Hi folks,
Pax Unplugged 2023 came and went, and what a spectacle it was. It felt like 3 days of table top gaming heaven. The free-play areas is just a simply amazing feature.
I wanted to share some highlights of the convention and express my gratitude to everyone I met and had a chance to speak with. Pax U attendance was super high, with an especially hectic Saturday. But everyone was so kind and really reminded me of how amazing this community is.
Pictured above is the weekend haul which was small enough. But includes Tiny Epic Zombies (rules are a struggle to read but love the theme), Connected Clues (fun looking party game!), and Exploding Kittens (has a special place in my heart as a game my family and I love.) Not pictured for some reason is also Final Girl Core and the Hans episode as well as Tiny Epic Quest.
Day 1 (also captured in a Reddit post):
Got to meet the awesome folks from BoardGameCo (Alex and Meg), and they are just as nice as you would expect them to be. Felt like saying hello to long lost friends!
Also got to meet Isaac Childres! I thanked him for my newfound addition, Gloomhaven JOTL as a solo player, but unfortunately do not have the bandwidth for Frosthaven. He and his team convinced me to get 2nd Edition Gloomhaven, because those faction features and deeper story threads is exactly what I crave
Played a digital version of Root which was lovely and intuitive, and quite a ruthless game! But defeated the avian filth with my cats much faster the second time
Got my butt handed to me in a Dice Throne tourney but had an absolute blast! The Dice Throne team also played a couple extra games with me that introduced me to Marvel characters. They all saw I own the OG season 1 box which blew everyone away 😂
Day 2:
Started off floating around different booths and meeting all sorts of talented developers and designers. One of my favorite visits was checking out Sleeping Gods Distant Skies' gameplay which really intrigued me
Tried my hand at a few games, including Beadle & Grimm’s upcoming competitive fantasy game Ring of Chaos with a group of strangers which was so much fun (also congrats to B&G for blasting through their Kickstarter goal!)
Also played a game of Battle Bosses with a Kess rep who was awesome to play with, and really sold me on how fun it is battling a living pirate ship with a mecha
Attended a very important panel titled “What Matters Most in Crowdfunding” hosted by Jonathan Ritter-Roderick (Head of Games at Kickstarter) with some of the best insights you can get from industry leaders Grace Collins (Snowbright Games), Ami Baio (Pink Tiger Games), Ricardo Evangelho (Hit Point Press), and Nate Chatellier (Dice Throne!!) Afterwards, all the designers stayed behind afterwards to chat with everyone who wanted to meet them and ask questions. I spoke with Nate given how much I love Dice Throne and how that game has inspired me, and he gave me some of the best advice I could ever ask for. (If you ever read this, thank you Nate!)
Returned to the Cephalofair booth just to nerd out over the upcoming changes in Gloomhaven Second Edition with Cephalofair’s rep, Chris, who shares my love for the Valrath
Got to explore Philly’s gorgeous Holiday Market in the city center which is bigger than I ever imagined! It seems even bigger than the one in NYC’s Bryant Park
Day 3
The endcon blues started setting in, but had to keep going!
First stop: beelined to Dice Throne’s booth to try Marvel Missions. That was some of the most fun I ever had while playing a table top game with a group of strangers. We kicked Mister Sinister’s butt in an epic, fast-paced, and very fun mission that had us fight minions before the boss. This game improves many things from Dice Throne’s other co-op project, DT Adventures, such as encouraging much more teamwork and coordination with the other players. It also reduces some of the downtime between turns and there is no portal crawl to go stale halfway through a campaign since Missions is much faster to set up and dive right in (no connecting story between Missions from my understanding, which is perfect for that game’s format). Quick and easy, yet challenging and immersive fun!
Met someone through an old colleague that happened to be at Pax, and had one of the best discussions around gaming in recent memory. He had so many great insights on the industry, and introduced me to a ton of cool indie games such as Dandelions
Stood in awe at the sheer size of a Space Marine Terminator which would be a terrifying thing to witness if it really existed
And that just about wraps it up for Pax Unplugged 2023. It was some of the most fun I ever had. Overwhelming in the best way possible. Hope to see you all at the next one!
- M
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