PAX Unplugged (3-Day Convention in Philly)
Details
PAX began as an all-purpose gaming convention in 2004, and since then it has doubled in size each year until it hit venue capacities. PAX Unplugged came about in 2017 after realizing that the tabletop sections at the original PAX shows kept growing and growing! This year, it will be held over the weekend of Nov. 21-23 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia.
Several experienced GMs will be running a variety of games at various time slots throughout the 3 days of the convention. You can pre-register for the games you want to play on the Tabletop Events schedule here, which shows the specific time slots and adventure titles - https://unplugged.paxsite.com/en-us/schedule.html
They have play sessions for the following (OSR games in bold):
Shadowdark
Deathbringer
Mork Borg
Pirate Borg
Maize Borg
RagnaBorg
D&D 5E
Call of Cthulhu
Arkham Horror
World of Darkness
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Candela Obscura
Cypher System
Daggerheart
Monster of the Week
Kids on Bikes
Alien
Coriolis
Vaesen
Liminal Horror
In the Dark
Coyote & Crow
City of Winter
Psi*Run
Thunder Road: Vendetta
Bitemarks / Women are Werewolves
There will also be a variety of board games, miniature games, escape room games, puzzles, LARP, and social deduction games - and of course a ton of vendors selling all sorts of games and merchandise. There will be several workshops on game design and game mastering, including "Deathbringer, Shadowdark, Pathfinder and D&D: the Future of Roll for Combat", "Let's Get Villainous - Making Evil Characters Without Being an Edgelord", "So Your Friends Have Suckered You Into Running a Game, What Now?," and even one for teachers - "Making a TTRPG For Your Particular Classroom."
NOTE: Since this is a huge convention and can be confusing for newbies, I recommend checking out their Quick Start Guide which recommends some things to bring and discusses how to navigate the space with your badge and pre-register for events. There's also this Reddit thread entitled "A Filthy Casual’s Guide to PAX Unplugged" that has some good advice, especially for folks who haven't visited Philly before.
NOTE: Since my free time is constrained as a new dad and I'm not sure I can go, this will be unhosted - i.e. you shouldn't expect to see me there. However, if you plan to go, I encourage you to connect & coordinate with our other group members who plan to go via comments on this event and/or through direct messaging.
Ticket Pricing is as follows:
- 3 Day Badge = $109.00 ($104.00 + $5.00 Service Fee)
- Friday Badge = $54.00 ($49.00 + $5.00 Service Fee)
- Saturday Badge = $55.00 ($50.00 + $5.00 Service Fee)
- Sunday Badge = $54.00 ($49.00 + $5.00 Service Fee)
- Sunday Kids Badge = $25.00 ($20.00 + $5.00 Service Fee)
Details on the convention can be found at the event's website here: https://unplugged.paxsite.com
And there's also a Facebook group where you can find lots of discussion:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1621939471246414/
And there's a Discord channel as well:
https://discord.com/invite/sCF5CSKcGR