From December 6th to 8th, I was fortunate enough to attend PAX Unplugged. It’s a convention that is all about table top gaming, no video games what so ever. Anything dealing with trading card game, role play adventures including Dungeon’s and Dragons, table top board games and minatures, the possibilities are endless. This is definitely a different beast that what I’m used to with PAX East, but PAX Unplugged definitely is a huge convention with tons of things to do. At the end of it though, I oddly felt like I was home too.
The one thing I never realized is how big PAX Unplugged is. Essentially it uses up almost the whole Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia. The Expo Hall itself is huge, almost similar size to PAX East. One side of the Expo Hall has tons of booths including from major publishers including Game’s Workshop. There also tons of booths selling different games, tables, dice, and more. When you start moving to the other side you see more games to play and take part in, free to play areas, first looks. Honestly its alot of ground to cover which use the 1st day if you there all weekend to do recon. There were also other kinds of booths sprinkled in between including the awesome Cookie Brigade. There was even a dedicated station to painting a minature figure.
Other areas's of the Convention Center offered rooms dedicated for table top gaming. There was a huge room for Dungeons and Dragons, but also other rooms for other table top adventures. The DMs manning the stations were awesome, friendly, and ready to help you out if you had any questions. I do recommend per-registering games on the PAX Nav app to get a spot in because they go quickly.
There really isn’t any major food courts because Reading Market which is connected to the Convention Center I have to say is one of the main highlights. Multiple different food stalls from fresh bakery, Chinese, Japanese, Cajun, Caribbean, and more is offered there. While there were some food options within the Convention Center, Reading Market is such a life savor providing excellent food at a good price.
While at the Convention Center most of my time was managing the Press Room as an Enforcer. Honestly went by great, we had tons of awesome and friendly content creators that have so much passion and energy. You Think the Press Room everyone would be working hard on their content (which they do), but we all also hangout, relax, and just geek out together.
Honestly walking around the convention center seeing all the energy, passion, and geekdom flow. It really made me feel like I was a young teenager again with my Dad at a convention again. My only regret is I didn’t play enough games at the convention. There were so many different types of games there that it could take a week to get through everything. So its safe to say if your a table top gamer, there is literally something there for you. Of course I made a mistake by going to the Game’s Workshop booth thinking I could only spend $100 there. Yeh it was a nice thought but I walked away with a Space Marine Army Set (no regrets).
Overall this is my first PAX Unplugged and honestly, this is one of the best Table Top convention’s I’ve attended. It left such a great impression on me with so much variety available there. This was the first time I used FEDEX to ship stuff back home because it would of been difficult carrying all these games through the train I bought. The memories I made here were great and honestly next year I want to do more. Overall if your looking for a Table Top convention to attend, definitely checkout PAX Unplugged.