Greater than 100,000 folks filtered via the Thomas M. Menino Conference & Exhibition Middle in Boston for PAX East 2026 this previous weekend. The present ground was filled with dozens upon dozens of distributors that appeared nicely break up between tabletop video games and video video games. A number of the largest spectacles, like Pokémon Champions, had painfully lengthy wait occasions. However for each main vendor with lengthy strains, there have been at the very least 10 smaller video games attendees might play after signing up.
Regardless of spending the vast majority of the weekend onsite, I really feel like I couldn’t even get to all the pieces I needed to attempt. That stated, right here’s a have a look at the 5 greatest tabletop video games I performed at PAX East 2026.
1
Magic: The Gathering sales space actions
My first cease once I arrived onsite was Wizards of the Coast’s Magic: The Gathering sales space, which was break up up into 4 experiences. Subsequent to a store promoting the So Salty Secret Lair, attendees might take a quick quiz to see what Magic shade was greatest for his or her playstyle. (Naturally, I bought inexperienced.) Close by, a bunch of tables have been arrange for rolling informal play. I play loads of Magic, however hardly ever with strangers. Really shuffling up with just a few randos was a enjoyable expertise, to say the least.
On the opposite aspect of the Magic sales space was a photograph op atmosphere spotlighting the upcoming Secrets and techniques of Strixhaven set. And one other quiz! This one sorted you into one of many schools at Strixhaven. Whereas I cooked the outcomes on my shade project so I’d get a inexperienced deck, I took this one actually and bought Silverquill.
Maybe my favourite expertise on the sales space was close by: teams have been seated round tables and given a free play booster pack. However as a substitute of Secrets and techniques, it was from 2021’s Strixhaven: College of Mages. 4 strangers and myself ripped our packs after which performed a thematic variation on Apples to Apples or Playing cards Towards Humanity. We performed 5 rounds. In a single, we needed to decide a creature to be our companion in a tag-team battle. In one other, we needed to choose a spell as our trump card to defeat a bully. (I managed to have the Expel card which drew loads of laughs from the desk.) The winner obtained a second free pack. It felt like a reasonably enjoyable strategy to rip packs and is one thing I might completely attempt with pals.
2
Riftbound: Unleashed
Although I’ve collected quite a lot of playing cards from the Riftbound: Spiritforged set, I hadn’t gotten the chance to learn to play till I sat down with senior recreation designer Jon Moormann for a tutorial matchup. He ran a preconstructed Vex deck, and I had one centered on Vi throwing plenty of huge punches — each from the upcoming Unleashed set..
Coming into the expertise as a longtime Magic: The Gathering participant, the sport instantly clicked — at the very least on a conceptual stage. The Vi deck has a “go huge and smash” technique centered on stacking would possibly. As your legend, her core capability allows you to pay two power and one fury rune to double her would possibly, a capability you should use as many occasions as you’ll be able to afford to obliterate something in her path. Halfway via our match, I used to be in a position to buff her to 24 would possibly, which allowed me to bulldoze via a serious risk.
What I discovered most hanging about Riftbound is the deal with combating over places fairly than the extra generic battlefield of Magic. You don’t win by attacking your opponent straight. You accrue factors by conquering and holding battlefields, which makes for a really totally different strategic expertise. Spending useful runes to buff Vi was enjoyable — and it might have been game-winning in Magic — however in hindsight it felt like a misstep in Riftbound. If we’d had the time for a rematch, I may need come nearer to profitable. Finally, even dropping left me desirous to attempt once more.
3
Godzilla: The Roleplaying Recreation
Picture: IDW Video games
The Kickstarter marketing campaign for the Godzilla: The Roleplaying Recreation ends later this week, and it already smashed via its fundraising objective to earn greater than $210,000. After my meaty two-hour playtest session at PAX East 2026, I’m starting to see why. The sport relies on the IDW Comics sequence during which extended kaiju exercise led to the invention of Kai-Se power that primarily transforms some folks into superheroes. We assumed the position of G-Power recruits despatched on a mission to analyze a distant facility within the desert. It was attacked by Godzilla a while in the past, however a current surge in Kai-Se power coincided with the disappearance of the clean-up crew.
Enjoying the Godzilla TTRPG feels lots like taking part in post-apocalyptic sci-fi Dungeons & Dragons. However fairly than rolling cube, it makes use of an intuitive suit-based system with a conventional deck of taking part in playing cards. It additionally emphasizes roleplaying first and mechanics second. Our DM (Deck Grasp fairly than Dungeon Grasp) inspired us to explain what we needed to do primarily based on our characters’ kits, deciding on which talents, gear, and traits we needed to make use of to spice up our try. However traits like Imaginative and skills like Tactical Consciousness are broad sufficient generally that they will apply to all types of issues.
For followers of the Godzilla franchise, particularly those that love the IDW Comics, this looks like a very approachable recreation for many who are interested by TTRPGs however haven’t taken the plunge into D&D but.
4
Slay the Spire: The Board Recreation
Picture: Rivalry Video games
With Slay the Spire 2 nonetheless dominating Steam charts, the Downfall growth for Slay the Spire: The Board Recreation is crushing it on Kickstarter, having raised over $4.7 million with greater than per week left to go. Regardless of the sport’s modest footprint on the PAX East present ground, it noticed loads of motion.
Earlier than the online game sequel launched with co-op, the board recreation was the one strategy to expertise multiplayer Slay the Spire — and that continues to be its strongest promoting level. Discovering all of the damaged combos in a personality’s increasing deck makes it participating, and dealing collectively to do precisely that turns into an absolute delight as you’re guffawing alongside an actual individual on the desk.
You’re nonetheless progressing up the Spire with the identical acquainted map, combating your approach via the rooms and deciding on numerous upgrades. However within the board recreation, among the extra difficult mechanics like Weak and Poison are simplified via using tokens. It’s critically spectacular that the board recreation adaptation works in addition to it does. The online game can really feel very complicated at occasions, however as a result of it’s all automated, it’s manageable. Making it work on the tabletop ought to have been inconceivable, but Rivalry Video games made so many considerate changes to tug it off.
5
Cyberpunk TCG
Picture: Polygon / Corey Plante
The Cyberpunk TCG from WeirdCo Video games is on the cusp of changing into the highest-funded tabletop-based Kickstarter of all time, so going into PAX East, it was towards the highest of my checklist of must-play video games. And it didn’t disappoint. Although Alpha playtest periods have been saved to a brisk half-hour, that gave me simply sufficient time to virtually win.
Every deck has three Legends — probably the most highly effective and distinguished members of your crew. For me that was Jackie Welles; the ripperdoc Viktor Vektor; and V, Company Exile. For anybody with loads of enthusiasm for the broader franchise or the Cyberpunk 2077 online game particularly, the Cyberpunk TCG is a dream come true. The sport even options characters from Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, which is an added bonus. A part of what makes the Pokémon TCG so wildly well-liked is due to the connection folks should the characters. Lorcana additionally has that going for it. Whereas a recreation like Magic depends extra on card mechanics to drive enthusiasm for particular playing cards.
Cyberpunk TCG appears to be aiming for a mix of each.
Your Legends act as anchors to your technique, whereas the remainder of your deck builds out your crew with Models that you simply buff with Gear. Over the course of the match, you’re finishing Gigs, gaining Road Cred, and attempting to stockpile sufficient Gigs to fulfill the win situation. Your Gigs take the type of numerous cube sizes that you simply roll initially of every spherical, and you’ll steal an opponent’s Gigs by hitting an opponent straight. The entire thing feels intuitive sufficient that even for a primary match, it felt like my opponent and I have been each executing on significant methods. That’s often signal for a brand new recreation. Extra importantly, I whined a bit once we ran out of time as a result of I needed to maintain going. To this point, the Cyberpunk TCG looks like greater than a Kickstarter success story. It’d simply have some actual endurance on the desk.
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