PAX is over now and I’m at home recovering. It was an incredible four days and I wanted to share some of my highlights.
A soldier who was stationed in Afghanistan gave me an incredible gift. He said that he was stuck in a tiny outpost in the middle of nowhere. A friend of his was able to dig a good sized chunk of Lapis Lazuli out of the ground and gave it to him. He took this solid rock of pure Lapis and began hand carving dice. he made two sets, one to keep and the other to give away. From the second set he gave 2 dice each to myself, jerry, Scott, and Kris. Here’s a picture of the two dice I chose.
Keep in mind these are hand carved. He said that during his deployment he would just spend a little time each day sanding and working on them. I can’t believe how beautiful they are. It’s an incredible gift and I wanted to share it here.
I was also given another amazing gift this year.
This is a one month sobriety chip given to me by a fan who told me that Penny Arcade helped him through some very difficult times. I get items like this quite often and it’s always an incredible honor. It means alot to me every time someone comes up and tells me that PA has helped them in some way. On the last day of the show I was walking back to my hotel and a young man ran up to me. He had tears in his eyes and he didn’t say anything. He just hugged me. This was a, no bullshit, real hug and as he did it he just said “thank you for all of this.” then he just ran off before I could even respond. I remember all these stories and all these hugs and they are a continual source of inspiration. So thank YOU.
I’m also given all sorts of awesome gifts that don’t make me cry. One of the coolest things I got this year was a bottle of Kilted Bear Honeyed Rum. Now I’m not much of a drinker, in fact I may only have one or two drinks a year. I generally just don’t like the taste of alcohol, but holy shit this stuff was good. So I need you all to go and support their Kickstarter because I need more of this stuff and right now they are not getting the funding they need to produce it.
Another highlight for me was our live D&D game. I cannot believe this is my actual job. Sitting on stage in front of almost 30000 people playing D&D with my friends is just an amazing experience. I have to say Patrick Rothfuss absolutely kicked ass. I will never forget that he went back and cut the ropes on the other two chandeliers before we left. Also Chris Perkins is easily the greatest Dungeon Master ever. I feel like I should be paying money just to play in his games. Don’t tell WOTC that though.
Finally I have to say the Pinny Arcade pin trading at Prime was insane. I had so much fun trading and meeting people this year. The thing I kept hearing from traders was not only were they having fun collecting all the pins, but they loved the excuse it gave them to meet new people at PAX. I can’t tell you how happy this makes me.
If you got into Pinny Arcade be sure and check out the official pin trading forum thread. There’s lots of trading still going on in there. Also be careful with eBay. I see the Lookouts set on there for around $80 and I can tell you it will be available in our online store here shortly for less than half that.
Thank you all for making this such an amazing PAX.
-Gabe Out
