PAX Unplugged - Tabletop Focused PAX in Philly in November

[AWS260]

I'll be at PAX Unplugged this year (December 10-12). Anyone else planning to attend? Not bringing the family this time, since my son is not yet vaccinated.

[Tao]

Possible but unlikely. I received an email notice a week or two ago that the event would be running and the next day hotel prices were already ridiculous. My friend that I have gone with in the past is not comfortable going this year so no splitting the cost. Plus I read they are requiring proof of vaccine and 100% masks, which while a good thing, may cause serious lines and drama. The logical part of my brain is saying to wait one more year.

[tylertoo]

I'll be at PAX Unplugged this year (December 10-12). Anyone else planning to attend? Not bringing the family this time, since my son is not yet vaccinated.

I'm very much on the fence, vacillating between not going, going just one day, and doing all three days. Assuming I get my booster shot, I will probably do one day.

[Holman]

I couldn't go this year, but my Elder Kid (high-school senior) and some of his friends went, and they had an awesome time.

Covid-wise, they were all 18 and had had two shots plus a booster.

[AWS260]

It was great to be back at PAX Unplugged this week. The expo hall seemed a little smaller and things felt a bit less crowded than the in 2019, which is fine with me. I didn't attend any panels this time around - it was just games (and a little bit of shopping) all weekend long.

Gaming highlights:

Imperial Steam - A route-building game set in the Austrian Empire in the 19th century. Grossly oversimplified, it's a race to build lines that reach a port city on the Adriatic Coast. It requires a lot of forward planning, since you never have enough resources or workers to do the things you want to do. This was my second time playing, so I had a much better sense of how the puzzle pieces fit together. It's a heavy, lengthy game, but I enjoy it a lot.

Boonlake - Another long, heavy game, about settling an empty frontier: exploring land, establishing cattle farms, building settlements. There's a whole lot going on in this game, and I never really wrapped my head around a strategy. I would have to play this again before forming a real opinion.

Netrunner - Project Nisei, the fan collective that picked up the Netrunner torch when Fantasy Flight Games dropped it, had a booth at the show, so I stopped by to learn the game. Really fun, and I loved the asymmetry between corp and runner.

Fat Demons / Dicke Daemonen - A great area-control abstract game that I had never heard of before. The map is created by laying out overlapping loops of string to divide the playing area into sectors with different values, and then you place meeples to take control of sectors. The tricky/brilliant part is that you aren't committed to specific faction when the game begins. Instead, at any point during the game, you can claim a faction as your own. This opens a path to victory, but also causes everyone else to start working against you. This excellent BGG post gives a great overview of the game, with pictures.

Ra - The classic auction game. I had never played before and really enjoyed it.

Sheepy Time - Bedtime sheep racing to escape a nightmare. Push-your-luck and tactical card play. A fun, fairly light game.

[AWS260]

Anyone planning to attend PAX Unplugged this December? I'll be there.

[Punisher]

Anyone planning to attend PAX Unplugged this December? I'll be there.

My wife and I are going.

[AWS260]

It's only been a day and I have played so many games. Mindbug, Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation, Maskmen, Parade, The Two Princes, Challengers!, Archipelago, South African Railroads, Turncoats. All of them good, some of them great. Of the new games, Challengers! is the standout so far.

[Fardaza]

I wanted to go, but just couldn't pull it off so soon after BGG Con. Maybe next year.

[Holman]

I was at PAX on Saturday, just walking around and seeing the Expo and various demos.

My oldest kid and some of his friends were there taking in panels and playing in tournaments. My son just texted that today he won a game of (prototype) ARCS with Cole Wehrle present.

[AWS260]

My oldest kid and some of his friends were there taking in panels and playing in tournaments. My son just texted that today he won a game of (prototype) ARCS with Cole Wehrle present.

That's awesome!

My pace of gameplaying slowed down on Saturday-Sunday, as I spent more time walking the expo hall and performing normal human functions like eating meals.

Games I had a chance to play on those days: Heat: Pedal to the Metal, Plutocracy, YIMBY, Dicke Daemonen, Town 66, more Turncoats, and a couple of other things that I can't remember right now. YIMBY was quite the experience - an indie game from Sweden about developing high-density urban centers. It has a huge number of special powers that you can activate, many of them very weird. You can send a swarm of bats to make a neighborhood uninhabitable, or activate a bike thief if your opponent is using a bicycle to move around the map. Bizarre in a good way.

[Holman]

[...] YIMBY was quite the experience - an indie game from Sweden about developing high-density urban centers. It has a huge number of special powers that you can activate, many of them very weird. You can send a swarm of bats to make a neighborhood uninhabitable, or activate a bike thief if your opponent is using a bicycle to move around the map. Bizarre in a good way.

My kid played Swedish Parliament from the same designer.

[AWS260]

Sweden, man. There must be something in the water there that creates indie game designers (18Svea, Turncoats, these games...).