By Jason Campbell
The 3rd Philadelphia Area Gaming Convention (aka PAGE) took place in Oaks, PA (about 45 minutes Northwest of Philadelphia) from January 15th through January 18th. The 2026 PAGE was expanded greatly from the previous year, and had nearly 3000 attendees. Special Guests included Frank Mentzner, Jeff Dee, Anna B. Meyer, Matt Forbeck, and Stan!. It snowed Saturday and Sunday, but that’s probably expected at a convention in Pennsylvania in January.
General Thoughts
The organizers at PAGE were kind enough to give me a media/press pass, and interviews will follow. I volunteered to help my friend Dave Ward at his booth for Grimwood Games and I also ran a game at the Monte Cook Games booth.
Traffic in the vendor halls was very light on Thursday – probably expected, especially since previous PAGEs were only 3 day conventions – but picked up considerably by late Friday. Games ran constantly from 8am to midnight every day and were very popular. Unlike PAXunplugged, PAGE caters to TTRPGs specifically, with little presence of board games and collectible card games. That said, the PAGE board game lending library was really impressive with many tables for open play.
My Experience
I had a great time meeting with many other vendors and seeing many games that were new to me. At the Monte Cook Games booth (the largest vendor by far) I ran a game of Gunslinger Knights (a Cypher System game about Arthurian-style knights riding motorcycles and wielding shotguns) for a full table who enjoyed the game.
After the close of the vendor hall I played Kobolds Ate My Baby from 9th Level Games. This was my favorite game. Another night I got to play Riverbank, the new cozy game from Kobold Press, with the game’s creator, Kij Johnson, as GM.
Highlights
The highlights of the con for me were getting to meet and talk to people from the gaming community that I had only interacted with online, and in many cases never talked to at all. I got to listen to and ask many questions of TSR veteran Frank Mentzner at an AMA session, get a lot of great advice from Justin Alexander, and hear a great panel with many authors about worldbuilding.
Conclusion
I’ve never been to a game convention like this. I’ve been to small local cons where it’s just area people getting together to play games. I’ve been to large conventions where everyone in the business attends but there’s so many people you won’t get to talk or even find people.
PAGE is unique because only a few thousand people attend, but there are so many notable guests you can meet and talk to some of your heroes. Registration for 2027 is open.
About the Author
It was wonderful to meet you in person, sir.