcast and really get to
(43:30):
demo it through a one shot andreally see how it, how it works.
But that was another.
That was another really coolone, pocket barred.
Definitely go check them outagain.
I'll put the link in the in theshow notes for you so you can.
You can check it out.
And that was, I mean there wasso much to to see.
I mean there there's numerousother vendors that we, we saw
(43:52):
there.
Those were, those were justsome of the standouts as far as
we were concerned.
There were there were so manygames being demoed Other vendors
Cobalt Press was there.
They had some great stuff.
There's just a lot, a lot goingon.
We, we saw some demos of someother games.
(44:14):
There's the one game that I'mnot going to talk about because
we bought it for my brother andhis family, so not talking about
that game at all.
Sorry, scott, but it's a lot offun.
I watched, watched a long demoof it and it looks, looks to be
a lot of fun.
So you're in, you're in forsome fun times this Christmas.
But anyway, there was there wasother parts to two packs
(44:39):
unplugged that that were there.
There's so many.
So much of the convention centeritself was set aside for
playing just random games.
There were.
There were areas set up for forplaying D&D games, specifically
Pathfinder there was.
There was like what was it?
The national mahjong tournamentwas going on or something.
(45:01):
There was.
There was all sorts of thingsgoing on other than just just
the vendor.
So there's, if you wanted tojust check out a game, they had
a whole section of theconvention center where you
could just go up, check outgames and play them with other
people.
There was a whole area wherethey were doing one shots of D&D
so people could host, host atable and and bring in people.
(45:23):
People could sign up and andtry, try a one shot there.
Speaker 2 (45:28):
There was the paint and take, which apparently is a
big deal from what I was readingthat, like you have to sign up
first thing in the morning, assoon as it becomes available, oh
, wow.
You can paint your, you canpaint your figure and take it
with you.
Speaker 1 (45:39):
Oh, that's very cool.
Speaker 2 (45:40):
Yeah, so that that seemed like a thing that I would
really enjoy doing actually.
Speaker 1 (45:46):
I am just.
I mean I.
I get most of my figuresthrough Hero Forge and I let
them color them for me because Iam.
I am not artistic and creativeat all as far as that's
concerned.
Speaker 2 (45:59):
There was also and I don't know if I understood this
correctly, because it was justkind of when we were walking
around, but that game librarywas that just an opportunity to
like grab a game and go play itin one of the play areas.
Yeah, yeah, that seemed kind ofcool.
Speaker 1 (46:12):
Yeah, there was just.
Yeah, they had whole sectionsof just games you could check
out and it's like, oh, I want toplay this game.
Okay, cool, here it is, goahead 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 thehallway playing with other
people.
It was just, it's just a fun, afun time to to to gather around
(46:35):
with with other other gamersand and and play some games Like
I love.
Don't, don't get me wrong, Ilove video games and and playing
them, but there's there'ssomething fun and just sitting
around a table playing, playinga game, whether it, whether it
be something as simple as Uno orMonopoly, or or getting into
(46:56):
some of these really complexgames.
Um, magic the Gathering therewas a whole thing for Magic the
Gathering there.
Yeah, I mean, and and they werebuying and selling cards and my
goodness, and Pokemon.
Did you see?
Pokemon was there?
Yep.
So I mean there's just there'sa lot to do at at Pax Unplugged
(47:17):
it was.
It was really impressive.
Speaker 2 (47:20):
Oh and pin trading.
Speaker 1 (47:21):
And pin trading yes.
Speaker 2 (47:23):
So there, not only was the opportunity to trade
pins with other people, but alot of the vendors had um
exclusive pins just for Pax thatthey were selling.
Speaker 1 (47:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (47:32):
So that was cool, cause I actually really liked
pins so that was kind of a funthing for me to check out as we
were there.
Speaker 1 (47:39):
Yes, but you don't like trading pins, you just like
acquiring pins.
Speaker 2 (47:43):
Yeah, because I acquire pins that I love and
then I'm not going to give themto anyone else.
Speaker 1 (47:47):
That's.
That's a problem.
You have to, you have to likeinclude some that you're willing
to to part with.
So I know, I know that's whyyou have walking backs on all of
your pins.
Speaker 2 (47:57):
So I don't lose any of my pins.
Speaker 1 (47:59):
Exactly, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (48:02):
Um, I'm trying to think what else?
Oh, and the other thing I thinkthat's just always nice at
these conventions is the otherpeople.
Yeah, there are people, sothey're just generally kind.
That one, um that one womangave you honey.
Um, I mean, there were just yes, thank you.
Speaker 1 (48:21):
I, I I don't know your name we, we, we were both
fans of of long dog dicestanding there and what, what.
What was the reasoning?
Why did she give me the honey?
Speaker 2 (48:34):
Well, she was dressed in all B stuff so yes.
Cosplaying.
I think it was a theme, but Idon't know why.
She also gave honey to James.
Speaker 1 (48:43):
Yeah.
So, maybe we can ask James whyshe was handing out.
I can't remember how theconversation started and yeah,
and then.
Speaker 2 (48:50):
She was lovely though .
Speaker 1 (48:51):
She was, she was super nice.
Speaker 2 (48:53):
And I found that was pretty much everyone.
Like you know, by Saturday.
Friday was pretty chill, butSaturday was pretty crowded and
people were bumping into eachother and everyone was just very
kind.
Um, and that's what I like themost about these things is that
people are nice to each otherand you don't find that
everywhere.
Speaker 1 (49:11):
Yeah, they're and they're there's just, I think
probably the only drawback thatthat I see with these
conventions is they they almostpack in too much stuff.
Speaker 2 (49:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (49:28):
Because there's there were a bunch of panels that I
wanted to see that I just didn'thave time for Because I was I
was more doing interviews andtrying to find content for for
the podcast, so that that waskind of my focus.
But like I would have loved togo check out some of the panels,
um, I I'd hope to get into aD&D one shot and the table was
(49:52):
full so I didn't get it, didn'tget a chance to play on that.
So there's other things that Ireally wish that I had gotten a
chance to do while I was there.
But, um, I still feel like wewe still accomplished quite a
quite a bit.
Speaker 2 (50:06):
Yeah, I mean, I think we saw just about everything.
Speaker 1 (50:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (50:11):
That's why we didn't end up going back on Sunday.
Right that and dead feet.
Speaker 1 (50:17):
Yeah, we were after.
After two days of being on thatconcrete floor, it's like, yeah
, you're feet, your feet havehad enough, so so wear
comfortable shoes.
If you ever go to a con, wearcomfortable shoes.
Bring multiple sets of shoes soyou can change, because
sometimes even just changing thepair of shoes that you're
(50:37):
wearing is a big help.
Stay hydrated.
Speaker 2 (50:42):
Absolutely.
That was a toughie for this one.
Yeah, our mark was not as up onrefilling their Roofer draiders
as I'm accustomed to when we goto like conventions at Javits.
Speaker 1 (50:56):
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 ofthe one of the comments.
And what what's really nice isthat they are Conveniently
located, basically right aboveand next to the Reading Terminal
(51:18):
Market.
But the problem is you've gothundreds, thousands of people at
a convention and everybody goesdown and crams into the Reading
Terminal Market and the placeis just a mob scene.
So it was.
It was a nightmare.
Trying to get in there, getthrough there, we miraculously
found three stools next to eachother at the deli counter to get
(51:42):
some sandwiches.
So I don't know how thathappened.
But yeah, like I'm like I'm nowused to like.
New York Comic-Con has reallystepped up their game as far as
food is concerned.
They've got like foodEverywhere.
I feel like in that.
Speaker 2 (51:59):
Well, and I think that's just the Javits, like the
Javits.
Yeah, the job is a lot of goodfood options, but I think the
biggest thing is that they keepstuff stocked, and that was what
I was finding at PAX was like.
By the end of Saturday youcouldn't even get a drink.
Speaker 1 (52:13):
Yeah, yeah, it was how.
Yeah, by the.
By the end of day too, the likethe shelves were bare as far as
beverages were.
Speaker 2 (52:20):
Vending machines were empty.
Speaker 1 (52:21):
The vending machines throughout the complex were were
empty.
There was the one vendingmachine with like two iced teas
in it but the machine thoughtthey were out of stock so you
couldn't even get to those.
Like remaining iced teas inthere 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 fiddlePhiladelphia Convention Center,
(52:45):
bring snacks.
Um, bring beverages, bringsomething to eat.
And I will tell you Catherine'sfavorite tip for for
conventions those collapsiblestools which I think I mentioned
during the Comic-Con when wetalked about comic-con.
Yeah, worth talking about again,absolutely.
Speaker 2 (53:04):
I mean so good that After Friday James was on Amazon
trying to see if he could getone delivered to his hotel
overnight.
They are.
Speaker 1 (53:13):
They're great, they're phenomenal.
Speaker 2 (53:15):
I mean, it's just an easy like you don't have to sit
on the floor if there's not achair around.
You can just whip it out andSit wherever.
Speaker 1 (53:22):
Absolutely.
They're just circular littlecollapsible stools.
I mean they.
What was the maximum weightrating on those things?
Speaker 2 (53:29):
like 400 pounds.
Speaker 1 (53:31):
Yeah, it's like insane.
Yeah, it's like a tiny littlestool 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 stoolsyes, the Amazon link to the
stools in the in the show notesfor for everyone out there.
They're also lightweight, sothey're not obnoxious to carry
right, I mean they're just,they're just plastic, so they're
, they're very lightweight.
Speaker 2 (53:52):
I had both of them in a backpack and I was fine all
day.
Speaker 1 (53:54):
So All right, so I think who?
I think that covers everythingthat we, that we did a packs
unplugged for for the weekend ofDecember 1st to the 3rd
Philadelphia convention centerand the people are never going
to realize how manyinterruptions there were as we
recorded this.
Absolutely that.
(54:15):
That is my editing skills madediting skills mad editing
skills.
So many interruptions in thispot while we're recording this
podcast mostly cat relatedmostly cat related.
Yeah, but that's okay.
Speaker 2 (54:29):
That's our life.
Speaker 1 (54:30):
We love our cast.
We've got five of them in there.
They're the best.
So, anyway, thank you, thankyou everyone for for listening
Again.
We will.
We'll post all the links in theshow notes for all the
different vendors that we talkedabout.
Um, feel free to jump ondiscord and and and ask any
(54:51):
questions there.
You can always Email us atpodcast at legends, loot and
lore dot com.
You can also please support thepodcast.
We would love, we'd love, tokeep doing this, so, so, help us
out.
You can go to legends, loot andlore dot supercast dot com and
and support us there.
And other than that, um, I Ihope you have a great holiday,
(55:15):
because this is this is theholiday season.
Hanukkah is upon us right now,christmas is coming up soon and,
uh, hopefully, hopefully, youget everything that you wanted
for for the holidays more dice.
Speaker 2 (55:28):
No no no more dice.
Speaker 1 (55:30):
More dice for you, not for me.
Speaker 2 (55:32):
I don't need more dice either.
No for them, not you for them.
Yes, I hope you get all thedice you want.
Speaker 1 (55:37):
Yes to all the listeners.
May you get all the dice youget ever possibly want.
Thank you.
Welcome, lords, ladies and everyone in between,
to another fantastic episode ofLegends, Loot and Lore.
Joining me today in the co-hostchair is my wonderful wife,
Catherine.
Welcome, Thank you, so glad tohave you here.
Today we are going to berecapping our fantastic weekend
(00:31):
at PAX Unplugged, the tabletopgaming extravaganza that it is
from the Philadelphia ConventionCenter last weekend.
We were going to talk about allthe things we got to see and
enjoy and talk about some funthings that we were able to do
while we were down there andkind of cover the events.
(00:53):
So we're going to recap thatfor you today.
So this was not your typicalconvention, so I would both can
call.
I'd call both of us nerdy orgeeky, but you're not
necessarily.
You didn't grow up playingtabletop games.
This was not necessarily yourniche of a convention.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Yeah, like when we got married, I was really
surprised to see how many gamesyou have, because I think I
played Candyland as a kid andmaybe Monopoly, but like the
first thing my family did wasnot reach for a board game.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Yeah, so we were.
My father was not a big boardgamer You'd have to twist his
arm to get him to play a gamebut the rest of us really
enjoyed board gaming, so thiswas a lot of fun for me.
So there was a lot of heavyheaviness on the D&D during
packs unplugged.
But there was so many othergames, a lot of new games out
(01:59):
there, a lot of Kickstartercampaigns launching and things
like that so there was a lot toit 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 prettyexhausted after two days of
(02:25):
walking in the convention floor.
So we're going to recapeverything that we saw.
Starting with day one, fridayat noon, really really kicking
off the entire weekend was storytime with Matt Mercer.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Yep, which I went to under duress but ended up
enjoying.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Tell us.
So why were you not looking?
Why weren't you looking forwardto an hour of Matt Mercer
talking?
Speaker 2 (02:59):
I mean, I think I'm not the biggest D&D fan, so I've
played.
Obviously I've DM'd I prefer aone shot to anything else yes,
and I've obviously seen andlistened to critical role, but
it's just not.
It's not my thing, it's yourthing, which is fine, but I just
(03:21):
didn't know what his keynotewas going to end up being Right.
And there is nothing that makesme more uncomfortable than when
they set up microphones duringa panel and have people in the
audience ask awkward questions.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
So that's always fun.
The awkward audience questions.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Thankfully the questions had been sent in
advance and were kind of curated, so it wasn't horrifying for me
.
But his actual presentation Ithought was pretty interesting.
I he didn't lean as far intoD&D as I thought he would, right
, he more talked about howgaming kind of brings the nerdy
(04:01):
people among us together andkind of becomes this I can't
even think of the word I'mlooking for kind of becomes this
like I guess for lack of abetter word bonding opportunity,
right.
And throughout it he was alsoposting photos that folks from
the critical role cast weresending and they were all pretty
(04:26):
funny.
So that was entertaining.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Yes, indeed, and according according to Matt
Mercer, this was his firstPowerPoint that he had put
together, so kudos to him.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
I feel like if that's true, then he did not put that
PowerPoint together, becausethat was a very well done
PowerPoint.
That was not a new B PowerPoint.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Well, maybe, maybe that's just it.
Maybe because it was his firstPowerPoint, he didn't have all
the bad habits that manyPowerPoint users have developed
over the years.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
I don't know.
There was some like advancedPowerPointing happening.
Maybe he had a little help, Idon't know.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
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 storyfrom from growing up, you know
from from a very young age beingbeing artistic, you know,
drawing the video games thatthat he played.
He talked about a lot of thevideo games that influenced him
(05:27):
over his life, all the gamesthat that he had he had been
kind of playing.
So it was a really nice historyof kind of the history and
background of Matt Mercer, moreso than talking for an hour
about D&D or critical, criticalrole, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
I think that.
I think that's why I found itmore interesting than I thought
I was going to, right, becauseit was really more about him and
like he showed a lot of hisartwork and the evolution of his
artwork oh yeah, that was cuteand talked about some of the
voiceover work he's done, butreally talked about how one of
the things that stood out to mewas that he talked about how if
(06:06):
he DM'd a game for you as he wasgrowing up, it meant that you
were like really important tohim.
Right, that was how he showedhis love, which I thought was
very sweet.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
I just really liked that, that the hour was more
about you know, matt Mercer theperson, then Matt Mercer the DM
or or whatever it might be, thevoiceover artist.
It was really kind of reallythe full.
It was nice kind of history ofMatt Mercer in in one hour.
So I thought it was really.
It was really fun.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
It was cool to see some of his influences, some of
the, like I said, the games anddifferent things like anime
that's influenced him.
So a lot of his cosplay.
He showed a lot of pictures ofhim growing up doing cosplay,
which was a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Impressive cosplay actually Very impressive cosplay
.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Yeah, I was, I was.
I was pleasantly surprised.
I didn't.
I mean, I know how much theyare into it now, but even years
ago he was, he was really wellinto it.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Got to start somewhere.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Yes, yes, he do.
All right.
So that was our first, I meanbecause we got to.
We got to PAX at about 10 am, alittle after 10, I think.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
And the.
The line was wrapped around thebuilding and we finally got
inside, got right into the got,got got my credentials, got
right into the line for the MattMercer story time and then
after that we, we kind of hitthe floor and met up with our
friend James Yep and started tosee everything that there was to
(07:47):
see and a couple of the yes.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
And you and James started to buy everything that
there was to buy.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Okay, so maybe, maybe that's true.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Bad influences on one another.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Yes, very bad influence.
We enable each other to to tobuy many dice and other game
equipment and things like that.
So yep, guilty as charged.
So some of the some of thethings that we got to see were
were demos of not just new gamesbut existing games and and
(08:21):
things like that.
So one of the reallyinteresting games that I saw
during our time there was a gamecalled Pirates, dragon's
Treasure and this is this is byDarkport Games.
Now, this game I thought wasreally interesting.
You and James were kind ofstanding in the background as I
(08:42):
was watching the, the, the demoof it.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Not for the whole thing though.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Not for the whole.
Oh, no, no, no you came up kindof late.
You came up kind of late, so so,interestingly enough.
So Pirate's Dragons Treasure isa 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
(09:09):
which pirate you are going to beand then throughout the game,
you have to assemble a crew andyour crew has they've got their
own abilities, so they addthings to it.
You also have to equip a shipand you build your ship out so
(09:32):
you get the basic ship.
You get some additionalcapabilities to that.
I think it's about two to threecards that you use to build
that ship.
And throughout all this,throughout kind of the building
of your crew and ship, you'rebartering and interacting with
(09:54):
the other players at the table.
They encourage you to cheat.
There are consequences if youdo 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 andyou, the morale of the crew is
(10:15):
high.
You've got your ship assembled,you can go after and try to
defeat the dragon and you, basedon the overall capabilities of
your ship, you have X number ofhealth to try to attack the
dragon and then you go into thedragon attack and hopefully you
(10:40):
defeat it, and that's kind of.
The ultimate goal of the gameis to one of you has to try to
ultimately defeat the dragonwhile trying to prevent your
other pirates from doing thesame.
So it was a lot of fun.
It's really a high speed game.
I think they say it's aboutlike a 30 minute play time, so
(11:02):
for like for any particularround, which is which is really
quick, so it's not a hugeinvestment of of time, which is
nice.
It was really easy to to pickup and understand.
I think there, I think one ofmy favorite things was there's
one of the curse cards in thegame.
You can curse one of youropponents with with scurvy and
(11:26):
the the only way to defeat, toovercome the scurvy curse is you
actually have to somewhere inthe physical, wherever you are
playing is, is locate a piece offruit.
So there, there's no fruit cardthat you that you acquire, you
(11:47):
actually have to go find a pieceof live fruit to to avoid
getting getting scurvy, which Ithought was pretty pretty fun.
So it's there, there's a whole,it's.
It's a it's it's got a coupleof different, different ways of,
of differences.
Then then your typical cardgame that I thought were a lot
of fun, that that made it uniqueand stood out to me.
(12:10):
But yeah, so.
So pirates, dragons, treasure,was was tremendous amount of fun
.
Like I said, super easy to pickup, not very complicated,
single deck of cards.
So there there's differenttypes of cards that and you, you
play off of those and, based onhow much coin you have,
(12:31):
determines how, how many orwhich upgrade you can buy for
your, your ship, etc.
So it's a lot of fun, but checkthat out, a lot of fun.
The other game that we saw thatI actually sat down for, a full
scale kind of demo of the game,was a game called varia, and
(12:56):
varia is by guild house games,similar, similar in the same
realm as, like magic, thegathering, it's.
It's a.
It's a, it's a deck buildinggame.
So you have similar to D&D.
There are different classes ofof of character that you can
play.
So they've got a host of a hostof classes that you can choose
(13:20):
from.
Most recently I think they cameout with samurai and ninja.
Are are two of the new ones,but there there's a lot of a lot
of fun to it.
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 youcan reuse round after round and
(13:45):
and you really build out yourattack on your opponent through
your, through the deck of cards.
So you draw six, you, you, youplan out your attack and then
they plan out their response toto your attack, whether that's
defense or or attacking back,whatever that may be.
(14:06):
They, they plan on it out, andthen there there's some dice
rolling components to it as well.
So there's D4s and D6s that youuse to determine if your attack
hits, and then the, the D4s arereally to determine if the
attack hits.
D6s are are what they use forrolling how much.
There's like a base amount ofdamage that you do, and then you
(14:28):
roll the D6 on top of that tosee what the total damage is
that that you inflict on your,your opponent, that way.
But it was, it was a lot of funto play, definitely more complex
than than Pirates, dragons andTreasure, but I I think if
you're, if you're anywherefamiliar with Magic, the
Gathering or any of those othergames, you'd probably pick this
(14:51):
one up really quickly Again.
It was just, it was just atremendous amount of fun to play
.
A lot of strategy involved intrying to to to kind of outwit
your opponent, because therethere are always sorts of
defenses that they can they canput out there to negate your
(15:11):
attacks.
So you have no idea whatthey're going to do until you
put your attack down.
So there, there's a lot of funplay to it and, again, really
enjoyable.
I mean I was.
I went through a one hour longdemo of of the game and felt
pretty confident that I couldreasonably play it after, after
(15:32):
learning to play for for an hour.
But I would.
I would definitely like tostart playing that game with
with somebody.
So I bought their season oneset of classes.
They have a season two set ofclasses that have come out and
now they're now they'reintroducing them kind of in
these pairs after that as well.
So there there's additionalclasses that have been released.
(15:54):
But it is it's it's a reallycool game, something, something
different.
You know I thought I loved Ilike I'm again coming from D&D
and and rolling the dice.
I am, I'm always a fan ofbringing dice into a, even a
card playing game.
So that was, that was a lot.
That was pretty cool.
What was your thought?
(16:16):
Cause you were, you werefilming, so I know it's hard to
hear kind of in there, but butis there anything you picked up
on the game when you were, whenyou were watching?
Speaker 2 (16:26):
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, Imean, I was literally videoing.
I couldn't hear a word that washappening, but it looked
interesting.
But it did look like there werejust a lot of pieces to it,
like put this card down, rollthe die, and now you do this and
(16:47):
this is over here, and you werelike what was the spinny thing?
Was that reducing your hitpoints, or whatever?
The spinny thing you each had athing, that you turned a dial on
the side.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
That was.
That was tracking our health.
So you start with 30 health andand as you, as you battle, you
lose health.
So that was, that was just atracker you could.
You could literally track yourHP on on a piece of paper.
It's just a matter of how youthat's.
That's the method they had forfor tracking HP.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
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 (17:30):
Well, thank you.
Thank you for doing that.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
It was.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
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 itI really liked.
There was one card that I couldplay where I could actually you
could repeat the actionmultiple times.
So you could repeat the sameattack as many times as you
(17:54):
wanted to.
So I repeated like the sameattack four times.
However, my opponent then,reacting to that, had a I don't
know if it was a counter spellor a counter attack that negated
all of that action.
So it was really interestingwhen you think you're like okay,
(18:16):
I want to do this greatmaneuver and really inflict a
lot of damage, and they're likenot so fast.
So that's always fun.
It reminded me a lot of thecombat of D&D, which is my world
, so that's why I really enjoyedthe game.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
And obviously I think her name was Kim that you were
playing with.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Yes, Kim.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Kim was extremely animated, which I did enjoy,
since I was videoing.
She would actually mime, likeyou call it, pulling back the
bow.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Bow and arrow.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Yeah, and that was cool.
Like she obviously very muchenjoys the game, it isn't just a
like demo thing for her.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
No, she was.
She was definitely definitelyinto the game.
She's known the creators of thegame for some time, so she's
pretty familiar with the game,which is cool.
It was nice to have somebodydemoing the game that was into
it and really enjoyed playing it.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Yeah, I mean, and I certainly took that away from it
.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Yes, All right.
So those are the two main demosthat 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 justchecking out all the different
vendors, checking out a lot ofthe new games that were out
there there was.
(19:43):
There was so much cool stuff,but again, our world is mostly
D&D, so that's that's a lot ofwhat we focused on, and one of
the first places we stopped wasone of my favorite vendors for
all things D&D, mainly dice, andthat is dice dungeons out of
(20:07):
out of Baltimore, Maryland, andI didn't realize they were out
of Baltimore.
They're out of Baltimore.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
I like Baltimore.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
But, but I'm not pronouncing it correctly
Baltimore, there you go, get itright.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
So I'm saying oh, you should get it right.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
I should get it right , not you, don't give me that
look.
So yeah, so dice dungeons.
And, and for once, I walkedaway 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 (20:43):
Well, I mean, if I'm going to DM this campaign, I
need my own set of dice.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Yes, so again for for all of our listeners, when we
do the, the actual play of thecharacters that we have created,
catherine has agreed to be our,our DM for for that campaign.
We're doing, um, fan Delver andbelow the Shattered Obelisk,
Yep.
So.
So Catherine needed some dicefor for her DMing of that of
(21:15):
that campaign.
And, and your favorite color isRed.
And what color dice did you buy?
Red, oh, of course you did, anda very pretty set of dice.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
So so, Is that fizzy?
What's?
Speaker 1 (21:45):
happening.
He's playing with something.
Hey what you got.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
What do you have, sir , what you got?
Speaker 1 (21:59):
What's that?
What do you got?
Oh, look at that.
What is it?
That is a trunk.
Geez dude.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
I'm gluing those things down.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
What is this?
I don't know what that is thata hot box?
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Probably A hot box, dude, you gotta stop.
How does he even get to that?
Speaker 1 (22:19):
He stands up on here, yeah, and he puts his front
paws up here and knocks stuffdown and knocks everything down
and then he goes.
Oh, he's so handsome.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
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 coloris red, correct.
The dice you bought were red,so Correct.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
Dice Dungeons did a Kickstarter campaign it's been
quite a few years ago now.
At this point, they did aKickstarter for Vegetable Loan.
They did a Kickstarter for SeaGlass Dice, which are basically
(23:07):
frosted glass dice.
The first one was a frostedglass dice.
These were.
These are extremely beautifuldice.
I originally backed theKickstarter campaign.
I got a green set of Sea Glassdice and so, catherine, walking
(23:29):
around their table we hadalready talked about it because
I had mentioned them they havethey have red Sea Glass dice and
so you picked up a set of ofthose for DMing Finn Delver,
correct.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
Yeah, I like red.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
You like red, so check.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
And I like dice with a little bit of heft to them.
Yes, like I like weight to mydice.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
Yes, the glass dice have a nice, nice weight to them
.
They're not too heavy, Likelike those copper dice that I
have.
Those are, or even the stonedice are very heavy.
Even the stone dice are veryheavy, yeah, but the glass are.
The glass are nice.
They got a nice, nice enoughweight to them, but they're not
not too heavy.
Yeah, Just for everyone outthere, now we, we, we, we have a
(24:15):
new guest on the podcast andthat is DD AKA Daredevil.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Yep, she has arrived.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
She was.
She was very needy, so so webrought her in here.
Um, yeah, so so the Sea Glassdice have a nice, nice weight to
them.
So they're red, yes, they, theyhave a nice weight to them.
What else, what else?
Is there anything else aboutthem that you really liked?
What's what stood out aboutthis set?
Speaker 2 (24:45):
It's just really nice looking.
I mean they're just a a nicered kind of hefty set of dice.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
The numbering on them is really nice, easy to read
yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
Oh yeah, cause there's one set I was looking at
you couldn't even see thenumbers, right, yeah, no, this
will, I think it'll do nicely,yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:04):
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 aKickstarter campaign for their
Speak Easy dice, or what they're, what they're calling them, Uh,
Liquid Core dice, all named forvarious types of cocktails.
(25:27):
There's there's gin, there's atequila sunrise, there's a dark
and stormy.
They got, they've got all sortsof ones.
I don't think those are comingout until the the fall, if I
recall correctly, though.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
I do really like the Liquid Core dice, but again,
they're usually they're so cool.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
They're usually acrylics of their life and
they're really light yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Also, I roll really badly with them, Do you really?
Speaker 1 (25:51):
Yeah, I don't know you you were, you rolled badly
all weekend.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Except for the sea glass.
Except for the sea glass, thatis very true.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
So we, we, we tested all sorts of dice over the
entire weekend and Catherinekept rolling them to test them
and consistently rolled poorly,but again they were.
They were all, they were alllike.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
A lot of acrylic, yeah, yeah.
So, and then James, james'swhole thing was if you roll a
nat 20, you have to buy themRight.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
They had 20 with the sea glass, so See that it was,
it was destined, it was fateMentioned to be yes, indeed, so
that was.
That was what you bought atDice Dungeons.
Yes, I bought at Dice Dungeonsanother one of their quest decks
.
So they have these, these decksof cards, what they call quest
(26:53):
decks different themes.
So if you are looking to kindof quickly send, you're looking
for quick ideas on sending yourparty on side quests, this is,
this is the way to go.
These are, these are perfectcompanions to your, your
campaign.
(27:13):
This time I picked up partnersin crime and I cannot wait to to
try this one out.
I'm actually I actually haven'teven opened this yet, so let me
, let me pop this open.
My, my cat is eagerlyanticipating what I'm about to
do here.
I don't know why.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
He probably likes the noise.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
He does like that noise with the plastic.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
Crinkly.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Yeah, all right.
So we've got our quest deckhere.
Make sure you get them all out.
Oh, there we go.
Those are the blank.
They give you some blank cardsas well so you can create your
own side quests.
So this one, yes, this one isthe, like I said, partners in
(27:59):
crime.
So we've got quests of.
Our collections.
This month have been low.
We need to remind this town whythey pay protection.
Ooh, sounds like fun.
And let's see what else do wegot?
I'm just going to pick somecards from random here.
You want to pick one?
Yeah, pick a card, any card.
Okay, that one, that one, I'mallowed to show you that one.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
Don't show you the card, don't show me the card
Just read it to me.
The Gala next week has someamazing pieces that I'd like to
liberate.
Ooh, my brother is in charge ofmoving some statues.
In Think you got what it takesto stand as still as a statue.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
Interesting.
Didi is smacking her tail onthe Sorry.
On the microphone.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
I mean, I'm trying to control my shoulder cat.
Yes, okay, pick another onePick another card Get in there.
A friend of the guild has foundherself in the local prison.
She'll be shipped to a moresecure location in a week's time
, so I need a crew to earn herfreedom.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
Ooh, that's a, I'm going to keep that one on top
because that sounds really good.
So yeah, so that is just aquick example of some of the
things that come in the questdecks.
I've got three others.
At New York Comic Con I boughtcoastal threats because I'm
working on that spell jammer,kind of on the high seas
(29:31):
homebrew.
I've got four of the crown andfar flung journeys and there's a
whole bunch more than just that.
So they've got they've got themall kind of themed out and some
really cool things.
So there's one that's just likeum side quest for a job board.
(29:51):
So if they're in a town, maybethey're not so willing to leave
the town.
This is a way to kind of getthem out and on adventure and
things like that.
So Dice Dungeons quest decksare another really super cool
item to pick up when you'relooking for some ideas for your
(30:13):
campaigns.
If they're again, if they'rekind of stuck in one place and
you need them to go out and dothings, that's one way to do it.
If you're, maybe the wholeparty's not there and you're
just looking to fill in timeanother great reason why you
might wanna use like some of thequest decks.
So check out their website andwe'll put all of these links in
(30:36):
the show notes to all the thingsthat we're talking about so you
can check them out.
Other dice that we got, sincewe're on the topic of dice yes,
Misty mountain gaming.
Misty mountain gaming.
So I got myself a set of dice.
(30:58):
Where did I put them?
There they are.
So, first things first, Ibought a.
Actually, let's go even beyondthat.
So in my Wednesday campaign Iam playing a tiefling warlock
whose patron is an undeadEgyptian god.
(31:19):
So that's the backstory to that.
When I was at I think it wasthe Norse foundry booth at Pax
Unplugged they had this reallycool dice storage coffin thing
and the whole front of it isEgyptian hieroglyphics and it's
(31:41):
super cool.
So I thought that would be aperfect thing to put a set of
dice in for my warlock Silasbloodbane.
I'm like, why not?
And then I found an excellentset of dice.
Go figure, at Misty mountaingaming.
(32:01):
They refer to them as lava glass.
It's kind of like internallylike shattered glass and these
are, it almost looks like amber.
It's kind of what they looklike.
They got that orangeish yellowglow to them, but they're glass
dice and they are absolutelybeautiful.
They are some of the coolestlooking dice that I've seen,
(32:25):
very unique.
I haven't seen anything likethis at any of the vendors that
I've looked at online, at consand 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 thesedice for my Silas bloodbane
(32:47):
character in that coffin withthe Egyptian hieroglyphics.
I think that's what I'm gonnause Now.
What did you happen to?
I mean, I'm the one that boughtthem, but what dice did you get
from Misty mountain gaming?
Speaker 2 (33:01):
They are a set of obsidian dice with red numbering
on them.
Yes, and it's some pretty likeintricate numbering.
The details are really nice onthat set.
I'm actually looking at apicture of them right now.
Yeah, they're really pretty.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Well, because you had , you had pointed them out when
we were walking around the Mistymountain.
Gaming had a really large booth.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
And at one corner you're like ooh, look at those.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
And then, when I was purchasing my dice the lava
glass they asked are you surethere's nothing else that you
want?
And I'm like you had theseblack dice with red lettering
and there was a.
The same set was right in frontof me.
So they're like oh, you meanthose?
I'm like those are the ones.
So I got those for you cause Iknew you would enjoy them.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
Yeah, and again our nice and weighty weighty dice,
that obsidian glass, glass dice.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
So that'll be, that'll be a nice set to to roll
with.
And then another, another newvendor, that that I've been
following on TikTok for sometime and watching her make dice,
which is which is alwaysexciting.
I love, I love the process ofdice making, so it's always fun
(34:29):
to watch her account Long dogdice and they are absolutely
beautiful, resin, resin dice.
And I mean it's just I don'tknow, her designs are really,
really beautiful.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
They are.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
I really like those.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Plus she has two doshens and they're really cute.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
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 shehad posted about it on on TikTok
.
But she was.
She was using some space insomebody else's booth and so we
stopped by and she had anincredible set of dice that
(35:19):
James and I both were kind ofkind of gravitated toward.
So we actually both got thesame set of of dice.
I wanted it with silverlettering.
There were.
She had two set.
Well, she had one set withsilver lettering and that's what
James bought.
I also wanted the silverlettering and so she had a set
(35:44):
with white lettering that shewas going to remove the inking
from and reink them in silver.
But there's there's a coupledifferent, couple things
different about that set.
It's not your traditional D12shape.
It's like a I'm just hexagonal,but the but the shape of the
(36:09):
D12 is different, and and so isthe D4 in in this set.
So she gave me a couple ofoptions on the D4 to choose from
and I chose something a littlebit different than your typical
kind of triangle D4.
So I went with.
I went with something a littleunique for for that set, so I'm
(36:31):
I'm looking forward to to thatCatherine's on their site as we
speak.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
I am.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
Are you shopping?
No, oh darn.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
I have two sets now.
That's more than.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
I meant for me.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
Oh no.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
Not that I need another set of dice.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
Seriously, you go, you go beyond dice goblin.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
Beyond dice goblin.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
Yeah, what's the next level?
Dice hoarder, this is dicedragon.
I can't I guess.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
I don't know what the next one is.
It's bad, it's really bad.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
I doubt you're the worst.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
Probably not.
Probably not, but there's, Ihave quite a few sets of dice.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
Yeah, you do.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
But but definitely check out, check her out on on
TikTok Longdog Dice she's.
She's a tremendous creator ofof resin dice beautiful designs.
There's probably at least twomore that I would have picked up
, cause there was that like thattime travel one.
(37:33):
It was like like a bluishpurple with like the green
numbering on it, Like the brightgreen numbering, which was
super cool.
Speaker 2 (37:39):
Oh yeah, that was cool.
Speaker 1 (37:40):
Yeah, that was a really cool set, so there's
definitely other stuff that Iwould.
I would buy if given the chance.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
Just saying, my goodness, what else?
What else was there there was?
Was there?
Was there any other?
No, though, that was all thedice that we bought, right.
Speaker 2 (37:58):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (37:59):
Yeah.
So there was.
It was other things that thatwe saw there, that that I that I
was checking out.
Another vendor that I thoughtwas really cool was a company
called Mythic Grove Productions,and the guy by the name of Gabe
Hicks has developed what hecalls the session zero system.
(38:21):
This is something you, ifyou're, if you if you have
issues or you're working withnew players, this is a great
system for helping them kind ofcreate, not not so much a
backstory, but create kind ofthe connections between the
characters in the party.
So create a little bit ofbackstory, create a reason for
(38:44):
why they're doing what they'redoing.
But it's it's a really simplesystem.
It's really kind of like athree step system for creating
this background and and findingout how these different
characters are are connected toeach other.
He also wrote a book called AKids Guide to Tabletop RPGs,
which I thought was reallyinteresting, and it's not just
(39:07):
about Dungeons and Dragons, it'sabout about all sorts of
tabletop RPGs, and at one pointin the book he he creates kind
of a flow chart of like what areyou into all the different
things that that you might beinterested in, and recommends
different types of tabletop RPGsfor you to to explore with your
(39:29):
kids.
So it's a really great resource, definitely worth checking out.
I'm hoping to hoping to haveGabe on the podcast shortly.
I reached out to him when I wasthere and he said he'd be
interested, so I'm I'm reallyhoping he's going to be willing
to to be on the podcast.
So another really cool vendorthat I saw was one called
(39:50):
Limithron, which I'm hoping I'mpronouncing that correctly.
They are a creator, publisherof an RPG that is pirate themed
zombies.
Nautical looks really, reallycool.
But what really caught my eyefor me again being the D&D
player, was they've got a rulesupplement for fifth edition for
nautical combat and I thoughtthis was really tremendously
(40:13):
helpful, especially for meworking on the spell jammer
homebrew that I'm working on.
The, the adventuring party isgoing to spend a lot of the
first part of the campaign on asingle planet as a sailing ship,
and I thought this would beperfect for me to try to build
some combat adventures in andreally make it as realistic as
(40:34):
possible, cause the ship takesdamage and and how, what are the
, what are the ranges on thecannons and things like that,
and what type of ammunition dothey use.
So there's there's a lot ofgreat detail in this, the
supplement that that I finduseful for me for my campaign
and if you're doing anythingnautically themed with with a
(40:55):
ship.
This is the.
This is something you mightreally 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.
They've got a whole Patreonaccount where you can you can
support them.
They've got tons of of maps andmap grids for for different
(41:18):
nautical themes, underwateradventures, different types of
boats.
They've got all sorts of mapsfor 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 firstresource for checking that out.
(41:42):
The last vendor that I want tomention that we took a look at
was there's a vendor and asoftware 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
(42:05):
sound effects and environmentalsounds for your games, and one
of the really cool things that Iliked about it was you can
change the intensity of thedifferent sound effects with a
slider right within the app.
So if you're like cause theywere, they were talking about
(42:26):
like the rain, so you'reoutdoors in the rain so you've
got the intensity all the way upthat the rain is coming down,
you really hear it.
Maybe you step indoors you canslide the intensity all the way
down so you still hear kind ofthis rain in the background,
cause you're indoors but it'sstill raining outside, so you
still kind of hear it, but it'snot overpowering to the point
(42:47):
where it's the primary soundthat you're hearing.
Now you crank up the fire inthe fireplace and things like
that.
So the intensity modificationof the different sound effects I
thought was was a super cooladdition to the app itself.
Again, somebody that I'm hopingto have on the podcast, that we
can really talk about this morein depth and really demo it so
(43:08):
you can see how the differentsounds.
Maybe we'll do a little oneshot or something with them and
play the sounds, cause theytalked about ways, cause, again,
it's really meant for right nowin person play, but they've
talked about ways to integrateit into, like your discord games
and things like that.
So so maybe we'll get them onthe podcast and really get to
(43:30):
demo it through a one shot andreally see how it, how it works.
But that was another.
That was another really coolone, pocket barred.
Definitely go check them outagain.
I'll put the link in the in theshow notes for you so you can.
You can check it out.
And that was, I mean there wasso much to to see.
I mean there there's numerousother vendors that we, we saw
(43:52):
there.
Those were, those were justsome of the standouts as far as
we were concerned.
There were there were so manygames being demoed Other vendors
Cobalt Press was there.
They had some great stuff.
There's just a lot, a lot goingon.
We, we saw some demos of someother games.
(44:14):
There's the one game that I'mnot going to talk about because
we bought it for my brother andhis family, so not talking about
that game at all.
Sorry, scott, but it's a lot offun.
I watched, watched a long demoof it and it looks, looks to be
a lot of fun.
So you're in, you're in forsome fun times this Christmas.
But anyway, there was there wasother parts to two packs
(44:39):
unplugged that that were there.
There's so many.
So much of the convention centeritself was set aside for
playing just random games.
There were.
There were areas set up for forplaying D&D games, specifically
Pathfinder there was.
There was like what was it?
The national mahjong tournamentwas going on or something.
(45:01):
There was.
There was all sorts of thingsgoing on other than just just
the vendor.
So there's, if you wanted tojust check out a game, they had
a whole section of theconvention center where you
could just go up, check outgames and play them with other
people.
There was a whole area wherethey were doing one shots of D&D
so people could host, host atable and and bring in people.
(45:23):
People could sign up and andtry, try a one shot there.
Speaker 2 (45:28):
There was the paint and take, which apparently is a
big deal from what I was readingthat, like you have to sign up
first thing in the morning, assoon as it becomes available, oh
, wow.
You can paint your, you canpaint your figure and take it
with you.
Speaker 1 (45:39):
Oh, that's very cool.
Speaker 2 (45:40):
Yeah, so that that seemed like a thing that I would
really enjoy doing actually.
Speaker 1 (45:46):
I am just.
I mean I.
I get most of my figuresthrough Hero Forge and I let
them color them for me because Iam.
I am not artistic and creativeat all as far as that's
concerned.
Speaker 2 (45:59):
There was also and I don't know if I understood this
correctly, because it was justkind of when we were walking
around, but that game librarywas that just an opportunity to
like grab a game and go play itin one of the play areas.
Yeah, yeah, that seemed kind ofcool.
Speaker 1 (46:12):
Yeah, there was just.
Yeah, they had whole sectionsof just games you could check
out and it's like, oh, I want toplay this game.
Okay, cool, here it is, goahead 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 thehallway playing with other
people.
It was just, it's just a fun, afun time to to to gather around
(46:35):
with with other other gamersand and and play some games Like
I love.
Don't, don't get me wrong, Ilove video games and and playing
them, but there's there'ssomething fun and just sitting
around a table playing, playinga game, whether it, whether it
be something as simple as Uno orMonopoly, or or getting into
(46:56):
some of these really complexgames.
Um, magic the Gathering therewas a whole thing for Magic the
Gathering there.
Yeah, I mean, and and they werebuying and selling cards and my
goodness, and Pokemon.
Did you see?
Pokemon was there?
Yep.
So I mean there's just there'sa lot to do at at Pax Unplugged
(47:17):
it was.
It was really impressive.
Speaker 2 (47:20):
Oh and pin trading.
Speaker 1 (47:21):
And pin trading yes.
Speaker 2 (47:23):
So there, not only was the opportunity to trade
pins with other people, but alot of the vendors had um
exclusive pins just for Pax thatthey were selling.
Speaker 1 (47:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (47:32):
So that was cool, cause I actually really liked
pins so that was kind of a funthing for me to check out as we
were there.
Speaker 1 (47:39):
Yes, but you don't like trading pins, you just like
acquiring pins.
Speaker 2 (47:43):
Yeah, because I acquire pins that I love and
then I'm not going to give themto anyone else.
Speaker 1 (47:47):
That's.
That's a problem.
You have to, you have to likeinclude some that you're willing
to to part with.
So I know, I know that's whyyou have walking backs on all of
your pins.
Speaker 2 (47:57):
So I don't lose any of my pins.
Speaker 1 (47:59):
Exactly, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (48:02):
Um, I'm trying to think what else?
Oh, and the other thing I thinkthat's just always nice at
these conventions is the otherpeople.
Yeah, there are people, sothey're just generally kind.
That one, um that one womangave you honey.
Um, I mean, there were just yes, thank you.
Speaker 1 (48:21):
I, I I don't know your name we, we, we were both
fans of of long dog dicestanding there and what, what.
What was the reasoning?
Why did she give me the honey?
Speaker 2 (48:34):
Well, she was dressed in all B stuff so yes.
Cosplaying.
I think it was a theme, but Idon't know why.
She also gave honey to James.
Speaker 1 (48:43):
Yeah.
So, maybe we can ask James whyshe was handing out.
I can't remember how theconversation started and yeah,
and then.
Speaker 2 (48:50):
She was lovely though .
Speaker 1 (48:51):
She was, she was super nice.
Speaker 2 (48:53):
And I found that was pretty much everyone.
Like you know, by Saturday.
Friday was pretty chill, butSaturday was pretty crowded and
people were bumping into eachother and everyone was just very
kind.
Um, and that's what I like themost about these things is that
people are nice to each otherand you don't find that
everywhere.
Speaker 1 (49:11):
Yeah, they're and they're there's just, I think
probably the only drawback thatthat I see with these
conventions is they they almostpack in too much stuff.
Speaker 2 (49:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (49:28):
Because there's there were a bunch of panels that I
wanted to see that I just didn'thave time for Because I was I
was more doing interviews andtrying to find content for for
the podcast, so that that waskind of my focus.
But like I would have loved togo check out some of the panels,
um, I I'd hope to get into aD&D one shot and the table was
(49:52):
full so I didn't get it, didn'tget a chance to play on that.
So there's other things that Ireally wish that I had gotten a
chance to do while I was there.
But, um, I still feel like wewe still accomplished quite a
quite a bit.
Speaker 2 (50:06):
Yeah, I mean, I think we saw just about everything.
Speaker 1 (50:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (50:11):
That's why we didn't end up going back on Sunday.
Right that and dead feet.
Speaker 1 (50:17):
Yeah, we were after.
After two days of being on thatconcrete floor, it's like, yeah
, you're feet, your feet havehad enough, so so wear
comfortable shoes.
If you ever go to a con, wearcomfortable shoes.
Bring multiple sets of shoes soyou can change, because
sometimes even just changing thepair of shoes that you're
(50:37):
wearing is a big help.
Stay hydrated.
Speaker 2 (50:42):
Absolutely.
That was a toughie for this one.
Yeah, our mark was not as up onrefilling their Roofer draiders
as I'm accustomed to when we goto like conventions at Javits.
Speaker 1 (50:56):
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 ofthe one of the comments.
And what what's really nice isthat they are Conveniently
located, basically right aboveand next to the Reading Terminal
(51:18):
Market.
But the problem is you've gothundreds, thousands of people at
a convention and everybody goesdown and crams into the Reading
Terminal Market and the placeis just a mob scene.
So it was.
It was a nightmare.
Trying to get in there, getthrough there, we miraculously
found three stools next to eachother at the deli counter to get
(51:42):
some sandwiches.
So I don't know how thathappened.
But yeah, like I'm like I'm nowused to like.
New York Comic-Con has reallystepped up their game as far as
food is concerned.
They've got like foodEverywhere.
I feel like in that.
Speaker 2 (51:59):
Well, and I think that's just the Javits, like the
Javits.
Yeah, the job is a lot of goodfood options, but I think the
biggest thing is that they keepstuff stocked, and that was what
I was finding at PAX was like.
By the end of Saturday youcouldn't even get a drink.
Speaker 1 (52:13):
Yeah, yeah, it was how.
Yeah, by the.
By the end of day too, the likethe shelves were bare as far as
beverages were.
Speaker 2 (52:20):
Vending machines were empty.
Speaker 1 (52:21):
The vending machines throughout the complex were were
empty.
There was the one vendingmachine with like two iced teas
in it but the machine thoughtthey were out of stock so you
couldn't even get to those.
Like remaining iced teas inthere 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 fiddlePhiladelphia Convention Center,
(52:45):
bring snacks.
Um, bring beverages, bringsomething to eat.
And I will tell you Catherine'sfavorite tip for for
conventions those collapsiblestools which I think I mentioned
during the Comic-Con when wetalked about comic-con.
Yeah, worth talking about again,absolutely.
Speaker 2 (53:04):
I mean so good that After Friday James was on Amazon
trying to see if he could getone delivered to his hotel
overnight.
They are.
Speaker 1 (53:13):
They're great, they're phenomenal.
Speaker 2 (53:15):
I mean, it's just an easy like you don't have to sit
on the floor if there's not achair around.
You can just whip it out andSit wherever.
Speaker 1 (53:22):
Absolutely.
They're just circular littlecollapsible stools.
I mean they.
What was the maximum weightrating on those things?
Speaker 2 (53:29):
like 400 pounds.
Speaker 1 (53:31):
Yeah, it's like insane.
Yeah, it's like a tiny littlestool 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 stoolsyes, the Amazon link to the
stools in the in the show notesfor for everyone out there.
They're also lightweight, sothey're not obnoxious to carry
right, I mean they're just,they're just plastic, so they're
, they're very lightweight.
Speaker 2 (53:52):
I had both of them in a backpack and I was fine all
day.
Speaker 1 (53:54):
So All right, so I think who?
I think that covers everythingthat we, that we did a packs
unplugged for for the weekend ofDecember 1st to the 3rd
Philadelphia convention centerand the people are never going
to realize how manyinterruptions there were as we
recorded this.
Absolutely that.
(54:15):
That is my editing skills madediting skills mad editing
skills.
So many interruptions in thispot while we're recording this
podcast mostly cat relatedmostly cat related.
Yeah, but that's okay.
Speaker 2 (54:29):
That's our life.
Speaker 1 (54:30):
We love our cast.
We've got five of them in there.
They're the best.
So, anyway, thank you, thankyou everyone for for listening
Again.
We will.
We'll post all the links in theshow notes for all the
different vendors that we talkedabout.
Um, feel free to jump ondiscord and and and ask any
(54:51):
questions there.
You can always Email us atpodcast at legends, loot and
lore dot com.
You can also please support thepodcast.
We would love, we'd love, tokeep doing this, so, so, help us
out.
You can go to legends, loot andlore dot supercast dot com and
and support us there.
And other than that, um, I Ihope you have a great holiday,
(55:15):
because this is this is theholiday season.
Hanukkah is upon us right now,christmas is coming up soon and,
uh, hopefully, hopefully, youget everything that you wanted
for for the holidays more dice.
Speaker 2 (55:28):
No no no more dice.
Speaker 1 (55:30):
More dice for you, not for me.
Speaker 2 (55:32):
I don't need more dice either.
No for them, not you for them.
Yes, I hope you get all thedice you want.
Speaker 1 (55:37):
Yes to all the listeners.
May you get all the dice youget ever possibly want.
Thank you.
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