PAX Unplugged

• Star League Command Lance - Atlas II, Thunder Hawk, Orion, and Phoenix Hawk Special, releasing first quarter 2024

• Second Star League Lance and two additional lances, 1 releasing each quarter. Each Lance will include a prepainted legendary mech, only confirmed one is Victor Steiner-Davion's Prometheus. The prepainted mechs will only be chassis that are available in another pack.

• Ilclan Recognition Guide Vol 33 will be coming

• Vol 2 of the print Rec Guide is expected 2nd quarter 2024

• Force Manuals are planned 1 a quarter, Ilclan force Manuals are pdf only releases at the same time as the Clan Invasion one for that faction.

• Hot Spots Hinterlands is scheduled for 3rd quarter 2024

• Ilkhan's Eyes Only is currently set for 3rd Quarter 2024

• Mechcommander's Manual is set for 4th quarter 2024

• They showed the 40th anniversary covers for A Game of Armored Combat and the Beginner's Box.

Before I jump into concerns, I had a fairly wonderful time with my friends at PU this year and really enjoyed the vendors and the stuff I was able to get......

I've been going to PAX Unplugged, mainly as a vendor, for several years. This year I went as a typical attendee, and as such, I'm not 100% clear about how different it's been from the past years given that I didn't have the chance to move about a ton in the previous ones HOWEVER:

- This one seemed as if it finally pushed the Convention Center to the max. People were crammed in everywhere. Saturday was downright nuts. The Center REFUSES to make allowances for multiple entrances so lines wrapped, at times, back on itself TWICE to get in. I personally avoided this by coming late after hearing the lowdown from my fellow players. The Game Library was so devoid of games that we ended up playing mainly games we brought. The table space was such that people were continually walking around looking like vultures ready to descend on any open table with tons of "are you leaving" requests. If anyone did get up, those next to them would often quickly expand into the open seats.

- Food at the venue is ridiculous and this needs to be fixed. Pretzel Factory selling $8 single pretzels? I saw that and decided to stop by my local PF and got 20 pretzels Saturday for $15 (sale). A tiny plain grilled cheese for $12? $6 for a small serving of sliced pickles? Bringing in food and games generally don't mix well and if you want to be there for the duration it means having food sit around for hours. I shouldn't have to plan as if I'm embarking on a hike to Macchu Pichu just to grab some food. Sure, you can leave the venue, but then there's a good hour gone each time you leave.

- Speaking of food, I'm done with Wild Bill's -- the rootbeer vendor. I've used them in the past with okay results. It's a nightmare now. I bought a mug back in 2019 and their soda is amazing, but obviously loaded with sugar. This year, once I got in early Friday, I paid $33 to upgrade my current mug with a lid, a straw and a 3-day pass. I then waited in a 14-minute line to get my soda, which I finished long before I got back to my seat in the open play area. I also had to walk through a huge puddle of soda that had me sticking to the floor for hours and got sprayed by soda from the person next to me (not their fault). The soda fizzes so much that it often takes three or four nozzle pulls before you can get your cup (possibly) filled. The rest of the entire show I kept returning to their kiosks to only find it sporting OUTRAGEOUS lines that I just couldn't justify so, in the end, I paid $33 for a lid/straw and one almost full cup of root beer. Nope. Done. Plus this is just ludicrously designed. This company needs to stop the setup they have. Just use a normal kiosk design and when people come up WB's staff should do the work as they are the experts and will get it done far more quickly and cleanly. It's either that or put up several more stations.

- We bought a LOT of stuff there. PAX needs to set up some sort of Disney-like service where you buy this stuff and it gets stored at a location in the building for later pick-up, if so desired. Having to walk around for the rest of the day dragging around (and worrying about) large and small boxes and bags is silly. Several times we said, "Do you know where x bag is?" This same lament could be heard all over the open play area. One person with their game pack on their back turned and slammed into me and was immediately hostile towards ME as he was concerned that this impact might have dented his new purchase. I was standing still the entire time. Ugh.

- The Center and PAX need to work together to insure that more capable people are on-hand to answer SIMPLE questions. I bought our tickets in advance and had them mailed. They arrived without lanyards. Okay, they'll have them at the event. No biggie. Except we got there and went in the entrance for those already with badges, got to the security section and there was nothing. So I asked the PAX person (purple shirt) where to get lanyards. I have never seen a person look more like a deer frozen in headlights until this moment. The person realized it was an obvious question and looked around, looked back to me and said, " " --- literally nothing, for nearly a minute. My wife and I stood there in awe at how long this went on. They then said, " ". So I broke off the "discussion" and said, "It's okay" and walked off. It took FOUR more discussions before someone at the accessories counter just took pity on us and gave us two lanyards. At one point I asked CC staff where an elevator was for a patron in a wheelchair. They had no clue. 10 steps later we saw it. No signs for it. Seriously?

Bottom line is that it appears attendance was up over 50% this year from last year. Changes need to reflect that or this is going to become untenable and this show deserves MUCH better.

IMHO PAX Unplugged is slowly becoming the second most respected US Game convention after Gen Con as for some reason Origins has gone downhill. I don’t know why as Origins is run by GAMA (Game manufacturers association) and also doubles as a “trade show” for the gaming industry. Similarly E3 in its last years (2017-2019) doubled as a trade show and public video game convention and that went downhill too, and now PAX west and east have replaced E3, I think PAX Unplugged has potential to replace Origins. Origins attendance went up this year from almost 12,000 in 2022 to 16,000 in 2022 but is still less than 2019’s 20,000 while PAX Unplugged has grown a lot every year to over 30,000 this year.

But what I am also more aware of is publishers prefer going there now. I demoed for multiple publishers as at least two of them said they prefer PAX and many stopped appearing altogether at Origins in favor of PAX Unplugged. Origins attendance going up this year gives me hope they will stick around for awhile but not sure on longevity. Also are the PAX Unplugged/Dicebreaker Tabletop Gaming awards now more prestigious than Origins awards?

So, there are going to be announcements for a couple Catalyst properties at PAX unplugged. We know the 40th Anniversary is next year. But here is a question for all of you here.

What are you hoping gets announced? Next year we'll see at least a couple new, non-merc Kickstarter related Force Packs. But what do you want in them?

Is there any fiction your hoping they announce?

It's gonna be an exciting weekend, so I am curious. What are all of you looking forward to?

Hey everyone,

Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins from Penny Arcade are here to answer questions and talk shop about year two of PAX Unplugged in Philadelphia as well as our other tabletop-focused projects like Acquisitions Incorporated and Thornwatch.

It's starting a little late but we will try to go from 9:30am PT to 11:30am PT

We also might be able to announce so cool new table top projects if you bug them enough aboutit, otherwise you will have to wait a few weeks. I'll also pop in if it makes sense.

Edit: here is the verification and

Edit: OK back to work, thanks for the questions everyone! Hope to see you in Philadelphia in a few weeks!

I’ve been out of the loop for a bit, but going to Pax tomorrow. Any suggestions for “must see” new stuff?

Hello there!

I've been compiling all the decklists from the events (huge thanks to The Forbidden Mountain for finding many of the missing ones!)

Here's what we currently have:

However, we need a bit of help with the final standings. We know for sure who the winner is, but we need some assistance with the final standings after the top 8.

If anyone was there or has additional details, I'm all ears. ;)

Winner decklists:

If you are wearing a mask while at the event, thank you.

You are stopping disease from spreading in Philly and the gaming community.

You are protecting disabled attendees and making it safer for all people to attend.

You are putting the health of others and vulnerable people over your personal convenience. 

You all are the real MVPs. 

If you have not been wearing a mask, it is never too late to start, for this event or others in the future. 

Stay safe and let's take care of each other. 

Pax Unplugged was thia past weekend in Philadelphia. This was my first time attending Unplugged, and the farthest I have traveled for a convention. Here are some of our takeaways:

TL;DR: an aggravating experience, especially with regards to playing and running RPGs.

Highlights:

• Extremely friendly attendees and volunteers. Everyone was so kind, politeful, and genuinely helpful. Probably the overall friendliest con I have attended.

• The culture of this convention is to just show up and play. I appreciate that attitude, and it is certainly what I expected when I started attending cons. When it works, it's great.

• I'm excited to give Shock: Social Science Fiction a try.

• Shout to anyone who played in my Fate of the Norns games. I had so much fun gaming with you all.

The bads:

• The no-reservation culture isn't the official policy. To sign up ahead of time to run games, there was a forum on RPGGeek. This was not advertised broadly. I just happened to see it. But players still don't usually sign up in advance. So I am locked in to run games at a specific time, with no clue if anyone will show up.

• They double booked table reservations. So we have to sign up in advanced, and even then, we were not guaranteed a table.

• The line to get in the building took 45 minutes. I've never seen this anywhere else. Not even Gen Con which has 3x the attendees. And there is nothing for game runners or hosts to enter with exhibitors or podcasters.

• The volunteers did not know what was going on. Lines to get in to "play on demand" had both a waiting queue, and a preregistered queue. Different volunteers directed people to those lines differently. So even people who did sign up could miss their games to those who had not.

• There were game demo-ers sitting with empty tables and would turn away any attendee who did not have a podcast or blog. I totally understand why the publishers would do this, but it leaves a bad taste in your mouth nonetheless.

I'll take the pain of event sign-ups weeks/months in advance if this is the alternative.

Only a few short days until PAX Unplugged begins in Philly! What are you looking forward to? What hot new game are you pumped to test out? What panel are you clearing your schedule for? What booth are you bee-lining to?

Does anyone have any idea when we will know if Pax Unplugged will have a mask and/or vaccine mandate? (My partner is immunocompromised and we are trying to calculate if we should attend.)

Thanks in advance for any information you may have!

Hey! im looking to go to unplugged this year as i love board games and am intrigued in trying new ones, but im in a small town in WV and dont really have friends that want to play, so im looking for friends to play online and some that are going to unplugged and would want to play there!

Hey all planning to go to my first 100% board game convention. Was wondering if anyone has been to both and has any hard feelings about them and any recommendations.

Story: about 10 of us heading back to Boston/Nashville were stranded in Philly Airport overnight due to delays, so we introduced ourselves to each other and made our own "PAX Unplugged: Grounded Edition" in an empty food court, complete with an RPG session, Free Play, and an Unpub game. Really showed the true power of the gaming community!

About time! I'm booking my flight and hotel right away.

Dear Designers,

We are going to be taking game pitch meetings at PAX Unplugged 2021 in December in Philadelphia this year. Like in previous years we'll be setting up meeting in half-hour increments; that is enough time to pitch up to 2 games.

We are particularly interested in two kinds of games:

1: Large, complex games suitable for Kickstarter with a target Reward of $100 (could be a base game, or a base game plus expansion content)

2: Board games with a broad target market (both men and women, ages 12 and up, 4-6 players with potential for a solo mode) that would have an estimated cost of goods of $8 or less with an estimated MSRP between $40 and $60.

We are currently not looking for small games with projected MSRPs below $30; that would mean a game with 50-150 cards and no other components; "micro games" like Love Letter, etc.

Other categories of games we're not currently reviewing: 2-player "Combat" games; Collectible Card Games; Roleplaying Games(*); Giant Fighting Robot games; miniatures war games; party games; games for children; games with "adult" (sex, extreme violence) themes; or digital games.

(*) We are interested in seeing pitches for Gloomhaven/Oathsworn style adventure games for Kickstarter

The first step in setting up a pitch with us is to send us a 1 page PDF sell sheet describing your game and if you can a link to a short (<5 minute) explainer video on YouTube. Please send these to with subject "PAX UNPLUGGED 2021 PITCH".

We'll review the sell sheets and if we want to take your pitch in person we'll notify you around the first of December.

Have a great winter season!

Sincerely,

Ryan Dancey Chief Operating Officer, Alderac Entertainment Group

My husband and I managed to get all 3 promo cards, the Pooh playmat, boosters, and the Mulan deck box. We also got a few Lorcana purple promo pins on the Maleficent card back. We pulled a number of Legendary and Very Rare cards. No Enchanted, but oh well.

Line seemed to move pretty quickly. Plenty of inventory. Seemed well organized. It was really something to see so much product in person.

We didn't do any tournaments or anything.

I saw a few third party vendors offering Chapter 1 ($10 a booster though).

Anyway, overall we were happy with the purchasing experience. Wish there'd been more organized free play/non-tournament stuff, if I had any criticism. And , the staff had those awesome Lorcana hoodies and shirts - I hope they eventually sell something like that.

For those who attended PAX Unplugged this weekend, how was the experience for you?