PAX Unplugged 2018 was the first convention I worked for Elderwood. I flew to Philly fairly late the night before, worked at the booth for three days, ran a couple of Adventurers League games one night, helped tear down, and flew home Sunday night, if remember correctly. It was a whirlwind, but also a good time.

Skip ahead a few years, and I moved into the convention management position at Elderwood just in time for GenCon 2022. Convention management entails all of the pre-show work like assessing inventory and restocking product, ordering electrical service, making freight and drayage arrangements, finding accommodations, and organizing staffing and transportation. I typically arrive at a convention two days early with another staff member We spend the first day setting up our structures and the second day decorating and putting out product. This stretches the typical four day convention into six days, or in the case of PAX Unplugged, a three day con becomes five days.

PAX Unplugged might be my favorite con to work because of its overall vibe. The vendor hall is spacious so you can comfortably move around and see things, and the products on display are worth checking out. I get a sense that there isn’t any filler; everything is worth a look. To the credit of Penny Arcade and the PAX enforcers, the entire show runs very smoothly. On top of that, Philadelphia is a great city to spend a few days in. The convention center is right downtown, it’s surrounded by restaurants and bars, and the city is easily walkable. Reading Market and Trader Joe’s are right across the street from PAX, and there’s all sorts of historical sites throughout the city.

One lesson I’ve learned with conventions is that if you want to do all the things and see everyone you know, you have to hit the ground running. If you take the first night or two to rest after traveling and setting up, the rest of the show will fly by and you won’t have enough free time. Set up went smoothly for us, so I met up with an old friend that first night, and that set the pace for the rest of the trip.

My perspective on these shows is skewed because I spend almost my entire time on the expo hall floor. I don’t attend panels and I rarely get to play games. However, I’m in a good spot for friends to drop by to say hello, and I’m fortunate that they often do. There’s also a sort of traveling carnival at conventions. You see a lot of the same vendors and crew at different shows, and it feels like a nomadic community.

I can take a little time during the day to do some browsing and shopping too. The highlight of this show for me was (predictably) the Dwarven Forge booth, where they had the upcoming Starforged sci-if terrain prototypes on display. The new pieces look great, especially juxtaposed with their Wildlands terrain, and they recontextualized the square cutouts on the back sides of the big Wildlands pieces for a really cool effect.

Exalted Funeral made their first convention appearance ever at this show, and it was neat to meet them and pick up a few things in person. Our booth was across from Indie Press Revolution, so it was an easy trip across the aisle to browse their racks. Kobold Press were just a few spots away with their prominent Tales of the Valiant branding. Lethal Shadows, miniature makers and friends of the Academy from Seattle, keep growing their booth to greater and greater success. Stepping outside the vendor hall, Baldman Games had their usual Adventurers League play area and were also providing demos of the D&D 3d virtual tabletop.

One of my favorite things to see at any show are the miniature wargaming tables. There were lots of great Star Wars Legion terrain to check out. One of these days I’d like to try playing that, or at least get a good Star Wars-themed Stargrave game going. The free play areas were packed late into the night after the vendor hall closed.

Food! Vital to mammalian survival, central to human socializing, a reason for travel unto itself. The obvious and easy stop was Luhv Vegan Deli in Reading Market, and I went there two or three times. The first night we went to Victory Brewing, we went to Tattooed Mom with the Dwarven Forge crew the second night, and some more old friends took me to Chika Ramen Bar, a new Blade Runner-themed joint, later in the week. One night I dropped in and grabbed a sandwich at Monster Vegan and somehow did not realize it was a Halloween/monster-movie themed restaurant until halfway through my meal. I thought it was just a goofy name!

One disappointment: My favorite Philadelphia gym, Iron Works Fitness, was closed when I tried to go. I ended up going to an expensive fancy gym instead. They had these annoying bouncy deadlift platforms in addition to the all-too-common barbells with slippery bearings. A good gym away from home is a precious thing, and I had been looking forward to lifting in a basement in Chinatown. Oh well, I managed to bridge the week with that workout and was back in my cold garage as soon as I got home.

All in all, it was a good trip. PAX Unplugged is particularly exhausting because I pack so much into five days, so it took a couple days to catch up on sleep and fully feel like myself again. Would I recommend it? As a vendor, definitely, although I have some trepidation about where the industry in general is headed (another post for another time). As an attendee? I honestly have no idea. I know they handle event registration differently than shows like GenCon or GameholeCon, with an emphasis on walking up and waiting in line. I do prefer the general vibe compared to PAX East or West, with its focus on tabletop gaming.

This was the first year we got packed and moved out before Pikachu deflated! I like to imagine that he wasn’t going quietly this year and is still hanging out up in the rafters.

Persistence of Pikachu.