PAX Unplugged 2018 IV: Pics from the Show — The Stuff of Legend, Quantified, Battlestations: Dirtside, In the Hall of the Mountain King, and More

As Allied forces fight the enemy on Europe's war-torn beaches, another battle begins in a child's bedroom in Brooklyn when the nightmarish Boogeyman snatches a boy and takes him to the realm of the Dark. The child's playthings, led by the toy soldier known as the Colonel, band together to stage a daring rescue. On their perilous mission, they will confront the boy's bitter and forgotten toys, as well as betrayal in their own ranks.

In The Stuff of Legend, each player takes on the role of one of the boy's loyal toys, each with their own unique abilities. Players work co-operatively, scouring the Dark in search of the Boy before the Boogeyman can escape with him. Players beware, through the course of the game your allegiance may change, and at any point one of your fellow players could be secretly working against you for the wicked Boogeyman.

Quantified is a co-operative board game set in a world in which everyone's behavior is constantly surveilled and analyzed. A player's behavior results in a social credit score, determining their position on the social ladder. Players start from different positions on the social ladder, as refugee, unemployed or employed, with unequal access to human rights. The goal of the game is to make all rights accessible to all players and to fight the implementation of totalitarian policies.

During a typical turn, players can move around the city, add non-player-characters to their network, attempt to solve so-called rally cards (initiatives that support human equality), attempt to prevent so-called threat cards (automatic, constantly approaching negative effects, such as invasive amendments, correction camps or totalitarian laws), or even simply work an official or illegal job. The trick is that not every action can be taken by every player. For example, those without the right to movement take longer to cross the city, while those without the right to free speech can't share their rally cards with others — and even the actions you can take must be taken with care as all actions leak personal data. If too much data is leaked, the players may have to face behavior analysis cards that negatively impact their collective game state!

Ultimately, by solving enough rally cards or working their way up the social ladder, every player should have access to all four human rights. Once this is done, the players win! But if three totalitarian laws come into effect before then or the threat deck runs out, the players collectively lose.