I was prepared for a far greater in-depth dive into PAX Unplugged 2023. I had cleared as much of my schedule as I could, broken down priority events I wanted to join, built in backups and made my plans for getting in and out.

And then the Dice Gods laughed.

Due to a host of personal, professional and familial obligations, health, and last minute tragedy, my time at PAX was effectively limited to stopping in and politely badgering the nice folks at R. Talsorian Gaming. There are hopes for a more exhaustive trip next year (potentially one that unites the Cannibal Halfling staff) but while this year’s visit was disappointingly brief there are a few things that I feel are worth noting.

• In general, it seems that the con is really getting a feel for the logistics of having that many people and I feel as if the con has grown into the space and has figured out a good way to use it.
• While I was sent for a loop with the main entrance in a completely new location than the previous years I’ve attended it has made the most sense. By funneling everyone through the atrium close to the hotel it meant that while there were lines they were queued inside rather than stretching around the block in brisk December weather (on Friday, anyway). Side entrances opened at 11 to people that had already badges to cut down on traffic while keeping the area secure.
• Entrance into the expo hall was queued using chutes rather than a single line.
• I could see effort placed to keep event line ups in place so there was organization without clogging up hallways for people to get by.
• I am getting a vibe that the con is shaping itself to be more of an indie board game and collectable (e.g. card games, miniatures) focus. By no means does that exclude pen and paper tabletop, but these appear to have taken the main focus of the Expo Floor.
• On the flip side of that coin, tabletop gaming has taken a different focus than my memories from 2018 and 2019. My memory, flawed as it is, saw a host of tabletop games run by publishers. I personally sat at games from Magpie and Asmodee, and these were ways for developers to showcase new products. This year, the publisher backed gaming appeared to be limited heavily to Free League Publishing and the behemoth that is D&D. The other real organizer that advertised in the schedule was Gehenna Gaming, which admirably put together multiple sessions of running World of Darkness games and even an ambitious three day multi-system WoD epic that I unfortunately got to see none of. That isn’t to say that publishers owe attendees the chance to play their game for free, but it is noticeable that many have moved away from using it as a marketing strategy.
• That isn’t to say that the con was TTRPG light. As Seamus can attest, there is a bustling Games on Demand volunteer program that runs for players interested in a gaming fix but with little interest in registration-required events. This year I even found that RPG Central also schedules games with independent GMs registering for slots on a daily basis. This is done entirely on pen and paper, so there is no random stranger snatching a spot over the internet at 8:01 AM for a 3 PM event. Being on both sides of the registration problem, this is the best solution I can envision to balance events for early and late arrivals.

Finally, there is one thing in particular that I managed to scope in my limited time. R. Talsorian had been dropping hints about a brand new game in development for the past few months under the code name Project Blue Moon, lead by Cody Pondsmith. The previews were effectively setting descriptions with little outside context: a Japanese style arch and village under the shadow of a giant tree, London-ish steampunk, 1920’s gangsterland, and finally a lunar colony. The opening of PAX Unplugged came with the reveal of the official name of the system: Shadow Scar. While still in active development, the folk at R. Talsorian had some official details to share:

• • Each of the worlds shown in the preview is an individual reality combined within that the developers are referring to as The Mosiac. Izanami, the Japanese goddess of the dead has caused a bleed through of these different dimensions, causing each to the plagued by ghosts called Yokai. 
  • Players are ninja from all of these different dimensions, trained to deal with Yokai using the specializations from their home dimensions.
  • Dice mechanics for the game are a break from the Interlock system from Cyberpunk, moving to a new d6 system known as the Mosiac System. It is d6 based, and a bit reminiscent of Shadowrun, but has the benefit of being more granular: the GM assigns a difficult of a task ranging from 1-6. Players assemble a dice pool of six sided dice based on their character’s specializations. Results of 1-3 are failures, 4-5 are single success, and dice results of 6 count as 2 successes. A quick bit of probability crunching gives a pretty standard bell curve for difficulty and dice rolled, and this appears to be a purposeful decision to not necessarily make the game rules light as it does fast. It is meant to keep an active pace and keep things moving.

R. Talsorian has made the PDF version of the flipbook from the con available just tonight, and is keeping an active dialogue with the community. They put out an Ask me Anything channel on their Discord this week, and all signs point to the Shadow Scar project having an active demand from fans. This is a novel system for R. Talsorian, which is an intriguing step for their design group. If the Mosiac system works well, I can see it ported out to future projects. On a personal note, the staff at CHG is quite interested in Shadow Scar’s progress and we hope to share details as they emerge (Hi Rob! Hint hint! – Ed.).

All in all, in spite of my disappointingly short attendance, I take solace in the fact that PAX Unplugged finally appears to be settling into a long term fixture. As a local, I think it’s a great thing for the city of Philadelphia as a showcase to some of its best parts. In 2020 I really wasn’t sure if Unplugged was going to keep being a thing, and despite changing I think that it’s here to stay. I look forward to coming back in future years so long as my luck changes.