If you’re curious about what Pax Unplugged is like, weren’t able to attend in-person this year, or want a different perspective on the event, check out my recap here where I go through some of my highlights!

Jump to:

• Vendor hall and the game haul
• Talks and events
• Gaming in the Access Forward Gaming Lounge
• People and vibes
• Where to next?

Vendor hall and the game haul at Pax U

I usually start by going over the cool games I’ve brought home and am excited to try out, so…

This time around, I got a solid mix of tabletop RPGs and board games, some that I’ve tried before, and some that are totally new and I’ve been looking forward to for a while. A few of my kid-friendly(ish) highlights are:

• Get Baked, a cookie baking competition board game by Nomnivore with proceeds going towards helping non-profit org, Cookie Brigade
• Beak, Feather, & Bone, a map-making TTRPG by Possible World Games
• Candleberry Jam, a TTRPG about cultural neighborhoods by Gossamar Coast
• The Vibe, a card game about art and feelings by Jacob Jaskov
• Trashnautica, a TTRPG about animals in space by Brewist Tabletop

Other games in here, I might be playing just for me, or I want to dig in to see what they’re about. For some of the games above, I’m hoping to have reviews out in the next year either through TTRPGkids or the Gaming the Systems group so you get an idea of what they’re all about!

Next, I want to go over some of the vendors! First up, we have 9th Level Games, where I spotted my book, Bakers, Charge! on the shelf AND got to see my contribution to the Level 1 Anthology in print! I also stopped by Modern Artifice, checked out a demo of Get Baked, and said hi to the folks at Bright Bard and Possum Creek:

I also spotted Little Game Masters, chatted during the creator meet up with Goosepoop Games peeps, got a cool pin at the Tabletop Gaymers booth, met with some friends at Wet Ink Games, and got to meet with SideQuest, a bookshop in PA that is one of the big sellers for TTRPGkids games/books!

I always love to head over to the Snowbright Studio booth to see what they’re doing at everyone convention (I swear, there is a new super cozy and/or exciting looking game every time, and I LOVE seeing the new Cozy Companion covers), and I cannot ever miss IPR. IPR is such a pillar of the indie TTRPG community, making sure those of us who can’t afford or man a booth at bigger cons can still have our games there, and I was so excited to see people pickin up and looking at my games when I walked by. You can spot Bakers Charge!, Making a TTRPG for YOUR Particular Kid, and A Construct’s Nature nestled amongst some wonderful titles from the rest of the indie TTRPG community.

I also had the pleasure to check out all the games at Possible Worlds Games (and am VERY excited to try them out), visited One Plus EXP, got to meet M. Allen Hall in person, and had a good chat with Will Jobst at the Good Luck Press booth.

AND… I stopped by about 40 other booths and wish I could post everyone’s gear, but I think I probably need to cut it off here, leaving you with, what I thought, was a cool view of the back half of the vendor hall that I was able to get through one of the windows in the media room:

Talks and events at Pax U

I came to Pax U with a group called Gaming the Systems, which is a new pending 501 C3 non-profit that I’m on the board for! We got together three talks, shown below, about TTRPGs with youth, and I spoke in two of them (Making a TTRPG for YOUR Particular Classroom and Why Kid’s Gravitate Towards Horror in Gaming).

We had great turn outs for every talk, with the most sparse one, ironically, being in the big giant theather, but there was still a solid 40ish people at that one too (great for it being at 2pm on Sunday as folks were packing up and heading home).

I know quite a few folks were asking us to record the presentations – we did record one, but the audio didn’t come out great, so we’ll keep you updated on if we do a re-record at a later date. In the meatime, if you want the slides, you can request them through the Gaming the Systems discord server here.

Also, I organized a TTRPG Self Publisher Meet Up event!

AND SO MANY PEOPLE CAME!!

I got to chat with so many new folks, and it ended up being a great meeting point to catch up with friends who I wanted to see but who, due to us both having really busy schedules, probably wouldn’t have been able to schedule a special meeting. I am DEFINITELY going to be submitting more events like this again, and thank you to all who came!

Gaming in the Access Forward Gaming Lounge at Pax U

Because the panels and workshops and meet up weren’t enough, I also GM’d a whole bunch of games in teh Access Forward Gaming Lounge (which, any sass here is not terribly serious, I LOVED getting to do this).

I feel like I’m not great at pitching my own books and games, but playing them with people feels so much different and so much better. It was wonderful getting to share these with folks, and I particularly loved the group-play sessions for A Construct’s Nature. Three out of the four sessions that I ran had multiple individuals playing, and seeing people working together and engaging was great.

For StoryGuider, this one I played with a family, and it was their kiddo’s birthday! He’d wanted to play a TTRPG at the convention for his special day, but all the other TTRPG sessions were rated 13+, so I was super excited that I was able to provide him with a fun time. He and his mom seemed to have a great time trying to outsmart the Loc Yes Monster, and the look on kiddo’s face when he figured out the trick was GREAT.

In addition to all that, the AFGL just also had a lot of resources. They had braille dice, easy to use dice trays (magnetic, no snaps), safety cards, check in cards for the GM, and so much more. It was also great talking to them ahead of time about the accessibility elements in my own games and how to use them in the lounge, and folks seemed to appreciate things like having the powerpoint to read along with or being able to doodle on coloring pages.

Hanging out in here was also a big of a haven, with it being slighly quieter and less busy than the rest of the convention, so it was a nice break amidst the chaos.

All that together, this is another part of Pax U that I definitely want to participate in again, and I’m grateful that folks came out to play!

People and vibes at Pax U

For this part, I don’t shoutout specific people because I don’t know who wants a naming or not, but I do want to say, it was something particularly special to hang out with you all. Some of my best friends are convention buddies who I only get to see a couple times a year, if that, and it heals something in me every time we’re grabbing breakfast on the way, chatting about life, and earnestly hearing that I’m going to be missed until next time. It’s also been something over this past year to see folks convention after convention and feel part of a physical community through that. There’s some kind of feeling of growing support that comes with that too. Getting a random hug at a moment when I needed it, being told its OK to duck into the AFK room, or someone excitedly asking to trade books because they’ve REALLY been looking forward to my game… it’s healing in a lot of ways.

And the convention as a whole, just feels good. There’s lots of local creators amidst the out-of-state vendors and larger booths, and everyone I ran into was friendly and kind. The PAX U team had lots of staff positioned about, directing people to where they needed to go, keeping an eye on the crowds at talks, and even dashing off to bring a vendor who was having a hard time with the concrete floors an ice pack. There was a general feeling of care, and this is one that I know will be a repeat (so long as my travel budget holds out).

Where to next?

Next up, I’ll be going to:

• December: a workshop event at Opal Grove Games in Michigan
• January: Confusion in Michigan (where I think I may have signed up for too many panels again)
• March: SXSW EDU in Texas

I’ll have more details either on the site or on socials as we get closer to key dates, and I hope to see you around!

If you liked this post, make sure to subscribe to the TTRPGkids monthly newsletter to stay up to date on the latest reviews, tips and tricks, game and podcast list updates, and more! Thank you for playing tabletop RPGs with your kids and sharing this awesome hobby with the next generation!