Top indie board games seen at PAX Aus 2024

PAX Australia this year included the largest tabletop and board games ever assembled at the convention. For those of us who play tabletop or host board game days, it was an absolute smorgasbord of new ideas and incredible small-scale games. 

Over the weekend I joined plenty of test games to try out games recently released, or those coming soon. This article highlights four of the ones that most set my internal gears turning. Every one of these games I’ve either purchased or backed because they’ve done something different and exciting that I want to be a part of my board game days. 

How would you and your friends survive a night in the Aussie bush? Probably fine, unless there are Drop Bears! 

This game takes the survival aspect of an 80s slasher flick like Friday the 13th, or recent videogame outings like Dead By Daylight, and pits a group of campers against the hungriest drop bears this side of the Great Australian Bite. 

Gameplay is a cooperative affair, where players will explore tiles that make up the game board, and map the forest around their campsite. You’ll search for supplies to help you make it through the night, and watch out for any signs of the drop bears. 

The drop bears themselves will sit in an awesome little cardboard tree watching over the forest, aiming to take out as many campers in one go as they can. Campers can work together to complete objectives quicker, but if a drop bear attacks that tile, it can kill multiple players in one go. If players die during the game, they’ll come straight back as other lost campers. You’ll win by living until the morning, while the drop bears are out to eat all of the campers before morning.

Each map tile is drawn randomly, so every round will be different. But you’ll find crashed utes, abandoned camps and other outback-themed events to work through with your fellow survivors. 

The highlight for me as an avid tabletop player, was the incredibly detailed plastic miniatures showcasing each drop bear in all their fury. 

There are also expansions already available where you’ll be surviving against Ancient Oonah the prehistoric platypus and Ol’Bruce, the giant drop bear. 

Drop Bears was successfully kickstarted, and can be pre-ordered here.

Potion Society

Potion Society has managed to convert the feeling I get playing a cosy game like Stardew Valley and distil it into a card game. It’s a game where two to four players aim to craft their own potions and follow recipes in a flurry of competitive brewing action. 

You’ll each have your potion bottle and spoon cards, and you’ll select from a set of recipes that vary in difficulty and complexity, but also the point value for successfully brewing that potion. 

With your equipment in hand, you’ll need to gather ingredients, from mundane ingredients like Bok Choy to magical and fantastical ingredients like Star Light or Pearl Shards. Each ingredient includes tags that identify it on the recipe cards, similar to Pokemon types, your recipe might call for ingredients of the Light, Air and Earth types, and then bonus alternate additions to increase your points. 

Potions then need liquids added, and to be cooked in communal pots. When the potions are brewing, players can sabotage opponents by casting spells or messing with potions on the go. 

Potion Society nails the Ghibli-esque vibe of competitive potion brewing, the card art is absolutely top-notch, and the rules are flexible enough that you’ll spend your time planning and scheming while undermining opponents.  

Potion Society is currently on Kickstarter for a few more weeks, check it out here.

Oracle

Oracle takes the trend of Hidden Identity games like Werewolf or Secret Hitler and sets it amidst a medieval court rife with betrayal and intrigue. Oracle is one game that I purchased on the spot and brought home with me. 

In the past week, I’ve played it with a group of four and five and had a different experience each time. It’s super easy to understand, but there’s plenty of room for tactics and betrayal.

The setup for Oracle is super simple, each player is a member of a medieval court, but no one knows who is who, apart from The Crown. The Crown is revealed at the start of the game, and their win condition is to destroy all who oppose them. The Knight is a loyal protector who wins if The Crown Survives. Then the Demon Lord must kill everyone, and The Usurper must kill The Crown. If you play with five players you also get The Cultist, who wins if the Knight and the Crown die. 

To play you’ll have cards to deal damage to other players, as well as buildings that you can place down that allow you to do more damage, hold more cards or play special spell cards. There’s a brilliant feeling of setup and payoff when you’re able to stack buildings for yourself and do some massive multi-card damage. 

However, of course, the question of who is who leads to some brilliant metagame moments, I played one game as The Knight, where both I and another player assured The Crown that we were there to protect them. And of course, The Crown killed me off and left themselves surrounded by enemies. While playing The Crown you’ll find yourself immediately suspicious of everyone around you, looking for tells and patterns to understand the threats placed against you. 

Side note, but I love that all the roles are gender-agnostic, you’ll play as The Crown, rather than The King or Queen and The Knight, The Usurper, The Cultist and the Demon Lord could all go either way.  

Find out more about Oracle here.

Treacherous Tides

Treacherous Tides was sold to me as a “simple game where you can just roll some dice with friends and have a good time”. 

The player fantasy here is spot on – you’re a pirate crew looking to make as much money as you can. You’ll have a captain and crewmates, and every adventure you go on will have you collecting gold and dealing with challenges ahead. 

The game is built around dice rolls; first, to decide your captain, you’ll roll sets of dice – one captain might need to roll two sixes, another might need one six and one 4, and you’ll go around the table until someone lands their requirements and name themselves captain. 

The captain’s role means of course you’ll land more cold per treasure chest than the rest of the crew, call it a leadership bonus. You’ll also have additional abilities to help you keep control of the ship, like the ability to re-roll dice if you don’t like what you have. And the captain always has an advantage over the crew. 

All this means that everyone wants to be the captain. And your crew will always be looking to take your power for themselves. While you’re out on adventures, you’ll encounter challenges that you need to overcome, and your crew will always have opportunities to overthrow you. They’ll be able to make mutiny checks and attempt to name themselves as captain in your stead. 

Treacherous Tides is a juggling act that changes whether you’re playing as captain or crew. As captain, you’re looking at your crew mates with suspicion, and desperately trying to hold them together with the promise of gold. As the crew, you’ll be vying for control, and looking for opportunities to seize power yourself. 

The team also mentioned their next game Treacherous Trails – a Wild West alternative storyline – will be completely compatible with Treacherous Tides, so you can have some quests to steal buried treasure and others stealing from stagecoaches or train cars.  

Treacherous Tides and the upcoming Treacherous Trails can be found here.