m. c. de marco

Just wanted to remind everyone that our GeekFaire is tomorrow (Sat. Dec. 17th) from noon to 6pm downstairs at Pandemonium Books & Games.  One vendor flaked out on us, but another has stepped in to fill the void:  Keith Gamble who will be selling an impressive array of SF, horror, & comics publications and DVDs.

How the Special Pandemonium GeekFaire Sale Will Work:  

For each separate GeekFaire vendor you buy something from, you will receive a ticket that will give you a 5% discount on nearly anything you buy at Pandemonium while the GeekFaire is on.  So buy from one vendor, get a
%5 discount at Pandemonium!  Buy from 2 vendors, get 10% off, and so forth.  You can only get one ticket per vendor, and a maximum of four tickets can be used (i.e. 20% off). 

The Holiday GeekFaire will run from noon to 6pm on Saturday, Dec. 17th.  Here's our line-up for this year:




Jade Forest Armoury  - Various swords, axes, daggers, Custom leather bracers, assorted steampunk related items and interactive puppets.

Karyn's Fantasy Knitware
- Knitted hats and scarves you've seen on TV and the movies.  Harry Potter (all houses!), Dr Who, Jayne hats (from Firefly) in both adult and children's sizes.  Some Santa hats too!

Alchemy - Sterling sliver jewelry, tarot decks & pagan supplies

Z Rant - Delicious baked goods with a geeky theme

Keith Gamble   -  SF, horror, & comics publications and DVDs.

BreadPig.com - Breadpig creates geeky products and donates all the profits to organizations and individuals making the world suck less.  Such products include jars of Awesome Sauce, t-shirts, the first collection of xkcd and other publications.

E.J. Barnes / Drowned Town Press - Self-published comics, animation, greeting cards and posters

Silver Owl Creations  - Steampunk and fantasy jewelry in wire, particularly wire wrapped antique key pendants.  They also have steampunk and elven/faery wire bracelets, swirly wire earrings, and other wire wrapped or sculpted wire jewelry and accessories.

Pour Industries - Innovative fresh syrups, bitters and flavoured sugars & salts for use in cocktails, sodas and other drinks, topping your favourite foods, or in your own recipes. All products are handmade, small batch, and made with organic ingredients whenever possible.

Longship Trading Co., The 18th Century General Store  -  Jewelry, pocket knives, dice, nautical items, amber, sewing tools, etc.

Lady Guendalina's Closet - Snoods, jewelry, shawls, steampunk items, mirrors, perfume bottles, etc.  Perhaps some notions.


Hope to see you there, and have a happy holiday!

Tyler Stewart

So I just got a call.  A longtime customer of the store just called me to tell me that

a) he just engaged to be married (Huzzah!), and

b) since he and his intended first met at Pandemonium, they wanted to be married in the store.  Would that be possible?*

The thing is, I was just thinking the other day about how many people I know who first met at Pandemonium over its 22 year history.  I know children who exist because their parents met at Pandemonium.  But this is the first time someone actually wanted to get married here, as grungy as it is.  And this just blows me way.  I'm in my office crying.  I guess that after all the stress I've had to deal with, I was doubting whether the store was worth doing, worth pursuing, worth keeping, even with all its money problems.  

I just feel so validated.  And happy.  Very very happy.  I'm going to go blow my nose and probably freak out my staff.  And then get back to work.



*I said yes, of course.

Saw this cool thing, and I thought I might boost the signal!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ucffool/gaming-dice-in-chocolate-and-sugar

Last year Pandemonium invited 10 vendors of geeky merchandise to come in our event space and set up shop for a day.  This year we are doing it again, only better!  I've worked to increase the diversity of the types of merchandise offered, and have instituted a special Pandemonium GeekFaire Sale:  For each separate GeekFaire vendor you buy something from, you will receive a 5% discount on nearly anything you buy at pandemonium while the GeekFaire is on.  So buy from one vendor, get a %5 discount at Pandemonium!  Buy from 2 vendors, get 10% off, and so forth, up to a maximum of 20% off.

The Holiday GeekFaire will run from noon to 6pm on Saturday, Dec. 17th.  Here's our line-up for this year:

Jade Forest Armoury  - Various swords, axes, daggers, Custom leather bracers, assorted steampunk related items and interactive puppets.

Karyn's Fantasy Knitware - Knitted hats and scarves you've seen on TV and the movies.  Harry Potter (all houses!), Dr Who, Jayne hats (from Firefly) in both adult and children's sizes.  Some Santa hats too!

Alchemy - Sterling sliver jewelry, tarot decks & pagan supplies

Z Rant - Delicious baked goods with a geeky theme

BreadPig.com - Breadpig creates geeky products and donates all the profits to organizations and individuals making the world suck less.  Such products include jars of Awesome Sauce, t-shirts, the first collection of xkcd and other publications.

Krztsrz Khaoz - Handmade wall/maze segments for gaming environments including columns, arches, doorways, etc.

E.J. Barnes / Drowned Town Press - Self-published comics, animation, greeting cards and posters

Silver Owl Creations - Steampunk and fantasy jewelry in wire, particularly wire wrapped antique key pendants.  They also have steampunk and elven/faery wire bracelets, swirly wire earrings, and other wire wrapped or sculpted wire jewelry and accessories.

Pour Industries - Innovative fresh syrups, bitters and flavoured sugars & salts for use in cocktails, sodas and other drinks, topping your favourite foods, or in your own recipes. All products are handmade, small batch, and made with organic ingredients whenever possible.

Longship Trading Co., The 18th Century General Store  -  Jewelry, pocket knives, dice, nautical items, amber, sewing tools, etc.

Lady Guendalina's Closet - Snoods, jewelry, shawls, steampunk items, mirrors, perfume bottles, etc.  Perhaps some notions.


Hope to see you there, and have a happy holiday!

Tyler Stewart

Just a quick reminder that Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author Joe Haldeman will be in Pandemonium to sign his new novel Earthbound (third and final volume of his excellent Marsbound trilogy).

There is a virtual Tardis cookie cutter that needs to be actualized for Lyndells' Baked Goods Table at the GeekFaire.  I figure that SOMEONE in the store's customer base has got to have one....  Payment would be in cash or cookies, as you prefer.

Please contact me at tyler (at) pandemoniumbooks(dot)com

Thanks!

but will be open regular hours (noon-10pm) the rest of the weekend.  So you know.

Farewell to Anne McCaffrey, the gracious dragon lady of SF (and I mean that in the best possible way).  She was the first female writer to win a Hugo and a Nebula Award and really helped moved the genre out of the purview of male fandom. 

She will be missed.

 LET IN THE HORDES!!!!!!

So far, "the hordes" have wandered in, bought a few things, and wished us a happy anniversary.

BUT MORE WILL COME!!!!

Hey all,

Pandemonium is going to do a Holiday GeekFaire* again this year on Saturday, Dec. 17th, 2011.  I am putting out a call to all local and semi-local artists and sellers of cool, geeky merchandise to see whether you would be interested in renting a table to sell your goods in the store.

The idea is to create a huckster's room within Pandemonium, giving our customers a one stop shop for all of their holiday buying.  There is space for ten tables (6' x 2.5') in our event space, with a common space set aside for a changing area.   Set-up would be from 9am-noon on Saturday, and the store will be open from noon till 10pm.  Tables will cost $50 each. There will be power available, as well as public wifi, but you will need to let me know in advance if you need them..

If you are interested, please contact me at tyler (at) pandemoniumbooks (dot) com by Nov. 28th, 2011.  What I will need is:

   1) A stated confirmation that you want a table, indicating how/when I can expect payment.
   2) Full contact information, including your name, name of business, address, phone # and email.
   3) A short description (2-3 sentences max) detailing what you will be selling.
   4) Photos of your product, which we will put on our website and on big color posters in the store
   5) Any special requirements (power, a changing area, etc.) 

Thanks  I hope to hear from you soon!



*We called it the Goblin Market last year, which I though was a cool name, but it wasn't very festive!

While we have a wide-screen TV on which to show the two movies for the Lovecraft Movie Festival, it sure would be swell to actually have a projector to show the movies in properly horrifying size.  If anyone has one or knows where one can rent one, please email me at tyler (at) pandemoniumbooks(dot)com.

Thanks!

Just quick reminder that Pandemonium will be celebrating its 22nd Anniversary on November 18th-20th.  Here is what will be happening:


First off, nearly everything* in the store will be 22% Off  for all three days of  our Anniversary weekend! 


Then on Saturday (Nov. 19th) Pandemonium will be hosting a small H.P. Lovecraft Film festival!  Come experience the atmospheric horror of H.P. Lovecraft brought to life with this two film adaptations.


3pm: The Call of Cthulhu (47 minutes) - The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society presents its all new silent film of The Call of Cthulhu. The famed story is brought richly to life in the style of a classic 1920s silent movie, with a haunting original symphonic score. Using the "Mythoscope" process -- a mix of modern and vintage techniques, the HPLHS has worked to create the most authentic and faithful screen adaptation of a Lovecraft story yet attempted.  We showed this 5 years ago and people liked it so much that we will show it again to open for....


4pm: Die Farbe [The Colour] (85 minutes) - Die Farbe is a new German adaptation of classic Lovecraft story "The Color Out of Space" by director Huan Vu.  To see the trailer go here.


Then at 6pm on Saturday, authors Sarah Monette and Elisabeth Bear will at Pandemonium to help celebrate!  They will be signing The Tempering of Men, the second volume of their Iskryne trilogy, and Sarah will be signing her new collection of short stories, Somewhere Beneath Those Waves.


To find out more about them, go to their websites at:

http://www.sarahmonette.com/
http://www.elizabethbear.com/


Hope to see you there!





*The only exceptions are events and Magic singles.  Everything else: 22% off!

Hmm... We have too many Extended/Vintage Magic singles and not enough cash.  I guess this means a...

SPECIAL 20% OFF SALE on ALL non-Standard, non-consignment Magic Singles!

Sale ends 10pm Sunday Night (10/30/11).

Edit:  Got the end-of-sale date wrong.  Is now fixed

In honor of Halloween, Pandemonium has given Reddit.com's BostonSocialClub full rein over our downstairs event space, and it looks like they are going for broke on this one!

There will be:

• Halloween movies on a big flat-screen TV.
• more delicious foodstuffs than you can shake a severed leg at.
• special horror-themed games going on, including Arkham Horror, Last Night on Earth, and zombie versions of beloved classics.
• a brief campaign of All Flesh Must Be Eaten, a zombie table-top RPG, so bring dice if you got 'em.

Plus...a Costume Contest!  With prizes!

Please go to http://www.reddit.com/r/BostonSocialClub/comments/lcixq/zombie_boardgame_spectacular/ for more details!

Hope to see you there!

    Battletech is a classic miniatures wargame of Giant robots blowing each other to smithereens, set in a dystopian future where mankind has been at war so long he's largely forgotten how to build a great deal of the technology he uses to wage war in the first place. No experience is necessary to play, and all materials (dice, terrain, miniatures, pencils, rulebooks, you name it!) are provided.

    This month's scenario:

Guerilla ‘mech War  (Bromhead, Taurian Concordat,  June 4, 2582)

                The First thing the Star League did after its formation was ensure that no former human colony reside outside of its control. That meant that the various realms of the Periphery had two choices: Join the Star League, and lose their independence, or fight. First among the Periphery realms to take up arms was the fiercely independent Taurian Concordat. The Taurians had the largest army of the periphery states, and was not about to capitulate without a long and bloody fight.

                The industrial world of Bromhead was just another example of the Taurian’s resolve. Despite overwhelming Star League numbers, the Taurians forced the Star League to fight for every inch of territory, and even when beaten, they would fade away into the hills and continue to fight.

                But they couldn’t do that without materials. By the beginning of June, 2582, the world was all but lost, and the Taurian commander decided it was time to go to ground. He also decided that it was time to destroy what little industry remained on the world. Small strike forces assembled to attack industrial facilities, steal what they could, and destroy everything that was left. The Star League, suddenly forced to defend countless facilities, often found itself without the numerical superiority that it had grown to depend on.

Quick Summary:

This weekend:

• Saturday (10/22/11) at 1pm: D&D4e Lair Assault: Forge of the Dawn Titan
• Sunday (10/23/11) at noon: PathfinderSociety Adventure "To Delve the Dungeon Deep."  Sign up at http://warhorn.net/boston-pfs/.

Next Weekend:

• Sunday (10/30/11) at noon: Pathfinder Beginner Box Bash!  Sign up at http://warhorn.net/boston-pfs/.

There are more events (non-D&D events)  that will be posted shortly



More Details:


Saturday (10/22/11) at 1pm: D&D4e Lair Assault: Forge of the Dawn Titan

D&D Lair Assault is a new Wizards Play Network in-store program that pits tactically-minded players against a super challenge where the difference between victory and defeat is dependent upon your game knowledge, ability to adapt, and a little bit of luck. You'll pit your wits against some of the most difficult encounters you've ever played. Each challenge is a mega-encounter that plays in just a few hours, but many will need to make more than one run at it in pursuit of victory.

Lair Assaults are not meant to be beaten the first time around. Total Party Kills are to be expected.  Be warned!

For complete details, including rules on character creation, go to https://wizards.com/dnd/Event.aspx?x=dnd/4new/event/dndlairassault



Sunday (10/23/11) at noon: PathfinderSociety Adventure "To Delve the Dungeon Deep"

The three-part First Steps series is intended to introduce new players and new characters from experienced players to the Pathfinder Society, the city of Absalom, and the ten factions to which all members of the Pathfinder Society Organized Play campaign belong. While each adventure in the series is a self-contained story, they are intended to be played in order by brand-new PCs without any experience or Prestige Points.



Sunday (10/30/11) at noon: Pathfinder Beginner Box Bash!

Paizo, the gaming company who brought you the Pathfinder RPG is coming out next week with their Beginner Box.  This product is designed for new players just starting out, because (let's face it) the Core Rulebook is intimidating as hell.

The Beginner Box Bash is meant to bring together Pathfinder players, debut the Beginner Box, teach new gamers how to play, and introduce players new and old to the Pathfinder Society Organized Play Program. The day’s events include four new, one-hour quests highlighting the Beginner Box characters and rules.  
EDIT:  Sign-up information for the Pathfinder events was added.

Stephen Cass is the editor of MIT's Technology Review Magazine.  In the current issue, Technology Review  is launching a special interest publication on October 4th: TRSF (Technology Review – Science Fiction)  This special issue is inspired by today’s emerging technologies (which is the mission of Technology Review magazine).  We have commissioned all new stories by some well known SF writers such as:  Cory Doctorow, Joe Haldeman, Elizabeth Bear and features original Chris Foss art.

Issues of TRSF are available for sale at Pandemonium.   Click here or more information.

Pandemonium will be hosting free demos for the new miniatures game Infinity on Saturday October 6, starting at 2PM.

Infinity is a sci-fi skirmish game full of manga-inspired, high-tech weaponry and gadgets.  Its innovative system allows your models to act in
reaction to your opponent's moves, guaranteeing that in Infinity, it's always your turn!

Anyone who participates in a demo will receive 10% off their first special order for Infinity product.

This is just a little advance notice that we will have Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear signing at the store on Saturday, Nov. 19th, (time TBD) and Joe Haldeman coming on Thursday, Dec. 8th at 7pm.

Don Walker, one of our regulars, has been made Venture-Captain of Boston's Pathfinder Lodge.  His mission is to organize Pathfinder adventures at Pandemonium and at other game stores in the area.

For those of you unfamiliar with Pathfinder RPG, it is essentially D&D 3.75e, created by Paizo when Wizard of the Coast went to 4th edition.  I'm a big fan of Pathfinder myself, and Don has my complete support in his endeavors. 
The first game will be this Sunday, from 1pm to 5pm.  The entry fee is $2, with the DM receiving the full amount of the fee in store credit.  Those interested in playing can sign up here:
http://warhorn.net/boston-pfs/
Don had also created a yahoo group to bring PFS players together and provide resources for PFS play. it is:
http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/BostonPFS/
You are welcome to join both.
We are also looking for people willing to run Pathfinder Society adventures.  If you are interested, please Don through the Yahoo group.
It is our hope to also run a weekly PFS event on a weeknight, but I don't know yet when that will be.