PAX Expanding to Texas With New Tabletop Gaming Event in Houston

For the first time in approximately six years, PAX is heading to the southern United States for a new event. PAX Unplugged Houston, the latest iteration of the tabletop gaming convention from Penny Arcade and co-organized by ReedPop, will host its inaugural show at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston on June 25–27, 2027.

In 1998, Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik created Penny Arcade, a webcomic based on their experiences and passion for video games and the gaming industry. In 2004, the two authors decided the U.S. West Coast needed a convention dedicated exclusively to gaming, and Penny Arcade Expo was born, later rebranded as PAX.

“I remember the very first PAX, when we had like 1,300 people in attendance,” Mike Krahulik said in a video interview with Polygon. “And Jerry and I were sitting and this guy comes up to us and says, ‘I didn’t have a very good time.’ And Jerry and I felt horrible. And we still feel that way. There’s no reason we should feel personally responsible for this show anymore! But if I see somebody who isn’t having a good time, I still feel bad. I think it’s important to have two people who feel a responsibility that you have a good time at their party.”

This feeling of personal responsibility and community service served as the foundation on which PAX expanded to four, and now five, yearly events. Its longevity owes much to Holkins and Krahulik remaining true to their roots for more than 20 years.

Among all the shows, PAX Unplugged has a different energy, according to Holkins. “I always feel so energized after it that I immediately want to do another one.”

“And that’s the point of the country where we don’t have a PAX,” Krahulik added. “The weak point, where we need to strike for maximum damage.”

The organizers chose Houston based on infrastructure capacity, airport size, hotel availability, and favorable demographics, including a large, young, tech-savvy population. “We think the dork population is quite high in Houston,” Krahulik said.

PAX Unplugged is an expression of the growth of tabletop games

This will not be PAX’s first foray into the South. PAX South was held in San Antonio from 2015 to 2020, but the event was canceled in 2021. The organizers believe the time is right for a comeback and for a second yearly Unplugged event. The tabletop industry is experiencing a period of massive growth and creative flourishing, and the Penny Arcade team is well aware.

“We’ve always used PAX as a tool to expose video gamers to tabletop stuff,” Holkins said. “As tabletop has gotten more powerful, sophisticated, and interesting, obviously PAX Unplugged was the truest expression of what we can do there. But if you go take a look at PAX East, a whole third of the show’s floor is just tabletop stuff. There’s always been this secret tabletop con at PAX shows.”

“Very early on, we decided that was going to be a part of the show,” Krahulik added. “We wanted to tell people, ‘Hey, what you like isn’t necessarily video games. What you like is cool systems, interesting rules and mechanics. And you can get that in lots of different places.’ I had never played Dungeons & Dragons before Acquisitions Incorporated; that was the same idea, showing video game players that these tabletop games are just as cool.”

Acquisitions Incorporated, or Acq. Inc. for longtime fans, was a pioneer in the D&D actual play show field. It started in 2008 as a podcast in partnership with Wizards of the Coast, and it has since evolved into live games held during PAX conventions, several pre-recorded miniseries, and an official Acquisitions Incorporated sourcebook for D&D 5th edition.

Daggerheart is now a PAX Unplugged mainstay

At PAX Unplugged 2025, it was revealed that, after almost two decades of loyal service to D&D, Acquisitions Incorporated was switching to Daggerheart, the TTRPG created by Critical Role. The announcement shocked the tabletop world, or at least it should have, and Polygon was one of the few outlets reporting on it.

“We don’t understand it either,” Holkins said, jokingly, of the lack of buzz around the change. “We started it a long time ago, and all we’ve tried to do is just show how much fun it can be to play these games with your friends. But when I was a kid, I got in incredible trouble for playing D&D, and I couldn’t have those types of books in the house. So I started exploring the other RPGs out there, alternative systems. Some are better at different things, and some expose different angles on the same stuff. The D&D system lets you do a little bit of everything because everybody knows it so well that the system itself sort of fades into the background. Daggerheart allows for a lot of interplay between the storyteller and the players because it recognizes the effects of the dice rolls and creates these resource pools, almost like in a board game, and then the Game Master can utilize those points to mess around with the game.”

Holkins mentioned an example from the first Acq. Inc. live Daggerheart game. Critical Role founder Matt Mercer joined the show as Bode Dran, the son of Holkins’ character Omin Dran, and used one of his abilities to introduce a new NPC to the game. Like many other Daggerheart rules, this is a formalization of house rules or play styles that some D&D players have used for a long time, in this case, the “I know a guy” house rule. “But it’s mechanically recognized and tracked,” Holkins added. “Because the interplay between the characters and the GM is so clearly the focus of the game. Daggerheart really skims the cream off of indie RPGs in general.”

With Acquisitions Incorporated landing on Beacon, Critical Role’s official streaming service, opportunities open up for new projects. “We had a lot of really interesting conversations with Critical Role,” Holkins said. “I think it would be amazing to do another more formal series, to tell a more elaborate story. But my fantasy relationship with them is to contribute to the world and the mechanics.”

Between a new PAX Unplugged and a new game system for Acq. Inc., a lot is going on at Penny Arcade. Some things will never change. “Regardless of where the show is, where it scales to, it will always be like a home,” Holkins said.

“We really do try to make it a show for everybody,” Krahulik added.

“We remember being two guys in an apartment making JPEGs in 1998,” Holkins concluded. “That’s just who we are, and we’re never gonna not be those people.”

Badges for PAX Unplugged Houston will go on sale later this year.

Source: Polygon