How would you like to win a $25 gift certificate to our store? It’s pretty simple, just submit your homemade Dungeons and Dragons encounter and if yours is chosen as our favorite, you win! Here are the rules:

1. Your submitted encounter must be original.
2. You will send your entry, in .PDF format, to contests@wexogo.com no later than Friday, March 4th, 2011. The winner will be chosen by Monday, March 7th, 2011. Submissions not in .PDF format will not qualify for a prize.
3. There are no restrictions as to which Edition of D&D rules you can use when creating your encounter (Though you should try to keep within the 3.5/4e/Pathfinder realm).
4. We reserve the right to use all submissions freely on our website, www.wexogo.com (Don’t worry credit will be given to everyone who submits).
5. With your submission please include your name and twitter profile (if you have one) and any other information you would like us to use when mentioning you to the rest of the internet.

Pax East 2011 is upon us! In three weeks tens of thousands of gamers will converge on the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, the largest exhibition center in the Northeastern United States, for the largest gaming convention on the East Coast. I wanted to say “the largest gaming convention in the nation” but PAX Prime holds that title, with 67,600 attendees.

I purchased my tickets for PAX back in December and have been anxiously awaiting their arrival. Preparation for the pilgrimage from Central New York to Boston has been in the works for the last week or so. I am amazed at how organized someone (me) can be and still forget important items. Luckily, the folks over at the PAX forum have put together a PAX Survival Kit thread so that the Muggles won’t forget the necessities. I’ll admit, I’m guilty of forgetting to pack a few mechanical pencils myself. Stupid stupid stupid! I highly recommend checking it out and making sure you don’t forget the one little item that will make or break your weekend.

Now, it occurred to me that some of you may be attending PAX for the first time. I was guilty of this last year, as I hadn’t had the resources to travel to PAX Prime before. There were some things that I was completely oblivious too and I hope that with the help of this handy thread, written by Frugus, you won’t have to suffer the same as I did.

If you go in to PAX with an open mind and a love of games then you will feel like you’ve found the biggest family you never knew you had. Make sure you have a mobile data device like a cell phone or netbook so that you can check on twitter and the PAX Forums regularly. There is a lot more to do at PAX then what goes on inside the walls of the convention center.

Before I end this I want you to see this. It’s just something fun that I came across, a map of PAX Attendees’ origins created by MelesMeles:

With that being said, I hope to meet everyone that follows me here, on facebook and on twitter. I’m also expecting a ton of messages from people letting me know where I should be and why. I don’t want to miss a thing this year!

Please leave a comment below if you have anything (small event, gaming opportunity, sharing a meal, anything) that you want to share with other gamers.