At this year’s PAX South, Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, the creators of the popular web comic Penny Arcade, announced a brand new Expo called PAX Unplugged. Unlike the current PAX conventions, which have a large video game focus, PAX Unplugged will concentrate exclusively on tabletop games. “With the rise of popularity of board games, we wanted to provide a dedicated space where fans can come together,” said Holkins. “We will continue to have tabletop games at every PAX, but Unplugged will focus on stepping away from the TV, monitor and phone to foster face-to-face multiplayer experiences.”

In conjunction with ReedPOP, this sixth addition to the current line-up of PAX events will debut this year from November 17th-19th in Philadelphia’s Pennsylvania Convention Center. Read ReedPOP and Penny Arcade’s vision for it here below.

Tak is an “abstract strategy” board game in the traditions of Chess and Go, based on a fictional game mentioned in Patrick Rothfuss’s Kingkiller Chronicle novel series. It was developed by James Ernest and Rothfuss for Cheapass Games, and is right now enjoying the home stretch of a massively successful Kickstarter campaign.

It should come as no surprise that the game surpassed its $50,000 funding goal almost instantly, currently topping off at more than ten times that number. A legion of loyal fans clamors for anything even peripherally related to Rothfuss’s epic fantasy saga about a multi-talented liar who falls backwards into legend status on the road to avenging his family’s murder.

Hasbro, in collaboration with HBO and USAopoly, announced today a new variant of the board game Risk set in the fantasy world of Game of Thrones. The game will feature two maps — one of Westeros and one of Essos — and allow players to take control of the powerful noble houses, such as the Baratheon and Lannister. Finally, fans of the series from author George R.R. Martin can indeed take Daenarys Targaryen out of Essos and have her conquer everyone and claim the Iron Throne.

The holiday season is coming up and The Drill Down would like you to be ready for it. So as we do every year around this time, we’ve prepared a list of what we consider the perfect gifts to give… and get this holiday. So before you stand around for hours this Black Friday, spend some time with us.

With a jetpack fueled by insomnia and an easily amused mind, It Came From The Interwebs scours and sifts through everything that has ever appeared on the internet (more or less) to find a few things that you should know about every week. These things come from the interwebs, hence the clever name.

This week, we return from riding on the back of Falcor to bring you the time lord jedi ninja of web junk columns, featuring: a stabby eagle, fruit rape, board game movie mashups, and another Lazy Sunday.