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So, I’m back from PAX, in one piece but extraordinarily tired. I had a great time and saw a lot of cool (and frankly, some downright weird) stuff. Over the next few days I’ll try and give you a recap and talk about some of the highlights of the show. Tonight I’m just going to give an overview, as 1) I think PAX is unlike any other convention out there and probably deserves some explanation, and 2) I'm really tired and want to go to bed. But, I promise, over the next couple of nights I’m going to talk about tabletop gaming at PAX (with pictures from the Privateer Press booth and their incredible Legends diorama!) and then I'll round it out with some video game coverage. But for now:

This was the first time that I have ever attended a major convention of any kind. PAX has interested me for years as it seemed to do a good job catering to both the tabletop and video game crowds, and I tend to have one foot firmly anchored in each camp. It also didn’t hurt that Seattle is a cheap 45-minute flight from where I live, making it a relatively affordable and easy trip. I stayed at the Sheraton right at the convention center, which I highly recommend.

My first impressions: I was completely overwhelmed. I remember the guys over at Fear the Boot saying the same thing about the first time they went to GenCon, and now I totally get it. My advice for first time con attendees – relax. There is shit going on everywhere, people everywhere… strange people. In fact, the word is that PAX pulled in almost 60,000 attendees this year!

It took me a while to figure out the flow of the place, but once I did, I started to have a good time. The trick is in realizing that PAX isn’t really an expo… you could call it a convention, but festival seems even more appropriate. I guess I kind of expected to show up and just be entertained. At the end of the day, you realize that you get out of PAX what you put into it. Once I just rolled with it, I started having a really good time. (Sitting in a giant beanbag, chair in a line, playing my PSP while waiting to get into the Warhammer: Age of Reckoning presentation for example…)

The show itself is an amalgam of all kinds of geekishly related activities – a exhibitor’s hall full of gaming goodness, including lot of yet-to-be released big titles, a ton of really enjoyable speaker panels, open gaming, tournaments, geek movie screenings, “nerdcore” rap concerts and entire separate building full of table top gaming. We tended to spend our days at the main building looking through the expo hall and listening to panels, and then at night we headed over to the tabletop gaming hall, which stayed open until 3am! My only regret is being a n00b, I missed a lot of good stuff by just not knowing what was going on.