Pandemonium Books and Games

Hey Foodies!

Wed, 23 May 2012 20:37:57 GMT

A FEAST OF ICE AND FIRE: The Official Game of Thrones Cookbook is coming out very soon, and it turns out that the authors are local. Would people be interested in Pandemonium doing some sort of event sometime in June?

Since I am holding off on reading the books/seeing the show until the entire series is written, I have no idea if this is a good or bad idea. I will require customer feedback on this one.

Possibilities range from some kind of cooking demo to a discussion about how food plays a huge role in the books and HBO show.

So... Thoughts? Suggestions?

"Arvard 'Ard Boyz Warhammer 40K Singles Tournament

Mon, 21 May 2012 19:25:00 GMT

Points: 1850 per player
Entry Fee: $15 per player ($10 with $5 'Ardboyz Membership Discount)

Please note, armies are required to be fully painted and based.

This Event will allow the use of Forgeworld units.
Forgeworld units and armies must be 40k approved. No fliers, apocalypse formations, apocalypse units, gargantuan creatures or models with structure points are allowed. You must have a printed copy of rules for any Forgeworld units in hand to play them the day of the event. No electronic copies will be accepted.

You Must Have The Actual Forgeworld Model To Use In Your List.
No Proxies Or Other “Counts As” Models Will Be Allowed In Place Of Forgeworld Units.

The Warhammer 40,000 Fifth Edition Rules will be used.

The following is a list of legal army choices:
Codex: Black Templars
Codex: Blood Angels
Codex: Chaos Daemons
Codex: Chaos Space Marines
Codex: Dark Angels
Codex: Dark Eldar
Codex: Eldar
Codex: Grey Knights
Codex: Imperial Guard
Codex: Necrons
Codex: Orks
Codex: Space Marines
Codex: Space Wolves
Codex: Tau
Codex: Tyranids
Codex: Sisters of Battle (WD version).

***Composition:
Composition will be scored by a Comp Council and used to determine first round pairings.

Your list will need to be submitted for comp scoring by Friday, May 25th.

***Armies must be fully Painted and Based (3 color minimum).

***Prizes and Awards:
- Best Overall
There will be a 2nd and 3rd overall depending on turnout.

- Sportsmanship

- Army Appearance

- There will be other awards and prizes that will be revealed at the event.

***Other Items of Note:
-There will be a Pub Quiz.

-THERE WILL BE NO RULES JUDGE FOR THIS EVENT.
Players are encouraged to abide by Game's Workshop's First and Most Important Rule found at the beginning of the Main Rulebook.

-Players should have the following:

-2 paper copies of the army list (a player may be docked 3 points for each missing paper copy of the army list)

-ALL ARMY UNIT RULES FOR THE ARMY

-Warhammer 40,000 Rulebook

-Dice, Measuring Device, Templates (if needed)

-Missions will be handed out to players before each round.

REMINDER: Army Lists need to be submitted by May 25th for Comp Council Scoring.
Late entries and entries on the day of the event will be allowed with the following conditions:

1) Late Entries will not have Comp Council Scoring.

2) Late Entries will not be permitted to play in the tournament if there is not an even number of players ready to play on the day of the event.

There will be 3 Rounds each lasting 2 hours and 30 minutes. (This includes game set-up and deployment)

Scoring
Players will accumulate an overall score based on the following:
- Victory points determined by individual Mission results

- Sportsmanship points awarded by opponents played

- Army Appearance points judged by a non-player

- Army Composition Score

- Pub Quiz Score

- Player's Choice votes

To register for this event, send an email with your contact information and army list to: arvardardboyztourney@gmail.com

As of June 1st, Pandemonium will be closing down its Magazine section

Fri, 18 May 2012 17:24:19 GMT

I've been resisting this for some time, but I cannot avoid this any longer: Pandemonium's upstairs magazine section is going away. Sales on most titles have declined to the point where it actually costs us money to stock them.

We will continue carrying:

Analog
Asimov's
Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet
Locus
Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction

New issues of these periodicals will be put in with the book new releases each month, and back issues will go into the Black Hole Section. Gaming magazines will still be kept downstairs.

Million Year Picnic in Harvard Square carries most if not all of the titles we are dropping and I highly recommend them!

Online stock check and ordering at Pandemonium's website!

Fri, 18 May 2012 16:51:40 GMT

I'm happy to announce that, at long last, you are now able to check Pandemonium's website to see if we have a particular book in stock. Even better, you can order it online and have us hold it for you behind the counter!

When you are on our home page, just search for the book you want using the Search function. It's on the left, below the eBook search and above the Quote of Note. If we have copies, it will say "Available on our shelves now." Click on the title to get more information about the title, including exactly how many copies we have on hand. Clicking on the title also allows you to add the book to a wishlist instead of the shopping cart.

Once you add the book to your cart, you will be able to select whether you want the book sent to you, or held for pick up at the store. Please wait for us to contact you to let you know your book is ready for pick-up; we will be checking for orders throughout the day, but we may not be able to get to your order instantaneously.

Game titles are not yet available for online ordering. I hope to have them ready sometime next week.

Ebooks available for purchase at pandemoniumbooks.com!

Wed, 16 May 2012 21:45:54 GMT

Most of you likely already know this, but....

If you go to the store website and look in the upper left hand corner, you’ll see a search box labeled "Search Google eBooks". With that function, you can download just about any ebook in existence* at a highly competitive price.

All of our prices are either barely above our cost, or are mandated by the publisher. If you find a lower price for an ebook on the internet, that vendor is very likely losing money with each sale.

Don’t forget that even though Pandemonium is a SF bookstore, you can buy any type of ebook through our site, at the same great prices!

Go check it out: http://www.pandemoniumbooks.com/search/gbook

*One major exception for SF fans are ebooks from Baen Books. You have to go directly to Baen’s site for them. But at least Amazon can’t carry them either, which is a comfort of sorts.

You Voted, We Won!

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 00:36:50 GMT

Thanks to you we were voted the best nerd store in the Boston area!

Check out the brief article The Phoenix wrote about Pandemonium here.

Cheers!

AUTHOR SIGNING THIS SATURDAY

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 18:07:57 GMT

Elizabeth Bear & Scott Lynch
7PM - 9PM

Free entry for this event.
Feel free to bing in any books you would like to have signed, and any questions to ask!!

There will be books by both authors available to purchase at the time of the signing, including Elizabeth Bear's new release, Range of Ghosts.

We hope to see you there!

THIS MONTHS AUTHOR SIGNING!

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 17:24:30 GMT

Scott Lynch and Elizabeth Bear
April 21st, 7PM - 9PM

Scott Lynch is a fantasy author who is best know for his Gentleman Bastard series.
More information about Scott can be found on his personal website, Lynch, Keyboard Jockey.

Elizabeth Bear, a local to the great Boston area, will be returning to our store for another great release, Range of Ghosts. Elizabeth is recognized for several awards, including the Hugo for best short story and best novelette.
Her primary focus is in speculative fiction.

Books by both authors will be available at the time of the signing!

Tobias Buckell Appearance at Pandemonium Tonight Cancelled

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 18:34:56 GMT

Tobias Buckell just contacted us to let us know that he has fallen ill and will not be able to make it to tonight's signing.

Myke Cole will be here tonight at 7pm as scheduled.

Caitlin R. Kiernan

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 04:30:39 GMT

TONIGHT!
7PM-9PM

She will be at Pandemonium to sign and discuss her new book The Drowning Girl.
Not only will we have copies of this book available to purchase but we will also have plenty of her other books available for purchase!
Hope to see you there!!

Special Events for March 10th- March 17th

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 18:44:41 GMT

Happy Monday everybody!

I'd just like to inform you of some great events we have coming up within the next two weeks!

March 10th, 1PM-6PM, $5 Entry Fee

MtG: Mystery Box Draft
If you haven't done this before, you should check it out! Basically, we take a bunch of our bulk cards and make booster packs out of them and then draft from those. It's pretty exciting and comical to see which cards you end up choosing from!
http://www.pandemoniumbooks.com/index.php?cont=special_events&id=257

March 11th, 1PM-6PM, Free Entry!

Battletech: The Grinder
Join James as he hosts a new Battletech of blowing each other's giant robots to smithereens!
New players are always welcomed and James has all the supplies needed for the event!
To see more details about the story line behind this set, go to the special event page here:
http://www.pandemoniumbooks.com/index.php?cont=special_events&id=262

March 15th, 7PM-9PM, Free Entry!

Caitlin R. Kiernan

Caitlin is going to be at our store signing her new book The Drowning Girl.
Caitlin is a science fiction and dark fantasy writer who has also done comic books, including a spin- off of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman.

We are very excited to have Caitlin here this month to discuss her many paths in writing.
Copies of her books will be available to purchase and have signed!
Caitlin has her own personal website which can be found by clicking this link:
http://www.caitlinrkiernan.com/

March 17th, 12PM- 10PM, $15 Entry Fee

'Arvard 'Ardboyz Steamroller

The 'Arvard 'Ardboyz are back and they're hosting this Warmachine/Hordes Tournament.
35 Points, baseline event using the 2012 Steamroller format.
'Arvard 'Ardboyz members will receive $5 off of their registration fee!

Prizes for First, Second and Third place!
Painting prizes for Best Model, Best Battlegroup and Best Army.

To preregister send an email to arvardardboyztourney@gmail.com

For rules and more information visit the their forum at:
http://www.arvardardboyz.com/

and for Steamroller rules, please visit this site:
http://privateerpress.com/organized-play/steamroller-tournaments

We hope to see you at any of these event!!!
-Pandemonium Books & Games Staff

Gaming Events for March!

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 02:46:13 GMT

D&D Lair Assault: Attack of the Tyrantclaw!- March 3rd, 1PM, Free Entry

PTQ Avacyn Restored; Barcelona- March 4th, 9AM Registration, $25 Entry Fee

MtG: Mystery Draft- March 10th, 1PM, $5 Entry

Battletech: The Grinder March 11th, 1PM, Free Entry

'Arvard 'Ardboyz Steamroller- March 17th, 11AM Registration, $15 Entry Fee

2HG Commander Tournament-March 18th, 1PM, $5 Entry fee PER PERSON. The teams will be randomized.

MtG: Vintage Tournament- March 24th, 1PM, $25 Entry Come play in the monthly Vintage event organized by Gavin Bisesi! Unsanctioned, unlimited proxy, prizes TBA based on attendance.

D&D Lair Assault: Attack of the Tyrantclaw!- March 3rd, 1PM, Free Entry

Details on all of these awesome events can be found on our website at, http://www.pandemoniumbooks.com/?cont=special_events

Author Signings for March

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 04:52:12 GMT

Hey all,
March is sneaking up on us and will be offering some great author signings!

Caitlin R. Kiernan

March 15th
7PM-9PM
Caitlin is also the writer of several comic books ,including the
spin-off of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman, titled The Dreaming. She has
also published two volumes of erotica, Frog Toes and Tentacles and
Tales from the Woeful Platypus.
She will be signing and discussing her new book The Drowning Girl. For
more information on her book, please visit her site http://www.caitlinrkiernan.com/.

Amanda Downum

March 22nd
7PM-9PM
Amanda is a fantasy writer, dark, and urban. She also write
Lovecraftian romance, and occasionally very hand-wavey science
fiction.
Amanda will be in our store signing and discussing her new book
Kingdoms of Dust. This is the third book in The Necromancer
Chronicles. For more information on this book visit her website, http://www.amandadownum.com/.

Tobias Buckell & Myke Cole

March 31st
7PM-9PM
Tobias is a New York Times Bestseller and has been nominated for the
Hugo, Nebula, Prometheus, and Campbell awards. Tobias will be signing
and discussing his new book Arctic Rising. For more information on
Tobias and this book go to his website; http://www.tobiasbuckell.com/.

Myke will be signing and discussing his new book Shadow Ops: Control
Point. This will be Myke's first book in the series Shadow Ops. To
view Myke's background and information on his new book visit his
website http://mykecole.com/.

Looking For Help At PAXeast!

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 22:10:29 GMT

Hey all,

PAXeast is rapidly approaching, and we are looking for worthy individuals interested in:

Working at Pandemonium's booth.
Running Gaming Demos

Working Pandemonium's Booth

If you have ever been a Pandemonium employee or have worked at a previous PAX or other store event, we'd love to have you on the team! You'd get a 3-day badge and earn $9/hour. We are looking for people to work the day shift, which is from 10am to 6pm (with breaks) for ALL THREE DAYS of the con.

We will also need some help from members of the booth staff with loading in on the afternoon of Wednesday, April 4th (noon-4pm or so). Pay is $9/hour.

Running Gaming Demos

We need friendly people to demo one of the following games at Pandemonium's tables at PAXeast:

Settlers of Catan
Ascension
Innovation
We Didn't Playtest This At All
Munchkin
Carcassonne
Fluxx
Race For the Galaxy
Forbidden Island
Elder Sign
Chrononauts
Gloom
Bang!
Risk: Legacy

In exchange for a 3-day badge, you demo one of the listed games for two 4-hour blocks during the con (for a total of 8 hours). The possible shifts are:

Friday: 11am-3pm, 3pm-7pm, 7pm-11pm

Saturday: 11am-3pm, 3pm-7pm, 7pm-11pm

Sunday: 10am-2pm, 2pm-6pm

If you are interested, please email me (at tyler@pandemoniumbooks.com) with the name(s) of the game(s) you want to demo, and five time slots you are able to work. Please list the games and the time slots from most wanted to least wanted, and we will try to accommodate your preferences.

Two things to keep in mind

1) We need to submit our list of demos to The Powers That Be four weeks before PAX, well before PAX reveals its schedule of events. That means that there is always the chance that there might be something you REALLY want to go to that is scheduled directly against one of your demos. We will try to work with you to clear your schedule, but we make no promises. If you sign up to run demos, We ask that you be responsible and keep your commitments.

Hint: the more games you are able to demo, the more likely we can shift your schedule around to accommodate your needs.

2) If you sign up to demo a particular game, KNOW HOW TO PLAY THE GAME! Seriously. Last year we had some people who told us (far too late) that they'd "look at the rules before the con." Cretins. We will be asking pointed questions to make sure you know the damn game!

If you are interested, please get work to us ASAP. We want to get our schedule nailed down and submitted to PAX by next week.

Thanks, and hope to hear from you!

KIM HARRISON THIS THURSDAY!

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 20:43:28 GMT

Happy Monday everyone!
We hope you are enjoying a day off for President's Day!

Just a reminder that Kim Harrison will be at the Boston Public Library THIS Thursday!!
She will be there from 6PM to 8PM signing her new book A Perfect Blood, which we will be selling at that time!

TONIGHT!

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 18:50:04 GMT

Sharon Lee and Steve Miller will be at Pandemonium tonight from 7PM-9PM!

Come out and get all your LeeMiller books signed and listen to them chat!

We will have SEVERAL of their books available for purchase.
We hope to see you there!

February's first author signing TONIGHT!

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:28:14 GMT

TONIGHT!!

Marjorie M. Liu will be in our store from 7PM- 9PM!

She will be signing and discussing her new book Within the Flames.

We have plenty of these available for purchase along with plenty of her other titles and her comic book X-23!!

Four Author Signings In February

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:56:26 GMT

To all of our book lovers out there, we have FOUR author signings coming up this month!

Marjorie M. Liu this Thursday (February 9th), from 7pm-9pm.
Charlie Stross on Saturday (February 11th), from 7pm-9pm.
Sharon Lee and Steve Miller NEXT Thursday (February 16th), from 7pm-9pm.
Kim Harrison at the Boston Public Library on the Thursday AFTER THAT (February 23rd), from 6pm-8pm. .Pandemonium will be there selling copies of her new book: A Perfect Blood.

For more info and the times of these signings, go to: http://www.pandemoniumbooks.com/?cont=special_events

Pandemonium's 2nd Annual Holiday GeekFaire Is Tomorrow (12/17/11)!

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 22:12:56 GMT

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

Well, that blows my mind...

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 23:05:35 GMT

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.

Chocolate and gaming

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 18:33:05 GMT

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

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

Pandemonium's 2nd Annual GeekFaire, now with enhanced GeekFaire Discount!

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 03:59:43 GMT

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

Joe Haldeman Signing From 7pm-9pm on Thursday, Dec. 8th

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 02:38:20 GMT

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).

Looking To Borrow/Rent The Use Of A 3D Printer

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 15:31:34 GMT

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!

Pandemonium will be closed on Thanksgiving

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 15:49:15 GMT

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