After a few years of slow growth and recovery, PAX Unplugged was back in the spotlight this year in Philadelphia! After being canceled in 2020 due to COVID-19 and seeing slow staggering recovery, this year’s event was back to full form, sprawling all over the Philadelphia Convention Center and taking up three different floors with demos, shows, panels, vendors, and more gaming than you can shake a set of dice at.
This year, Justin Bell joined fellow author Will Hare and his husband, Brock, as they tag teamed the convention. It was a whirlwind! Check out how much gaming they were able to squeeze into two and a half jampacked days with their thoughts below!
Love a Good Learn and Play (Justin)
Beneeta Kaur reached out to see if I had any interest in doing something different during my PAXU trip—a “learn and play” session, where we would teach the game In the Footsteps of Marie Curie to a group of about 50 people. It’s a game system I know well—I’ve played full games of both In the Footsteps of Darwin and In the Footsteps of Marie Curie at conventions over the last two years, and the games are very accessible—so I was thrilled to have the chance to do something different with a friend like Beneeta.
The session was a blast. I don’t do much in the way of talks or video in the tabletop space, so getting mic’d up and talking to gamers at shows is something I don’t do nearly enough. It was also a great reminder of how the word “complexity” can vary quite widely. I did a complete two-player game of In the Footsteps of Marie Curie in about 20 minutes, and the game is very straightforward to me. But our learn-and-play session featured players at all points of the complexity spectrum, with some groups finishing their game while other groups struggled to understand the core mechanics.
Nothing teaches patience quite like these moments, so it was a thrill to walk players through the various mechanics of the game. Better still—handing out five copies of the game to teachers who were in the room for the play session. Beneeta invited me back for next year’s session, and I’m crossing my fingers that we’ll get another chance in 2025.
Tournaments and Championships (Will)
As I’ve said across multiple reviews on this website, I’ve been bitten by the miniatures bug. With my foray into Marvel: Crisis Protocol that began in Spring 2023, my small collection has grown to almost 200 miniatures. My husband, Brock, is just as all in on this adventure as I am. So, as you can imagine… our bank account weeps. For my money, MCP is the most fun you can have with one of these games. It’s got enough variety that you can be nigh-infinitely creative with how you build your team. It’s deep enough that it rewards clever strategic play, but at the end of the day it’s also a dice game, so even two players of mismatched skill are brought to an even playing field depending on the outcome of dice rolls.
We spent our first day at PAX Unplugged in an all-day MCP tournament. Atomic Mass Games this year announced official competitive scene support in Grand Tournaments, a welcome surprise for a community of players that had to build their own second-tier competitive scene due to lack of official competitive support. The final Grand Tournament of the year took place at PAX Unplugged. It began around 10 AM with check-in and registration and was slated to run until 9:00 PM. It was a lot of standing on the hard convention floor and hunching over tables, so when the final award was handed out, I immediately retreated to my hotel room and laid flat on the floor as my bones punished me for my decisions. Still, it was worth it, as I snagged second place in the 30-person event.
PAX Unplugged is fantastic because it can be a hub for many competitive games like this. Tournaments are firing for board games all weekend, and I noticed there were also competitive events for Star Wars: Shatterpoint, Star Wars: Legion, and several different Warhammer titles. It’s cool that you can come to town for a competitive event and then, as a bonus, spend the rest of your time exploring the abundance of games on display in the expo hall.
The Food in Philly is the Best in the Tabletop Convention City Business (Justin)
I go to a lot of shows…and a lot of those shows don’t have great food near the convention hall.
Indianapolis, for Gen Con? The fast food options are great, but beyond that, Indy isn’t the food beacon one hopes for in a major city. Essen, for SPIEL? Don’t get me started. It’s not that the food is bad…the food in Essen is uninspired. You will survive just fine, but no one I know has shared tales of legendary culinary experiences during those visits to the German suburbs.
But, Philadelphia? Oh my goodness, the food options are sensational. The food stands inside of Reading Terminal Market are great. Chinatown? Great. The elevated options? Pricey, but still great. And there seems to be great fast food, cheesesteaks, and fast casual food everywhere. Plus, the ethnic cuisine space in Philly is top notch.
It’s not Chicago (I’m a little biased), but PAXU will always be on the radar because I can eat so well with so many great people.
Meetings on Meetings on Meetings (Will)
Since my Friday was entirely occupied by playing in a tournament, I dedicated my Saturday to exploring the floor and meeting with publishers. Brock and I started at the Asmodee media preview, and let me tell you, other publishers should take note! We had a private room set aside for about 10-15 media and influencers. We filed in and sat around various tables. Asmodee’s Jason Brown took us through an extended presentation showing off all of the upcoming games, which were all present in the room and available for playtesting. (This doesn’t include a few games that unfortunately missed the boat.) We had time to sit and play through Pergola, the upcoming release from Rebel Studio. It’s a cozy set collection/tile placement game where you build a garden and grow plants to attract insects and critters. Let me tell you, this game is an absolute feast for the eyes and is charming as heck to boot. I know several people on my list that I’ll grab a copy for when it releases.
We were whisked away from Asmodee on a series of meetings and demos. Among them, we got a run-through from KOSMOS of all their offerings on display. Cooperation was the name of the game this year, with several twists on classic co-op formulas on display. Perhaps the hottest seller was The Gang, a co-op take on Texas Hold ‘Em that they couldn’t keep in stock at the booth. They released copies for sale each morning at a set time and sold out daily. There are so many more meetings to discuss, and we will undoubtedly get to reviewing the games as they’re ready to be reviewed. Massive shout out to Dead Alive Games and Zephyr Workshop for providing two of my favorite conversations at the convention.
Last year being our first big show, it felt unwieldy. This year, though, it felt fantastic. Talking with Silvio Compagnoni, Head of Marketing for Loot Studios, he mentioned that his team loved PAX Unplugged for the conversations. He said that people just stop in for a few seconds at other big shows and leave the booth quickly. He valued the extended, lengthy discussions and genuine passion people seemed to have when stopping by. It’s not as big or flashy as something like GenCon or SPIEL, but that leaves more breathing room to make those connections and work the relationships more personally.
Dear PAXU, You Need to Let Media in 30 Minutes Early (Justin)
This note is mostly an annual reminder for our friends at US-based conventions, such as Gen Con and PAXU, that they need to align with press guidance at shows in other countries. Please let the media into the main halls early! It’s easier to have meetings with publishers when it’s quiet, while audio and video recording is much higher quality when there are no fans milling around. Early admission gives media members and content creators a chance to cover your convention more efficiently!!! (Remember the part where you remind us that the press badge comes with a cost—talk up the event? We are already working for you! Make it easier for us to service your needs!!)
Dear PAXU, You Need an Extra Day (Will)
The team behind PAX Unplugged is very receptive to feedback. Nearly every complaint or suggestion I had about last year’s event was rectified this year. They expanded their footprint, allowing more free-play seating and walkways between vendor booths. They moved the First Look area to a separate section of the convention center, meaning getting in a game was quieter and more manageable. That being said, this convention feels shockingly short. Arriving on Thursday, there’s no programming available. When the convention opens on Friday, half your morning is spent in line to get into the convention center, and the expo hall closes at 6 PM. By Sunday, it’s a half day as most people are packing up to leave.
This year, I felt the time crunch primarily because I used Friday to participate in non-media events. Give us a half day on Thursday or something! With Sunday mainly being a travel day for people and the convention hall closing up slightly earlier, it only gives two full days to take in everything. There’s just so much content at PAXU in the expo hall alone that it seems like two days isn’t enough, and that’s not to mention all the panels and shows that I’ve never been able to check out due to the packed schedule. One more day, PAX! I’m begging you!
Oooh, a Demo! (Justin)
I went hard in one specific direction for my fifth and final board game convention of the year: I didn’t schedule any meetings. I did, however, schedule a couple of demo games, including Aliases from Allplay. Aliases is a Codenames / Just One – adjacent card game, where players must collectively use clues placed on comic book-style villains to determine who the perpetrator is in a 13-card tableau. Our demo featured a full player count of six players, and we had a fun time trying to marry our criminal clue words into a single word clue that would help the table eliminate all but the most evil of suspects.
Azkadelia Hattress, the marketing rep for Allplay, was properly aggressive to ensure we had a full table of players to try the game, and it was fun doing a bit of buzzy promotion for the game after our demo play. Again, I have more of a radio face than a TV face, so it’s always strange to me when I spend time talking to the camera about anything, let alone a board game. But these are the chances we get now at PAXU thanks to our strong partner relationships. Plus, it is just fun to actually play games at a game convention for a change!
Pray for My Wallet (Will)
Though PAX Unplugged offers excellent access for media, it’s also a fantastic shopping experience. Plenty of the booths are selling merch. I had to pry my husband away from so many pretty sets of dice. There are t-shirts, coasters, dice towers, books, and everything you could want to enhance your tabletop experience. But there are also plenty of publishers with copies of games that are impossible to find otherwise.
I’ve been searching for a copy of Obsession for months. While chatting with the folks at the Dead Alive Games booth, I saw another person walk by with a tote bag containing a shrink-wrapped copy of Obsession. I stopped him to ask where he got it, and once he pointed in the direction, my husband Brock took off running in that direction and returned a few minutes later with a bag full of every piece of content released so far for Obsession. I thought we were done, but on Sunday, just before exiting the convention hall, we stumbled into the Chip Theory Games booth where they had exactly one copy of Too Many Bones left. We walked out of there with stacks of games we’d been looking for, and our wallets are unhappy with us.
Names to Faces (Justin)
Even though I’ve been to a lot of shows this year and met with dozens of contacts, it’s always a blast to meet some of the people we work with “in real life” for a change.
In the fall, Meeple Mountain had the opportunity to partner with the team at Eagle-Gryphon Games for a review and a live playthrough of the game Speakeasy, the latest design from Vital Lacerda (Vinhos: Deluxe Edition, On Mars, Kanban EV). Over the course of about six weeks, we were in touch with EGG’s marketing and community team on a daily basis. Prior to PAXU this year, I had never put a face to a name until the show, when I met with Rachel Crownover and her husband while talking about the game Voidfall at the Mindclash booth.
It was a fun moment for me, in part because I love meeting people who are passionate about heavier, more serious game experiences. (I also love meeting people who love Voidfall.) This kind of thing happens to me once or twice at every show, and it helps when you are wearing a large Meeple Mountain logo on the back of your hoodie. A big thanks to Rachel and the entire team at EGG for their collaboration on one of the best games I played this year, but more importantly, it’s just great to be in person at these shows and make the kinds of connections that really last.
Show Superlatives (Will)
There were plenty of fantastic games on display at PAX Unplugged. If I spent time listing out every game that impressed me or caught my eye, we’d be here for days, so just trust me when I say to keep an eye on our upcoming 2025 reviews because some absolute bangers are waiting to be released. That being said, there are two games that I wanted to give a special shoutout to.
The first is a silly award I’m calling “Game Most Likely to Take Over the World.” That belongs to Malediction, an upcoming competitive skirmish wargame. It’s a unique mixture of miniatures combat and trading card game mechanics, like if Magic: the Gathering and Warhammer had a baby. Each of the four starter sets has all the necessary cards and cardboard standees to represent each model. The creators behind this, the team at Loot Studios, made their name in creating STL files for 3D printing for tabletop RPGs. When you buy Malediction, you get all the STL files you need to print your own copy of the miniatures if you want to go through the effort! It appeals to both the hobbyists who want to paint everything and those who just enjoy the core gameplay loop and deckbuilding aspect. The gameplay itself is fantastic – look for upcoming coverage from us next month talking about it in more depth.
The next is the “Game That Made Me Fall in Love With a Mechanic I Thought I Hated.” It just rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it? That honor belongs to Chicken Fried Dice, an upcoming game that will hit crowdfunding sometime in Q2 2025. Created by Ashwin Kamath and Rob Newton, it’s a frantic real-time roll and write game that made me think maybe I don’t hate roll and writes after all! All players roll a handful of dice into a big pool and then, in real-time, scramble to grab dice and place them to resolve customer orders. Take too long to feed a hungry customer, and they’ll walk away from your food truck and leave you a negative review. It’s an absolute chaotic blast to play, as evidenced by the giggles around the table among shouts of “Yes, Chef!” when the head chef called in an order. I cannot wait for this one to hit crowdfunding.
More Playcon Than Trade Show (Justin)
I have skipped shows like PAXU in the past because I conduct so many meetings at the other shows in late summer and fall (Gen Con and SPIEL). While there were almost no new-to-me games at PAXU, some exhibitors only attend PAXU and not the other events.
That makes PAXU a must for our team, and what really brings it home is how game-play-friendly PAXU is. There are tables EVERYWHERE near and inside of the expo hall. The hotels that surround the Pennsylvania Convention Center host a lot of open gaming as well. Getting those shiny new toys onto tables quickly is very doable in the PAXU environment.
PAXU is certainly more “playcon” (game-playing convention) than “tradecon”, due to the somewhat diminished number of vendors at the show. But the aisles featuring small and independent vendors is where it is at—so many fun ideas, great prices, and amazing fare that is outside of the games larger publishers push out each year. In the future, I’ll come to play more games, but also to consume more activity in those independent artist/publisher-focused aisles on the expo hall floor.
Hmm…November?
PAXU was a great time once again this year. That works for some of our writers well, particularly around timing: PAXU is the only show in town during the month of December.
But in 2025, that is going to change, with PAXU scheduled for the weekend before Thanksgiving. Given the timing of other shows such as SDHistCon and BGG Con (with the latter being the exact same weekend as PAXU), along with the late start for SPIEL in 2025 (late October), it will be interesting to see how this is going to work for many of our media and content creation peers.
That’s a question for another day. Thanks again to the folks at Penny Arcade and ReedPop for putting on a great show!
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