So 2025 has been a crazy year of cons- hopefully I will get some brief recaps of each and an overall perspectives piece pulled together for the end of year!
But with the madness of the end of year coming up, I did manage to get one more con squeezed in – PAX Unplugged 2025! Now like many of you, dear readers, I dabble in board games and RPGs as well. We’ve had board game nights on and off, and for a while I had a bit of a board game kickstarter habit (managed to kick that thankfully, as many games still need to be played). RPGs of all kinds are fun, but I’ve been drawn more recently to simpler and more improv-y systems that fit on one page (like those of Grant Howitt).
Plus I love a good game of crokinole, which my friend introduced me to after learning about it at PAX!
So while PAX Unplugged is not that much into oldhammer or historical gaming, it was on my radar as a possible visit. Then I read more about the growing minis scene there- the Arcardian Brush art show/painting competition, various GW and star wars tournaments, and a nice set of games hosted by the HMGS folks!
So I decided to rope my two friends into coming with- they don’t play a lot of minis games so I thought this would be a great joint trip! One friendo is big into PAX, introduced me to crokinole and many games from there- but sadly they were not able to get a ticket as the passes were all sold out (a portent of the madness to come). But my friend in NY was able to snag a ticket and head down on the train (actually came down twice, messed up the dates and came the weekend before too!).
Finding a hotel was a challenge, as not only was the PAX con downtown, but the Philly Marathon as well! I found one across the river in NJ (everything is legal in NJ).
So with that I headed on up!
This place was packed! I don’t normally post pictures of people as a rule, but I’ll make an exception to give a sense of the scale in the main hall!
So many vendors, especially boardgames, but with plenty of RPGs and a few nice minis booths (James Workshop, Malifaux, Catalyst/Battletech, Star Schlock, etc). We had a great time tootling around playing some cool demo games, looking at the vendors and such!
I spent most of my time hanging out in the mini area, including the Arcadian brush! I brought one for each category- Single Mini, Large Mini (bust), Diorama, and Unit. I put them all in the advanced category. It was great to see @squared_paints (Matt) who is always awesome and was one of the judges! Huge thanks to the crew who ran this thing- it was included with the pass, super low key, but had great turnout and was well positioned to catch the eye of people who usually dont think much about miniature art!
And a few pictures from the cases:
And a few more:
Congrats to all the winners, but also just congrats to everyone- so cool to see this growing competition. I hear they will be back next year, so that will be rad! Hopefully loads of board game and RPG folks got to see something they normally dont!
And the HMGS folks were there too, with a few games, including an amazing Siege of Paris game! Go Vikings!
And we had a lot of fun doing a shootout between the Cowboys and Earps- it was a bloodbath!
So overall, Philly was great and PAX was cool, if a bit overwhelming. The scale, the security, the number of events and vendor hall exhibitors was challenging to deal with! But the minis area was cool and growing. I hope to be back to check out arcadian brush next year, as well as participate in some of the minis events.
-BS