by Armchair Dragoons PAO, 11 December 2023
Pax Unplugged happens at a weird time on the calendar. It’s not tied in around a holiday weekend It’s not over the Summer when many other ‘destination’ conventions entire travelers to their spectacles. It’s not publisher-specific event. It’s just some random, large convention plopped in between Thanksgiving and Christmas that some drags in 5-figure attendance and a host of big names.
Although there was no official Armchair Dragoons presence this year, we did manage to scrounge up some coverage from a few friends who made it to Philadelphia for the weekend
click images to enlarge
LIZ
This year marked my fourth trip to PAX Unplugged, and while it remains one of my absolute favorite conventions, this one was very different—instead of spending all of my time demoing other people’s games at as many booths as possible, I spent most of the time showing off games of my own! It was special to get to demo Night Witches for a mix of friends and strangers, and I have a couple of other projects in development that are keeping me happy and busy.
I also did manage to check out a few games—I spent a long afternoon/early evening playing Weimar for the second time, and it was an absolute delight. My only complaint about the con would probably be that it needs more free play space. The process of getting a table was its own intense area control game! I also got to try out Arcs, Cole Wehrle’s upcoming game from Leder, which so far seems as sleek and nasty as expected. I also got to meet a couple of good friends I wasn’t sure I’d ever see in person! Jo Kelly, designer of Molly House, came over from across the pond, and I also got to meet Dan Hallagan of Obsession fame.
The highlight of the con, however, might have been the second annual cheese party, which is exactly what you think it is—everyone brings cheese, and we eat it! The cheese party is hosted by the High Fromage Council, a.k.a. Arwen from Cardboard Time, Alyssa from Heavy Cardboard, and yours truly. I had a fantastic time at PAXU, and I already can’t wait until next year.
TIMOTHY-ISSAC
- It was great to witness so many people peacefully enjoying their hobby in the same space.
- In the heart of Philadelphia, the Reading Terminal market blows most event space food experiences out of the water.
- I wish there were more demos where I understood the commitment.
- If I could go back, I would have explored the unpublished section(s) earlier.
I am a difficult client. I yearn for the bustling energy of people. People who might confirm the hobby I love; that I choose to invest time, money, and travel into, is a valid use of one’s limited resources. Yet I hate crowds. I hate queuing. I hate $8 hot dogs with no condiment station in sight.
PAX Unplugged was my first experience of a large board gaming convention, and only my second board gaming convention of any kind. Earlier in 2023, with the helpful nudge of a friend, I took the leap and ventured south to this nation’s capital and attended Circle DC, a convention run by the promising young publishing company, Fort Circle. Here, after mere minutes of awkwardness, I quickly assimilated into a group of like-minded weirdos and had one of the best weekends of my hobby life.
I wasn’t sure what to expect in PAX; at a larger, more commercial convention. In a lot of ways, it was just that – larger, and more commercial/retail focused, but it never quite crossed a line that made me regret coming. Sure, there were rows of booths selling luxury dice the likes of which my fledgling role playing self at 16 years old would have had to work a full week at minimum wage to cover the costs of, but around many turns there were so many things that would have made either my 16 year old weirdo heart feel at home, or my 36 year old weirdo wargamer heart feel welcomed.
Though admittedly, there wasn’t adequate table space in the free-gaming space to setup the late Chad Jensen and John Butterfield’s Downfall: Conquest of the Third Reich, 1942-1945 (Yes, I did in fact schlep this and several other games I thought might be convention worthy), we did find a swath of folding table real estate to setup Volko Ruhnke’s Nevsky. I don’t subscribe to the term “War-euro”… er “Waro”.. er… “W-Euro”… whatever, you get it, but I do believe that there are a lot of intersecting identities and interests at conventions like PAX Unplugged, and I’ll just leave it at… Nevsky was a looker that got some looks.
Though historical and war games were maybe just a sliver of the represented games on view at the convention, PAX Unplugged reminded me of the many overlapping qualities and shared histories of role playing and wargaming, and regardless of my social anxieties, that is something that keeps me smiling and looking forward to this hobby and the conventions to come.
ALEXANDRE
Lost in the Supermarket : A Historical Gamer’s Perspective on Pax Unplugged 2023
Nobody would ever mistake Pax Unplugged for a wargaming convention in any sense of the term. The big inflatable Pikachu hovering above the Pokémon center, right in the middle of the Philadelphia convention center’s main room, made that obvious right from the get go to anyone who had not gotten the memo. And, even on Friday, the place was busy enough for anyone in their right mind to question why they’d ended up going in there in the first place. I don’t consider myself an antisocial person in any sense of the term. But there comes a point where you just have to recognize that crazy is crazy, and heavy games are better appreciated in a more tranquil atmosphere than that of a bustling marketplace.
Pre-convention warmup plays from the previous day had included not one but two games of Hollandspieles’s Siege of Mantua, both of whom won by yours truly as the French forces. From the very first turn, this felt like an Amabel Holland design, by which I mean that I took pleasure in the nagging feeling that I had no good option available to me and basically had to pick the least rotten of those at my disposal. Fun times, obviously. Overall, I came out of it with a great impression of the game; it is quite tight and clever, and while I suspect the French player has a slightly more interesting game to play than their opponent does, both adversaries can share the pleasure of handling those nice thick screen-printed blocks all the same. Siege of Mantua was followed by At All Costs!, which my gaming partner and I managed to set up and play to a satisfying conclusion before evening had even really begun. Talk about efficiency.
All of this to say that, as I strolled in a daze among the innumerable vendors at Pax U, I begun to wonder how I’d manage to get even half that amount of gaming done before the end of the weekend. Maybe our friend had been right to say we’d taken way too many games with us. Let’s not kid ourselves – it’s not like we were actually going to set up Chad Jensen and John Butterfield’s Downfall right in the middle of the freeplay area. And so I felt myself progressively grognifying, as we soldiered on from one booth to another. And, admittedly, some of these cool little indie RPGs probably were interesting. But it was all too much for me to take all at once. By that point, it was obvious I was failing my sanity roll.
Our group’s first real stop was at Oink Games’ very elegant space. Beyond the cute artwork and artful design, these games pack an impressive punch in insanely tight little packages. And so, for this reason, it felt like they might save the day as it dawned upon me that this might not be the most appropriate place in the world to just whip out Brian Train’s Colonial Twilight or finally get Westphalia to the table. Among the games I picked up was the Japan-exclusive Dungeon of Manhood VIII, which had sold out by the beginning of the second day. It’s a simple push-your-luck ruin-the-life-opponent dungeon crawler which I won’t spoil but recommend you get a hold of. Sure, the translation work on that instruction manual is a bit iffy. But once it clicks, that game is wild.
Recent games were set up and placed at the disposal of players all across the convention’s play area, and we came across Mathias Cramer’s The Hunt lost among the seas of euros. I’d been curious to give this one a go and will say it is an interesting design, but it fell a bit short of my expectations. While the hidden movement mechanics are both refreshing and effective, I feel like the game itself is a bit too small for its own good. Don’t get me wrong – it does what it has to do, and mixes up different ideas in an ingenious little package. But it’s a little too light as a CDG and a little too light as a hidden movement game, and so I’m not sure it has real staying power beyond the initial rush it delivers. I’ll say this, though – our game ended on an epic battle which got even our next-seat neighbours screaming.
Saturday morning’s lineup outside the convention center was so long it felt like we might never even get to enter Pax U. After what felt like hours, we set up Volko Ruhnke’s Nevsky which we considered an act of open defiance. I’d only played this solo, and to finally be able to play the game against a live opponent felt like a true triumph. And while the Levy & Campaign system is quite beefy and a wee bit intimidating at first, it does have an amazing pacing once it gets going. So our short intro scenario was done in approximately an hour, some ravaging was done in the countryside and we got a few battles in. And that map looks so gorgeous, I think our little spectacle attracted the attention of quite a few people passing by. I can’t wait to get back to this, now.
Next up was a teaching round of Molly House, hosted by designer Jo Kelly, back at the Wehrlegig Booth. The game, which portrays the queer underground milieu in 18th century Britain, basically puts players in charge of accumulating as much pleasure as possible. At its core is a sort of Poker variant, wrapped around simple worker placement mechanics and a bit of social deduction as players get to turn into informants. Honestly, it all felt like it would click together after just a few more rounds which we sadly didn’t get to play. But I think with some fancy art to facilitate immersion and a bit more time to assimilate its inner logic, Molly House will really sing. And although I left the table with some amount of uncertainty, this is in fact a design I appreciate more and more in retrospect, as I spend some time thinking about it.
Cole Wehrle’s own Arcs was also on display at the Leder Games booth, and seeing it in the flesh made me all the more excited for its release. The version they had at Pax U was essentially final. And, in all sincerity, it just looked like a banger about to drop. A friend who actually got to try it even ended up giving me his copy of Peer Sylvester’s Brian Boru as a result, having decided that the game no longer was the High King of hybrid trick-takers. Lofty praise indeed, especially considering just how good Brian Boru actually is.
The second part of the afternoon was spent asking the question “is this a wargame?” in jest as we gave Sylvester’s masterpiece The King Is Dead as well as the classic Condottiere a few goes. Liz Davidson then joined us and showed our group the latest version of Night Witches, which she is currently co-designing with David Thompson. The game has been polished up quite a bit since I first saw it earlier this year back at Circle DC, where I suspect it was rightfully picked up by Fort Circle Games. And while the few new bits and bobs I noticed looked good, what truly sets this design apart is its formidable ease of use. There is something wonderfully instinctive about the way it all works, and in that regard this new version felt even better than the previous one.
Feeling a little homesick by that point, I asked my friend if he’d play Québec 1759 with me. Setting up the venerable elder felt like the perfect way to end the day, and it is a testament to this design’s quality that it still plays as well as it does even today. The general vibe of the convention had gotten a bit more chill, by this point. Some big train games were on display, a few people had set up Votes for Women and there was something inspiring about seeing so many people just playing games together, sharing the moment and having fun. All of sudden, it felt like this wasn’t all just about unrepentant consumerism. There was a true sense of community emanating from all of this.
Sunday, in contrast to the previous day, also felt a little less hectic. Although quite a few items had sold out by this point, it ended up being the best moment to actually take a look at what the different booths had to offer. I ended up stopping at the Dragon Dice booth. I had actually purchased starter sets for that game in the late 90s, back when game stores were offloading them at outrageously low prices. But I’d never gotten around to trying it, as I was a little young and had bounced off the English rulebook pretty hard. Coming back to it now felt like a revelation, and once my friend and I understood the game’s cool but slightly esoteric iconography we were at it and having a blast. We ended up buying a bunch of those and asked about the game’s convoluted legal history, which involves TSR, Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro as well as the legal rights to the very notion of a Beholder™. It is fascinating in and out of itself, and just goes to show how much of a labor of love (and a miracle) that whole enterprise really is.
Overall, I had mixed feelings about Pax Unplugged. I had a great time for sure, but in some ways felt like a bit of an outsider just trying to find a place where I could just settle in. The few used wargames available at the convention were labeled by the sellers as must-perfumed, with some parts potentially missing. And, in many ways, one can’t help but feel like that’s a metaphor for something. But, in other ways, historical gaming also felt like a secret handshake one could make to others in the know – much like designer Non-Breaking Space distributing the cards to his seemingly abandoned Pokémon/Cuba Libre hybrid to friends at the convention. For lack of a better word, that does feel cool. And, in the end, it gave something of a meaning to our slightly eccentric presence in this space.
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There once were Dragoons in their chairs,
Wargaming expertise beyond compares.
With passion they’d play,
Strategizing all day,
The Armchair champions, nobody dares.
In the hobby, they stand proud and tall,
Wargaming prowess, they enthrall.
In each tabletop fight,
They prove their might,
Armchair Dragoons, the best of them all!
