Tabletop is a highlight of PAX Aus 2024, with dozens of creative games on show, including big players Wizards of the Coast, Star Wars Unlimited and Disney Lorcana.
But it’s the little ones that truly bring something unique to the table. Join us as we explore what’s on offer.
We’ll continue to update this article over the weekend. If you’ve got one to recommend, drop a comment on our social media.
READ MORE: PAX Australia 2024: Live Updates and Coverage
Fragged Empire
Fragged Empire is the twice successfully crowd funded sci-fi tabletop game by Melbourne designer Wade Dyer. The latest release is the brand new Rag-Tag game, which is aimed at being a thematic entry point to the Fragged Empire universe, while being lighter on rules.
Fragged Empire is a post-post-apoclypse where the various races of the galaxy are stepping out of their Mad-Max style lives and trying to reboot the galaxy for future generations.
Nathanael spoke with Wade about the Rag-Tag release. “I didn’t want to just make a lesser version of Fragged Empire. I wanted to make something that is easy to get into, fun and atmospheric, and give players a taste of the universe of the full game” he said.
Check out Fragged Empire at PAX Australia or online at fraggedempire.com.
Drop Bears
Board game Drop Bears takes the 80s style of teen slasher films (think Friday the 13th or Halloween) and drops it into the Australian bush. Players take on the role of campers, hikers, medics and lost people, trying to survive while being hunted by a pack of deadly Drop Bears.
Players take on the role of campers, hikers, medics and lost people, trying to survive while being hunted by a pack of deadly Drop Bears.
The titular creatures are controlled by a set of rules that govern how they hunt, and the players can work together to complete objectives, but run the risk of being ambushed as a group.
Check out Drop Bears here.
Miniature Scenery
Miniature Scenery has some of the most amazing little laser-cut terrain pieces I’ve ever seen. Everything from Sci-fi bases to medieval towns and modern city scapes.
They all come flat-packed and can be assembled, painted and placed to create maps for tabletop skirmish games or RPGs.
see the whole range of Miniature Scenery here.
Cartograph
Cartograph is a wonderful little solo or group game by The Ravensbridge Emporium where you work to craft a world map including towns, rivers and mountains. As your story evolves, you’ll map the region, get to know the inhabitants, and potentially die horribly in the wilderness. It can be played with normal dice or custom-themed dice that are wonderfully handmade.
Cartograph the Atlas Edition is currently up for preorder here.
Glow Craft
Calling all Dice Goblins, Glow Craft is creating amazing little laser cut accessories to house, hold and punish your dice. Currently on Kickstarter, the Dice Compendium 2 is a custom dice storage box that can hold 25 full dice sets in one unit, and daisy-chain multiple units together. You can even program it to just highlight all your purple dice or green dice to make selection easier using the attached app.
check out Glow Craft’s gear here.
Potion Society
Potion Society is a cosy potion crafting game where players follow recipes and collect ingredients to brew potions faster than their opponent.
The card art and visual style of the game feels straight out of a cosy indie game like Stardew Valley. And the co-op / competitive nature of the game will have you making best friends before tipping over your opponents cauldron and scattering their ingredients.
Potion Society is now on Kickstarter.
Dark Vigil
Dark Vigil by Nicole Renner is a deeply atmospheric tabletop roleplaying game set in the 1800s.The world has fallen into darkness as an eclipse spread across the globe, bringing monsters and dark magic with it.
The game features a corruption system where players can give into the darkness to unlock dark powers, but risk being taken over and becoming a villain or monster under the control of the Game Master.
Oracle
Oracle is one of the PAX Indie Showcase winners — Oracle is a game of mystery and intrigue, where players act as members of a medieval court.Each player has their own objectives and challenges to complete, and while you may share some goals with other players, you can’t always trust everyone at your table.
Good Society
Good Society by the Storybrewers Collective is a tabletop roleplaying game based in the world of Jane Austen. Players enter the world of high society and must host events, make friends, play matchmaker and pursue your own goal as a member of the aristocracy!
Dragon Dice
Dragon Dice takes the 1996 classic war game / dice game and reinvents it for a modern audience. After the game was sold off from Wizards of the Coast, a group of avid community members decided to rebuild it and maintain all the classic rules. The game is built around armies that are represented on the game hoard by hordes of coloured dice, and players roll to issue orders to their troops, cast magic spells and summon dragons to wreak havoc on their does. The game can be played solo, or in multiplayer in teams, free-for-all, or one-on-one.
Arkenforge
Arkenforge is a locally produce game tool that doubles as a map maker as well as a game board. The system is designed to help Game Masters build and play on digital maps with beautifully designed assets, animations and tools like Fog of War.
The demos on the show floor at PAX included ships on the high seas, towns, islands and smaller maps. However, the system is designed so that maps can be played on digital screens (with touch screen options), or exported and printed for the old-school paper feel.
Arkenforge isn’t an online play tool, the team have designed to to help level up home games and make in-person play more immersive.
As someone with rolls and rolls of maps and stacks of minis, this would certainly make my life easier.
find out more at Arkenforge.
Warlord: Orc Duel
Warlord: Orc Duel is a Tasmanian-designed card game where players vie for control of the Orc Horde and the various factions in between.
The game is designed for short play sessions that can be played over a lunch break, and multiple sessions feed into one another by changing the rules. As one player gains the loyalty of the Orc factions, they’ll gain special loyalty bonuses, but also make other factions more difficult to sway.
Glade
Glade is one of the PAX Aus Indie Showcase winners this year. This competitive farming card game has players drafting plant cards in order to pay out their own field of crops and attempt to sabotage opposing gardeners.
The art style is a wonderful mix of colour and texture, and will have you revelling in your own green thumb while cursing opponents.
Treacherous Tides
Treacherous Tides is a semi-cooperative dice rolling game where players take on the role of a pirate captain and their crew out to steal treasure and grow their own infamy.
Each round a new captain is crowned, and they must guide the crew along an adventure. Throughout this, they constantly roll to maintain their position as other players try to mutiny them.
captains have special abilities to help them stay in power, but the overwhelming number of players rolling to throw them overboard makes it a battle against the tide to stay afloat.
