When I was at GenCon last month, I signed autographs and stuff for close to six hours a day. I got to meet a lot of people (and took home about ten pounds of dice!) but I hardly got to see any of the con, and I got to play a grand total of three games while I was there. I’ve been working my ass off for three weeks, and the idea of doing the same thing at PAX this year makes me so sad, I want to curl up in a little ball on the floor and cry.
So this year, I have decided that, instead of spending most of the show signing in Bandland and taking three days to recover when I get home, I’m going to finally attend PAX, enjoy the company of my tribe, and play a ton of games. This means that I have severely curtailed my signing schedule, and it means there is no way I’m going to be able to sign things for everyone who wants things signed. (I’m not saying that in some kind of “Hey, everyone come and see how good I look!” sort of way, I just know that at every PAX I’ve been to - this is my fifth - people tell me they typically wait 90 minutes or more, and we always turn people away because I run out of time.)
My PAX schedule this year is fundamentally different from every other PAX I’ve attended. I’m afraid that this is going to make a non-zero number of people unhappy with me, but here we go:
Friday:
10am 1pm: Signing in Bandland for about an hour. No lineups before 9:45. 12:45.
Saturday:
10am: Signing in Bandland for about an hour. No lineups before 9:45.
2:30pm-4:30pm - Acquisitions, Incorporated: D&D Live!
Gabe, Tycho, and Scott Kurtz begin an adventure with one goal, find a way to bring back Wil Wheaton’s deceased character, Aeofel. This is unscripted Dungeons & Dragons before a live studio audience... and through the magic of TECHNOLOGY, the audience influences the game! Bring your cell phone and guide Jim Darkmagic, Binwin Bronzebottom, and Omin Dran to riches or ruin.
6:30pm: Hi, I’m Wil Wheaton. AMA (Title shamelessly stolen from Reddit)
I’ve been working so much on secret projects and Eureka, I haven’t had time to write anything new for PAX, and rather than tell the same stories everyone’s heard already, I thought it would be fun to spend an hour together answering questions and talking about things that are interesting to you.
Sunday:
10am 1pm: Signing in Bandland for about an hour. No lineups before 9:45. 12:45.
Like I said, I know this is going to make some people unhappy, and if you’re one of those people, I hope I can appeal to your fundamental humanity for a moment, and ask for some understanding: I’ve been working my ass off for three weeks on a job that’s amazingly wonderful and fun, but is also emotionally exhausting (all creative work is emotional, I’ve realized, which is a subject that deserves its own post when I’m not as exhausted as I am now) and I’m just plain out of HP and Mana. I have a choice: I can skip PAX entirely, or I can attend PAX in a way that will still be fun for me. I chose the latter, because I think I’ve earned it, and as I said in my PAX East keynote:
We are all here today because we love playing games. Some of the happiest days of our lives would not exist without games and gaming. Games are important. Games matter. PAX is where we come together to celebrate that.
I can’t think of a better place to refill my HP and Mana than PAX, and I'm incredibly excited to finally attend this con that I've come to love so much. See you in about 56 hours!
