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Cordyceps! American Sign Language! Cosmic Horrors! A Pax East Recap

Anomia Press @ Pax East 2023
As always, it’s a lot of fun (and extremely exhausting) to demo Anomia all day, for 4 days straight! Cons are always a great mix of seeing familiar faces and meeting lots of new people who have never heard of Anomia.  I never get tired of seeing new player’s faces light up once they understand how to play.
 
Highlights for me this year include:
  • I met person who used Anomia as part of their recovery from a traumatic brain injury.  This is now the third convention in a row where this has happened.  It’s pretty common for me to meet a speech pathologist or an occupational therapist who is familiar with my games, but meeting the actual people who have used Anomia in their recovery is always humbling.

  • I met a teacher of American Sign Language who was interested in using the blank Anomia Print & Play to create a deck for her students.  We also talked about the possibility of me making a custom deck just for her classes.  Hopefully, she will follow up with me on this.
  • Whenever the Parasite card came up in the Blue deck of the original game, everyone was yelling “Cordyceps!”  Hat tip to all you “Last of Us” fans.  You know who you are.

  • I met an ESL teacher who was going to be using Anomia and Anomia Kids in her classroom.

  • As usual, I ran a raffle every day and gave away a free game. Congrats to the winners this year! Katie C., Linc X., Jackie P., & Jason C.  I hope you enjoy your games!

  • I got some great feedback on the Tongue Twisters Print & Play from Anitra at the Family Gamers. This prompted me to think more seriously about evolving this idea into an actual physical product.  So, perhaps I’ll get back to that with another pass of edits and keep play testing it.
OK and now for maybe my favorite part of any convention! This is where I review all the card ideas I get from people who come visit my table.  Pax East is a little funny in that the part of the convention hall I’m in stays open after the main hall closes.  I’m pretty much brain dead by 6pm so I usually leave a deck of Anomia cards for people to play and also a blank deck so people can write down ideas while I’m not around.  It seems my absence frees people up to write up some goofy, inappropriate, nonsensical and/or bizarre ideas….and so with that, I give you two sets of Pax East Anomia cards.
 
First, here are some ideas that I could imagine being in some sort of Anomia deck (I bolded some of these because they were either bizarre, obscure, or just made me happy).
  • Anime High Schooler, Kaiju, Big Band Jazz Musician, Last of Us Character, Nintendo Character, Type of Cat, Name that Starts with S ends with A and has an F in the Middle, Republicans, Rudyard Kipling Book, Type of Pain, PBA Bowler, Cosmic Horror, Human Organ, Non-Animal Muppet, Stalone Movie, Fictional Talking Animal Confusing Things to Be Afraid Of, Gatorade Flavor, Fictional Virus, Break Dance Movie, Fish Noises, Truly Horrifying Animals to Keep as Pets, Star Name (Astronomy), Industrial Solvent, Taylor Swift Album, A White Blood Cell in the Myeloid Cell Line, Jellybean Flavor, Simple Machine, Type of Sauce, Trashy Animals, Type of Shark, Murder Weapon, Type of STI, Provocative Clown Name, D&D Race, Michael Mann Movie, Song from the 40’s, Sampled Song, Female Astronaut, Type of Pizza, A Job that Barbie Had, Erectile Dysfunction, PPE, Anti-Vaxxer, Explicit Website, Final Boss in Undertale, Gemstone/ Crystal, Things That are Cold & White, Type of Buttercream (Who knew that there are 5 types of Buttercream!)
Aaaaaaaaand, then here are the idea submissions that probably won’t ever see the light of day:
  • Thuddy Implements, Big Farts, Twat Waffle, Luffy the Pirate King, Bigger Farts, Foghorn Leghorn, Steampunk, Quadruple Butthole, Porno Knock-Off Name, Last Words, A Roach, Watuigi’s Taint…
Though, who knows, maybe I'll start working on the Qaudruple Butthole deck next week.

Thanks to my friends at Eureka Puzzles and Gamewright who always make Pax so much more enjoyable. And, of course, thanks to the many of you who attend!
Anomia Press @ Pax East 2023

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