PAX Unplugged returned to the Philadelphia Convention Center from November 21st to 23rd for three full days of tabletop gaming. This event celebrates the love of board games and the people who make them great. Exhibitors came to lay out their wares, guest had prepared their talking points, and attendees of all ages were excited to check out new games and spend hours playing. Zach and Chris were ready to explore fresh titles from the biggest names in the industry and the rising newcomers looking to make their debut. From hourly tournaments, a massive freeplay collection, and panels and discussions focusing on tabletop entertainment, there is definitely something for everyone who enjoys the classic analog form of gaming. We checked out a bunch of new games, attended some panels, and explored everything the con had to offer.
It was a busy time in Philly even before Unplugged was underway. With the kick-off of the annual Christmas Village and the Philadelphia Marathon happening at the same time, we were kind of worried about traffic and the crowds we’d find outside and inside the convention center. Luckily, everything ran extremely smoothly, with the masses moving swiftly through the entrances, through security, and across the convention halls. The only wait for us was the morning rush of lining up and entering the building. But once inside, it was fun rolling dice, moving meeples, and crafting characters. The hardest choice was which to check out first.
Expo Hall
The heart of PAX Unplugged, the expo hall features a wide variety of gaming companies, accessory vendors, and various nerdy apparel and merchandise. The hall is divided into central aisles, where companies and vendors have booths, and a gaming area where many companies run their more robust demos. Space is limited in the main area, so the gaming tables let the companies spread out and really show off what their games are all about. There’s a great mix of some of the biggest companies in the tablettop industry alongside indie companies who are potentially showing off their first game ever, and it’s always great to wander through the aisles and stop when something catches your eye.
Kess
Kess Entertainment has been steadily expanding its presence in the tabletop scene by adapting well-known anime and video game properties into easy-to-play games. Their licensed titles aim to capture the spirit of each franchise through straightforward rules, quick playtimes, and detailed playpieces.
One Piece: Dawn of Liberation
After the success of Kess and Toei Animation’s first team-up project, One Piece: Luffy’s Bento Panic, a new Straw Hat tabletop adventure was recently announced called One Piece: Dawn of Liberation. Developed by tabletop publisher KessCo in partnership with Toei Animation, the cooperative game lets 1-4 players step into the shoes of the iconic Straw Hat crew as they journey through the Land of Wano Arc. Players build their crews from favorite characters, complete missions, gather resources, and recruit allies to eventually confront the tyrannical emperor of the sea, Kaido. While the board and components have yet to be revealed, the game is designed to accommodate both long sessions, spanning four to six hours, and shorter playthroughs, with a built-in pause-and-resume system that preserves progress at key plot points. We got a glimpse of the game’s prototype artwork and graphics, hearing that many details are still being developed. Pre-orders are set to begin in March 2026, with a Kickstarter page already set up to notify backers.
Tamagotchi Collections
Before Pokémon swept the world, Tamagotchis were one of the original pocket monsters that kids and adults alike were obsessed with collecting and raising. In recent years, these digital pets have made a comeback, reminding everyone to check in on their tiny companions again. Kess and Bandai released Tamagotchi Collection, a new tabletop game that recaptures all the fun and chaos of caring for a Tamagotchi. Designed for 2-4 players, the game has you nurturing a group of Tamagotchis who have crash-landed on Earth and need help returning home. These creatures need to be fed and entertained, and of course, have their poop cleaned up. The game is a colorful, cozy management-style game where players compete for resources and carefully allocate them to their ever-growing collection of Tamagotchis. Once a player has several Tamagotchis under their care, and the poops start piling, that’s when the cozy fun turns into a chaotic mess. But at least you don’t have to change batteries or wake up to find a ghost of a Tamagotchi on your screen. To learn more and find where to get your hands on a copy, visit Kess’s site here.
Ultra Pro
Mostly known for their various card storage accessories, like sleeves and binders for Pokémon or Magic, Ultra PRO has been branching out into publishing games themselves, and we got the chance to check out a few at their booth.
Pokemon: Trainer Expert
Guided by booth rep Terrance, we first checked out Pokémon Trainer Expert, an electronic guessing game. Featuring the original 151 Pokémon, the game gives you clues, and you need to decide which Pokémon the clues are describing. The clues start extremely generic, like “This Pokémon has two legs,” and gradually get more and more specific. The sooner you make your guess, the more points you get if you are correct. The game has a two-sided board for beginner and expert play. The speaker on the electronic component was a little hard to hear on the noisy expo floor, but it will probably be fine at home.
Fanzone Football and Fanzone Soccer
For sports fans, Ultra Pro also has Fanzone Electronic Trivia Soccer and Football games. Each game has over 500 questions, and up to 5 players can compete in the trivia contest. The questions are all true-or-false, so it evens the playing field a bit if you or your friends aren’t the biggest sports fans. The football version features questions based on the NFL, UFL, and CFL, while the soccer version features questions based on the World Cup, Champions League, and National League.
Hey, Hey, Relay – Will Get Won’t Get – Pass the Pandas
We also spoke to Richard Dracass of Ultra PRO about some of the other games they had on display. Hey, Hey, Relay is a competitive party game where players split into two teams and race to reach the end of their track first. You move using dice, and if they don’t match, you get to move forward, but if they do, you need to draw a card and perform some physical challenge, like imitating a monkey for five seconds or pretending to tie your shoes. Everyone on your team needs to perform the action before you can roll again. Will Get Won’t Get is a spin on trivia where one team gets a question with seven answers while the other team must predict which of the answers the opposing team will get. Both teams earn points for correctly answering or predicting the results—the answers range from 1 to 7, with one being the most obvious and seven the most obscure. Pass the Pandas is a dice-based game where players roll dice with bamboo, pandas and water evaporates and are removed from the game; the game, pandas are passed to the other players, and for the bamboo, you need to roll a number equal to or greater to the number of bamboo of the previous player, if you fail you take the difference in dice into your collection. The goal is to be the first person with no dice. Richard emphasized that Ultra PRO wants to make games accessible to everyone and fun for families or friends to play together without getting bogged down in complicated rules or mechanics. Most of their games last about 20-30 minutes and are extremely fast to pick up and play.
Rabble Games
We’ve been checking out the latest from Rabble for the last few years, and we played a demo of their newest game, Sprout, which will be on Kickstarter in March next year. Guided by Rabble’s George, we tried to keep a variety of houseplants alive. The players are all roommates, and each player starts with a houseplant to take care of. Each round, you draw cards that represent elements like fertilizer, water, and sunlight. To make your plant sprout, you need an exact number of each element. You can trade elements with your fellow players, and you can gain new plants based on what cards come up. There’s a risk-reward element to the gameplay, where if you get too many of one element, you go bust and only get a few resources, compared to if you decide to stop and collect some of the elements that have come up. It seems like the game has some fun mechanics, and the theme is unique and charming. Rabble always seems to try to come up with unique mechanics and themes for their games, and really tries to make sure there are deeper themes and ways for players to connect, while still being fun.
Ludamus Games – Toppings
One of the convention’s PAX Rising selections, Toppings is a game where players compete to create and collect the best slices of pizza. We talked to designer Joseph Frederick about how the game’s idea came about, why certain toppings made the cut, and his perfect slice of pizza. In the game, players have certain toppings that they want on slices, and the rest they want to pick off. Players can move the toppings around to different slices or remove them completely by putting them on the napkin. You can also add garnishes, such as garlic or buffalo sauce, to the slice, and use spices and garnishes from a shared market to add points. Players collect the slices and get points for how many of their toppings are on it, plus the bonuses from the garnish and spices. The game’s design is great, with lots of physical pieces like toppings and garnish overlays to add to the slices, and you actually remove the slices to score them. The game is coming soon to Kickstarter
Brett Finnell – Krampusnacht: The Naughty List
We first spotted this holiday-themed board game in the expo hall, surrounded by festive décor and wrapped gifts, and wondered what cheerful experience this game might offer. We quickly found out that Krampusnacht: The Naughty List is a blend of Eastern European folklore and comically child-endangering. Created by Brett Finnell and published by Wyrd Weaver Games, Krampusnacht has players take up the role of one of Santa’s companions, trying to gather the biggest haul of mischievous children. Each companion character brings unique abilities, upgrades, and action cards that help you snag the most troublesome kids in town. The naughtier they are, the more points they add to your total. The game ends when the town finally fills with well-behaved kids or when a new child can’t be drawn because the deck is empty, and the player with the highest score wins. At the start of the game, everyone chooses a companion and takes their character card and gear. The kids deck is shuffled, and six cards are placed face up to create the Town, removing any nice kids until only troublemakers remain. The action deck is shuffled, and each player draws three cards. A turn flows through a draw step, then playing any cards you can, followed by the moment to capture kids for your sack while keeping an eye out for St. Nicholas, who punishes players if he notices your companion being naughty themselves. The game had a successful Kickstarter campaign and was selling copies at the booth. Based on how often the booth has to restock its shelves, it seems like a lot of families will be playing this dark comedy game this Christmas.
UVS Games
With a lineup of upcoming teamups and expansions, we met with Matt Lockwood once again to hear all about what UVS Games has planned for 2026. Fresh from the news of their roadmap announcement from this October, UVS Games will be starting December with a new booster pack for Guilty Gear – Strive. Three other series will receive booster sets: Godzilla, Tekken 8, and Fairy Tail. My Hero Academia and Street Fighter 6 will have new Challenger Series decks in the works, so new and veteran players can switch up their decks to create a character and playstyle all their own. We also got a pair of limited edition The Mighty Nein cards in celebration of Jester Lavorre and Fjord Stone. These two characters from Critical Role‘s Mighty Nein were recently married in the campaign that had recently occurred, and these two shiny cards combine to complete that touching moment. If you missed out, you can hear the adventure in this nearly 5-hour live event.
In addition to the UniVersus area, UVS Games had a Riftbound: League of Legends Trading Card Game area in the tabletop hall. Riftbound is a recent TGC published by UVS Games in partnership with Riot Games. Players assemble a deck built around a single Legend Champion unit. Matches play out similarly to a game of LOL, where players deploy units, cast spells, and equip gear to seize control points. The first player to score eight victory points by conquering and holding Battlefields or card effects wins. Typical games are 1‑on‑1 duels, though formats also support 2‑on‑2 or free‑for‑all multiplayer. This area has players constantly busy with deck building, competitive players, and first-timers getting hands-on tutorials with UVS Games staff.
Floodgate Games – Space Junkers
At the Floodgate games booth, we got a preview of Space Junkers, created by Next Dimension Games. The game is set on a starship, where a team of scavengers must use stealth, smart planning, and quick action to determine who walks away with the best haul. Its gameplay is fast and strategic, built around simple dice-selection rules and unique character abilities. The game looks challenging, making the team feel tense and unsure whether they will make it from start to finish. There is an obvious nod to famous sci-fi icons for the team of scavengers, from Aliens, Star Wars, and Star Trek. This is Next Dimension’s third title; more information about the title and the company can be found here.
Studio Hermitage – Our Brilliant Ruin
Created by Studio Hermitage, Our Brilliant Ruin is a new transmedia property that puts players into a horrific version of The Gilded Age. We spoke to Justin Achilli, the creator of Our Brilliant Ruin, and Paxton Galvanek, the CEO and co-founder of Studio Hermitage. They have worked collectively on properties such as World of Darkness, the Ravenloft setting for Dungeons & Dragons, Conan: Exiles, and Dune: Awakening. Our Brilliant Ruin combines social drama across social classes (think Downton Abbey) with the danger posed by horrific monsters created by The Ruin, a dark entity slowly corrupting and destroying the world. In the TTRPG, players can choose to play as a wealthy Aristocrat, a hardworking Truefolk, or a rebellious Unbonded, and there are several subclasses within those classes to craft a character to match your preferred playstyle. You can battle The Ruin, explore ancient technology, and engage in social intrigue as you craft your own story in the world of Dramark.
There are many ways to enjoy Our Brilliant Ruin: a TTRPG, a comic series, an audio drama, and an upcoming video game. Each one explores different aspects of the world and its characters and creatures. We got to check out an early build of the video game, which is an isometric action-RPG in the vein of Diablo, where you choose from three different characters from the various classes in Our Brilliant Ruin and then delve into a locale to fight a powerful monster. The gameplay blends twin-stick shooting and hack-and-slash action, and you’ll be dodging attacks while you wait for your abilities to recharge. We tried only two demo stages, but it gave us a sense of the functional gameplay that would interest any dungeon-crawling fan. You can buy the hardcover edition of the core book, but the team at Studio Hermitage has also made it available for free as a downloadable PDF. The comic Our Brilliant Ruin: Horror at Crane Manor is a three-issue miniseries from Dark Horse Comics, and the audio drama is available on YouTube, Spotify, Audible, and Apple Podcasts.
Envy Born Games & Levity Game Studios – Cats vs Cucumbers
Did you know that cats have an instinctive fear of snake-like objects? There is something about the shape that triggers a very startling response from cats, sometimes causing them to kick up a mess when they jump. The husband and wife duo of Ammon and Melanie Anderson present a fun and less risky way to frighten felines in Cats vs Cucumbers. Similar to Yahtzee’s push-your-luck mechanic, Cats vs Cucumbers involves players rolling dice to determine whether a player can move their cat pieces across five cardboard boxes. Each cat must be either placed or moved in the boxes in sequential order, and each box has a value in points. The dice also have cat toys and cat treats on the face, which can give bonus points to a player. However, each dice also contains several cucumbers, and if three cucumbers appear, the player loses one of their nine lives. The game is over when every player uses up all their lives, and the points are calculated, leaving Cat the winner. We spoke with Melanie Anderson, who gave us a great tutorial on the game mechanics. It’s an easy-to-learn, hard-to-master title, and it’s comfortable for all ages to play. We enjoyed the cartoonish art style, and it had a slightly sense of Pickle Rick humor (Pickles are just spicy cucumbers after all). Funny enough, the game originally was going to be about dogs since the Andersons have a family dog, but cats added an interesting flair to the design. Cats vs Cucumbers had a very successful Kickstarter and will be able to campaign to supporters this month and to retailers next year.
DireWolf – Clank! Digital
DireWolf had a collection of their physical and digital games on display in their booth, and Zach checked out the digital version of Clank! A long-running fan favorite, Clank! sees players sneaking into a dragon’s keep, trying to steal precious treasures without making noise (Clanks) that will draw the dragon’s attention. The physical version has had several expansions and special editions, including one for Penny Arcade’s Acquisitions Inc., and the digital version brings the game to mobile and PC. In either version of Clank!, you draw cards and use them to build up your movement and action points. You can then use these points to use special abilities and move deeper into the dragon’s keep, but the risk is that you don’t know what each new area holds until you move into it. It could be a helpful market to buy new abilities and items, or it could be a deadly trap room that will inflict damage or Clank noise on you. The digital version of Clank! seems like a great way to learn the game and also get to play it if you don’t have a regular gaming group to break out the physical version with.
Xplody Games – Elevation
Coming to Kickstarter next year, Elevation from Xplody Games is a trick-taking game in which players take on the role of climbers tackling four of the world’s most famous mountain ranges. Instead of suits, the cards are divided into Andes, Himalayas, Rockies, and Alps, with cards numbering 1-14 in each range. The player who goes first sets the suit, and whoever has the highest card in that suit wins the trick. The catch is that you score by taking the difference between your highest and lowest value card, so you need to be strategic about what tricks you try and win, and when you play certain cards. You can take any trick, despite what else is played, if you have an Avalanche card, and there are also “Approach” cards that put a new rule in play in each round. You may get bonus points one round for having more of a particular suit, or you may get your score from another player’s pile instead of your own. The scoring system, plus the constantly changing rules, really adds some unique and interesting spins on the trick-taking genre, and you really need to rewire your brain to make sure you are getting the best score possible and making the best plays.
Asmadi Games – Mystic Curling Club
Developed by Asmadi Games, Mystic Curling Club is a dexterity-based dice game, putting a fantastical spin on the sport of curling. Players have a collection of dice that they need to slide or roll into the target on the opposite end of the play field. Like in regular curling, you want to be the closest to the center ring, but in Mystical Curling Club, you also want lower numbers in addition to getting good placement. Players get a unique character, and each has special abilities that can let you do things like move a stone up a ring or stack a stone on top of another stone. Rolling so many dice is always fun, and there’s some strategy and skill needed to decide how you want to slide, flick, or roll each die. You may want to try to slide your early dice, as they are set to lower numbers, and then maybe roll your higher-number dice later in the match to knock out some opponent’s dice and maybe get a lower number. The project is now fully funded on Kickstarter and is expected to be released later in 2026.
Allplay
Allplay had two huge sections out on the convention floor, their main booth in the main hall, and a large demo area in the gaming area. Allplay has a massive library of games, including several smaller games in its Tiny Games series that are easy to pick up and play. Some of the games available to demo included River Valley Glassworks, a drafting game in which 1-5 players compete as woodland creatures looking to collect and score the most points by gathering various pieces of glass. Kabuto Sumo features players choosing a bug wrestler and pushing various-sized discs into the arena. The board is set up in different variations depending on the number of players, which can be up to 4, and the goal is to push discs from your inventory onto the board and knock the other pieces off, eventually knocking the piece that represents your rival wrestlers off the board. Each bug wrestler has a unique signature shape and move, and there are now 28 unique wrestlers thanks to the latest expansion, Sakura Slam. Through the Desert finds 2-4 players competing to build the longest camel caravan by adding camels of their color in a chain across the board. Things start easily as there’s plenty of space to expand, but as everyone builds up their caravans, it becomes extremely tricky to find a spot to keep your caravan. There were several other games to demo, and you can check out the entire lineup on their site.
The Network’s Primetime
Developed by Gil Hova, The Network’s Primetime gives players a fast taste of running a TV station through a mix of drafting, scheduling, and resource management. We got a brief demo of the core loop to get an idea of the game’s premise and test our skills as a network director. You grab new shows, pair them with stars and ads that fit their specific requirements, and juggle your limited budget to keep your lineup competitive. Each choice matters because it shows age quickly, and viewer interest fades, so you’re constantly refreshing your schedule while trying to line up genre bonuses and efficient reruns. The puzzle of matching the right star to the right show and slotting ads for maximum payout adds a satisfying strategic layer without slowing the pace. It only takes a single round to learn the flow and start spotting clever card combinations that boost your ratings. The game is filled with playful nods to real television, from its show titles to its personalities, which adds charm as you piece together your lineup. Tension ramps up quickly across the four rounds as resources tighten and similar shows create a rivalry between networks. Each turn drafting a new show is a small gamble that you hope pays off in premiere and long into reruns. The design rewards players who build long-term shows with enough staying power to earn ratings and land the best ad-friendly time slots, much like the challenges real networks face when promoting a hit series. The Network’s Primetime also raises a playful question about the network TV itself. With streaming habits reshaping how audiences find new favorites, it is hard to tell what the future of primetime programming will look like. Here is hoping a few future network executives learn from The Network’s Primetime.
Dice Throne – Slam Throne
It’s always interesting to see something come back into fashion, and this time around, it’s a new form of pogs. The characters of Dice Throne are going from battling cubes to caps in Slam Throne. In this new take on the pog-style play, players stack a pile of health caps and take turns trying to flip over each other’s stack with a hero slammer. Any flipped caps count as damage, and the first player to have all their health caps flipped over loses. Each hero has unique abilities split into two types, a passive effect that is always active and a catch effect that triggers only if a player flips at least one cap and catch the slammer as it falls. There was a big crowd of curious people watchin and cheering, its hard not to get rowdy when someone slams things into one another. Slam Throne debuted at the recent GenCon, and Unplugged was the first major event where people could grab a set.
Rock Manor Game
We stopped by to check out the latest from Rock Manor Games, an independent tabletop game developer and publisher based in Wilmington, Delaware. RMG focuses on creating immersive, thematic board game experiences that bring players together around strong narratives and engaging mechanics. Their catalog includes cooperative and story-driven games like Set a Watch, Maximum Apocalypse, Seas of Havoc, Merchants of Magick, Lawyer Up, and others that tend to offer memorable moments and deep play. We checked out a quick setup of Lawyer Up, a game based on courtroom procedures. Inspired by historical court cases and courtroom dramas, two players go head-to-head to argue about a case. Each match starts with the Discovery phase, where players draft key pieces of evidence to strengthen their own case while pushing aside anything that could help their opponent. The Trial phase follows, giving players the chance to call witnesses and play arguments supported by the evidence they gathered in their examination pools. To build a strong line of questioning, players link their cards by matching bias symbols. Whoever generates the most influence during a witness examination spends the difference to move the Jury in their favor. Rock Manor Games is also publishing Disco Heist Laundry, a title that we got to playtest last year. It had a successful Kickstarter that raised nearly $40,000 in funding and should be available in 2026.
Dolphin Hat Games – GOAT
Expanding the Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza universe, GOAT: Greatest of All Time is a new wacky spin on charades from Dolphin Hat Games. Players take turns being the Actor, who chooses from several actions to perform. The other players then get to throw in cards that add some twists, like performing in slow motion or dodging invisible lasers. Players vote for who performed best, and the winner is declared the GOAT and gets to keep the included gold medal until the next game. If you’re looking to make yourself and your friends look like absolute goofballs, this is a game to keep an eye out for when it releases.
Hootenanny Games – Early Bird
After hearing some shouts and seeing a worm being flung in the air, we followed the trail to Hootenanny Games’ Early Bird. In a cross between Egyptian Ratscrew and Uno, Early Bird is a family-friendly matching card game with a few physical twists. 2-6 players will quickly try to get rid of all of their cards from their hand by following along a sequence in a card pile. Cards can be discarded by either incrementing the value of the last discarded card or matching the color of that card. However, matching the color reverses the value direction. So instead of incrementing, now the the cards will decrement down. If a player plays an action card instead of a value card, all players will have to do an action. This could be a squirrel twirl, which involves the players spinning around and slapping the deck. Birdhouse, in which the players quickly form a house of cards. Or worm, which involves one player tossing the soft worm and the others scrambling to fetch it and start their turn first. It’s a fun, fast-paced party game that gets people moving. It’s designed for kids and adults, and we definitely see a lot of adults playing it without kids.
Thames & Kosmos
Thames & Kosmos always has a massive presence at PAX Unplugged, and this year was no different. Along with their main booth on the expo floor, they also hosted an EXIT tournament on Friday night, where groups of players competed to see who could solve one of the Exit adventures in the fastest time, with The Haunted Roller Coaster being the entry that everyone was racing to complete. We got to see several of their newer games while touring their booth, guided by the company’s Junior Marketing Manager, Court Sakmar.
TowerBrix
TowerBrix is a cooperative block-stacking game where everyone works to fulfill each other’s specific requirements. One player may need a particular color block to touch a certain number of blocks, while another may need a set of colors stacked a certain way. The twist is that everyone’s requirements are secret, so you may inadvertently destroy someone’s perfect setup by moving a brick. After moving blocks, if everyone agrees they are done, they reveal their requirements, and the team earns points for how many they accomplished. There’s a solo variation for when you can’t get a group together, and up to 6 players can team up in the main game.
Australis
Australis finds players competing in the waters off the east coast of Australia in the East Australian Current. Players control sea turtles and have several options to score points. You can eat fish, move further up the current, build coral reefs, and more, with all the actions letting you build up victory points and putting you closer to winning. After everyone’s turn, there’s a “dice showdown” where the dice you chose during your turn go up against the other player’s chosen dice to see who comes out on top. The game’s artwork is stunning, and there are tons of strategies and options to satisfy both casual and seasoned board game fans.
Dice Words
Dice Words is a fun new word game that combines elements of Boggle and Yahtzee. Players each take a set of colored letter dice, and each turn, they try to create the longest word possible with their chosen dice. You can reroll any of the dice up to two times, and you get points for both the actual letters and bonuses if you can create longer words. There are also the “target letters,” represented by dice that look like ice cubes. If you have any of those letters in your word, you get even more bonuses. Up to four players can compete at the same time to try and get the coldest word and score the most points.
There were also several other games available to check out and buy at the Thames & Kosmos booth. The Crew series introduces the new Family Adventure, featuring more straightforward rules and a family-friendly experience as the group is marooned on a tropical island. Players silently play cards to try to complete 35 different missions and eventually escape the island. Caesar & Cleopatra is a two-player duel-style game in which players take turns playing cards to build the most influence in each row of the game’s setup. Action cards let you perform special abilities, and you can do things like call on the gods for assistance. Each player has the same resources, and you need to outthink and outstrategize your opponent. Of course, there are also variations on the Exit series, all self-contained adventures that replicate an escape room experience. You solve clues and progress through the story, with a card-based system that lets you know if you have correctly solved a puzzle or not.
Power Well: Fates
Power Well: Fates is a new dueling card game for 2-4 players from Red Planet Games. We got a demo from Mason, one of four siblings who co-founded the company. In Power Well: Fates, each player chooses a unique hero, who has their own deck of cards and specific skills and characteristics that set them apart from the other characters. The Keystones separate the player characters, a shared mana pool that you use to perform your character’s actions. There are three colors of Keystones, and you need to have a connected line of colors to complete your actions. As Keystones are used, new ones are drawn from the deck, which adds plenty of randomization to the gameplay. There are eight heroes available to choose from, with different difficulty ratings depending on how complicated they are to use. Serina the Bard, for example, is an easy character who has unique song cards that can grant a bonus if the keystones match the notes on the songs. In contrast, a character like Xaden the Spellslinger is an “extreme” difficulty character who has a collection of spells to manage along with the regular set of action cards and can “overcharge” the spells to make them more powerful. There’s also a unique cool-down mechanic where, after using an action, your card goes onto a tracking card and rotates one space each turn until, after three turns, it’s back and available. The keystone mechanic is a really unique way to generate the mana needed to perform actions, and there seems to be a ton of variety and strategy with each of the eight characters. If you’re into fighting games and strategic card games, Power Well: Fates will probably be right up your alley. The game was on Kickstarter and is fully funded, with several stretch goals being met that will add the full roster of characters and other perks to the game for everyone who backed it at the different tiers.
Restoration Games – Unmatched
Restoration Games continues to let players have fantastical battles with the Unmatched series. The latest release is Lee vs Ali, where you can pit Muhammad Ali against Bruce Lee in the ultimate battle of martial arts and boxing. Each character has different abilities that match their real-life personas, and you can also use either character to face off against some of the more fantastic characters previously released. If you want to have Bruce Lee fight Sherlock Holmes, you can now. There’s also Unmatched Adventures: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which turns Unmatched into a cooperative experience, as up to four players can take on either Shredder or Krang. Each Turtle has a unique deck of cards with their actions, and the bosses are also both unique and offer up different challenges depending on who you choose to face off against. Also, just like Lee vs Ali, you can also take the Turtles and use them to face off against any previous Unmatched character.
Czech Games Edition
One of the biggest companies at PAX Unplugged, Czech Games Edition, has its own room outside the expo hall where it showcases its entire catalog of games. We got to talk to Jared from CGE, who ran us through some of the company’s newest games. The biggest new game seems to be Wispwood, which we saw being played all over the convention, not just at the CGE room. In Wispwood, players take on the role of cats who enter a dark forest inhabited by bright, colorful wisps. Players take turns picking up wisp tiles and placing them in their forest, building out a grid of tiles. There are score cards that feature unique setups that will give you points if you can arrange your tiles in a specific way to complete them. There are three rounds, and the player with the highest score wins the game. There’s also a new expansion for SETI, Space Agencies, which adds unique organizations that players can play as, each one with unique starting conditions and abilities. The expansion actually streamlines the early gameplay of the base game, so if you’re looking to get into a game of SETI faster, this expansion is for you. There’s also Codenames: Back to Hogwarts, a new edition of Harry Potter Codenames but this time developed entirely in house by CGE. The game features the same Codenames gameplay, where players compete to choose the correct secret words and avoid the dreaded assassin. One player on each team gives the rest of the team clues that feature one word and a number. For example, if three characters are Gryffindors on the board, the clue giver might say “Gryffindor, 3” as the clue. Back to Hogwarts adds some new gameplay mechanics, including unique skills for each Hogwarts house and an ongoing scoreboard where you can keep track of which house has won the most games. Finally, there’s a new expansion for the long-running Galaxy Trucker series, Do What?! This expansion adds missions that see you doing things like hauling dangerous cargo and VIP Astronauts who will travel on your ship and give bonuses if you can meet their specific requirements.
Table Top Freeplay
The tabletop freeplay area is always a massive section of the expo hall. In fact, it’s gotten so big in recent years that they had to expand the three different areas. With so many zones for play, hopefully everyone who wanted to check out a game could find a spot. There were hundreds of games to check out, and it’s a great chance to play an old favorite with friends or try a game you’ve been wondering about but didn’t want to risk buying. If you’re low on players, you can always utilize the LFG cones and find some potential new friends to join your game. Most of the publishers exhibiting at the convention had games in the freeplay library, so it’s also a great chance to try something you might have seen walking the show floor.
In the Footsteps of Marie Curie
We took a break from wandering with a quick session of In the Footsteps of Marie Curie. We first tried this title in a learn-and-play session with Beneeta Kaur and Justin Bell at Unplugged 2024, and we loved the mix of resource management, time limitations, and chance mechanics. Players follow the timeline of Marie Curie’s scientific achievements, conducting their own experiments and scoring as many victory points as possible before the last time period. At the start of each period, the player has to pick a certain number of Pitchblende, Uranium, and Radium cube tokens and drop them into a cube tower. The player can then perform two specific actions: pick up the dropped cubes or write a thesis. Picking up cubes banks them for later experimentation, but there is a flexible cap on how many you can hold at once. Writing a thesis unlocks flash and beakers to place on a laboratory board, which unlocks a victory point and increases the resource-gathering ability of the player. The player can also purchase an activity card, which unlocks additional laboratory equipment or resource abilities. Resource management is vital to have a balance between thesis writing and equipment, so you aren’t stuck when resources become scarce in later time periods. You can’t hoard resources since the caps on stored resources force players to either purchase activity cards or perform transformations. However, you can still fall into pitfalls if you don’t plan carefully. The game does take a full playthrough to understand the mechanics, but hopefully, if you are like us, you can see the fun and look for it again in the future freeplay sections.
Classic Cardboard
If you’re looking for a nostalgia overload, the Classic Cardboard room is always the spot to go. Here you’ll find vintage board games from several decades, provided by Restoration Games and Nerd Mall. You’re sure to see some of your childhood favorites in the pile to replay or you can try some of the bizarre or obscure titles that you probably didn’t even know existed. From strange mechanics to odd choices of IP, there were hundreds of classic games to dig into.
Along with all the various board games, there were also some electronic handheld versions of games like Perfection and Uno to play, a collection of multiple playing cards showing off the truly insane spectrum of who or what gets immortalized on decks, and a collection of VHS games that you could play using the room’s TV/VCR combo. There was also a more museum-style display featuring some antique games that really brought you back to the early days of board gaming.
RISK!
While we were checking out the Classic Cardboard room, we saw some players checking out the 1959 First Edition version of Risk! This version is a modern recreation of the original war strategy game, replicating how the board, pieces, and cards looked when players first started waging war when the game debuted.
Since Thanksgiving was coming up, the room also had a fun activity where con attendees could write what they were thankful for on a hand and decorate the room’s turkey cutout. The room also hosted several tournaments throughout the weekend, so if you think your skills in games like Risk, Scattergories, or Uno are up to snuff, you could compete against other players to find out who’s the best retro gamer and possibly earn yourself a trophy.
Lord of the Rings Room
New this year at PAX Unplugged was the Lord of the Rings room, sponsored by several publishers that put out Middle-earth/Lord of the Rings games. You could check out the full range of LotR games, from the simple but fun gameplay of Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit Spot It, where players try to find various characters and icons before the other players, to the deep and dense entries like The One Ring TRPG from Free League Publishing, and everything in between. We got a demo of The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game, where players work together to battle the forces of Sauron. Each player can have up to three hero characters and a deck of cards that can add additional allies, give boosts, or perform other actions. You enter different, dangerous areas of Middle-earth and have to battle the threats that come from the enemy deck. While it wasn’t in the Lord of the Rings booth, Zach also checked out The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Trick Taking Game. Unlike most trick-taking card games, this one is cooperative, where you work together to complete chapters and progress through the events of The Two Towers. Each player chooses a character, and you need to play cards to fulfill each hero’s objectives. It’s an interesting spin on the trick-taking genre, where you usually want to win each trick and horde the cards for points. Along with checking out the games in the LotR room, there were also a few activities you could participate in, like a photo op with a cosplayer portraying Eowyn, and completing them all earned you a Black Tower pin. We were also impressed by the statue of Bilbo from the classic Rankin & Bass animated version of The Hobbit, which served as the room’s centerpiece.
Unpub
The UnPub Room gives emerging designers a space to share their in-progress games with players who want to test new ideas and offer helpful feedback. You will find a mix of newcomers and creators with a bit more experience, each showcasing projects that vary in polish but are ready to demonstrate their core mechanics. We always enjoy stopping by to see what new titles are set up on the tables and to jump into a session whenever there is an open spot. We got a quick playthrough of a few projects that were still in early development, such as Rule the School! and Canal Street Awakening. These games had fun mechanics with simple tokens and board-piece representations, but the gameplay still came through. Titles like The Paradise Cocktail Lounge had slick graphics and cards that are a little further in development and now just play testing with the crowd to tweak mechanics.
First Look
The First Look area showcases titles that have not yet reached the United States, giving players a chance to try games that most people here have never seen unless they traveled abroad or imported them. The fun challenge is that many of these games do not include English rules, so you may find yourself relying on translation tools or on the notes provided by PAX staff to understand how to play. Regardless, it’s still an excellent area for tabletop fans to explore and see what new games are coming stateside. Also, there was a handy grid display at the front desk of the area that showed all available games, making it really fast to find and play the next fun title.
Blue Orange Games – Cakozaurus
Cakozaurus caught our attention with its wobbly pint-sized monster, which we saw people tossing colorful cubes into its mouth. Cakozaurus is a cooperative game in which players take turns collecting cube resources to fulfill customers’ cake orders. If the Cakozaurus lands on a particular section of the map with available cubes, it gobbles up all the cubes. If it overeats and spills out, the cubes go back into play. It’s a fun and fast-paced game that has players carefully trying not to topple the Cakozaurus, though you really want some more fanfare when it happens, like everyone saying “Oh no, my Cakes!” or “Cakozaurus over ate!” The game doesn’t have a US release yet, but is now available in French and German editions.
Zoch Verlag – Das Schloss der 7 Schlösser (The Castle of 7 Castles)
There is something magical about a physical castle set that rings well for us 90s kids. We think it’s because a lot of playsets and toys revolved around medieval stuff, and now every kid wants to either defend or invade a castle at some point in their life. Das Schloss der 7 Schlösser does something different. Instead of trying to take over a castle, players will take turns trying to unlock castle towers by picking one of eight keys. Each key can open only certain towers, determined by how the structures are set up. Not every key is going to work, and you will have to pay attention to other players’ turns to see which keys failed and what potential keys could unlock the next tower. Das Schloss der 7 Schlösser is fun, but not very deep, so it’s really meant for young gamers who love unlocking stuff. And you have to be gentle, so you can easily brute force the towers and ruin the game.
Totally Normal Villagers
During the afternoon on Saturday and Sunday, we stood and watched the Totally Normal Villages, a choir group that sang chamber songs in the hallway. Listening to soft, medieval-inspired music was a nice break from the rumbles of the expo hall and panels. These singers were based on inhabitants from the Chaotic Great Games’ Gudnak, a tactical card game. Set in a fantastical world, players fight for one of four warring factions for resources, power, and safety as the sun slowly burns out. The story goes deeper, and you can find out more about Gudnak at the Shadow and Light comic.
RPG HQ & Library
We also visited the classic RPG room filled with tables of rulebooks, modules, and gear from a wide range of tabletop worlds. Attendees could pull a book from the library, gather a group, and dive into a scenario. The library included everything from classic DND adventures, branded movies and TV settings, and other systems inspired by older modules. The area is excellent for looking at different games from over the years and seeing how RPGs have evolved. It’s also fun to see what stuff got turned into pen-and-paper games.
The Winged Bull Tavern
Red Bull has become increasingly more involved with the PAX conventions, and they really got into the fantasy spirit of PAX Unplugged by hosting The Winged Bull Tavern. If you’re familiar with the Voodoo Ranger lounges of past PAX conventions, this basically took over for that. You could get free Red Bull throughout the weekend, including their new winter flavor that tastes like Fuji apple and ginger, or you could enter the tavern and enjoy an adult beverage and hang out with friends to play some games. The tavern had several events throughout the convention days, including a speed sleeving competition and a social deduction group game, so if you wanted to take a break from the con and grab a drink, this was a great spot to hang out.
Fallout: The Roleplaying Game Liveplay
Saturday night, we checked out the live session of Fallout: The Roleplaying Game. Game Master Ed Spence and players Anjali Bhimani, Mark Meer, Mayanna Berin, Jasper Cartwright, Lua Stardust, and Taylor’s Tavern Tales set out into the wasteland for a rowdy and hilarious adventure set within the game’s newest module, Royal Flush, from publisher Modiphius. The group did a great job embodying their characters with distinct voices and personalities, and the twists and turns as they raced to the finale with a literal ticking time bomb made things even more frantic and intense. There were several live role-playing panels at PAX Unplugged this year, and if you were a fan of a specific creator or game, there was probably one that was right up your alley.
Late Night Fun
When your mind and body need a break from convention, Philadelphia is a treasure trove of fun sights and great food to explore. A few unofficial after-parties were happening Thursday and Friday for Unplugged, but we unfortunately opted to give ourselves extra time to recover between days. Fortunately, Philadelphia is a local stomping ground for us, and we already know a few spots to recharge ourselves for the night, plus we wanted to play some classic arcade games at the local Barcade, not too far from the convention center. With a few giant slices of pizza and a couple of pints of beer, we unplug from the unplugged, surrounded by bleeps and jingles of retro cabs and good times with friends.
Last Thoughts
Pax Unplugged 2025 was another fantastic opportunity to dive into new worlds, meet talented designers, and connect with a passionate community of tabletop gamers. Pax has always been a welcoming place for gamers to be themselves and jump into an experience without fear. We always look forward to exploring the wide variety of games on display, discovering fresh ideas, and sharing them with others. It’s exciting to watch these projects evolve from early concepts to playable demos and finally into finished games that fans can bring home from the shelves. We love the new additions, including more interactive stations where people can take a break from regular gaming, such as the Lord of the Rings and the Cosplay meet-up rooms. It’s fun to see returning traditions like the humorous banners with out-of-context meanings and wordplay that make you smile as you wander to the next thing to do.
We look forward to our annual weekend of plastic tokens, painted cardboard, and physical gaming in the city of brotherly love. The next Pax Unplugged will take place from Dec. 4 – 6, 2026, at the exact location and with even more great stuff to check out. Until next Pax event, thanks for the fun!
